Can this really be true?

Slate Magazine has an article today on The freaky origins of Christian rock. The article reminds me of the TNR articles by Stephen Glass -- it's to funny to be true.

For example:

The All Saved Freak Band is a different kettle of fish—at once more powerful and more disturbing, and a reminder of how apocalyptic convictions, Christian or otherwise, can go sour. The band began when a drugged-out Chicago guitarist named Joe Markko moved to Ohio, where he met a fiery street pastor named Larry Hill. Convinced that the Chinese and/or Russians were coming, Hill set himself up as patriarch of an isolated survivalist Christian commune, replete with guns and goats. When he performed, Hill wore a wide Amish hat and a priest's habit, and he sang to hector and convert. But the band didn't really gel until Hill and Markko were joined by Glenn Schwartz, an incendiary blues shromper who had played guitar for the James Gang but had publicly renounced commercial rock. Living collectively, the band made a handful of intense and very strange records, including the Tolkien-inspired folk-rock rarity For Christians, Elves, and Lovers.

Can there really be an album called For Christians, Elves, and Lovers? Evidently, the answer is yes. You can get a copy still in it's shrink-wrap for only $200.

Next time I'm in a band I'm wearing an Amish hat and a cassock.

RIP

Famed vaudevillian Edgar Bergen and self-proclaimed "party-dude" Michelangelo passed away within 24 hours of each other.

Bergen's longtime companion Mortimer Snerd had no comment.

Bergen's distraught partner Mortimer Snerd.

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me....

One of my favorite blogs, Boing Boing, linked to a post on the Neurophilosophy blog about lobotomies. The discussion of the "icepick lobotomy" is particularly fun:

Freeman was unhappy with the new procedure. He considered it to be both time-consuming and messy, and so developed a quicker method, the so-called 'ice-pick' lobotomy, which he performed for the first time on January 17th, 1945.

With the patient rendered unconscious by electroshock, an instrument was inserted above the eyeball through the orbit using a hammer. Once inside the brain, the instrument was moved back and forth; this was then repeated on the other side.

My favorite part:

Freeman's new technique could be performed in about 10 minutes. Because it did not require anaesthesia, it could be performed outside of the clinical setting, and lobotomized patients did not need hospital internment afterwards. Thus, Freeman often performed lobotomies in his Washington D.C. office...

That's what makes DC such a great city -- lobotomies on demand. I wonder if my health insurance covers it.

Combining electroshock and an ice pick to the brain -- now that's science.

Adam wants DeLorean -- because he misses 1979

Wired tells us that new DeLoreans will soon be available. "The Houston refurb outfit that nabbed the trademark, DeLorean Motor Co. (Texas), plans to start limited construction."

Back in the early '80s we all thought the DeLorean was awesome. The gull-wing doors still seem like the future. I better have them on my flying car.

I actually considered seriously buying a used DeLorean in the late '80s. My mechanic talked me out of it, pointing out that getting parts for a car from a defunct company would be a problem. I should have bought one anyway.

Worst bar idea ever

DCist: Splash to Offer Daiquiris to Frustrated Adams Morgan: "The new bar, to be named Splash, is described by its owner, Derrick Brown, as a cross between Fat Tuesday and Hooters."