The Dirty Northwest

The story of Arnel Pineda becoming a rock star for household-name band Journey is an incredible one.

For those of you not up to speed on the most recent incarnation of Journey (!), they parted ways with their latest lead singer understudy some months back. They eventually found Arnel from his videos on YouTube and hired him based partly on his talents but, cynically, I’ll posit partly for the Web 2.0 tie-in of it all.

To his credit, he’s nearly as good as the original… such as it is.

Prior to the Sopranos final scene, Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing was tied to two memories for me: 1) office wide conference calls on speaker-phones for rock sessions via phone-computer connection to keep spirits high on the last day of the fiscal quarter on the sales floor of my software company (Get it? Don’t stop believing that we can hit our goals?) and 2) the most incredible karaoke performance I’ve witness in my life which happened to take place 6 years ago at a Chinese bar in Gresham, OR as an unassuming local brought down the house with his total domination of a selection so ambitious we were wincing when he began and crying when he finished.

My memory of both is strong but the latter makes me wish I could track that guy down for a Pepsi Challenge with Arnel. I’m sure time and telling have embellished my memory. Nonetheless, I hope he is out there somewhere and ready to audition for them should they need him to step up … and do it without a trace of irony.

Be careful cleaning out your closets this spring:

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man’s closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

This is the kind of irreverent Bible humor I always liked back in the day and still find hilarious.

May 20th was a big day: Yamaguchi nabbed a perfect score and won Dancing With the Stars!

Also, Barack Obama won the Oregon primary giving him the win in pledged delegates. And my buddy Kate will be the D’s SoS candidate for OR, making me even more famous based upon the votes I delivered by my appearance.  [Seriously, though -- I had old high school friends contacting me with "go kate!" messages because they saw my mug for 1.5 seconds on a commercial. Yay Democracy!]

But anyway: Huzzah for retired skaters who can dance!

Take note: “Mexican donkey jailed for ornery behavior“. That is all.

As a horse owner, I was quite disappointed at the tragic finish of the Derby on Saturday. I posted over on Kos:

I feel betrayed and embarrassed to confess that I watched the Kentucky Derby today.For those unfamiliar, Eight Belles – Hillary Clinton’s pick – came in second and was euthanatized on the track immediately following the race. After breaking both front ankles (per early reports) the vets felt it was too painful an injury and recovery.The favorite, Big Brown, won the race and while I’ll personally fare well financially I’m left with an empty and disgusted feeling. “Are we not amused?”

It’s a bucket of cold water that we still prescribe to such classless, immature acts as forms of entertainment.

Horses are amazing – I own a thoroughbred by Distinctive Pro who was injured in the gate and is now happily doing dressage - watching them match speed in a track race (their drive to be Alpha is an instinctive propulsion to the front of the pack) is sheer thrill. But now I feel embarrassed and base. Like a citizen of Rome. Amused by suffering not my own.

I should know better. We all should.

As a follow up, here’s a piece at NYT on the tragedies we don’t see.

I won’t let it go to my head but I’m in the new Kate Brown commercial.

I like Kate for her track record on Civil Rights, her leadership in the party, and the fact that she won her first election by 7 votes — she knows first-hand that every vote counts.

In addition to running elections, the SoS also oversees corporate auditing and there’s no substitute for knowing someone’s personal character when it comes to that thankless and important task.

But the coolest part about her is that she puts me as an extra in her commercial…

With election season in high gear, it’s often too tempting to resist for some churches to obey the law and not participate in campaigns. This is, of course, illegal with respect to their tax-exempt status.
Should you come across this sort of activity, info to bookmark below…

Filing a Complaint with the IRS:

A referral of an exempt organization may be made by submitting Form 13909, Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral) Form, downloadable from IRS.gov.

Form 13909 and any supporting documentation may be submitted in a variety of ways.  They can be sent via:
• Mail to IRS EO Classification, Mail Code 4910DAL, 1100 Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75242-1198,
• Fax to 214-413-5415, or
• Email to eoclass@irs.gov.
Submission of Form 13909 is voluntary.

This tickles my subversive side: a clash of First Amendment practitioners. That’s what makes America cool.

Amazing article about my current favorite site, Pandora. I’m listening as I read the article and it makes me want to do all my online shopping via their ads.