ok, i've ranted enough

here's something funny. i found these once, and then they were taken away. good to get ahold of them again. these are some of the funniest radio commercials ever. btw. i agree wholeheartedly with jetter about the 3B lineup in the all-star game. ensberg hit his 24th homerun the other night. i bought a roger clemens jersey, and i am a fan. i was a fan before i bought the jersey. i love the stros i have officially given up on the rangers and i love the stros.

anyway. here is the link

have a good one
chuck

from the philadelphia inquirer

After party, the cleanup By Marc SchogolInquirer Staff Writer
Marcellus Major has worked 12 years for the Department of Streets; his last three years have been in the unit that cleans up after major events - the Mummers Parade, for example. But when Major and his trash-truck crewmates beheld the 135 tons of debris along Benjamin Franklin Parkway, he was stunned: "I've never handled anything this big."
He and roughly 100 other sanitation workers operating about three dozen pieces of equipment worked through sunup after Live 8 to make good on Mayor Street's promise that by yesterday morning, "you'll barely know there was a concert."
The last of the hundreds of thousands of Live 8 concertgoers who jammed the Parkway finally departed Saturday night, leaving municipal workers and event organizers scurrying to get Philadelphia's most recognizable boulevard ready to continue the holiday weekend.
"It's a weekend of celebration, then cleanup; celebration, then cleanup; celebration, then cleanup," mayoral spokesman Joe Grace said. "We're going to meet those responsibilities."
It was Major and his colleagues who literally and figuratively shouldered those responsibilities Saturday night.
With the Parkway closed to traffic, they swept up and hauled away vast amounts of water, soda and beer bottles and cans; food remains; plastic cups and plastic-foam plates and containers; flyers and newspapers; promotional material for bars and clubs and restaurants; and all the other debris left by the crowd and dozens of food and souvenir vendors.
As Major's truck lumbered up and down the Parkway to pick up garbage and dump it into a compactor, there were constant cracking, popping and smashing sounds from all the glass and plastic the truck was running over.
On foot and in every kind of trash vehicle in the Streets Department's arsenal, workers cleaned the inner and outer Parkway drives. The grassy areas alongside Eakins Oval, just across from the big stage, were where the crowd - and garbage - was thickest. Trash even had to be fished out of the fountain.
The crowd had been so large that it took more than an hour after the last note of the concert - which ran about an hour past its scheduled 6 p.m. ending - before the Parkway was clear enough for the trash trucks and eager troops to finally move in.
That and the long process for vendors to strike their tents and pack their wares further slowed the cleanup.
It was a herculean task. But Major, 59, said he took professional and civic pride in doing the dirty work.
"It does impress you. It says, 'Boy, this is a clean city.' "

I wonder if those guys got overtime? more money that could have gone to africa

chuck

you can read more in

the times

more details of the gift bag
Organizers of the concert, designed to raise awareness of crushing poverty in Africa, will show their gratitude to dozens of celebrities with a Hugo Boss duffel bag chock-full of high-fashion trinkets and designer drinks, valued at roughly $3,000.
In addition, the performers giving 15 minutes of stage time will be able to personalize their bags with big-ticket items including: Hugo Boss suits, valued between $800 and $1,000 each; XM satellite radios and subscriptions, $500; Seven jeans, $180 for men, $150 for women; Gibson guitars, $2,000; Borgata terry-cloth robes, $100; Boyd’s ties, $125; 76ers garment bags and T-shirts, $330; Mitchell & Ness sweat suits, $330; and Bertolucci watches, valued between $1,500 and $6,000.
All told, a celebrity could walk away with a bag of gifts worth as much as $12,000.
The booty will be available for performers in a “celebrity gifting lounge” that the local public-relations firm Cashman & Associates will set up to look like a boutique.
Inside, celebrities will relax on ottomans and plush couches. Between acts, they will be treated to soft pretzels, Lee’s Gourmet ice cream, Michelob beer, Perrier water, and Liquid Ice, rapper-actor Ice-T’s new energy drink.


Comment by Dave Wissing of the Hedgehog report
If you are going to hold a concert that supposedly is to help the poor in Africa and we are supposed to be impressed by the artists who give their time, doesn’t it sort of hurt the cause when you are giving the same artists $12,000 in gifts just to appear? Here’s a thought: instead of giving the money to these artists, who in nearly every case, do not need to be given these gift since they could easily afford to purchase them themselves, how about taking that money and giving it to some charity fund who is already doing work in Africa. To me, the gifts just prove to me that this concert was more pure symbolism and a publicity stunt to make the artists look like they care about poverty in Africa

couldn't have said it better myself, even though i tried

i was watching family guy last night

and they had one of those cool "adult swim" promos. i wish i had paid better attention, but it was talking about the "live 8" concerts. it said something to the affect of. "hey, thanks i'm now more aware. my awareness is there. but will awareness feed a child?"

my sentiments exactly. free concerts to raise awareness. so how much money did mtv, abc, and vh1 spend to put on these "free" concerts. how about the really cool swag that the performers got.

For most companies participating, the support generates great publicity. But the losers might be several companies that contributed to $12,000 luxury gift bags that will be handed out to celebrities, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Greenfield, the marketing expert and blogger, said the blogosphere has already been chattering about the gift bags, which will reportedly include Hugo Boss suits, Seven jeans, Gibson Guitars and Bertolucci watches, among other fancy gewgaws. Greenfield said it would have been much smarter for the companies to make a donation on the celebrities' behalf.
"We think it's interesting that brands want to be included in a swag bag that has to do with poverty," Greenfield said. "They're kind of missing the whole picture."

i think that maybe the celebs missed the picture. how hard would it have been to put on a $10 concert with ALL of the proceeds going to Africa. in London alone that would have netted $5 million on tickets.

also, did anyone see the trash on the ground in Philadelphia? the place they had the concert was trashed. i would imagine they had to pay someone to pick all of that up. evironmentalists my butt.

so amid the "one campaign" i offer up this to all companies and celebrities...put your money where your mouth is. you have millions of dollars at your disposal. you might impress me if you said to the G8, "whatever you forgive in debt, we will match in relief" brad pitt gets $20 million a picture. so do almost all of the other celebs. how much of "how to dismantle an atomic bomb's" sales are going to africa? what percentage of the $1200 seat behind the stage at the U2 concert is going to dig a well? i love U2 as much as the next guy, but i see bono being an activist making people aware, but he hasn't given up all he has like many of the missionaries who are there in the trenches. i'm sure he has given money and i've seen the film of him there, but why not get your high powered hollywood friends to give up one car or one outfit? quit asking our government to give our tax money that could take care of people here. how many people would that take care of? i mean "every little bit helps" are the people in the "one" commercial willing to give up their extravagant lifestyle to truly end poverty. how about it tom hanks? what do think jamie foxx? come on dennis hopper and al pacino? step up pat robertson. i don't think so. and that ladies and gentlemen is a travesty, a tragedy, and the screwing of america on the highest level.

(stepping off of soapbox)

God bless
chuck

so i'm 34 today

i remember when i thought people in their 30's were old. i realized the other day that my dad is almost 60.

i went to ecclesia last night. it was very cool. the music was great. they had candles everywhere. chris seay spoke for the last time before he goes away for sabbatical. he talked about how you can't fake love. you can be loving, but if you truly have love for people that it is genuine and real. in 30 minutes he went really deep into one chapter of John. it was good, and on a high point robbie seay lives about 5 miles from us and he wants to hang out. so that is cool. you see these guys that are artists and authors, and they are just like anyone else. they both have young children and are really humble and genuine. the funniest thing was hearing the story of Chris asking for God to help him be nice at the SBC thing he went to in Nashville, and so God in his wonderful sense of humor put Chris into a room with 4 people, two of which happened to be Jerry Falwell and his son. Talk about having to be nice. anyway. happy birthday to me. i did get a sweet tv for my birthday.
have a good one
chuck

an excerpt from

blue like jazz

Ultimately, we do what we love to do. I like to think that I do things for the right reasons, but I don't, I do things because I do or don't love doing them. Because of sin, because I am self-addicted, living in the wreckage of the fall, my body, my heart, and my affections are prone to love the things that kill me. Tony says Jesus gives us the ability to love the things we should love, the things of heaven. Tony says that when people who follow Jesus love the right things, they help create God's kingdom on earth, and that is something beautiful.
I found myself trying to love the right things without God's help, and it was impossible. I tried to go one week without thinking negative about another human being, and I couldn't do it. Before I tried that experiment, I thought I was a nice person, but after trying it, I realized I thought bad things about people all day long, and that, like Tony says, my natural desire was to love darkness.
My answer to this dilemma was self-discipline. I figured I could just make myself do good things, think good thoughts about other people, but that was no easier than walking up to a complete stranger and falling in love with them. I could go through the motions for a while, but sooner or later my heart would testify to its true love: darkness. Then I would get up and try again. The cycle was dehumanizing Donald Miller

man do i love this book