I've taken something of a sabbatical from posting. A couple of reasons. One, the muse sort of comes and goes in bunches. I have alot to say for a while, then nothing. And too, I wanted to sort of let the top albums post sit on its own. Hopefully someone bought a CD or two from the list. My gal Jill Sobule mentioned at her Joe's Pub gig, while I was onstage with her for "Cinnamon Park," that "Josh did his list of top-10 albums, and mine made the list!" I'll post my Jill review soon; its written already for her listserv, happytown.

So how about that tsunami, huh? As my friend John's brother said, "Allah not so Akhbar now, huh?" Then my own brother sent me photos of a boulder having fallen from the mountains and blocked off Topanga Canyon Road, and of a grusome-looking mudslide, also in Ventura County, which killed 10, and from the looks of it the death toll was a lucky break. God seems to be pissed at something.

The end-timers probably think all this natural disaster is a good sign, heralding as it does the coming of Jesus, the ascention to heaven of the true believers, and the smiting of the rest of us. If you read the Bill Moyers speech I posted a while back, he talks about the rapture index. Check it out; an actual score card for the lunatic fringe religious right on how close we are to Armegeddon. Nice that you can keep track.