Jan Terri

So I came across a bunch of music videos by a lady named Jan Terry. She was a limo driver in Chicago who was trying to jump start her singing career by handing out VHS copies of these videos. If you want the whole story read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Terri


"Get Down Goblin"



"Journey to Mars!"



"Losing You Tonight"



"Rock and Roll Santa"



"Little Brother"



"Baby Blues"

I haven't written for the last few days

As the title probably told you, I've been out of commission for the last couple of days. I'm getting sick and have had some traumatic moments as well. My new apartment situation has kind of turned into a disaster and I'm already behind in school. So that is that.

I hate Park City

So I went up to Park City, Utah yesterday. As you may know, Park City is the sight of the Sundance Film Festival which is currently being held. I was expecting to have a really good time up there with that whole atmosphere. Well, it was the most traumatic experience I've had in a long time. There were thousands of angry and annoying people there. Even today, the next day, my nerves are still on edge. It turns out that if you don't have "festival credentials", there isn't much to do besides see films. I walked into this place that I though was some kind of demonstration for Microsoft, I was turned away at the door. In fact there were three different kinds of people up there. The first kind were the important people who had "festival credentials". The second kind were the people who were there just to see celebrates. There was one place where a whole crowd of people were gathered around a door. Apparently U2 was eating dinner inside before they went to the premiere of a film about them. The third kind were the people who were the people from PETA to protest against fur coats. What a day.

Politics 2

Ever see the movie "Wag the Dog"?. If you haven't, it is about how a bunch of Washington "spin doctors" get together to take the media's attention away from a presidential sex scandal and focus it on a fake war in Albanian. (ironically, the Monica Lewinsky scandal came out a month after the film was released.) Anyways, its a fantastic movie that every American who is pessimistic about the government should see.

So I'm watching CNN last night and they're talking about Hilary Clinton's comeback in the polls since that stunt on TV where she started to finally show her feminine side by crying. They also mentioned that her strategy since then has been to seem more sensitive, emotional, and more like a real women. The first thing that went off in my mind when I saw that was "Its Wag the Dog all over again". Of course there have been multiple "wag the dog" style media stunts before (remember the 'Mission Accomplished' speech?), but for it to occur again in the same family? I really hope she doesn't win the democratic nomination because I might have to vote for her (unless Ron Paul won the Republican Nomination).

Things people don't know about Hinduism

Did you know that Hinduism is monotheistic? I didn't either. Well it is...at its core beliefs. Your probably thinking something like, "but what about all those Gods like Vishnu, Shiva, Rama, Krishna, and Ganesha?". IT actually turns out that all of these deities are representations of the different attributes of God. Hindus believe that even though you may worship one God, and your neighbors are worshiping a different one, you are all really worshiping the same thing. This is because Hindus believe that God presents itself to different people in different forms. In fact, in Hindu thought, God is a force that is so big and dynamic that the human mind cannot even begin to understand it. Therefore, the different Gods and stories that go along with them are meant as a way to describe the many dynamic qualities of God. I found this all out from reading "The Complete Idiots Guide to Hinduism".

Random Memory from Bruce's Life 1

So I was just talking to someone about being an extra in a movie when I remembered the time that I pretended to play the clarinet in a poka band for some kind of commercial. I say "some kind of a commercial" because we never figured out exactly what it was for as we were given different answers each time. It was either a Sausage commercial, a Beer commercial, or a promotional advertisement for an Oktoberfest in Denver. Maybe all three. Anyways, I was in sixth grade at the time and my dad had a poka band that played every year at Snowbird's Oktoberfest. He was contracted to put together a similar band to be part of this commercial. He got all the other players together but couldn't find a clarinet player to do it. He therefore asked me to go with him and pretend like I was playing with the band. The music was already prerecorded so it didn't matter that much. (now that I think about it, why didn't they just hire all extras to hold the instruments and pretend like they were playing them?). The commercial was filmed in Midway, Utah which is famous for its Swiss theme as the people who founded the town were immigrants from Switzerland. The building it was filmed in was the community center and looked like a German beer hall. This went really well with the Oktobefest theme of the commercial. In the commercial, the camera showed a bunch of people sitting at a table drinking beer in old fashioned Bavarian beer drinking garb, and than went through a curtain into a German dance hall where there were people dancing around a man yelling in German. There were about fifty people standing around them cheering them on while drinking beer. The band was standing on a stage near the back of the room. The whole commercial itself only lasted about thirty seconds but we were there for about eight hours (child labor laws in the state of Utah prevent children from working more than 8 hours a day on weekends so they had to stop filming our part even though there was more work to be done). One of the things that fascinated me the most about the whole experience was that the crew did all the work and the director just sat around. I now understand that this is how the business works. The director had supposedly done some episodes of "Touched by an Angel", but you would have never have guessed by looking at him. He was shaggy and wore tattered clothes therefore making him look semi-homeless. He also seemed way out of it and really pissed off at everything. I also now understand that that is probably just what comes with being a director who probably isn't very passionate about what he is doing (I'd be pissed too if I had to make a crappy beer commercial after "Touched by an Angel"). The band was some how more important than the rest of the actors and extras, so when lunch time came around we got to eat with the crew at one of those catering trucks instead of whatever everyone else had to do. There were lots of other kids there as extras and so I think that the beer may have been non-alcoholic...I'm not sure though. I remeber that one of the kids came up to me during one of the breaks and asked me it I could play "All Star" by Smashmouth on the clarinet. When we had finished and went outside of the building, we were surprised that the sun had gone down because it seemed like the afternoon inside. They had taken those big stadium light and pressed them up against the windows to make it seem like the middle of the day inside. I got payed $200 for the whole day, which is pretty good for a twelve year old. I've tried looking for a copy of the commercial all over the internet, but without success.

I don't speak Arabic apparently

So I just moved into this place a week ago where you are supposed to speak Arabic all of the time in order to get fluent. There are two native speakers that are supposed to help you out too. I thought that after four semesters of Arabic I would totally be able to do it...but I can't understand anything that the native speakers say. I think it is probably just part of the whole language learning process though, and after four months of it I'll most likely get quite good.

Theory of Religous Circularity (another name needs to be made up for this theory)

So it occurred to me today that there is a common pattern among most world religions. First, a person breaks away from the main oppressive religious establishment to teach radical new doctrine. The teachings are also aimed at reforming society for the better. After awhile, the religious teachings from into a religion that then begins taking on converts. After this though, the original religion eventually becomes corrupted and becomes an oppressive establishment sometimes worse than what the original religion was turning away from in the first place.

For Example:

-From the Jewish standpoint-

Abraham, the father of monotheism, broke away from the polytheistic religions of the Ancient Near East to follow one God, the only living God according to him. This in itself was a radical move because there had been a tradition of polytheism since thousands of years before Abraham. Over the course of several thousand years, Jewish Prophets such as Moses establish law which is said to have come to God in a way that would civilize their people. For example, the ten commandments offered a revolutionary change to the way society worked. Unfortunately, as time went on the religious establishments set up in Israel began to take the law too seriously. By the time Jesus at come to the scene, he began teaching against the hypocritical Jewish establishments of the day such as the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Pharisees.

-From the Christian standpoint-

As noted before, Jesus' teachings broke away from the orthodox Judaic practices of the day. Because Jews believe that they are God's chosen people, Judaism had taken on an extremely racist tone in the day of Jesus (this is noted in the story of the 'Good Samaritan'). Jesus broke away from this racist view to say that we shouldn't look at people's religion or ethnicity, we are all human brothers and sisters. Jesus also taught against the Jewish law of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" to say that we should just for forget what others have done to you. This, again, was radically different than what the Jewish establishment taught.

After his death, the Christian religion existed as an underground organization that was mostly concerned with spiritual affairs. As the teachings of Jesus became more and more popular throughout the Roman Empire, the emperor Constantine decided to replace the Roman Religion with Christianity in order to prevent a rebellion. Now the oppressive religious establishment that Jesus had taught against now existed in the form of the Roman Catholic Church.

As history went on in Europe, people began to get fed up with the Catholic Church and decided that they would brake away in order to get back to the original meaning of Christianity. This was the beginning of the Protestant Religions. Again, they became the oppressive religious establishment in parts of Europe. In America, people became fed up with the Protestant Churches, and thus began the many evangelical movements. In some ways, the evangelical movements have not become oppressive as much as say the Catholic Church. But, their power in American politics is growing all of the time.

-From the Islamic point of view-

The Prophet Muhammad came out of a society mixed with Judaic, Christian, and nomadic religions. His message was that of unifying everyone into one community so that everyone, especially the poor and orphans, could be taken care of (he himself was an orphan). Eventually he and his followers had to resort to military operations as they were being attacked by the Meccans who hated Islam because it threatened their Economy. (Mecca was the site of a famous pagan shrine which the Meccans made a lot of money off of. If Islam took hold, the Meccans would loose money from pilgrims). After Muhammad's death, Islam split into many different factions. Some of these factions have over time turned into organizations like the Taliban and the Iranian Government.




This is my thesis and it needs a lot of work. Any suggestions would be nice (even though only about three people are reading this blog right now).

"Anyone remeber this?" 1

My Sleeping Problem

I have a sleeping problem. I sleep too long everyday, but when I try to wake up earlier, I am not awake enough to be active and I'm a real jerk when I'm tired.

For example, I only woke up like thirty minutes ago. I went to bed at 2 a.m.. That is almost twelve hours of sleep!

Anyone got any ideas?

Poem 1

Fresh Ice
Glazing Eyes

Seek me for the moon
You will not reap a spoon

It is the notion that we live
It is the potion that we gargle

Oh what is that stirs my soul so that the night will never come
Drinking tea is fine


Before embarking on a journey


Cat hair can be toxic -Swordfish


Hail the cook...He controls our life.
That is right. OUR LIFE.

We are the same being.
Caught up in a cyclone of spiritual being.

Sit and listen.

We will all be gone shortly.

-Bruce Call 2008

Ten Things I am ashamed of

1. Telling a girl that I was gay so she would leave me alone.

2. Telling my 3rd grade teacher that the Bulgarian Kid said something offensive in order to cover for myself.

3. Quoting Wikipedia in a research paper.

4. Wanting George W. Bush to win the 2000 election.

5. Wearing girl pants in 10th grade.

6. Being too young to see Sigur Ros when they came to Salt Lake City two years ago.

7. Leaving a girl on a date so that I could go bowling with my friends.

8. Not buying a book that I really wanted at progressive discount book sale because I though no one else would want it and it would be really cheap by the last day.

9. Not liking Citizen Kane.

10. Not paying anything for the new Radiohead album.

Joke 1

I laughed so much at this when I first heard it...but now I don't know why I thought it was so funny:


So the presidents of the United States, France, and Egypt are taking an around the world plane ride.

When the plane is over the United States, George W. Bush puts his hand out the window and says, "Yes, this is America. I Know because I can touch the top of the Empire State Building".

When the plane is over France, Nicolas Sarkozy puts his hand out the window and says, "Yes, this is France. I know because I can touch the top of the Eiffel Tower".

When the plane is over Egypt, Mohammed Mubarak puts his hand out the window and says, "Yes, this is Egypt."

"How can you tell?" both Bush and Sarkozy ask.

Mubarak responds, "I know because somebody stole my watch".

Good Manners in 'Howl's Moving Castle'

I recently saw the film 'How's Moving Castle' by the well know Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. One thing the I found interesting in the film was that the characters were all so nice to each other...a little too nice. For example, consider the following situation:


-Situation 1-

Lettie: Someone just told me that you flew onto our balcony.

Sophie: So that did happen.

Random Man: Excuse me Miss., but would you like to use my room?

Lettie: Thanks, but I'm okay. (Lettie, waves here hand, the man tilts his hat and shows off a big grin).


-Situation 2-

Lettie: (to Sophie) I bet it was Howl.

Worker: (carrying a bag of flour into the mill) Hi Lettie.

Lettie: (speaking to the worker) Nice to see you. (to Sophie) It must have been Howl. He was trying to steal your heart.

Sophie: Howl only tries to steal the heart's of beautiful girls.

Lettie: Stop that. You are beautiful.

Worker: (walking out of the mill) See ya Lettie!

Lettie: (to the worker) It was great to see you again.


-Situation 3-

(Old Sophie walks over a bridge, and needs to descend a set of stairs)

Young Boy: Excuse me Ms., do you need any help?

Sophie: No, I can get by. Thanks for asking though. That was really kind.



I have to hypothesis about why we see such much politeness in this film:

First of all, people might actually just talk like that in Japanese. In some cultures, greetings and politeness are an important part of daily interaction.

Second, he might be trying to instill good manners into the children watching the film. This is possible too.

Politics 1

I was watching one of the presidential debates last night on CNN. I have decided that running for president must split your soul in half. Mitt Romney and Huckabee were seated right next to each other, and they couldn't go even a minute without verbally attacking each other. I thought it was going to turn into a fist fight. The problem is that these people were probably at one time all friendly with each other, but now that thy are opponents, they therefore need to bash each other in order to come out on top. I hope I never convince myself to go into politics.

Religion 1

It always puzzles me that people always like to put down other people's religions in order to make themselves fell good about their own religion. For example, today a guy at church said that one day he was on his way to church and saw that only two cars were parked outside of a protestant church while his LDS church had a full parking lot. According to his reasoning, this made him feel as though his church was truer because his church had more people attending. That is just scratching the surface in terms of what kind of stuff like this is out there. For example, my dad went to a church meeting where they were discussing the recently published memoirs of Mother Teresa. In her memoirs, Mother Teresa talked about how she had doubted the existence of God at certain times in her life...a rather common thing for MOST people. The people at the meeting used this to say that the reason Mother Teresa doubted doubted the existence of God was because she did not have a "knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ". Instead of reflecting on and learn from the trials of one of the most Christ-like people in modern history, they turned the story on its head and used it as propaganda.

My New Appartment

I moved into a new apartment. They call it "the Foreign Language Students Residence" and it is a place where you can only speak a certain language while you are at home. I moved into the Arabic house yesterday, and we haven't even spoken any Arabic yet.
-the end

Dog Seizures

So my dog Charlie had a random seizure out of nowhere yesterday. My mom had just fed him lunch and all of the sudden his body started shaking and he couldn't stand up on his legs as they slid out from underneath him. I though he was choking on something and therefore tried to open his mouth,but it was locked tight. I was pretty sure he was dieing. After like thirty seconds he got up and was totally fine. We took him to the vet and they said that it isn't uncommon for some dogs to just have random seizures every once in awhile. Crazy huh?

Vote for Ron Paul

So you may have been driving around and seen a sign hung up on an overpass or draped over a fence that says "Ron Paul Revolution" Most people have no idea what this means since there is nothing on the sign that says "Vote Ron Paul for President 2008". The problem is that Ron Paul's campaign is entirely grass roots so people will go out and put these random signs up everywhere that most people don't get. Anyways, you should totally vote for him.

He is a M.D. from Texas who became a congressman and has served as one for a long time. He is running as a Republican but he is not a neo-conservative. In fact he is the kind of conservative I like since he wants to go back to the Jeffersonian ideals of smaller government. He isolationist in terms of politics and military, but in favor of world trade. He wants to get ride of the I.R.S. and Federal Reserve, an idea that may seem ridiculous but he makes it sound like a really good idea. See for yourself (sorry for "American Pie" playing the background):



He is also against the war in Iraq. Watch him show up Guilliani in regards to the war in Iraq and the War on Terrorism:



Anyways, vote for him the primary coming up...I mean it.

Best Youtube Videos I came across in 2007

Best concert ever:




So this guy's name is David Hart and he has a show on a public access channel in California called: "The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show". His show has developed a cult following around the world and he was invited to go on the "Tim and Eric Awesome Show". The sad thing is he is totally serious. Tim and Eric's show was set up to make fun of him..but he took it seriously:




This a 8 minute clip on the Lake Peigneur disaster. Hardly anybody has ever heard of this, but it was ranked by the history channel as the worst engineering disaster ever . Nobody died though so no one remembers. This is seriously one of the freakiest things I've ever heard of. It takes a few minutes before it gets interesting:




I have no idea what this guy's name is, but he is a preacher who has a public access show. This might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. !!!WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. CONTAINS EXTREMELY STRONG LANGUAGE AND OFFENSIVE SUBJECT MATTER!!!:




This video is "The Anti-Pope" from the Molvanian band "ZLAD!". You may remember their hit video 'supersonik electronik' from last year. AGAIN: POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE.




The following is a video that was shown in schools during the 90's to keep kids from pirating floppy disks. Make sure to watch the whole thing:



I felt like a git for laughing at this, but if you have ever seen a video of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros preforming live you'll get it:

New Years Resolutions

1. Write on this blog every day.

2. Get my car fixed.

3. Learn to play the piano correctly (one of my resolutions from the last couple of years).

4. Become a Hare Krishna devotee.

5. Finish writing my story about the guy who meets Kirk Cameron in a Turkish Prison.

6. Get people to stop bothering me about going on a mission.

7. Not get kidnapped in the Middle East this coming summer.

8. Learn to speak enough Icelandic so that people will think I am Icelandic and not albino (which I'm not in the first place).

9. Watch all of the "Dr. Who" episodes from William Hartnel (1st reincarnation of Dr. Who) through Peter Jameson (5th reincarnation).

10. Read: The Old Testament, The New Testament, The Baghavad Gita, The Rig Veda, The Upanishads, The Ramanyana, The Quran, The Tao Te Jing, The Anelects of Confusious, The Book of Mormon, and The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.