Today in my life:
I put more a bunch of miles on my van, just by driving around Grapevine.
I had to put up with Mr. Brooks for two hours during rehearsal. ):
I got my hair cut all 1920’s like.
I realized the longer I stay up, the earlier I wake up.
I figured out what went wrong with the blogger interface.

Now it’s time for the synopsis/review of “Join Me” by Danny Wallace (for Jennie Lee, who will probably never actually read this) which I finished two days ago. The tagline of “Join Me” is “the True story of a man who started a cult… by accident.” While good at getting the interest of potential readers, all of the negative things associated with the word cult spring to mind, a problem that the author himself brings up. Cults are seen as groups of crazy people who are trying to get to outer space by meditation, or enjoy mass suicides. Danny makes it apparent that he is extremely opposed to these things. “Join Me” starts out with Danny receiving the letter from his first joinee, as they come to be called. And then goes into the back-story of what happened before. He explains that his great uncle had just recently died and while at the funereal, Danny learned of a commune that his great uncle tried form when he was younger. The family joke is that he only got three people to join him. Danny decides to help his great uncle’s dram live on by placing an ad in the local newspaper asking people to join him by sending him one passport sized photograph to a P.O. box. That’s all it takes. After a slow start, Danny makes a web page (www.join-me.co.uk), which helps bring in a bunch of new people. Most of the joinees want to know what it is that they’ve joined and Danny manages to come up with “the first commandment of Join Me,” “make old men happy.” Danny ends up traveling all over Europe to meet his joinees and spread the word of good deeds. His idea of helping old men blossoms into doing random acts of kindness every Friday, which he calls Good Fridays. It’s real crazy. Including sending some one over eighty bags of peanuts. But to use a phrase that twisted my git on Reading Rainbow, “if you want to find out how it ends you’ll have to read it your self.” (Or you could just ask me in person)


(the lyrics to the join me song go here)  ¶ 3/10/2004 11:06:00 PM