cringleman

i agree with you. aside from being an agnostic, and simply being skeptical of all viewpoints (or simply unsure), basically any sort of belief pertaining to Universal (or terrestrial) origins or the (non-)existence of a god (or more than one, whatever), must be faith-based. if you can't prove it, it's faith-based. atheism, just like Islam, Judaism, Bhuddism, Christianity, Hinduism, and the Heaven's Gate cult, is a matter of faith. but then again, so's reliance on the principle of induction, it's just tricky to talk about. [edited for a typo]

i'm a passably religious person, raised as a Christian, with beliefs in Taoist and Bhuddist philosophies (since we're bringing religion into this). i agree with the theory of evolution, and i consider the Big Bang (or Big Burp, or whatever they're calling it, these days) to be the best current cosmological explanation of the origin of the Universe. do note that the Big Bang has its holes, though. last i read, there was considerable discussion as to how matter and anti-matter were created simultaneously, without eradicating each other sufficiently to have limited the development of the Universe to much less than we now see.

ironically, despite much discussion, and the nagging influence of the philosophy of art suggesting that perhaps meaning is not left up to the creator of a work, it's been pretty much confirmed that there's nothing particularly metaphorical or clever about Mullholland Dr. David Lynch was supposed to have been working on a TV miniseries or something, originally, but it got canned, so he just expanded things, throwing in whatever he felt like (i'm fairly sure that he said that in an interview). the part about the blue box? seems like a nice place to say that the movie is going from the dream world to the real world, or vice-versa, but evidently, Lynch just cooked that up on the spot, because he (essentially) though it would be cool. while a beautiful movie (Ms. Watts doesn't hurt, at all), with excellent pacing, focused performances and direction and very tight scoring and editing, the script/storyline are just evidence that David Lynch has lost interest in communicating rationally with people through his work. it's still well-worth a watch. if you liked this, check out Pi, directed by Darren Aronofsky. it's similarly confusing (though much more manic).

Oh, and, just because I lust for it: Can I have your Guild Starfire? Please? I promise to take good care of it...

Though it is very hard to say what your influence may be on music, in the near future, since you have such a dedicated fanbase, it isn't inconceivable that you could have a significant impact on the musicalities of many young (or not so young) aspiring or up-and-coming artists. What advice would you pass on to these people, about music in general? Also, While you clearly receive an astonishing amount of negative attention and feedback from people, is the positive encouragement that you [hopefully, deservedly] get heartening, at all? I'm sure your fans would like to have helped at all, in any small way, if they had thought they could have (or still could). Lastly, How are you?