Dude, The Boy Vs. The Cynic is amazing! I've been listening to this album a lot recently,and it's brilliant.

Before this album, when people asked me who John Reuben was (I have a T-shirt), I'd say, "A silly Christian rapper." But no more. Mr. Zappin has always had a side of him that, on the surface, seemed to be a cynic. But I think he has a lot more wisdom in these cynical comments than we think. In this album, he challenges the so-called wisdoms on the modern church, today's political system (What? Reuben's not Republican?), and, of course, some of the music industry.

But what does it sound like musically? Sure, there's a bit of rap in there, but there's a whole lot more than that. There's a lot of guitars. There's some songs that could make it on the dancefloor, most notably "So Glad," which reminds me of something from the 80s.

If you haven't heard it yet, check it out. And if it sounds intriguing and you write for cMusicWeb.com, tell me you want it.

So, Third Day's coming out with a new album. Some would be excited, but looking at the signs, I'm not. I think they're losing it.

I remember the good days. In 1997 I got Conspiracy No. 5, an amazing rock album that included such songs as "Alien," "My Hope Is You," "Who Am I," and the epic "Gomer's Theme." My sisters and my parents didn't think their well-produced rock was cool, but I dugg it.

Then I got 1999's Time a day earlier than the rest of the world (thanks to Sean Von Tagen for picking me as a contest winner). It was straight-up rock and roll and included some great worshippy songs as well. The closing one-two punch of "Sky Falls Down" and "Give" were amazing. Although the album is just 40 minutes, it's still the best Third Day album. The album cover was pretty cool, but the photo of the guys pickin' tunes in their living room is still one of my favorite photos.

Not surprisingly, they got into the worship thing in a big way in 2000, but that was before it was totally cliché. Offerings was a solid collection of live recordings and new songs, but nothing to get totally excited about. Unfortunately, Christian radio killed the rock stars.

Since then, the boys in Third Day have been living like rockers but putting out formulaic worship pop junk. Of course, all the people who don't know the band's potential thought Come Together was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Whatever.

The real Third Day fans know that "40 Days" and "Come Together" are possibly the most watered down crap ever to come from a Christian rock band. And sadly, again, the Christian radio ate it up. And now Third Day has the dual markets of worship-pop and rock to deal with.

After the unmentionable fiasco that was Offerings II, Third Day tried to get back on track with last year's Wire. It was unashamed, artful southern rock 'n' roll, but I think it still lacked the full glory of their first three albums.

November 1st will find Wherever You Are hitting the streets, and if you can judge an album by its cover, this one is going to be worse than Come Together. With that pretty album cover, it might as well have a "Made for Inspirational Radio" on it or have Point of Grace's name on the album instead.

Ohh, and don't get me started on history repeating itself with The Newsboys.

This whole rant started because I was listening to my iPod at entirely random. Since I have some crappy music on there, every once in a while it come by a skipper like "Show Me Your Glory." I mentioned that I haven't listened to that album for about 3 years, two of my co-workers commented that Come Together was a solid album. If I didn't like my job so much, that would be the end of the relationship. Of course, I guess I should expect as much from people who like MercyMe and Casting Crowns. Poor radio listeners.

I guess I will have to reveal my true identity at work: Dan da Christian Music Snob. I call it an occupational hazard. If you're gonna run a website, you have to make some enemies. Even if all these bands have a good "ministry," that doesn't mean they're making good music. Ohh, and one of my poor coworkers doesn't like Derek's I See Things Upside Down.

I have to say that I was very happy that my former roomate and his new wife said they liked my wedding present. I was highly anxious that it was going to be considered a bit inappropriate for a wedding gift, but they found it much appreciated.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it doesn't involve Sean Connery or Alex Trabek. But it does involve The Spanish Inquisition, the BBC, some nudity, and the TWIT of the year show.

Oh yeah, and I wrapped up a couple DVDs that I borrowed for about four months. I bet they enjoyed the present of having those back too.

Oh yeah, and a shout out to all my peeps at work. My boss might be reading this, so I just wanted to tell everyone how much fun I'm having at work and that I think I really am fitting in there. ;-)

Well, how does it all go? It goes like this:

I didn't get all the stuff packed yesterday, so I'm gonna have to go back again tonight. we moved my bunk bed, but it's not set up yet because there's a rather bad leak in the room I'm gonna hang out in. Besides the 13 guys that I'm living with, this large frat house will have another 8-10 people who are renting a room, and most of them move in a day or two from now.

This place is going to take a bit to get used to. The place is pretty big and could use a whole bunch of cleaning up in almost every area. So it should give us a bunch of work to do for the next couple weeks. The place is right in the middle of the U of M and should be quite an amazing throwback to my partying (or lack thereof) days at St. Thomas. One of my roommates was complaining about one of the renters blaring their speakers really loud, and I said, "Get used to it. This is college life."

Switching over to work life, it's been amazing. The only problem is that, this afternoon, I have to start actually working. I didn't do that much real work for the first couple days, I just sat in meetings and got to know everybody. This company should be a great fit for me, I believe, and I hope it works well for a number of years to come.