944

With the Colorado fires, another BP oil spill, asteroids missing Earth by only 154,000 miles (that's closer than the moon), xenophobes in Florida burning Qurans, and Sarah Palin being, well, Sarah Palin it's hard not to let the weight of the world swallow you whole.

While I was watching a reporter on MSNBC interview preacher Terry Jones down in Gainesville about his little book burning ceremony in all its intolerant glory, I thought about coping mechanisms. Not the kind of coping mechanisms that tear cultures apart, but the ones that bring people together. I realized everyone has their own way of coping with the world's wonders and blunders, and most people share similarities in the way they let go of that stress. One of them is laughter. In times like these, if you don't laugh just a little at the Terry Jones' of the world, you will surely cry. Finding the humor in human behavior is certainly not to be confused with being ignorant to current events, sticking your head in the sand quite the contrary. Having a good chuckle about life's idiotic moments is an honest recognition of it, and being able to find the funny in our understanding of the basic human condition, whether it's good or bad or grotesque. And in this laughter brings a certain unspoken unity between the people it touches, and really, isn't that what peace is all about?

I think this is also why people get a kick out of observational humor and comedians like George Carlin and Bill Cosby, with more recent comedic geniuses like Seth MacFarlane, Chelsea Lately, Jon Stewart, Zach Galifianakis and Louis C.K.

So, by now at this point in your day I'm sure you've browsed the depressing headlines on CNN.com, and what better way to lighten the load on your psyche than a little shot of funny from me to you:


Tosh.0Weds 10:30pm / 9:30cTwisperswww.comedycentral.comTosh.0 VideosDaniel ToshWeb Redemption

Daniel Tosh is on tour now, with a stop in Dallas on September 30th at the Majestic.



And laughter isn't the only coping mechanism we share. For almost every single person living that has the ability to hear uses music as an auditory drug. Most people are painfully particular about what they like (by the way, just who, exactly, asked for the Creed/Disturbed reunion tour? It sure as hell wasn't me.) So with that said, here is a little post-punk band out of Brooklyn, New York that has recently captured my heart.



For all my fellow Dallasites, The Drums will be at The Loft September 24th.







Until an asteroid blasts our tiny planet to bits,

Michelle Parsons
944 Dallas Managing Editor