Artist	Song
Turin Brakes	Red Moon
Remy Zero	Prophecy
Midlake	Roscoe
Blue Oyster Cult	(Don't Fear) The Reaper
Metallica	Fade to Black
Muse	Apocalypse Please
John Vanderslice	Coming and Going On Easy Terms
The Verve Pipe	1229 Sheffield
The Whitlams	Buy Now Pay Later (Charlie No. 2)
Counting Crows	Round Here
Ani Difranco	78% Water
The Decemberists	The Island: Come and See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel the Drowning
Blanche	The World's Largest Crucifix/Little Amber Bottles (reprise)
Andrew Bird	Heretics
Elvis Costello	Waiting For the End of the World

Comment:

...and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. The word of the Lord.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, the search effort was called off yesterday.

My family shall surely struggle with the loss, my father most of all for encouraging his heroic choice. But let us not forget that the end of our life on this world is not the end of our life. Another life awaits.

Mike said little revealing in the emails sent our way. It's safe to assume that his brief stay was brutish and nasty. As he was not trained for keeping the peace, we all anxiously awaited his swift return. Mom would periodically switch his bedsheets for fresh ones. Alas, this hope was not met in the way we would have chosen.

But that is no reason to give up the hope.

Mike's 20-year tour of duty is over now. No more enemy fire. No more bare-bones freeze-dried existences. No more malicious peer pressure. No more ostracism from the supposedly enlightened secular masses of the public school system. Mike is in a better place now, far superior to anything achievable on this world in this life.

I hear the words of sympathy between many of you, particularly the lament that little Ike will never meet either of his uncles. For Tom, I can only pray that God guides him back to the flock. But as for Mike, you mustn't forget, he will meet Mike! Ike can look forward to the day where he sheds the imperfections of this trial life and experiences the real thing. The next life will make up for everything.

I know I'm not the only one who has felt it - there is a mysterious, ominous presence these days. It feeds on the dead of night, on lonely alleyways and abandoned buildings. It's something empty... and yet, something positively forceful.

I have no illuminating label for this... thing, but rest assured, it will not be present in the next life. It's just one more trial we have to wait out, one more pitfall we have to escape. Secure yourselves against these outside dangers and they will soon enough fade from your worrying minds.

A better life awaits us, a life of complete security and perfect contentment. Our mortal lives are but a means to that end.

Mix #68, an infiltration, made in August of 2007.

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