A little while back I asked a few of our In Theory columnists what secular music spiritually inspires them. They liked Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Pete Seeger, among many others. I do too. Dylan’s “Blood On the Tracks” is an all-time favorite. I might add that Stevie Wonder has penned many songs that move me spiritually.

But for me, one of the most spiritually inspiring contemporary songwriters is Sufjan Stevens.

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I got locked out of Barack Obama’s fundraiser in Newport Beach Sunday so I patrolled the sidelines for hours looking for stories. I ended up getting a few good ones, which I wrote about for the paper here. On Monday, we wanted some extra stuff to advance the story so I did some more reporting, which you can read here.

But, believe it or not, I’ve got a little more.

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What a crazy week.

We were down to two full-time reporters and a few part-time interns.  It’s never easy filling our news hole each day, but it’s miraculous to do it with such a small staff. But our guys really delivered this week and I’m incredibly proud of them.

Still, there was a moment Tuesday night when I was struck with sheer panic. Columnist Joe Bell e-mailed me saying he wanted to take the week off. I barely had enough news stories to fill the paper as it was, but now I had another hole.

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