It's funny, but as I was going over which features I still have in stock (now that Birthday Mad-Libs are over, I'm down to six and thus will have to come up with a new one before the Week of Features is out), Shuffleblog is actually the one that takes the least amount of time to write (about half an hour or so). Which is good, because Outgehangen has got me started on this a bit later than I'd originally intended.
And so, off we go.
#1.Nickels for Green-Eyed Girls by Polarboy
Nickels for green-eyed girls,
Empires built for the world.
All these things will fade away,
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
This song always reminds me of the Christian rock station that we used to have in Wichita, mainly because I don't think I've ever heard this band anywhere else in the world (save for the occasional showing of the In My Shoes music video on Christian video stations). I know Christian rock has a bad rap, and some of that is deserved, but there were some really great bands, especially in the late 1990's. Most of them were never heard by anybody outside of a very small pocket while a lot of groups that were really watered-down, both lyrically and artistically, became mega-huge. I think this is because the majority of the Christian buyers' market tends to like safe, formulaic entertainment, and that generally fights against most true artistic expression or spiritual exploration. Songs that really confronted some of the tougher questions of faith and doubt and suffering often took a backseat to songs about love and peace and. And, of course, the Bible speaks very loudly of these things. They're pretty much the book's central tenants. However, it never tried to hide the ugliness away to make the peace and love of God look more appealing. If anything, it was always the exact opposite: the ugliness and depravity of the world is what makes the light of the gospel shine.
Anyway, a lot of Christian artists became burned out by the "Christian music industry" and so some bands that really rocked and also challenged me unto growth in my faith went largely unnoticed by both the Christan and secular markets. And eventually, even the decent rock station in Wichita went that route as well.
There's another whole blog's worth of thoughts that could go into this topic. But the next song has already started.
2. Underwater by Switchfoot
She's underwater, she won't drown. She cannot believe it.
And everyone she meets feels just the same.
And just like clockwork, she'll climb down in her bottle,
Yeah no one down there cares to know her name.
Nothing to be; she's already been
Plenty of times, plenty of time, plenty of time...
What's that, you say? You've never heard of a song called "Underwater" by Switchfoot? Yeah, if you heard it you probably wouldn't recognize it as them, either. This is the third song of their debut album from 1997, and Jon still had his quasi-Kermit-the-Frog vocals going on in this album. (That's not a knock, either. I just always thought it sounded only vaguely Kermit-ish) I was fifteen when this song came out, so it took me a long time to realize exactly how sad it was because it was just so dang bouncy. This was actually the album I listened to when I was feeling alone, unloved, and generally emo. Or the album that would get me to that state in the first place. Not that it's really all that emo of an album, actually. However, I was fifteen, and I pretty much saw everything through the lens of that whole Why Do Nice Guys Always Finish Last phase.
I can admit it. I grew out of it. And I think I ended up doing okay coming out of it, too. Now I can listen to some of these songs and realize how comically I missed what was really there. Oh, fifteen-year-old Will, you were so self-centered and dumb.
3. I Am from !Hero: The Rock Opera
Sometimes it's hard
To do what you're meant to do,
These fires we must walk through,
Sometimes it's hard...
I have one of those machines that plays your iPod through speakers so you can listen to it from across the room and share the music with others. That's what I'm using for my shuffle, because I still don't have very much of my music in the new Lappy. (We'd have all Five Iron, Supertones, Les Mis, and Toddler Tunes on our Shuffle if I used the Lappy)That's all well and good. I like the machine (whatever it's called) and it even has a remote control. But here's the thing: THE REMOTE CONTROL IS CRAP! I mean, it really doesn't matter what button you press. The machine is pretty much going to do whatever it wants to anyway. You want to skip forward a song? Press the button. Maybe it'll skip ahead. Maybe it'll skip back. Or maybe it'll crank up the volume. Who cares that its' 2:30 and the rest of the house is sleeping? What's that? You don't want the volume to go up? Well, if skip forward turned it up, surely skip backwards will turn it back down. Wait, no. Skip backwards also turns the volume up. So pretty much every button turns the volume up. Awesome.
What does this have to do with the song? Nothing. But Shuffleblog is pretty much a stream-of-consciousness thing anyway, and that's what happened when I clicked forward to this song. Grr.
4. Rent by Animal Couch
And this time, skip forward skipped to the next song. What'd I tell ya?
Here's another product of that awesome Wichita station. Animal Couch was an indie band from somewhere in Texas. They only ever released two EP's, and somehow we got a hold of them in Wichita, so they had a pretty big following up in ICT. I remember when they finally came for a concert (the other awesome thing about this station: it booked tons of concerts of the small underappreciated bands it played). All of "the regulars" came to the show, and man were we ever stoked. Not only did the band rock, but it had two girl singers! (Any band that had a girl in it was instantly awesome to us high school/college age boys back then. I wonder if that's still true today?)
Anyway, the band was actually pretty good. I still like to listen to their songs, though I don't think they're nearly as profound as they used to be. This song, for instance, is pretty much about how humans have trashed the earth, and going to heaven will be so much better. But it still sounds kind of pretty, in a rock-ish way.
This concert ended after they played all of their songs, but we called for a third encore anyway, so they started to replay songs, and a guy suddenly fell to the ground clutching his leg and screaming in the mosh pit. It was a small, intimate venue, so that pretty much stopped everything mid-song. It was a real mood-killer.
I hope that guy didn't do any permanent damage, because it was otherwise an awesome concert.
5. Don't Feed the Plans from Little Shop of Horrors
And the plants proceeded to grow and grow
And begin what they came here to do
Which was essentially to
Eat Cleveland, and Des Moines, and Peoria, and New York,
And this theater!
Feels like I've talked about this one before. Not on Shuffleblog, but on the blog nonetheless.
This is the "everybody dies" closing number to the musical version of Little Shop of Horrors. The script describes vines exploding from the stage and from over the heads of the audience in the lyrics quoted above. In my high school, we didn't have that capability. We actually had a glorified lecture hall for a theater: a raised thrust stage. Nobody had a good seat! We also had two concrete barriers that separated the three main sections of seats. So instead of plant vines exploding from the ceiling, we had the chorus cross onto those balance beams and toss trash bags full of green streamers on the people sitting immediately around them.
To be fair, when I saw the national tour of this show (with Anthony Rapp), this number was still pretty hokey. It may not have been streamers thrown in our face from two feet away, but they did have the principals in what I can only describe as big green sleeping bags trying to do some sort of choreography that just looked like someone had dropped itching powder into their tent during a campout.
6. Got to Get You Into My Life by the Beatles, covered by BUCK
I was alone, I took a ride, I didn't know what I would find there.
Another road where maybe I could find another kind of life there
Ooh, then I suddenly see you.
Ooh, did I tell you I need you,
Every single day of my life?
Is it just me, or is a classic Beatles song a great way to wrap up...well, just about anything?
Showing posts with label Shuffleblog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shuffleblog. Show all posts
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
v2, d332: Shuffleblog
I'm never going to ask for requests again, because it takes me so long to get to them that they might as well not have been requested in the first place.
#1 Snowfort by Room Full of Walters
My snow fort, it won't fall down.
My snow fort's better than anyone's around
My snow fort, it won't melt in the sun...
Oh, RFOW. They were a local band that became Christians after they'd already built a pretty solid following in the Wichita area. They subsequently wrote what ended up being a "Christian" album and started getting radio play on the Christian rock radio station. Eventually, they were signed to a national label, and they released to albums. (Oh, and they were pretty good, by the way) However, as is often the case in Christian music, the label didn't throw much money into promoting the band--no music videos, no tours with "big name" artists, none of the big collaboration albums, and not pushed very hard on national radio, so the band got frustrated and embittered and dropped off the face of the planet after two years.
I have a friend who does some independent recording on the southern gospel scene. I've had a couple of interesting discussions with him about how it's determined what songs get played on what radio stations. It might make for a good play or film sometime, though I think Kevin Max may have already beat me to the movie idea. (Did that movie ever end up happening?)
Anyway, it's a discouraging industry.
#2: Burn Out Bright by Switchfoot
The future is a question mark with kerosene and electric sparks
There's still fire in you yet, yeah, there's still fire in you...
Seems as though I've done this song before. Also seems as though my iPod (who has no name, nor will it ever receive a name) plays this song quite a bit. Which I don't complain about, because I'm usually only listening to my iPod when I'm walking or jogging outside. And this is an awesome outside song. It's actually one of my favorite windows-rolled-down-while-driving-in-the-summer songs. There were a couple of years where I needed those, because I had to drive with my windows down ALL SUMMER LONG. No AC in my old car (the gold one) for two and a half years. Houston summers are pretty brutal. Since we got rid of the gold car, I can hardly believe I used to brave them with nothing but the air flow from the windows. I remember I would even drive home in the rain with my windows down, because my choices were get wet (and therefore slightly cooler, though uncomfortable) or suffocate in the hot air that built up in the car as the day wore on. It was pretty miserable.
#3: My Deliverer by Rich Mullins (performed by not Rich Mullins)
Joseph took his wife and child and they went to Africa
To escape the rage of a deadly king.
There along the banks of the Nile, Jesus listened to the song
That the captive children used to sing
They were singing, "My deliverer is coming, my deliverer is standing by..."
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that Rich is one of my Big Four in Christian songwriters. Like RFOW, he was pretty huge around the Wichita area because he called it home. My dad actually played in Friends University's orchestra with Rich at one point. I remember when Rich died. It was a huge deal in the local Christian community. I think I thought Rich was bigger than he actually was, because when I left Kansas I found a lot of people knew him and some of his songs, but he was just sorta there for most people. Local celebrities, I guess.
Anyway, when Rich died, he was working on a new album. They released the unfinished demos he did and then had other artists who were friends of his record the songs with finished studio versions and released them together. Funny thing is, most of them still sounded better on the rough demo cut pulled straight from the audio cassette.
And then there's this track. I don't actually know who is singing on it (I'm pretty sure there's a Micheal W. Smith cameo near the end, however), but I love it. It's haunting, it's dramatic, it's moving. It builds on itself. It's almost theatrical. Which is probably why I enjoy it. But it takes on the characteristic of waiting, longing, hoping for redemption, and the explosion of faith into an emphatic resolution to believe, a strong hope in things yet unseen, and the unifying passion of a shared faith.
Cool track.
#4: Something Like Laughter by Five Iron Frenzy
Create in her a sense of awe that sees Your beauty,
Let Your splendor flash with blinding light.
Standing tall, all the aspen trees drink water
As rain falls down like laughter from the sky...
This hasn't been statistically proven, but i don't think it's possible to skip through six songs on my iPod without running into at least one Reese Roper project. It probably speaks both of the volume of Roper/BS2/FIF/Guerilla Rodeo music I have as well as of the small size of my iPod's library. Nano. Whatever.
But I digress. (Can you digress when the concept of your blog is more or less stream-of-consciousness?) This song has a pretty personal meaning to me. So personal, in fact, that I can't share the even it reminds me of! How's that for teasing? I can share, however, that as I was typing "stream-of-consciousness," I accidentally typed "steam-of-consciousness" at first, and then I tried to decide if that were a clever enough play on words that I could use that concept one day in a story somewhere. (Shaking the 8-ball... "Early Signs Point to 'No'")
#5: A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do
Seems destiny ends with me saving you
The only doom that's looming is you loving me to death,
So I'll give you a chance to catch your breath.
(Balls!)
Sheer brilliance. But you already know that, hopefully.
Recently, the little community theater that two summers ago hosted a new play festival that my Girl Who Wore Golden Clothes script was chosen for announced their 2011 season. (Recently = last November, apparently) Dr. Horrible was on the list. I'm pretty sure they just decided to adapt the short film for the stage by themselves, and while I'm pretty sure that technically that's not legal, they're a community theater with a house that seats about forty people. I really don't think it ought to be that big of a deal, so more power to them.
It's not like theatre people all over the year wouldn't do the same thing if they thought they could get away with it :-)
#6: Prayer of the Comfort Counselor from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
All you need is the strength to pretend it's no big deal
Try to act like you don't care, try not to cry, lord,
Not in front of your brother.
Don't embarrass your mother.
Make your exit with care.
That, dude, is my prayer...
Every time I start a shuffle, I spend the entire time hoping that I'll get an awesome closing song for #6. More often than not, it seems to happen.
I remember being my school's alternate for the 5th grade city-wide spelling bee. None of the three regulars got sick or injured or suspended for performance-enhancing drugs, however, so I didn't get to compete. We bussed all the fifth-graders in the city (four schools' worth) for the big event, and one of the kids from our school finished fourth. The alternate position. Yet, when the county-wide spelling be was held, she got to go ahead and compete, despite the fact that none of the three regulars missed the bee.
I never got anybody to understand why I thought that was unfair.
Goodbye!
#1 Snowfort by Room Full of Walters
My snow fort, it won't fall down.
My snow fort's better than anyone's around
My snow fort, it won't melt in the sun...
Oh, RFOW. They were a local band that became Christians after they'd already built a pretty solid following in the Wichita area. They subsequently wrote what ended up being a "Christian" album and started getting radio play on the Christian rock radio station. Eventually, they were signed to a national label, and they released to albums. (Oh, and they were pretty good, by the way) However, as is often the case in Christian music, the label didn't throw much money into promoting the band--no music videos, no tours with "big name" artists, none of the big collaboration albums, and not pushed very hard on national radio, so the band got frustrated and embittered and dropped off the face of the planet after two years.
I have a friend who does some independent recording on the southern gospel scene. I've had a couple of interesting discussions with him about how it's determined what songs get played on what radio stations. It might make for a good play or film sometime, though I think Kevin Max may have already beat me to the movie idea. (Did that movie ever end up happening?)
Anyway, it's a discouraging industry.
#2: Burn Out Bright by Switchfoot
The future is a question mark with kerosene and electric sparks
There's still fire in you yet, yeah, there's still fire in you...
Seems as though I've done this song before. Also seems as though my iPod (who has no name, nor will it ever receive a name) plays this song quite a bit. Which I don't complain about, because I'm usually only listening to my iPod when I'm walking or jogging outside. And this is an awesome outside song. It's actually one of my favorite windows-rolled-down-while-driving-in-the-summer songs. There were a couple of years where I needed those, because I had to drive with my windows down ALL SUMMER LONG. No AC in my old car (the gold one) for two and a half years. Houston summers are pretty brutal. Since we got rid of the gold car, I can hardly believe I used to brave them with nothing but the air flow from the windows. I remember I would even drive home in the rain with my windows down, because my choices were get wet (and therefore slightly cooler, though uncomfortable) or suffocate in the hot air that built up in the car as the day wore on. It was pretty miserable.
#3: My Deliverer by Rich Mullins (performed by not Rich Mullins)
Joseph took his wife and child and they went to Africa
To escape the rage of a deadly king.
There along the banks of the Nile, Jesus listened to the song
That the captive children used to sing
They were singing, "My deliverer is coming, my deliverer is standing by..."
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that Rich is one of my Big Four in Christian songwriters. Like RFOW, he was pretty huge around the Wichita area because he called it home. My dad actually played in Friends University's orchestra with Rich at one point. I remember when Rich died. It was a huge deal in the local Christian community. I think I thought Rich was bigger than he actually was, because when I left Kansas I found a lot of people knew him and some of his songs, but he was just sorta there for most people. Local celebrities, I guess.
Anyway, when Rich died, he was working on a new album. They released the unfinished demos he did and then had other artists who were friends of his record the songs with finished studio versions and released them together. Funny thing is, most of them still sounded better on the rough demo cut pulled straight from the audio cassette.
And then there's this track. I don't actually know who is singing on it (I'm pretty sure there's a Micheal W. Smith cameo near the end, however), but I love it. It's haunting, it's dramatic, it's moving. It builds on itself. It's almost theatrical. Which is probably why I enjoy it. But it takes on the characteristic of waiting, longing, hoping for redemption, and the explosion of faith into an emphatic resolution to believe, a strong hope in things yet unseen, and the unifying passion of a shared faith.
Cool track.
#4: Something Like Laughter by Five Iron Frenzy
Create in her a sense of awe that sees Your beauty,
Let Your splendor flash with blinding light.
Standing tall, all the aspen trees drink water
As rain falls down like laughter from the sky...
This hasn't been statistically proven, but i don't think it's possible to skip through six songs on my iPod without running into at least one Reese Roper project. It probably speaks both of the volume of Roper/BS2/FIF/Guerilla Rodeo music I have as well as of the small size of my iPod's library. Nano. Whatever.
But I digress. (Can you digress when the concept of your blog is more or less stream-of-consciousness?) This song has a pretty personal meaning to me. So personal, in fact, that I can't share the even it reminds me of! How's that for teasing? I can share, however, that as I was typing "stream-of-consciousness," I accidentally typed "steam-of-consciousness" at first, and then I tried to decide if that were a clever enough play on words that I could use that concept one day in a story somewhere. (Shaking the 8-ball... "Early Signs Point to 'No'")
#5: A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do
Seems destiny ends with me saving you
The only doom that's looming is you loving me to death,
So I'll give you a chance to catch your breath.
(Balls!)
Sheer brilliance. But you already know that, hopefully.
Recently, the little community theater that two summers ago hosted a new play festival that my Girl Who Wore Golden Clothes script was chosen for announced their 2011 season. (Recently = last November, apparently) Dr. Horrible was on the list. I'm pretty sure they just decided to adapt the short film for the stage by themselves, and while I'm pretty sure that technically that's not legal, they're a community theater with a house that seats about forty people. I really don't think it ought to be that big of a deal, so more power to them.
It's not like theatre people all over the year wouldn't do the same thing if they thought they could get away with it :-)
#6: Prayer of the Comfort Counselor from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
All you need is the strength to pretend it's no big deal
Try to act like you don't care, try not to cry, lord,
Not in front of your brother.
Don't embarrass your mother.
Make your exit with care.
That, dude, is my prayer...
Every time I start a shuffle, I spend the entire time hoping that I'll get an awesome closing song for #6. More often than not, it seems to happen.
I remember being my school's alternate for the 5th grade city-wide spelling bee. None of the three regulars got sick or injured or suspended for performance-enhancing drugs, however, so I didn't get to compete. We bussed all the fifth-graders in the city (four schools' worth) for the big event, and one of the kids from our school finished fourth. The alternate position. Yet, when the county-wide spelling be was held, she got to go ahead and compete, despite the fact that none of the three regulars missed the bee.
I never got anybody to understand why I thought that was unfair.
Goodbye!
Monday, October 18, 2010
v2, d184: Shuffleblog
You know the drill by now. Hit shuffle on the iTunes, start blogging till the song is over.
#1: 101 by the W's
One more cup to make it through,
Three more hours to go 'till the paper's due.
One more page is all I need,
Eyes so red I think they're gonna bleed...
This is a song about writing term papers in college. No joke. I like to think I wasn't a total slacker my first year of college when it came to paper-writing. I'm pretty sure I spent a good amount of time getting books from the library (a thing that simply isn't done anymore), taking notes on notecards, and starting a first draft a week before it was due.
Actually, you know what, I don't think I ever became a slacker regarding paper writing. I tended to do everything the night the paper was due, like the guy in the song, but it wasn't because I was too lazy to do it ahead of time. It was because I knew I could pull off the job in the hours before the paper was done, and so I found something equally valuable and useful to fill those earlier hours with. Like rehearsals. Or reading. Or building lasting relationships and learning to be a man.
This is something that sorta sucks about college. You have a ton of equally important tasks, both academically and personally, and only four years to complete them in. You could take it at a more leisurely pace, but wait, you can't afford it. (Note: Yes, there are exceptions) It's really nearly impossible to commit yourself to excellence in any one area without sacrificing one of the others. Or maybe it is possible and I just failed at that particular aspect of secondary education. Whatever.
Anyway, I made good grades and good friends, but I picked up some bad habits that I've been working against since then. I guess that's life.
#2: SHADOW OF DEF by Brave Saint Saturn
Now sit right back as I bust a rhyme
I got the freshest beats and I'm always on time
I'm the baddest of the best, yeah, I'm the king.
Word.
Master of beasts and the cross-fader,
I'll cut off your hand just like Darth Vader.
You step to me, and you're gonna get dissed, homeboy...
Not only is this a really bizarre song, but it's also a really bizarre inclusion on the BS2 trilogy. Most of Brave Saint's songs are about struggling with all kinds of cheery stuff: depression, loss of friends, loss of family, loss of dreams, loneliness, disappointment, faithlessness, rage, infidelity, wars, pride, artistic frustration, and so on and so forth. The other songs are usually very contemplative, beautiful, and even haunting worship songs. And then there are NASA-themed sound bites that give the three albums a story/trilogy (as the band later said, the concept was to create a three-act play with the three albums) feel.
And then, there's this song. Which is an electronic/space riff acoustic hip-hop parody anthem. That features a rap solo by the record company's executive producer explaining the name of the record company. (5 Minute Walk)
You gotta love it, though. It's hilarious and brilliant and quirky and catchy.
And really oddly placed.
#3: LARRY-BOY THEME SONG from Veggie Tunes 2
Who do they call when this world needs a hero?
A man with style and plungers on his head?
It's easy to prove he's just one of the grooviest cats that you'll ever know.
It's plain to see, in fashion he's no zero.
At the wheel of the Larry-Mobile,
Purple and yellow, he's one super-fellow...
I could say many wonderful things about the folks at Big Idea! and their wildly successful Christian pop-culture champion franchise VeggieTales. But, this is shuffleblog, so I'll just take this opportunity to praise Kurt Heinecke, or the guy who does all the music.
When Phil Vischer was looking for someone to arrange all the music for their first episode of VT, he kept drawing a blank. Then, one day while sitting in church and listening to the praise music, he thought Hey, this music is really good. In fact, it's always really good. So he asked the music minister from his church to do VeggieTales. And despite the fact that the man had never done anything quite like it before, he said sure, sounds like fun.
One of the thing that I think sets VT apart from a lot of other children's entertainment giants is the overall production quality, and the music is a HUGE part of it. I listen to a LOT of VeggieTales because my son is sort of obsessed with the veggies right now, so that's what we play in the car on the way to day care most days. And I have to tell you, the music--not just the songs, but the underscoring, too--is absolutely top of the line. I realize that this'll never happen, but I would love to see some of these stories expanded to become fully realized staged musicals. I'm not talking about the VeggieTales Live! type karakoe-fests, I'm talking about hour-long or full-length musicals in which the music and songs play an integral part in tying together the piece artistically and telling the story. It's that good.
I challenge you to go back through old VeggieTales music. And not the Silly Songs, but the actual episodes. Pick up the Larry-Boy soundtrack. Watch their Gilbert and Sullivan episodes. Any genre they play with, they knock it out of the park. And I've written too long. Next song.
#4: EPIC CHASE SCENE from Peter and the Wolf
This song is not actually called Epic Chase Scene. I don't know what it's actually called. I have it on my computer from when I assistant directed Peter and the Wolf at our children's theater. Assistant directing didn't mean a whole lot of direct involvement, though I would occasionally throw out suggestions that the director would use. It was more of an observational thing. The show's major strength was Abby's fantastic choreography anyway.
And then, there was this sequence. It was the last thing to be blocked, and I remember Kevin, Abby, and I meeting in the rehearsal space one afternoon. Abby had nothing specific in mind, as she'd already choreographed the whole show (and was planning a wedding, too). Kevin didn't have much in mind for it, either. Neither did I, to be honest, but I saw an opportunity to do something artistic, so.... "Hey, you want me to just figure it out?" Neither had a good reason why I shouldn't, and so it became mine. At that point, I had one image in my mind: a rubber innertube duck posing as a decoy while the real duck hid behind a bush.
From there, it all just sorta happened. I managed to knock it out in about twenty minutes after I got home. (Actually, while I was waiting for Kim to get ready for our that night, so I was in the living room, dressed quasi-nice, chasing myself around while listening to the same two and a half minutes of music over and over)
Hopefully, it didn't look like I had worked it out in about thirty minutes time. The whole thing was quite silly, as most of the show was, and it never quite captured the same look it had in my head. But it was something. And I still like it.
And it got me a gig as an actual director the following season. So there you go.
#5: CODE OF THE ROAD by Bleach
Just suppose this old car sputtered down the road (just suppose)
Just suppose this old car, it refused to go (just suppose)
Wouldn't you hope that someone would care enough to stop and help you out?
I'd like to think that someone would care enough to stop and help you out...
Okay, I'll try to keep this one short.
I had a little fender-bender about a year ago. Totally the other car's fault; it was rainy, and she pulled out across two lanes directly in front of me. I tried to stop, couldn't in time, and hit her. Her car was basically fine; mine had its front headlight smashed in. She was really nice, she felt really bad, we were both glad our little ones hadn't been in our respective cars at the time. We exchanged information and parted ways.
As I thought about it, I started to think I really shouldn't call this one in to the insurance. She was at fault, and she was going to admit to it, and she and/or her insurance would pay to fix my car. But I was already planning on getting rid of my car the following March. And it wasn't really terribly important damage in the short-term, anyway. I knew if I were in her situation, I'd have been grateful if the person had decided not to "tattle" on me. So I called her up a few days later and said, in effect, "No sweat. I'm not keeping this car much longer anyway; no reason for you to pay to fix scrap anyway. But if you really want to pay me back, give me your mailing address and let me send you a brochure for our children's theater, and you can bring your kids to a show and we'll call it even."
She was pretty much speechless. And really grateful. And I was pretty sure I'd made the right choice.
#6: SILENT NIGHT/AWAY IN A MANGER by Relient K
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head,
The stars in the sky look down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay...
Okay, Relient K and I don't always see eye-to-eye artistically. But I really, really love their full-length Christmas album, Let It Snow, Baby...Let It Reindeer. Though it took me a little while to figure out the title. And I Hate Christmas Parties is so outlandishly emo that I kinda have to laugh at it. But! That's okay.
This album really captures both the bouncy fun happiness of Christmas while nailing the quiet, contemplative, worshipful aspect of the holiday and the event it represents. I've never heard an album so perfectly embrace both sides of the event that took place one night in a Bethlehem manger.
But I'm sure you'll get a lot more of me gushing about how much I love Christmas once we get past Thanksgiving :-)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
v2, d168: Shuffleblog
I've been doing such a good job of not drinking caffeine in the evenings. Tonight, I planned to go to bed nice and early to finish off this nasty sickness. Then, right around 7:30, Kim had suddenly had enough for the night and needed to lay down, so I decided I'd finish dinner and put Robbie to bed and all of that. Well, I had already fallen asleep once on accident this evening, so I knew there was only one way to make it thorough the evening.
Hello, Diet Dr. P.
I feel kinda like Bastien using his second-to-last-wish to bring Atreyu back to life. I know it's not a great idea, but I really don't know that I had any other options.
Anyway, while I'm up, I might as well give you people what you want.
#1: Personal Judgment Day by Big Tent Revival
"Don't have to listen to a word I say,
Don't have to bow your head and pray,
But you're only one step away
From your personal Judgment Day..."
For some reason, "Judgment Day" still makes me think Terminator 2. Which is remarkable given that I've never seen any of the Terminator movies.
I know, I know. People are generally aghast when I say that. And then they say something like, "We are TOTALLY going to watch those together!" This has been going on for the last six years, and I'm pretty sure it's not accurate.
By the way, I highly recommend HowItShouldHaveEnded.com's latest Terminator video. "You mean, not only do I invent time travel, but in the future machines are going to use my technology to go back in history and kill just one man???"
This was a short song.
#2: Town Meeting Song by Danny Elfman (from Nightmare Before Christmas)
"And the best, I must confess, I have saved for the last,
For the ruler of the Christmas Land
Is a fearsome king with a deep mighty voice,
Least, that's what I've come to understand..."
This song is kind of an eerie choice, given the line I wrote just before starting the shuffle.
I don't know if I've mentioned this on Shuffle before, but I wasn't really that big a fan of TNBC when it first came out. I thought it was weird. (It was. I apparently was not weird enough. Yet.) It wasn't until I played through Kingdom Hearts for the first time that I started to get into it. There's a Halloweentown world, for those who don't know, in the KH franchise, and the music in the background is the This is Halloween theme looping endlessly. It's pretty delightful, and I had Sherri lend me her copy of the soundtrack. The music is what got me hooked, and so I rented it and watched it with Kim. Basically, I've been at least a passing fan ever since.
You should look up "Haunted Mansion Nightmare Before Christmas" on Youtube sometime. I'd link to it, but I'm on a time limit here. They completely redo the inside of the Haunted Mansion ride every year from Halloween to Christmas. It's pretty rad.
#3: Worship Song by Pete Stewart
"You lift me up so high till my voice fills the sky,
High above the heavens.
You fill my soul with peace and deliver me,
And I will call upon your name."
I was really excited when Pete Stewart announced he was going to do some solo stuff after Grammatrain broke up. His solo album was pretty good, though not outstanding, and he didn't record again after that. He did play Police Chief Devlin on the !Hero: The Rock Opera cast recording, but he unfortunately didn't tour with the show. (Which was too bad. The guy who did it on the tour wasn't nearly as creepy/good)
By the way, I absolutely love the !Hero: The Rock Opera cast recording.
It seemed like there was a point in time in the late 1990's when all of the best Christian rock bands were splitting. The reason? There was a rash of marriages, generally among the lead guitarists or bass players. For some reason, having a wife makes you want to be a grown-up and not just drive around playing rock and roll shows all the time. I guess I can see how that would happen. Kory and John Cooper of Skillet just load their two kids in the tour bus and home-school them. Er, bus-school them. I seem to remember Kory played on tour well into her third trimester with their second child. Think these children have any choice but to be rocker kids? Yeah, doubt it.
#4: Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
"Mr. Blue, you did it right, but soon comes Mr. Night,
Creeping over, now his hand is on your shoulder.
Never mind, I'll remember you this, I'll remember you this way."
YEAH!!!
Not going to lie, this is one of my three favorite "Get up in the morning" songs. (It's sometimes hard for me to believe exactly how melancholy I used to be. Also, the other two are "The Sun Also Rises" by Brave Saint Saturn and "Brand New Day" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog) Seriously, it doesn't get much happier than this song. You almost can't play it without bobbing your head from side to side. It's a song that's literally all about the sun coming out and everybody being happy! I mean how much does that rock??
If I ever get my little garage rock band together, we're totally covering this song. No arguments. I will fight anybody who wants to dissent.
Incidentally, I have to make sure my little garage rock band consists entirely of people I can beat in a fight.
Other songs I want to cover: something Steve Taylor (a bit updated, of course; I've got an awesome hard-rock rendition of Bouquet in my head), Handbook for the Sellout, Don't Take the Girl (I have an awesome ska-core rendition of this one and I think it'd make people smile), Livin' on a Prayer (come on, EVERYBODY covers Livin' On a Prayer!), That Thing You Do! (best concert-opener ever), and It's The End of the World As We Know It.
My band is going to be awesome.
#5:On Distant Shores by Five Iron Frenzy
"On my knees I cried to you, bleeding myself dry,
But the price of life was more than I could ever buy.
If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor,
Dear Father, I will see You there on distant shores..."
If you've never heard this song, I can't really explain to you how beautiful it is.
I got this CD my third week at The Huron Playhouse in 2003. It was the farthest I'd been from home, the first summer Kim and I spent apart (since we'd been dating for more than a month, anyway), and while I was having a good time, it was really tough. I wasn't fitting in, I wasn't making friends, and I was, on the whole, pretty lonely. Then came this, the last FIF CD (not counting the live-recorded final show in Denver). The timing was perfect.
When I got it, I just had time to digest the whole thing between lunch and company meeting. This is an emotional enough track that it can catch me from time to time seven years later. At that time, at that point in my summer, with everything I was dealing with at the time, by the point in the CD where the last track bursts into an echo of Every New Day (the song that FIF played last at every show from 1997 on), I was pretty close to bawling. It was so cathartic. And I managed to get it all out of my system without anybody noticing, so I lost no face. ;-)
I'll say I felt a lot better after that day. The CD proved a needed link to my home, my past, and my friends. My myriad of quirks started to make sense to those around me, and a few of them decided that I was funny and a good person to have around. Everything got so much easier after that.
Another testament to God's impeccable timing, I suppose.
Here's my heart, let it be forever Yours,
Only You can make every new day seem so new.
#6: Hero by Daily Planet
"I guess I played the game,
I guess that I'm the one to blame.
I put my faith in man, tho he'll turn to dust.
I'll put my faith and all my trust in the One who made me..."
You know how most of the good bands seem to disappear after one album? Yeah. Daily Planet was one of those. They had a fairly distinct sound. I loved the way they put together guitars with strings and a bit of a gruffer style of vocal. They were catchy and upbeat without being pop. Lyrically, they were a bit rough, but who isn't on their first album? I don't really know what happened to these guys, but they disappeared after their debut album, Hero.
Incidentally, this song became one of my unofficial theme songs for The Hero Squad vs. The Princess Snatchers. Just seemed to fit perfectly.
I'm trying to wrack my brain to think of I can find an example of this sort of idol-worship-gone-wrong in my own childhood. Hm...nothing is coming to mind. I will let you know if I think of anything in the next week or so. I am reminded of an episode of Growing Pains where Ben gets to meet his favorite rapper and the guy is a jerk to him, so he comes home and tears down all his posters until Renown Hockey Fan Alan Thicke tells him that it's okay to still like the guy's music.
Another life lesson learned. Thanks yet again, Growing Pains.
Hello, Diet Dr. P.
I feel kinda like Bastien using his second-to-last-wish to bring Atreyu back to life. I know it's not a great idea, but I really don't know that I had any other options.
Anyway, while I'm up, I might as well give you people what you want.
#1: Personal Judgment Day by Big Tent Revival
"Don't have to listen to a word I say,
Don't have to bow your head and pray,
But you're only one step away
From your personal Judgment Day..."
For some reason, "Judgment Day" still makes me think Terminator 2. Which is remarkable given that I've never seen any of the Terminator movies.
I know, I know. People are generally aghast when I say that. And then they say something like, "We are TOTALLY going to watch those together!" This has been going on for the last six years, and I'm pretty sure it's not accurate.
By the way, I highly recommend HowItShouldHaveEnded.com's latest Terminator video. "You mean, not only do I invent time travel, but in the future machines are going to use my technology to go back in history and kill just one man???"
This was a short song.
#2: Town Meeting Song by Danny Elfman (from Nightmare Before Christmas)
"And the best, I must confess, I have saved for the last,
For the ruler of the Christmas Land
Is a fearsome king with a deep mighty voice,
Least, that's what I've come to understand..."
This song is kind of an eerie choice, given the line I wrote just before starting the shuffle.
I don't know if I've mentioned this on Shuffle before, but I wasn't really that big a fan of TNBC when it first came out. I thought it was weird. (It was. I apparently was not weird enough. Yet.) It wasn't until I played through Kingdom Hearts for the first time that I started to get into it. There's a Halloweentown world, for those who don't know, in the KH franchise, and the music in the background is the This is Halloween theme looping endlessly. It's pretty delightful, and I had Sherri lend me her copy of the soundtrack. The music is what got me hooked, and so I rented it and watched it with Kim. Basically, I've been at least a passing fan ever since.
You should look up "Haunted Mansion Nightmare Before Christmas" on Youtube sometime. I'd link to it, but I'm on a time limit here. They completely redo the inside of the Haunted Mansion ride every year from Halloween to Christmas. It's pretty rad.
#3: Worship Song by Pete Stewart
"You lift me up so high till my voice fills the sky,
High above the heavens.
You fill my soul with peace and deliver me,
And I will call upon your name."
I was really excited when Pete Stewart announced he was going to do some solo stuff after Grammatrain broke up. His solo album was pretty good, though not outstanding, and he didn't record again after that. He did play Police Chief Devlin on the !Hero: The Rock Opera cast recording, but he unfortunately didn't tour with the show. (Which was too bad. The guy who did it on the tour wasn't nearly as creepy/good)
By the way, I absolutely love the !Hero: The Rock Opera cast recording.
It seemed like there was a point in time in the late 1990's when all of the best Christian rock bands were splitting. The reason? There was a rash of marriages, generally among the lead guitarists or bass players. For some reason, having a wife makes you want to be a grown-up and not just drive around playing rock and roll shows all the time. I guess I can see how that would happen. Kory and John Cooper of Skillet just load their two kids in the tour bus and home-school them. Er, bus-school them. I seem to remember Kory played on tour well into her third trimester with their second child. Think these children have any choice but to be rocker kids? Yeah, doubt it.
#4: Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
"Mr. Blue, you did it right, but soon comes Mr. Night,
Creeping over, now his hand is on your shoulder.
Never mind, I'll remember you this, I'll remember you this way."
YEAH!!!
Not going to lie, this is one of my three favorite "Get up in the morning" songs. (It's sometimes hard for me to believe exactly how melancholy I used to be. Also, the other two are "The Sun Also Rises" by Brave Saint Saturn and "Brand New Day" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog) Seriously, it doesn't get much happier than this song. You almost can't play it without bobbing your head from side to side. It's a song that's literally all about the sun coming out and everybody being happy! I mean how much does that rock??
If I ever get my little garage rock band together, we're totally covering this song. No arguments. I will fight anybody who wants to dissent.
Incidentally, I have to make sure my little garage rock band consists entirely of people I can beat in a fight.
Other songs I want to cover: something Steve Taylor (a bit updated, of course; I've got an awesome hard-rock rendition of Bouquet in my head), Handbook for the Sellout, Don't Take the Girl (I have an awesome ska-core rendition of this one and I think it'd make people smile), Livin' on a Prayer (come on, EVERYBODY covers Livin' On a Prayer!), That Thing You Do! (best concert-opener ever), and It's The End of the World As We Know It.
My band is going to be awesome.
#5:On Distant Shores by Five Iron Frenzy
"On my knees I cried to you, bleeding myself dry,
But the price of life was more than I could ever buy.
If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor,
Dear Father, I will see You there on distant shores..."
If you've never heard this song, I can't really explain to you how beautiful it is.
I got this CD my third week at The Huron Playhouse in 2003. It was the farthest I'd been from home, the first summer Kim and I spent apart (since we'd been dating for more than a month, anyway), and while I was having a good time, it was really tough. I wasn't fitting in, I wasn't making friends, and I was, on the whole, pretty lonely. Then came this, the last FIF CD (not counting the live-recorded final show in Denver). The timing was perfect.
When I got it, I just had time to digest the whole thing between lunch and company meeting. This is an emotional enough track that it can catch me from time to time seven years later. At that time, at that point in my summer, with everything I was dealing with at the time, by the point in the CD where the last track bursts into an echo of Every New Day (the song that FIF played last at every show from 1997 on), I was pretty close to bawling. It was so cathartic. And I managed to get it all out of my system without anybody noticing, so I lost no face. ;-)
I'll say I felt a lot better after that day. The CD proved a needed link to my home, my past, and my friends. My myriad of quirks started to make sense to those around me, and a few of them decided that I was funny and a good person to have around. Everything got so much easier after that.
Another testament to God's impeccable timing, I suppose.
Here's my heart, let it be forever Yours,
Only You can make every new day seem so new.
#6: Hero by Daily Planet
"I guess I played the game,
I guess that I'm the one to blame.
I put my faith in man, tho he'll turn to dust.
I'll put my faith and all my trust in the One who made me..."
You know how most of the good bands seem to disappear after one album? Yeah. Daily Planet was one of those. They had a fairly distinct sound. I loved the way they put together guitars with strings and a bit of a gruffer style of vocal. They were catchy and upbeat without being pop. Lyrically, they were a bit rough, but who isn't on their first album? I don't really know what happened to these guys, but they disappeared after their debut album, Hero.
Incidentally, this song became one of my unofficial theme songs for The Hero Squad vs. The Princess Snatchers. Just seemed to fit perfectly.
I'm trying to wrack my brain to think of I can find an example of this sort of idol-worship-gone-wrong in my own childhood. Hm...nothing is coming to mind. I will let you know if I think of anything in the next week or so. I am reminded of an episode of Growing Pains where Ben gets to meet his favorite rapper and the guy is a jerk to him, so he comes home and tears down all his posters until Renown Hockey Fan Alan Thicke tells him that it's okay to still like the guy's music.
Another life lesson learned. Thanks yet again, Growing Pains.
Friday, August 6, 2010
v2, d137: WOF #7: Shuffleblog
And away we go.
#1: We'll Have Tomorrow from Little Shop of Horrors...sort of...
One of my favorite things about the newest Broadway cast recording of Little Shop (a show that's always going to have a special place in my heart and that I'd like to direct one day, though I'm afraid my version may end up being too dark, but that's for another day) is that it comes with demo recordings of songs that were ultimately axed before the show opened back in the 1980's and one that was written for the movie and was mercifully scrapped. This song, We'll Have Tomorrow, is actually pretty good. However (I recall from my days of researching the show when I was doing it in high school) Ashman and Menken decided that the second act was dragging just a bit, and throwing another ballad into the mix would lose the audience, so this one was cut. (It's odd listening to the demo, where the guy is singing both parts at the same time due to the miracle of...AUDIO CASSETTE RECORDING!) You really should try to track down some of these if you're a Little Shop fan: We'll Have Tomorrow, A Little Dental Music (a fantastic tune that, if I do direct the show, I might throw back in), I Found a Hobby (gross-out, so beware, but you'll catch a theme from it in Now, It's Just the Gas in the show itself), The Worse He Beats Me The More He Loves Me (cut because...well, yes. Good choice), and Bad (aptly named).
#2: Take Me To Your Leader by Newsboys
This song always takes me back to the old youth group days. It was kind of our unofficial theme song for awhile. This Newsboys album was one of the first that I ever learned every song to. (I think this was first, and All Star United's debut may have been second. Unless you count Carman, and I'm not sure we should) My youth group won a city-wide youth lip sync contest with our little rendition of this song. It was pretty much brilliant. I played Joshua, the ruthless judge in the second verse, and a Storm Trooper who brings in a cross and later boogies. We had a belly dancer, a cop, a fat kid, and a three-headed alien playing a giant guitar.
Incidentally, if anybody has or can get a hold of a copy of the Newsboys' movie (written and directed by Steve Taylor), that'd make an awesome Christmas gift. We only had one, and I think my sister has it. Quirky clean humor at its quirkiest and best.
#3: Track 06 from Say No, Max!
Sounds like kids playing in a park. I actually enjoyed doing this show. Even if it was one of the worst scripts I've ever been a part of. Even if Tiffany still, to this day, crumples into a little ball and rocks back and forth when you bring it up around her.
Not even exaggerating.
Short track.
#4: Murder in the Big House by Steve Taylor
Speaking of Steve...
Taylor is one of my all-time favorite songwriters. He cornered the market early on in Christian satire, and while even I think he may have taken it too far a time or two, he definitely didn't pull punches in an industry--okay, in a faith--that often finds itself guilty of going too soft on the things it should be coming down hard on. Unfortunately, his solo career pretty much wrapped up before I started getting into music. This is unfortunate for two reasons: First, I didn't get to appreciate his genius while he was in his prime, and second, it's all very 1980's/early '90s sounding. That said, I still dig it. And we still have novelty songs like Cash Cow: A Rock Opera in Three Short Acts and Lifeboat. As a producer, Taylor gave us the aforementioned Newboys song (and wrote most of the lyrics on that album and the one before it, including a song called Shine that I still hear on the radio eighteen years later), brought Sixpence None the Richer back from the dead, gave the Insyderz a place to play their Skallelulia album, and discovered the band Chevelle. Then he got screwed over and lost his record deal, so he made a movie. It's called The Second Chance, and despite the fact that Michael W. Smith stars, it's definitely worth a rental. Currently working on a film adaptation of Blue Like Jazz. Basically, anything the guy touches is (at the least) interesting and (quite often) underrated and fantastic.
This has been your Steve Taylor endorsement for the day.
#5: Warp-Factor Five by Bleach
This song doesn't really evoke any strong reaction or emotion from me. Bleach was a good band, and theoretically they're getting back together? I don't know. I think it'd be hard to get the band back together after six or seven years apart. The majority of the fans will probably have moved on. Your die-hards will always be there (I'd be in line for a Five Iron reunion tour, for example. Though that may be a bad example, because I'd also be kind of sad for a Five Iron reunion because I know how happy several of those band members are that Five Iron is over)
Still, I've thought recently what fun it would be to get together the cast from, say, my old college production of Much Ado About Nothing and have another go at it with everything we've learned since then. A lot of us would even be age appropriate for the characters we're playing! Or like, with the high number of people leaving my workplace now, I could foresee trying to round up as much of this "old guard" in five years or so to do a show. That seems like it would be awesome. Maybe it isn't. Maybe it's always just trying to recapture something that's gone and it always leaves you disappointed. I don't think that would be the case, at least not with theater. Maybe it's different with music, because everybody wants you to be who you were when you broke up, but you're different people and different artists, so you want to do something new.
See, that's what's great about theater. Nobody really cares who "you" were in the first place, so any time you get the band back together, you can do whatever the heck you want and they'll still love you for it.
#6: Stuntman by Guerilla Rodeo
Word association: "Guerilla" sounds like "gorilla". Robbie's latest thing is to watch youtube videos from the Houston Zoo. His favorites are the meercats with the box of popcorn, the baby elephant playing in the pool, the kookaburra "laughing," and the video simply called "pumpkin smash." Robbie has decided he might want to be a zookeeper when he gets older. Today, though, he told me he wants to work in a theater like Daddy after I commented how good a job he did helping Mr. Craig vacuum the floor when he and Kim stopped by to pick me up last night. So maybe between those two passions, he'll earn a decent living.
#7 (one more, since Track 06 was kinda a short one): Decisive Battle by Powerglove
I used my home computer for this shuffle because it has far more songs than my iPod, thus granting the better chance for some variety in music. Nevertheless, apparently you can't have a Shuffleblog without Powerglove.
And I'm okay with that.
I love this game. Final Fantasy VI is probably one of my top 5 games of all time. (Or Top 7...hm...) This was the game that maxed out the Super Nintendo's capabilities. The music is fantastic, especially given the system's limitations. I used to play this game at my friend Chip's house when I was in sixth grade. I'd play something like once a week and I'd have this riff stuck in my head for the entire next week. I used to have creative ideas (kind of like I do sometimes now) but they'd all work their way into a 16-bit rendering so they could be used for a future Final Fantasy game. (Because naturally, all FF games would forever be on the immortal Super Nintendo)
Which reminds me: Travis and I are thinking about creating a flash RPG based loosely on the gameplay from FFVI and the stories from the Hero Squad universe. This may take more time than either of us actually wants to devote to it. But that's okay. We'll discover that as we go along. When it's done, I'm sure you here at FOMW will be the first to know.
#1: We'll Have Tomorrow from Little Shop of Horrors...sort of...
One of my favorite things about the newest Broadway cast recording of Little Shop (a show that's always going to have a special place in my heart and that I'd like to direct one day, though I'm afraid my version may end up being too dark, but that's for another day) is that it comes with demo recordings of songs that were ultimately axed before the show opened back in the 1980's and one that was written for the movie and was mercifully scrapped. This song, We'll Have Tomorrow, is actually pretty good. However (I recall from my days of researching the show when I was doing it in high school) Ashman and Menken decided that the second act was dragging just a bit, and throwing another ballad into the mix would lose the audience, so this one was cut. (It's odd listening to the demo, where the guy is singing both parts at the same time due to the miracle of...AUDIO CASSETTE RECORDING!) You really should try to track down some of these if you're a Little Shop fan: We'll Have Tomorrow, A Little Dental Music (a fantastic tune that, if I do direct the show, I might throw back in), I Found a Hobby (gross-out, so beware, but you'll catch a theme from it in Now, It's Just the Gas in the show itself), The Worse He Beats Me The More He Loves Me (cut because...well, yes. Good choice), and Bad (aptly named).
#2: Take Me To Your Leader by Newsboys
This song always takes me back to the old youth group days. It was kind of our unofficial theme song for awhile. This Newsboys album was one of the first that I ever learned every song to. (I think this was first, and All Star United's debut may have been second. Unless you count Carman, and I'm not sure we should) My youth group won a city-wide youth lip sync contest with our little rendition of this song. It was pretty much brilliant. I played Joshua, the ruthless judge in the second verse, and a Storm Trooper who brings in a cross and later boogies. We had a belly dancer, a cop, a fat kid, and a three-headed alien playing a giant guitar.
Incidentally, if anybody has or can get a hold of a copy of the Newsboys' movie (written and directed by Steve Taylor), that'd make an awesome Christmas gift. We only had one, and I think my sister has it. Quirky clean humor at its quirkiest and best.
#3: Track 06 from Say No, Max!
Sounds like kids playing in a park. I actually enjoyed doing this show. Even if it was one of the worst scripts I've ever been a part of. Even if Tiffany still, to this day, crumples into a little ball and rocks back and forth when you bring it up around her.
Not even exaggerating.
Short track.
#4: Murder in the Big House by Steve Taylor
Speaking of Steve...
Taylor is one of my all-time favorite songwriters. He cornered the market early on in Christian satire, and while even I think he may have taken it too far a time or two, he definitely didn't pull punches in an industry--okay, in a faith--that often finds itself guilty of going too soft on the things it should be coming down hard on. Unfortunately, his solo career pretty much wrapped up before I started getting into music. This is unfortunate for two reasons: First, I didn't get to appreciate his genius while he was in his prime, and second, it's all very 1980's/early '90s sounding. That said, I still dig it. And we still have novelty songs like Cash Cow: A Rock Opera in Three Short Acts and Lifeboat. As a producer, Taylor gave us the aforementioned Newboys song (and wrote most of the lyrics on that album and the one before it, including a song called Shine that I still hear on the radio eighteen years later), brought Sixpence None the Richer back from the dead, gave the Insyderz a place to play their Skallelulia album, and discovered the band Chevelle. Then he got screwed over and lost his record deal, so he made a movie. It's called The Second Chance, and despite the fact that Michael W. Smith stars, it's definitely worth a rental. Currently working on a film adaptation of Blue Like Jazz. Basically, anything the guy touches is (at the least) interesting and (quite often) underrated and fantastic.
This has been your Steve Taylor endorsement for the day.
#5: Warp-Factor Five by Bleach
This song doesn't really evoke any strong reaction or emotion from me. Bleach was a good band, and theoretically they're getting back together? I don't know. I think it'd be hard to get the band back together after six or seven years apart. The majority of the fans will probably have moved on. Your die-hards will always be there (I'd be in line for a Five Iron reunion tour, for example. Though that may be a bad example, because I'd also be kind of sad for a Five Iron reunion because I know how happy several of those band members are that Five Iron is over)
Still, I've thought recently what fun it would be to get together the cast from, say, my old college production of Much Ado About Nothing and have another go at it with everything we've learned since then. A lot of us would even be age appropriate for the characters we're playing! Or like, with the high number of people leaving my workplace now, I could foresee trying to round up as much of this "old guard" in five years or so to do a show. That seems like it would be awesome. Maybe it isn't. Maybe it's always just trying to recapture something that's gone and it always leaves you disappointed. I don't think that would be the case, at least not with theater. Maybe it's different with music, because everybody wants you to be who you were when you broke up, but you're different people and different artists, so you want to do something new.
See, that's what's great about theater. Nobody really cares who "you" were in the first place, so any time you get the band back together, you can do whatever the heck you want and they'll still love you for it.
#6: Stuntman by Guerilla Rodeo
Word association: "Guerilla" sounds like "gorilla". Robbie's latest thing is to watch youtube videos from the Houston Zoo. His favorites are the meercats with the box of popcorn, the baby elephant playing in the pool, the kookaburra "laughing," and the video simply called "pumpkin smash." Robbie has decided he might want to be a zookeeper when he gets older. Today, though, he told me he wants to work in a theater like Daddy after I commented how good a job he did helping Mr. Craig vacuum the floor when he and Kim stopped by to pick me up last night. So maybe between those two passions, he'll earn a decent living.
#7 (one more, since Track 06 was kinda a short one): Decisive Battle by Powerglove
I used my home computer for this shuffle because it has far more songs than my iPod, thus granting the better chance for some variety in music. Nevertheless, apparently you can't have a Shuffleblog without Powerglove.
And I'm okay with that.
I love this game. Final Fantasy VI is probably one of my top 5 games of all time. (Or Top 7...hm...) This was the game that maxed out the Super Nintendo's capabilities. The music is fantastic, especially given the system's limitations. I used to play this game at my friend Chip's house when I was in sixth grade. I'd play something like once a week and I'd have this riff stuck in my head for the entire next week. I used to have creative ideas (kind of like I do sometimes now) but they'd all work their way into a 16-bit rendering so they could be used for a future Final Fantasy game. (Because naturally, all FF games would forever be on the immortal Super Nintendo)
Which reminds me: Travis and I are thinking about creating a flash RPG based loosely on the gameplay from FFVI and the stories from the Hero Squad universe. This may take more time than either of us actually wants to devote to it. But that's okay. We'll discover that as we go along. When it's done, I'm sure you here at FOMW will be the first to know.
Monday, June 14, 2010
v2, d95: Flag Day Shuffle
Today's title sounds like an awesome new dance. But it's not. It's a new shuffleblog. If you don't know the rules, you haven't been paying attention for very long. Away we go!
#1: Ready for the Storm by Rich Mullins
Hurricane season is upon us! That means it's time to stock up on canned goods and bottled water in case we end up holed up in our home with no power for up to two weeks. Well folks, if that does happen, there's a good chance we'll pack up the toddler and get him further north, like we did last time. Experts are predicting one of the worst hurricane seasons in recorded history this year. Of course, they predicted an even worse one last year, and instead only one hurricane made landfall in North America (and that was a "minor" hurricane that hit the tip of Canada, of all places). Even Cuba was spared last summer, which was nice because I think every single storm that went through the Caribbean hit them fairly solidly the year before.
Dang, hard to believe Hurricane Ike was less than two years ago. We've only had one major storm since I've been here, and only two in the last 12 or so years, but it's hard to bank on that, as much as I love averages and statistics, isn't it?
#2: Got to Get You Into My Life by the Beatles (covered by BUCK Enterprises)
Ah, BUCK, another of the minor Christian ska bands that wasn't really that great. Among that tier, however, they were one of the better ones.
This is a really good cover, and the only one I'm aware of BUCK ever having done. It amazes me how many groups there are out there who are only Beatles cover bands. The groups I saw back at Miller a few months ago mentioned they were playing some big event in September with "a bunch of other Beatles cover bands." How many cover bands does one artist need within one metropolis, I wonder? I've got nothing against cover bands, and I think it's probably be really fun to play in one, but it seems as if they could collaborate a bit better, aye? "Okay, this year, you can be Beatles, you be Stones, you be Guns N Roses, you be Monkees, you cover classic theme songs from the 1990's..." et cetera.
Are Guns 'N Roses still around? Were they actually popular, or did I just pull that reference out of an episode of Full House at some point?
#3: Birth of a God by Powerglove
Love me some Powerglove. They have a new album out "soon" according to their myspace. (Remember myspace? Some people still use it!)
I read an interview recently with a member of Powerglove where the magazine asked why the band did exclusively old-school video game music (as opposed to newer, Next-Gen games, etc). He said that composers for video games back in the 8 and 16 bit era were so limited with what they could do instrumentally speaking that they really had to concentrate on making memorable songs using pretty much just a melody and one harmony line. As I thought on this, I realized how great of musicians some of the men and women who worked on NES, SNES, and Genesis games really were.
"Write a song that's catchy and captures the essence of this storyline."
"Got it."
"You'll be severely limited in terms of what you can do for sounds and instruments."
"Should be a challenge."
"It has to be no longer than two minutes."
"Okay."
"And people have to be willing to listen to it for three hours at a time."
"Wait, what?"
"And we want them to do this at least once a day for at least six days a week so they'll be willing to pay $40 per cartridge."
Quite the challenge. And yet, the old themes from Mario, Zelda, Megaman, etc, have stuck with a generation of us.
#4: Give 'em Hell by Hearts of Palm
I don't know that Hearts of Palm is still around. They were pretty cool, though. I originally heard of them because they featured Five Iron's former sax player and Roper's former guitar player (those two people are married to each other). It's a band of nine people that play music that's kind folksy but not really, kinda acoustic rock but not really, and kinda weird but not really. Is that an awesome description or what? They're very creative and catchy, and I wouldn't bother trying to pin it down past that.
Anyway, I remember when the band (formerly known as Nathan & Stephen) released an ep, they decided to offer the whole thing on their web site for free. They often didn't charge for shows. They become somewhat of an underground sensation in the Denver area and seemed to live by a philosophy that anybody who wanted to enjoy their music should be able to. In an age where there are CD's you're not even allowed to re-burn to CD after you've ripped them to you compy, it was a nice, fresh approach to art and accessibility.
Of course, if they're not still a band, that's probably a pretty huge factor in that, too.
#5: Two Sets of Jones' by Big Tent Revival
Oh man, I loved this song when I was in middle school/high school. Today, I still like it, but I think I enjoy the video more than the song itself.
I've never heard of a man named Roth-Child. I always thought that was a strange name. I have not changed my opinion.
Also, I don't think this discussion is through random selection at all. It seems to me these two sets of Jones' were very specifically chosen to make a clear point, BTR.
I always wondered why it was significant that Reuben was holding a Gideon's Bible when he told his coworkers that his son had been born. Are Reuben and Sue so poor they couldn't afford their own Bibles? Does Reuben hand out Gideon's Bible as a side endeavor? Is the point just that Reuben always carried around a Bible, and the song just needed another three syllables to make the lyric fit?
Questions abound. Good song, though. A great sing-along song, and a high point in Big Tent Revival's career (which actually went on a long longer than I generally think it did). Li dee di di di di...
#6: Fall Forever by Skypark
You probably don't know this song. It may have been Skypark's best, but I never heard it on the radio. (You probably don't know who Skypark was, either) This is one of those songs that is so perfectly speak-for-itself, I'm kind of at a loss at how to expand upon it. "I see Your arms stretched wide, I think I'll lay my burdens here. I could just fall forever, I could just fall forever here. I see Your arms stretched wide, longing to hold this broken child, I could just fall forever, I could just fall forever here..." Really pretty stuff, too. String interlude, I love me some strings.
Anyway, I'm definitely in a "fall forever" place right now.
#7: Hello Lamewads by Roper
An excellent anthem to go out on. This was a song Robbie really loved when he was an infant. It was one of his night-night songs. Once he got old enough to start picking out words in songs, though, we decided to keep a lot of Reese Rooper stuff from him. He is always singing these days; I don't know that a two-year-old running down the halls at church belting out "HELLO LAMEWADS I'M WITH YOU, RAISE YOUR FIST IF THIS RINGS TRUE" would be nearly as adorable as "GOD IS BIGGER THAN THE COOKIE MAN!"
He also rarely sings quietly. The kid has f, ff, and fff, and he rarely goes down to f.
Man, if this band did one thing well, it's punk rock synthesizer. Amazing. You are missed, Roper.
#1: Ready for the Storm by Rich Mullins
Hurricane season is upon us! That means it's time to stock up on canned goods and bottled water in case we end up holed up in our home with no power for up to two weeks. Well folks, if that does happen, there's a good chance we'll pack up the toddler and get him further north, like we did last time. Experts are predicting one of the worst hurricane seasons in recorded history this year. Of course, they predicted an even worse one last year, and instead only one hurricane made landfall in North America (and that was a "minor" hurricane that hit the tip of Canada, of all places). Even Cuba was spared last summer, which was nice because I think every single storm that went through the Caribbean hit them fairly solidly the year before.
Dang, hard to believe Hurricane Ike was less than two years ago. We've only had one major storm since I've been here, and only two in the last 12 or so years, but it's hard to bank on that, as much as I love averages and statistics, isn't it?
#2: Got to Get You Into My Life by the Beatles (covered by BUCK Enterprises)
Ah, BUCK, another of the minor Christian ska bands that wasn't really that great. Among that tier, however, they were one of the better ones.
This is a really good cover, and the only one I'm aware of BUCK ever having done. It amazes me how many groups there are out there who are only Beatles cover bands. The groups I saw back at Miller a few months ago mentioned they were playing some big event in September with "a bunch of other Beatles cover bands." How many cover bands does one artist need within one metropolis, I wonder? I've got nothing against cover bands, and I think it's probably be really fun to play in one, but it seems as if they could collaborate a bit better, aye? "Okay, this year, you can be Beatles, you be Stones, you be Guns N Roses, you be Monkees, you cover classic theme songs from the 1990's..." et cetera.
Are Guns 'N Roses still around? Were they actually popular, or did I just pull that reference out of an episode of Full House at some point?
#3: Birth of a God by Powerglove
Love me some Powerglove. They have a new album out "soon" according to their myspace. (Remember myspace? Some people still use it!)
I read an interview recently with a member of Powerglove where the magazine asked why the band did exclusively old-school video game music (as opposed to newer, Next-Gen games, etc). He said that composers for video games back in the 8 and 16 bit era were so limited with what they could do instrumentally speaking that they really had to concentrate on making memorable songs using pretty much just a melody and one harmony line. As I thought on this, I realized how great of musicians some of the men and women who worked on NES, SNES, and Genesis games really were.
"Write a song that's catchy and captures the essence of this storyline."
"Got it."
"You'll be severely limited in terms of what you can do for sounds and instruments."
"Should be a challenge."
"It has to be no longer than two minutes."
"Okay."
"And people have to be willing to listen to it for three hours at a time."
"Wait, what?"
"And we want them to do this at least once a day for at least six days a week so they'll be willing to pay $40 per cartridge."
Quite the challenge. And yet, the old themes from Mario, Zelda, Megaman, etc, have stuck with a generation of us.
#4: Give 'em Hell by Hearts of Palm
I don't know that Hearts of Palm is still around. They were pretty cool, though. I originally heard of them because they featured Five Iron's former sax player and Roper's former guitar player (those two people are married to each other). It's a band of nine people that play music that's kind folksy but not really, kinda acoustic rock but not really, and kinda weird but not really. Is that an awesome description or what? They're very creative and catchy, and I wouldn't bother trying to pin it down past that.
Anyway, I remember when the band (formerly known as Nathan & Stephen) released an ep, they decided to offer the whole thing on their web site for free. They often didn't charge for shows. They become somewhat of an underground sensation in the Denver area and seemed to live by a philosophy that anybody who wanted to enjoy their music should be able to. In an age where there are CD's you're not even allowed to re-burn to CD after you've ripped them to you compy, it was a nice, fresh approach to art and accessibility.
Of course, if they're not still a band, that's probably a pretty huge factor in that, too.
#5: Two Sets of Jones' by Big Tent Revival
Oh man, I loved this song when I was in middle school/high school. Today, I still like it, but I think I enjoy the video more than the song itself.
I've never heard of a man named Roth-Child. I always thought that was a strange name. I have not changed my opinion.
Also, I don't think this discussion is through random selection at all. It seems to me these two sets of Jones' were very specifically chosen to make a clear point, BTR.
I always wondered why it was significant that Reuben was holding a Gideon's Bible when he told his coworkers that his son had been born. Are Reuben and Sue so poor they couldn't afford their own Bibles? Does Reuben hand out Gideon's Bible as a side endeavor? Is the point just that Reuben always carried around a Bible, and the song just needed another three syllables to make the lyric fit?
Questions abound. Good song, though. A great sing-along song, and a high point in Big Tent Revival's career (which actually went on a long longer than I generally think it did). Li dee di di di di...
#6: Fall Forever by Skypark
You probably don't know this song. It may have been Skypark's best, but I never heard it on the radio. (You probably don't know who Skypark was, either) This is one of those songs that is so perfectly speak-for-itself, I'm kind of at a loss at how to expand upon it. "I see Your arms stretched wide, I think I'll lay my burdens here. I could just fall forever, I could just fall forever here. I see Your arms stretched wide, longing to hold this broken child, I could just fall forever, I could just fall forever here..." Really pretty stuff, too. String interlude, I love me some strings.
Anyway, I'm definitely in a "fall forever" place right now.
#7: Hello Lamewads by Roper
An excellent anthem to go out on. This was a song Robbie really loved when he was an infant. It was one of his night-night songs. Once he got old enough to start picking out words in songs, though, we decided to keep a lot of Reese Rooper stuff from him. He is always singing these days; I don't know that a two-year-old running down the halls at church belting out "HELLO LAMEWADS I'M WITH YOU, RAISE YOUR FIST IF THIS RINGS TRUE" would be nearly as adorable as "GOD IS BIGGER THAN THE COOKIE MAN!"
He also rarely sings quietly. The kid has f, ff, and fff, and he rarely goes down to f.
Man, if this band did one thing well, it's punk rock synthesizer. Amazing. You are missed, Roper.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
v2, d64: Lunchbreak Shuffleblog
By request.
#1: The Dream from Floyd Collins by Adam Guettal
I love Floyd Collins. And the dream sequence is probably my favorite part of the show. In fact, if we had some more thin top-notch male singers, I'd want us to do it here. The story's a little dull, but the music is beautiful. I saw it staged at Playhouse in the Square (or something like that) in Memphis in February of 2005. (Wow, that's like a lifetime ago!) I had some friends working there, and I was in town for the disastrous UPTA cattle call audition. I've wanted to go back the past several years if for no other reason than to try to redeem myself for my horrible returns from that experience. I'm pretty sure that all of the friends I went with got jobs from the event. They got at least seven or eight callbacks. I pretty much got one. Would have been an awesome job, too. It was really scary to be three-quarters of the way through my senior year, knowing I was going to be getting married in August, and still having no idea what I was going to be doing, work-wise, or where I was going to be living. That became a really trying time for my faith. I had to learn patience through frustration and, eventually, to come to peace with God's provision, even when I didn't see it manifesting in any tangible way.
Truth is, I didn't know what I was going to do until the day before graduation. That was cutting it a bit closer than I'd have liked, but it was really awesome that I got to tell my theatre profs I'd gotten the job here as I walked by them in the line headed to the chapel on the way to graduation. It was like something from a movie: "Whooo! Congratulations!" Hugs. "Yay, Will!" "Hey, I got the job!" "You got it?" Enthusiastic hugs again, then ushered along with the rest of the graduates to the awkward baseball-themed graduation ceremony.
That was a good day.
And, that's a good reminder. Well played, iPod.
Incidentally, this song has a heartbreaking ending. Which takes us to...
#2: 4:12 by Switchfoot
Okay, seriously. What's going on? "I'm so sorry I've been so down and I started doubtin' things would ever come around, but I still can't believe that all we are and that all of our dreams are nothing more than material. Souls aren't built of stone, sticks and bones."
I love this song, by the way. I love pretty much everything Switchfoot's done in the last five years. They make for an interesting trilogy, Nothing is Sound to Oh, Gravity! to Hello Hurricane. Have I blogged on my thoughts on this trifecta of awesome before? Meh, most of you probably wouldn't care anyway, but I find it an interesting examination of themes, both musically and lyrically.
Anyway, this is a great song. I love what it does musically. It's really quirky and bouncy and fun, but not in a cotton candy sort of way. The bass part is particularly catchy, and it makes me want to learn to play bass.
Well, I've still got a good mid-life crisis coming to me at some point. Maybe I'll make that my bass-learning phase. Then I'll be that guy in his 40's who can sort of play bass in cover bands that play songs that nobody really listens to anymore at low-paying gigs.
You know what? That sounds kind of awesome. Maybe because I'm reading "Love is a Mix Tape" right now. But really, I suspect, more because it just sounds awesome.
#3: The Blues by Switchfoot
This playlist is evoking thoughts that are almost painfully applicable to someone in my current state of mind and of affairs. Also, unusual to get two songs by the same artist back-to-back, and yet the second time it's happened in the last half hour. Just before I started shuffling, I got two Pirates of Penzance songs in a row. (Yeah, speaking of happy memories from college theatre!)
This recording of the song is not actually the one from the album. I never managed to get it to let me burn those songs to my iPod. Sony did this weird thing with Nothing is Sound where you couldn't burn songs from the CD without obtaining permission every time, and you only had 3 permissions per song, and ripping them to you computer took up one. And then when I tried to burn it from the compy, it said I needed to insert the CD to gain permission, and then it just ripped it to the computer again and took another permission. One more try, and then I was just out of luck. Boo.
However, Switchfoot recorded all of their concerts during the Oh, Gravity! tour (or "Gravity, eh?" in Canada) and sold the copies immediately following the shows. People set up a web site called Switchfoot bootlegs for people to share the tracks from these limited-edition bootlegged recordings, so any Nothing is Sound tracks I have on my iPod are from this collection.
For their part, Switchfoot knew about the bootleg site, and they loved it. They seem to be guys I'd get along with if I ever actually met them.
"Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose? Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues? And nothing is okay until the sky falls down, and the hungry and poor and deserted are found..."
#4: Someday, by The Afters
Have I mentioned how much I love The Afters? They're one of two or three bands I discovered AFTER I started college that I still follow. Their last album, "Never Going Back to OK," is one of my favorites. It's actually the first CD that's ever inspired me to write a particular story. I had in mind a vague sketch of a sequel I wanted to write for the novel I finished for NaNoWriMo back in 2008, but the details of it really didn't flesh out until I got hooked on "Never Going Back to OK." Every song became a character or a plot device. It was so weird/new/awesome. Now, I still haven't written that book, because I need to re-write the first. But I don't have any show responsibilities this summer, and I'm really itching to write about three different stories, so maybe something'll get done in the blistering heat of June, July, and August.
"Someday, someday, your time will come..."
#5: Procrastinating, by Stellar Kart
I'm not really a huge SK fan, but Robbie absolutely loves this song. It's not bad pop-punk, but it is decidedly pop-punk, and that's just not something I'm into as much anymore. This used to be one of the pieces he'd given the distinct privilege of being recognized as a "Robbie song." We'd play this CD on the way to church, and if he didn't care for the song that was playing he'd ask for the Robbie song, and we knew he meant this one. He did that with most CDs for awhile, but now he's started learning that songs have names, and while he doesn't always get the correct name for the song, he definitely has a name for it.
Current favorites: "When We All Get to Heaven," "Dance of the Cucumber" ("peeeeeas!"), and, oddly enough, "Oh, Gravity!"
Short song. Last one:
#6: Surfer's Anthem by Evan Foster
Ha! You know what this is? This is the music we used for the Bottlenose Boys battle scene in Hero Squad last spring. That's funny, because we had an issue today at Alice where it appeared the Cheshire Cat's costume might not actually make it to the theater (from the dry cleaner's) in time for the show, so I was in the costume shop with one of our lovely and talented costume ladies trying to find anything that might work in a pinch. Digging through our rich costume heritage, I came across some of the Hero Squad stuff and jokingly suggested we could have a Cheshire Dolphin for today's show only.
The cat arrived ten minutes before showtime, so there was no Cheshire Dolphin. (Admittedly, we weren't actually going to go with that idea anyway, but with enough Tender Love and Care, I think we could create an Internet meme with that idea!)
Speaking of Internet memes, I'm still kind of sad that our plan of "Our Town with Sock Puppets" never happened. Dave? Hannah? What happened there?
And, true to surf anthem form, a prolonged drum roll will take us out.
Thank you, goodnight.
#1: The Dream from Floyd Collins by Adam Guettal
I love Floyd Collins. And the dream sequence is probably my favorite part of the show. In fact, if we had some more thin top-notch male singers, I'd want us to do it here. The story's a little dull, but the music is beautiful. I saw it staged at Playhouse in the Square (or something like that) in Memphis in February of 2005. (Wow, that's like a lifetime ago!) I had some friends working there, and I was in town for the disastrous UPTA cattle call audition. I've wanted to go back the past several years if for no other reason than to try to redeem myself for my horrible returns from that experience. I'm pretty sure that all of the friends I went with got jobs from the event. They got at least seven or eight callbacks. I pretty much got one. Would have been an awesome job, too. It was really scary to be three-quarters of the way through my senior year, knowing I was going to be getting married in August, and still having no idea what I was going to be doing, work-wise, or where I was going to be living. That became a really trying time for my faith. I had to learn patience through frustration and, eventually, to come to peace with God's provision, even when I didn't see it manifesting in any tangible way.
Truth is, I didn't know what I was going to do until the day before graduation. That was cutting it a bit closer than I'd have liked, but it was really awesome that I got to tell my theatre profs I'd gotten the job here as I walked by them in the line headed to the chapel on the way to graduation. It was like something from a movie: "Whooo! Congratulations!" Hugs. "Yay, Will!" "Hey, I got the job!" "You got it?" Enthusiastic hugs again, then ushered along with the rest of the graduates to the awkward baseball-themed graduation ceremony.
That was a good day.
And, that's a good reminder. Well played, iPod.
Incidentally, this song has a heartbreaking ending. Which takes us to...
#2: 4:12 by Switchfoot
Okay, seriously. What's going on? "I'm so sorry I've been so down and I started doubtin' things would ever come around, but I still can't believe that all we are and that all of our dreams are nothing more than material. Souls aren't built of stone, sticks and bones."
I love this song, by the way. I love pretty much everything Switchfoot's done in the last five years. They make for an interesting trilogy, Nothing is Sound to Oh, Gravity! to Hello Hurricane. Have I blogged on my thoughts on this trifecta of awesome before? Meh, most of you probably wouldn't care anyway, but I find it an interesting examination of themes, both musically and lyrically.
Anyway, this is a great song. I love what it does musically. It's really quirky and bouncy and fun, but not in a cotton candy sort of way. The bass part is particularly catchy, and it makes me want to learn to play bass.
Well, I've still got a good mid-life crisis coming to me at some point. Maybe I'll make that my bass-learning phase. Then I'll be that guy in his 40's who can sort of play bass in cover bands that play songs that nobody really listens to anymore at low-paying gigs.
You know what? That sounds kind of awesome. Maybe because I'm reading "Love is a Mix Tape" right now. But really, I suspect, more because it just sounds awesome.
#3: The Blues by Switchfoot
This playlist is evoking thoughts that are almost painfully applicable to someone in my current state of mind and of affairs. Also, unusual to get two songs by the same artist back-to-back, and yet the second time it's happened in the last half hour. Just before I started shuffling, I got two Pirates of Penzance songs in a row. (Yeah, speaking of happy memories from college theatre!)
This recording of the song is not actually the one from the album. I never managed to get it to let me burn those songs to my iPod. Sony did this weird thing with Nothing is Sound where you couldn't burn songs from the CD without obtaining permission every time, and you only had 3 permissions per song, and ripping them to you computer took up one. And then when I tried to burn it from the compy, it said I needed to insert the CD to gain permission, and then it just ripped it to the computer again and took another permission. One more try, and then I was just out of luck. Boo.
However, Switchfoot recorded all of their concerts during the Oh, Gravity! tour (or "Gravity, eh?" in Canada) and sold the copies immediately following the shows. People set up a web site called Switchfoot bootlegs for people to share the tracks from these limited-edition bootlegged recordings, so any Nothing is Sound tracks I have on my iPod are from this collection.
For their part, Switchfoot knew about the bootleg site, and they loved it. They seem to be guys I'd get along with if I ever actually met them.
"Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose? Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues? And nothing is okay until the sky falls down, and the hungry and poor and deserted are found..."
#4: Someday, by The Afters
Have I mentioned how much I love The Afters? They're one of two or three bands I discovered AFTER I started college that I still follow. Their last album, "Never Going Back to OK," is one of my favorites. It's actually the first CD that's ever inspired me to write a particular story. I had in mind a vague sketch of a sequel I wanted to write for the novel I finished for NaNoWriMo back in 2008, but the details of it really didn't flesh out until I got hooked on "Never Going Back to OK." Every song became a character or a plot device. It was so weird/new/awesome. Now, I still haven't written that book, because I need to re-write the first. But I don't have any show responsibilities this summer, and I'm really itching to write about three different stories, so maybe something'll get done in the blistering heat of June, July, and August.
"Someday, someday, your time will come..."
#5: Procrastinating, by Stellar Kart
I'm not really a huge SK fan, but Robbie absolutely loves this song. It's not bad pop-punk, but it is decidedly pop-punk, and that's just not something I'm into as much anymore. This used to be one of the pieces he'd given the distinct privilege of being recognized as a "Robbie song." We'd play this CD on the way to church, and if he didn't care for the song that was playing he'd ask for the Robbie song, and we knew he meant this one. He did that with most CDs for awhile, but now he's started learning that songs have names, and while he doesn't always get the correct name for the song, he definitely has a name for it.
Current favorites: "When We All Get to Heaven," "Dance of the Cucumber" ("peeeeeas!"), and, oddly enough, "Oh, Gravity!"
Short song. Last one:
#6: Surfer's Anthem by Evan Foster
Ha! You know what this is? This is the music we used for the Bottlenose Boys battle scene in Hero Squad last spring. That's funny, because we had an issue today at Alice where it appeared the Cheshire Cat's costume might not actually make it to the theater (from the dry cleaner's) in time for the show, so I was in the costume shop with one of our lovely and talented costume ladies trying to find anything that might work in a pinch. Digging through our rich costume heritage, I came across some of the Hero Squad stuff and jokingly suggested we could have a Cheshire Dolphin for today's show only.
The cat arrived ten minutes before showtime, so there was no Cheshire Dolphin. (Admittedly, we weren't actually going to go with that idea anyway, but with enough Tender Love and Care, I think we could create an Internet meme with that idea!)
Speaking of Internet memes, I'm still kind of sad that our plan of "Our Town with Sock Puppets" never happened. Dave? Hannah? What happened there?
And, true to surf anthem form, a prolonged drum roll will take us out.
Thank you, goodnight.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
v2, d14: Shuffle blog
Now it's technically the time of night where I start to get sleepy. I'm not sleepy tonight, of course, because my body still thinks it's an hour ago.
Thanks, daylight savings time!
Actually, I do love DST, once I've adjusted. For now, it's a pain.
Okay, on to the shuffle blog!
For those who don't remember/don't know how we play, here's the way it works: You put your iTunes or WMP to "shuffle" and hit play. The first song comes up, and you start blogging the first thing that comes to your mind. You're supposed to blog on that topic for as long as the song lasts, but I usually give myself 2 songs instead of one because I can't type nearly as fast as I think.
(Post-post note: I actually kept it to one song for all except one of the excerpts below, so go, me!)
Got it? Great. Here we go!
#1: My New Philosophy from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Shuffle blogging has a tendency to bring out the songs you haven't heard in years and have forgotten you owned in the first place.
I went through a BIG musical theatre phase back in high school, and YAGM,CB was probably a huge part of the reason why. It was my first high school musical, and a phenomenal experience, and to date one of my favorite theatre memories. I've actually been a part of this show three times, once as a principal, once as an added ensemble member, and once as a light crew. The last time I did Charlie Brown was at The Huron Playhouse, where I was in the chorus. (The show doesn't actually have a chorus) We did the newer Broadway revival version (the version of the show this song came from) and I had a LOT of people after the fact say they'd wished I'd played Charlie Brown instead of the guy who did.
Didn't change anything, but that's still always nice to hear ;-)
#2: Fade Away by the O.C. Supertones
This has one of the coolest intros the band has ever concocted, IMO.
This song also seems to really jive with everything that's going down in my life right now. I know I mentioned it once or twice, but last week was trying (though not necessarily in a bad way. It was confusing). I don't anticipate the week ahead being quite as rough, but then again, who knows? I do have a meeting ahead on Friday that I'm particularly dreading, so I need to remind myself all week that sovereign God is in control. And this song just sort of reflects the idea of struggle and really wrestling with challenging ideas and situations and coming out stronger.
I don't know what's happening. My prayer is that I'm becoming stronger for it, that my family is becoming stronger, that my friends are growing stronger, and that my workplace is growing stronger.
#3: Fireflies by Roper
One thing I miss about the Midwest: fireflies on a summer's dusk. We used to sit on the porch and watch them light up the evening air two or three at a time. Really fascinating, captivating little creatures. I remember one time, my sister and I went out to try to catch a few to put them in a jar. (We may or may not have gotten this idea from the Noah's Ark level of the NES classic Bible Adventures) We didn't catch too many, and the ones we did catch didn't fare too well. We never saw a great number of fireflies the rest of that summer.
(Warning: this next paragraph is kinda gross)
Have you ever hit a firefly with your windshield? Man, that makes you feel guilty. Most bugs leave a blot or a smear; fireflies tend to leave a glowing bulb, fluorescently lighting their own remains until, very gradually, the glow flickers out. You feel terrible.
What?? It's true!!
#4: Everything I Hate by Smalltown Poets
I wish I had gotten into Smalltown Poets today. I think I really would have gotten into them if they'd shown up on the scene at this stage of my life rather than during my high school years.
It never ceases to amaze me how vastly different our tastes can be as we grow older. I'm not necessarily talking about music or entertainment, but paradigms. I remember being in college and looking back at high school and thinking, "Wow, all that stuff that I thought was a really big deal was really, really unimportant." And to an extent, I look back at college and think the same things about that season of life. What's really hammered this point home recently, however, has been watching my son. The kid will be stacking some blocks when he comes to one that just doesn't fit atop the others like it should. It's the end of the world. He gets mad, he starts to cry, he throws the whole tower down and cries for me to fix it.
Dude. Not a big deal.
Anyway, all of this tied in nicely with this morning's sermon, and I'm fairly certain I'll be looking back on my Earth-life when I'm in Heaven and I'll realize that all of it--newlywed, adulthood, mid-life, senior citizens--was simply a series of paradigm shifts, worldviews gradually changing until I reached the shadow of this existence is obliterated by the light of true existence, resurrected and living forever with the one true God.
And that does bring a bit of comfort when considering the uncertainty of the present and near-future.
#5: World Without End by Five Iron Frenzy
Well, this is a nice way to wrap up after that last bit of ruminating.
This song is crazy fast. And you know how everything is always faster when you play it live? Listening to The End is Here recording, I have to wonder how Chakka's hands didn't fly off.
I love this song. And I don't care if the intro sounds kinda circussy. It's just awesome. It's one of my favorite worship songs, and I don't think I've ever heard it used as such in any service at any church.
"The very spark that burns the stars drew near to me today; the God of everything that is whispered in my ear that His love is boundless."
Words fall short, indeed.
Thanks, daylight savings time!
Actually, I do love DST, once I've adjusted. For now, it's a pain.
Okay, on to the shuffle blog!
For those who don't remember/don't know how we play, here's the way it works: You put your iTunes or WMP to "shuffle" and hit play. The first song comes up, and you start blogging the first thing that comes to your mind. You're supposed to blog on that topic for as long as the song lasts, but I usually give myself 2 songs instead of one because I can't type nearly as fast as I think.
(Post-post note: I actually kept it to one song for all except one of the excerpts below, so go, me!)
Got it? Great. Here we go!
#1: My New Philosophy from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Shuffle blogging has a tendency to bring out the songs you haven't heard in years and have forgotten you owned in the first place.
I went through a BIG musical theatre phase back in high school, and YAGM,CB was probably a huge part of the reason why. It was my first high school musical, and a phenomenal experience, and to date one of my favorite theatre memories. I've actually been a part of this show three times, once as a principal, once as an added ensemble member, and once as a light crew. The last time I did Charlie Brown was at The Huron Playhouse, where I was in the chorus. (The show doesn't actually have a chorus) We did the newer Broadway revival version (the version of the show this song came from) and I had a LOT of people after the fact say they'd wished I'd played Charlie Brown instead of the guy who did.
Didn't change anything, but that's still always nice to hear ;-)
#2: Fade Away by the O.C. Supertones
This has one of the coolest intros the band has ever concocted, IMO.
This song also seems to really jive with everything that's going down in my life right now. I know I mentioned it once or twice, but last week was trying (though not necessarily in a bad way. It was confusing). I don't anticipate the week ahead being quite as rough, but then again, who knows? I do have a meeting ahead on Friday that I'm particularly dreading, so I need to remind myself all week that sovereign God is in control. And this song just sort of reflects the idea of struggle and really wrestling with challenging ideas and situations and coming out stronger.
I don't know what's happening. My prayer is that I'm becoming stronger for it, that my family is becoming stronger, that my friends are growing stronger, and that my workplace is growing stronger.
#3: Fireflies by Roper
One thing I miss about the Midwest: fireflies on a summer's dusk. We used to sit on the porch and watch them light up the evening air two or three at a time. Really fascinating, captivating little creatures. I remember one time, my sister and I went out to try to catch a few to put them in a jar. (We may or may not have gotten this idea from the Noah's Ark level of the NES classic Bible Adventures) We didn't catch too many, and the ones we did catch didn't fare too well. We never saw a great number of fireflies the rest of that summer.
(Warning: this next paragraph is kinda gross)
Have you ever hit a firefly with your windshield? Man, that makes you feel guilty. Most bugs leave a blot or a smear; fireflies tend to leave a glowing bulb, fluorescently lighting their own remains until, very gradually, the glow flickers out. You feel terrible.
What?? It's true!!
#4: Everything I Hate by Smalltown Poets
I wish I had gotten into Smalltown Poets today. I think I really would have gotten into them if they'd shown up on the scene at this stage of my life rather than during my high school years.
It never ceases to amaze me how vastly different our tastes can be as we grow older. I'm not necessarily talking about music or entertainment, but paradigms. I remember being in college and looking back at high school and thinking, "Wow, all that stuff that I thought was a really big deal was really, really unimportant." And to an extent, I look back at college and think the same things about that season of life. What's really hammered this point home recently, however, has been watching my son. The kid will be stacking some blocks when he comes to one that just doesn't fit atop the others like it should. It's the end of the world. He gets mad, he starts to cry, he throws the whole tower down and cries for me to fix it.
Dude. Not a big deal.
Anyway, all of this tied in nicely with this morning's sermon, and I'm fairly certain I'll be looking back on my Earth-life when I'm in Heaven and I'll realize that all of it--newlywed, adulthood, mid-life, senior citizens--was simply a series of paradigm shifts, worldviews gradually changing until I reached the shadow of this existence is obliterated by the light of true existence, resurrected and living forever with the one true God.
And that does bring a bit of comfort when considering the uncertainty of the present and near-future.
#5: World Without End by Five Iron Frenzy
Well, this is a nice way to wrap up after that last bit of ruminating.
This song is crazy fast. And you know how everything is always faster when you play it live? Listening to The End is Here recording, I have to wonder how Chakka's hands didn't fly off.
I love this song. And I don't care if the intro sounds kinda circussy. It's just awesome. It's one of my favorite worship songs, and I don't think I've ever heard it used as such in any service at any church.
"The very spark that burns the stars drew near to me today; the God of everything that is whispered in my ear that His love is boundless."
Words fall short, indeed.
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