Here Come the Hawks...

At least we still have one good team left this winter.

R.I.P.

Hot Diva and the Rapper Dude

I was at Lifetime Fitness today and heard another of those chick-diva songs with the pre-requisite rapper in it. Ho-hum. Will that ever get old? I think that the rap has kind of become the same as the guitar solo is to rock songs. You just have to put it in, even if it really doesn't belong there. You can pick any of the divas of nowadays where they sing great and then, BAM, there is that rapper dude going at it (Mariah, Nelly Furtado, etc.). Now, don't get me wrong: I don't hate rap. In fact, there are some that I like (eminem, Jay-Z). But, c'mon, are these producers just running out of ideas? It is almost like they just HAVE to insert a rap somewhere in the song!

Enough of the rant. As I was listening, I was thinking of what it might have been like in the earlier days of pop music if the guy had to rap his part rather than sing it. I had a few interesting ones come to mind:

1. Sonny and Cher: can you even try to imagine Sonny having to rap "I've got you babe, uh, uh.."? Yeah, that picture in my mind was pretty disturbing too.
2. Elton John and Kiki Dee: many of you might not know Kiki but they did a huge hit in the 70's: "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". A lot of jokes came out about Kiki about the time Elton came out of the closet. But, you know, I could actually see Elton attempting to rap that one...er, ok, maybe not. Yeah, I was just kidding.....really.
3. Ike and Tina Turner: I could actually see that one working for Ike if rap existed then.

I'm sure that there are a bunch more out there...

Christmas Highlights

Christmas Eve was a long, busy, and prosperous day. We had a half hour concert prior to our 40 minute service. It was awesome! The 40 minute service felt like it was about the right length. There were so many highlights. One that I particularly remember is when we did this rock version of Drummer Boy with Joey - he is one of our newer STUCO vocalists/worship leaders. He nailed it! I told him to emulate Steven Tyler and he was dead on! Naturally the choir rocked. And, can I be a bit biased here? Romeoville does the best versions of TSO of any campus. WE just need an orchestra (one day). Carol of the Bells naturally rocked. We also did a new one called Christmas Jam. The instrumental leads off with a vocal introduction that Joey did (with his own flair!).

When it was all done, I exhaled.

When I got home we had Chinese food. It has sort of turned into this weird tradition of sorts the last few years.

We decided to open presents on Christmas Eve this year. We haven't done it for some time. It was fun! I think our dog, Dixi, enjoyed it the most. I swear, she KNOWS when it is Christmas time. When it is present opening time, she gets all jumpy. Naturally she gets a few doggie toys and acts like a 6 year old kid on Christmas. Even the cats, in their own aloof way, enjoy it.

Santa did drop some stuff in the kid's stockings over night. Some gift cards that I am sure will be spent well!

Most of Christmas morning is quiet - nice.

We had dinner at my brother's house in Evergreen Park. Lot's of food and presents of course! My brother-in-law Dave is in the "church business" like me (but in Austin, TX). We had a lot of "shop" to talk about!

Just when you think you knew everything about your parents I learned something new about my dad. He actually did own a Daisy Red Ryder BB-Gun! He DID get it for Christmas and was about Ralphie's age when he got it! (Those of you not in the know have never seen A Christmas Story - wait until next year: TBS plays it 24 hours straight on Christmas Eve!). It was funny how he related to that movie because he was a kid at the time the setting was in the movie (he cracked me up on his stories of triple-dog-daring kids to get their tongue on the flagpole!).

Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas!

A Good Day...

God is on a roll at our Romeoville campus! The last several weeks have shown a remarkable quality in the arts. The music and worship have been awesome! This morning we did a couple of TransSiberian Orchestra songs: Wizards in Winter and Carol of the Bells amongst others. Carol of the Bells is one of the few "traditions" we have at CCC. I am not kidding when I say I can probably play Carol of the Bells in my sleep! I have played it every season for a number of years now. It has got to people expect to hear it at least once a Christmas Season (we will do two: we are on tap to play it Christmas Eve). I have to say that it is always fun to do. Wizards is my other favorite too. My only regret is that no one had a video of it. Oh well. Maybe Christmas Eve.

Here is a cool story from this morning: we had two scheduled baptisms at our 11:00 service. Both were kids. One of them, Jessica, attends our STUCO regularly. In fact she is a worship leader over there. Her mom has never attended CCC. In her testimony today she had said that her hope is that she will attend some day. Well, she was in the audience today! She was so moved by her daughter's baptism that she decided to do it herself! Wow! Talk about the Holy Spirit in action!

I'd say it was a good day...

The Day After...

Christmas is a great time to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world.

But...

Am I the only one looking forward to December 26th? Anyone?

In the words of Peter (not the apostle but from Office Space) when asked what he would do with a million dollars: "I would do absolutely nothing". Well, no million dollars here but with all the busy-ness going on now, that idea looks quite inviting.

alias Redd Barron

This is way hilarious. I guess there is another Redd Barron band out there somewhere! When you look at the You Tube videos, check the comments out. People are asking where they are playing now. They talk as if they just saw them somewhere! I mean, if you were a fan of the band wouldn't you LOOK at the video and see that it ISN'T them? This is from 1991 or 1992.

Unless there is something Greg and Pete aren't telling me...

Redd Barron - King Of The Hill

Thanks to Pete for this one! Here are my good buddies Greg Eichelberger and Pete Alvarez back around 1991, I think, in Redd Barron. The hair was a bit longer, the posing was right on, and, well, check it out! (Sorry Greg, blame this on Pete and Brian!).

Spirit Move...Across the Land....

Every so often this happens. As a creative arts director person you get to experience some good Sunday mornings, some challenging Sunday mornings, some funny Sunday mornings, some that you wish didn't happen, and some that did and you wonder how in the world you made it through. But then there those that become very special. This type of Sunday morning becomes a true heaven on earth type of thing. I am talking about mornings that go way beyond anything you could have ever anticipated. Mornings that are the type that people will talk about for a very long time. Yesterday was one of them. It has been amazing how people have been talking about it today. So many were touched in a very special way. God always shows up. But, I think that He will, at times, pick a day just to remind us that He can go way beyond anything we could ever imagine!

Yesterday everything, and I mean everything, was spot on. Yes, even the Campus Pastor Moment was way beyond awesome. :) Music it seems is usually (but not all the time) the catalyst in setting the tone. That was definitely the case yesterday! We had a brass band along with our favorite percussion guy, Micah. We incorporated a little Latino flair with David Danced to a touch of gospel, to rock and R&B. All the vocals were amazing. The energy was on fire. Dave's teaching was great - I really had my eyes opened to the meaning behind certain scripture (thanks to professor Dave!). The Advent/Communion moment (in its second week) continued to be real good. I think that people appreciated how we talked about our surplus in the budget going back to the community to help those in need (yeah, that was the CP moment). Dennis really shined during the offering prep. Hey, it was even Dennis and Renea's anniversary! And, at the end of the last service, Renea was so overcome with the Spirit that she was almost paralyzed with what to do next (she was supposed to dismiss at the end of You Are Good as we held a chord - it took a while. It was amusing to see the looks on the faces of the musicians on what to do next!). One of the brass players recorded the service. I can't wait to see and hear it!

But it is the stories afterward that really make it all worth it. How lives were touched. The stories are still coming in. It was great!

Joe Satriani vs. Coldplay

Did you catch this in the news? It looks like Coldplay is being accused, again, of ripping off a melody of another song. This time Joe Satriani is making the claim. His claim is that the chorus melody of his song "If I Could Fly" (his is an instrumental) is way too similar to the chorus of "Viva La Vida". I agree that it is real similar. But I wonder. There are a bazillion songs out there in the history of man. It is just a matter of time that some melodies are going to sync up and be similar. The odds favor that. Think of the blues. Wow, a lot of repeats in that genre. But in this case, I dunno. I would find it amusing that Chris Martin (or any of the guys in Coldplay)is big Joe Satriani fan. Joe is probably one of my favoritest guitarists of all time. I hope that this lawsuit isn't a stretch for him and give him bad publicity as a whiner. I think y'all know the Coldplay song. But I grabbed one of the You Tube videos with Joe's song (it is from 2004). It is just his "chorus" that you would listen for. You be the judge...

A Little Zizzle-zing

ZING, PHAT, ZIZZLE, this homey is still in the house with somethin' to say.

Mary's B-day was yesterday. It was awesome! What I did this time was, for every couple hours, send her a goofy picture message wishing her a happy birthday (she was at work most of the day). I had a lot of fun making these up the night before. Here is an example of one that I sent:












We also had an awesome dinner with the kids at Outback.

Keep on rockin' the Casbah y'all. I'll catch you on the next one...