This Ain't Nothin'

I'd never heard of Craig Morgan until I started listening to SiriusXM's "The Highway." When I heard this song I was immediately moved. But then, as life goes on, it slipped into the back of my mind.

Heard it again today. Tried to sing along, but discovered I just can't sing when I'm crying. Maybe it's because Mom's "heart of gold stopped pumping" just recently.

I hope it puts a few things in perspective for you.

Post #1,000: The Drummer

Gentlefolk, I find myself mired in deadline upon deadline so the post may be a bit spotty this week.

Yesterday was Pi Day. I put a video up on my blog about what Pi would sound like. (Down below.)

And that's pretty significant for my blog, because it's the *one thousandth* post I've written for this medium.

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As a nightclub owner, I had hired a drummer and a piano player to entertain my customers. After several evenings of performances, I discovered that the drummer had walked away with some of my valuables. I notified the police and he was subsequently hauled off to jail.

Desperate for another drummer on short notice, I called a friend who knew some musicians.

"What happened to the drummer you had?" he asked.

"I had him arrested," I replied.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"How badly did he play?"

[Pastor Tim's Cybersalt Digest via ChapNotes]

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WORDS for YOUR WEEK: "Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends." (Alphonse de Lamartine)

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My Favorite Version: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Well, he's not much to look like, but he can croon a bit. This slow jazz flavor is not what my memory says it was - I remember a much more acoustic guitar version - but it'll do.

I had a post nearly ready to go when the last of my evening energy slipped through the fingers of my mind today ... so, another song. Please enjoy it.

Mark's Musings is available via an RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, the Amazon Kindle and via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

My Favorite Version: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Okay, so the video's not much to look at, but I l-o-o-o-ve this arrangement.

Perhaps - on nights like this - where I haven't got any time for a regular post, I'll share some of my favorite music.

Very acoustic. Quite contemporary. All good.



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More Musical Terms Defined

Erg. Getting late. Better do just a joke today.

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MORE MUSICAL TERM DEFINITIONS

Allegro: Leg Fertilizer

Counterpoint: A favorite device of many Baroque composers, all of whom are dead, though no direct connection between these two facts has been established. Counterpoint is still taught in many schools, as a form of punishment.

Discord: Not to be confused with datcord.

Gregorian Chant: A way of singing in unison, invented by monks to hide snoring.

Trill: The musical equivalent of an epileptic seizure.

Virtuoso: A musician with very high morals.

[ahajokes with edits and additional material by Mark Raymond]

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WEBSITE of the WEEK: I have a pretty good head for details. Which is one reason my greatest fear is Alzheimer's Disease. Well, list member Lavonne T. did much to allay that fear when she forwarded me a link to http://www.freebrainagegames.com/. There are about half a dozen simple tests you can do and then your "brain age" is summarized. If the number is lower than your age, you're probably in good shape, though the site is quick to say its results are not necessarily to be taken seriously and only with good health and nutrition and etc., etc., etc. So, anyway, I supposedly have the brain of a person 22 years younger than myself. (I keep it in a jar next to my computer.)

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Mark's Musings is available via an RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, the Amazon Kindle and via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

Tuner

ADMINISTRIVIA: Oh, totally forgot to fix my boo-boo from Friday! Yom Kippur was actually on *Saturday,* not Friday as I wrote this past week. It did begin at sunset on Friday, but the actual holiday was on Saturday. Mea culpa! Thanks to those of you who held me accountable on that.

Meanwhile, remember Hall and Oates? They had hits in nearly three decades, sold more than 60 million albums, had eight songs go to #1 on the charts, and their music has been dubbed "Rock and Soul."

Well, at some point after they'd stopped touring together, Daryl Hall had the idea that instead of going out on tour for the world, he'd bring the world into his home. So he began inviting some musician friends over ... they'd have a good meal, then make some music together ... and film the whole thing, putting it up on the web. He's recorded 34 "webisodes," featuring the likes of Train, Diane Birch, Plain White T's, Smokey Robinson, and a bunch of folks I confess I've not heard of.

And thus was born Live at Daryl's House.

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The doorbell rang and the lady of the house found, quite unexpectedly, a well-dressed man with a small box of smaller tools standing on her porch.

"Good day to you, madam. I am Lucius, the piano tuner," the man announced.

The lady, quite taken aback, replied, "That is certainly all well and good, young man, but I did not send for a piano tuner."

"Yes, madam, I know," said the man. "Your neighbors did."

[Doc's Daily Chuckle]

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WORDS for YOUR WEEK: "If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth." (Sydney Smith)

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Mark's Musings is available via an RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, the Amazon Kindle and via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

Biblical Theme Songs

Hey, my band gets to play one of our summer outdoor gigs this evening for a neighborhood block party over on the east side of town. Pray the rain stays away from Flint today!

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IF BIBLE CHARACTERS HAD THEME SONGS

Noah: "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head"

Adam and Eve: "Two Tickets to Paradise"

Jezebel: "Lady in Red"

Samson: "Hair"

Daniel: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

The Magi: "When You Wish Upon a Star"

Elijah: "Up, Up and Away"

Methuselah: "Stayin' Alive"

Paul: "Blinded by the Light"

Joshua: "Good Vibrations"

[submitted by list member Carolyn W., with additions and edits by Mark Raymond]

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WEBSITE of the WEEK: Hey, if you care about this sort of thing, television has announced its prime time award nominees at http://www.emmys.tv/. We do watch a few shows each week, and several of our favorite actors (both male and female) have been nominated.

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Mark's Musings is available on an RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, through your Amazon Kindle and also via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

Nothing More American?

What could possibly be more American than a baseball game? In Washington, DC? With our National Anthem? Played on ... wait for it ... a Louisville Slugger baseball bat!

Perfect for the Fourth of July!

Enjoy the National Symphony's Glen Donnellen.



Thanks and a tip o'the Mark Musing's cap to Kim Quiggle.

Look at Me

Ah, the ol' schedule caught up with me again this week, leaving y'all without an e-mail post today. My apologies.

And, for some reason, this song has been stuck in my mind the past day or so. I wrote it "back in the day" when I was doing that sort of thing regularly.

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LOOK AT ME

I'm a child, look at me, I am growing wings
Butterfly, floating free on the rising wind
I could share it with you if you'd only see
How He holds all our tomorrows
In a moment

I'm a dream, look at me, I am coming true
I could be everything, if you only knew
How I long to be part of your heart and soul
And we could hold onto forever
In a moment

People can be such a lonely autumn
But winter never frightens those
Who know the spring
You can never find peace of mind
In the moonlight
But morning sun puts all your doubts to wing

I'm a song, look at me, I'm a serenade
Everything you would want in a grand parade
But I'm just passing through and it won't be long
Until I'm changed into forever
In a twinkling

(short acoustic guitar solo)

And people can be such a lonely autumn
But winter never frightens those
Who know the spring
And you can never find peace of mind
In the moonlight
But morning sun drives all your doubts to wing

I'm a child, look at me, I am growing wings
Butterfly, floating free on the rising wind
I could share it with you if you'd come with me
And we could lose this life together
In a moment


(words and music copyright by Mark Raymond; from his "Simply Divine" recording)

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WEB SITE of the WEEK: List member and fellow blogger Zach Y. turned me on to http://swagbucks.com/. It's a search site that pays you "swag bucks" for using it, as well as for many other things. With those bucks, you can purchase gift certificates to online retailers, or spend them on "swagstakes" where prizes such as an iPad or Amazon Kindle are given away.

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Mark's Musings is available via RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, an Amazon Kindle and via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

Led Zeppelbeatles?

Dark Roasted Blend had a link to this YouTube video. It's an actual recording by a group called "The Beatnix." They were a Beatles tribute band from Australia in the early '90s. It's a fun, interesting "mash up" of two very popular songs.




If reading this on Facebook, you must click "View Original Post" to see the video.

All You Need is Love

Larry Norman once wrote a line about The Beatles. He wrote, "John Lennon sang 'All You Need is Love' and then they broke up." I guess his point was that they didn't love each other.

It's still a pretty good song, though ... especially when you get people and groups from 156 different countries to sing it at the same time to raise money and awareness about the AIDS crisis in Africa.

Enjoy.

Christmas Song Quiz

The folks at Hear It First are sponsoring a 25 Days of Christmas thing where they're offering free music downloads, free celebrity recipes, free videos, and other whatnot, including a contest for a free Dell Netbook computer.

Once you click the offer goes away ... but it comes back if you refresh the page. Just another helpful tip from your Uncle Mark.

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THE CHRISTMAS SONG QUIZ
Match the "hidden" title with the actual song title

1. Bleached Yule
2. Embellish the Corridors
3. Castaneous-Colored Seed Vesicated in a Conflagration
4. A Meteorological Melody is Manifest
5. Righteous Darkness
6. Our Desire is Your Yuletide Cheer
7. Nocturnal Noiselessness
8. Aged Matriarch Plowed Under By Antlered Quadrupeds
9. Jehovah Deactivate Blithe Chevaliers
10. Are You Experiencing Similar Auditory Input?
11. Query Regarding Identity of Descendent
12. Arrival Upon the Onset of a Transparent Day
13. Singular Yearning at Yuletide for Twin Central Incisors
14. Loyal Followers Gather
15. The Slight Percussionist Lad

a. Silent Night
b. O Come, All Ye Faithful
c. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
d. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
e. The Little Drummer Boy
f. White Christmas
g. O Holy Night
h. Do You Hear What I Hear?
i. Deck the Halls
j. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
k. What Child is This?
l. There's a Song in the Air
m. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
n. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
o. All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

[Wit and Wisdom and Homilies-by-e-mail.com; answers below]

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WONDER for YOUR WEEK: Who brings Santa *his* Christmas gift?

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ANSWERS:

1-f; 2-i; 3-c; 4-l; 5-g; 6-j; 7-a; 8-m; 9-d; 10-h; 11-k; 12-n; 13-o; 14-b; 15-e

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Bad Christmas TV

I featured this site many, many moons ago - so long I've forgotten - but I recently stumbled across it again.

It's a blog that lets you know what free music iTunes is making available for download each week.

I don't see a lot of Christian stuff listed (okay, *any* Christian stuff) but they seem to be starting a run of free Christmas music by several artists you're likely to have heard of, so I'm posting it.

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LEAST POPULAR HOLIDAY TELEVISION SPECIALS

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Insurance Adjuster

Extreme Makeover: North Pole Edition

It's an Average Life

A Charlie Brown Parole Hearing

Frosty 2: The Meltdown

Live from Vegas ... The Grinch is Elvis!!

Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey's Wet, Hacking Cough

[copyright 1997 by Dave Tippett; used with permission. Some additional material by Mark Raymond]

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WONDER for YOUR WEEK: Why do they call it black-and-white TV instead of color TV? Isn't it really just Two Color TV? And couldn't they charge twice as much for Two Color TV than they do for just regular Color TV?

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M.J. Medley

One of my Facebook friends posted this video and I enjoyed it enough to bring it to you here on the blog. It's a production from a pair of Yale alumni, Kurt Schneider and Sam Tsui.

It's also a nifty video editing trick and one smooth arrangement of the late Michael Jackson's most famous hits.

Enjoy.

Music Glossary 3

Several years ago, I predicted that cell phones would make pay phones obsolete. I wasn't the only one to suggest this, and certainly not the first, but nonetheless it came true.

I've already made my next two predictions: one, that wristwatches will become obsolete. Most younger folks I know don't even wear one, choosing instead to consult their cell phone provider for the correct time. My other prediction is that televisions will eventually be replaced by the Internet. You know how they began selling TVs that were "cable-ready"? Soon - if not already - you'll be able to buy a television that's "Internet-ready." I mean, you can already hook them up to your PC if you have the right hardware, but soon I believe you'll see televisions sold with the same kind of cord you find now on your computer monitor, so you can plug it directly into a port on your computer.

Having said that, you might as well get ready to watch your TV online. With today being the "official" start of the fall network television season, it's appropriate to feature 25 Places to Watch TV Online. The article includes some UK sites, as well. And beware, I'm not sure all of the clips being shown there are what we'd consider family friendly.

Speaking of predictions, I made my own guesses at last night's Emmy Awards over at the blog. As I write this, the program is just beginning so I have no idea how close I came. Check it out.

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MUSIC GLOSSARY Q to Z

Quintet: Five people playing the same music four could play just as well.

Ragtime: The end of the orchestral piece, when the conductor takes out his handkerchief in a flourish and mops his brow.

Supertonic: Schweppes.

Tempus perfectum: A good time was had by all.

Unison: What the director chooses when the choir is not good enough to sing harmonies.

Vibrato: A method used by singers to hide the fact they are on the wrong pitch.

Wind Ensemble: Congress.

Xylophone: A Greek phrase, literally: "From wood, hello."

Zart: a melodic passing of gas.

[written by Mark Raymond with some minor aid from ahajokes.com]

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WORD for YOUR WEEK: Here's a great word that you hardly ever hear: blatherskite. It's not only a compound word, it originates in compound countries. "Blathra" was an Old Norse word meaning "to chatter," and "skate" comes to us from Scotland and describes a contemptible person. Thus, a "blatherskite" is someone who indulges in babble, or nonsense, or just incoherent muttering about inane matters.

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Music Glossary 2

Well, since I need to give you part two of the alphabetical musical definitions, I needed to find something that would kind of go with that.

So I came up with this.

It's ten things you probably didn't know about the Beatles, and I confess I didn't know any of them. See if you can spot the infamous Postal Service connection.

And those of you who still go to garage sales, print the cover of one of the albums in the article so you'll recognize it if you find it. It's worth more than $10,000.

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MUSIC GLOSSARY I to P

Intonation: Playing an instrument with your feet.

Jazz: A form of music wherein each musician plays what they want, when they want to.

Keynote: A message left for the spouse who forgot his keys.

Lamentoso: With handkerchiefs.

Messiah: An oratorio written by Handel and performed nearly every Christmas by choirs that are almost good enough, accompanied by musicians who need the money.

Neoclassical: Music that makes you long for the classics.

Opus: A penguin in Kansas.

Passing Notes: Two oboes attempting to play the same score.

[selected from aha jokes.com, with edits and additional material by Mark Raymond]

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WORD for YOUR WEEK: Sometimes sad music will fill us with "melancholic" feelings, or another person will be feeling melancholy, or someone may sing "My Melancholy Baby" to you. But what does that word mean? It's originally from two Greek words: "melan," meaning "black," and "chole," meaning "bile." In Ancient Greece, if you were feeling melancholic, you were coughing up black bile ... and that's certainly enough to make anyone feel sad.

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Music Glossary 1

Labor Day, 2009. The unofficial end of summer, which is still, equinoxly-speaking, about two weeks away.

The National British Library used their summer to move more than 23,000 archived sound recordings online.

Classical music, world music - mostly from Africa - interviews, wildlife, even recordings made on some of the first wax cylinders are here.

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MUSIC GLOSSARY A to H

Accidentals: Wrong notes.

Bar Line: A gathering of people, amongst whom you can usually find a musician or two.

Conductor: A musician who is adept at following many people at the same time.

Da capo al fine: I like your hat!

English Horn: A woodwind that got its name despite being neither English nor a horn. Not to be confused with the French Horn, which is German.

Fermata: A brand of girdle made especially for opera singers.

Glissando: The musical equivalent of slipping on a banana peel. Also used when the musician can't play a difficult run of notes.

Harmonic Minor: A good music student.

[selected from aha jokes.com]

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WORD for YOUR WEEK: Let's do a musical term this week. Most everyone knows that a "crescendo" in music is the part of the piece where the instruments or singer(s) get louder. The original word began in Latin as "creare" and meant "to bring forth, create, or produce." One of the first uses of the word was as it applied to the visible first stage of a waxing moon - "luna crescens" - literally, moon growing. Ironically, most people mistook the word to describe the *shape* of the moon rather than the stage of its fullness. And that is why a "crescent" roll describes the shape of the pastry ... its a misuse of the original word. "Croissant" is the French word - and still a mistake - as again it applies to the shape and not the growing fullness of the original word.

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Perpetuum Jazzile

When a nifty Young Life trick meets Toto meets a cappella group, you get ... this. Turn your speakers up to get the full impact of the introduction.



Thanks to Brenda Brissette-Mata and my wife for bringing it to my attention.

Altar Ego

I've made no secret of the fact that I've made my life's mission statement the words of John the Baptist found in the Book of John, Chapter Three, Verse Thirty: "He must become more, I must become less."

I try to remind myself of this as often as I can ... it's on my car's license plate, I put it on the end of every Friday's post, it's on my Facebook Profile (Info Tab), it's always hovering close by my thoughts, in a "What Would Jesus Do" kind of way, if you'll allow me that rapidly-becoming-tired cliché.

And yet, like Paul, I "do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (Romans 7:15)

It seems to me that Christianity is a constant process of intentionally making the effort to become more like Christ. To constantly be at war with our flesh and what it desires. To deny our baser natures and seek after "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable." (Philippians 4:8)

So the war with myself goes on. I found this struggle captured almost perfectly by a Canadian woman named Carolyn Arends, on one of her earlier CDs titled "I Can Hear You." It's a song called "Altar of Ego" and there is not a word wasted in this lyric. Every one strikes the heart of the matter. At least with me.

ALTAR of EGO

I am talking too loud when there's so much I should be hearing
I am walking too proud when I know a fall is nearing
I am thinking too much for someone who knows so little
I am spinning so fast, I’m landing in the middle
Of this cold familiar place where I struggle to save face
And I lose all of the things that matter

Chorus
I don’t want to be here again
Bowed at the altar of ego
I’ve sacrificed most everything
Here at the altar of ego
The altar of ego

I’ve got just four friends I will let advise me
Me, myself, and I and the evil twin inside me
We talk each other up and we bring each other down
‘Cause there’s nothing we like more than the ever present sound
Of the voice inside my head, once again it’s led
To losing all the things that matter

(Repeat chorus)

I need a touch of love, I need a thrust of grace
A push, a shove, a slap in the face

I have gazed too long at the person in the mirror
As I turn away, I’m finding things are clearer
I will set my sights on Someone so much higher
Not on what I want, but on what I require
To travel to the place where at last I can embrace
All the things that really matter

(Repeat chorus)

© 1995 Sunday Shoes Music (ASCAP)

May your struggles be easier.

Music

You ever hear the saying, "You're dead to me"?

Turns out that's what the people who run the Grammy Awards said to Polka Music last week.

It has officially been eliminated as a competitive category for that hallowed music industry award.

Polka is dead.

Long live polka.

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"MUSIC"

When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother's piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold

And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying

Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country

I've never understood
Why this is so

But there's an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow

For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest

And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country

We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams

And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows

Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander

[by Anne Porter from "Living Things: Collected Poems" copyright 2006 Steerforth Press; as reprinted with permission in The Writer's Almanac]

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WORD for YOUR WEEK: So where does this word "polka" come from and why do we have both polka dots and polka music? Turns out the word is originally from Poland, where it was the feminine form of "polock" - literally a Polish woman instead of a man. Some sources think it may also be an alteration of the Czech word "pulka," which meant "half" and was used to describe the half-steps in a peasant dance popular in the early 1800s. The dance - and the word - migrated to England in the mid-1800s and the dance step began being called a "polka dot" due to the deliberate stamping of the foot instead of a more elegant step. The dance and the words were caught up by fashion designers who used the term to describe the dotted fabrics they were creating.

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