That same year, Weird Al Yankovic released his most successful album ever, "Running With Scissors." The first track on that album was a parody called "The Force Awakens," a song who's success as a hit single was directly related to the new movie, and sung to the tune of Don McLean's "American Pie." I remember getting a chuckle out of the song, and I even still remember some of the lyrics. I also wasn't too into Weird Al though (I'm still not), and I thought it was a little silly.
That song though, had a melody that somehow stuck with me and led me to the actual version of "American Pie." Now, I am sure I had heard the song before this point, but I had never before actually listened to it. When I did, back in 1999, I was completely blown away. Here, you had a country singer giving a beautiful history lesson on the history of Rock and Roll. Music was one thing that I was into at that time (I still am), and I thought that this song was a work of pure genius.
Since then, I have listened to a lot of music. I have learned the stories of a lot of bands, and I have even learned to play many of my favorite songs on the guitar. I don't know what it is, but Rock music, as a genre, as a cultural phenomenon, and as an "experience" is simply fascinating to me. It is fascinating to see the influence it has had over time, and how it, in turn, has been influenced and changed.
Why did I choose this time to tell about this? Well, I just finished my weekly lecture/assignment of "The Histroy of Rock and Roll" course as taught online at the University of Rochester, and I thought it would be a good way to open the blog. Also, I have been playing the guitar a lot lately, and so I guess music has sort of been on my mind.
Actually...about that.
A few weeks ago I mentioned on our blog that I help with the music at the church our family attends (1st Pres. CDA). I have been hesitant to mention this too much on our blog, because I'm not sure how it will be taken by some people, but it has become an important part of my life so I figure I'll share. A few months ago I made a casual comment at a church social about how I liked to play the guitar. Well, one thing led to another, and soon enough I found myself on a stage in front of about 300 people.
Over time, I have become a pretty regular part of the "worship team" (band), and I switch back and forth each week between playing lead electric and rhythm acoustic guitar. Our church has two different congregations (wards) that meet on Sundays, each with about 250 people. Our family attends the first one and then I stay through the break and play at the second as well. It works well for us. I have also gotten to know a lot of people through it, and have had a great chance to hone my musicianship. It has been a wonderful experience so far, and I look forward each week to finding out what we'll be performing the next Sunday.
Just as a disclaimer for those who hear "electric guitar" and immediately think of Angus Young, Slash, or Jimmy Page (at least that's who I think of), the music we play is pretty mellow. It definitely has a rhythmic or "rock" feel to it, as well as the occasional guitar solo (which I love), but there's no screaming or wild bends with the notes. For those who may be more familiar with LDS music- think about your EFY CDs as pretty typical for the type of music you would hear on any given Sunday. Anyway, I just thought I'd share. Like I said, it has become a fairly significant part of my life, if anything, because of the amount of practice that I have to put in each week to be able to not make a complete fool of myself :).
Other exciting news we have is that we got new furniture! This is a big deal to us. It is a signal that we finally think our kids are at a stage where we can start having nice things. That's all I'll say about that for now, since I want to include pictures of it on a different post (it's not totally set up yet).
I also guess I should write something here about Halloween Night. In our last post I showed off our pumpkins, but didn't mention costumes or trick-or-treating. It was a lot of fun though. The weather cooperated and the kids got tons of candy. Early in the evening we went downtown (Coeur d'Alene), where businesses all hand out candy. There were tons of people there...and tons of candy! When we got home we went around the neighborhood and had as much fun looking as the decorations as we did getting candy. I have said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it every year it comes around- I LOVE HALLOWEEN.
 |
| Trick or Treating |
 |
| Rachel was a ninja turtle. |
 |
| Lindsey was a cute (and warm) little unicorn |
 |
| Evelyn at her school carnival |
 |
| This was a fun activity- we are currently doing an "engineering" unit in family night (for Addy). This is us trying to build bridges, |
 |
| Addy was heartbroken when we sold our old furniture. They were good couches. They were also good boats, good lava rocks, good forts, good shields, and good rocketships. Our kids have certainly loved that couch...almost to death. It was a hard day to see it go. I guess it's true that "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" (Seneca, as quoted by Semisonic). This one was particularly hard for our Addy. I can only imagine what she would be like if we had pets. |
No comments:
Post a Comment