Fungus milk pillow

Not really. I get a lot of spam. And as I'm going down the list, trying to train my Thunderbird to recognize spam from not spam, sometimes an e-mail subject catches my eye. I have no use for these catchy phrases aside from blog post titles :(.

It is a good Sabbath :). Sabbath, near as I can tell, is what churchy people call "Sunday". Some churches have a list of recommendations concerning what should or shouldn't be done on Sunday. Mine is one of them. As a family, we adhere to the spirit behind the details on the lists wholeheartedly. However, we are not about lists. I would venture to say that those who get caught up in the yes/no good/bad ok/not-ok stuff are missing the point in a big fat hairy and green-boogered way.

We went to the first third of church despite Milo's awful wheezing cough and AK's coming down with the same crud. Then during the Christmas program, with all the singing and the rocking piano (for Mormons. . .) playing, Daddy felt awfully weird & woozy. So we waddled off early into the slushy icy snow that'd been falling all night. Before reaching Terminal Wooze, I jumped into work clothes and shoveled Gramma's house so she can to therapy tomorrow. Gramma explained how sick Bubbacat has been. I looked into Bubba's normally predatory eyes, saw his deepfelt woozy wierdness, and shared his wooze. Maybe Bubba and I have the same bug? I sure do feel like hucking up a hairball right now.

Max snuck off for some snow play. AK is cooking cookies and fudge for Xmas gifts. I go back and forth between whining under an afghan on the couch, and chasing AK around the kitchen for smooches.

AK asked awhile for ago for a copy of my "Gospel" mix, so I condensed it and put it on a CD for her. This was some time ago. I grabbed it today and asked if she wanted to hear her Gospel CD. She was not aware there ever was a gospel CD. :( ANYWAY its' awfully good. And I must say I'm using a very loose interpretation of the word "Gospel". Many of these are songs I've loved for a long time merely on their merits as moving music. Some are bible'y, some are family'y, most merely touch on themes of faith. Here is the condensed CD-length version of my iTunes mix:

*Friends & Family by Trik Turner

*Living Prayer by Alison Krauss and Union Station

*Try to Believe by Oingo Boingo

*Come On in This House by The Fairfield Four

*People Get Ready by Rod Stewart

*How Many Miles Must We March by Ben Harper

*Children Go Where I Send Thee by Joe & Eddie

*I'll Fly Away by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch

*We're Moving On by The Seekers

*Down To The River by Alison Krauss

*I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray by The Fairfield Four

*Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder

*Church by Lyle Lovett

*This Little Light of Mine by The Steeles

*Do What the Spirit Say by Sweet Honey in The Rock

No, your eyes do not deceive you. The Gospel According to Chris blends Stevie Wonder with Oingo Boingo with Lyle Lovett and Trik Turner. Here is some ad-hoc, questionably factual but inspired musicology. . .

Trik Turner: This was their one and only single I believe. They were about the time Linkin Park was happening, but had a slightly different flavor. Apparently America liked the taste of Linkin Park better, but this has always been one of my favorite songs.

The Fairfield Four: These guys were on the O Brother album, and while I didn't dig their song there I sure liked their sound so I googled. There are five of them, see. And last I googled they were all so old they might be down to three now. Traditional old-timey gospel, they sound like a a barbershop quartet EXCEPT the highest key any of them sing in is TENOR! Lots of clapping and snapping, which I love, which I really with the Mormons would get with, but oh well.



Allison Krauss: Also discovered her via O Brother. She is totally hot, and on YouTube somewhere you can see a duet with her and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant that made me swoon. Her voice is like an angel's, like the little missionary girl who visited us in Minnesota. Some music, you don't have to believe it, the musicians believe enough for all of us, and I gotta give mad props there. It's like in the Marc Cohn song (which I find far superior to the recent country cover) Walking in Memphis:

Now Muriel plays piano Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her And they asked me if I would --
Do a little number And I sang with all my might
And she said -- "Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am I am tonight"

Like DIANE LANE hot. If you can say that about a Christian. She's a CILF (Christian I'd Like to Familiarizemyselfwith)

The Seekers: My mother loved the folk music of the 60s, and I don't know if my Dad did but he tolerated it. So I grew up with an abundance of both classical music and folk music. As a child I loved the catchy tunes, as a man (and I had to dig to find some of those songs, it wasn't nearly the popular movement Rock was in the same era. . . ) I love the harmonies and the counterpoints and MY GOD SOME OF THOSE LADIES CAN BELT THAT SHIZZLE OUT! This lady is a top notch shizzle belter, and on this one she really rocks for a white girl.

"On any Sunday. . . . la la leeee. . . "

Oingo Boingo: Danny Elfman (Boingo) and Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite) somehow, at some point, lived inside my head as a young man. I don't know how, but they write songs that speak to me, of me, from me and about me. This song was from one of Oingo Boingo's last non-collection original albums and much to my wife's chagrin (along with B.A.D's "Free". . .) makes it onto pretty much every mix tape/CD/Playlist I've ever done.

Do you remember Danny Elman in the 80s? This is a mild look for him.

Sweet Honey in The Rock: A nice hippie girlfriend of mine had a tape of them singing children's songs on one of our long motorcycle trips, and I've liked them ever since. Great traditional gospel harmonies. Again with the clapping and snapping :)


Little Light of Mine: I don't know The Steeles from boo, but this was on the Corinna Corinna soundtrack and it was our wedding processional. Awesome.

Joe & Eddie: This is another folk-era throwback. Apparently they had a short Jan & Dean style tragic career. I found a few of their songs when I was looking for counterpoint examples to show my Readers Theater students. This song, Children Go Where I Send Thee, is a traditional Christmas carol. I remember a rousing version of it in the TV-movie sequel to Lillies Of The Field. But THIS version. OMG. I've found nothing else by them that does to me what this song does. NO idea really what they're singing about. But listen. You don't have to know. They are FEE.

LING.

IT.

It's been a favorite here for a few months. Max loves it. Twins sing "ELIJAH SHOUT SHOUT" every other day. I'll see if I can't upload it and link to it or something. . .


Stevie: Stevie grew up in pop music, and you can see his maturity, growth and changes in the progression of his albums. I like that. My favorite period was Talking Book and Hotter Than July, this was his afro-centric/ghetto champion period lyrically. And musically there is little funkier than the funk rhythm guitar and organ work on these albums. You know the opening bars in Superstition? It's almost TWO ALBUMS (remember albums?) WORTH of that slow twisting soul. Personally, I believe the artistry of his earlier work (the boy could blow a harp, too) more than compensates for some of the pop tripe of his later career. I forgive you, Stevie. You can come play at my party any day. But we can't have the party at church. At least not in the chapel. If anyone out there wins the lottery, lets get Stevie Wonder to play my 39th birthday party in the State College Ward's Primary Room!

Where else have you seen S-Dub without his shades?

Rod Stewart: He's got a cool voice, very stylized, and love or hate some of his top-40 pop music you've got to admit he feels it when he sings it. That, and when I was 14 Heather Black wrote the lyrics to "You're In My Heart" in a card just for ME. So he can play at my party too. If he's still kickin'.

Lyle Lovett? NO idea. I've always wondered about this guy. Love his nose, LOVE the hairdo, and he ride's Ducati motorcycles so he must be cool. But I'm not very familiar with his music. This song isn't a spiritual, but it's in the gospel style (SNAP AND CLAP! Woot!) and it's very funny. My brother likes him, so he must be a talented musician with a sense of humor.

. . . that's not a Duc but it is Italian. I could swear he's got a whole collection of Ducatis and can often be found at track days tearing it up.

OK. Inserting all those pictures? In my blog? Was a nightmare. I don't know why, but BLOGGER always puts the photo at the top and adds "return"s into the whole blog every time you link to a photo. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Is there a way around this? But it's OK, I know how both of you out there appreciate some eye candy with your brain candy.

It's going on dinner time here. AK has baked herself into a sleepy poodle pillow on the couch. Max is building legos. Milo is lecturing, um, someone. I don't know where Ben is but it's too cold out for him to have gone far. Our big nasty storm didn't bring us more than a few inches of slush. But now the winds are really kicking up and making some righteous noises so I'm going to sign off and listen to some different music until bedtime.

Kiss those iPods!