Music is the Moon

This quote in a wonderful book I have been reading has stuck with me for days.

Andrew Peterson is one of my favorite artists. His music, his writing and his creative talent are gifts from God that I am so thankful that he shares with the world.

Thanksgiving Turkey Dance 2013

Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present the 2013 rendition of the world famous Turkey Dance!




This is a Walker family tradition.
The routine varies slightly year to year and the turkey gets a little larger each year.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Jar Jar Binks Dies

This is wonderful:


The original deleted scene can be viewed here.
The fan edited version above is much better.
(HT: 22words)

Valentine's Day Recap

Valentine's Day has come and gone again.
Hopefully your day was better than this little guy's:


Our Valentine's Day was spent with me working, Lisa keeping the girls entertained with numerous Holiday activities and a night spent at home for all of us. We exchanged cards after dinner and just enjoyed being together. That seems appropriate for this day.

Stillness at the Super Bowl Half-Time Show

I found myself reflecting on the Super Bowl this morning and wondering when the Half-Time Show became a part of the entire event. Because I like to look into such things, here's a brief history of the event:

In 1993, the NFL decided it would, for the first time in its history, have only one person perform during the Half-Time show of the Super Bowl. Due to his increasing popularity around the world, they chose Michael Jackson. Little did they expect that, for the first time in the history of the game, the viewing audience would actually increase during the Half-Time show. This set a precedent that has been followed ever since, with each band or performer attempting to capture and draw in viewers during the game break.

I watched Michael Jackson's performance when it happened and I just watched it again:

There's so much that I could discuss about this performance, but I want to point out a few things that I find absolutely incredible about the opening 2 minutes.

- To start it off, Jackson does what, to my limited knowledge, had never been done before - utilizing the two mega screens as an integral part of his entrance.
- He used these two screens and two decoy performers to tease the crowd for the first 32 seconds of the show. Using the decoys at the opening only further built up the anticipation of his arrival and performance.
- Jackson is launched up through the smoke onto stage at the 34 second mark and adopts the "Dangerous" pose. There is no music. There is no light show. It is just him standing there. Jackson makes it a point to prove that he is the show. For an absolutely astonishing seventy-four seconds, Jackson does not move. He is still. The crowd grows anxious and I am certain that the organizers of the event were not feeling quite as confident in their choice at this point.
- Then he turns his head to the left in one quick motion. He holds this pose for sixteen seconds. That brings his total time on stage as a statue to exactly a minute and a half. Not a beat of music has played. Jackson hasn't said or sang a single word and yet the crowd is growing in its intensity.
-  Finally, at just over two minutes into the performance, the music starts and Jackson become animated. The crowd goes wild. Before he has even begun, Jackson has given the attendees a memorable experience.

For those of you who have never been on stage in front of a group of people (large or small), every second that goes by silently can seem like an eternity. To hold a pose for a few seconds can be a challenge. To let a line linger for a moment after it is spoken for effect takes a certain will that some people cannot master. How Jackson could stand as still as he did for as long as he did in that moment is totally beyond me. Here he was on the biggest stage in the world, in front of the largest crowd in the world, to perform a show that had been hyped through the media for months leading up to this moment, and he just stands there stiff as a board. I'm sure his adrenaline was cranked and that he was excited to deliver an amazing once-in-a-lifetime performance, but he chose to stand still to start it all off.

In today's environment, Jackson's stillness would have cost the broadcasters $15,000,000 in airtime. And yet, would the performance have been as memorable if he hadn't started it that way? I doubt it. The still, slow beginning made it that much more memorable.

Reflecting on other Super Bowl performances, there are few moments that I can think of with any great amount of clarity. The Jackson/Timberlake "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004 doesn't really count as the memory is linked to the activity at the end as opposed to the performances themselves. I think the 2007 performance by Prince was pretty entertaining, but I understand that many people don't like him or his music all that much - even though his musicianship is hard to be topped by anyone. Some people will say "But what about Paul McCartney in 2005?!??" I understand that people love the music, and Sir Paul did a fine job, but I wouldn't say it was memorable from a "Wow!" perspective.

I'll leave you with what I think is the best performance during the Super Bowl Half-time show since Michael Jackson broke the mold in 1993. It's a superb performance that is very entertaining and incredibly memorable, as U2 rocked the Superdome in 2002 and then brought everyone to tears with their tribute to 9/11 victims:
 

For your reference, here's a complete list of Super Bowl Half-Time Shows.

Celebration of Lights 2012

On Tuesday evening, Lisa and girls met me for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. After dinner we drove out to O'Fallon for the Celebration of Lights. We had never gone to this event, but had heard that the light displays are quite amazing, once you get through the long line of cars waiting to enter the park. Well, on this night it was for pedestrians only, with no vehicles allowed in the park. We waited in a line of vehicles waiting to enter a parking lot, where we finally parked at one of the churches that was running shuttles to the entrance.

As we approached the line for the buses I was certain it would take us an hour to even get on a bus. Lisa and the girls wandered over to a tent and grabbed some free hot chocolate as I held our place in line. There were three lines waiting for the buses and each bus that pulled up went to a different line to pick up passengers. The first two buses pulled up to the other groups and as we awaited the next bus for our group I heard that they were only filling the buses halfway, as the bus would then drive down the road to another church to pick up more people. I started counting people in line ahead of us and figured we were about 30th in line. I guessed that each bus could hold 60 people, so I was worried we would not be able to get on the next bus and that we would have to wait for 4 more buses.

The next bus arrived and as we walked up towards the door, the volunteer was obviously counting people. She was moving to stop me in my place when she realized that the 4 of us were together and let us pass before stopping the next person. We climbed on the bus and moved towards the back, with Lydia sitting with me and Lainey with Lisa. The girls had never been on a big bus before, so it was all very exciting to them. Our bus made its way down the street in the line of cars and then proceeded to pass the entrance of the event to get to the next location. We pulled into the other church parking lot and picked up 4 people. I admit to being a little but frustrated at this point.There's no real reason why they shouldn't have filled the bus at our pickup point, but we were on the bus so it didn't really matter.

We finally arrived at the entrance and made our way through the line to pay our entrance fee. As we walked along the road, the number of lights strung from the trees on both sides was incredible. The entire roadside was lined with trees over 20 feet tall that were all colored in lights. Periodically, there were little scenes erected by various volunteer groups. The girls particularly enjoyed the scenes with characters they recognized (Sesame Street, Angry Birds, Toy Story). About halfway through our walk the fireworks display starting. This frightened Lainey, but Lydia was absolutely mesmerized at the beginning. A few minutes into the display, there were numerous successive loud explosions which pushed Lainey over the edge and dimmed Lydia's excitement. Thankfully, the fireworks did not continue for too long and we were able to continue on.

At the point where Lydia was really getting ready to want to leave we came upon a volunteer who was handing out lollipops. Some of you may know that our girls love lollipops and get them every week as we leave church. This perfectly timed event propelled us through the rest of the walk. At this point it was past the girls normal bedtime and we knew we were pushing into dangerous meltdown territory. Near the end we came upon a line of people waiting to enter a tent to see Santa Claus. I grabbed Lydia, walked around the line, picked her up and leaned into the tent door so she could catch a glimpse of Kris Kringle. She was pretty excited about that. I didn't even bother trying to do so with Lainey because she seemed content in her stroller at that point and she is terrified of the big elf.

After that brief excursion, we ran into our friends the Lortons, who were hustling their way to the finish as well. The girls were happy to see Owen and Jackson (baby Harrison was all covered up), but it is safe to say that all the kids were beyond tired at this point. We made our way out of the entrance and opted to walk the 1/3 of a mile back to the church, instead of waiting in the long line for the bus. This proved to be a smart decision. Upon arriving back at the church, we took a restroom break before loading back into the car. This was also a wise decision.

I dropped Lisa off with the other car at BWWs and on the way home I talked to the girls about their day and the lights we had seen. We all said "Hello" to the Mid Rivers Cow and Lydia said "That cow is always dressing up different." I had the girls Christmas music playing and I was singing along with it. Shortly thereafter Lainey was quiet. I figured she might have fallen asleep. A few minutes later I realized I hadn't heard Lydia singing in a while. I peeked back to find her all slouched over across the middle of the back sleep, sound asleep. When we arrived home I carried Lydia to bed and Lisa grabbed Lainey. Lydia awoke briefly as I took her coat off, but she was exhausted. Lisa came into the room and Lydia mumbled "Night night".

Lisa and I both agree that it was a fun night, but that we had walked along the edge of meltdown several times. If either of the girls had started crying I am doubtful that our memory of the experience would be so positive, but as it turned out, we all had a wonderful time. I am not sure that we will do it again anytime soon - we might attempt to view the lights through the car next time. All in all, it was a great evening out with the family.

A Poem About Daniel and the Lions

When Daniel was thrown into the den
Was he confident in Your plan for him?
Did his heart race fast with unchecked fear?

"Daniel's Answer to the King" by Briton Rivier

Did his eyes fill up with questioning tears?

Did he pray silently to You?
Was he afraid to make a move?
At what point did his fear subside?
When was he comfortable inside?

Did the lions nuzzle up to him in that place?
Did they sniff him out, breathe on his face?
Did they wander around in that place unbothered?
Did their ears perk up as he called to you Father?

When the king came calling, did the lions arise?
When he shouted his greeting, was there hope in his eyes?
When the response came, did his heart soar?
Was the moment punctuated with a lion's roar?

Daniel - servant, prophet, faithful
Lions - creatures, passive, powerful
King - tricked, trapped, released
A wonderful story of God, man and beast.

- Written 07MAY12

I encourage you to read the entire account of Daniel and the lions.

Using Idle Time For Good

The first part of this TED talk surprised me.
It's amazing to think that some of the reCaptchas I have filled in have helped digitize books.
To know that information is not only captured from print media and stored for future reference in a different format is great, but the fact that everyday people are participating in that effort unknowingly is amazing.

Oh, and someday I hope to learn Spanish while translating the web.

Anthony Evans and The Voice

My wife and I have watched several episodes of The Voice so far this season and have found them quite enjoyable. Last night we caught "the battles" episode that featured Anthony Evans up against Jesse Campbell. I briefly met Anthony Evans one Sunday after our church service. He was in town for a songwriters seminar and sang a couple of his songs in the service. He was/is a very likeable guy, with an incredible heart for God and some seriously amazing talent.

Last night, Anthony "lost" his battle and exited the show. It's hard to say he "lost" when he sang better than most people can sing in their dreams. Jesse did an amazing job as well. In my opinion, these two could have easily been the final two on the show. America will miss out on some incredibly talented performances now that Anthony is gone.

Enjoy this amazing 2 and a half minutes of live vocal awesomeness.

God's Praise is Unstoppable

"Sometime praise is impossible to contain. It is a violently full river for which there is no dam high enough or wide enough to contain it. He will be on the tip of our tongue. He will spill out."
- David Crowder (Praise Habit, p53)

Ridiculously Awesome Frisbee Catch

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee a lot.
I played with guys at every skill level.

Some guys were better at throwing from numerous holds.
- I could only throw 3 different ways.

Some guys were great at making amazing catches.
- I had a few (My most memorable was after a field length run I laid out for the disc and caught it inches above the ground while sliding through the mud).

And that sort of knowledge is what makes me appreciate this video so much.

First off, the throw is absolutely massive.There's no way to discount what the thrower did.

But the thing that struck me the first time I saw this video was incredible skill of the guy who caught it.
He timed his leap perfectly, his angle perfectly, his reach perfectly - and he did it off a moving speedboat.

The fact that these guys do these things to raise awareness for Compassion and children in poverty is an extra added bonus.

How Ridiculous, indeed!

An Interview with Glen Phillips About Music, Motivation and Creativity

I found this interview with Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket fame and wanted to share it.
It's interesting to me to hear the perspective of someone who has been in the music industry for so long.
Glen not only talks about some of his projects and bands, but he shares how his perspective and approach to writing has changed, as well as his motivation for creating.


As an aside - I saw Toad the Wet Sprocket live for the first time last year on the 4th of July and they sounded great. I was thrilled to hear for myself exactly how good they sound live and how much they sound like their recording, which is way more than most bands can have said of them. I'd love to see them again in a full concert setting, and I'd love for that show to not be limited to 70 minutes of scheduled time. Oh, and rumors online have a new studio album for TTWS coming soon...

Where Do Creative Ideas Come From?

Elizabeth Gilbert at TED: Reassigning Creativity's Origins

My favorite portions:

(8:00 through 11:00) - "And then the Renaissance came and we had this big idea, and the big idea was ‘let’s put the individual human being at the center of the universe’, above all gods and mysteries, and there’s no more room for mystical creatures who take dictation from the divine. And it’s the beginning of rational humanism, and people started to believe that creativity came completely from the self of the individual.”...

And I got to tell you, I think that was a huge error. You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person, to believe that he or she is the vessel, the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile human psyche. It’s like asking someone to swallow the sun. It just completely warps and distorts egos and it creates all these unmanageable expectations about performance...
And if this is true, and I think that it is true, then the question becomes ‘What now?’.
…
Maybe go back to some more ancient understanding about the relationship between humans and the creative mystery... But the question that I kind of want to pose is, you know, ‘Why not?’. Why not think about it this way? Because it makes as much sense as anything else I have ever heard in terms of explaining the utter maddening capriciousness of the creative process.

(12:00) - You know, even I have had work or ideas come through me from a source that I honestly cannot identify. And what is that thing?

(17:00) – And maybe nobody will ever chant God’s name again as he spins, and what is he then to do with the rest of his life? This is hard. This is one of the most painful reconciliations to make in a creative life. But maybe it doesn’t have to be quite so full of anguish. If you never happened to believe, in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you, but maybe if you just believed that they were on loan to you, from some unimaginable source for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along when you’re finished, with somebody else. And you know, if we start to think about it this way, it starts to change everything.

I haven't read a thing she has written, but it sounds like this lady is wrestling with the idea that God is the source of all creativity. Perhaps she has learned this, or is learning this, and is using this platform to begin a conversation with fellow creatives about the source of her creativity.

Creativity is Imitation. Indeed.

(HT: Jon Acuff)