Craving the Classics

After I got home from a four-mile run through the Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve this morning, I turned on the television for a minute and got ensnared by "Totally 80's" on VH1.  This spectacle is an homage to the days when MTV actually played music videos, instead of featuring the escapades of drunken frat boys and skanks and glorifying teen-age motherhood.  They were playing some great videos from my own "golden age" and it was a lot of fun to see some of those classics, as well as some not so classic ones.  Huey Lewis, I'm talking to you.  Where's the apology you owe us all for ever making a record?

As I pondered the ill-begotten fame of Mr. Lewis and the classic music videos of the 1980's, I thought of another classic that I've been craving and getting my fill of lately.  This:

"The Bob Newhart Show" cast

To say I bust a gut laughing every time I watch "The Bob Newhart Show" would be a woeful understatement.  It is indeed a classic.  It is a master class in comedy writing that television writers today sorely need.  Newhart's straight man to the collection of crazies around him is brilliant.  While the sets and styles of this solidly 1970's program have aged, the writing, acting, and humor have not.  It is consistently funny, almost forty years later.

Thanks to a local TV station here, we get this classic program every night.  I'm not able to watch it every night but when I do, it makes me crave more of the classics, like this one.  I think one reason is the memories that it evokes for me of my father.  My dad wasn't much for television watching. Ever.  In those days, as a kid, we had three network channels, a PBS station, and one local channel that seemed to play the 1933 version of "King Kong" every dang Saturday.  But I do have memories of watching these programs with Dad: "The Odd Couple," The Jeffersons," and "The Bob Newhart Show."  What I enjoyed most about watching these programs was that my Dad laughed.  He really got a kick out of these shows.  I'm not sure I always understood the jokes then but it was great to watch him laugh and laugh with him.  

Today, I get the jokes and I love them.  It's been fun this week to catch a lot of the Newhart Show with the Boy.  We've laughed a lot.  It's been good.  Classics aren't such a bad thing.  Not at all.

Welcoming the new move-ins

As I've noted previously, I have the opportunity to serve as a part of the clergy, or bishopric, in our local ward, which is similar to a parish.  As a counselor in that bishopric, I have the opportunity to see a lot of good things happen.  People are, at their core, inherently good, I think, and I certainly have seen that in action as members of our ward interact.

One of the unique aspects of this opportunity is that it is done on personal time and it is not compensated financially.  It is truly a lay clergy across the Church.  People serve in different capacities all the time.  It's dynamic and it makes things interesting.  So when new people move into the ward, the bishopric makes it a point to get to know these new people.

Our ward is enjoying a mini-growth spurt right now.  The fact that we are close to a train station for the commuters and that there's only one high school within our ward boundaries makes it pretty desirable.  So earlier this week, the three of us who make up our bishopric went to pay a visit to one of new families.  These visits follow a familiar pattern:

• We show up at the new home and are invited in
• Chatfest begins - where are you coming from, where have you lived, etc. - the biography
• More chat - talking about work, school
• Then the question:  "Tell us about what you've done in the Church."

This is the $64,000 Question.  Why?  Because it can frame where you might be serving, sooner rather than later, in the ward.  It's funny to see how people respond to this question.  Some get that deer in the headlights look.  Others take in a breath deep enough to take the oxygen out of the room.  Others seem more than ready to respond.  The best responses are the totally uncensored ones, like:

• I've worked in the Young Men's program for years and totally enjoy the activities.  But the Scouting stuff...merit badges.  Totally don't get it.  Don't see the need for it.

Queue the triumphant sounds of "The Hallelujah Chorus!"  That, my friends, is the kind of answer I totally appreciate and can totally support.  Anyway, we take in all the answers and then we will prayerfully (I promise) consider how those folks can serve.  It really is pretty cool.

We've got more new families to visit.  More things to learn.  And we're faced with a good challenge - staffing a ward that's pretty much fully staffed.  Good times.

Free to...

It's the 4th of July and the United States of America celebrates its 235th anniversary of its independence.  In the grand scheme of things, the USA is still a relatively young nation but it has done much in those 235 years.

I'm grateful to be a citizen of this country where I am free to:

• exercise, literally, as I want.  For example, I got up this morning and ran four miles through the forest preserve/swamp near our house.  I ran through the biggest swarm of mosquitoes ever.  I'm looking forward to the delirium of malaria.  Or, as a friend pointed out, West Nile virus.
• bust open my beloved Weber grill, throw on some wood chips, and grill some corn-feed beef and enjoy!
• celebrate the nation's independence by NOT going to the local parades (I loathe, loathe, loathe parades) and by blowing up imported Chinese-made fireworks, adding ever so slightly to our burgeoning national debt.
• handing over $10 to watch the latest Hollywood big summer movie blockbuster and wishing I had rammed a fork in my eye seven minutes into said movie.  Transformers - Dark Side of the Moon, (editorial aside - my apologies for including 'side' in the title as that's wrong and I don't wish to lead any Pink Floyd fans astray, thinking that their music somehow got put into the heinousness that is the movie) I am talking to you.  I beg you.  I warn you.  Don't waste your money on this one.  Don't.  Do.  It.

So, yeah, I'm proud of my country.  In spite of ourselves, we do get things right.  Blagojevich has been found guilty.  The country seems to be coming to its senses about the crazy that is Sarah Palin.  It's good to live here.

A Night with Delta Rae

Last night, our fine city was rocked by Mother Nature (thank you, golf-ball sized hail) and by the musical force of nature that is Delta Rae (Full Disclosure - three of the four members of the band are my second cousins).  The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I were front and center in the audience enjoying the music as Mother Nature smacked Chicago around for the umpteenth time this year.

What an amazing show!  I love this description of the band:
Delta Rae is Mumford & Sons meets Fleetwood Mac - a full-throated Alt-Pop band with four lead singers - delivering crushing harmonies and one of the most electrifying live experiences on the club circuit.
  
They did not disappoint.  From "Morning Comes" to their encore number, "Darlin' If," every song was a showcase of the talent that every member of the band possesses.  "Deliver" was absolutely beautiful.  When the four leads sang in the audience acoustically, it was one of those musical moments that pretty much took your breath away.  The harmonies were beautiful, the drummer killed, and the guitars rocked.  Eric and Ian have written some pretty incredible songs and we really loved that we knew the songs (I know I am totally aging myself by saying that).  The energy that Brittany and Elizabeth put in their vocals lit up the dark basement club.  It was an incredible night!

One of the highlights for me was meeting my cousins again - I'd not seen them since 1995 when they were little.  They didn't know me from Adam but once we climbed up the family tree and made our connections, it felt like family.  I'm enormously proud of them and am in awe of their talent.  I'm also really glad they didn't note the fact that the presence of the mighty fine and stunningly patient SML and me skewed the audience age significantly.  I had twenty years on pretty much every on there.  Nice.

And now, since it's my blog and I can do this, I'm going to invite you to do a few things:

• Go to deltarae.com and follow these guys on Twitter and Facebook
• Consider helping them to get their first full-length album cut.  Go here to learn more on how you can get in on the ground floor of backing an awesome band

Finally, start your long weekend off right with a little taste of Delta Rae goodness: