All Now Mysterious...

Sunday, December 21, 2008

From Today's Christmas Service

“This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again. Christmas is a celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself unselfishly in the things that matter most.”

Howard W. Hunter, “First Presidency Extols Meaning of Christmas,” Ensign, Feb. 1995, pp.77–79.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Top 5 On Friday - Week 204

From The Music Memoirs

Top 5 albums or songs from 2008.

» Revelation by Journey

Holy cow, Arnel Pineda is seriously channeling Steve Perry.

» The Cosmos Rocks by Queen + Paul Rodgers

Rodgers obviously doesn't sound a lot like Freddie Mercury—who does, really?—but the overall sound of the album is very solid.

» Bulletproof by Reckless Kelly

2005's "Wicked Twisted Road" is a hard act to follow, but this album holds its own just fine.

» Naive by Micky and the Motorcars

In the past, the band has usually just recorded whenever they could squeeze it in between tour dates. This time, they actually dedicated their time to recording, and it shows.

» Phoenix by Asia

As I said a couple of weeks ago: for my money, this is the best album of 2008.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Wisdom of Piaget

"I'm sociable, certainly. I like teaching and I go to all types of meetings. At the same time, I have a pressing need for solitude and contact with nature. Both inspire me."
-Jean Piaget

Christmas Music Meme

Top 5 On Friday - Week 203
From The Music Memoirs

Top 5 Non-Traditional Christmas Songs

» "Chiron Beta Prime" by Jonathan Coulton
"Merry Chistmas
From Chiron Beta Prime
Where we're working in a mine
For our robot overlords
Did I say 'Overlords'?
I meant 'Protectors'...."
For the rest of the lyrics, click here.


» "A Christmas Carol" by Tom Lehrer
Really the only song that celebrates the True Spirit of Christmas, at least as we celebrate it here in America: the Commercial Spirit of Christmas.
Again, click here for lyrics.


» "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" by Gary Hoey
If any Christmas song ever cried out for a growling, screaming electric guitar treatment, this is the one. Great fun.

» "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" by Kitaro
What would a Japanese composer and pioneer of the New Age music movement know about Christmas? Nothing, maybe, but he sure knows his Bach. This is one of the most beautiful arrangements of an already beautiful piece.

» "O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Sure, it gets overplayed every year now, but it's still a great piece. You wouldn't think a hard rock group like Savatage (the forerunner of TSO) would be able to make pleasant-sounding Christmas music, but they do.

Friday, December 05, 2008

T-Day Travels (Part I)

Ever since we got married (and even before), Nancy and I have been switching off on holidays with our respective families. This year, it was time to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado with my family. Since Nancy now works for a major airline, we figured we could fly. However, her employer doesn't fly from Salt Lake to Denver, except with JFK Airport in New York as a layover. And flying another airline, even with the discounted rates we'd get, would still be at least as expensive as driving—especially with as prices now well below $2.00/gallon. So we decided to drive. This is the story.

Thursday, November 27th
Nancy and I both had to work on Wednesday night, but we had great hopes for leaving fairly early on Thanksgiving morning for Colorado. The weather was looking cooperative, and all we really had to do on Thursday morning before leaving was to finish our packing and straighten up the house. I envisioned us being on the road by 8:30 or 9:00 that morning. 10:00 at the very latest.

Yeah, right.

Straightening up the house took quite a bit longer than anticipated. For my part, I had a sink full of dishes to wash and garbage to take out. And I'd barely done any packing at all. I'd intended to do some or all of those things Wednesday night after work, but I was just too tired at the time. (More on that in another post.) So even thought I awoke at 7:30, I was nowhere near ready to go by 9:00, or even 10:00.

When I finally had finished doing dishes and taking out the trash and packing, there was still one more task to take care of. For several weeks, part of the plastic skid plate on Nancy's car has been hanging down. And scraping. It made a delightful noise that attracted attention everywhere we went. So we figured it would be best to get that fixed before jaunting off across the Wyoming plains. Lacking ramps or an effective jack, we drove the car up onto the curb and I slid under it in the gutter. (There's an image for you!) With the help of a pair of needle-nosed pliers and a nylon zip tie, I got the loose piece secured for travel. Yeah, it was a pretty whiskey tangoa solution, but it worked. We'll have to get the entire skid plate replaced some time, but for now we have better things to spend $200 on.

Nancy did her thing while I was finishing up all of my stuff, and at last we got the car loaded and began our journey. It was just after noon when we pulled out.

I figured we'd stop at the neighborhood fast food joint for a little lunch to go. We were second in line at the drive through, behind a blue Subaru that seemed to be taking a long time to order. We came to find out that he wasn't ordering at all; he was talking to the speaker and waiting for a response. Alas, nobody answered because they had closed at 11:00. He (and we) figured that out after about five minutes when somebody came out of the back door of the restaurant and told us all that they were closed. Fair enough. We could eat somewhere else.

I missed the turnoff to eastbound I-80 and ended up on southbound I-215 east instead. I got off at the 3300 South exit, which was just a block or so away from several fast food places. We learned, in turn, that none of them was open either. So we got back on the freeway and headed for Park City to try our luck.

We had similar results there. The fast food places were all closed, including the one with the big sign in front of the restaurant saying "WE'RE OPEN!!"b We did manage to find a grocery store with a deli section that was open. But they had basically no selection in their hot case. We asked if the guy at the counter could make any of the numerous items we weren't seeing available, and he said no. Feeling a little frustrated (and hungry) by this time, I pointed out the sign above the counter and asked, "So when the sign says 'If you don't see it, we'll make it!', that's not really accurate, then?" He gave me a stupid bewildered look like I'd asked him something in Swahili but didn't really say anything. Whatever. We left, deciding to take our chances at Evanston. We figured the truck stops at least had to be open. Until then, we had snacks that Nancy had packed. Dove chocolates, cashews, Twix bars, licorice, that sort of thing.

We pulled into the Flying J in Evanston and were pleased (and relieved) to find that they were open and had plenty of food available. They had a Thanksgiving buffet available, but we opted against it for reasons of time and money. Instead, we had a chicken cordon bleu sandwich, a Big Dog (a large sausage wrapped in bread dough and baked), some potato wedges, an order of hot wings (for Nancy, not me) and a couple of sodas. Now nourished in body and spirit, we got back on I-80 and headed east.

The rest of the trip was delightfully uneventful. We discovered that there's a new wind farm about 20 miles east of Evanston, with something like a hundred windmills there generating electricity. Realistically, you could put windmills pretty much anywhere along I-80 in southern Wyoming. The wind blows all the time along that stretch—or at least every time I've ever been there. Anyway, we pulled into my parents' driveway around 8:30 that evening, relieved as always to have arrived safely.

Friday, November 28th
The main event on Friday was a day with my nieces, Mikayla and Jordan. They came over late Friday morning and stayed until around 5:30. I was on my laptop when they arrived, so I spent a little time showing them NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website and talking about the stars and science and such tings, mostly with Mikayla (who just started high school).c Then we started with the games. We played two games of Ticket To Ride, one of my/our favorite games. For the first game I spent a lot of time helping Jordan, who turned 9 on December 2nd. That first game was all the tutoring she needed, though. In the second game, she was on top of it. She proved herself quite capable, and maybe even a little ruthless. She's a bright girl. So is her sister.

We got pizza delivered sometime around 3:00, which seemed a little weird to me. First, the fact that we have a pizza chain like Domino's in the little town where I grew up is a little surreal. And the fact that they would deliver to my parents' house, which is well outside the recognized city limits just blows my mind. J-Town has changed so much since I lived there. I barely recognize it sometimes.

We wrapped up the evening with a rousing game of Scattergories, after which we had to take the girls to meet Jeremy, their adopted dad. They don't think of him as their adopted dad, of course, they think of him as their dad. And they should. He's good for them and great for Debbie, their mother and my former sister-in-law. I guess it's still a little strange for me, knowing that my brother A, the girls' father, is no longer a part of their lives. Maybe he will be again one day in the future. Probably later rather than sooner.

That's a good place to stop for now. We'll pick up the narrative with Saturday and the family's trip to Colorado Springs to visit my brother.


--
a "Whiskey Tango" is the phonetic pronunciation for the letters W and T, respectfully. W.T. stands for 'white trash'.
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" stands for something else entirely.

b In retrospect, I think the sign probably had more to do with the road construction in the area than with the fact that it was Thanksgiving Day. But it was very frustrating at the time.

c Wait, I'm old enough to have a niece in high school? That can't be right.

Classic Friday Music Meme

Top 5 On Friday - Week 202
From The Music Memoirs

Top 5 albums from classic rock artists.

» Moving Pictures by Rush

The definitive Rush album. Moving Pictures produced the band's only real radio hit, the ubiquitous "Tom Sawyer". And of the album's seven tracks, five of the remaining six are arguably better songs than that one. Intriguing lyrics, exquisite musicianship, and the group's complex and distinct sound make this one a must-have.

» Boston by Boston

1976 was a great year in music, featuring The Eagles' Hotel California, Kansas' Leftoverture, and Rush's 2112, among others. And Boston's debut album is as good as any of them. "More Than a Feeling", "Long Time", "Peace of Mind", "Rock & Roll Band"—everybody knows these songs. There's a good reason. The only thing more fun than listening to this album is trying to play it on Rock Band.

» Point of Know Return by Kansas

And speaking of Kansas, I had to include one of their albums in this list. While the aforementioned Leftoverture is the album that made the band famous, this one is probably my favorite. It represents the group at their best, with inspired songwriting by Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh and tight playing by everyone. This sound would start to slip away after this album, and they'd never really reclaim it until 2000's Somewhere to Elsewhere.

» Chicago II by Chicago

Forget the David Foster-driven adult contemporary stuff they put out in the 80's and 90's. In their original incarnation, Chicago was a rock band with serious jazz and progressive influences. The fact that their first two studio releases (this one and Chicago Transit Authority) were both double albums is remarkable. The fact that this one includes not one but two extended song suites will probably come as a surprise to those who only know the Peter Cetera/Jason Scheff-era Chicago. Give it a listen. You'll like it.

» Phoenix by Asia

While the group's self-titled debut album is one of the great albums in rock, their most recent one is too good not to mention here. Featuring the original foursome together for the first time since 1983, this album has the classic Asia sound with a fresh sense of urgency and perspective. It's powerful and accessible while retaining a progressive sound. Highlights include "Never Again", "Parallel Worlds", "Orchard of Mines", and "Wish I'd Known All Along". For my money, this is the best album of 2008.