time for a facelift

Well, I at least switched up graphics and a bit of the color scheme. It’ll do for now.

I’m thinking of renaming the House of Cakeboy blog…. it seems to have about run its course. I’m thinking through new names right now, and will take suggestions if anyone has them.

Here’s a few proposed names I’m mulling over. Many of them are from song titles… well, actually, all but one are from song titles, and the other one is probably a song title, I just haven’t heard the song. :-) If you have any opinions or other ideas, let me know. Not that I’ll really pay attention, but I might.

Proposed Names

  • Push To Talk
  • Trying to Get This Right
  • Over Yonder In The Minor Key
  • Erase and Rewind
  • Running on Faith
  • Didn’t He Ramble
  • You Didn’t Know Me When
  • The Things We Leave Behind
  • Between Green and Grey

(Bonus points to anyone who can name all of the artists who did these songs…)

too much new music?

I didn’t think it would ever be possible, but at the moment, I feel like I have too much new music to handle.

Within the past week, I have accumulated six new CDs:

  • A fabulous mix CD from Susan as part of the RMFO Mix CD Circle.
  • A pretty darn good mix CD from Chris in Houston from the previous RMFO Mix CD Circle. It’s a little bit harder stuff than what I’d usually listen to, but there’s still some quite good stuff there.
  • In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing, the latest offering from Caedmon’s Call. I got the pre-release for worship leaders as I noted in my previous post. I’ve listened through it 3 or 4 times so far.
  • The Builder & The Architect, from Sandra McCracken
  • Beams of Heaven: Indelible Grace 4
  • Indigo Girls - I picked this up for three bucks at the used bookstore.

My excuse for the last two is that I’m looking for some good hymns to add to our repertoire at church. And the Caedmon’s disk was an unexpected freebie, so that’s not too bad. But I just feel like I don’t have the time to really dig in and give this music the time it deserves. I guess I’ll have to cut down on the CD buying for a while. (Did I say that?)

In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing

In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing is the soon-to-be-released latest album from my favorite musical group, Caedmon’s Call. It’s a follow-up to their previous release In The Company of Angels, which was one of the best “worship albums” when the whole worship album craze hit a few years ago. (Has it ever really died down?) While the album doesn’t release until March 7th, Caedmon’s is offering a free copy of the pre-release album to worship pastors who are willing to give them some feedback on how the music might be usable for congregational singing. Happily, I am the worship leader at Noelridge, so I requested and received my free copy last week and have been listening to it quite a bit since then. I’ll go ahead and post my thoughts here.

First, let me review it just as an album. The 11 tracks are dominated by Cliff Young’s vocals (seven tracks), aided by Andy Osenga and Danielle Young on two tracks each. The songs are primarily new material, but there are three or so that are new settings of old hymns. All in all, it’s pretty solid, though I don’t think it quite measures up to the original ITCOA. I’ll have to listen through a few more times before I can give a definitive answer there. It might be a toss-up.

Now, about the congregational singing aspect of these songs. Noelridge is a small church. Our worship team is small, we don’t have a lot of instruments, we’re not a group full of pros. Don’t get me wrong, we have some good people, with real musical talent, but we’re never gonna sound like Caedmon’s or Casting Crowns or Third Day or the David Crowder Band. It just ain’t gonna happen. As a result, for songs to be effective for congregational singing, they need to be fairly simple and repetitive musically, and not too rhythmically complex. Lots of syncopation or ad-lib material will blow us out of the water.

Given those constraints, here’s my evaluation of the usability of the songs on the album for congregational singing.

Great And Mighty - Good stuff, but really too much of a solo-type song for congregational singing. Too syncopated.

Draw Me Nearer - This one I might use here sometime soon. This is a strong tune, a very nice update to the old hymn.

Sing His Love - It’s an OK song, pretty simple lyrically, maybe too simple. Definitely too syncopated and rhythmic for us to be able to manage. I guess I’m not a big fan of this song. I just don’t like it that much.

Rest Upon Us - Here we get Danielle for a song. This is a pretty song, but the verses are far too ad-lib to be workable for congregational singing.

The Story - Here we get our first taste of Andy O. I really like this song. If it doesn’t get some serious radio play time then there’s something wrong with the folks that write the playlists. But this is really a radio song, not a congregational Sunday morning song.

The Fountain - Back to Cliff for this one. A nice song, but again, too syncopated and complicated for us to be able to manage it congregationally.

Be Merciful To Me - Danielle this time. This one has potential as a congregational number. It’s simple, fairly repetitive, and it has a good message. I’ll have to give it a shot.

I Surrender All - Cliff again. This is a re-working of the classic hymn. I really like the harmonic progression in the verses, though the melody line may be so close to the original as to be a bit confusing. The chorus is pretty good, though it goes pretty high, which would make it hard for a congregation to sing. This would be on my maybe list…

We Give Thanks - Andy O again. I like this song, I might try to sing along with it if I hear it on the radio. But I don’t think it’s singable for a congregation.

Fellowship - This one I really like. Good lyrics, and I think the song is singable. I will have to give this one a try.

Mercy of my God - I really like the message in this one, I fear that it’s gonna be too tough for my congregation. I might have to try, though, since I like the message so much.

So that’s my roundup of the album. One final note, the CD shipped with just a simple liner giving the song listing. It would’ve been nice to know who wrote the lyrics and music for each song. Not that it affects my opinions on the songs any, but as a fan I’m curious to know whose hand is in all this stuff. I guess I’ll have to wait and buy the official version in March.

it's Monday...

…and I haven’t posted since last Wednesday, which means I’m a real slacker. I fall into this basic pattern of blogging where I show up on Monday, realize I’m a slacker, then because I have nothing more thoughtful to post, post a weekend update. Yawn. But since I’ve already fooled you into reading this far, here was my weekend:

Friday night Becky and I went and saw King Kong at the cheap theater. It was worth seeing on the big screen. It was pretty over-the-top; Peter Jackson would get you squirming, and then when you thought it should be about done, he’d make you squirm for another 10 seconds. The plot/story was OK, but pretty basic. The one part I really liked was the way the shots at the top of the Empire State Building were done; they had me fearing the heights even though I was safe in my seat. Well done that.

Saturday morning I headed over to Mount Vernon to accompany a young man from church who was trying out for a voice scholarship at Cornell College. It was fun to be on a college campus again, and even more fun to be on one that had good music facilities. If I were on campuses too often, I could definitely get bit by the college bug again and think about studying up enough that I could go back and teach. Sounds fun, but I think it’s unlikely.

Played a church league basketball game on Saturday and then headed home. Took Becky and Laura out for dinner and did a little shopping. Oh, and Becky’s mom headed home Saturday morning. It was great to have her visit, she was a big help to Becky, and she and Laura had soooo much fun.

Sunday led worship as usual at both services. We were without practice this week, which left us a little bit rough, but it turned out OK. That was about it for Sunday. Stayed home, just a lazy afternoon.

Now we’re to Monday and another week. It’s not too exciting so far. If it gets exciting, I’ll be sure to post about it.

it's snowing!

And it’s about time. We haven’t had any snow since December 16th… that’s a full two months. But this morning it started about 6 AM, we even had some thunder and lightning! Becky measured 2 inches of snow by 8:30, and there’s more to come. Woohoo! A chance to use the new snowblower, and it’ll look like winter again! I just wasn’t ready for spring yet in February.

Now if Mr. Murphy has anything to say, Becky will go into labor this afternoon and we’ll have to skate our way down to the hospital through all the snow and ice… or maybe the kiddo can just wait another week or so. (Her due date is March 1, which is less than two weeks away…)

Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century

Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century

This is a must-read article by Michael Crichton. His basic premise: we can make statistics say about anything, and so the trend is that the media and other organizations will try to build a big fear of a crisis. In reality, the environmental cycles are fairly normal. His conclusion:

Is this really the end of the world? Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods?

No, we simply live on an active planet. Earthquakes are continuous, a million and a half of them every year, or three every minute. A Richter 5 quake every six hours, a major quake every 3 weeks. A quake as destructive as the one in Pakistan every 8 months. It’s nothing new, it’s right on schedule.

At any moment there are 1,500 electrical storms on the planet. A tornado touches down every six hours. We have ninety hurricanes a year, or one every four days. Again, right on schedule. Violent, disruptive, chaotic activity is a constant feature of our globe.

Is this the end of the world? No: this is the world.

It’s time we knew it.

Loose ends

Just to tie up a few loose ends from previous posts:

  1. The evening at the coffeehouse went well. I ended up doing a little more instrumental and a little less vocal than I had originally planned, since the place was so full and noisy during the first hour that any attempt at capturing their attention for a vocal would’ve been a disaster. Still, I got to sing some, got to play a bunch, and even got some tips! Good times.

  2. Geof hasn’t posted the answer on his blog yet, but he declares (and I agree with him) that the answer to the evil brain teaser is that yes, the airplane will fly, since the engines are pushing against the air, and the air is unaffected by the conveyor belt. So kudos to Aaron, who almost immediately came to the right answer.

Well that’s about all the news from the home front for today. Becky’s mom is here to spend the week, we’ve been having fun with her, and also we’re enjoying having a babysitter for the week! :-) We went and saw The Producers at the theatre on Saturday (good old cheesy Mel Brooks - gotta love it!) and we’ll probably go out again either tomorrow or Thursday, kind of a last-chance date before the baby is born. Officially there’s about 2 more weeks left… I guess we’ll take it a day at a time.

An evil brain teaser

Geof posted this over on the Rumor Forum and it’s been so much fun I thought I’d share it with everybody. (Geof promises his solution tomorrow.)

Question:

An aircraft is on a runway. This runway is outfitted with a conveyor belt that has the capability to exactly match the speed of the aircraft landing gear’s wheels. Can the plane take off? Why or why not?

coffeehouse time

Tomorrow night I’m providing two hours of musical entertainment at my favorite coffeeshop. I’ll admit to being a little bit nervous, but I imagine it’ll turn out OK. I’m planning on doing about half instrumental stuff and half vocal stuff.

If any of you are in the Cedar Rapids area and want to come, here’s the details:

Brewed Awakenings Coffeehouse 1271 1st Ave SE, Cedar Rapids Friday February 10 8:00 - 10:00 PM

Should be a good time!

10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment

Erik Lokkesmoe has a good article on Townhall.com where he lists 10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment. It’s worthwhile reading and thinking it over. Some excerpts:

Mistake #1: We try to improve art and entertainment from the top-down and the outside-in. For example, when well-meaning people, flush with cash but bankrupt on talent, attempt to “show Hollywood” by creating films that go around proven creative methods, the result is always the same: direct to video, a waste of time and money. Enduring change, meanwhile, comes from the bottom-up (working your way up from the mailroom) and the inside-out (working within the creative industries).

Mistake #2: We don’t quite understand common grace – the idea that the good, the true, and the beautiful can be found in the most “unlikely” of places (Broadway) and people (liberal artists). Without a strong belief in common grace, we will either get angry at the culture or withdraw from it entirely.

Mistake #7: We use the arts to save souls and sway elections. True artists enter their work with a sense of mystery, wonderment, always uncertain what may finally appear on the canvas or film or pages. Children’s author Madeleine L’Engle speaks of her surprise when a certain character appeared unexpectedly in the plot of the novel she was writing. She says, “I cannot imagine the book without [the character], and I know that it is a much better book because of him. But where he came from I cannot say. He was a sheer gift of grace.” A sermon can be artful, and Lord knows campaign ads could use some imagination. Mixing art and agenda, however, is propaganda, whether it comes from the left or the right. If you want to send a message, Samuel Goldwyn rightly said, call Western Union.

Mistake #10: We like safe art. Soggy may be a better term. Easy to digest. Nothing that causes heartburn. Do we really want art that never challenges our convictions, wrestles with our beliefs, or questions our faith? Let’s not forget: beauty is hardly safe, truth is never tame, goodness is anything but trite. Author Franky Schaeffer said it best : “The arts ask hard questions. Art incinerates polyester/velvet dreams of inner healing and cheap grace. Art hurts, slaps, and defines. Art is interested in truth: in bad words spoken by bad people, in good words spoken by good people, in sin and goodness, in life, sex, birth, color, texture, death, love, hate, nature, man, religion, music, God, fire, water, and air. Art tears down, builds up, and redefines. Art is uncomfortable” Finally, and most profoundly, he writes: “Good art (which, among other things, means truth-telling art) is good in itself, even when it is about bad things.”

You should really read the whole thing.