I don't have any scriptural authority or even a hint to back me up.  It's just a feeling I have - on the eighth day He created the guitar solo.  Or maybe that was sound that let the world know that it was good.  Like I said, it's just a feeling I have.  I do know for an actual true fact that this was the first hit recording with an electric guitar solo. 

Ernest Tubbs and the Texas Troubadours; year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-one.  Good stuff.  Verse, chorus, verse, 8 bars of electrical guitar solo, verse, chorus and done.  Inauspicious beginning, perhaps, to the recorded glory that became the Guitar Solo.

Now here's another electrical guitar solo you might find interesting.  This is from a misogynistic 1946 number called "Ain't That Just Like A Woman".  It's a 3 minute song so you don't have to listen to the whole thing ifn you don't want to.  But do pay attention to the 1st 4 bars.  Those 4 measures are actually a completely awesome guitar solo but they didn't realize it in 19 and 46.  They were too busy declaring that Nero fiddling while Rome burned was "just like a woman" *shakes head*.  But listen to that solo.  Recognize it?

The Once and Future Absolute True and Undisputed King of Rock and Roll recognized it.  The Right Honorable Maestro Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry took those 4 bars like a potter takes swamp silt and turned it into something quite literally out of this world.

First thing he did was make the 4 bar intro into 12 delightful bluesy bars to start off his magnum opus.  Then he added a 12 bar verse, 12 bar chorus, 12 bar verse, 12 bar chorus and then, and then, and then he did an amazing 12 bar Electrical Guitar Solo! *bows head* And then and then and then he did Another 12 Bar Electrical Guitar Solo! *weeps* Then a 12 bar verse and 12 bar chorus and done.  Beautiful. Beautiful. Do 8 ten-second 12 Bars of glory and before you know it, you've got 2:40 of greatness.  He recorded this masterpiece in December 1957 (right before my parents got married, I guess) and it was released in early 1958.

Why not call it the epitome of rock and roll and sent it into Outer Space? Nasa did just that in 1977.  Voyager 1 is, by now, well outside of our solar system but it has a gold plated copper disc with this song included on the recording.  In a Saturday Night Live skit, Chevy Chase told us that aliens had indeed discovered the disc and sent us back a message.  Great teams of scientists decode the alien message and it said, "Send more Chuck Berry".  I have no doubt.

When I listen to the song I like to count the 12 bars (i.e. 1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, etc).  Even though Chuck's guitar work is purposefully offbeat (the chorus is kind of offbeat too) each time you start your 12 bar count over, Chuck is starting a new part of the song.  Cool and very cool. 

*trivia* Brian Wilson and Mike Love also recognized the greatness of this lick and begin the Beach Boys classic "Fun, Fun, Fun" with the exact same riff */trivia*

That's what I have for you this time.  Feel free to listen to this over and over, I don't think xanga audio will wear out, even though I eventually do (see below).

AU~out

Male names are cyclical too, but much less so than female names.  In my temporary 10 years of selling glamour-type photos to women, I was amazed at how accurately one could predict a woman’s age based solely on her name. Opals and Naomis and Hannahs are my grandmother’s age. Janes and Ruths and Carols and Sallys are my mother’s age.   Lindas and Kims and Kellys are my age. Natalies and Ashleys and Sarahs are my daughter’s age.  We are coming full circle now that Hannah is a likely name for one my granddaughter’s age (I don’t have one yet, of course).

Here’s an interesting phenomena – Elizabeth isn’t generally age specific, but what you call your Elizabeth is.  Look at this 100% accurate and verified and bonified;

Your Elizabeth’s Age Chart

• Liz or Lizzie = my grandmother’s age
•  Elizabeth or Betty = my mother’s age
•  Beth or Lisa = my age
•  I don’t know any my daughter’s age, is it back to Elizabeth or QE II or anything else?

Here’s yet another 100% accurate chart for your elightenmenthoodness:

Approximate Age if named after a Month

• May = my grandmother’s age
• June = my mother’s age
• April = my age 
•  January = my daughter’s age
•  December = my granddaughter’s age

The entire point is – I only know 1 (one) 20-something Ruth, but I really love the name.  Plus which I love the Bible book that anyone named Ruth is named after. One of The Sniper’s best friends is named Mara.  She is the only person I’ve ever known named Mara, even though, in and of itself, it is a pretty name (I think), it is an odd name to give your daughter.  The name means “Bitterness” and in the book of Ruth, Naomi tells her people to start calling her Mara because “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”.  Don’t hold it against her though, because her husband and her two sons have died and she is facing a life of begging and/or deprivation or worse.  Because of Ruth’s actions, so the scriptures tell us, Mara’s life was not at all bitter in the final outcome, but you can certainly understand her temporary sense of despair in the face of all that grief.  Still – it remains a strange name for your daughter.

Like Mara in the scripture, The Sniper’s friend Mara is not at all bitter (in spite of her first husband’s early death to cancer) and she remains one of the finest people I have met.  She and her fine husband are vocational missionaries in American Samoa where they have raised 3 lovely daughters and built a school and a church.  (May God continue to bless them and their fine work.)

This weekend, we got to travel to the beautiful city of Austin and witness the marriage of Mara’s lovely daughter.  Through the groom’s connections they were able to get a beautiful chapel on the campus of the Austin Theological Seminary.  It only sat around 100 but it still looked like a cathedral inside – probably 30+ feet vaulted ceiling, all built of stone, stained glass, arches, the whole package. Loverly.

I hope this doesn’t lead to further revocation of my man card, but I love weddings, and I especially loved this one.  The processional was Pachebel’s Canon in D on an acoustic guitar (beautifully ancient song on Heaven’s favorite instrument and in a gloriously ancient looking chapel). The groom was dressed like a gentleman and the look on his face as he watched his intended walk down the aisle was a marvelous sight.  The bride was (as almost all brides are) surpassingly lovely.

The groom’s father conducted the ceremony and after a few gloriously inspiring (and brief!!!) remarks he asked his son to recite his vows. The groom turned to his intended and began, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.”  Of course, I began tearing up as soon as he said, “Where you go”, because even though I have heard of people using that scripture as a wedding vow, I don’t believe I have ever actually heard it used this way.  It is a very powerful and deeply important vow to make.  It takes a man among men to even make a promise like that, but it was especially meaningful to hear this particular groom make this vow to this particular bride – this particular bride being Mara’s daughter, Ruth. And of course, it was also very moving to witness Ruth make this same vow to her groom.

This vow Ruth makes in the book that bears her name is a remarkable testament of Ruth’s character and compassion.  Ruth doesn’t make this vow to a man; instead, she makes this substantial vow to her former mother-in-law.  Ruth had no formal obligation to further care for her dead husband’s mother, and Naomi herself had even released her from any informal obligation Ruth might feel.  But Ruth refused to be dissuaded.  Naomi wasn’t the only beneficiary of Ruth’s faithfulness either.  The book of Ruth reveals that she herself received a benefit.  As did Boaz, then Obed, then Jesse, then David, and so on until Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.  So I’m guessing we all benefit from Ruth’s promise to Naomi.

Even though it wasn’t originally spoken as a marriage vow, it is an entirely appropriate one for any that would enter into such a sacred covenant and it was beautiful and sweet to hear Mara’s daughter Ruth make that vow to her husband.  Even more remarkable to me, neither stopped with the “your God my God” promise.  They each vowed to the other as Ruth did to Naomi, “Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried”.  Isn’t that a beautiful and shocking promise to make to your significant other?  1,000 times more powerful than “till death us do part”.  Wow. 

Even more remarkable is they didn’t stop there.  Ruth and her groom included in their vows, just like Ruth vowed to Naomi, “May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." Kapow!  Them’s a serious vow! You just don’t hear that kind of commitment in these modern times of today and now.  Pardon my French, but it takes gigantic brass ones to make that kind of a promise.  Just saying…

It didn’t occur to me to make that promise to the Sniper 15 years ago, I sort of meant the same thing when I said “until death us do part”, but I really love how those vows spell out just what marriage means.  Therefore, I am inspired to make the same vow.  Not just here where I am triple protected by the triple secret triple concealment of my real true life not made up identity, but maybe even to the Sniper herself.  I’m a blessed man to have such a wife, and lo, what an injustice it would be if ought but death separated us. 

So.  Maybe I deserve to have my man card revoked for being such a sap at this wedding; on the other hand, I don’t think I’ve met the fellow that could pry that card from my mighty strength upon strength considering the giganticness of my big brass ones. Ooh ra!

What have we learned? I shall enumerate:

1. Girl names are fascinating and cyclical
2. Ruth was sumkinda tough
3. My man card is safe and secure from all alarm because mine are so big and made of brass
4. So are Ruth's and her groom's
5. All y'all need to start naming some of your daughters Ruth
6. That's enough for today

AU~out

*this claimer* I've visually represented a song  before and o so much better, but we got this recession going on and brilliance is harder to come by.  We're not necessarily "settling" but we are lowering expectations a little, aren't we?*/this claimer*

It's snowing!!  And I love, love, love Christmas.  It's my favorite time of year.  I've already posted a Sixpence None The Richer Christmas song a few weeks ago, but I'm listening to the album over and over.  I'm happy I found the album (albeit a year later than released). Most of the time when a secular artist releases a Christmas album, it is filled with secular Christmas songs with a sacred one thrown in for good measure. So I guess it shouldn't be surprising that when a Christian band releases a Christmas album, they throw in a secular song for good measure. 

SNtR's great Christmas album has the wonderful tune, Christmas Island, on it. I think the Andrews Sisters released it first, so it's not new, but I haven't heard it in ages.  I'm really loving it and they've almost sold me on staying up late like the Islanders do.  How bout you? I'll bet we'll never stray for every day our Christmas dreams come true.  That's my prediction.

I'll probably stay stateside, but it's fun to think about.  Y'all have a wonderful Christmas!

AU~out

If you asked me to rank my favorite musicians/performers off the top of my head, it would be a long time before I got down to Michael Jackson.  I’ve always placed him in the “kinda like” category.  Nevertheless, based on all I’ve read and heard about the movie, This Is It, I was looking forward to seeing it.  Everything fell into place and we got to see it yesterday with Marcus and Ashley.

I highly recommend seeing this movie on the big screen in a theater with great sound.  I think this is the best concert movie that I have ever seen (even though there really never was a concert L).  And I have seen, in the theater, Woodstock, Gimme Shelter, The Song Remains the Same, Yessongs and many others.  This was amazing, even in comparison to those great films.

As I watched MJ work so earnestly and so hard, I kept thinking about Judy Garland.  She was a performer that was just mind-boggling to watch in action.  No matter the quality of the song, when Judy performed it, she SOLD it.  She took every bit of emotion available in a song and wrung it out like a sponge.  Jackson performed a song in much the same way. It was impressive to witness what a complex working knowledge he had of music in general and each song in particular, how clearly he envisioned what he wanted, and how graciously he insisted on achieving his vision.

Of course, I also thought of Judy Garland because she was a consummate performer with a wreck of a personal life who sought refuge and relief in medication until it killed her.  Sad and sad.  Is that kind of personal unhappiness required for great art?  Sometimes it seems so.  Perhaps, in spite of my extensive charm, incredible good-looks and remarkable talent, I’m just too doggone happy to ever be great.  Alas, a burden I shall have to keep.

The thing that struck me most as I watched this excellent film was a remarkably self-centered sorrow.  I am almost angry that I am not going to be given the opportunity to witness this spectacular concert.  I am also sorry for the other musicians and dancers that were so excited to be involved in the show.  Some had dreamed of this opportunity since they were children.  In spite of the (sometimes overwhelming) sorrow, the movie is still a beautiful and thrilling experience.  The Way You Make Me Feel, Human Nature, Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, Black & White, Man In The Mirror – each song was going to be a visual and audio performance masterpiece.  I haven’t seen anyone like Madonna or Brittney Spears, but I’ve read about the incredible number of costume changes, etc. in their shows.  For this show, the stage, costumes, props, and effects were going to be remarkably complex and different as well as uniquely suited to each song he was going to perform.  What a show that wooda been!  So. You should go see this movie, since we can’t go to the concert.

Love all y’all!