Music with Hooks

I went to a presentation Saturday morning by well known LDS composer Janice Kapp Perry. For years in jest I have called her Janice Kapp Joplin, partly because of her "popular" side. At the presentation she helped to iterate and identify music's power as a learning tool and an agent for recall. She passed on someone else's remark that "music is a tatoo on your soul." I recently became acquainted with the insidious Romanian pop tune "Dragostea Din Tei." Of course it quickly became a family hit. We took a very short quick vacation at the beginning of January to California for the wedding of a nephew. Fortunately, the two oldest daughters are of an age where my wife and I can relate with them in a lot of different areas. Ailsa made us listen to the song often while we were captive in the car and there was much joviality. And of course it was played again to launch the drive home as soon as we got on the 405 freeway. Now, that song will always remind me of that fun trip that we had the same way that Ricky Martin and Smashmouth remind me of a summer vacation from a couple of years ago and "Clocks" by Coldplay reminds me of sitting in a tiny apartment in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy in June of 2001.

Oscar Watch

I like to watch the Oscars for various reasons. It's fun to see how the other half lives. We like to imagine we could find a place in that crowd. We like to worship them a little. I think Chris Rock was a big fat dud. He wasn't very funny, only provocative. But, then I'm probably not his target audience. Jamie Foxx would have been much better as the host.

It's always a wonder to see how unprofessional some of these professionals are. Some of them could use the services of a speech writer and a consultant to train them how to behave and assure them that the microphone will pick up their voice without their bending over into it. Some of them do fine with their acceptance speeches. They show poise and grace. They show that they gave some forethought to the act. It does no use to recite a litany of names of people you are grateful for. If you are going to cite names keep it to two or three and tell us why they were important to your accomplishment! Write out or memorize your remarks, use a metaphor or some other literary device.

What were Sean Combs and Prince doing there? I would have been just as appropriate to have Bill Clinton present an award. Wait,.... I don't want to give them any ideas. The practice of having some of the nominees stand on the stage and some of he presenters in the audience, I think was a good idea and probably helped with time management a little. Also, with the nominees on the stage, they all got some limelight.

Brother Nibley

While reading the notice of the passing of dear Hugh Nibley I was very dismayed to see column space given to his daughter's recent attack on him. Shame on his daughter and shame on the Deseret Morning News for mentioning her extremely (underlined three times) doubtful and specious claims in a notice of his death! I suspect his daughter's accusations are symptomatic of a person who found herself in the wrong path and had to "discover" a reason for it that placed no blame on herself. Why is it that "Memory Recovery Therapy" never reveals a forgotten episode of someone's parent being extremely nice and caring to them?

Jump Jump Jump the Shark

Does anyone take seriously David Caruso or CSI Miami anymore? It has become a lowly third step cousin twice removed from CSI. It make no sense. Make one hit show and then try to capitalize on that success by making another show that is completely different. Is Jerry Bruckheimer really in charge here? Or has he outsourced the writing overseas? Grissom is great and Horatio is trying to be everybody's everything.

Laney and the Cross

Ailsa has a very nice necklace with a lovely cross on it. Laney likes to wear it sometimes. Last Sunday Laney wore it to Church. Mormons don't commonly wear the cross. It's looked at as something that borders on idolatry and perhaps the sole domain of the Catholics. I expect there may have been some members a little scandalized or at least puzzled on Sunday, especially since I am the Bishop of the ward. We kept trying to tuck the cross into Laney's dress only to have her insist on removing it again and again. She was also wearing a scarf around her neck. Finally near the end of the worship services, she removed the scarf and muttered something about there not being any vampires around. Apparently, she was adamant about displaying the cross as a deterrent to the undead.

Whew!

I'm glad to see they dropped that droopy pants bill in VA!

Pickles

Recent postings by John Derbyshire over at the Corner brought to mind an incident from my past. Pickles are usually pretty good. I once had a very good pickle and I understand Derb's desire to acquire a stockpile once he found a good one. However, this story is more about a time and place than about a pickle. I think it was August 1985. I had come "home" to California for vacation from WADC. I was still single so I had to look up some girls I knew in the area. One of them was working taking pictures for a used car advertising magazine. If I remember correctly she was stationed at a car wash where people would meet her and she would take a picture of their car for the publication. I met her at this car wash in San Juan Capistrano. She suggested we go to a local sandwich shop/deli for lunch. They served me the best pickle I have ever had. I don't remember the name of the shop and probably could not find it even if it is still there. The food seemed like it was very kosher. I've always assumed that was why the pickle was so good. That was the last time I saw that friend and that was the best pickle I have ever had.... so far.

Can you tell what I'm saying?

Anyone who has watched children grow and learn has to be amazed from time to time. I have a great interest in languages and the learning of languages. My youngest daughter (age 4) has a very slight but very cute and endearing tendency to what I would call vocal or phonic dyslexia. Examples: for the longest time she was saying "cursomul." It finally dawned on me a couple of months ago, she was trying to say "commercial." She used to say "kinchen" for chicken. The name Chantell became Tanchell. Ruby the cat was "Reeboo", a cookie was "keecoo", tickle was "kiddle". Her attempt at chocolate came out as "kajshat." She has trouble with Grandma and Grandpa so it came out "pugga and pugga" and then developed into the collective noun "pugga" or "the Puggas" or" pugga and pugga and pugga". Notice how close that is to the Maori, "Paka" in Whalerider. The other day we were driving by a cemetery and she said, "my sisters are in that cemetery." I said, "do you mean your ansisters?" She replied, " yeah that's right."

For a while she called earplugs and earphones, "plug earrings." She called a Guinea Pig "skinny pig." She says I can't know how, rather than I don't know how. She's been calling the arm rests in the car "sleeper arms." A couple of months ago we had a visitor in our home for the first time who is Samoan. When she saw him she made her way over to Lenore and said, partially sotto voce, "Mommy, you have to speak Spanish to chocolate people."

Pop Culture is Filth

Local radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry touched on this topic briefly this morning. Our popular culture is rife with ego and empty "self esteem." More attitude than substance. This has become agonizingly more apparent in recent years in the pop music industry. Don't get me wrong, there is some talent out there. There is even some promising and untapped talent out there. Too many singers today employ vocal "embellishments" sliding up to pitch, and giving way too many jazz flourishes. These devices lead me to believe they are unsure of their voice so they mask it behind a cheap facade. They use fake "soul" to substitute technique. Christina Aguilera is a good example of this. Let me say outright that I think she has a good voice and it could probably be even better. She's even very good at the embellishments. But, there is a point where you can't see the painting for the brushstrokes and it becomes apparent that the emperor is naked.

Likewise in many other facets of life we recognize and praise mediocrity and thereby stifle excellence. Utahns give standing ovations at the drop of a hat. People talk the talk and can't even come close to walking the walk.

My kingdom for a peanut butter cookie!

Subway, Subway, Subway, diversity is not thy name.
In the interest of uniformity Subway is doing away with peanut butter cookies. This is the best freshly baked cookie around. I know, I'm weird. Maybe this is the diversity I can hang my life on. But, they are also doing away with..... swiss cheese. Huh! this is a sandwich shop?????!!!!!

Diversity for All!!!!

There has been much talk lately about disunity in the country and the cultural divide. Isn't it possible that is seems more a problem because we are paying more attention to it? Much like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, are we changing things simply by paying close attention to them? Is it possible that the emphasis on "diversity" and "tolerance" has given rise to our paying more attention to our differences, in fact honoring and rewarding them, and therefore people are more inclined to find such differences in themselves and make those attributes their most important aspects? The "protection of the minority" principle of Democracy has led us very far afield. We should pay more attention to our similarities. Most of us yearn and hope for the same thing and rejoice in the same things. Let that common ground unite us.

You stop boinging me!

Lenore is reading Beesus and Ramona to Laney. Reading to children may be out of fashion with lots of people. I remember even as a junior in High School enjoying Upton Sinclair's The Jungle as read to us by our English teacher, Mrs. Lee. Laney just identified "pest" as a bad word because her older sisters have used it to describe her more than once. I live in a house full of girls, one wife (even in Utah), three daughters, two cats. The fact that the only other male within my four walls is a rat, is an irony not lost on me or my girls.