Tuesday, July 31, 2007

 
Last Saturday marked my 22nd night of singing Karaoke, all at Mel's Place here in Virginia Beach. I'm gonna start keeping the list here online for any and all who might be interested...

"You're the Inspiration" by Chicago led off the set which would ultimately grow to include nine songs, since it started slowing down in the bar dramatically towards the end of the night. Which was a departure from its usual thing of starting off slow and picking up. "You know our love was meant to be the kind of love that lasts forever... and I want you here with me, from tonight until the end of time..." This version of the song, I could never figure out what the hell key it was in, and so it was garbage. I'll have to listen more closely next time.

"Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce helped me redeem myself a little bit, which I was very anxious to do after butchering one of my favorite bands, Chicago. Nice, easy, beautiful song. I love the melody and the simple truth of the lyrics. "If I had a box just for wishes, and dreams that had never come true, the box would be empty except for the memory of how they were answered by you." Gorgeous.

"Head Games" by Foreigner was next. An angrier song, more intense, much more hard-rock than the mellow Croce song. "No time ever seems right to talk about the reasons why you and I fight. It's high time to draw the line, put an end to this game before it's too late!" I think I did quite well on this one, too, but I tend to bring the Foreigner pretty well.

My personal favorite performance of the night was "Open Arms" by Journey. I still can't believe I was able to sing it as well as I did. Had to belt it out to make sure I stayed on pitch, but it's a belt-it-out, emotional song, anyway. "Lying beside you, here in the dark, feeling your heart beat with mine... Softly you whisper, you're so sincere, how could our love be so blind?"

After nearly killing myself with "Open Arms", I did a "let's take it easy" song next, "The Very Thought of You" by Nat King Cole, where I was able to show off my baritone voice a little bit. "I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above..." A middle-aged couple that sat at a table very near the "stage" said it was my best performance of the night so far. I don't know if that's a compliment or not, implying they didn't like the previous two songs, but... hey.

"One Tin Soldier" by Coven came next, and it was far lower than I expected it to be. So again I used my baritone, even deep bass voice. "Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend! Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end!" Before I sang it, I told my buddy Richard (who's got a sister in the Marine Corps) that I wanted to do what could be considered a protest song, and asked if he'd be okay with that. I made it very clear I wasn't disrespecting the troops by doing that. His reply was, "Go for it, brother. You can be pro-troops and anti-war; hell, who is pro-war, anyway?"

"Smooth Criminal" as performed by Alien Ant Farm was next, and dammit, I'm not gonna sing that song again. I love Smooth Criminal, but the Michael Jackson version of the song. The AAF version is far too fast, not nearly musical enough, and is just plain garbage. I'm gonna hunt around for the MJ Karaoke version of that song, but I'm not doing the crappy AAF version ever again. "He came into your apartment, left the bloodstains on the carpet... then you ran into the bedroom, you were struck down, it was your doom..." To make matters worse that was the first song that Bobby T. and his new gal heard me sing that night, and it was kinda screechy because it is just too DAMN FAST.

"Sweet Dreams" by Air Supply is the kinda song to make you forget about all that, though. The powerful instrumental introduction gets you right in the intense state of mind you need for that song, and the vocals start off soft before picking up in intensity throughout, before finally the big note-- "Sleep, like a child, resting deep! You don't know what you give me, I'll keep, for these moments....... alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone!" I held that note for at least 20 seconds and could have held it for much longer; I deliberately cut it off right as people began to stare at me in awe. Or maybe it was "please shut the hell up", I can never tell. ;)

I ended the night with my ninth song of the evening, "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles. Figured I might as well do a goofy one to close it out. "Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun... if the sun don't come you get your tan from standing in the English rain." It's a nice little preview of next week, which is gonna be Beatles Appreciation Night.

I'm already planning to do "Come Together", "Help", "Do You Want to Know a Secret", "If I Fell", "Yesterday" and the inimitable "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by the Fab Four next week, as well as "Imagine" by John Lennon and "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings. Right now my list is rounded out with "Clocks" by Coldplay, "Suddenly" by Billy Ocean (which has been on my list for at least three weeks without being selected), "I'm Gonna Keep on Loving You" by REO Speedwagon and "Faithfully" by Journey. Sigh, so many songs, so little time.

Labels: Air Supply, Bobby T, Chicago, Coven, Foreigner, Jim Croce, Journey, Karaoke, Mel's Place, Nat King Cole, Richard, Smooth Criminal, The Beatles

posted by Eddie 3:54 AM

Sunday, July 15, 2007

 
A response to the video "10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer", which can be found on YouTube here...

That's the thing about faith-- if you don't have it, you can't understand it. And if you do have it, no scientific explanation is necessary. Sorry, but I've been in a choir and sung Christmas carols to kids in children's hospitals and felt the Holy Spirit moving through us, touching our lives. I've felt the powerful, potent sensation of God's love. Do I do things that are inconsistent with the way God wants me to live my life? Sure. But overall I try to live my faith by being kind, gentle and loving towards my fellow human beings, and I don't begin to think that the set of beliefs I have as a person are the same as for anyone else. Nor is my set of beliefs *right* for everyone. It's *my* spiritual life, though, and it works for me.

A lot of the questions in this lecture (which was very well-presented, even if I disagree with the conclusion) can be answered with another of God's creations: the concept of free will. Why does a good person get murdered? Because the murderer made that decision for himself *and* for the innocent victim. It doesn't mean that God loved the innocent less, but the murderer made the choice to commit his crime. In many ways we're responsible for shaping our own destiny. But God's there between the lines, guiding and shaping.

Why are there so many starving children in Africa and whatnot? Well, I don't wish to generalize, but there are many governments on that continent that are in a constant state of regime change, or are too corrupt to want to take care of their own citizens. The leaders of the country, elected or not, help to shape the destiny of the citizens of that country. But don't you think that those starving people still live with some hope that things will get better? Maybe one day they will, if people start caring enough to make a change.

It'd be very convenient for God to swoop down from heaven and solve all of humanity's problems, but maybe if humanity would stop screwing *themselves* up so much, if we could stop killing each other and start loving, maybe things would get better!

Labels: atheist, Christian, faith, Holy Spirit, questions

posted by Eddie 6:39 AM