I RIP OFF THE ONION

So the fake news site "The Onion" has been running this new feature called "Random Rules", where they ask some celebrity or sort-of celebrity to put their mp3 players on Shuffle mode and comment on the first five songs that come up. Interesting idea that I thought I'd try out. Here are the first five songs that came up, and comments from me:

1. Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here (artist/s unknown): This is allegedly from some videos they show in middle school over in the US. I say "allegedly" because I never saw any of them, but my brother's class did. Just like that "Hell's Bells" video that tells kids how awful rock music is but only gets them thinking metal videos are really awesome because they tick off their parents. Anyway, this song: they try to make grammar learning "cool" by playing these cheery songs with lyrics about how great grammar is. This particular track sounds like the Beach Boys sucking helium in parts and kind of gets on my nerves, but it's worth it for one verse that starts out, I kid you not, "Suppose you want to go nut-gathering." I played this several times for my English students here in Japan. They liked it, but not as much as "Gangsta's Paradise".

2. American Jesus (Bad Religion): I think I went and downloaded this after seeing it on this one music-oriented blog. The entry was about how secular artists see Jesus. As for the song, I probably downloaded it and promptly forgot to listen to it, 'cause I don't remember ever seeing it. A good satirical take on "Christianity" in America, though. If I were ever to form a punk rock band, I'd totally name it "Bad Religion", except, you know, the name's already taken and I don't wanna get sued.

3. I'm Too Sexy--Spanish version (Right Said Fred): Flashback to teenage years in Walla Walla--there was this locally-owned pizza shop called "Pepe's Pizza" that ran some of the worst commercials I've ever seen on TV. I guess that's kind of harsh--they weren't so much "bad" as "jarringly amateur". This older gentleman, probably the owner of the place and the least-telegenic person in the Western hemisphere, sat in a booth and talked into what was probably the first camcorder ever made by Sony, sometimes with a young kid with him. The big selling point of Pepe's was that they "spread the toppings all the way to the edge" unlike those posers at Pizza Hut or Little Caesar's that had the GALL to sell you pizza with crust. One afternoon, Brenden, Lorin, Ronn and I decided to try this pizza with the toppings spread to the edge and we ventured to Pepe's. The pizza was good--not like nirvana or anything, but tasty, and the toppings did INDEED go all the way to the edge! There was this jukebox there and one of the songs was this Spanish version of "I'm Too Sexy", which was like a million gazillion times too HARDCORE for our teenage minds to comprehend. I don't remember if we even played it, but that became the most memorable thing of the outing. I think this was one of the first songs I ever downloaded off the interwebbie, and I may have even gotten this off the late, great Napster.

4. Feeling Gravitys Pull (R.E.M.): R.E.M. was my first favorite rock band. I think I got every R.E.M. album before I got any other music--maybe U2's "Joshua Tree" was sprinkled in there somewhere too. I've since moved on to other bands and other music, but I still love these guys, even their newer stuff that sounds REALLY weird and all the old-skool fans hate. This song is off their third album, Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables, which is tied with with "Automatic For The People" as my #2 R.E.M. album (#1 is New Adventures in Hi-Fi.) I like this song because it's creepy and jangly at the same time, the soundtrack to when you're on Forrest Gump's Sweet Home Alabama estate the day after a nuclear holocaust.

5. Beast of Honor (Melissa Auf Der Maur): Don't know a lot about this song--it's a nice up-tempo pretty hard rock song. Melissa Auf Der Maur is a talented Canadian bass player who was in Hole with Courtney Love. I saw a Hole video and thought Auf Der Maur was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. In retrospect, it was probably just the fact that she was next to Courtney Love, who would make Barbara Bush I look like Tanith Belbin. Anyway, I got her album some way and rather like it, although it's not one of my favorites or anything.

Well, I have been tasked with a duty for the wedding/reception, and I've done work on it but have hit something of a wall. Amanda asked me to get music together for the wedding celebration--I think more for the reception than the actual ceremony. If it's the actual wedding...this will be one very interesting song list.

Anyway, I've got about 55 songs picked out--I won't be using all 55, of course. I'll have to trim that down but want to know if there are any others out there that I might have missed. I am calling on YOU, the maybe three people who still read this, to give me suggestions. Anyway, here's a partial list along with explanations so that you can get some idea of what I'm going for. I reserve the right to ignore suggestions like Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", or anything from boy bands.

So for a sampling of what I'm looking for:

"All I Want Is You" (U2): One of my favorite bands ever, and this song pretty much captures why. The lyrics are pretty simple and straightforward but really pour on the passion and even desperation. Then at the end there's this long instrumental part that emphasizes those themes even more. And although it's totally unrelated to the music, the video that accompanies this song is at once baffling and moving, making it one of the best music videos ever in my opinion.

"Precious Lord" (Robin O'Herin): The words to this song are pretty much EXACTLY what I want to begin our marriage. And because of an arrangement done by the WWC choir, it will forever be associated with Martin Luther King Jr. in my mind.

"When You Say Nothing At All" (Alison Krauss + Union Station): Amanda might make me play the version by Ronan Keating, the one she knows better. But I really like the way Alison Krauss sings this and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this song--if I could enter to this in the wedding service itself, I would.

"Suteki da ne" (Final Fantasy X soundtrack): If there are any game nerds reading this you might remember this as the slow J-pop music that plays when Tidus and Yuna confess their love for each other in Final Fantasy X. The words are all in Japanese, and I don't know what they say beyond a couple of translations I got online. But since Amanda and I met in Japan I thought it'd be appropriate.

"Fields of Gold" (Eva Cassidy): A whole lot of people called this one of the best songs ever written, but I never understood it because I didn't really feel the song when Sting did it. Then I heard Eva Cassidy's and was nearly moved to tears.

"In This Life" (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole): Another song that's also sung by Ronan Keating. I don't have anything against the guy, I've just heard his songs sung by other people first. The lyrics to this could be applied equally to a precious love on earth or to God, a quality I really like for songs in general and wedding songs in particular. Combine that with IZ's voice and this might be the end song on the collection.

"Two Princes" (Spin Doctors): Because it's a fun upbeat song, but probably will end up as a surprise to many, and it's the SPIN DOCTORS for crying out loud. When Amanda said she would stand up and defend the honor of the Spin Doctors, I knew that she was a keeper.

"For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" (AC/DC): Because AC/DC is Australian (and I couldn't think of any love songs by Midnight Oil), you'd never THINK about putting this on a wedding album, but yet it's a great song for the occasion when you think about it. The cannons shooting in the background are totally choice too.

"Oh My Love" (John Lennon); "When A Man Loves A Woman" (Percy Sledge); "Say You, Say Me" (Lionel Ritchie): But I like the sweet classic love songs too.

"Unchained Melody" (Righteous Brothers): Forever the absolute, untouchable, #1 pinnacle of "romantic songs" in my mind. I like the U2 version as well and may end up going with that one.

So beyond these...any suggestions? I think it'd be funny to get some rap tracks on there, but nothing is coming to my mind besides Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina", and I think Amanda might kill me if I did that.

Found this still in my "drafts" section from sometime last month. Just a few finishing touches and here is the report from our (Amanda and yours truly) trip to Kobe/Kyoto over New Year's!

Had a really good time in Kobe. The family we stayed with, the Nakagawas, are
all really nice. They treated us so well and we were never without food! It
was fun to experience an honest-to-goodness authentic Japanese New Year.

We ended up taking a one-day trip to Kyoto the first full day in Kansai. We
only saw a few things but I figured that'd be the case since you really need
more than one day to see everything. We did see the Golden temple, though, and
we got there late in the afternoon when the sun really lit the temple up. I got
some really good pictures. Really, everything turned out perfectly for a day
trip.

Then on Sabbath we went to the Kobe church in the morning and then did some
sightseeing around Kobe. There are some "foreigner's houses" that are
the famous landmarks in the city and they were pretty interesting. They had an
English house, a Dutch and Danish one, and a few others. The American house was
closed. We also got some famous Kobe desserts and they were amazing.

Then on New Year's day we had a special breakfast (fish, miso soup, mochi,
pickled vegetables) and everything was really good. The whole family took us
out to the airport and said good-bye. We really enjoyed our time with them and
they seemed to enjoy having us there, too. The parents don't speak much English
although the mother likes to try (and likes to talk in general.)

From there we went to Tokyo--were planning on only staying one night. There's this pretty nice hotel in the Asakusa district that Amanda found when her parents visited wayyyyy back in 2004. We've recommended this hotel whenever people have come from overseas (the Hotel Sunroute Asakusa--yeah, it's a pansy Western-style hotel, you wanna make something of it??) We stayed for an extra night in Tokyo because we were both too tired to go out shopping the first afternoon there. Got mostly everything that we needed even though a couple of our favorite shopping spots were closed. So it was a really fun time. We were both pretty tired out by the end, though.

So my recommendation is to go to Kyoto if you have the chance, but it's much better if you have a charming Japanese family to stay with. Apparently we made a good impression on the family, because they sent us a totally SWANK Japanese soup set. Yes, Mom, I sent a thank-you note home with Kaori.

MORE images from the mega-hardcore nuclear winter baptism

So it's been awhile and I have lots to report...

Like what Amanda and I did over Christmas/New Year's. OR all the snow we've gotten in the last couple of weeks. But I thought I'd start with the most recent stuff and go backwards. Maybe I'll report on the vacation stuff by the time of the wedding, at this rate...

Well, some really good news: A week ago, we had a double baptism at the church! Two nursing students, one first-year and one second-year, made the decision to be baptized. I actually know both of them so it was all very exciting. The second-year student is named Michiko (but goes by Michi) and worked with us as a CMC staff member before. She's been quite active in helping with worship stuff even after that, so it wasn't exactly a surprise to hear, but still really great. The first-year student's name is Mayumi and she's from Okinawa. I had a get-together with the Okinawan club here and she came. She's been threatening to make me eat natto but maybe she forgot about that over vacation. Anyway, very exciting and wonderful news all around.

The only thing: they did this baptism last week, in the dead of winter, with only an outdoor baptistry. I was a little worried about that, as they had a baptism last year around this time and it was cold. Not snowing or anything, but still pretty miserable if you ask me. But hey, this was the time they chose, and I suppose if you're going to do it no need to wait, right? So I woke up on Sabbath morning, all excited about the baptism, and this is what it looked like outside:














Oh yes. LOTS and LOTS of snow all over. Now, you might think that they'd call the whole thing off, but NO WAY. They plowed on ahead with it, the two young ladies biting the bullet and getting dunked in the freezing cold water. Later on I asked them if they were cold and they both said "yeah, but it wasn't so bad." I didn't believe them. I was vicariously freezing just watching the whole thing.

So yeah, baptisms are serious business here. The non-HARDCORE need not apply. While we were all watching this go down, I was thinking "I hope this remains a symbolic death and doesn't cross over into a literal one." I've seen the brand spanking-new disciples of Christ walking around on campus over the past week, and they don't seem any worse for wear. So that's definitely a good thing.


MORE TO COME! (I hope).

I haven't written anything for awhile, so I have lots to update...but will get to that probably tomorrow. Right now I'm going home to watch sumo.

But here are some pictures from our (Amanda and I) trip to Kyoto/Kobe over the New Year's holiday.

1: Me, in front of the famous Golden Pavilion, Kyoto
2: The Golden Pavilion at sunset
3: Amanda's favorite Kyoto temple, Kiyomizu, at night
4: Amanda and Kaori, our host student, at Toji temple