Month: December 2008

Banned words

Generally, I don’t agree with banning too many things. I love banned music and banned books, and if you went to high school with me, you weren’t cool unless you were banned or nearly banned from Wal-Mart.

But banned words… we need more of them. Each year, Lake Superior State University puts out a List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. The Associatd Press did a nice write-upof this year’s, and I’m happy to see that the emoticon “<3 ” made it onto the list.

<rant>It doesn’t even look like a heart. I think that my unwillingly-adopted sister Laura Turner was the first one to explain to me what the heck it was. And aside from its overuse by twelve-year-old girls, it is undeniably overused by twenty-something girls in their facebook photo albums and even in otherwise legitimate and expensive corporate advertisement (fortunately or unfortunately ” <3 ” is not a searchable term and I can’t find any of the images I’m looking for for your veiwing pleasure).  </rant>

Also on this year’s list is “maverick,” and I’m equally surprised as Jeff Karoub that “change” didn’t make it. I was really pleased in the past when “weapons of mass destruction” and “undisclosed location” made previous lists, and though I might actually use “-monkey” as a a suffix more often now, I’d really like to see “tasty,”  “mmmbye,” and “economy” (good, bad, or otherwise, I don’t want to hear about it for 50 years) on the (unfortunately non-binding) 2009 edition.

Groundhog Day

One of my parents’ all-time favorite movies is Groundhog Day, and it ranks pretty high up there on my list as well. We watched it tonight, and so, unsurprisingly, I felt a lot like Bill Murray when I checked some other people’s blogs tonight.
Several of my favorite people are just scattered about the globe right now, and all of them have this amazing ability to not update their blogs at all. And since the most recent post on every one I checked was still from the first week of December (or November… or September) I could just hear “I Got You, Babe” as I went through the checklist of favorite (unupdated) blogs.

Then I thought to myself… “Mine looks pretty much the same.”
Now granted, I’m in Elizabeth City, I’ve been working my tail off the last couple of weeks between practicing various instruments and putting musical instruments into the hands of seemingly every middle schooler from Hertford to Manteo. But I’ve just been totally slack on my writing, both my own stuff and my more public face of dannypeck.net (/facebook).
So thanks to watching Groundhog Day all the way through for the first time in many years, here’s what I’d do if I had a day to live over. And over. And over…
1. Learn piano. And flute. And pan flute. And charango. I’d probably brush up on a lot of other instruments I play as well, starting with the guitar. I’ll probably never be Carlos Santana level. But repeating the same day over and over, I think I’d at least try. And I’d resort to music lessons much faster than Phil Connors (and before Sciuridaedicide).

2. Take up ice sculpting. I promise I’ll stop stealing from Harold Ramis after this one. But I mean, really? How many people can even do that? It’s gotta be pretty lucrative.

3. Reading. I think if I lived to be 300, I could start reading now and not stop till I died and still not have hardly put a dent in my personal reading list.

4. See how many languages I could learn. If nothing else, I’d finally know what Paul was laughing at in that Shyamalan movie, and I could exponentially increase the length of my reading list.

5. Travel. Bill Murray was stuck in Punxsutawney, PA because of a blizzard. Hopefully I’d have better weather. If you’re going to wake up in the same bed in the same place every morning, why not at least make it a challenge for God or fate or Harold Ramis to put me back in bed and make it to Ecuador or India or Japan by 5:59 am.

I could keep this list going. I could fill it up with more interesting, meaningful, or at least funny things than these. But I’m going to return to The Epic of South America and simply attempt to live out number 3 instead. Merry belated Christmas, Happy early New Year, and a prosperous Groundhog Day.

Gideons: Third Time's a Charm

Referencing this post from Sept 8, 2008 and this one from September 12, the Gideons came to La Casa today to give out New Testaments, mostly in Spanish, to the kids there. At the end, one of the guys asked me if I’d like one. I simply responded “Sure.”

Good thing he didn’t try to give me a bilingual one. I would have gone through my whole “don’t-want-to-waste-a-Bible” dilemma again since some (really awesome) person I know gave me one of those already. Now if anybody needs a pocket-sized New Testament, I’ve got one handy.

Moravian Lovefeast and little noises

If you don’t know what a Moravian Lovefeast is, here is an okay description.

This was the fourth Moravian Lovefeast I’ve attended and the third one in which I’ve played. I keep hoping Billy will dig up some piece of music that needs a saxophone, but having to practice clarinet again recently I’ve remembered why I liked it so much in the first place. Plus playing something small means I get to sit next to Toni. We get scolded at least once each Lovefeast and Easter for cutting up.

But my main musings tonight were not on the music (holy cow, the solo soprano!) or the sweet buns and coffee (alas, none for the musicians) or the scripture (“rut-row!”) but on the thousand little noises going on in between.

Services at a mainline protestant church in the U.S. are generally solemn occasions, even when they start with something like this. Crying babies are just unacceptable in Stateside church services, which is just a little disappointing after you spend a significant time at worship services in Ecuador. This kid was crying right at the beginning of the service. Not screaming. Not wailing. Not even crying loudly. Just crying the slightly-tired cry of a really small child. Before the three-song prelude was even finished and the bell rung, the family of five with the baby in question was down the balcony steps, through the Narthex and out the big oak front doors because their kid wouldn’t be quiet. I thought he was doing well in finding the strings section’s key. They thought he was being obnoxious. Though in hindsight, it’s also socially unacceptable to quiet a baby here the way you would in Ecuador.

During the middle of the service while the buns and coffee are being distributed and consumed, the choir, the strings, the full orchestra, and one or two soloists take turns playing pieces, and during the last one (which happened to be an organ/choir-only piece this year)  the coffee mugs are collected. I have to admit that the clink-clink-CLINK-clink-clinkity-clink-clink-clink-CLANK-clink-clinkity-clink got to me for a second there right as it started. Maybe it was the sound moving back down the aisles with the Dieners and their trays, or hopefully just my attitude improving (doubt it). But very quickly became musical to me. I think that- much more than the people standing up- and downstairs- just drove home how many people were packed into (what I believe is) the second-largest sanctuary in Elizabeth City.

It was also hilarious to see Billy’s eyebrows get closer and closer together the longer the “clinking” went on. He eventually just rolled his eyes and started to ignore it, but I guarantee that it will be mentioned before the 2009 Lovefeast.

And finally, my favorite little noise of the night. Just before we played “Silent Night” at the end of the service, in came the ushers, Dieners, and Junior Dieners to light all the candles. Off went the electric lights (in a relatively stately manner- not bad for Baptists). The sanctuary held its breath in silent anticipation.

Now in 1818, “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” was oiginally written for and performed by one unamplified classical guitar. In 2008, it was desecrated by half a dozen grill lighters CLICKing for dear life, trying to set aglow 400 little somethings I’ve always taken to be symbols of simplicity. And while the CLICK CLICK CLICK did make me cringe and will probably set Billy to swearing tomorrow, I think little things like that tend to put us in our place.

We can plan and practice and perfect our performances and services and songs all we want. But what it really comes down to is using those talents (planning, putting together that gigantic bulletin, playing or singing music, or just sitting and appreciating it) that God has given us and giving them back to him.

My philosophical musings are not going to stop me from suggesting that the candles are lit by other candles (in turn lit by matches in the Narthex) next time around. Neither is the fact that I’m not going to be in the Moravian Lovefeast next year (something I’m both extremely excited about and slightly saddened by, and that’s as much information as you’re getting right this second). But initial annoyance or not, I’m thankful for all the “distractions” tonight.