Paula Abdul actually told Michael Johns on last night's Idol, while wearing this ridiculous dress, that his singing was gonna make her Chihuahua's jump right up there on stage with him.
For the love of God and all that is holy, put those things away!
NOTE: I hear a rumor that the cast will end tonight's show with a performance of "Shout to the Lord." www.americanidol.com
See the first teaser for the movie project Gospel Journey Maui (I got to go along and cook for this crazy, sweet cast)
Three words: THE QUIET MAN
Two incredible stars: John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara
An amazing support cast, a colorful story, gorgeous scenery, rollicking music, Protestants and Catholics living and supporting each other in Innisfree, Ireland; love and passion, quaint ways, a matchmaker, a brawl that falls into the street and the most wonderful way to enter a home, "God bless all in this house!" called out as blessing as each character enters another's place of dwelling.
This Technicolor comedy love story from 1952 by director John Ford is an absolute classic you MUST watch annually! Some quotes: "A stick to beat the lovely lady?" — Head shaking, "Two women in the house – and one of them a red-head!" — "No paddy-fingers, if you please. The proprieties at all times. Hold onto your hats." — "Have the good manners not to hit the man until he's your husband and entitled to hit you back." — "Woman, Ireland may be a poor country, God help us, but here, a married man sleeps in a bed, not in a bag."
I'm watching it now…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Bless all in the houses I enter today!
Enjoy some scenes put to music: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KHx8RPOGHB8
When I googled Janny Grein a few weeks ago and wrote about the song, "Covenant Woman," the clip I actually encountered was from a recent recording project bringing together 10 of the great artists from the 70s. I had a blast exploring their website and listening to snippets of some of my all-time favorite artists. www.thebeginningsconcert.com
I grew up listening to the Rambos, so Reba Rambo-McGuire, to whom I shyly said hello in a ladies room at a Rambo concert in Baton Rouge in about '75 or '76 (and she so graciously flashed that million-dollar smile at me) has always been a favorite. She definitely has one of the most distinctive voices on the planet.
There is no denying I had a teensy bit of a crush on Dony McGuire and his rich, soulful voice when he was part of the Downings (I was a silly kid) and I got to sit about 3 feet away from him playing the piano at one of their concerts at a crowded Assembly of God in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in about 1974. I also won, from the local Christian radio station, the Downings album featuring Dony singing, "It's My Desire," which I was often called on in my local church to sing and remains a "life song" for me.
A bit later I got into Barry McGuire and actually had his 8-tracks, of all things! Listening to "Cosmic Cowboy" would literally give me chills!
The Archers and Dallas Holm & Praise really captured the sound of my life as a Pentecostal preacher's daughter. Their heart-felt, moving music was much-loved in my family. "Rise Again" by Dallas Holm remains was one the most powerful songs ever, doesn't it?
There's David Meece, who for some reason sorta reminds me of the disco era and Don Francisco, who can really tell a story in a song, belting out the timeless anthem: "He's Alive!" Leon Patillo, who once sang as lead for Santana, could get a crowd on its feet!
In the last few years, as I have collected old LPs from thrift stores of the great Jesus music of the 1970s, I have really come to understand how much Chuck Girard (with Love Song and later) influenced my passion for very vertical worship (see the clip where he is leading "It's the Name above all names, and we will declare it to a dying world!").
These artists are so varied in style, each so influential. Thirty years later, I am still loving their contributions and the legacy they have shared.
It makes me wonder if my kids, who are all worshipers and are in worship ministry, would have some fleeting familiarity, a moment of recognition – if they heard this music? Would they innately know: this is what I come from, I've heard this song before?
God has filled my life's path with the sounds of heaven…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: I wonder if I could get the WWM team (www.worshipandtheword.com) to go for putting together a Heaven Fest for us old-timers (www.heavenfest.com)? Maybe since we're closer to our end, we could call it "Closer-to-Heaven-Fest"?
Best song at the Oscars this year was, surprisingly and mercifully, a GREAT song ("Falling Slowly") from the movie "Once." My daughters, Stephanie and Stormie introduced me to the movie a while back and it is a great flick! For the first 20 minutes, I was enjoying it so much I was dreading when the "real story" would start and interrupt the music, then Stormie informed me, it was, after all, a musical. It is gentle and pure and soft and well-told and you must see it! You must sing along with it!
See scenes from the movie and hear the song here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CoSL_qayMCc
From The UK Press:
Former buskers Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are thrilled with their Oscar win for Best Original Song."When we were kids, we used to watch the Oscars every year and talked about what people were wearing," Glen said following the win. "It's amazing to be here tonight."
Marketa and Glen won the gong for their song "Falling Slowly" from hit indie movie Once which they performed at the Academy ceremony.
"There's things you have to do," said Glen, referring to the performance. "You have to keep going. If you think about the size of it and if you get swept up in it, you're gone."
Glen and Marketa beat off three separate challenges from the movie Enchanted to win the statuette."My mother was sitting beside me and she was just so nervous – she's been so nervous since we were nominated," said Glen. "I was just welling up."
"These days films are being made for different reasons like money, and art is being compromised," added Marketa. "I think people feel this film was done from a very pure point and an artistic one. I also think it's a story of love and we can all connect with that."
See Once…more than once!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: "sing your melody, I'll sing along…"
I am just back from Maui where I got to help my great friend, Carol Ann, cook for the cast and crew who were filming a reality-type series: Gospel Journey – Maui for Dare2Share (www.dare2share.org) under the leadership of Blake Pilgreen with Mediatech (www.mediatech1.com) and with these great people (my Hawaiian-housemates, Rolly and Holly) from Outside the Box Ministries (www.otbm.org) and a wonderful crew of cameramen and sound techs and grips and all those other film-types.
The cast was made up of six 18-22 year olds from different backgrounds, religious affiliations and streams of belief. They lived together in a beach house just 50 yards from the ocean and got to experience all the cool stuff Maui has to offer while engaging in really great conversations with Greg Stier (President of Dare2Share, and Zane Black (an extreme snowboarder and instructor www.timberlinelodge.org). I fell head-over-heels for these kids. They are such beautiful human beings. I will always remember them and the short time we had together and how they let Carol Ann and I fuss over them and nurture them and feed them.
You can see lots of pictures and read other accounts of the project, the trip, the filming and all sorts of other stuff by visiting Rob Kelly's, Carol Ann Kelly's, or Greg Stier's blogs: www.robkelly.typepad.com, http://cakboliv.wordpress.com, http://www.gregstier.org
We figure we put together 3 meals a day for about 8 days for any number of people between 25 & 30 and that is a lot of meals. We also found out that we could put over $1000 worth of groceries in just 2 Costco carts. It was quite the adventure!
The cast called us their personal chefs. The crew called us caterers and said we were better than Hollywood's Kraft Services. But we were really just a couple of moms cooking for the guys and the kids, just like we do for our families – only it was in paradise!!
The ocean, the sun, the swaying palm trees – wish you could've been there!…Jeanie
Pictured, left-to-right: Zane and Greg (the sort of leader/host/facilitators of the week for the cast), Jasser, Carol Ann Kelly (my partner-in-crime), Priscilla, Rachel O., me, Jonathan, and Rachel M. Emma is seated in front of us, the Pacific Ocean is behind us! Carol Ann and me.
While in Maui, I found out that my friend Carol Ann (http://cakboliv.wordpress.com/), an extremely hip woman who has over 6000 songs on her I-Pod, has no Partridge Family songs on there. Not one. I was aghast at this discovery, so it got me to thinking.
If you were already super cool in the early 70's, I know you didn't give these bubble-gum pop songs a second look, but if you weren't yet (I was a kid, I tell you- a mere child), maybe you listened to the Partridge Family and can affirm my position that they deserve their place in American music…maybe not much of a place, but a place. And if you have never heard them, fear not, I have compiled a list of my very favorite Partridge Family songs here:
1. I Think I Love You ("I'm sleeping, and right in the middle of a good dream, like, all at once I wake up from something that keeps knocking at my brain…before I go insane I hold my pillow to my head, and spring up from my bed screaming out the words I dread, 'I think I love you!'.") http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7821497694797564220&q=partridge+family&total=693&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
2. I Woke Up in Love this Morning (Apparently a lot of sleep loss tied in to being in love in those days, and hugging and kissing pillows, but a romantic life-long love, not just a one-night stand: "I woke up in love this morning…went to sleep with you on my mind.") http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8269782850909118409&q=partridge+family&total=693&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
3. It's One of Those Nights (aka "Yes, Love" He'd take her back in a flash, which I LOVE!, he'd even "hunt her down" like he has before! "It's one of those nights when you turn out the lights and you sit in the dark and you say to yourself, 'I miss her…'.") http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1601388937475243543&q=partridge+family+it%27s+one+of+those+nights&total=4&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
4. I Can Feel Your Heartbeat (pretty sexy, I must say – which I totally did not even understand when I was 11. I heard David Cassidy was still making hearts go pitter patter with this song in Vegas nightclubs to the over 40 crowd just a couple of years ago! "I can feel your heartbeat and you didn't even say a word…Oh, I know pretty woman that your love can be heard…You can feel my heartbeat, too, I can see you feeling me…") http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5438043450488501451&q=partridge+family&total=693&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
Just trying to enlighten you in your search for great music!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: C'mon get happy!
Some Partridge Family quotes:
Laurie: All you guys think we're interested in is being cheerleaders or homecoming queens. And then, if we're real lucky, we can all grow up to be Playboy Bunnies.
Danny: I've been a kid and I've been an adult. And believe me, adultery isn't what it's cracked up to be.
An exchange between their manager, Reuben Kincaid, and Danny (played by Danny Bonaduce, who was already very irreverent and wry at the age of 10) – Reuben: Tell me, did your mother ever tell you not to play in traffic? Danny: Of course. Reuben: Too bad.
Keith: They'd leave *me* for Mick Jagger???!?
Dave was enjoying some Seinfeld season 7 (episode 2, The Soul Mate) the other day when I heard this exchange between Jerry and George as they rode in a taxi:
George: (biting his nails and then inspecting them) You know, I can now bite my fingernails so evenly, I don't even need to use a clipper anymore.
Jerry: But it's a pleasure to use clippers. Why gnaw away like a mental patient when we have this elegant device?
George: (pondering the question carefully) What if you're in prison?
Jerry: You don't think they give you clippers?
George: No! (incredulous) It's like – a weapon.
Jerry: You know what's really a weapon? That big toe nail. You let that grow for a month, take it in the shower, it's like a shiv
George: I love prison.
Jerry: It is fascinating.
Luckily, during the writer's strike, we can always go back to the good, old days of classics like these.
Quit biting your nails…Jeanie
"My great Aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy everyday of her life. She lived to be a hundred and two and when she'd been dead for 3 days, she looked better than you do right now." – the critic in the 1942 black and white movie, "The Man Who Came to Dinner" to his nurse, who was telling him candy wasn't a good thing for him.
My secret indulgence?…the thing I yearn to do that always makes me feel rested and as if I have just done the most luxurious and decadent thing? A black and white movie in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
I wonder why I rarely allow myself this simple, satisfying pleasure?…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Put this activity on my list of Sabbath-rest life-givers (Sabbath: "Cease from what is necessary. Embrace that which brings life. Then, do what you want." – Mark Buchanan in The Rest of God).