Galleys

Yesterday a brightly dressed man got off a DHL Express truck and delivered a package to my house that contained the galleys for my new book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith. Galleys are the edited copy of the book for me to look at and decide if I agree with what my editor did to the manuscript. It also gives me a chance to fix mistakes and to make any changes I'd like to make. In some ways this is pretty easy – it's mostly reading and making red marks on the page when I'd like to change something. It's a lot like grading papers except I don't have to decide how good or how bad it is – I just have to decide if I like it. I also only have to read one of these instead of sixty, like I did at the end of the semester. Not only that but I like the writing in this case. Editing the galleys usually involves writing "yes" next to the place where Kristen (the editor) wrote "Is that sentence OK?" This indicates a spot where she edited and thinks she may have changed what I meant to say. So far (one chapter in) she's been right on target. There are also lots of places where she made minor changes that she didn't bother to ask about because that's what editors do.

I also get to find all the citations that I made that were incomplete – like places where I say "in this book, Berryman says…" and Kristen says "what page?" So I have to go find the page in the book with that particular line in it! Google Books is like the best thing EVER. It's a lot easier to type the quote into the "search in this book" place once you've found the book there than it is to re-read the whole book. After an hour with Google I only had two books that I had to actually page through to find the page I referred to. One of these books I had at home and found already.

So I'm taking a short break from working on my next book (which I'm just starting) to fix Helping Our Children Grow in Faith and get it back to the publisher so that they can go on to the next stage – page proofs. I've been warned that making changes at that time is expensive which I think is not-subtle code for "don't do it, buddy!" It's always exciting to get to the next stage in the publishing process. I was also told that I can expect to see artwork for the cover some time soon. Woo-hoo!

'Velvet Elvis' by Rob Bell

Rob Bell is the pastor of the enormously popular Mars Hill Church in Grandville, MI. I visited Mars Hill once a few years ago when Laura and I took a few weeks to visit other churches and, unfortunately, he wasn't preaching. I bet we had four or five people (who we saw there and knew) tell us that we should come back some time when Rob was preaching – we didn't even bring it up – they just told us that because it makes such a difference. Clearly, this church is as big as it is because of the charisma and the preaching of Rob Bell.

I've also seen (and appreciated) some of Bell's Nooma video series. Nooma is a series of short (approx 8 min) videos in which Bell talks about something. These are good discussion starter videos and, at least one of them gave me a new insight into scripture. Velvet Elvis is a lot like those. It is basically a series of short unconnected essays in the same style that Bell uses in his videos. This isn't a book that makes one particular point – it's a book of independent musings. Bell does this well and some of his insights are particularly good but the book never gets any traction on any particular subject. The chapters could almost be in any order.

Bell's writing style tends to be many short paragraphs.

Really short.

Like sometimes only a word or two.

He writes much the way he speaks.

If you pause briefly at the end of each of these mini-paragraphs you get a sense for the way he talks.

At least in the videos.

So it took me a while to get into his writing style which, frankly, bugged me for the first chapter or two. But once he got into some better content I was less irritated by the style.

Overall, Velvet Elvis is a fine book. It reads quickly and has some good information in it – perhaps not as much a you might think. If I get the opportunity I think I'll probably read his follow up book, Sex God, although I'm guessing that it is basically more of the same. That's not all bad but I was left wishing that there had been something in particular that I took away from Velvet Elvis other than a series of "that was cool" moments.

A Punctuation Celebrity

My daughter Bethany has a goal of someday being a punctuation celebrity. She's getting closer to her goal. Her "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks has been noticed and linked lately by a couple of high-profile blogs. It even got mentioned in an online blog (scroll down to the May 23 entry) in the local Grand Rapids Press – which is especially great because the writer has no idea that Bethany is from West Michigan originally. It's not a "local blogger makes good" story, it's a "here's a cool blog" story. Maybe she'll write more now that she knows that the roots are local.

This is a lot of fun. "Way to go," Bethany!

By the way, I think this post is still my favorite from the quotes blog.

Dutch Dance 2007

Tulip Time in Holland is over and I went to see Lynnae Dutch Dance many many times over the past week. Dutch Dance is an activity in which over 600 High School students line the streets of Holland and do the same dance. I know that it sounds really quaint and small town and everything but it really is fun to see so many kids doing the same steps completely surrounding Centennial Park downtown. The dance takes about 20 minutes. Here is what it looks like:
But, after seeing Lynnae do it ten times in the past 8 days (and I didn't see them all) I've had enough for now. So, this week I've been grading papers, doing a few other things and watching Dutch Dance. I'm ready to move on to other things.

Bruce Hornsby at Tulip Time – Holland, MI, 5/5/07

I've never heard Bruce Hornsby play live before but I've wanted to for a long time so when the Tulip Time board announced that he was coming to Holland for a concert I was pretty excited. Not only do I enjoy his solo work but he was in the grateful Dead which gives him serious added coolness points.

Lynnae and I went together and, in addition to an outstanding concert, we each got a copy of his recent boxed set, Intersections 1985-2005. This is almost too good to be true (in fact, when I first heard this I double-checked with Hornsby's website and, sure enough – that's what it was.) I'm listening to the set now and I must say that I'm impressed all over again.

The concert was held in a local church (a BIG church – one that seats well over 2000) and it was just Hornsby and a piano for two hours and ten minutes. He is an absolute master at jazz/rock/pop improvisation. Since he was in a church he let us know right off the bat what the evening was going to be like by sitting down at the piano and improvising on "A Mighty Fortress" for about five minutes before moving seamlessly into one of his songs. That was typical for the evening – lots and lots of piano improv in the front, middle and end of songs of his that were rethought, reworked and twisted inside and ought as he played some of my favorites like "The Way it Is," "Rainbow's Cadillac," "Spiderfingers" and "Mandolin Rain." The crowd sat in silence as we were absolutely stunned by his mastery of the piano and heard a concert that was simply stunning.

To get an idea of what it was like, listen to the first track of Intersections, "The Way It Is." The way he starts with a piano improv and then slowly works in the theme of the song is amazing. Lynnae and I had a great time.

Spiderman 3 - review

I don't see movies in theaters very often and when I paid $8 to see Spiderman 3 on Friday night (opening day!) I remembered why – they're expensive! But I, along with my good friend and occasional movie watching partner Ron, couldn't resist the third installment in the Spiderman series because 1) we're geeks and 2) the first two were very good with the second one being among the best-ever superhero movies. So even though it had been a long week we were anxious to see what Peter Parker was up to now.

Both of us were disappointed. This is a movie that knew that it had to up the ante in special effects (which it did – almost to the point of distraction) and also in the emotional story, the thing that Spiderman 2 did so well. The problem with the third installment is that there was just too much stuff in it – too many villains and too many emotional issues. This movie was so packed with stuff that the storylines seemed to have a hard time finding any space to breathe.

This lead to some plot issues. I know that you're supposed to suspend your disbelief in these movies (it's about a guy who is bitten by a radioactive spider for crying out loud – if you don't come in to it with a healthy dose of belief-suspension you're in serious trouble) but even in Spiderman world some things here just didn't add up. I didn't buy the black gooey stuff, for example. It just happened to land near Peter Parker and it attached to his motor scooter when it crached as part of an asteroid. Come on. And if the guys who were running the super secret government experiment that turned Flint into the Sandman had spent another ten bucks on security that whole plot wouldn't have happened. This may sound like nitpicking but there was a cumulative effect here and because there was so much stuff like this in this movie that even the moment when Spidey figures out how to defeat the black gooey guy seems like a stretch – he didn't have nearly enough information to figure that out. In another movie we might have given him the benefit of the doubt but by this time we were getting pretty skeptical.

So it's not a lousy movie and it's a fun way to spend a couple of hours but director Sam Raimi raised the bar with Spiderman 2 and we have learned to expect more that this from him.

New McCartney single "Ever Present Past"

Paul's new single, "Ever Present Past", is catchy, poppy and fun. This is the first glimpse from his new album, Memory Almost Full which was, apparently, partially recorded soon after Driving Rain. The word is that Paul went back and finished it. I'm looking forward to the album but for now I'm happy to be able to hear this song. It is reminiscent of Wings in that is has more bounce than anything else he's done lately and it also reminds me a bit of the style of McCartney II, Paul's synth experiment and his first post-Wings (and post Japanese incarceration) album. But after having the song stuck in my head for a few days I've finally realized why the first line seems so familiar - it's the same as "Don't get Around Much Anymore."

Still, after that first line it moves on to Paul-only land and the more I hear it the more I like it. Listen for yourself here:



EDIT (4/30/07) See some official words from McCartney about the new album here.

Congratulations, Bethany!

My daughter Bethany (who blogs about her life here and blogs about other things here) successfully defended her Masters Thesis in Speech Communication at the University of Georgia today and did pretty well - her advisor said it was the "most glowing" defense meeting he's ever been in. And now to celebrate she goes back to school to begin her Ph.D.

'While My Guitar Gently Weeps: the Music of George Harrison' by Simon Leng

While My Guitar Gently Weeps is a Beatles Geek Beatles book. The bulk of the book is an album by album tour through the music of George Harrison, primarily after the breakup of the Beatles. Not only is it album by album, each song gets its own little write up. In addition to listing all the musicians on each song the songs are discussed in depth followed by a discussion of the album as a whole. For the average person with a reasonable interest in the Beatles this book is the very definition of overkill. For people like me it’s about right.

There is no way that you can enjoy this book and not be thought of as a total dork by your friends. First of all, if you enjoy this book you probably have copies of even the obscure and not great Harrison albums, like Gone Troppo. You also probably know many of the obscure facts in the book and already have opinions on the plethora of trivia and inconsequencia that lives on almost every page. But that’s just the point. So much has been written about the Beatles that it’s hard to find new things to say but Leng has said a lot here that, frankly, hasn’t been gathered in one spot before – at least not that I’ve seen.

He does a nice job of highlighting Harrison’s contribution to the music of the Beatles in the first section of the book, pointing out that George was more about adding to the song than being a guitar-slinger. He’s such a fan of George’s though that he might be giving him a bit more credit for things than he deserves. Actually, if I have a complaint about this book it’s that Leng is too much of a Harrison fan, finding the good in even his most trite and mundane songs. Granted, to write this much about a musician you better be a fan (or at least be very well paid) but Leng is occasionally over the top in his praise of all the things that George did. Even when he reviews albums that are universally panned he finds many good things to say about them often pointing out that the pans were more along the lines of “look at all these people who missed the point.” To be fair, Leng is pretty harsh on Harrison's album Somewhere in England but he lays most of the blame for that one on the record company who rejected George's first pass at that album.

So, Leng’s book is certainly one that you will want to read if you’re a real Beatles Dork. But, surprisingly, Leng’s writing is crisp enough and the story is interesting enough that even the more casual fan will enjoy many parts of it. I certainly have enjoyed it and I’m guessing that most Beatles fans will – even those who don't own Gone Troppo.

Book title finalized

The book that I've worked on for the past few years now has a title and is scheduled to be released in December 2007 or January 2008. The title (slightly different from what I thought it was going to be) is Helping our Children Grow in Faith: Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Kids and it will be published by Baker Books. I understand that I'm going to be seeing cover art soon!

Time for a new name for this blog?

Over two years ago when I first started writing on this blog I really didn't think about any long-term ramifications of it. Blogging was still, for me at least, pretty new and I thought I'd play around with it. I chose the title for this blog, "Bob's Bloggery," on a whim and now I've lived with it for nearly two and a half years. I've continued to blog and have enjoyed communicating with friends and strangers this way. Plus, I've used this as an opportunity to "think out loud" about things I'm reading, watching and listening to.

On the one hand, the title I quickly selected is right on target using both my name and a made up word which refers to blogging. But now I'm wondering if I should try to come up with something better. The word "bloggery" sometimes strikes me as somewhat silly and I think that maybe I should find a better name. Something artsy and cool rather than, you know, pedestrian and uncool.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Should I try to find a new name or is "Bob's Bloggery" probably the best I can do?

EDIT (4/20/07) - Well, after a week with nary a comment I can assume one of two things, either nobody but me cares or people care but have no better titles for me. (I suppose it is also possible that nobody read this post so if that's the case then it REALLY doesn't matter what I call the blog.) So, unless I come up with a title that I can't resist, Bob's Bloggery will continue to be called that.

Paul McCartney and Wings’ ‘Wild Life’ – Anatomy of a Lousy Album

Every once in a while I decide to listen to one artist’s albums in order in my car. I have a six CD changer and a 45 minute commute. It takes a while to get through an artist’s output but that’s OK – it’s all about the journey anyway. And I don’t JUST listen to that artist – I mix it up a bit so it’s not all one artist all the time.

I’m actually working my way through a couple of things at the same time right now – Heart’s entire catalog (see my reflection on Heart), the Emerson Lake and Palmer’s boxed set Return of the Manticore and McCartney’s solo work. This particular trip through McCartney’s work started a couple of weeks ago when I felt like listening to Ram (his second solo album) and decided to go from there. So the next stop on my listening tour was the much maligned Wild Life, the first album with McCartney’s new band, Wings. This album is generally considered the weakest in the whole McCartney catalog (which, by the way, is a LOT of albums!) I’ve certainly heard it multiple times before but I hadn’t listened to it in a couple of years and, while I’m driving alone I often do some of my best listening. I decided that this album is, indeed, pretty poor and there are a couple of good reasons why this album is considered so weak.

Reason #1: The recording. McCartney loves to try gimmicks in recording his albums. Band on the Run was recorded in Nigeria, London Town on a boat in the Caribbean, Run Devil Run was recorded by Paul coming into the studio with hand-written lyrics to old obscure rock songs, teaching the band, rehearsing a few times and then quickly recording the track. On a few albums, (notably McCartney and McCartney II) he plays all the instruments himself. On a few others (some of his very best like Flaming Pie and Chaos and Creation) he plays many of the instruments and is joined by guests only when needed. Just before recording Wild Life Paul read that Dylan had recorded an album quickly (like in a week) and he decided that he wanted to do that with Wings’ first album. So the finely crafted production that defines so much of Paul’s best work is completely absent on Wild Life. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a crack band like he did on Run Devil Run or even Driving Rain, his other most notable quickly recorded albums and it shows. The opening seconds of Wild Life gives us the sound of a tape machine coming up to speed as the band is already playing and we hear McCartney say “tape it, Tony!” We hear performances and arrangements that seem like they were done on the spot and could really have benefited from some rethinking, re-recording and editing. But there was no time – this album was recorded in a flash because McCartney wanted to try making an album that way.

Reason #2: The band. Sorry, I have to say it; this band wasn’t good enough to make an album this quickly. Linda’s vocals were never great but on this album they’re really poor and pretty high up in the mix, giving many of the songs a slightly out-of-tune feel to them. The combination of Paul, Linda and Denny’s voices gave Wings its unique sound but at this point they just aren’t together and it doesn’t work. The playing is, for the most part, uninspiring. Even Paul’s vocals on songs like the title track are weaker than almost any other album.

Reason #3: The songwriting. This is perhaps the weakest collection of songs that McCartney has released on an album over his entire career. “Mumbo,” the opener is just a jam that was recorded. “Bip-Bop” is as trite as it sounds like it might be from the title. Some of these songs could have been salvaged with better production – for example, there is a fully produced and arranged bootleg version of “Tomorrow” floating around that is quite nice. But overall these songs just don’t cut it. The high point is probably Wings’ cover version of an old Ian and Sylvia song, “Love is Strange.” This is a sorry state of affairs for one of the best songwriters of the last fifty years.

So I think this album deserves the poor reviews it gets. The good news is that Paul fixed almost all of these problems with his next album, Red Rose Speedway, which is better in every way and is a delight to listen to. It also featured the mega-hit “My Love” so Paul not only made a better album; he got back on track commercially. I loved it in 1973 and I love it now. I think I’ll listen to it a few more times before I move on to the next one.

The hits keep coming

Look at what happened to the number of hits on my blog. Here is a chart that shows you:

As you can see, I was happily sitting at around 700 or so hits a month until the first of the year. Then I shot up dramatically to more than triple that. How do I explain this? One word - Beatles. Actually two words - Beatles and U2. It seems that some time over the past little while one of the Beatles pictures that I used in one of my posts got picked up by the Google image search engine and I got listed as the number 2 pic if you typed 'Beatles.' I also have, for a long time, had a fair number of U2 hits because I list them in this blog often too. So in a sense I'm remarkably popular. In another sense I'm just a storage unit for a picture lots of people want to see. Most of the people don't stick around very long but some do and some read a bit of what I have to say which is nice.

I also should note that this week my latest George Harrison post was linked to by a Transcendental Meditation site. How about that!

A George Harrison Conversion to Christianity?

In this post about the excellent biography of the Bealtes by Bob Spitz, I wrote

I did notice two errors, both involving George Harrison: he mentions “Everybody’s Tryin’ to Be My Baby” as a song Harrison wrote (he only sang it, I believe it is a Carl Perkins song) and said that George embraced traditional Christianity at a point late in his life which, I think, is just plain wrong. It’s my understanding that George remained a Hindu. I’d love for someone to give me confirmation one way or the other regarding this.

Now today, looking at a recent post in an email list that I used to be part of I saw this in a posting:

But I was chatting with a guy I know who is a professional musician
and who did some consulting for Beatlemania. He told me about a book
by Bob Spitz (The Beatles: The Biography) which makes that point on
p. 567:

"Later in life he would become vegetarian, consult an astrologer,
and devote himself to Transcendental Meditation before embracing
traditional Christianity."

When my friend contacted Bob Spitz about his source for that fact,
the reply included the following excerpt:

"As for the source of George's return to traditional Christianity,
the source was the man himself, conveyed to me some months before he
died. Because of agreements with the Harrison estate, I was unable
to list him as a source." [note - this is slightly edited from the longer post which you can find here.]

So, it appears that I may have been wrong about that. But how do we explain, some of the lyrics on George's last album, Brainwashed? One way is to recognize that George wrote these songs over a period of about ten years and that they may not all reflect his thinking at the end of his life. Plus, I'm willing to bet that IF (still a big if in my book) George did indeed convert to Christianity that it was more of a "hey this sort of makes sense to me" kind of conversion rather than a "throw everything else I ever did or thought overboard" kind of conversion. I'll leave it to the reader to decide if that still "counts." Actually, I'll leave it to God - he's better at that anyway.

I'm also, frankly, a little skeptical that the source is George but he "couldn't t list him as a source ." Why can he tell this now? On the other hand, I've been in correspondence with another Beatles book author who was able to tell me some things that did not get in the book (which I'm not telling) so it could be true that Spitz knows things that he was unable to write but yet is willing to tell people personally. So, the jury is out but Spitz got so much right in his book that I'm leaning toward admitting that he was right about this too.

But I'm still convinced that Carl Perkins wrote "Everybody's Tryin'..."

Over the Rhine - Live from Nowhere Vol 2

I try not to review albums the day I get them because it usually takes me a few times through to really get it and to feel like I have something intelligent to say about it. For example, I STILL haven't written anything about Arcade Fire's Neon Bible because I'm still working out what to say other than "I like it."

However, there have been a few exceptions - albums that grab me so quickly that I can't resist writing about it. Case in point - the new Over the Rhine album, Live from Nowhere Vol 2 arrived in the mail today and it is a delight. The Live from Nowhere series is a now yearly collection of live recordings from various venues which so far have included some new and different live recordings of OTR songs and some killer cover versions that haven't shown up on any of their studio albums. This is a chance for OTR to put out an album for fans with as sort of scrapbook of the year's tours - including the Christmas tour that came through Holland, MI in December that Lynnae and I saw together (where her Over the Rhine infatuation really took hold.) This is a limited edition release that is signed and hand-numbered (I got number 2600! - the exclamation point has been written there too on my CD case.)

The first thing I noticed about the new album was how amazingly clear the recording is - it seems like Linford and Karin are right in the room with you. But the performances - they just jump right out of the speakers and into your heart. The album opens with one of the more stunning songs from Drunkard's Prayer, "I Want You to Be My Love" and the song sets the tone for the whole album: intimate, flawless and compelling. I haven't heard it enough to even have picked a favorite yet but the vibe brings me right back to the fourth row at the Knickerbocker Theater for the outstanding show they gave. But the violinist they have on a few of the songs wasn't on that tour with them and, whoever it is, is fabulous!

This album is great. It's a small band playing great tunes with a remarkable vocalist. It doesn't get much better than this. Order it before they sell out! (Live from Nowhere Vol 1 ended up on itunes so there is still hope if you miss out.)

It’s a small world after all

So I was getting ready for my class which meets first thing tomorrow morning and I decided that my PowerPoint needed a little spicing up. So I went to Google images, typed in “teacher” and went looking for pictures to add to my presentation. I found this one which I thought was fun and clicked on it. I thereby stumbled across a blog called Confessions of an Untenured Teacher written by a second year teacher from Orange County, California. I thought “this sounds like fun” and so I read a little. Then I read a little more. I liked it. I liked the way the writer, Sarah, talked about being a teacher. She didn’t minimize the frustrations but they all seemed to be couched in a love for the profession and for the kids she works with.

This was just what I needed for the lesson I am doing tomorrow so I printed one of the posts and copied it for my students and sent Sarah a comment letting her know how much I appreciated her blog. Within an hour I had a comment back from Sarah and – guess what – she’s a former student of mine!!!!!!!!!!!! I commented back to her and she wrote me a nice email giving me an update on her life and profession. This was so cool! The internet must be a lot smaller than I thought it was.

Getting ‘Lost’

I mentioned quite a while ago that I was turning into a fan of Lost. I got Season Two on DVD for Christmas but I decided that, even though I had not seen Season Two yet, I would just dive into the beginning of Season Three as it was broadcast last fall. Fortunately, the show took a lengthy hiatus in the middle allowing me to catch up a little but I don’t have the time to watch every episode of Season Two in quick succession (plus I was watching DVDs of 24) and it took me a while to get to my Lost DVDs so I’m still in the middle of Season Two while I’m also in the middle of Season Three. Sometimes it can get pretty confusing but it also has the benefit of making me able to connect the dots because I JUST saw some scenes that are being referred to across seasons. And once in a while I have to ask Bryan what's going on.

Anyway I’m realizing that as good as Lost was in the first season it got even better in the second season. I especially like the way that the producers give us new insight into things that happened in the past. The flashbacks of course are a big part of the charm of the show but we learn things about what happen earlier on the island as well. They really flesh out the characters and the mysteries keep piling up. It's nice to finally be getting at least some answers in Season three!

So people on the internet can complain all they want (and they do) but I think it’s a great show – I hope I finish watching season two by the time season three ends. While I sometimes think some of the online fans can never be happy I’ve really enjoyed the Lost Easter Eggs website and find it a lot of fun and worth checking out.

My Musical Guilty Pleasure - Heart

I have, for quite some time now, harbored a love for band that isn’t critically celebrated. In fact, even though I have nearly all of their albums I seldom admit it. The band in question is HEART. The Wilson sisters first came to prominence in 1976 (the year I graduated from college) with their hit “Magic Man” from their debut album Dreamboat Annie. The combination of the crunchy guitars of Nancy Wilson and Howard Leese along with the amazing vocals of Ann Wilson made for a dynamic first single. The album was released on a small label (Mushroom Records) (which we would probably now call and indie label) but it sold like crazy and, for a time, the Wilson sisters and their band were at the top of the charts. Their second album, Little Queen was on a major label, included the mega-hit “Barracuda” and solidified their place in the seventies rock establishment. This was cool stuff and Ann Wilson could really sing!

Things didn’t always go well for Heart, though. They had a couple of albums that I thought were great but didn’t sell like the first two, Bebe LeStrange and Dog and Butterfly (which, while it may not have been a huge hit, may be their best). Then after a couple of really weak albums they reinvented the band in 1985 with a new rhythm section, a new glamorous look, a new record label and a self-titled album. (I should mention that the album just before they got big again, Passionworks, was a particularly strong album even though no one seemed to notice.) Soon Heart were hot again and the album spawned a number of hit songs. One of their hits even featured guitar playing sister Nancy on lead vocals. Their sound was smoothed out a bit, keyboards played a bigger role in their songs and they were a hot 80’s band (complete with 80’s hair). And lets face it, these sisters were made for video and the new MTV loved them. But this didn’t last long either. Each successive album sold less than it’s predecessors, Ann gained weight and became less of an MTV hottie and the audience drifted away. She could still sing up a storm though but eventually Heart finally packed it in. (Recently they reformed and put out a new album but I haven’t heard it yet.)

Nonetheless, I stayed with them for a long time, even in the lean years (typified by their worst album, Private Audition.) Every once in a while I have the urge to hear the old stuff and I get out a couple of albums and crank it up. While on vacation in the car I heard a couple of Heart tunes on the radio and realized that the time had come to pull out the old CDs again. (I like them enough to have repurchased those first few albums on CD even though I had them on vinyl.) As I write this I have their 1985 self-titled comeback album playing and I find myself knowing an awful lot of the words. Listening to this album brings me back to when I lived in Denver. I remember walking on Evans Avenue with a tape of this album on in my Walkman. I also remember that when I saw them on the Bad Animals tour they were fabulous and put on a great show. (If my memory serves me correctly a new singer named Michael Bolton was the ignored opener.)

So because I so often find myself listening to this stuff it is time to come clean – My name is Bob and I actually listen to Heart. And I enjoy it.

If you want to try to figure out why I like this band so much a great place to start is Dog and Butterfly. It shows that Heart could be a rockin' electric band but also had an interesting acoustic side to them too.

So, what's your musical guilty pleasure?

Beatles albums in Lego

Worth the quick trip to this site to see more.

Hiking the Applachian Trail

We're back from our short trip to Athens, GA to visit Bethany. On the way home we hiked the Appalachian Trail. Ok, so we didn't hike a LOT of it, but we hiked it nonetheless. We had a great time seeing Bethany again and hanging out with her in Athens.

Highlights include:
- Playing and singing in church with Bethany and the Sundays at the Morton Band in Athens, GA. The band is great and we had a wonderful worship service.
- Seeing the Georgia Aquarium - almost worth the trip to Georgia all by itself.
- Four days in the car and actually enjoying listening to country music in Tennessee and Kentucky.
- The Waffle House in rural Tennessee - the complete Tennessee experience there in one restaurant.
- Seeing Alabama for the first time - we were so close that we got off the highway, took the 3 mile side trip to Alabama, got out of the car, threw a frisbee, got back in and drove back to Tennessee. We never even turned the car off.
- Taking a completely different route there and back. We left from Grand Rapids where we picked up Meredith and Bryan so we got to Indianapolis a different way than we drove home from there and on the way home we saw the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (which was a wonder of nature) and Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge (which is as different from that as you can get) so we left Athens a different way. We traveled the same road for about 15 minutes around Indianapolis. Including our trip to Atalanta on Monday we drove about 2000 miles over six days.

Many more pictures here

spring break in Georgia