Vos Virtual Network

Have you ever seen or heard the hang drum? I’m no expert on this instrument. In fact this is the first time I’ve seen it. I’ve just been thinking about the variety of instruments that you bang, blow, pluck, tap, hammer, etc. This is called a ‘hang drum’. As you can see, it is a very melodic drum.

The expert hang drummer featured in this video is Manu Delago.

The hang drum comes from Switzerland. It is similar to the steel drums often associated with Caribbean Island music, but is lighter; more responsive to being played by hand, rather than a mallet. Hang means hand - from the Germanic word for hand. This modern instrument was developed very recently (@ 2000) with acoustic and metallurgical innovations — that created a very melodious percussive instrument.

You can hit it with your hands; tap it with your fingers; even make it sing by rubbing gently, similar to playing crystal drinking glasses.

Tags: melody, music, percussion, video

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. I made sausage soufflé for breakfast. It was a recipe that I learned from my mother. She made it frequently at Christmas, or on Easter morning — to celebrate the resurrection.  I remember that Mom made a batch of sausage soufflé for breakfast the day that Jane and I got married. My mom died a few years ago, so I try to keep the tradition going. Maybe I’ll make sausage soufflé for breakfast on the morning the girls get married. It’s one of those recipes that you can prepare a day early.

I browned the sausage on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning I got up early; whipped the eggs, and grated the extra-sharp cheddar cheese. While it baked in the oven, I wrote a short article about Bono.

Priscilla made some fruit salad. We had breakfast a little after 8:00AM. Jane and the girls enjoyed the breakfast.

We got to church early, and the girls practiced Let All Things Now Living on the violin, viola, and cello. (It’s sung to the old Welsh tune of Ash Grove.) Ralph talked about letting the little children come to Jesus, and the blessings of God’s covenant faithfulness.

We had chicken, potatoes and vegies for lunch. Then we watched City of Joy. It’s a great movie about a shanty town in Calcutta — filled with gangsters, slum dwellers, and people with leprosy. (People I could relate to.) Do you know the happiest part of the movie? The wedding celebration.

That was yesterday. It’s only a memory now. Yesterday was also a Beatles’ song. But that was yesterday, and I want to talk about Tomorrow. Smashing Pumpkins wrote a song called Today (which I don’t recommend), so let’s talk about Tomorrow.

My mother grew up in Ogilvie, Minnesota — which is a really small town along highway 23, north of the Twin Cities. Seems like a lot of kids growing up in Ogilvie felt trapped in that tiny town, and could not wait to grow up and get out of that “2 traffic-light town”. There were only a couple stores in Ogilvie, so lot’s of folks went to other towns nearby to do their shopping. To the north-east was a town called Mora, and to the south was a little town called Day. Seems like the town called Day was even smaller than Ogilvie, so maybe they went there just to get away from Ogilvie.

People in Ogilvie had a saying that was kind of funny and really makes you think about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. They would say:

“Today I’m going to Mora, and tomorrow I’m going to Day.”

Bono wrote a song about his mother’s funeral, called Tomorrow. His mom died when he was only 14, and I think that was one of the big events that set a trajectory for his life, and shaped several of his songs.

Tomorrow also talks about Jesus coming back. [ Tomorrow Lyrics - song by Bono/U2]

“Open up to the Lamb of God… To the love of He who made the blind to see … He’s coming back, I believe it, Jesus coming… I’m gonna be there.”

I know the Great Wedding Feast is coming Tomorrow, and I’m gonna be there too. Just wanted to encourage you to think about yesterday, today, and tomorrow, while it’s still today.

It’s always daytime where I’m going. It’s called it the marriage supper of the Lamb. I’m not sure if we’ll eat breakfast since there won’t be any night, but I’m sure there will be joy and feasting. No darkness. No night. Only light. Only day.

Today I’m only talking about Tomorrow, but Tomorrow I’m going to Day.

Tags: Bono, death, eternity, life, lyrics, mom, mother, music, poetry, song, U2

If your life is going too fast, maybe you should slow down and listen to this song by Trace Adkins. Or if you wish you could just grow up faster (and you think life is moving too slow) — you should listen to the song, too! You’re Gonna Miss This by Trace Adkins. (This song was playing on my alarm clock this morning, and woke me up.)

Tags: music, song, video

Bono turned 48 yesterday. Bono is the lead singer for the popular Irish rock band U2, and a prominent “human rights activist”. Bono was born on May 10, 1960. His real (family) name is Paul David Hewson. Bono has frequently used his fame as a rock musician — as a platform (or pulpit) — to proclaim the message of reconciliation, salvation, redemption, and the Year of Jubilee (canceling debts, and setting slaves free). The message is not always understood, but this has not seemed to hinder his huge success as a “Rock Star”.

To celebrate his 48th birthday, Bono had a small dinner party at Sass’ Café in Monaco. On the guest list: Brad Pitt, Monaco’s Prince Albert II and the Edge.

Bono was born to a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother during a time when Ireland was sharply divided among sectarian lines. Back in 1977 (the year I graduated from high school), in the city of Dublin, Paul (Bono) and “school friends David Evans (later ‘the Edge’), Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton formed a band that would become U2. They shared a commitment not only to ambitious rock music but also to a deeply spiritual Christianity.”

In this YouTube video clip he talks about growing up when “Ireland was divided along religious lines”. He shares a few memories and says that “young people like me were parched for the vision that poured out of pulpits of black America, and the vision of a black reverend from Atlanta — a man who refused to hate, because he knew love would do a better job.” (See M.L. King video with U2-Bono song - In the Name of Love.)

Continuing in the video clip Bono says:

“These ideas travel you know [ideas about love, instead of hate] and they reached me, clear as any tune, and lodged in my brain like a song… and may I say it was the poetry, and the righteous anger of the black church that was such an inspiration to me, a very white, almost pink Irish man growing up in Dublin…. True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedoms. Love thy neighbor is not a piece of advice. It’s a command.”

Sources:

Youtube video clip of Bono speech at NAACP gathering (posted March 2, 2007) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRY2sOiBZxI>.

“Bono.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 11-May-2008 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/860737/Bono>.

Tags: Africa, AIDS, Bono, justice, NAACP, U2, video

Still thinking about Fat Joe and the Elephant in the Room.  I know I’m the problem.

As I “plowed the field” this morning, this “rap song” started to formulate in my mind…

Blame it on the Thistle!
Blame it on the Thorn!
Blame it all on God, for the day I was born!

Blame it on the Soil!
Blame it on the Plow!
Blame it on the Sweat drippin from my brow!

Blame it on the Sunshine!
Blame it on the Rain!
Blame it on Anything that caused my pain!

Blame it on the Christians!
Blame it on the Jews!
Blame it on the Pagans with strange Tatoos!

Blame it on the Pilgrims!
Blame it on the Brits!
Blame it on the Indian, if the moccasin fits!

Blame it on the Cotton!
Blame it on the Hoe!
Blame it on Pharaoh who won’t let me go!

Blame it on the Railroad!
Blame it on the War!
Blame it on my Neighbor who lives next door!

Blame it on the Textbooks!
Blame it on the Schools!
Blame it on the Teachers - educatin fools!

Blame it on the Hip Hop!
Blame it on the Blues!
Blame it on the Rap Stars, going for a cruise!

Blame it on the Drug Deals!
Blame it on the Whore!
Blame it on the Gangster who robbed the liquor store!

Blame it on the Lawyer!
Blame it on the Judge!
Blame it on the News Man who blames it all on Drudge!

Blame it all on Wall Street!
Blame it on the FED!
Blame it on the Bankers - that we have no bread!

Blame it on the Movies!
Blame it all on Guns!
Blame it all on Hollywood hot crossed buns!

Blame it on the Muslims!
Blame it on the Pope!
Blame it on my Neighbor kids smoking dope!

Blame it on the Woman!
Blame it on the Snake!
Blame it all on Anything but my mistake!

Tags: anger, blame, hip hop, poetry, problem, rap, sin

I’ve been thinking a lot about Fat Joe, and his angry music. I think I know why he’s angry and I think I’m part of the problem. Bono said “Lament is the outcry of the overwhelmed.” I wouldn’t give you 50 Cents for Fat Joe’s lyrics, but I do want to talk about the Elephant in the Room.

There is this huge problem… the elephant in the room… that no one wants to talk about.

The problem is the same, ever since my father broke fellowship with his Father. He blamed it on his wife, and she blamed it on the snake, but as they left the garden that day, my father knew deep in his heart that he was the problem.

I am the problem.

It was a very hot day to be working the plow. As he wiped the sweat from his brow, he cursed the thistles and thorns, but knew in his heart, that he was the problem.

I am the problem. Don Miller said that on page 20 of Blue Like Jazz. How could Don know that I’m the problem, when he doesn’t even know me? It’s like God must have told him that I was the problem.

Sometimes I worry about what people think if I admit that “I’m the problem”. However, when I admit that I’m the problem, part of the problem is solved.

People think what they want to think. People believe what they want to believe. People follow rap stars like 50 Cent, or Fat Joe because they like the message, or somehow the message is helping to them to understand the chaos of the cosmos.

I discovered another thing in Blue Like Jazz — while reading on my Friday morning bus ride:

“People hardly care what you believe, as long as you believe something. If you are passionate about something, people will follow you because they think you know something they don’t, some clue to the meaning of the universe… If a rapper is passionately rapping about how great his rap is, his passion is pointed to nothing. He isn’t helping anything. His beliefs are self serving and shallow. If a rapper, however, is rapping about his community, about oppression and injustice, then he is passionate about a message, something outside himself.”

Tags: anger, blame, hip hop, oppression, problem, rap, sin, social injustice

Yesterday afternoon, it was cold and blustery by the river in downtown Detroit. Really cold and windy for the middle of May. The kind of cold that bites through your clothes and chills your bones. But things were hopping as I walked down Beubian St. on the way to catch the Smart bus home. Some people had put up posters everywhere for Fat Joe. Every pole had a sign for Fat Joe. Some poles had 3 signs proclaiming FAT JOE. As I walked past the Old Green Bar there were dozens of posters for Fat Joe. “I Won’t Tell Fat Joe there’s an Elephant in the Room”. In front of St. Andrews Hall (the indie music place) there were people all looking at the posters for Fat Joe and talking about Fat Joe coming to town.

Who is Fat Joe and why is he coming to Detroit? A bro with a big smile, colorful tee shirt and better dread-locks than Jimmy Hendrix, said that Fat Joe is some kind of hip-hop rap guy from the Bronx. Yep, it looks like Gangsta Rap at it’s finest (or baddest) …

Wikipedia’s got the skinny on Fat Joe:

Fat Joe’s album The Elephant in the Room was distributed by Imperial Records, a division of Capitol Records and Terror Squad Entertainment, and released on March 11, 2008; its lead single was “I Won’t Tell” featuring singer J. Holiday. The album debuted at the sixth position on the Billboard Hot 100.

Fat Joe got in a fight with Papoose in North Carolina recently, and 50 Cent says Fat Joe’s career is already dead. So Fat Joe is coming to Detroit … and I just hope nobody gets hurt.

In June 2007, the Reverend Michael Pfleger targeted Fat Joe as among several rappers he believed promoted misogyny in his billboard campaign “Stop Listening to Trash”.

There is a lot of angry music in Detroit. On the bus ride home, one guy was really angry about the price of gas being $3.69. [Note: It went up to $3.89 two days later.] Then he started yelling: “Did Bush find the weapons of mass destruction yet?” Another guy was talking about the recent Police brutality (allegations) in Philly and said, it was so bad.. made Rodney King look like a walk in the park, compared to that. If things are bad in the City of Brotherly Love (Philly)… must be even worse in Detroit… someone else started complaining about Kwame…

Then the man who was talking the loudest said “I wish God would come back”. “Really! I hope God comes back to stop all this bull-sh__ [injustice]“. “I hope God comes back soon.” Another black gentleman, more soft-spoken (and not as angry) said he “hoped God did not come back too soon, because some people are not ready yet.” That made me think of what my friend Ralph (the preacher) said: “God is patient in His Holy Anger against corruption, injustice, oppression, sin and wickedness. God is patient and slow to anger. God is not willing that any should perish.”

When God comes back to town… he will not come into town like Fat Joe. It will be be a lot worse, but a lot better… all at the same time.

I listened to the conversations and tried to understand what makes people angry. The bus stopped a few times. A few people got off the bus, and others got on. The bus grew quieter. While a few people drifted off to sleep, I read another chapter in Blue Like Jazz.

Tags: anger, hip hop, music, rap