Monthly Archives: May 2008

Hang Drum Solo

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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.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

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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.

Bono (Paul David Hewson)

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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 2-March-2007) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRY2sOiBZxI>.

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