Empire Wild at the Estates (aka The Forum)

Tonight, at the Forum (aka The Estates) we enjoyed the music of https://www.empirewild.com/ Empire Wild, 60 minutes of 2 cellos and a pianist. Ken Kubota now lives in NYC, but grew up here in Columbus (Worthington) and also Michigan. Here's his bio https://www.kenjameskubota.com/bio He has a large social media (YouTube) following. He also has a video series. Check it out.

Summertime on New Year's Eve

         

When the choral group at last night's jazz/worship service ended their selection with Summertime, I leaned over to my husband and whispered, "That's an odd song for a cold winter's night," not realizing the treat we were about to be served by Eric Waters, one of the pastors at UALC.

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mammy standing by

Eric preaching at Mill Run

First, he mentioned how he had sung this in high school choir (he has a wonderful voice and is fabulous with the liturgy) and it had been a favorite.  Then he went on to open the song and the scriptures first with our longings to be "rich and good looking" with references from Scripture, and then the story of Jesus from the prophets to the manger to the cross and resurrection, to our own promised resurrection when we'll "spread our wings and take to the sky" when Jesus returns.  It's hard to get a Lutheran audience to shout "Amen" and applaud, but we did. Second, I'll offer this hint, in case you think your preacher could do this, Eric was a theater major at Dartmouth, he usually gives the Scripture readings for the day from memory, and this sermon was so beautifully crafted, that he was speaking poetry.  I hope it was recorded, and I'll add a link if it was.

What a wonderful way to say good-bye to 2015 and to welcome 2016--listening to Eric talk about our hope, and then closing with communion, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, closing the service.

A good start to the New Year

What a fabulous way to end the old and start the new.  UALC had its 12th New Year's Eve Jazz Worship service, and as I looked around, the sanctuary at Mill Run appeared nearly full (seats about 700).  We enjoyed some TV theme song favorites with audience participation, then some great jazzed up hymns, a sermon from Pastor TJ, a moving communion service with all our pastors and their wives serving, and final closing. Then we went out to eat with Bill and Joyce, got turned away at Houlihan's so we migrated to our old stand-by Rusty Bucket on Lane and had a lovely meal and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Beginning the New Year with God and friends--you can't beat that.

A blog about prisons

I've been in a number of prisons, not as a prisoner, but as a visitor primarily following the same guy through the system until after seven years or so he was "shock parolled" after his 5th wife was murdered by her boyfriend leaving a baby to raise. I guess the parole board thought he was the guy to do it. The reason he had a baby was that he had escaped in the prison garbage truck and they left town together.

Yesterday the Conestoga group met at the Ohio Historical Society (now open only on Saturdays due to budget cuts by the state) to hear David Meyers talk about the local music scene. Wonderful presentation with great photos. David has over 4,000 pages of manuscript on this topic and a huge rare record collection--that's sort of what a fascination with local history can do. But he has also written about Ohio's prisons, and his latest book is out. While checking that web page I came across his blog, Central Ohio's Historic Prisons. Because of Dave's encyclopedic interests in music, records, film, prisons, local history (he also worked on Columbus Unforgettables series now out of print), screen writing, religion and family, he somehow manages to merge all of them in his blog--with photos. See the record labels about the great Ohio Penitentiary fire, April 21, 1930! And did you know the Professor of psychology at OSU who coined the term "moron" was once the coach of the USC Trojans? It's all on Dave's blog. Ah, a blogger after my own heart.

He's also on Facebook, and a member of UALC for you locals.

It's a long, long line

A catchy tune, great lyrics. The long, long line.

Do you need an MRI?
Get in the long, long line.
Do you feel like you're gonna die?
Get in the long, long line.
'Cuz health care from the state
Will cause an endless wait.
I hope it's not too late.
Get in the long, long line.

Brother and sister team, Steve Jones wrote the lyrics, and the music and singing is by Kathleen Stewart. Here's an article about them in the Midland Daily News (MI). Kathleen has a CD, "Take Back America." You can download "It ain't your money to spend."

"You started a spending orgy and then,
You made me long for Georgie again."