American Idol Final 2

OK...no frills or individual song reviews for this final Idol installment.

David and David are both amazing musicians, and I will honestly be very happy with whatever the result is tonight. I like that they're very different from one another musically, and also that they both appear to be genuinely very good guys, which is cool.

My official prediction at this point of the game...The winner is going to be...

Tonight, they will crown the champion:

David.

Happy Birthday to...

Morgen!!!

Yes, my sweet little girl turned 2 TODAY!! We went to Johnny Buccelli's for lunch (where the nice ice cream lady gave Morgen a lot of extra scoops and toppings!!), and we later gave her a LOT of presents to unwrap! Some of her favorites were "my little pony", a little stroller for her dolls, a pair of sunglasses, etc. We also got her a bunch of balloons (what kid doesn't love balloons?), some with her favorite things on them--princesses!! She seems to love princesses these days...she's convinced that she is one, I think. Me too....

Tribute

This past Saturday night was pretty special. This was the final concert for Dr. Randy Wolfe as the director of the Cincinnati Boychoir. It's been a lot of years since I've seen him (well over 10, I"m sure). Pictured here is Dr. Wolfe with me, my brother Tyler, and my big sister (yes, she's standing up), Tricia.
During my growing up years, my siblings and I (my younger sister, Toni is not pictured here) spend a ridiculous amount of time with this musical giant. Every Saturday morning, while most kids were deep into cartoons, we got to wake up at about 6:30am to be at his house by 8am (nearly an hour away). We all took piano and voice lessons from him...brings back some horrible memories of having to listen to my siblings practice (ha!).
Some things that make a good teacher:
(Dr. Wolfe was truly all of this and then some)
-excellent at their skill (I don't want to learn from someone who doesn't have a clue)
An amazing pianist, with numerous awards and accomplishments under his belt, nobody on the planet would ever question his abilities. Dr. Wolfe also has quite a good grasp on vocal performance, with an understanding of multiple foreign languages (especially his favorite, German).
-good communicator/charismsa
The ability to keep over 100 boys at a time captive during 2 hour rehearsals for well over 20 years should speak for itself here....
-always learning
The best teachers never "arrive". I still remember the time I told him as a kid that I wished I were as good as he was, so that I would never have to practice. That didn't go down so well....
-cares about more than just the art
Randy Wolfe cares about people--legitimately. If a teacher doesn't love people, keep them away from students. In the end, they will generally bring more harm than good.
-is able to have fun doing it
I can't tell you how many fun memories I have with this guy. He understands this principal well. Too well.
-is honest
There is a balance between being an encourager to your students, and lying to them. This is what makes the auditions for American Idol so incredibly amusing. These people really believe that they're all that, because "my teacher says I'm the best ever...". I still remember the day that Dr. Wolfe got pretty angry with me, basically telling me that I was wasting my talents by not ever practicing, and just coasting because I thought I could get away with it. Honesty. It's a good thing.
-is able to create passion in the heart of a student (most important, in my opinion)
Yes. Most important, in my opinion, is the ability to instill passion in their students. I believe that passion will get a student further than anything else. The student who listens to recordings for hours on end of their favorite musicians, just to figure out exactly how to play or sing it, then goes and practices for twice that amount of time, to make their instrument sound the same way as what they heard...that student is generally going to be good some day. The students who love the art, and is not just playing because their parents are making them do it are generally the ones who will excel the fastest. A good teacher will take a student, whose parents are making them do something, and somehow be able to (sometimes) convert that into a student who loves the art.
I joined the Cincinnati Boychoir in 1986 at age 11, the same year that Dr. Wolfe became the director. Through my years there, Dr. Wolfe took me under his wing, and allowed me to be a leader. Some things he should have never trusted me to do: He trusted me to teach sight reading to boys, etc. (I felt pretty clueless...I just taught the others all of the things that he was teaching me privately--there's another principle here, I'm sure). He allowed me to do "sectionals". He gave me solo after solo. He enrolled me in other things in the community (like the time I auditioned to be Amahl in Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors"). He allowed me to conduct the Boychoir in front of thousands at Cincinnati's Music Hall (among other places), as the "assistant director" at age 14!!!
Yes, there is certainly a big place in my heart for Randy Wolfe. I look up to him as the person who invested in my musical foundation more than any others (outside of my parents, who were the ones who actually committed all the time and dollars to make all of the above happen--thanks mom and dad!). Thank you Dr. Wolfe for all you've done for me, and for countless others. Your love for God and people shines through all you do. May God continue to direct your steps in the days to come.

American Idol Top 3

I can't believe we're already at the top 3 here....

OK 3 songs each--I feel like it's going to be another rushed show.

David Archuleta

"And So It Goes"--one of my favorite Billy Joel songs, and one of my favorite melodies of all times, really. Thanks for choosing it, Paula (since I know you read my blog). I sit and play this one at the piano often. OK--I wish he would have let the melody stand on its own more. There were too many licks for me (although they were all clean). Well done. Oversung. Great job.

"With You"--I don't know the song (and didn't like it all that much). He did a great job, though, as always. Not amazing.

"Longer"--again--more licks than necessary, especially at the beginning. Well done, though. Abrupt ending, again. I hate feeling rushed in this show....

Syesha Mercado

"If I Ain't Got You"--I'm glad Randy chose this song, to let us hear something a little different on her voice. She's singing it very well.... Yet again, I will say that she has enormous potential to be an amazing vocalist (far beyond being extremely good, which she is). Great job, Syesha.

"Fever"--She'll probably do well with this song. I don't really like the personality that's starting to come out with her all that much in the interaction with Ryan, etc. It's good that she's feeling comfortable, though, I guess. I LOVED the wah pedal on the guitar, and it was a good choice to bring the upright bass guy out, as that is the critical instrument through the song. I feel that she did better than the judges let on, but it wasn't amazing. This is just the kind of song that a musical theater buff would pick.

"Hit Me Up"--don't remember hearing this song before (but evidently, I guess I did, since I remember suffering through the "Happy Feet" movie). Lots of pitch problems through the song. It really didn't feel like a song for her to me. Bad song choice, I think. Too bad for Syesha.

David Cook

"The First Time Ever Saw Your Face"--Good job. It's about what I though he would do. It felt like the end was a little much, but it seemed that the crowd loved it. I do like that he branched out, and did something a little different with it...let me take the opportunity to say that what these contestants pull off every week is borderline miraculous. Not only do they maintain incredibly busy weeks, but they have to learn new songs, and sometimes pull off originality in arrangements, etc. Kind of tough for a professional musician, let alone an actress, bartender and high school student....

"Dare You to Move"-- by Switchfoot (a great band, whose music I've been listening to a bunch lately)--It was pretty good. I could have picked a better song by Switchfoot for him. Paula was right--you can't really present a song like that completely in less than 2 minutes. It's kind of unfair to them, but it's a level playing field.

"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"--Neat Beatles vibe to it, with the string ensemble and all at the beginning. He's going to make it go huge at the end. You can tell that he's just keeping it small to give it somewhere to go...I told ya so...there it goes. One of the marks of a good musician is being able to keep something very simple at times in order to go somewhere else with it later. CONTRAST makes things pop. It seems so simple, but MuSiCiAnS often don't get it. Hopefully, you understand what I'm getting at here. I'm making my own eyes go buggy, trying to demonstrate the point. Great job, David.

Tomorrow night--Syesha is going home. See ya!

Noah's Mother's Day Special Edition entry

Today, I'm featuring a special guest artist, displaying Mother's Day art and a note to Jennifer from the artist(you'll quickly discover what he was watching on the tv as this was done):

Happy Mother's Day, mom.

I think I got a new surprise for you. Some day, would you like to go see The Munster's at the studio, and make them our new friends, and meet some of them?
I want to make you breakfast, instead of you making breakfast. Maybe you could watch The Musters with me. But don't be too late, because it might be over. Oops. It's over, and you can't watch it, and that's bad. The show's over. That's bad. Really bad.
So I have an idea...when we go see The Muster's, we can ask them to do a show again.

Happy Mother's Day!

Love, Noah

Below is the inside of the card above.



This picture is an alien. The green glob is his daddy. They're standing on a space hill.

American Idol Top 4

Just a quick review of the show, as I just watched it...

1st round was won by David Archuleta. (and Jason C. was not nearly as bad as they said.)
2nd round was lost by Jason Castro (oops!), and probably won by David A (or Syesha, actually).
David Cook somehow kind of disappeared tonight, which will not be to his advantage at all.

Syesha is vocally infinitely better than Jason Castro, although I'd probably rather to to his concert, as he seems to be a really good musician in general, and I just like him. Jen thinks that Jason and Syesha will be bottom two. I think that Jason will be going home tonight for obvious reasons. Joining him in the bottom 2 will be the major upset of David Cook (although he's safe). I think Syesha and David A will be the top 2 tonight. We'll see shortly!

Time For a Change

What on earth just happened to my blog???

Well, my good friend Beckie Farrant is in town visiting us (with her son, Isaac). They left daddy, Tim, back in Indiana for this trip. I got home from a busy day, and Beckie said (within minutes), "Hey Ted, let's do something new with your blog--it's so boring." (or something like that) Nothing can motivate me like calling something I'm doing boring, so we were off.

A little background: Tim, Beckie, Jennifer and I were all at Liberty University at the same time. I was actually a part of the team that assisted Beckie in making the decision to head for Liberty out of high school in Chicago. Not long after my Liberty years, they came out to join us at Big Valley Grace Community Church in Modesto, CA. Beckie landed there as my assistant, and Tim was one of the youth pastors. We've been through much together. (Including the day that we nearly killed eachother--literally--while our competitive natures took over during a board game...our spouses grounded us from "games" for a while after that one--ugggh.).

For quite a while now, Beckie has exercised her creative side non-stop, in as many ways as a stay-at-home mom possibly could, I think. Combine that with learning some html stuff...we've got a monster on our hands, here.

Check her out over at infarrantly creative. Learn a lot.

Minnesota

Well, I'm off to Minnesota tomorrow--Minneapolis (which means the city of abundant law enforcement in Shawnee--OK. Not really, but it should). That to say...NO Idol review this week from me (probably). I know...you're all heartbroken EXCEPT for those who recently asked me if I would ever write anything except Idol again. Yes--and here it is. I will write about not being able to write about it.

Seriously, though--I'm headed to MN for a one day trip to meet with a company called Search America, with whom I'm partnering in one of the business start-ups that I'm working on right now with my brother, Tyler (and another guy named Tony). I'm praying for wisdom, discernment, and guidance for the trip. Join me. (please)