For Your Listening Enjoyment and Edification

Last week, a guy at church sang and acted out a couple of songs by Ken Medema, a blind composer and pianist. He did an excellent job. The songs are about people in the Bible and express wonderful truths by showing how God called them to serve Him. Please take the time to enjoy these. You can also click on the links below to read the scriptures being referenced.

The first one is about Moses being called by God at the burning bush in Exodus 3 (performed by Ken Medema). The guy at church didn't do this one, but it's excellent (he did do the one about Ananias below).

Another good one is about the disciple Ananias, whom God called to minister to Saul/Paul in Acts 9:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZbP9VsZW5I (performed by Fred Frank, who also has a good performance of the Moses song on YouTube). For some reason, I can't get the video to load up on here like the other one, so just use the link to view it on YouTube.

Praise God for the timeless truths found in His Word!

Jennifer's West Coast Trip: San Francisco

Sorry for the long pause. I know the suspense was killing you! I was battling a weird cold that kept sort of going away and coming back every couple of days. So, back to my trip....

The last place on our itinerary was San Francisco, California. We went there to attend a Tears for Fears (TFF) concert, which has sort of become an annual event for us since 2010. We flew from Seattle in the morning on the day before the concert so we could do a little sightseeing.

But first, let's talk about the weather. It was pretty cloudy, cool (cold, compared to Seattle and Vancouver), and foggy most of the time we were there, but I guess that's why they call it "Fog City" (among many other nicknames). Good thing we brought jackets! They must make a killing selling unsuspecting tourists San Francisco jackets and sweatshirts, so if you plan to go, even in the summer, take a jacket. Oh, and thanks a lot, fog, for ruining every chance we had to get decent photos of the Golden Gate Bridge (and by decent I mean you can tell that it's the Golden Gate Bridge without squinting or being told that's what you're looking at).

The best photo I got of the Golden Gate Bridge (taken from the Alcatraz ferry). Seriously.

Anyway. Maybe next time I can get closer to the bridge for some better shots. We wanted to go over that way, but we didn't have time.

We already had tickets for Alcatraz, because they can sell out weeks in advance, so that was first on our to-do list. Once we checked into our hotel, which was on the south side of town, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf and got on the ferry to travel about 1.25 miles across San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz Island. The island is now a national park site featuring what remains of the abandoned prison, early military fortifications, and the oldest operating lighthouse on the U.S. west coast.


Approaching Alcatraz Island

We spent a few hours on the island, touring the former penitentiary grounds. In the first photo below, you can see (from the top left to the bottom right) the lighthouse, the warden's house, the cellhouse (peeking out from behind the warden's house), the barracks/apartment building, the guard house (behind and to the right of the barracks/apartment building), the guard tower, and the dock.

View approaching the dock





The wall above was written on during the 19-month (November of 1969 to June of 1971) occupation of the island by the group Indians of All Tribes. 



Military chapel and guardhouse

Gardens, power house, and view facing northwest

The 84-foot-tall lighthouse which replaced the original in 1909

Cell block

Inside a cell

Solitary confinement cells

There are many ornamental plant species on the island--remnants of gardens planted by inmates and correctional staff and families--which are now tended by volunteers.



View of San Francisco from Alcatraz Island

After our tour of Alcatraz, we sailed back to Fisherman's Wharf and walked around and shopped since we were already there.






Marina at Fisherman's Wharf, SF

Seals sunning themselves at Fisherman's Wharf

We ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., since we seem to have also made a tradition out of that since we went to Chicago last year. And I had to have some of their bread pudding again.

We took a cable car ride from Ghirardelli Square to the transit station on our way back to our hotel. We actually took a few cable car rides, but they were all at night, so they weren't the best times for good photos. And they were super-crowded.

The next day (our final day together), we ate lunch at the Fog City Diner, which was more upscale than we expected it to be. Both the food and service were good.

Then we took a streetcar (we did manage to get a shot of one of those) to Chinatown.

Streetcar in San Francisco

Somehow, we managed to completely miss the front entrance gate and area, which is probably where all of the photo opps are (we came through the opposite end of Chinatown...the part where Asian people are shopping). Oh well.

Somewhere in Chinatown, San Francisco

Chinatown, SF

From there we scaled a few small mountains to get to the concert venue, Nob Hill Masonic Center. The TFF show was great, as usual. We love that they sound just as good live as they do on a recording. We also really enjoyed their opening act, Carina Round, who also sang backup vocals for them and signed a copy of her CD for Alexis after the show. I took some photos, but they all came out really blurry. I guess I was a little excited.

The next morning, we parted ways at the airport and both flew to our respective cities. There are tons of things we didn't have time to do in San Francisco (and Seattle and Vancouver), but we did what we could and had a great time. Well, that concludes this whirlwind West Coast trip series!

Jennifer's California Trip, Part 3

The next morning, we went back to LA. TFF did the last U.S. show of their 2011 tour at the Wiltern that night. When we got back to LA around 1 pm or so, we drove by the Wiltern on our way to the Ramada just down the street (where we stayed that night), and saw that the show was sold out. We also saw one of the girls who was at the concert the night before who had supposedly been sitting in "line" (there was no line until late afternoon) since 9:30 am!

We were in the first actual row, but the orchestra pit was in front of us (evidently, those were different, more expensive tickets). We still had a decent view, but not as good as the night before.


View from the 1st row behind pit

After the show, the opening act, Michael Wainwright, came out to meet and greet. He also sings backups for TFF.


Alexis and Michael Wainwright

The next day, we went down to San Diego to visit with my brother. More on that in Part 4!

Jennifer's California Trip, Part 2

We took a little detour for one day and night to go to Las Vegas for a Tears for Fears (TFF) concert. We would probably have never even thought about going to Las Vegas if they hadn't been doing a show there. The normal attractions are so not our idea of fun. The views on the drive over were nice:

The show was great. It was at the Red Rock Casino, Resort, and Spa, which isn't right smack in the middle of everything, so it was quieter and the view was better.



View from parking deck of Red Rock hotel



Lobby area of Red Rock hotel

The concert was outside near the pool, and the weather was perfect. We got second-row seats! We only got a couple of photos:


Stage before the show from our 2nd-row seats



TFF's Roland Orzabal performing in Las Vegas

We were really glad we went to that show, because we got a lot closer to the stage in Las Vegas than we did the following night back in LA. More on that in Part 3.

The Most Talented Family You've (Probably) Never Heard of

This week, I stumbled upon this video. The quality isn't great, but it's incredible to watch:

That's Gunhild Carling. After seeing that, I had to watch more videos of her, and I found out that her whole family is that talented. The Carling family is from Sweden and they've been performing since the early 1980s. I can't believe the amount of talent they have. They play multiple instruments, sing, and dance. According to their web site, her mother plays banjo, violin, drums, and double bass; her father plays trumpet; her brother Max plays violin and clarinet; her sister Gerd plays piano, harp, organ, trombone, alto sax, and vibraphone; her brother Ulf plays drums; and Gunhild plays...well, watch the video montage below:

I also really enjoyed the following clip from a concert her jazz band did (and the video and audio quality is excellent). She fronts the band, playing trumpet and trombone, singing, and directing. It's a little long (3 songs), but worth it. There are guest dancers for the first song, she wrote the second song (which I love), and her father wrote the third song. Several Carling family members are in this clip (mother on banjo, father on trumpet, brother Max on clarinet (and I think sax), and brother Ulf on drums).

I want to be like her when I grow up.

Some Good Trombone Music

A fellow band member sent this to me, and I think it's a really good piece. Especially when they add other parts (duets, quartets, etc.). Also, check out ~6:00 in; I got to play with Jiggs when he was a guest of our jazz ensemble in college. Good to see he's still at it. Lots of big names in this video.

They also provide free sheet music to print for all parts, including brass quintets/ensembles (not just trombones), if anyone out there is interested! Makes me want to start a trombone/brass group!