The Real Group

Probably my most current favorite music group is The Real Group.

The Real Group is a five-member a capella group from Sweden. They do a lot of vocal jazz, which I love, as well as some very good, original, and creative contemporary music. Their well-trained voices blend really well, they have excellent technical execution (i.e. the way they use time, dynamics, and general vocal acrobatic ability), and they sound good live. Having experience with live performance vs. recording, I have a lot of respect for vocalists (especially a small vocal ensemble) who can sound as good live as they do recorded.

Here are some videos of The Real Group so you can get a taste. I hope you have the time to listen to some or all of the songs. (There's more on the net and on their website.)

[Unfortunately, Internet flash video quality sort of dilutes a little of the experience. To really appreciate good a cappella music (or any music for that matter) you need the full, crystal clear, frequency range to capture the fullness of the human voice with all of its overtones and depth. Often in recordings and playback equipment the lower frequencies are 'clipped' off leaving kind of a 'telephone' quality. So if you have the means, I recommend listening to them on a system that lets the bass through, otherwise you probably won't hear the bass or baritone. ]

Alright enough technical details. :-)



This is The Real Group's arrangement of the popular ABBA song, "Dancing Queen" featuring Frida from the original ABBA. I've been impressed with the bass vocalist, Anders Jalkéus, because he has a pure tone, bounces amazingly accurately between the notes without 'swooping' to the right note--he also doesn't do the 'growl' bass thing that a lot of contemporary bass vocalists do which makes them sound lower without having to use as much tone.



This song does a good job of illustrating the bass' ability to take big, clean jumps between notes. Although they are Swedish, they have a pretty good command of the English language and I find their English lyrics down to earth and often poetic. Although they all take part in writing and arranging songs, I think Anders Edenroth is on of the genre's most creative musicians. One of the challenges that I love to hear when its done right, crisp and clean, is dissonance. No other instrument can make dissonance sound as good as with the texture of the human voice. Its also a challenge to 'clash' with someone an hold your tone. But when its done with exactness, it creates an incredible sound...its like a whole new spectrum of tones pops into existence at that moment of dissonance. If you study sound wave characteristics, you can understand what I mean.



This song is simple, but has a beautiful feel to it. One thing that is actually very difficult in singing is singing the same note straight over long periods of time without slowly dropping the pitch. Its especially hard to make single notes maintain an energy over time. Breathing is also a very big challenge in a song like this...to hold steady and breath at strategic times so it doesn't disrupt the flow of the song. Then synchronize that with four others. Singing a unison note with multiple people can be almost as challenging a singing dissonance--multiple people matching the same pitch.



This is one my kids really like. I like it too--it's fun. I'm fascinated because the bass sings the lead at such a 'non-bass' level. The Real Group was popular in Korea and did a tour in Korea. Look at how the Korean translators translate "Perpetual Motion Thingamabob." In Korea, they don't have an 'f' sound (they replace it with a 'p' sound) in their language. Just goes to show how confusing English is. After serving my mission in Korea, it makes these Korean tour videos extra special to me.

Actually I learned some things about singing from the Korean language: English has so much slurring which tends to slow down the energy of singing, but Korean is crisp and clean; the consonants have a quick, solid attack and the vowels are an exact, pure tone. Listening to a native Korean speaking is very cool. I've tried to speak and sing English with more clarity when bouncing from consonant to consonant, but it still doesn't sound as clean as the Korean language.

Adventures With Children

CHAPTER 1

The event my wife has been organizing for the past several months took place yesterday. The plan was (1) we would drop mom off at the church, (2) help her set-up, (3) go to my workplace for a few hours, (4) pick-up mom after her event, (5) go home and live happily ever after. The boys consider going to work with me a special treat because they all get to play online computer games while I get caught up on some of my work.

CHAPTER 2

Things went according to plan...until the 'help mom set-up' part (OK, so we lost on the 2nd step of the whole day.) My 7-yr-old (T), who has behaviors characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder, doesn't know how to deal with variation from his expectations. Immediately he started throwing a violent fit because he expecting to go straight to the office to play on the computer. I sent the rest of the four boys into the church to 'help' while I tried to calm T down before he destroyed the van.

When I got into the church my four other 'helpers' were doing everything except helping. Running around, make lots of noise. My middle son followed me in and continued his protest against helping mom and continued his attempt to manipulate me into getting what he wanted. He noticed the wreath rings sitting on a table and decided they would make good Frisbees. He decided the 'Shepherds Staff' Christmas staff example would make a great marshal arts fighting stick....filling in the gaps with yelling and calling me a liar for not taking them to the office right away.

Finally, with a growl from my wife to take the boys home, and leaving a trail of overturned chairs in his path, the boys and I left with T over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and the other kids screaming at my sudden cancellation of going to the office until T repented the best he could.

CHAPTER 3

The whole ride home was nothing short of a Tavern Brawl of upset little people in a mini van...empty water bottles flying over the seats, crying and screaming and blaming and arguing and fist swings. The windows fogged from the steam pouring out my ears as I helplessly tried to talk (or yell, rather) the kids out of fighting each other. To add to the experience, the bridge between the church and home was up so a lone fishing boat, whose mast was probably only a few inches above the bottom of the bridge, could pass slowly underneath.

The gnashing of teeth followed into the house with the oldest in time out and me holding T to try to calm him down.

Eventually T agreed to earn the back the opportunity to go to the office by doing the dishes with me. For now, after an hour and a half of intense battle, all seemed calm. Dishes, Lunch and the trip to the Office went well. Then we went to get mom from the activity.

CHAPTER 4

Idle time is dangerous. Young boys sitting in a car seat waiting is like watching a lump of sodium start to slip into beaker of water. Eventually the potential energy reaches beyond its bounds and in an instant a quick and violent reaction occurs. Before we could reach that point, (signalled, in part, by T bursting a packet of ketchup on the seat and ceiling), I decided to let the boys 'run around' outside--at least then the violent reaction would have a wide clearance.

Next thing I know, half the kids are having an all out leaf fight...not innocent dry leaves fluttering in the wind; leaves sitting at the bottom of a puddle created from the last five days of wind and rain.

CHAPTER 5

Once a chemical reaction starts there is virtually no way to stop it--and can trigger chain reactions. No amount of verbal demands changed the dynamics of this 'party' It didn't help that they were all spread out and moving at light speed either. Soon half-empty (yes, not half-full)water bottles from the van quickly became utilized as ammunition cartridges. The idea spread like wild fire and all the boys were grabbing what they could and trying to get each other.

Regardless of any destruction to themselves or other objects, they had fun with huge smiles on their faces while I felt like gum on a the highway...run-over, over and over again, sometimes stuck on the tire and repeatedly slammed between the road and the heavy vehicle. "Passerbys" just looking on...you can only imagine what they were thinking: "glad that's not me."

CHAPTER 6

As these types of activities usually end, someone got mad, and hurt one of his brothers, and sometimes its reciprocated...or another common occurrence, the lone ranger runs in on the scene and inflicts justice on behalf of the brother who got hurt. Parental intervention resulted in most of the boys buckled in their seats and the others in the bathroom cleaning the mud and leaves off of their face.

CHAPTER 7

The adventures of the day were enough to set my 기(Qi) out of balance and I was cranky the rest of the day. And this wasn't even our regularly scheduled weekly battle!

Back to the Ten Commandments: Even though I don't mean 'kill' in any literal sense, there are those days where the Savior's fulfillment of that law to include the avoidance of anger is a little bit harder to follow. I guess that's why I like writing about these experiences because its helps me feel better about the situation and less angry about it--I can look back and see the comedy in it all. Most of the time my boys were only doing 'innocent' mischief and not hurting anybody--so I do have to give them credit where credit is due. But, this post reflect the most 'memorable' events from my perspective.

Electrocution Chair

We spent the morning today at the local hospital, so my second youngest could get a mole removed. Since the bigger boys were at school, it was just my wife, my two youngest sons, and me.

The people at the hospital were very friendly and did a wonderful job of helping them feel comfortable and happy. That meant the boys were comfortable talking to the nurses.

Right after we checked in, they took my five-year-old to a small room, took his weight, and had him sit in a chair next to a blood pressure machine. As the nurse started pulling out the arm wrap and finger monitor along with all the tubes connecting it to the blood pressure machine, my four-year-old asked, nonchalantly, out loud in his high pitched little-kid voice, "Are you going to electric [electrocute] him?"

I wonder if my four-year-old remembers when I yelled at my middle son from the attic a few years ago when he tried to help me with our re-wiring project by turning on the breaker as I was connecting two black wires. ...I certainly remember.

Halloween: Great For Pictures

Halloween is one of the most artistic holidays of the year: Pumpkin Carving, make-up, costumes, decorations, haunted yards and houses.... Halloween also provides some good picture-taking opportunities.

Here are a few pictures from previous years in an attempt to give you some ideas for your photographic experiments this year:

Jack-o-lanterns are great fun to photograph without a flash. I found if you throw-in a few three-point lighting componants, it adds some pretty cool affects. Note the right-side glow on the pumpkins from the inside light shining through the window with a dash of white shine on the top left (from an LED flashlight). All done with a tripod and no-flash to show the glow from within the pumpkins. Its cool just having the faces glow in blackness, too.

If you want to see some real pumpkin carvings, check out the gallery at the Pumpkin Gutter website.

The macro feature did a great job with these autumn-colored Candy Corns...one of our seasonal favorite foods. This makes a good desktop backdrop.

Monster house comes to life in the dark (no flash). [But I did have to use photo software to brighten the picture up enough to see the glowing features clearly.]

As the fall temperatures shrink, dew beautifies spider webs in shiny diamond beads.

Unfortunately, no amount of diamond dew makes spiders attractive to me.

Are you ready?

About two years ago, not long after we moved to the Oregon Coast, I got a call from my wife telling me that we received a Local Tsunami Warning email from the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC). I rushed to home, which is a few miles upstream from the great Pacific--just barely above sea level, as my wife and kids were grabbing their 72-hour backpacks and getting ready to leave to the designated Tsunami-Safe area.

Fortunately, there was no Tsunami and we didn't need to leave the house.

The interesting thing about this warning was that neither the city or radio stations had any announcements about the the Tsunami. I had such trust in those sources of information that I risked staying home assuming that if there really was a threat, surely they would let us know. Next time I won't take that risk.

I learned a few things from that experience:

1. If we didn't sign-up for the TsunamiWatcher email list from WCATWC, we would have known nothing about the tsunami. Since then I also signed up for the Earthquake email notification list from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). We get a surprisingly large amount of email from both of those lists. Fortunately, most of the Tsunami Warnings report that there is no risk of Tsunami to our area.

2. If we didn't have at least the beginnings of a 72-hour kits, we wouldn't be prepared to race out the door without being in a flustered panic. We still have some missing odds and ends from our 72-hour kits, but we have enough resources to survive if we needed to leave quickly.

We haven't updated our 72-hour kit for some time, but this last weekend, while listening to General Conference, my wife updated our 72-hour kits. (In an emergency, its always nice when your kid's clothes fit them and the food isn't moldy.) We've decided to make a tradition of updating our 72-hour kits every six months while listening to Conference. It might be wise to change the smoke detector batteries at the same time. Or you can do both every six months when you change between standard and day-light savings.

________________________________________

Here on the coast we get frequent wind storms and power outages are all but guaranteed periodically throughout the year. Last year we had a pretty powerful wind storm that knocked out power for about three days. Some places were without power for longer.

The local stores sold quickly out of ice, flashlights, generators, and other items you might want in an emergency.

Fortunately for us, we had plenty of candles, flashlights (with batteries), radio (with batteries), a kerosene heater, ice in the freezer, a little single-burner butane stove, and our water heater is gas. Although the storm thrashed around us, we were able to cook warm meals, stay warm...and after the storm blew over, the stars were brilliant.

I learned some things from this experience also:

3. Having resources to fill-in when outside resources are cut off is very important to the comfort and peace in a challenging situation. It made us grateful to have the resources we happened to have, but also made us realize we need to be prepared for every situation...what if the water is cut off? What if the gas is cut-off? We needed to look for more ice by the third day, but what if that opportunity was not available?

I see the importance in the council of having a year supply of food, water and fuel if necessary. If you are prepared, there is no need to fear. And it doesn't have to be a major catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina to be a blessing.

We still have some things to add to our preparations and some more detailed plans to create, so we aren't perfect, but we are certainly grateful we've followed advice in this regard as much as we have.

This evening, we recieved an Earthquake email saying there was a small earthquake off the coast of Oregon (not too far from the one that triggered the Tsunami Warning two year ago.) Are you ready?

To Change or Not To Change

The Sermon had ended

The Preacher descended

So delighted were they,

But preferred the old way.

--???

Every six months the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints conducts a world-wide conference in which the top leaders of the church speak to the world. The meetings, consisting of five two-hour sessions, are broadcast via satellite, cable, internet and printed word to all the world and translated into several languages. The leaders who speak consist of the President of the Church, his two counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities of the Church.

For me, I anxiously look forward to listening to or watching all ten-hours of the conference every six months. What would make sitting in meetings for ten hours on a weekend so exciting?!

The answer is simple. When else in the history of the world do you have the opportunity to listen to all the living prophets and the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ in one weekend?

Just as Jesus Christ, himself, called Peter, James, John and the other disciples to follow Him and be special witnesses of His work on the earth (including the Atonement and the Resurrection); so also, in these latter-days, since the restoration of His church on earth, the resurrected Savior calls men to be special witnesses of Him to the world. The First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are these modern special witnesses of the Savior. Listening to these men is like listening to Peter, James, John, Paul and the other apostles who led Christ's church after His resurrection and His ascension into heaven. The tone and power of these modern day apostles' words matches the tone and power of Peter, John and Paul as found in the New Testament.

You can't listen to these righteous men without feeling the truth of their words and their testimony of the Savior. You can also feel their sincerity and love for the Lord and for all people.

I am surprised that more people don't take advantage of this unique blessing every six months.

Although I've developed my own conviction of the significance of the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the more difficult part of Conference (and studying the scriptures) is following the council provided.

Listening and feeling good about what is said (and read in the scriptures) is easy. But the real test is afterwards when you face the everyday world and can no longer hide behind the temporary protection of ignorance. In the instant you are forced to make decisions, great or small, is the test of whether you will fulfill the personal commitment you made as the Holy Spirit confirmed the truth of the words of the Lord's representatives. In the blink of an eye, in an instant...and sometimes within seconds of gaining the new depth of knowledge, your commitment may be tested, the decision made, and the uncontrollable consequences unleashed.

Hopefully the right decision is made, releasing the blessings associated with obedience. But, unfortunately, all too often I fail the test, forfeit the blessings, and sit ashamed that I disappointed the Lord and sabotaged my own potential. I end up with a 'mess' that I must 'clean-up' in order to repair any damage made to myself or others. And gratefully the opportunity to sincerely try again is made available by the atonement of Jesus Christ.

The ultimate challenge from the historically unique opportunity of listening to the Lord's representatives at General Conference every six months is: To Change or Not to Change. But I know the Lord gives no commandments that we can't keep and gives us the opportunity to turn things around when we don't do what we know we should do. Heavenly Father loves us so much, he gave his only begotten son to give us every opportunity in the world to choose eternal life.

You may listen/watch archives from this weekend's General Conference to learn these truths for yourself. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Playing With Blogger

I played a little bit with Blogger today. They have some pretty nifty add-ons. Today, I decided to try their poll feature. Give it a shot...its down on the right below the Trail Heads.