Tuesday's Musical Notes - "One Week" (Barenaked Ladies)

It's Tuesday!  Time for The Notes!  Let's get started!!!

Welcome to a first here at Tuesday's Musical Notes!  It is the first time a band has been featured in back to back weeks!  We've researched the annals of Musical Notes history and can not find a band, that's right, not even Chicago, that has been featured in consecutive weeks.  

Last week we featured theme song from a popular tv show that was making its exit.  That blog referenced that feature band's most successful song to date.  And it really fits well to where we are going this week. So, just in case you didn't click on it last week, kick back and get ready for another taste of the band Barenaked Ladies as the regale us with a tale of what happened...

"One Week" by Barenaked Ladies from the July 7, 1998 album Stunt 

It was the biggest hit from their biggest album.  The first single from the indie darling's fourth studio album went to # 1 after debuting on the charts at #3.  It climbed to # 2 the week after its debut and then went on to spend, you guessed it, one week at #1.  

The music video utilized iconic scenes and props to propel the storyline.  A wind-up life-sized singing girl, much akin to Sally Ann Howes' wind up doll in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the General Lee Dodge Charger from The Dukes of Hazzard, and the Ford Gran Torino from Starsky and Hutch all serve as a backdrop for the telling of the story of the week of a relationship of a guy and his girl.  The seemingly nonsensical lyrics are filled with iconic pop references that while not insightfully deep, are a lot of fun to give a listen.

Could you encapsulate the past week that you just experienced into 2:54?  I suspect you would attempt to be very general, which might border on being nonsensical to anyone else. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' The American Time Use Survey ("Startling Statistics on how we Spend our Time" posted March 4, 2011, by Susan Cullen on nexalearning.com), here is how we spend our time during a week:  (Theirs is a daily statistic, we've done the math to provide the weekly statistics for you!)

working and related activities: 61.6 hours

sleep:  54.6 hours

leisure and sports: 18.2 hours

household activities: 7.7 hours

eating and drinking: 7 hours

caring for others: 8.4 hours

other: 10.5 hours

A week has 168 hours in it.  Of that, 123.2 are spent working, sleeping, or eating.  That means we have 44.8 hours to do the other things on the list.  Given this limit on our time, would you agree that those hours become really important?  So what do we do with our week?  How do we invest/spend limited waking moments? 

In the first 4 verses of Genesis 2, we are given the model for work and rest.  The Message paraphrase puts it like this:

"Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail. By the seventh day, God had finished his work. On the seventh day, He rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day.  He made it a Holy Day  Because on that day he rested from his work,  all the creating God had done." (Genesis 2:1-4 New American Standard Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel)

In Genesis 1 we see the condensed version of all that went on during the week of creation.  As we said in previous blogs, everything that God created on the consecutive days were the building blocks for the life of the next day's creation.  Ultimately, the very good creation of man came at the conclusion of the first 6 days.  

There are those who would say that the "week" mentioned here in Genesis could be any time frame.  I question this.  God gave Genesis to Moses to write down.  Moses, being educated in the courts of Egypt would have had an understanding of weeks, months, and even years.  If it had taken God "billions of years" to exact the creation process, I feel strongly that He would have told Moses that very thing.  Hello, I'm Randy and I believe in a literal 7 days in Genesis 1 and 2!!!

In our culture, we have a 24-hour news cycle.  Some have a 7 day a week work cycle.  Others work for 5 days and then take 2 days to fill with pursuits they enjoy or chores at home that need to be done.  I wonder if any of these are actually good for our health and well being.  

The example given to us by God, you know the One who CREATED us and knows exactly how we function at our peak, is to work for 6 days and rest for 1.  Please don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting you go and find a paying gig that requires you to work for 6 days.  I am however suggesting that we do not take the time to rest that we should.

Notice the blessings of the 7th day.  God said that His creations from the previous 6 were good and very good, yet on the 7th day, the day of no work or no creation, God blessed the day.    He spent 6 days getting things done.  He enjoyed getting the opportunity to savor the fruits of His labors.  Did God need the rest?  Absolutely not!  Did God take the time to reflect and enjoy and bless his labor?  You bet!!!

Why do we work?  The quick answer is to provide for our families.  Do we ever take the opportunity to celebrate that provision?  Do we ever rest and take advantage of what our work has produced?  Do we relish the beauty of freshly mowed lawn or flowers that were placed in specific locations in a bed?  Do we experience the benefit that our work has provided for us?  Too many times I do not.  

We must not believe the lie from the enemy that every waking moment must be spent in activity of some sort.  Our physical bodies were not created for that, nor were our mental states.  We must have a day to reflect and enjoy and yes even bless the work of our own hands.  God's created us in His image.  Wouldn't logic dictate that He knows how we are to spend One Week?

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,

randy

 

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Big Bang Theory Theme" (Barenaked Ladies)

SO...You knew it had to be coming soon...

Welcome to the most exciting blog in 14 billion years!  It's Tuesday's Musical Notes coming to you from the wide expanse of the universe!  It's that time where explore strange new worlds...no wait, sorry wrong show.  It's that time where we explore a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight...no that's wrong too!  It's that time where we regale you with the story all about how our life got flipped, turned upside down!  STOP!  This is really getting ridiculous!  It's that time where...oh just roll the video, you know what's coming...

"Big Bang Theory Theme" by Barenaked Ladies   

Did you know there was a full-length version of this song?

"Big Bang Theory Theme" from the September 27, 2011 album Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before by Barenaked Ladies  

The Big Bang Theory launched on September 24, 2007.  It ended after 279 episodes and 12 seasons last Thursday to a throng of viewers as they watched Penny and Leonard, Howard and Bernadette, Sheldon and Amy, and Raj come to the conclusion of their television stories. I confess that I did not watch every episode and only began my periodic viewership when the show hit syndication.  

The show won awards as it detailed the lives of 6 scientists and 1 hippy chic in a humorous fashion.  It spawned a spin-off television show, Young Sheldon, which shows the history of The Big Bang Theory's resident theoretical physicist.  Beloved by many for celebrating the "nerd" in each of us and filled with iconic science fiction and comic book references, The Big Bang Theory remained rated at the top of comedies as well as all shows for the majority of its run.  

Recording the theme song for the show was the band Barenaked Ladies.  The Canadian Indie band formed in 1988 and since that time has had 4 top ten albums and 2 top 40 singles in the US.  They hit #1 with the song ""One Week" released on September 22, 1998 by Barenaked Ladies from the album Stunt".  But they will always be best known for the 24-second opener that purports the "History of Everything".

The scientists that populate the world of The Big Bang Theory would be quick to submit Darwin's Theory of Evolution as factual.  Would it surprise you to hear that Tuesday's Musical Notes is also proponent of evolution?  

We'll explain that bombshell soon.  Since we now have your attention, let's dive into the real history of all things.   

Genesis 1:26-31 New American Standard Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel 

I think it is really important at this point for us to remember that the 1st book of the Bible serves as on overview of the creation story.  We find in today's passage a summary of the events of day 6.  But there are some specific things we would like to hightlight.

"Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image..." - Genesis 1:26a

There are a couple of phrases in this opening statement of verse 26 we need to unpack.  First of all, who are the "Us" (note the capitalization) in which Moses refers?  Bible scholars tend to agree that this refers to the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit.  For those whose world view is founded on the Bible as the truth of all truths, this is not a difficult concept to believe.  However, One wonders if Moses questioned who the "Us" were in his own mind as he penned the events of Genesis.  

Secondly, how can we define the phrase "Our image"?  This begs the question of what is the "image" of God?  We are given the definition of the "image" of God, by God Himself.  Jesus (God, the Son) proclaims:  

" God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  The Gospel of Jesus according to the disciple John, chapter 4, verse 24 New American Standard Bible  

This declaration indicates that our physical attributes are not what is being referred to in Genesis.  This means, upon our creation, with men and women as God's conduits for the creative process, we are an eternal spirit.  We will continue to exist for eternity future in a manner that is difficult for us to understand.  So, we except that and the fact that God is spirit by faith.

"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd."  Hebrews 11:1 - The Message paraphrase of the Bible 

When God created mankind, He set them (Adam and Eve) above all of the other things He created because He created mankind with an eternal spirit that was meant to have a relationship with God forever.  

We've told you in previous Notes about our belief that racism is a tool of the enemy to divide mankind.  Here in the creation record we see that mankind started from Adam and Eve.  That means we are all one race, the human race.  Everything else are cultural differences.

We also mentioned above that we believe in Evolution.  In some ways Darwin's observations are correct.  Things do change over time.  I see change every morning when I look at the 55 year old who is standing were the 26 year old used to be.  That is a form of evolution.  

You see, man's disobedience caused the expulsion from the perfection of the Garden of Eden.  This introduction of sin caused a chain reaction of many other malformations, including the decay of everything.  The death of everything physical was the result of this decay. 

But as we mentioned before, mankind was made in God's image, therefore a spirit which will last for eternity.  This spirit is what must evolve into being more closely aligned with God every day.  Evolution into being like Jesus is a good thing and one that Paul suggests that we strive for:  Paul's Letter to the church in Rome, chapter 8 NASB/The Message/KJV, Paul's letter to the Phillipian church, chapter 1, verse 6 NASB/The Message/KJV

So, we don't have to wait 14 million years to evolve into being like Jesus.  We can be more like Him at the close of the day today.  First of all we must believe that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God.  Then we must believe He did what the Bible said He did, came in the form of man to be THE sacrifice once and for all time for anyone who would believe and accept His sacrifice as THE replacement for their sin and the restoration of THE relationship with God.  Finally, we must believe these things enough to want to be more like Him and tell the world about Him.  Ultimately, these things are encapsulated in what Jesus said was the greatest commandment.  In short, "Love God, Love everyone else."  We evolve into Christlikeness when we are able to accomplish this daily.  Love God more, love everyone else more.  This is the truest form of evolution.  Everything else, well...it's just a big bang!!!   

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,

randy 

 

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Rockin' Robin" (Bobby Day)

Welcome to Tuesday!!! Just another day?  I don't think so, it can't be, there is just no way!  Tuesday's the best, hands down, don't you know?  Tuesday's not Monday, Monday's go slow.  Today is the day with potential all new!  The outlook is hopeful, depending on you.  Will you embrace all the joy He has waiting for you?  

Welcome to Tuesday!!! No, not another day!  There's music and musing well on its way.  It is time, yes it is, for something quite new.  The melody is simple, the lyrics not new.  T'was "tweeting" before Twitter was neat.  Grab your phone or your tablet and then have a seat.  So sit back and relax, you're in a safe place, a robin will sing for you right in this place. Welcome to Tuesday!!!  It's the best don't you know?  It's time, yes it's time for the start of the show...

"Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day from the 1958 album Rockin' with Robin

and this is just too fun

"Rockin' Robin" by Michael Jackson from the 1972 album Got to be There

"Rockin' Robin" hit #2...twice!  Both recordings by the above stars soared up the charts and peaked at #2.  Bobby Day's 1958 version was his highest rated single.  The 1972 version by Michael Jackson came from his debut solo album, Got to be There.  Both songs are so much fun and have become favorites by all ages.  My children fondly remember dancing, well what we called dancing (YIKES!), in the garage to the tune of the robin goin' tweet, tweet, tweet!  

Bobby Day is best remembered for 3 classic songs.  While Day recorded each of these songs as a solo act or with his bands The Satellites and the Hollywood Flames, today's feature solo recording was his first and only top ten hit.  The Dave Clark Five recorded "Over and Over" in 1965.  "Little Bitty Pretty One" was recorded 3 times. (Thurston Harris, 1957, Clyde McPhatter, 1962, and The Jackson Five, 1972)

Bobby Day was no relation to Doris Day who at 97 passed away yesterday.  Tuesday's Musical Notes must recant something we said about Ms. Day.  In the Musical Note from April 26, 2016 ( Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Let's Go Crazy") we made the statement that we would be surprised if the media would cover Ms. Day's passing as much as they did Prince's.  So far, this iconic recording and acting superstar is being respectfully treated by the media and it seems the coverage will continue for several days.  We regret intimating otherwise.    Que Sera Sera    And now back to the countdown...

Robins, rockin' and otherwise, came into existence on day 5 of the creation.  On this day, God determined to fill the oceans and skies with their respective creatures, declare that those creations were good, and then end the day.

With each day of creation, we see the building blocks toward God's greatest "good" thing being given life.  Day 1 provided light in the midst of darkness.  Day 2 provided a separation of waters defining a position for the heavens and earth. The light from day 1 gave the chemical balances necessary for this separation to be permanent.   

On day 3 God spoke, and the earth formed into a different but recognizable form of what we know today as our planet.  God spoke and vegetation of all sorts began sprouting and growing and flourishing as photosynthesis first took place because of the combination of light (day 1) and soil (day 2) necessary for plant growth.  Day 4's seasonal creation allowed for variety as specific plants would grow during a specific season.  Do you see the trend?  The combination of Day 3's plant life and day 4's solar and lunar nuances provided food for Day 5's sea and air life to exist.  And at each step, God proclaimed it all "good".  Genesis 1:20-23 New American Standard Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel

God is not a god of random chaos.  There is a specific roadmap for things to be in balance.  That includes our lives.  We need only read the process by which everything we know came into existence to see and understand that fact.  Far too many times, in our rebellion, we tend to place ourselves as more of a part in the process of the balancing act.  

We heard that our planet was going to have a global ice age proclaimed scientists of the 70s.  We haven't even had good snow in many years here.  We now hear of how the oceans are going to rise and wipe out California and England if we don't step in and stem the tide of global warming.  

Our point for today.  For believers, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the created resources recorded in Genesis.  However, this does not allow us to place ourselves in God's place and think we have any control over the delicate balances that He put into place.  If we believe God is who He says He is, we need not worry about freezing to death nor drowning due to our planet overheating.  

Our point for today.  For those who do not hold the Bible as the true account of our world's history, please do not get sucked into the pervasive lie that we can control the climate or anything else that concerns this planet.  There is only 1 Creator.  There is only 1 who has control of everything that provides eco-balance.  We do need to recycle, we do need to find alternative energy forms, and we do need to find solutions for things that are detrimental to our environment.  Yet our motivation for those things should be as responsible end users of the product that God has placed into His cycle of eco-balance.  

Our point for today.  We have a responsibility to God to ensure we utilize His resources to the best of our ability.  We do not, however, have the ability to control or adjust the parameters on our planet's ecosystem.  To do that places us on the same level as God.  Not sure that worked out so well for Adam and Eve...

Allow this truth to wash over you.  Allow Holy Spirit to teach you and draw you to Himself.  Allow the words of the Bible to ring true in your life today.  "Every little swallow, every chick-a-dee, every little bird in the big oak tree, the wise old owl, the big black crow, flappin' their wings sayin' go bird go!"   The creatures of day 5 are encouraging you...Go to Him today!!!

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,

randy

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Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" (5th Dimension)

Welcome to grooviest blog this side of the '60s!!!  It's Tuesday's Musical Notes comin' atcha from our palatial 2nd story office on this bright and sunshiny day!  We hope you are feelin' the groove today, brothers and sisters, as we slide into one of the most happenin' tracks ever known to mankind.  The moon is in the 7th house and the stars are aligning for one of the best blog reads of your week, so let's get started as we travel to the Fifth Dimension for today's piece of the action at Tuesday's Musial Notes!  Peace!!!

"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by the Fifth Dimension from the album 1969 album The Age of Aquarius  

It was the original mashup song.  You know, where you take 2 songs, usually popular, and put them together to make one.  ("Top 10 Song Mashups" By Dustin Koski on November 18, 2011, toptenz.net)  Today's feature song, referred to as a medley for those of you born before the year 2000, is a mashup of 2 songs from the 1967 musical Hair.  

Upon seeing a performance of the musical, The Fifth Dimension became very enthusiastic about recording "Aquarius".  As it was used as an introductory song for the musical and didn't have an ending, they decided to combine it with a portion of the song "The Flesh Failures" (the "let the sunshine" portion) even though the songs were in different keys and tempos.  

Recording happened in 2 cities. Vocals by The Fifth Dimension were laid down in Las Vegas, (with just 2 microphones for the 5 singers) while the instrumental tracks by Bill Holman and The Wrecking Crew (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'") were recorded in Los Angeles.  

This mashup was instant gold as the song streaked up the charts all the way to #1 (It stayed there for 6 weeks) and was listed at #2 behind the Archies "Sugar, Sugar" on the end of the year countdown in 1969.  It won the 1970 Grammy Award for both Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group.

The astrologically fused lyrics have come to be considered poetic license as, according to some astrologists, the astrological signs that are mentioned are common occurrences. Okay by me, I'm not diggin' that jive anyway...

Astrology claims to be able to determine life events and human affairs by gazing into the cosmos.  Most consider this a pseudoscience.  There are, however, incredible things that have happened in the earth's atmospheric past.  Take for example the incidents that happened on day 4 of creation:

"God spoke: “Lights! Come out!

          Shine in Heaven’s sky!

    Separate Day from Night.

        Mark seasons and days and years,

    Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth.”

        And there it was." - Genesis 1: 14-15 The Message paraphrase of the Bible  

Genesis 1:14-19 New American Standard Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel

Notice that the sun and moon were created by God on day 4.  As we've eluded to in previous Musical Notes (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The Light that has Lighted the World"), the sun was not the light spoken into existence on day 1.  The creations of day 4 are the celestial bodies that we see every day, at least on days that aren't cloudy.  Time itself was created on this day as the "seasons and days and years" happened due to the phases of the sun and moon.  Time keeps on slippin'...(Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Fly Like an Eagle")

While science teaches us that the moon reflects light from the sun, it is easy to see how in Moses' mind, the moon emitted its own light, thus causing God to provide an explanation for the moonlight that he (Moses) could easily understand.  

I guess in some ways, astrology was birthed on day 4 of the creation story as well.  It seems that it was not too long after the expulsion from the perfection of Eden that mankind succumbed to the worship of the astral beings.  Job, whose story would have occurred chronologically in Genesis ( "When Is Job On The Bible Timeline?" April 29, 2013, by Margaret Hunter amazingbibletimeline.com), wrote a negative view of those who would worship creation over the Creator.  Job 31:26-28 NASB/The Message/KJV  Job's anathema at putting anything before God should serve as a great example and warning to us about how we view creation, especially the creation above our atmosphere.

We've had a lot of rain in our area of the world lately.  It is with great excitement that we have seen the sun and feel its warmth over the last couple of days.  That excitement should be held in the perspective of gratitude towards its Creator, not in the worship of the center of the universe gas ball that our earth circles, nor the ice cold hunk of rock that is in orbit around earth.  

We were created for a relationship with the Creator. His creation in the sky is beautiful, but these created entities cannot bring peace in the time of tumult, comfort in the time of pain, nor a filling when there is a loss.  Only God, working through Holy Spirit can do those things.   

It really doesn't matter when the moon gets in the 7th house or Jupiter aligns with Mars.  Peace will only rule the planet when love steers the hearts of mankind, especially those who confess faith in Jesus as Savior, King, and Lord of their lives.  Love God, love others, let Jesus judge and let the Son shine in...that would truly be the dawning of the age...

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,

randy