Advent, Week #4: Wednesday

Last Video for Advent:



Merry Christmas!

My Desktop Background

This can be yours at the soon to open Gift Shop!

Advent Week #4: Tuesday

Follow this link to hear another version of Winter Wonderland.

See if you can figure out which one is the mother and which one is the daughter. Clap CLAP CLAP!

Then check out one of my favorites at this link or watch it below:

Advent Week #4: Monday Morning celebration

In the Old Testament, David danced before the Ark of the Covenant in celebration. This has been considered a prefigurement of what happens in the New Testament, when the last Prophet, John the Baptist, danced before the Blessed Mother when she came to care for her cousin Elizabeth.

"And how have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to see me? For behold, the moment that the sound of thy greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy."

- Luke 1:43-44

So dancing is okay, unless it looks like this:

Sunday Meditation

The Kingdom of Heaven is beyond price, and yet it costs what you have to give. It cost Peter and Andrew the price of a boat and some nets.
- St. Gregory the Great

Advent Week #4: Sunday - The Gloves Are Off

Someone (who will remain anonymous) violated the terms of this musical hairshirt extravaganza and put a video of Boy George where I could see it.

All I can say is, are you dreaming of a White Christmas, and do they know it's Christmas time?

Final week to pray, fast, give alms, and watch bad videos. Extra points for those who can sit through this whole thing:

Advent Week #3: Saturday Duets

Today is a busy day, so I am punishing you early.

These two videos prove that even professionals can sing badly.

Video ONE:



Video TWO:




Even with Dean Martin blitzed, and Frank Sinatra's socks sliding down, they still sing rings around the other two yahoos. Note how Dino keeps the cigarette low through most of the video.

Advent Week #3: Friday Night Feast

First, there is this link to a story which will excite all of you. Burger King has just started marketing a meat-scented body spray.

Imagine the look on the face of Wifeofdadwithnoisykids. Imagine me splashing a bit of this body spray on, and then walking up to her.

I can imagine her breathing deeply the scent of freshly grilled meat. I imagine her closing her eyes, and with quivering lips saying to me, "take me out to dinner, baby."

But enough about me. keeping with the food theme, I bring you a truly awful bit of penance from the folks who gave us the dancing California raisins. This is a rerun from last year, but some things are just so horrible they must return, just like a Canadian penny in Texas.

Prepare yourself.

Advent, Week #3: Thursday with a Lump of Coal

Consider this lump of coal rather than a musical hairshirt:

Aardvark at 180 830 Miles

Another aardvark showed up to celebrate the Aardvark reaching 200,000 miles.

Advent Week #3: Wednesday Respite

Christmas always reminds me of A Christmas Carol, which reminds me of 'Tiny Tim,' which reminds me of Tiny Tim, which reminds me of the ukulele, which reminds me of Carol of the Bells played on a ukulele, which brings us back to Christmas. Note that Christmas is just six degrees of separation from Christmas.

Consider this a respite from the awful music I have subjected you to.

Just as a sentence ending with a dangling participle should torment your sense of correct syntax....

Enjoy.

Advent, Week #3: Tuesday Meditation

"I don't know why people get married to chipmunks."

"Dad, do people get married to chipmunks?"

These were questions from my 7- and 8- years old sons after watching this little bit of musical madness:




I have not had much time to work on original blog entries; this is a busy time at work, at home, and with a new baby who seems to be trying to arrive early. Sometime in the future I shall get back to writing more and including less videos. But let's have one more for the road from 'Old Blue Eyes.'



BY THE WAY, THE BABY IS UPSIDE DOWN!

Advent Week #3: Monday Meditation on Bad Music

Is there anything worse than this?

This video shows why people are paid good money to modify the output of the various instruments and microphones at rock concerts.

I don't think he is saying anything offensive, but on the other hand I am not really sure what he is saying.

It is called 'The Bell That Couldn't Jingle,' and is sung by the man who couldn't sing.

Advent Week #3: Sunday!

This is Gaudete Sunday, so I want to give you something special - SPECIAL!

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK

Or watch it below(for those of you who are not my Facebook friends):

Advent, Week #2: Saturday

Please pray that the '2009' Edition Noisykid will stay in the oven for a few more weeks. We spent last night in Labor and Delivery working on stopping labor.

Actually, I slept on a cot which broke into three parts as I lay there. I had to work all day today.

Anyways, keep Wifeofdadwithnoisykids in your prayers.

But now, let's MAMBO!

Click on the link above to enjoy a little musical nightmare.

I actually learned to Mambo in college, but I don't do that kind of thing anymore.

Actually, it's a Cha-Cha.

Matachinez

Dancing in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. St. William the Confessor Catholic Church, Greenville, Texas, December 12, 2008.

Advent Week #2: Friday - THE BABY IS UPSIDE DOWN!

If only it were true in real life.

The Feto-Meter shows the baby twirling upside down, which is not the way he is positioned right now. Of course, the Feto-Meter does not show the 2009 Model Noisykid with his outdoor plumbing, either.

We are investigating ways to make the baby 'come about' - a nautical term, from my days in the Air Force. But I digress.

Today is Friday, a day our family usually abstains from meat. However, today is also the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In honor of this occasion, I send you some Meatloaf for your viewing and listening displeasure:




Well, it's cold and lonely on this Texas Winter night. I can see the keyboard by the monitor light.

Advent, Week #2: Thursday

I feel as if I have been remiss, sending you 'easy' penitential musical hairshirts.

That will end now.

Do you remember the Partridge Family?

This guy sang for them; I only had eyes for Susan Dey.




Oh yeah.

I outgrew my boyhood crush for Susan Dey and her braces which picked up radio signals, met Wifeofdadwithnoisykids, and the rest is history.

Addendum: Advent Homily and Procession

Here is a LINK to a sermon by Fr. Angelo Geiger, from the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Of note, the Brother seen with the cowboy hat is a former parishioner who is in the novitiate of that order.

Music from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

This next LINK shows the outdoor procession on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. For those of you who are playing the home game version of "Where's Dadwithnoisykids?" you can earn a lot of points in this video. Look for dadwithnoisykids, Wifeofdadwithnoisykids, and several of the Noisykids. As a hint, look for two of the oldest and largest Noisykids as altar boys in the procession.

This reminds me that I need to make 2009 the year that I learn Spanish.

Advent, Week #2: Wednesday

Consider the shepherds, the lowly shepherds who were the first to learn of the birth of Our Savior.

Consider their response if they heard the choir of angels accompanied by this instrument:




Thanks to Sue D. for this link!

Advent, Week #2: Tuesday

I am on call today, so I shall be brief.

Follow this LINK to get a special Christmas greeting from Weird Al Yankovic.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

Consider this version of Jingle Bells by a bunch of guys who look as if they just left a Star Trek Convention:



Speaking of bad acting - I mean, Star Trek - take a look at this:

Second Sunday of Advent

Sunday is a day of rest; therefore, I bid you to rest as you watch this number:



Far, far from Aqualung....

Sunday is a good day to take stock on how well one is doing with the three parts of Advent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.

Prayer: Is the only prayer you say this week something like, "God, when will he stop torturing us with these videos?"

Fasting: Are the videos ruining your appetite, and limiting your intake of food?

Almsgiving: Would you give anything to stop these videos?

It is not too late to start again with prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

By the way, I would stop this exercise in musical hairshirtery for the right price.

Advent Week One: Saturday

This is no time to relax our exercises of mortification.

Tonight, I shall include one of the Noisykid videos from last year after this little bit of bad music 'for the ladies.' After watching the Puppini Sisters sing a jingle, I thought it was time for the women folk to watch a video just for them:

Here is the Link, or watch it below:



Now for one which is not a penance for me to watch; this is Noisykid #8 singing 'Away in a Manger:'

Texas Christmas Ornaments

These were made by my children, and are for sale at today's St. Nicholas Feast Day party.

Feast of St. Nicholas

Here are the family shoes, filled with goodies.

Advent Week One: Friday

At the end of the week, we shall spend a moment contemplating the concept of the 'Little Drummer Boy.'

This musical thorn(below the poem) generates more questions along the line of 'What were they thinking?' than anything else.

But first, I bring you one of my favorite poems from a priest who wrote extensively; one of his greatest works is his work where he discusses his conversion to the Faith. This poem, Lead Kindly Light, is one my confessor introduced to me. It talks about asking God to show one the 'next step' to take when one is lost. We might not know all the steps we have to take as we make our way through this life, but it is enough to know what one is to do right now.

Lead, Kindly Light

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead thou me on.
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead thou me on.
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those Angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

J.H. Newman

Newman comes from the same land as one of these singers; perhaps this singer will one day change his wild ways and enter the Church as well. Perhaps he could put the second verse of poem to music.

But I digress. Back to a meditation on the Little Drummer Boy

"Unless we recover the zeal and the spirit of the first century Christians - unless we are willing to do what they did and to pay the price that they paid, the future of our country, the days of America are numbered."

Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
1914-2000

Now I shall lob one over the wall, courtesy of the Puppini Sisters - these don't look like consecrated Sisters....

First Week of Advent, Wednesday

"Nothing can make you such an imitator of Christ as your concern for others. Although you sleep on the floor, even though, I dare to say, you kill yourself, if you are not attentive to your neighbour, you have done very little; you are very far from being an image of Christ."

St. John Chrysostom

From the series of books In Conversation with God: Volume One: Advent and Christmastide, by Francis Fernandez

Now for the video. This is a sing-along, for those who speak Japanese. The rest of us can just hum, or stare in confusion.

Advent Day #3 - Meditation and Mortification

Day Three of Advent brings to mind a quote found elsewhere on this blog, one from the Maxims of St. Ignatius of Loyola:

“If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of the great holiness to which He desires you to attain.

Do you want to become a great saint?

Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of divine love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the cross, which the infinite charity of the Savior uses to finish His sacrifice.

All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ; that is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ.”


Advent is a time of

PRAYER


FASTING


ALMSGIVING

Permit me to add three more words to the above list:

KATHY


LEE


GIFFORD

Click on this link (for you Facebookers) or watch the video below:

Advent Day #2: Penance, Prayer, Meditation

Today's Musical Hairshirt requires you to follow the link to YouTube because embedding has been disabled.

Make the journey.

Before you go there, consider praying this prayer for a Latin Mass Community which has outgrown the small chapel they are permitted to use:

"O God, who did restore to the Jews, returning from exile, their beloved temple, hear our prayer.

Grant that we may have a house dedicated to your worship, a church in which You will be glorified.

May it be the house of God, the gate of heaven.

In it may your Divine Life be given in Baptism, Your grace restored in penance, Your Body be received in the Blessed Eucharist, Your strength shared in confirmation, Your family be perpetuated in holy matrimony, the sick healed by the oil of extreme unction.

In it may the words of Your revealed truth be preached.

On its altar may You, the High Priest, again make present Your saving sacrifice.

May its tabernacle be the throne from which you rule.

This we humbly ask through Christ our Lord.

Amen."

While I am at it, please remember to pray for the repose of the souls of three of my friends and colleagues who died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on this day in 1994. I previously posted commentary on this subject here and here.