Jeorge's Favorites

Well, you may have noticed I haven't updated my blog in a while (over a week!) And my mother commented that they haven't seen me much lately...

I've been a bit anti-social the last couple weeks, working constantly in my recording studio. Here's what I've been working on:

Well, not the artwork (which I threw together yesterday afternoon), but the music that'll go with that CD cover. That's right, my dummies (or "ventriloquial figures", as ventriloquist puppets are properly called) are putting together a CD of Jeorge's favorite songs that we've sung at different churches and camps over the years.

Most of the recording work is done (I still have a piece of dialogue between all three puppets to record, and a couple vocals to redo because I'm not really satisfied with how they sound)

I've still got a fair amount of mixing work to do. Recording goes fast, and mixing goes MUCH MUCH faster than it used to with my old system, but it's still a lot of work. A lot of tweaking and listening, and re-tweaking...

Here's one of the songs that'll be on the CD. It's called Hymn Of Grateful Praise, and it's comprised of three separate hymns put together. Uncle Jim sings one verse, then JD (my French puppet), and then, of course, Jeorge.

Hymn Of Grateful Praise

(I hate how I can never get these compressed audio files to sound like the real thing, but at least it gives a taste for the song!)

Eventually this song will have a bit of dialogue between the puppets before they sing, but right now it's just the song itself. Here's a cool thing to listen for as you listen to this: Jeorge sings the last verse, and when he's singing the chorus, he takes a breath before the very last line of the chorus, and that's the last breath he takes before he's finished. Apparently dodo birds have very good lungs!

On to other things. Last Saturday I had the privilege of speaking at "The Root Cellar" in Portland. I was invited by Beth Wilson (CEF worker) to come speak. They had their International Dinner, and then I spoke. Interesting thing was, I was teaching the Gospel to a group that contained a lot of Muslim children. I had been warned that when I started talking about Jesus, the kids would start misbehaving, disrupting, and putting their hands over their ears (Many have been told by their parents that they can't listen to us talk about Jesus). But I was very pleased to see that not a single child put his hands over his ears.

One child, who apparently always put her hands over her ears, was asking one of the leaders afterward, "Is that really how Jesus died?" And a lot of the kids had questions for us. I thought it was a very positive step forward for some of the kids.

Afterwards I visited with Beth for awhile, and she told me that Trent does indeed have a new child in the family, born on his birthday. And the baby's name is...Sadie. So...happy birthday Sadie (and Sadie's daddy!)

Two weeks ago I posted an entry titled "Life Is Like A Roller Coaster?". That was actually part of a short series of lessons I'm doing at youth group about our perspective on life. There are several other lessons in that series, which I've been meaning to write up, but haven't got around to yet. I'll try to get to that soon. In the meantime, here's a quick look at the perspectives:

Life is not like a roller coaster. It's like standing in line for a roller coaster.
Life is like the TV Show Fear Factor.
Life is like a mixed media portrait.
Life is not like Gilligan's Island. It's like Lost.

And now...

I have to say thanks to Jonathan and Melody, because when they came back from their vacation last year they gave me a t-shirt (and no, it wasn't the 'My brother went on vacation and all I got was this lousy t-shirt' t-shirt). It was something they picked up when they visited Marengo Caves. And why am I thanking them now?

Because every time I wear that t-shirt, it's almost guaranteed that someone will come up to me and say "You've lost a lot of weight!"

In actual fact, my doctor says that I've only lost two pounds in the last year (which I don't believe), but for some reason, the Marengo Caves shirt makes me look like I've lost a lot of weight.

And finally...

Returning to the picture at the top of this entry...how long does it take you to notice that there's something wrong with that picture?

Posted On Jan 20, 2006 at 7:43 AM

On Jan 20, 2006 Laura wrote: Sounds good! I bet that CD will be a big hit :-D As for finding something wrong with the picture - could it be that the microphone is closest to the wrong singer?
I'll be very interested to find out how life is not like Gilligan's Island - especially since I haven't seen Lost.

Doug Replied: could it be that the microphone is closest to the wrong singer?

Nope...that's not it!

Although, of course, you're quite correct...when I'm recording, not only is Jeorge not near the microphone, he's on the other side of the apartment!

On Jan 21, 2006 Mr. T wrote: What's wrong with the picture? Why, Doug's not wearing a T-Shirt - that's what is wrong!