I’ve had the song “I Hope That Something Better Comes Along” from The Muppet Movie stuck in my head for the last week. There are two versions to this song. The version that I’ve had running through my mind is the soundtrack version. It has a second verse which was deemed too racy for the movie when it was released in 1979. (This is the superior version in my opinion mostly because the second verse is just plain awesome.) If you have a chance to pick up the soundtrack, I highly recommend it since it has a lot of really good music. Plus, who doesn’t like the Muppets?
I know that I’m about a week late in posting this, but I’m later than that in posting other stuff so I don’t feel too bad. A year ago I promised that I’d post something about the Billy Joel/Elton John Face to Face concert. After nearly a year of waiting for the concert to actually happen, the night finally arrived. (In case you weren’t aware, it was originally scheduled for November but was rescheduled because Elton John had swine flu and Billy Joel was suffering from exhaustion.)
Those who have known me for a while know that I love Elvis Presley’s music. I’m not sure where this love comes from, but it started manifesting itself during my teens. Anyways, since it’s Christmas time, I’ve been enjoying some Elvis Christmas music. This morning I came across this little nugget on Yahoo! Music.
Needless to say, I was confused and then amazed. I thought to myself that the woman singing with Elvis looks and sounds like Martina McBride but she wasn’t part of the ’68 Comeback Special. Then it dawned on me: TECHNOLOGY!
I immediately started searching for the origin of this Martina McBride/Elvis Presley duet and found out that there was a CD released last year of nothing but Elvis Christmas duets! And better yet, they’re duets with artists that I actually like! I know that he was never big on duets so this is just awesome for me to see. I’m going to have to procure myself a copy as soon as possible.
As a kid, I always dreaded this time of year; summer is almost over and that means that it’s time to go back to school. As I grew older, I actually started looking forward to going back to school but I realized that knowledge is power. How could I expect to rule the world if I didn’t have power? Logic would dictate that I must acquire knowledge.
My plans for world domination have since faded and now I’m once again dreading the start of school. Now though it’s not because I want to play baseball and Nintendo all day long with my friends, even though that wold be fun, it’s because I’m just tired of school. I used to joke that I’m on the 10 year plan to get my degree. I’ve been working on it for 9 years now so I guess I switched over to the 20 year plan at some point. If I just had the time to go full-time, I’d be done in a little over a year but with work and family, I have to limit myself. I’ll get there eventually though.
The Fourth of July is always a big deal in the Zohner household, and to be honest, why wouldn’t it be? After all, I come from a long line of rednecks (my grandma used to have a TV that worked on top of her TV that didn’t). The Fourth of July is the perfect redneck holiday! Not only do we get to celebrate the birth of our nation but we get to blow stuff up and cook meat on fire. Who could ask for more?
Emma has been playing the piano for about two years. In that time, she has gotten quite good. Her piano teacher always tells me how much she enjoys teaching Emma because she has a natural ability that makes her very fun to teach.
Tonight was the spring recital where all of the students get together to show off what they’ve been working on for the past few months. Recitals aren’t usually a big deal for Emma. She enjoys playing for people and she enjoys listening to the other students play their pieces but she hates introducing herself. I don’t think that she enjoys the applause and praise from everyone either because she’s typically very eager to get away from the piano and back to her seat. It’s all worth it for her though because after everyone has performed, the teacher gives all of the students giant Symphony bars. (I think that’s her favorite part.)
I am so excited right now that I could almost pee. I’m sure that you’re probably wondering what could cause such excitement in a grown man that he would wet himself. The answer to that question is Billy Joel, row 1.
I have been a Billy Joel fan for as long as I can remember so whenever he comes to town, I get all giddy at the thought of going to see him in concert. Unfortunately, my hopes are always destroyed by a schedule conflict. That’s what happened last year when he came; Holly had a clinical for school that she couldn’t get out of so she promised that the next time he was in Salt Lake we would go. Well, the next time happens to be November 20th.
I love Christmas music. One of my favorite songs isn’t one that many people know about so I thought that it would be fun to post a live version of it here. For the record, Holly HATES this song.
For those who have not heard yet, my sister, Chelsea, is engaged. Since it’s not my wedding, I’ve been spared from having to do too many things. One thing that I did volunteer for though is making a DVD slideshow of Chelsea and her love interest, Nick. I get to choose what pictures and music are used. Can you say “bathtub pictures”? It’s going to be fun.
On Sunday, I started going through stacks of old pictures deciding which ones I was going to use. As I was looking through Chelsea’s scrapbook, I found pictures of my graduation, when I went on my mission, our mom at an Amway convention, and my first Christmas with Holly. It was like taking a trip down memory lane.
For at least the last 20 years, I’ve dreamed of seeing “Weird Al” Yankovic in concert. Tonight that dream came true.
Holly and I have seen a lot of concerts since we’ve been married. One day I decided to try and list just who we’ve seen and how many times we’ve seen them. I think that I came up a total of around 60 different concerts. (That is including seeing the same artist multiple times.) We’ve seen some pretty entertaining performances: Garth Brooks, Neal McCoy, Joe Diffie, Billy Joel, John Denver at an outdoor venue in the mountains… None of them compared to what I witnessed tonight. It was simply the very best live concert that I have ever been a part of.
For at least the last 20 years, I’ve dreamed of seeing “Weird Al” Yankovic in concert. Tonight that dream came true.
