Now these are some lyrics!

Before the Throne of God Above
Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great high priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me

My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of my guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin

Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Behold Him there the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of glory and of grace

One in Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God!
With Christ my Savior and my God!

...and it gets weirder.

The new video for "Must Be Santa."

My review: Christmas in the Heart

I'll keep this short, because I know there's been a lot of Dylan on here lately. (OK, OK... it's probably 60% of the content of this blog.)

So Bob just released a Christmas album. Yes, a Christmas album. Julie bought it for me since I took care of the girls last week when all the Tiemanns were sick. "The album is my gift to you," she said. "Your gift to me is to not make me listen to it." Julie Tiemann... she's generous AND funny.

Now, I really do love Christmas music. I'm as sentimental as the next guy. I like red Starbucks cups and White Christmas and gingerbread cookies. It's just that the words "Bob Dylan Christmas album" don't sound very promising. You want to hear beautiful voices singing those timeless melodies - people like Bing and Karen Carpenter. And I love Bob's singing, but it's hard to imagine it could fit this kind of material.

It could be interesting, I thought, when I first heard the rumors. Maybe some Christmas murder ballads, or a dark, acoustic take on some of the edgier songs. But then I heard the preview clips and saw the track list - same old stuff, for the most part. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." "Winter Wonderland." Fine if you have someone like James Taylor singing them, but Dylan? Modern, gravely-voiced, growling old Dylan?

Well, I'm happy to tell you that Christmas in the Heart works. It's actually very genuine and poignant, mainly because Bob plays it straight. He sings the melodies. He sounds like he loves these songs, too.

Some nice moments... the bluesy rhythm guitar on "Do You Hear What I Hear." The excellent Dylan harmonica on "Christmas Blues" that leaves you wanting more. The Andrews Sisters-esque background singers that are just ragged enough to keep things loose and fun. Bob's voice doesn't work on everything, especially the ballads. But it's kind of fun to hear him croon "I'll Be Home for Christmas" like a drunken hobo. Certainly a lot more interesting than a Christina Aguilera version.

But my favorite by far is "Must Be Santa." You've got to listen to it (in the box below). Minnesota polka madness!

Overall, it's a warm, charming little record, especially if you're in the right mood... say a rainy drive to work with some good coffee in hand. Not bad for something completely out of left field.

Great for so many reasons

Here's Bob at the 1998 Grammys. Fantastic performance of a killer song... and some of Bob's best lead guitar work, too.

The CK One background dancers are pretty bizarre, but wait 'til you see what happens at 2:54. Keep in mind this was on live network TV. Bob barely bats an eye, just keeps performing like it's part of the show.

Old skool - Championship Baseball

I'm not sure what made me think of this, but MAN, did I love this game. I can't even imagine how much time I spent playing it as a kid, and this was before the video game era.

It was pretty brilliant because you would roll the dice to see what happened next... and each player had a different set of dice combinations on the back. Like for Robin Yount, a roll of a 1 and a 2 would be a ground ball to the pitcher, but for Mike Schmidt it would be a triple to left. And double 6's would be a home run for anybody. Genius!

My only complaint was that there was too much offense. I guess it was more exciting that way, but not for kids like me who - get this - KEPT SCORE of the games I played against myself. On paper. I could barely get through three innings of those slugfests... home runs everywhere!

And that's not all. I've already blogged about my love of Battle Beasts. So get this - I drew my own baseball cards for my entire collection of Battle Beasts... and I copied over the dice charts from the regular baseball players... I think I even copied them by HAND onto the back of my BB cards. Then I would let them battle it out. I guess kids really have some time on their hands, huh? It's mind-boggling how much effort I put into that stuff.

Dreams and false alarms

So Amelia (the movie) is coming out soon. I'm really excited about this. For one thing, I'd love to learn more about her story, and I think Hilary Swank is just perfectly cast for this (uncanny resemblance... great actress).

Now, our Amelia wasn't named after Amelia Earhart... or after the Joni Mitchell song (more on that in a sec)... but I think it's cool that she has such a strong, trailblazing woman as her namesake. Maybe if the movie is good, we'll get the poster to put up in her room someday. :)

Now for the song...


I'm being 100% serious when I say this is probably the greatest song I've ever heard. I can't imagine anything better. Just an absolute work of art. I don't know if I can express this very eloquently, but the songs that mean the most to me are often the ones that expose a contrast... the ones that bring things into focus. Somehow Joni takes the Amelia Earhart story and makes it the most exquisite parallels to our common spiritual hunger... the longing for something more.

In Joni's song, it's all "just a false alarm" - relationships, life ambition, spiritual seeking. "Like me, she had a dream to fly." Basically she uses Amelia's final flight to show the limitations of our own humanity... our mortality. It's sad enough to take the wind out of you. And it's a lot more intellectually honest than Lennon's "Imagine" (utopian nonsense, in my opinion).

But here's why I love, love, love it. I can totally relate to the "false alarms." I know all about human limitations. But my faith is one thing that will never be a false alarm. From the outside, it seems like it could be. But it's not. The glorious poetic sadness of this song puts it in sharp relief for me. As a Christian, I have the blessed assurance - of something beyond human limitations. Something bigger, something greater, and something that will always be true.

It's really quite a song. You should give it a listen if you have an extra 7 minutes. :)

...and I REALLY want to go here.