A "Real Deal" Italian Meal

On Saturday night, Trudi, Kent Reed and I spent a great evening in San Francisco. First we spent an hour or so at a gathering hosted by our Cafe worship leader, Jeff Finger, at a friend's house. I got to meet a number of folks from Jeff's wide musical circle. Great people all.

We then went to dinner at "Cha Cha Cha," a restaurant in the Haight-Ashbury district... or tried to. Unfortunately, there was an hour wait for a table. Were we bummed? On the contrary, we new our dining adventure was just beginning.

As a professional musician, Kent has spent countless evenings in San Francisco. He's performed pretty much everywhere and knows all of the classic hangout spots. So we knew that Kent would lead us to a great place. Tonight it was "Capp's Corner," a North Beach Italian restaurant that you really need to check out.

Capp's Corner is the kind of place the locals have been going for decades and decades. Photos of local and national celebrities (Joe Dimaggio, Herb Caen, etc.) cover the walls. The food is not fancy, just absolutely authentic Italian. For under $20 you get your choice of a dozen or more dishes, along with pasta, minestrone and salad. I had the chicken parmigiano, their most popular dish. I cut out most fried foods long ago, but allowed myself this treat. We had a nice bottle of Coppola wine and spumoni for dessert, and the whole thing came to $40 a person, including tax and a generous tip.

We'll probably get to Cha Cha Cha eventually, but it was so much fun experiencing this San Francisco landmark that the next time we go to eat in the City, we'll probably just say what we said this time, "Kent, lead the way!"

Sharing the Gift of Music

Ryan and Megan asked me if, when Wyatt gets older and expresses an interest in guitar, I would share guitar with him. Easy answer: You bet!

As I'd mentioned in an earlier blog entry, one of the sweetest memories I have of my grandfather was of him playing guitar, leading us in singing folk songs and silly songs. One of my favorites in the latter category is "One Fish Ball" ("A little man, walked up and down, to see what he could find in town"). But I digress.

There is something very special about passing things down from generation to generation, both for those who give and those who receive. I was given a blessed gift by my grandfather, who gave me my first guitar lesson shortly before he passed away. I now play his guitar, and think about him every time I pick it up. It was those early memories that helped shape my love of music, including silly/novelty songs.

No way I'm going to miss the chance to share the gift I myself received. Time to start collecting songs.

It's... Uh... Like... Y'know... Hard to Say

I was reading an interview with Bristol Palin, teenage daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and a new mom. I admire her for deciding to raise her child. It's hard enough being a parent under the best of circumstances. How much harder to be a young, as-yet-unwed, mother whose life is being scrutinized and discussed so publicly.

And to make matters worse, there are people like me who blog about her enthusiastic use of the word "like." She like uses the word in like every sentence.

But in her defense, every generation has its favorite meaningless filler word, and to be honest, Bristol, so do I. Filler words are words that we insert into our speech to give our mouths something to do while our brains are trying to figure out what we want to say... a linguistic "Hamburger Helper," if you will.

• When I was in elementary and high school, we said "uh" and "um" a lot. We had a really tough teacher who would say the word "um" every time we did in a verbal report. Talk about embarassing!


• Then "y'know" became fashionable. I'm still guilty of using this one a lot.


• Bristol's generation seems to love "like."


• "Valley Girl" speak was pretty much all filler. It's like... y'know... Ohmygosh!

Just so you don't think I'm just pointing the finger at others, I've been told that I've been stammering a lot lately. This is true. Things have been moving at a pretty hectic pace at work, and no doubt I've picked up this affectation as a way to give my brain a few more nanoseconds to process something meaningful.

I googled filler words and found a good little article by Joseph Dewey at Amazon.com. In addition to the above filler words, he lists some "advanced filler words," such as "just," "very," and "really," which aren't as annoying to the ear as filler words, but which can often be removed from speech without changing the meaning one bit. Dewey also offers some tips on eliminating filler words from your speech.

Some very good... y'know... food for thought!

You Are What You Watch

I've got a theory that you can tell whether someone's a conservative or a liberal based on their views about two issues, sex and violence. Specifically, which they see as the bigger threat to society:

• Liberals see violence (war, guns, etc.) as the great threat to society. They have a more laissez faire view of sex. What's the big deal with sex anyway? It's a natural part of life.
  


• Conservatives on the other hand see sex (and possibly also the associated drugs and rock 'n' roll) as the great threat. They have far fewer issues with violence and have a much easier time justifying war. After all, we live in a violent world.

How this manifests itself is interesting. Liberals are ready, willing and able to legislate guns and such, but keep government out of the bedroom. Conservatives support so-called morality laws, but don't take my guns.

Check out the movies they watch, or the ones they let their kids watch. Liberals are OK with bedroom scenes or nudity, but if there's shooting, forget it. Conservatives allow movies with all kinds of violence, but if there's a sexual situation, click.

Am I generalizing? Sure, but I think this generally plays out.

How about those who are OK with violence and sex? Libertarians.

And those who are staunchly against both? I dunno. Amish? :-)

An Amazing Evening of Music

On Sunday evening, Marc Swanson, John Freshwaters and I went to see Laurence Juber at the Little Fox Theater in Redwood City. Most people have never heard of this guy. I certainly hadn't until a few years ago, when he was a guest on Greg Kihn's morning show on KFOX radio. In the late 70s, Laurence was the lead guitarist with Paul McCarney's Wings. Since then, he's distinguished himself as one of the premier acoustic finger style guitarists around. Seriously, this guy is jaw-droppingly good.

Marc and I saw him last year at the Little Fox, so we knew we were in for a special treat. He played two Martin guitars (both Laurence Juber signature models), one in standard tuning (EADGBE), and one in "DADGAG" tuning, the latter being the one he played the most. He played an eclectic mix of songs, from the Beatles and other popular artists to show tunes and original compositions. Check him out on iTunes, or better still, on YouTube, which does a better job of capturing the vitality of his live performance. Particularly lovely is While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

As the first notes leaped from his guitar, we gave up trying to figure out how he was doing what he was doing. Even if you filmed it and played it back a frame at a time, you'd never get it. So just sit back and enjoy the ride.

And enjoy it we did. For nearly two hours, Laurence shared his gifts with us. You come away from these types of performances either inspired to practice guitar... or just give it up. Well, I'm going to practice, not to be like Laurence, 'cause that's not gonna happen. But I will be a better me, and that's a plenty good goal.

Uniquely Made

We got the chance to hang out again with our grandson, Wyatt, and his parent, Ryan and Megan. Tons of fun, as always. 10 days old and he's really looking like a baby vs. a newborn. And he's already showing his unique personality. For example, most of the time he's a pretty chill kid. But in the evening, around 8:00 or so, he has a squirmy period. Squirmy, lifting his head up, looking around. Oh, there might be environmental explanations, like he's had a lot of stimulation throughout the day and gets squirmy at night to work it all out. But it's also likely that it's just how he is.

Our daughter, Megan, was fussy in the late afternoon and early evening. Why? That's just how she was (she has since grown out of this phase, thank goodness!).

Now, to be sure, you can't tell much about how someone will be by how they are as a 10-day-old, and that's not my point. I'm just saying that, contrary to the educational training I received in graduate school in the mid-1970s, we're not blank slates. The book of Genesis says that God created us in His image, and the Psalms speak of God knowing us even as we're being formed in the womb. We're all uniquely made by our Creator, and those uniquenesses are visible very early on.

This can make parenting a challenge, because what you learn with one child may not help you with another child. But that's not a bad thing. It's good to be reminded that we can't control everything, that we need to rely on the one who created our children. And knowing that our children are uniquely created makes parenting an adventure, to discover and encourage our children to develop their talents and pursue the things that interest them.

How fun it will be to see this little guy grow!

A Super Sunday with Wyatt

I promised to share some pics of my grandson, Wyatt Smith. Here is one from the hospital. On Superbowl Sunday, I got to spend a whole afternoon and evening with the little guy. Tons of fun! Got to hold him while he slept, and he slept a bunch. Being born really takes it out of you!

It's fun to see Megan and Ryan as first-time parents. Takes me back to when Megan was born. Even after all that preparation, you still don't know squat. You have to rely on God, on others, and on each other. And that's a good place to be.

Mid-afternoon, Ryan and I ran some errands, including buying and installing a dimmer switch on the living room light (so it wouldn't be shining in the baby's eyes), and driving down to pick up a rocking chair (an absolute necessity, as you parents know).

On the drive, Ryan was commenting that before Wyatt was born, he couldn't imagine what it would be like once he arrived. Now that he's here, Ryan can't imagine how it would be without him. That's a good place for a father to be. It means you're embracing the role, not just out of duty, but with your heart. Kids need dads who're engaged like that.

We got back from our errands in time to watch the Superbowl. Imagine that: baby's first Superbowl, though the little fella slept through a lot of it. He's not ready for solid food, so Ryan and I split his share of the chips!

It's also really special to see Megan as a new mom. She's one of the most naturally nurturing people I know. She and her sister Dana are both gifted in that way. And now Meg has a child of her very own to pour her life into. Parenting isn't easy, but it's easily the finest thing I've done. I look forward to watching Ryan and Megan experience this as well.