Eric's Eddyfications

Antique Store

How to entertain yourself in an antique store, courtesy of Anna B. and Betty Boop...

Eric Bramlett www.ericseddyfications.typepad.com www.communitychristian.org

Door County

Spending a few days with the family in Door County Wisconsin. This picture is the view from the Sister Bay... Beautiful and relaxing!

Eric Bramlett www.ericseddyfications.typepad.com www.communitychristian.org

How you know you're getting old... #1

Just starting a list that I have a feeling will grow with time, so I thought I'd start by numbering them. Here's #1, just occured this weekend...

You know you're getting old when... your wife changes her admonition from "Have fun!" to "Don't get hurt!" when you head out to play tennis with a friend...

Sweep!

Ain't it a beautiful thing?

Dark Knight foto finish

I don't usually fall for the "buy this picture of us on the ride" routine at Six Flags, and especially not with a ride that wasn't that great. But this picture blew away all my preconceived notions, and I had to have it. This is from our Six Flags trip earlier this month, finally got around to scanning it in the computer. The difference between mine, Sadie's and Dillon's reactions is nothing short of breathtaking...

Frosted Wisdom-Wheats

Last weekend we began our "Making Life Work" series with the topic "Trust God", and kicked it off with a commercial spoof promising instant wisdom by way of cereal... So enjoy, it features my daughter Sadie as one of the quarreling daughters (she's on the right)... Did anybody NOT get the Solomon cutting-the-doll-in-half reference?

Final thoughts on the Arts Conference

Haven't had a chance yet to finish commenting on the arts conference from Thursday and Friday. So, here goes:

Breakouts were good for the most part, but the most fun was when our team went to dinner and shared our favorite learnings from the breakouts we attended. I always seem to forget the mysterious power that gathering a team has towards unifying and bringing together. Just the "hanging out" time was worth its weight in gold.

But then things got a whole lot better. We went to the film festival, and took home awards in two categories: "Serving Back" won in the Music Video category, and "Eat This Book" won in the Promo category. And then, "Serving Back" won overall Best in Show for the film festival, and was shown at the conference the next morning. What a blast!

After I get the footage I need, I can't wait to share with you how our team singlehandedly punked Willow Creek and almost caused a giant train wreck in their programming for the Friday morning session. But I'll save that for another day and leave you with our award winning videos.... Aren't you curious?

Fish in Concert

Had a great time last night seeing "Fish" in concert. He played a mixture of tracks from his latest disc, 13th Star, and the album "Clutching at Straws", his last collaboration with his former band Marillion.

That album was released in 1987, and was a profound influence in my artistic development. Fish was able to tell a theatrical tale through rock music better than many of his time who achieved more critical acclaim (or at least more CD sales). In other words, Genesis, Yes, even the Who's Tommy can't hold a candle to this CD, in my opinion. Clutching at Straws is a theatrical dissection of a pub crawl, desperate and lonely people looking to fill the void with drink. While I'm sure a lot of the material was autobiographical, Fish always placed his lyrics within characters who seemed to come to life separate from the vocalist.

So I decided to hang out afterwards and see if I could get an autograph. I did, and a picture too! It was kind of fun to feel like I was being a "fan." And I guess I was. He gave me a big bear hug and smiled for my new cameraphone. Fun!

There are about 20 or so fans who were there who have been following him on this US tour, seeing every show, getting a new set of autographs, etc. A guy had Fish sign a photograph of the two of them that was taken the previous night in Milwaukee. That seemed a little intense to me. But still, it was a good show.

Happy Father's Day!

To me! My kids treated me to breakfast in bed this morning - it was great! Here's a picture of them from today's dance concert - happy dad's day to all!

Eric Bramlett www.ericseddyfications.typepad.com www.communitychristian.org

The Suffering Artist

I've probably blogged on this phenomenon before, but I'm reminded this week of the suffering artist as I get ready to go see "Fish" in concert on Sunday night. Not the Grateful Dead-esque band from the nineties, no... Fish is a scottish vocalist/poet/musician who fronted the Prog-rock band Marillion in the eighties. I had some theatre-nerd friends (as I was one too) in high school who turned me onto Marillion. They had a minor single "Kayleigh" that got some play in America, and they opened for Rush that year in the States.  Fish then left the band in 1989 and started a solo career.

I can't remember if he's ever been to North America as a solo artist, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him in Chicago. I enjoy his solo work, though his CDs have been hit and miss. This directly connects to his level of personal happiness. He got married, "fat and happy", and bam. His music was uninspired and relatively lame.

Just last year, he was engaged to be married and endured a very severe and surprising breakup - and from that pain bore his most recent CD called "13th Star." It's easily his best solo album since his first one.

Why is it that artists like Fish are seemingly only able to create amidst great suffering? There are so many artists who fit that category... Oh well, looking forward to a great show. I'll let you know how the suffering artist fares...