M10 show week #5

 

So here we are, New Year's Eve, and for the first time in centuries (of posts), this is what we call a LIVE M10 show- not put in the can the night before!  And this week, we have the final 10 of the M10's top songs of the year- we have two new M10 songs this week- and, maybe, a neat year ending surprise!

Elvis:  Great!  I love surprises!

All right then, let me get at it by surprising you with the first half of the year's top ten!

10- Duran Duran (featuring Chai), More Joy! The first of two chart toppers for the vet rockers from the lp Future Past.

9- Midnight Train To Georgia, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit with Brittney Spencer.  This girl has a knockout voice!

8- Black Pumas, Wichita Lineman.  In a year of tremendous covers, it is amazing that there is still one more that beat these last two...

7- Duran Duran (featuring Tove Lo), Give It All Up.  This was another one of those "knew it was a #1 on first play" deals for me.

6- Michael Sweet, Blown Away.  The second of three #1s from Catspaw- and the first of the two on this list.

 

 

Hey, you changed the order, din't ya?

That's why you never know for sure where they'll end up till I type it in!  Next up, intro the first debut this week!

 

Okay, so this guy's a fairly famous actor in the UK, and a solid musical act, too!  His first time on the M10 starts at #10- here's Matt Berry...

 

 

********************************************** 

 

Okay, so that was bizarre...

What do you expect from a dude whose label is called Acid Jazz?  Now, let me knock out most of the rest of this week's top 10...

9- The Explorers Club drops from 6 with Hurts So Bad...

8- Tom Jones up a spot with Not Dark Yet...

7- The aforementioned Give It All Up, down 3...

6- Beach House with Once Twice Melody, down 1...

5- Jumping 5 is Eddie Vedder and The Haves....

 

And at #4 this week is the other debut- a cover of a top 10 from 1961 by one of my favorites, the Fleetwoods- Once again, the Explorer's Club...

*****************************************************************

 

Dude, yer gonna make me cry with that stuff...

 

Me too, bud, so why don't ya line up the next 4 of the year's top ten whilst I set up the surprise...

Okay, here goes...

 

5- Redspencer, Happy .  Best time you'll ever have beatin' up a vacuum cleaner...

4- Michael Sweet, Challenge The Gods .  Chris says it's his second favorite guitar solo of all time...

3- Overcoats (featuring Tennis), The Hardest Part .  Chris also says, the top three haven't been in doubt since August.

2- illuminati hotties, u.v.v.p.   This'n was almost the LAST M10 #1... between shuttin' down the Time Machine, and the line, "Here we stand... at the end of all things..."

 

 Okay, so let me get the last couple of things wrapped  up before I get to one last surprise... and no, not a beauty contest.  Sorry, I thought about it, but I just ... have to shut that door.  Anyway, the #1 song of the year should be no surprise.  Two weeks longer at #1 than anyone ever; ten more 'standings points' than any other song, only song over 100 points... and longest #1 so far!

**************************************************** 

And back to this week's top ten, for a moment...

3- Geowulf's Open Me Up, down 1...

2- Manchester Orchestra and Lucius with Inaudible, up 2....

 

...and for that last surprise, I thought I'd go back and find the other #1's that greeted our old new years.

 

2015...

 The Decemberists, The Wrong Year....

2016...

...Melody's Echo Chamber with I Follow You....

2017...

Shilpa Ray, Manhattanoid Creepazoids...

2018...

...Anna Burch, 2 Cool 2 Care..............

2019...

...Criminal Hygiene and Incompletely...................

2020...

...Saintseneca and Ladder To The Sun...

And this year's New Year greeter comes from the act that has the most 'last chart of the year' top tens with three....

...Beach House and ESP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That wraps it for this year, see you next year!

Wednesday Bible study: Peoples of the Epistles part six

 

While we learned many things about the Church at Colossae in this book, we have to go outside of it to learn something key about it- many of them would not long survive reading the letter.

In AD 60 or 61, and by my thinking, either before or not long after the letter arrived- Colossae was hit by a mammoth earthquake, which- like one not fifty years before- destroyed the place.  And besides it, it had three other enemies stalking it.  Well, four actually, if you count economics.

Colossae was in a valley that also contained two other cities, one of which you might know.  Most directly affecting them was Hierapolis, Mentioned by Paul in chapter 4.  Much of the economic good that had come from the valley being a trade route had shifted to the better-located Hierapolis by the earthquake of AD 60 or 61; but dominant in the valley was Laodicea, the "lukewarm" city of Revelation 6...

Rev 3:14  "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
Rev 3:15  "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
Rev 3:16  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 

 

What really makes this verse pop was that Nero in 61 sent his men to Laodicea to find out what they needed to rebuild; and they told them, "We're good, we are rich enough to handle it ourselves."  Mind you, I found that, and many other things about the aftermath, from secular sources, such as the reports of the Roman historian Tacitus.

 

But back to Colossae.  Did Paul warn them of the upcoming disaster?  Not that I could see, except for one thing that I'll share a bit later.  Paul was more concerned about 'defending the faith' against the three enemies arrayed to battle it.

The first of those he spends from 2:8 to 2:17 warning them about, and explaining how Christ had already defeated this foe for them; those lovely Judaizers...

Col 2:8  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ...

Col 2:15  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Col 2:16  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.


The third of those foes, and yes, I'm skipping the middle, is similar to the first: The Gnostics, who were trying to build man-made religions out of logic...

Col 2:20  If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations--
Col 2:21  "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"
Col 2:22  (referring to things that all perish as they are used)--according to human precepts and teachings?
Col 2:23  These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

 

 

But in between was another enemy, born of the first two, and I believe that its attack was why the Apostle closed the letter with this warning:

Col 4:16  And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
Col 4:17  And say to Archippus, "See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord." 

 

Archippus, Paul's "fellow soldier" in Philemon, was the leader of the house church in Colossae in Philemon's household.  And here is why I think it was prophetic.

First, let me expose that second enemy:

 Col 2:18  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
Col 2:19  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 

This Church was battling a Gnostic heresy of Angel worship, and after  the quake, they tried to "explain" what happened:

Tradition says (e.g. Bollandisti 1762) that pagans decided to destroy the sanctuary at Colossae, where the local priest, Archippus, the eye-witness of the apparition, lived. To this end, they diverted a watercourse toward the temple, attempting to submerge the area. Invoked by Archippus the Archangel appeared and, striking the rock with his staff, opened a wide fissure in the earth and channelled a new path for the flowing waters. The name of the new settlement was derived from thatfissure: Chonae (¼ funnel). This legend was strongly believed and the sanctuary at the site of the apparition became a famous destination for pilgrimages through centuries, until it was suppressedafter the collapse of the Byzantine Empire (thirteenth century).

 

-The AD 60 Denizli Basin Earthquake and the Apparition of the Archangel Michael at Colossae (Aegean Basin), by Luigi Piccardi, Italian National Research Council, January 2007

So basically, they took the natural antagonism of the city's pagans and the natural-occuring events of any large earthquake (ie water running backwards, lightnings and fires) and concocted a story that Archippus called it down- and Archippus would now have to be reminded over and over (note 4:17's "SAY to Archippus," indicating everyone in the church needed to do this) so that he didn't fall to pride and succumb to the Gnostic legend himself.

The city, regardless was going to need to rely on Christ in the aftermath.  With its own decline, and Laodicea's selfish refusal of aid from Rome, Colossae became little more than a dying village.  One source I saw suggested that, much like today, the area was plagued by scam artists from Egypt and elsewhere, who collected money "to rebuild temples" and weren't seen again.  With all of this going against them, what did Paul give them to survive these disasters?  Well, he gave them three sets of clothing...

First set:

 Col 3:9  Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old nature with its practices
Col 3:10  and have clothed yourselves with the new nature, which is being renewed in full knowledge, consistent with the image of the one who created it.
Col 3:11  In him there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free person. Instead, the Messiah is all and in all. 

This set of clothing garbed them in the Word, not only helping them fight off the old sins of their old lives, but preventing divisions made by men like the Judaizers.

Second set:

 Col 3:12  Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Col 3:13  Be tolerant of one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive.

This clothing wraps them in good deeds, especially towards each other.  "If we don't hang together, we shall surely all hang separately..."- possibly Ben Franklin.

 Third set:

 Col 3:14  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which ties everything together in unity.
Col 3:15  Let the peace of the Messiah also rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be thankful.
Col 3:16  Let the word of the Messiah inhabit you richly with wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and singing to God with thankfulness in your hearts.
Col 3:17  And whatever you do, whether by speech or action, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Love unties Christ to the church, and the church to Christ, providing all the gifts they- and we- needed to get by.

Poking through the (e-mail) Trash

 

So another "too crappy to go for a walk " day, and as an entertainment, I thought I'd go through my current trashed e-mails list.  The file is currently holding 77 e-mails, 57 of them never opened.  Before you think I'm just a callous bastard that cares for no one, let's just see how many were actually needed.

4 of them are "Personalized spotcrime reports", IOW the crime that hit the police blotters within 5 miles of my house.  Why I didn't open this morning's message I don't know, but I'll blame Misty and move on.

7 are for various things I agreed to get on the letter list of, and then decided I never felt like reading them.  I used to unsubscribe to such things, but now days, spammers send you phishing mails to get you to unsubscribe from things you never subscribe to (I'm sure dozens of these will be in among my other lists), so now I just quietly ignore them.

12 are various charities that I have given to anytime in my life, asking for some more. (see also: 95% of my discarded snail mail).  At least one of which from a charity I gave to once maybe 15 years ago opens by thanking me for being one of their most dedicated supporters, go figure.

The various political campaigns that I have NEVER given to thank me for my support as well.  I have 2 of them today.  Surprisingly today, I have no ads for "Let's Go Brandon" merchandise, which I got 3 per day leading up to Christmas.

PAUSE:  Time for some more of those pesky M10 top 40 tunes!  Today we'll be covering the teens, so you won't see any more till New Years Eve...

20- Geowulf, Open Me Up.  This one wouldn't be in the top 40 by points yet this week, but it will be a "split the difference" across this year and next, so it gets put in based on estimated finish.

19- Old 97's, Champaign Illinois.  One pulled from the recent past (2010) to be a #1 this year.  Because time is not a factor on a musical Tardis.

18- Lily Hiatt, Brightest Star.  An early-season #1.

17- Blackberry Smoke, Ain't The Same. Wartime PTSD rears its ugly head again.

16- Sass Jordan, The Key.  My yearly Debbie the DogLady contribution.

And now, back to our previous program, already in progress...

16 of our trashed missives belong to blogging:  Either my replies to comments, replies to my comments, or posts that get e-mailed to me because they aren't with Blogger and are therefore screwed out of sending blog posts by e-mail (like me).  Odds are these have been read, or accessed through another medium.  Another 7 belong to sites that send out daily or weekly things I look at, like "Best Classic Bands" or daily devotionals.

8 more belong to the "I want to sell you a gadget" category, including a special today on something I simply MUST have- a "better butter spreader".

Better than THIS?  G'wan...

I have three solicitations from dating apps, which reminds me:  It's been a couple of weeks since I got one from "your wife", offering her preferred male enhancement pill.  Speaking of other such services, I count 6 of those, including Liberty Mutual, a search-for-a-maid site, and the daily love letter from Empire flooring.  I haven't seen today's letters from Anderson windows, Gutter wizards, or all my other friends from businesses who don't know I live in an apartment yet.

Then we have our usual collection of "free gifts" (today from Comcast and Lowes); 4 more from services we're signed up for (one of which being the three-times-a-week notice from Disney + that the friend whose account Laurie "borrowed a couple of times" signed in); and one from a site I signed up for to do something on another site I actually give a crap about.  This other site, I got bored and tried to sign back in.  It rejected my auto load user name and password, apparently because on the sign in page, it says "using your e-mail is okay", but when you use it, it locks you out after a couple of tries and then informs you you can't use a @ in the user name (and thus, can't use your e-mail).  I wrote them to inform them their system was balmy, and today I got the third message back (first 2 ignored), telling me, "This is a just a super quick notice that we will be closing your open support ticket  and I will be eating it shortly."  Munch away, muchacho.

15- Weezer, Grapes Of Wrath.  If this was the Earworm list, it would be top 5.

14- Counting Crows, Bobby And The Rat Kings. Winner, song of Summer '21.

13- Driving To Texas, Tom Morello featuring Phantogram.  Actually, Phantogram with the former Rage Against The Machine leader doing the guitar solo.  But, it was his lp, so...

12- Molly Parden, Kitchen Table.  Another strong contender for Earworm of '21.

And, 11- Tom Jones, Till.  From 1971, and thank you!

Finally, we have the special "It's what I am, but I'm not" category- title lines claiming them to be one thing, when it's actually just an ad for something else.  I have four of them, including the every day one that starts with "Animal Encyclopedia" but goes on to tell me about "Quiet dog breeds that rarely bark".  This started up sometime after the every day ad for the "doggie bark collar that really works" stopped, so I bet if I ever opened one, that's what I would find.  But my favorite- in fact, my inspiration for today's post:

Title line: "Devastating disasters"

Description: "7 places to retire that won't break the bank"...

POSTSCRIPT:  In the time it took to type this up, we've added:

3 daily devotionals I will actually read

2 charity contribution requests

One infomercial from some conservative group

Unnecessary notifications from Spotify and Dlvr.it

An offer of a trip to Egypt

And an offer for a pet shop credit card.

Giving us a "looked at or actually read" percentage of 35.22%  I wonder if Xfinity would give me 2/3 off my email bill?

Xfinity:  "We offered you a free gift, and you trashed it!"

Boxing Day walk

 Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to use that, being a Yank, but it's understood and a lot easier than "the day after Christmas"...

BTW: I'll also be sneaking in the next ten of the M10 top 40 of 2021 today...

Things are frosty...

...and bright!

Ducks on a romantic morning swim

And we decide to invade PFW!

But before we cross that bridge...

30-  Crack The Sky, Blowing Up Detroit .    Latest effort from a veteran band, and lovingly non-PC.

29- Gerry Rafferty, Slow Down.  One of three hits, 2 #1s, from his (posthumous) new lp.

28- Weezer, Tell Me What You Want.  First M10 #1 from a video game, to my knowledge...

27- Griffith James, Market and Black (featuring Tennis). One of 2 big hits for an act co-starring Tennis as performers/producers.  The other is MUCH higher...

And now, what lies at the other end of the bridge?

Lucky goose shot #1

"Nope, still frosty..."

Misty had to stare at the mastodon to determine if it was alive or not...

Everywhere we went on this walk, cardinals...

Back to the music with a twofer from...

26- Saintseneca, Wait A Minute. A sad look at life on the road...

25- Saintseneca, Ladder To The Sun.  I do the best you can, now, you do the best I can, now.  Who says you're right?

24- Gerry Rafferty, Sign Of The Times.  The other #1 from Rest In Blue.

Lucky goose shot #2.  Look dead center.

Take an estimate from this picture how uncomfortable the next one was....

That's that lucky goose.  Noisy, too.

Wrapping up today's music...

23- Maneskin, Zitti E Buoni.  That Italian band with the Danish name and their Eurovision 2021 winner.

22- Beach House, Once Twice Melody.  My besties start their latest rampage through the M10 with this still-on-the-chart hit.

And 21- The Explorer's Club, Don't Waste Her Time . And new stuff coming from them on Wednesday's M10!

Hopefully, none of that got messed up, as my keyboard decided to be a turd.  One more round of pics!

Modern art...

The total distance covered in the excursion, from stepping on the bridge to this point, 1 1/2 miles.

Lucky kingfisher shot

The Better Part, week #48

 

A holiday week of FB posts...

The Better Part, Day #235:

 

In my studying of Colossians for my next Wednesday Bible Study post on the blog, I discovered something historically that makes this passage more poignant:

 

Col 4:17 And say to Archippus, "See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord." 

 

This is a blast to us, as well as them. Do this every moment, because you never know when your time is going to end.

 

By the time the letters (Colossians and Philemon) arrived, the countdown to the end of that city, and maybe that church, was well underway. Every act might have been their last. And though Paul didn't know it, he was giving them and us a reminder to just keep "doing the next thing", as David Jeremiah put it.

 

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #236:

 

Been looking for a way to say this, but Chuck Swindoll said it good enough in his daily devotional:

 

 

"God the Son lowered Himself. He took on the flesh of an infant. He died a humiliating death. As a result, God the Father "highly exalted Him." One day, all will bow in worship of the risen Lord, "to the glory of God the Father."

It's all about His glory. What a plan. What an execution. What a perfect, awesome wrapping! The God-man. Jesus is undiminished deity and true humanity, two distinct natures in one person, forever. That's the baby in the manger!"

 

 

 

The Better part, Day #237:

 

 

Our Christmas eve service taught us something wonderful we hadn't heard before: The manger. The flocks the shepherds tended were the flocks kept close to Jerusalem were sheep destined for temple sacrifice, and the shepherd themselves therefore were priests, When a lamb was born "without blemish or defect" it was wrapped for protection in cloths torn from old priestly robes, and at feeding time was set in the manger to avoid getting trampled. Any shepherd knew the coming fate of a lamb lying in the manger.

 

 

So when they were shown baby Jesus, wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger, they knew what would be His coming fate as well: to die one day as a sacrifice for sin. Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas (eve)!

 Here are the shots from Christmas Eve 2021!

See, this is what Christmas is supposed to be... chaos!

From Laurie, a Founders brewing shirt... and Founders is on the schedule for tonight!

From the kids, a Cal Clutterbuck Islanders T!

"And here I sit, opening Blippi cars... while Grayson goes off playing with the bus he brought with him..."

Laurie's from me- a 3-D clear puzzle!

Now here's some shots from Christmas eves past...

Scrappy and slightly opened present, 2012

Laurie's Christmas spread, 2014

Me and Peanut, 2016.  Jessica could have had a V8

Daddy and Scrappy in the snow, 2017

Euchre, 2018

Hanging, 2019

The Fam, 2020

From here to there, Merry Christmas!