M10 show week #95

 

Elvis:  Hey, whaddwe orderin' tonight?

Nothing, if you ain't buying!  Short weeks, remember?

Man, if'n they'd just let me back in my bank account...

If they did, I'd LET you be the star of the show!  This week, our features go to 1974, and our M10 adds two new songs!  Here's the first of those, at #10- it's more Cafune...

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So, when you gonna let everyone in on yer top 15?

Well, the 'bottom 5' tend to do a lot more fluctuating, so I just kinda use it to 'remind me' of songs I want to push up into the ten...

This week, though, ya tol' me ya got 4 of 'em trying to push in... that's a lot a spots!

Yep, and I don't know how they would all fit!  Possibly three openings COULD come up next week... but by no means certain.  Just so you know- I play my shuffle on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, arrange them blind (i.e. I don't look at the previous chart), and when they're all done playing I number them and see what I've got!  I had quite a handful- with a little re-arranging- on 11-15, but the top I was fairly happy with the first take.  Maybe I'll consider bringing the whole 15 in after the first of the year... unless your Christmas Party gets us cancelled!

Not gettin' anywhere with it might get me cancelled...

Well, that would be a net cost savings...

Hey!  Just go to 1974!

Good idea.  So this week our friends in Australia were smack dab in-between the 8th week of Paper Lace's The Night Chicago Died at the top (also a #1 here, 2 in Canada) and the 1st of 4 for Olivia Newton-John's I Honestly Love You (#1 on all three charts at some point).  Canada had hometown boys BTO at the top with You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, a #1 here and a peak of 4 in Australia.  Cashbox had the Plastic Ono Nuclear Band (just say John Lennon) and Whatever Gets You Through The Night at the top this week, a #2 in Canada but a resounding #34 in Australia (where I prefer it, lol).

Using the same tough bar I used last week and got 19 Songs I Wouldn't Turn Off, this week I got just five.  Given that short a list, I'll let you in on the whole list this time:

My fifth choice was a soon to be #1 here and in Canada, and 2 in Australia, sitting at #80 (week #2) on this week's CB- Frankie Valli and My Eyes Adored You.

My fourth was a tune that would peak here and Canada at 4 and 11 in Australia- debuting at #90 on this week's CB, Wings and Junior's Farm.

My third would be a a #12 here, somehow 4 in Canada, and 32 peak for Australia, sitting at 63 on this week's CB- Jethro Tull's Bungle In The Jungle.

My runner up would be a #93 debut on CB, but would hit the top here and in Canada, 4 in Australia- Barry Manilow's Mandy.

And my top SIWTO this week- sitting this week at #14 on CB on its way to #9, 12 in Canada and #51 in Australia...

As Ken Lynch would say, I'm going to have to take a stick to you lot down there...

.... Chicago's Wishing You Were Here, featuring backing vocals by the Beach Boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If'n yer through threatening Australia for 50-year old sins, how's about I play the other debut?  So this girl used to perform under the name of the band, but now does so under her real name- Greta Kline, daughter of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates.  But the band still goes by the name, so here's Frankie Cosmos at #9....

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Short n' sweet!  Ready fer the rest of the ten?

Got it!  Here we go...

8- Jason Isbell with the year's biggest hit to date, Save The World down from 3...

7- Up 2 for Juliana Hatfield and her cover of Can't Get It Out Of My Head...

6- Duran Duran's Black Moonlight, down 1...

5- Alvvays up 3 with Tile By Tile...

4- Also up three, a song I never thought would make it this far, Hozier with Brandi Carlile and Damage Gets Done...

3- down one, Aiden Bissett's Ultraviolet....

2- Up 2, a-ha's acoustic Take On Me....

And still at the top....

...Dark Side Of Light and Summer Breeze!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It might be a bit before they step down, so sit back, relax, and see you day after Thanksgiving!

That time of year

 So basically, we are 'laid off'  for the Thanksgiving week, thus I am on a vacation of sorts.  Knowing that means more walks(!), I decided to put one post up today of pictures.

First, let's go to Monday night...

No, no, not football, walk!

This is actually Laurie going to the car to go to work, lol

I thought Misty might like exploring the 'beach'...

...but I thought wrong.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided a celebratory walk to Shoaff would be apropos...

Beautiful day for it

Durn lawn service...

Some trees do gold better than others...

Guessing we won't be seeing the herons today

At last, we arrive

"Good to see you!  Have a nut?"

Possible varmintage

"Hey, they cleared out all the brush by the landing!"

Watching her ship come in

I told them, "Hey, I cut the fabric on your boat cover!"

If were going around the Big Circle, Daddy needs a rest

So these two guys back their trucks up to the river.  I thought, "What's this, a drag race?"

Nope, just background casting for pictures- good idea!

One last dip...

Misty off-roads

Narrow trail, sharp drop, and leaves?  No thanks

If you are dumb enough to write this on the trail, I'd guess, no

"I thought you said, no doggies on the golf course!"  "No, I said a guy I used to run into said they spray something on the courses that gave his dog cancer.  Any other questions?"

So much for slowing down

On the way home

We're over an hour and a half in... now doggie is slowing down

Cutting across the back

the Home stretch

Finally, here's this morning...

Geez, it's bright

Goldfinches have lost their breeding color, but I can tell them the way they fly

Once again, fireplace haze

It may look like he's pooping but he really wasn't

See?  He even posed a moment later

The end, for now....

Wednesday Bible Study: Reconstructing Nehemiah II

 

When I finished, we had looked at 2 of the three reactions Nehemiah had for what had happened to the walls of Jerusalem:  Grief before God and fasting.   Now I want to look at his prayer.   The most important thing about this prayer- it was targeted.  But does he go right to the target?  No.  Nehemiah's great skill, in my opinion, was that he knew that every work required laying the groundwork.  He had to start in himself- he had to achieve a state of "weeping and bemoaning" the problem.  Then, once his emotional/mental state was addressed, he worked on the physical state- he fasted.  Only then was he ready for the prayer.

The prayer itself also was structured- and all good, deep prayers should be.  By this, I don't mean every prayer- if you are just lifting a momentary thought about someone, or facing a sudden crisis.  But an effective prayer, with time aforethought, should go through certain steps.  And for me, I need to make sure that daily, targeted prayer on my issues go this way.

Neh 1:5  And I said, "O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 

First, establishing God in His identity and His Power.   But more- bringing to mind His record of faithfulness, as well as the requirement of us to receive that faithfulness.  This reminded me of our recent look at Ephesians, and the part where Paul finally got to what he was asking God for them:

Eph 1:17  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 

Eph 1:18  having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 

Eph 1:19  and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 

Eph 1:20  that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 

Eph 1:21  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 

Simpling down what Paul prayed in detail: He had just went through that God's promises began with the Plan He was already carrying out- through the greatness of His Power; how we were adopted into that Promise, by Jesus's death and resurrection- the riches of which that in timeless Heaven we were already experiencing; and the sealing of that adoption by the presence of the Holy Spirit- which was their firm hope.  Given all that, he prayed for their eyes and minds to be open to understand that.  All of what that means is contained in the far shorter, God who keeps covenant and steadfast love.

Still, there was the problem of "keeping His commandments":

Neh 1:6  let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 

Neh 1:7  We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 

He had to reflect on how they had fallen short- his nation, his bloodline, himself.  I have found again this phrase "very corruptly", having seen its like in our recent look at God In Proverbs.  It literally means "To wind tightly"- we don't just bend the Law ( as I like to justify myself with), we twist it beyond comprehension.  In God's eyes, there is no "little sin", and Nehemiah had a bunch to confess.  The next interesting word is "kept".  Did you realize this comes from "to hedge about", "to guard"?  Keeping His Word is PROTECTING OURSELVES.  And when we don't protect ourselves, we end up with- you guessed it- broken walls.  And note, Nehemiah, who had nothing to do with the physical falling of the wall, and presumably nothing to do with the sins (committed before he was born) that brought the fall- he didn't leave himself out.  He humbled himself to realize even in his good points there were flaws- his righteousness, too, was filthy rags.

After place and praise, after power and faithfulness, after confession and humility, he was ready to remind God of His promises:

Neh 1:8  Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 

Neh 1:9  but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.' 

And this part had been accomplished over the last hundred years or so- including Ezra's wave, some 13 years before.  And Nehemiah then gives praise again, for what God had already done:

Neh 1:10  They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 

That brought his prayer "up to date", so to speak; it was now time to get to the target:

Neh 1:11  O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was cupbearer to the king. 

The target:  Giving Nehemiah the ear of Artaxerxes.  Because amidst the grieving and fasting, he was thinking:  What will it take to rebuild these walls?  And the answer was plain:

He COULD NOT do it alone.  He needed help- help far more powerful than himself.  He would need permissions, logistical support, political clout, a friend on the inside.   How do these needs apply to you and I; that will be what we analyse next time.