Monday, April 4, 2011

"Slinky!"

As I approached the end of my first year at Wesley Memorial UMC in October of 2002, I was excited about the future of our student ministry.  I wanted to do something big to mark the occasion, and my first choice was to host Michael Bridges (guitar, lead vocals) and George Baum (keyboard, slinky, recorder, vocals) for a concert at the church.  George and Michael are better know as the great two-piece band, Lost And Found.  I had seen them at many National Youth Workers Conventions, had hosted them at FUMC-K in 1999, and had spent time with them in Chicago in 2001.  I knew they would provide us with the kind of big event we needed to keep our momentum going.  It turned out they were flying to the Tampa area for a weekend confirmation retreat with a local Lutheran church, and we could get them on a Thursday night.  (Side note: I didn't know this until later, but those guys are royalty among Lutherans.  They even wrote a song about Lutherans, listing famous Lutherans much the way Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song lists famous Jews.)  So on October 10th, exactly one year after my first day in my office at WMUMC, we hosted Lost And Found.

The only thing most of the students knew about the band was that they were the guys who sang Lions, a song we often did at youth group.  They loved that song and loved yelling "SLINKY!" at the appropriate times.  To further prepare my students I began telling them stories about some of the songs they would hear.  I told them how requests could be made to the "Panel of Judge" (George) but were not likely to be played in the order approved.  They learned all about great songs like Baby, Used To Be, Saskatchewan and Slide Girl.  As a result of the Slide Girl stories (the video below contains an explanation from Michael so I won't bother here), many of them showed up for the concert dressed in blue, with blue hair or other assorted tributes.  Although the crowd was smaller than I had hoped (about 300, and a third of them were local Lutherans!) we had a great night.

Lost And Found recorded their performance that night, and the song below is the version of Slide Girl recorded that night.  Since the song changes each night to include people from the audience, it is a treasured memory.  You will hear them mention Lenny, one of our guys who dyed his hair blue.  They refer to Rebecca, Stephanie and Ashley, three more of our folks who made their very own t-shirts with a slinky attached to the sleeves.  And you will hear them sing about my one year anniversary.  It was the kind of exciting, memory-making night that you pray for as a youth pastor.  The band would be back to WMUMC two years later, but by then things were very different.  This night remains one of my favorite memories of Wesley.  Enjoy the music!

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous4/04/2011

    Very memorable night! Lose lost and found!!<3<3<3<3 Thank you Carl.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4/04/2011

    Behold the cave of caerrrrrbannog.
    Right, keep me covered.
    With what?
    Just keep me covered..
    TOO LATE!
    There he is!
    Where?
    THEEEEERE!
    What, behind the rabbit?
    IT IS the rabbit.
    YOU SILLY SOD!
    What?
    You got us all worked up!
    Well thats no ordinary rabbit!
    Why its the most foul, cruel, bad tempered rodent you've ever set eyes on!
    YOU TIT!
    I soiled my armor i was so scared!
    That rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide!
    Its a killer!!
    Get stuffed.
    He'll do you a treat mate.
    Oh yeah?
    Oh manky scotts git!
    I'm warning you!
    Whats he do... nibble your bum?!
    He's got huuuge sharp...erm..
    He can leap about....
    LOOK AT THE BONES!!
    Go on Borris chop his head off.
    Right.
    Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew comin' riight up!
    LOOK!!!
    (rabbit squiks)
    (jumps....for the throat of course)
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
    (dramatic music plays)
    JESUS CHRIST!
    I warned you!
    I've done it again...
    I warned you but did you listen to me...
    Oooooh nooo... It's just a harmless little bunny isnt it?
    Well its always the same... i always tell them but (OH SHUT UP) do they listen to me? (RIGHT) Oh no.
    CHAAAAAAARGE!!!!
    AAAAAAAAHHHH! x alot
    (bunny rage)
    RUN AWAAAAY RUN AWAAAAY!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4/04/2011

    meant to say love**** lost and found /facepalm

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading,and thanks for your comment!