Family Matters: the episode where Steve Urkel became a Christian

There was an episode of this TGIF show that I still remember about Steve Urkel trying trying to join the church choir. Of course, the drama is that he’s not a good singer and gets ousted from the group but here’s the snippet when he walked to the front of the church to announce he had become a Christian.

This might sound cheesy but it still gives me goosebumps, decades later! This show aired in the 90s and I can’t help but think how society is reflected in sitcoms now. I don’t think this show would last long on TV in 2020. Of course, that’s true for a lot of the shows from that era. I know the style and popularity of shows changes over time, I mean just look at the “reality TV boom” in the early 2000s. But showing a specific episode about someone deciding to put their “hand in the hand of the man from Galilee” would be blasted in the media today. If it did happen in any show’s script, it would also include this person showing tolerance for gay people, or a woman’s choice, or any other area they were “closed-minded” about before. It just wouldn’t be the same as this heartwarming moment from Family Matters.

The episode came to a conclusion with the choir performing a gospel song and Steve being included in the presentation. More chills. I’m not sure why I’ve been thinking about this particular episode but I’m glad I was able to watch it as a youngster because it obviously has stuck with me over the years.

-Out of the Wilderness

At the Queen’s table

I can’t explain most of my dreams, and now I’ve had two that included the band Queen (click here for the other one I wrote about). I know that I like Queen, their music, and I like veggie burgers. Now you might be asking,

Did he just randomly bring up veggie burgers?

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Yes. Yes, I did. This dream I had also included a guy that, if you didn’t know it was him, you’d think it was Freddy Mercury himself. His name is Marc Martel. He can configure his voice to sound like a handful of singers, most notably is the former lead singer of Queen. He also performed the songs in the film Bohemian Rhapsody although he was not the actor in the movie. Also, why is Adam Lambert the current lead singer of Queen? I don’t get it. Anyway, back to the dream…

I was on a cooking show with a teammate who I don’t remember, but we were tasked to come up with an entree to serve Marc Martel who was sitting in as the celebrity judge. We were under pressure so because of Marc’s affiliation with Queen, I had the idea to make a meal that was “fit for a queen.” Clever, right? We decided to make a veggie burger from scratch. Perhaps with the theme, “Another One Bites the Veg”… Maybe?

Unfortunately, I woke up before the critique of our vegetarian-friendly burger so unless I dream up a sequel, I’ll never know if we are the champions or we royally failed. Be assured that if there is a follow up to this story, I’ll post it and include a link on this post.

But for now, just remember fat-bottomed girls make the rockin’ world go round.

-Out of the Wilderness

A reaction to the first Presidential debate

There’s a reason politics aren’t mentioned in the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” because what we watched last night was not beautiful. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden had the opportunity to lay out a vision for what they wanted the next four years to look like and all they could do is bash one another. If I had to describe my feelings on the debate in just three words, I’d use these:

Dizzy. Annoyed. Worried.

All Trump had to do was set Biden up and get out of the way. Simple as that. There were moments he had a good setup but he never got out of the way! Joe Biden is consistent when it comes to gaffes and I’m sure most people expected a few during the back and forth exchanges with Trump, but Trump was in full steamroller mode.

I’m a steamroller, baby, I’m bound to roll all over you.

“Steamroller Blues” Elvis Presley

Trump missed a grand opportunity to let Americans see Biden trip over himself on live TV. Next time I hope Trump drops the needless self-promotion and bullying interruptions to give Biden time to talk himself into a corner. At the very least, ask him a tough question or two, get under his skin, then just sit back and let him meander. In defense of Trump, Biden missed the mark also. Resorting to name-calling (clown, disgrace, worst President ever, racist, etc), he failed to inspire any sort of hope in his potential term as President.

To pick a winner in this first debate is like a teacher announcing which of two students got a higher F than the other. Hopefully the next debate will actually include a civil conversation between the two.

What did you think of the debate? Do you think any undecided voters were swayed one way or the other?

-Out of the Wilderness

Microsoft Teams ad featuring Club Yoko “New New”

If you’re looking for Microsoft’s ad featuring a dog dreaming of flying an airplane, you’re ALMOST in the right spot 🙂 Click here for more on that particular holiday ad.

Microsoft has a new commercial promoting their group meeting app they call “Teams.”

The soundtrack is a catchy song called “New New” by Club Yoko. I guess they the song was so nice, they named it twice! “New New” can be heard in its entirety below.

According to Wikipedia, Club Yoko is a side project of singer/songwriter Ruelle and friends. They’ve had another song featured in a Galaxy Note TV ad. That song is called “I Am.”

About the ad itself, there is a series of clips featuring various teams: astronauts, Project Brewder architects, Power Rangers, and synchronized swimmers. I guess you can use Teams in a pool? I wouldn’t try that. In fact, don’t try that!

The ad was dreamt up by the McCann Agency, New York City and according to their bio on their website, they’ve been around for over a century. This agency is also responsible for the very well-known Mastercard line, “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.”

How do you feel about the ad? Do you like the song choice? Comment below and, as always, thanks for stopping by. Check out more TV Commercial Stats and info on my TV Commercial page here.

-Out of the Wilderness

So what if I let my nails grow sometimes

The other day I realized there are only two reasons why I let my fingernails grow out.

Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.com
  1. Softball. The truth is that once they get to a certain length, they become annoying. But there’s a window of time where they are the perfect length for throwing the perfect knuckle ball pitch. Another truth, in slow pitch softball throwing a knuckle ball has very little affect on the batter. In most of the knuckles I’ve thrown the batter gets a decent hit and sometimes, a really good hit. So while throwing this pitch isn’t a game-changer, it sure as heck looks good. That’s about all it’s worth if I’m being honest, except that having three different pitch deliveries may keep the batter on their toes, so that’s a mark in favor of still throwing the knuckle. It takes about a week and a half to get the nails where I like them to have a good-looking knuckle. At the time of this post, my left hand fingernails are the PERFECT length. Unfortunately, I don’t play softball again for five more days… so I’ll have to trim them back a bit so they’re ready again for game day.
  2. Memories. When I was really young on vacation in Florida, one of my grandmothers would clip my nails. For whatever reason, I always wanted her to leave my pinky nails long. I can’t recall why we did that but she was kind enough to clip eight nails and leave the two. Now as an adult I will sometimes leave my pinkies uncut just to remind myself of my awesome grandmother.

Do you have any quirks like that? If you want to share, leave a comment below. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back again tomorrow because I post a new blog every day at 1pm Central!

-Out of the Wilderness