How “Never Ever” hooked me…

The other day it finally dawned on me why I really like the 57-second intro for this song from 1997. The worldwide hit by All Saints is called “Never Ever,” and I never ever put two and two together that the music underneath the spoken intro is “Amazing Grace”!


A completely intentional move on the part of the band, and a good one, I might add. They add a slight variation to the centuries old hymn, but there’s enough there that this old wily detective finally caught on, two decades later. :/

While researching this, I was surprised to discover “Amazing Grace” is originally the tune of a song called “New Britain.”


I also came across an article that explains in more detail how the band used AG in their song, but here’s a snippet:

A text within a text. “Never Ever” does have something special of this sort. In its harmony it explicitly refers to an old popular song, “Amazing Grace”, which has become part of our collective musical consciousness. In “Never Ever” the chords of the first four measures of this hymn are clearly audible behind the spoken intro, as they are accentuated by the piano accompaniment and the voices in the background. And the ghost of this song will stay there for the remainder of “Never Ever”. This overlay of songs turns the songlines of “Never Ever” into a text within a text.

-Out of the Wilderness

The time my dog ate my dinner

PiperThere I was, relaxing and looking forward to a night in. Maybe turn on Netflix? Maybe check out some YouTube videos? It was shaping up to be a good night, that much was certain.

There it was, my dinner fresh out of the oven. This particular meal was veggie burgers, one of my favorites right now. I had set the baking sheet with the burgers on top of the stove, thinking, “This seems out of the dogs’ reach.” I stepped away for a second and lo and behold, Piper surprised me.

There she was, eating something off the kitchen floor. Had she managed to paw the veggie burgers off the stove? I knew she was food driven but this was quite a feat. I was resigned to the fact that my much-anticipated dinner was down the tubes. Or was it?

There they were, two beautiful 4-ounce Sweet Earth veggie patties still waiting to be arranged atop a ketchup-layered bun. But then what was Piper eating? This is where things went in a direction I did not see coming. It took a second for my mind to process that a treat I gave Piper earlier made her stomach upset which caused her to make them reappear on the kitchen floor, along with the doggy-doo she had just eaten from outside.

There it is, the full truth and nothing but the truth– and I’ve said it before— my dog eats her own poop. But now she’s taken it to a whole new level. Not only will she eat her own poo, she’ll also vomit it back up, and eat it again.

Here I am, writing about it because well, this is my life as a dog owner. But hey, I’m a dog owner that got to eat is awesome dinner that night, so there’s a silver lining for ya!

-Out of the Wilderness

 

Making a successful/viral video

There are many ways for a video to go viral, but I’d like to focus on one: The candid shot when something crazy happens. It’s not enough to show a clip of an alligator crossing a street. But a turtle riding on the alligator’s back while it crosses the street? Now you’ve got something. Take look at this clip…


A lot of the clips in the video above illustrate my theory that your candid shot has to have at least 2 elements for it to go viral:

  1. The thing that may or may not be kinda cool on it’s own (i.e. a deer in the road)
  2. The completely wild element that makes the clip bazaar and amazing (i.e. 2 deer fighting in the road)

As you come across clips on YouTube and other websites, examine if they have one or both of these elements. When you’re shooting video, be on the lookout for that special ingredient that’ll take your video from mundane and common to extraordinary and rare!

-Out of the Wilderness

There’s beauty in the details

I took a short trip to a creek close to my house and decided to snap some photos. There’s beauty in the details of God’s creation, don’t ya think?

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Sun shining through a piece of worn glass.
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Colors.

 

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The butterfly effect.

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Can you see the antenna-like extensions on the top left of this leaf?

 

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-Out of the Wilderness

She was just phoning it in

I was recently hanging out with a friend of mine and asked how long she and I have been friends. She looked at her phone and said, “…since 1999.” I was speechless. Did that just happen?

It makes me laugh and also brings to light 2 points I’d like to share:

  1. Did her phone somehow know when we first met? Did she scroll back to our first picture together, or our first email?
  2. Because I moved around a lot (10 times including 3 high schools), I have a fascination now with how long I’ve known people. Facebook has been fantastic for reconnecting with people I knew before the internet even existed, so yeah, it’s fascinating to me.

I know we call our devices “smart phones” but wow. Is there an app for something like that? Like ancestry.com but for friendships? Anyway, I thought that experience was odd, and awesome, and hilarious.

-Out of the Wilderness