Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
I was in my car the other day and my iPod shuffled to “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” a song that, if you’re over the age of 30, will undoubtedly remind you of Robin Hood. And no, not the Russell Crowe movie from 2010. Nineteen years earlier Sherwood Forest was host to Bryan Adams performing the best love song of all time.
Type in “the best love song of all time” in the Yahoo! search tool bar and you’ll get a wide spectrum of results*, everything from “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton to “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers to “Best Love Song” by T-Pain. No doubt two of those are amazing and one has a clever song title. And I can assure you T-Pain’s stab at creating a timeless classic falls t-painfully short. See what I did there? “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” has at least 27 elements that make it the best love song of all time.
Reason #6: the lyrics. Can you put together an argument that these lyrics are not the most romantic? “My eyes… search you. Tell me… you know it’s true. Look… there… take… it all. I… want… everything. There’s… love… and… there’s… time. You can’t… help. I can’t… die.”
No further explanation needed.
Reason #7: the guitar riffs in this song are dripping with emotion. Check out the music video below, when it gets to 2:27 exactly, you’ll hear a subtle rarrt rarrt. Sorta like a rerhh rhrr but with a dash of ert ert. Emotional stuff. So in conclusion, Bryan Adams and his band, along with his buddies Robin of Locksley, Maid Marian of Dubois, Azeem, Will Scarlet and the Sheriff of Nottingham have clearly raised the bar so high, no song will ever surpass it as the greatest love song of all time, especially because of reasons #6 and #7.
*Type in the worst love song of all time and I hope you’ll find “I’m Too Sexy”… let’s try it… standby… yep!
A topic among some friends at work is the question, to what degree of injury does something funny become unfunny?
The topic began with the discussion of the female reporter covering the Grammy Awards. Immediately after the news desk tossed to her, she bumbled her words, saying nothing that made sense, not even speaking words at all. If you haven’t seen it, here’s a clip:
I seem to be in the minority in thinking that when something is life-altering, it’s not funny. Another example I brought up to defend my stance is a guy riding a bicycle into a tree. I think it’s hilarious, as would most people I assume. Even the folks in this discussion agree it’s funny. But let’s say the guy became paralyzed from the neck down? Then is it still funny? A resounding ‘no.’ So think back to the reporter who fumbled her words… funny? Admittedly, I laughed when I saw it. After discovering the reason, though, I no longer think it’s funny. She suffers from a rare form of migraine headache. To me, that’s a life-altering circumstance. I’m sure she’s still embarrassed by the whole on-air flap, and it’s not right or encouraging to her for me to laugh at her suffering. I bet we’ve all had a fair share of embarrassing or life-altering events, would you want someone laughing at you for those things? Here’s one of my embarrassing moments.
A colleague brought up the show, ‘America’s Funniest Videos,’ asking me, “Do you think they check with the people in each video to make sure the embarrassed party wasn’t paralyzed or life was not somehow altered by what happened in the video?” First, I don’t think they have the time to check, and my guess is they wouldn’t air the clip if they knew the person ended up paralyzed, or an animal died, or something with a negative result happened. Furthermore, would anyone even submit a clip to ‘Home Videos’ if the person in the video died, was paralyzed, dismembered or experienced a negative life-altering event? No.
My colleague also brought up Saturday Night Live. They often use people’s misfortunes, faults, physical traits as the focus of jokes in their performances. What do you think? Is there a line in which something potentially funny becomes unfunny? If so, where’s the line? Anyway, here are some funny clips:
This summer has blown by faster than a hummingbird’s eyelid. Actually, that kind of sounds like the name of a race horse…
“…coming around the outside and moving into 1st place ahead of ‘My Other Mustang Is A Car,’ it’s ‘Hummingbird’s Eyelid.’ I tell you what, folks, ‘Hummingbird’s Eyelid’ is as fast as a Tennessee summer.”
See what I mean? Even the horse announcer guy agrees this summer has gone by fast. Evenso, I’ve had time for the typical summer activities- the beach, weddings, and travel. I was hired to shoot video for two weddings, here’s a glimpse at both.
I have a new travel companion now, a beagle/blue heeler/lab mix named Asia. She’s a handful, with a personality quite the opposite of my first puppy, Piper. It’s fun to watch the two dogs play together, although I’m still relatively new as a dog owner, so I wonder if it’s playing at all. I see their teeth a lot. Piper has giant ears. Asia has icy blue eyes. I hope they become best friends.
For the first 7 months of the year, a friend of mine used the spare bedroom in my house until the house he bought as a short sale was renovated enough for him to live in it. Having a roommate again after living alone for 5 years was interesting. I knew it would be tough, but he was a great roommate and gave me room and time to adjust back to “roommate life.” I’m happy for my friend and his new house. I like having my space back but I will neither confirm nor deny that I, again, walk around in my underwear.
A long time ago in Tallahassee, Florida a friend of mine introduced me to contra dancing. I wouldn’t go at first, because let’s be honest, would you? After giving it a try, though, it was a lot of fun. When I moved to Nashville, I found where the contra dance was and went a few times. It wasn’t the same so I stopped going. Well, this summer I picked it back up again and it’s a lot of fun. Not the normal crowd I hang with, but that’s part of why I like it.
About a month ago I tied a hummingbird feeder outside my kitchen window. It’s fascinating to watch the birds extract the juice from the feeder. They’ve become a favorite of mine as of late.
I’m excited about how this year will finish. I’m looking forward to college football, NFL football, more dates, and playing with my two dogs. When Asia gets old enough, I’m hoping to become a regular at the dog park near my house. We’re probably still a month away from that.
A friend of mine keeps reminding me that I should try out for “Wipeout” so I’ll do that soon. Whether I win or not, I’d try to race as fast as ‘Hummingbird’s Eyelid.’
For 32 years I’ve felt like I’ve had the luckiest life. My dad was in the Coast Guard, so I got to live in some cool cities, make some great friends, spend tons of time on the beach, and become best friends with my brother and sisters. Because I was born a thousand miles from where I live now and I went to three different high schools, you may say, “Oh, bless his heart!” But I’m telling you, I’m the luckiest person in the world. You may think that moving every couple of years would lay an unstable foundation for a family but you don’t know the whole story. You don’t know that this family has traditions. And one that continues to this very day is spending time with family in Florida. Every summer as a child our vacations were in Tallahassee and Monticello so that’s when I saw my grandparents the most. My experience is a bit different than some family who lived in Florida. They probably spent much more time with each other, but I’ll never forget the excitement of pulling into my grandparents driveways each summer when vacation started. I’ve got so many sweet memories. It’s just more proof I’m part of the luckiest family, probably since Mary and Joseph. For me, it all started with a couple of World War II heroes. One of those is my grandfather Foster Davis… Grand-daddy.
Receiving the Presidential Citation at a ceremony in Berlin, Germany
There are a lot of people that are proud of a lot of things. Athletes winning championships, or setting records. Scientists making brilliant discoveries. People accomplishing great things. But of all the reasons to be proud of anything, none of them, not one have the honor of being a Davis. That’s reserved for my family. So again, I’m telling you, I’m the luckiest person in the world because I get to carry on the Davis name as my middle name.
at St. Teresa Beach, Florida
Some people aren’t proud of their names because their parents or grandparents didn’t care about setting a good example. But Grand-daddy set a great example. He had a choice just like everyone does. He could’ve lived more selfishly, he could’ve disengaged from the family, from his kids and grandkids. But I’ve got a Bible that proves he wasn’t like other grandparents. He wasn’t like other people. He wasn’t like other men. He was way better. He and Me-Mom gave me that Bible 20 years ago and I want to share the message he wrote in it.
Dear Ben,
A little poem I learned at school as a small boy, part of it comes to mind; “Over the hills and through the snow, to grandfather’s house we go.” This Bible relates; we must go to our Father God’s house often, here in His word for instruction, guidance, inspiration, and for reproof and forgiveness. In my long years of life here on earth, at times the pathway has been steep and rocky, sometimes treacherous even, but by going to Him in prayer, in meditation, in reading His word, He has sustained me EVERY TIME. So He will for you. That is my prayer. “…the glory of the Lord shall be your rear-guard.” Isaiah 58:8
Amen,
Grand-daddy Davis
GrandDaddy
That’s the Grand-daddy I love. The legacy that’s the Davis in me now. Last week was our family vacation in Tallahassee. I went fishing with my dad and brother-in-law. We were out there a few hours and decided to make a couple more drops before coming in to shore. On our last stop, just before we let the anchor down, my dad’s phone rang. It was my mom saying that Grand-daddy took a turn for the worse so we needed to come in to go see him. During our ride back to shore, I looked over to my left and saw a pelican flying beside us, about 40 yards out. You’re probably thinking, “Um, so what? It’s a pelican, there’s tons of pelicans,” but we were about 20 miles from land so it seemed odd. For a few minutes this pelican flew inches above the ocean surface, perfectly at our same speed. I stared at the pelican for a long time, thought about Grand-daddy and knew God was near in that moment. I felt so lucky to see that pelican. I looked farther back and saw another pelican catching up to the first one. It wasn’t long before they were flying together, and soon they were out of sight. That little moment is something I’ll never forget because I know Sunday, July 24th, Grand-daddy was the luckiest person when he finally caught up to the one he was chasing. And now they’re soaring together above the crystal sea.
I love you, Grand-daddy. I’ll see you soon enough.
My heart is numb
Out of the Wilderness 