Category Archives: Musings

'Trick of the Light' by The Lost Dogs

“Trick of the Light” by the Lost Dogs Is All Treat

Back in the dawn of antiquity otherwise known as the 1990s, the first contemporary Christian music supergroup came to be in the presence of the Lost Dogs. Consisting of Terry Scott Taylor (Daniel Amos), Derri Daugherty (The Choir), Mike Roe (The 77s), and Gene Eugene (Adam Again), the quartet set out to explore the assorted threads and textures of Americana, a genre best known for its presentation by The Band. Americana mixed old-time country, acoustic and early electric blues, rural folk, and rock‘n’roll into a whole that celebrated all of its influences while letting none of them prevail at the expense of their counterparts. Americana was and is a niche genre, one designated for artistic exploration in lieu of commercial success. It is a celebration of the pioneer spirit, not the romanticized Hollywood depiction, but rather the real deal born from genuine blood, sweat, and tears.

The Lost Dogs brought humor and impeccable tunesmanship to the genre in addition to an unapologetic faith. The band was, in many ways, the logical successor to Daniel Amos’ early country-laced work, such as 1976’s seminal “Shotgun Angel,” an album still revered by Christian rock fans, created before Taylor and company shifted gears to explore edgy alt-rock.

While the Lost Dogs was a radical turn from the music Messrs. Taylor, Daugherty, Roe, and Eugene were making at the time with their quartet of bands, the music itself was ingrained into each artist’s foundational DNA. The Lost Dogs was a natural outreach, especially as the four musicians grew into middle age with nothing left to prove.

The band was wounded in 2000 when Eugene died in his sleep at age 38. Taylor, Daugherty, and Roe carried on nonetheless, joined by Daugherty’s bandmate from The Choir, Steve Hindalong, partly to honor their departed compatriot and also because they loved the music so much. After a lengthy stretch of inactivity — “Old Angel,” the band’s last non-instrumental album, came out in 2012 — the band has returned for another go-round. “Trick of the Light” is the result, and we are all the better for it.

Eight of the album’s 11 tracks are penned by Taylor, which is fitting. Without diminishing the world-class compositional skills of the Daugherty-Hindalong partnership, who have contributed numerous classic compositions with The Choir, and Roe, who has done the same with The 77s, Taylor has been called a genius so often by his fans that it’s difficult to remember that he is one. In addition to a powerful gift for melody across multiple musical styles, Taylor is a master of lyrics who employs biting wit, keen observational skills of society and the church, and an overriding faith unafraid to plumb the depths of spiritual wisdom. He does not coddle his audience. Taylor challenges his listeners to both deepen their faith and put it into action by serving their fellow man.

A good portion of Taylor’s work, starting in the 1990s, has focused on a proper approach to friends and family passing away. As he commented in my book “God’s Not Dead (And Neither Are We),” first published in 2010:

“Grief is not a sin. To mourn the death of someone we have loved with all our being and now have lost, at least in this life, is simply to be human … I have tried to write songs that essentially give those who mourn permission to do so without feeling they have failed God by their ability to act like jubilant overcomers.”

Taylor’s gifts are on full display throughout “Trick of the Light.” On ‘In the In-Between’ he sings:

Kingdom is coming, the kingdom has come
We’re running a race that we’ve already won
Dying is living and the weak are strong
We gain everything when everything is gone

In the in-between
In the in-between
In the shadow of death
The table is set
Between the already and the not quite yet
In the in-between

Elsewhere, Taylor embraces a bit of well-earned nostalgia befitting a lion in autumn.

I can still see us all
Loadin’ up the van
Travelin’ down the scenic routes and
Hangin’ with the fans
The memories still linger
In the dreams of this old man
And even though I won’t be
I’ll still be in the band

Taylor also directly addresses loss, acknowledging the loss of his former fellow lost dog.

I saw Gene today
Movin’ fast on his feet
Makin’ his way
Through the crowd on the street
Maybe gettin’ back to a Green Room track
Or the one where the horses run in Los Alamitos

Oh no
That can’t be right
All I suppose it was
Was a trick of the light

Musically, “Trick of the Light” showcases an additional flavor to the usual Americana mix, namely sun-kissed Southern California surf pop and roll. The hooks are big; the melodies simple but never clichéd or simplistic. Musicianship is superb throughout, real vocals and instruments worked without artificial enhancement by accomplished masters of their craft.

In the song ‘We Got Here Scared,’ we find these words:

And yes, it’s a blessing to be breathing
When we bleed we know we’re alive

The Lost Dogs are very much alive, and are very much in tune with what it means to be alive in Jesus while missing those who now live in His presence. “Trick of the Light” is a shining example of what can happen when gifted artists pool their talents for a common purpose. If you have been missing real music played by real people with heart and soul, this is one pack of lost dogs well worth chasing down.

An Open Letter to Bob Iger

To: Bob Iger
CEO
The Walt Disney Company

July 12, 2023

Dear Bob:

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a lifelong — literally — Disney fan, bordering on fanatic. She who is my wife and I are a Magic Key holders for Disneyland even though we live several hundred miles away. Despite the distance, we visit Disneyland and Disney California Adventure as often as opportunity permits, usually three or four times a year. We were annual pass holders for many years before that program was discontinued during the COVID panicdemic. We will be married 40 years this October.

I write to you regarding the utter botch job that was yesterday’s online Oogie Boogie Bash ticket sale. For the uninitiated, Oogie Boogie Bash is an after-hours event at Disney California Adventure held on numerous nights during the Halloween season. It features trick-or-treating, assorted Disney characters wandering about, light shows, and if memory serves me right a parade. Plus, of course, special merchandise for the event. After all, this is Disney we’re talking about.

It is worth noting that I work in retail, thus fully understand the frustration of bearing the brunt of a customer’s wrath over situations about which one has no control. It’s not like you personally were responsible for the assorted system and systemic failures that ruined the Oogie Boogie Bash ticket sale experience for so many. However, you are the boss, and the sign on Harry Truman’s desk about the buck stops here applies to you in this matter.

My wife and I have dealt with the continuous price increases for everything involved with the parks. We have dealt with the attendance philosophy of cramming as many people per square inch into the parks as possible. Throughout it all, we have remained loyal and steadfast fans, not begging for special favors but accepting what is and still enjoying the experience. Regrettably, Disney seems intent on making this as challenging to maintain as possible.

We have attended Oogie Boogie Bash several times over the years and enjoyed the experience. Originally we were going to take a pass on attending this year, as the price has risen to the level where the experience, albeit enjoyable, is far lower in value than the cost. However, as mentioned above, our 40th wedding anniversary is coming up. As we were already going to be in Southern California one of the weekends while the event is taking place, we thought we’d splurge a bit as an early anniversary present for ourselves.

Due to this thing commonly referred to as “the job,” which for some strange reason frowns on employees spending time on their phone trying to buy event tickets as opposed to, say, stocking shelves and helping customers, I was unable to attempt either the Magic Keyholder pre-sale or the initial public sale. Based on the nearly innumerable quantity of comments on assorted Facebook pages for and by Magic Keyholders, IT issues at your end rendered these attempts by others as failures.

Having a closing shift yesterday, I figured — erroneously, as it turned out — that between the 9 AM starting time for the queue and my shift beginning at 2 PM, there would be time to buy tickets for the September 24 date, as it was the only date we would be able to attend. I mean, five hours for an automated system, even one with a lengthy history of failure such as the one necessitating halting ticket sales the first day to be resumed yesterday, should easily prove doable, right?

Um, wrong, as the queue closed after eleven hours, with my progress bar never moving past the halfway point. And yes, I tried using other browsers and machines.

I can handle things selling out. It happens. Annoying, but life continues. What goes far beyond annoying is when a multi-billion dollar company cannot figure out how to efficiently run a website that it knows will have heavy traffic yet cannot implement the proper software, server space, and bandwidth to handle the demand of legitimate customers while filtering out bots looking to buy as many tickets as possible strictly for resell. There is no excuse for this level of incompetence and indifference to loyal customers.

I have already detailed these issues directly to Disneyland’s guest relations department, fully aware that all I will garner in return is a generic “we’re sorry — but hey, come spend money on us anyway for all our other Halloween stuff!” Such verbiage ranks alongside what would happen if a customer came into my store — for the record, it is a sporting goods store — looking for a new baseball bat and my replying that we’re all out of them, but you can buy this spiffy new workout ensemble instead. The response would not be positive.

Yesterday and the inevitable generic response to it does not constitute customer service. It is a creator of consumer goods taking its customers for granted and adding a dash of insult along the way. Disney is a luxury, not a necessity, as is evidenced by your recent movies tanking and your streaming service hemorrhaging red ink. Even you have said park attendance and experience is overpriced (https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-ceo-bob-iger-tickets-theme-parks-too-expensive-wsj-2022-11). This is your response? Back-end incompetence and smug indifference?

My wife and I will still joyously celebrate our wedding anniversary … somewhere else that actually wants our money. It will not be with anything Disney-related, and I wouldn’t heavily wager on any further celebrations being with you either. There is much truth in the saying, “Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.” If I am reading the room correctly, my wife and I are far from the only ones who, going forward, will prove this point.

Sincerely,
One Ticked Off Disneyphile

PS: Congratulations on the job extension, I guess.

Elegy for a pastor

Chuck Smith, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California and one of the leading figures in the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, passed away today after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 86.

To try and explain the impact Chuck Smith had on contemporary American evangelical Christianity, a brief personal illustration. Back in the mid-1970s, in my neck of the woods (San Francisco Bay Area) the reverberations of the Jesus Movement were still being felt in youth culture. It was a heady time, teens and twentysomethings filled with intense love for Jesus and equally intense belief that His return to the earth would be soon and very soon. Wed sit on our bench, located perilously close to the jock bench, in our high school quadrangle with our guitars as we sang and strummed away on our little songs about a great big God. There were all the obligatory teenage angst moments, falling in and out of love at breakneck speed while occasionally musing about what we would do once we were set free from our high school protective cocoon. But we trusted Jesus would take care of that, and besides He would be coming back shortly so why get worked up over a future that would never come to pass?

Being San Francisco Bay Area people, naturally we loathed and looked down on all things Southern California in general and Los Angeles in particular. However, we cut Orange County, south of L.A., a lot of slack. No, not because of Disneyland. It was the home of something we greatly envied, although we were careful to label it anything but envy as of course envy was a sin. This was semantics, though. It was envy.

We envied Orange County for being the home of Chuck Smith.

Where we were, Christian concerts were far and few between. There would be the occasional appearance by Barry McGuire at Mario Murillos monthly Night of Miracles rally in Oakland, but other than that there was precious little. There was no radio to which we could listen; the local stations were all AM dollar a holler junk. But where Chuck Smith was, there were concerts every Saturday night playing our music. There was a radio station, an FM radio station, playing our music. There was a church where we knew wed all be welcome no matter our hair length or dress code. There was a place we knew that if we could only get there we would be blessed beyond words by being at the home base of everything we held dear in our unstoppable zeal. But, we couldnt get there despite whispered conversations about how if we split the gas and had all the boys stay in one hotel room and all the girls in another with no visitations save with the door wide open, maybe we could borrow someones parents van and one day make a pilgrimage to Santa Ana so we could experience in person this magical place from whence came the records on the Maranatha! Music label we eagerly devoured.

Time passed, as it does. Jesus had other plans and didnt come back before the 1980s set in, or any subsequent decade for that matter. Some of us walked away from the faith, disillusioned at the prospect of having to actually live out a normal life with a job and family and everything else that comes with these things. Some of us passed away. But some of us remained, our faith ofttimes battered, bruised and beaten down to the point of near abandonment. Yet we still believed, chuckling over our previous eschatological fixation and learning, as best we could, to be happy with what we had and learning to have faith in Christ alone, not in an image of Him being the ultimate get out of jail card.

This all said, the news of Chuck Smiths passing is not an occasion for nostalgic musing about when we were young, alive, on fire and had all the answers. It is a moment to note all that he accomplished: the artists for whom he provided a platform; the multitude of Calvary Chapels now dotting the globe. His name does not have the recognition factor of other post-WWII American Christianity leaders such as Billy Graham or any given TV evangelist. But today, wherever there is a folk/rock guitar being played and song being sung, and wherever there is a ministry saying come as you are because Jesus loves you and so do we, Chuck Smith is there. And we are all the better for it.

God bless you, Pastor Chuck, now at home in your Fathers arms.