About Me
 

You probably all know me, as I've been around the Ute board and at least two BYU boards since about 1998.

First off, I am old. This only recently dawned on me. I graduated from the U. law school in 1982 and have been in L.A. ever since. After a short stint as an entertainment lawyer (yes, I did work for big stars; it was actually quite boring and I left "the industry" after realizing it is full of insufferable people); I became a corporate health care lawyer. Generally, that means I do incredibly interesting but obscure work for hospitals and those who run them. I love my work.

I have the same wife I had back when I was at the U., and three kids. The oldest is serving in the Washington D.C. South Mission, where I expect he'll show up in Utah Dan's or JohnVA's ward sometime soon. I hope they feed him well.

My other two kids are 15 (a boy) and 8 (a girl). People ask why we had them so spread out, and I answer that we had eight pregnancies but only three babies. That usually shuts them up.

I loooove Ute sports and have a healthy respect for BYU sports, although I love nothing better than beating you guys. I also love Scouting (the LDS variety), the youth program generally, hiking, politics, writing about politics, and movies. All of the foregoing are most fun when I do them with my wife and/or kids.

I have a political blog you can find here:

http://www.hedgehogcentral.blogspot.com

Please visit and tell me what you think. As an added incentive, my photo is there.

I'm very active in the Church because my ward is so understaffed they have no choice but to give me callings. When I grow up I want to be as level-headed as Ohio Blue.

I have an 11 year old son and a 3 year old daughter. 11 months ago we added another son to the fold. People automatically assume that I've been divorced once because of the age gap. I tell them we did it to have an automatic babysitter. In reality, we just had no luck for 8 years.

whoa, you look very cleancut and responsible.

I get haircuts every 4 months. I refuse to go to the barber (make my wife do it). I come back from every vaction with a ratty goatee. and in high school my basketball nickname was "funk" because by sweaty BO was so bad.

And when people find out that I graduated from BYU, the typical response is, "But you're not Mormon, right?"

Steel, I feel bad for you. You didnt' get lucky for 8 years. I hope that couch was comfortable to sleep on for that long.

LOL. Gives a whole new meaning to my moniker.

Haircuts every 4 months that is crazy. I try to make it a year before I cut my hair. Sometimes I only make it about 8-10 months though. My longest non-haircut stretch was 14 months, I grew a mighty wafro at that time.

I also am opposed to paying someone to cut my hair. Since I have yet to find a woman who is looking for citizenship I have to cut it myself. Thus it is a cycle of 8-12 months growing a wafro and then no hair.

Hey I have a John Rutter album too.

I am a huge John Rutter fan
 

which makes me pretty weird. Most people have never heard of him. I actually own a bunch of his choral CDs. But don't hold that against me.

Steelblue, my favorite question from people who are just meeting me or my wife, when they learn of tha ages of our kids, is this: "Same father?" Always gives me a chuckle.

John Rutter rocks
 

Well, at least figuratively. I love his music. WHen I was choir director in our ward (which fortunately was when our ward was blessed with THREE large and talented singing families, bolstering our choir to about 50 people, 40 or so of whom could actually sing well) we did at least one Rutter song a year. They were difficult but when we nailed them they were inspiring and the choir had a true sense of accomplishment. The Lord Bless You and Keep You (I think that's the titel) is one of my favorite songs of any genre.

The Lord Bless You and Keep You is one of my favorites as...
 

well.

His adaptation of the prayer of St. Francis (Lord Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace) is perhaps the most beautiful piece of worship/spitirtual music I have heard.

Oddly, in my last ward we had an entire cadre in the choir who for some inexplicable reason looked down their collective noses at Rutter so we never did anything by him. :-(

Rutter and Wilberg. Two choral arrangers who must by rule never ever be turned down or rejected by any self-respecting group. UtahDan, wasn't the arrangement you're referring to sung by the BYU men's chorus in, oh, say the Fall semester of 1993?

Ohio, is this your attempt to "out" me...
 

as having been in said Mens Chorus in 1993? The answer to your question is yes. In fact, I have a recording of it.

Wilberg is wonderful, especially as an arranger and a conducter. A great person as well.


I was in the BYU Music program in the early 1990s. I was in several of the Wilberg concerts and productions(although I can't remember about the fall 1993 for sure) in both Concert Choir & Men's Chorus(as an instrumentalist). I guess that I got on his 'list' and he kept calling me.

Also worth checking out is the 'Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns' cd that came from a musical production that was filmed at BYU for PBS in April 1994.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music

It premiered around Thanksgiving time that year.

Some great arrangements of Church Hymns & Folk Music.


Since then BYU Choirs have released many good recordings.

I was in a boys choir at the age of 11 or so in a production of carmina burana. because I was the oldest one in the choir I had to pinch my nads to hit the notes. my career in the boys choir did not last long.

Mike
 

are you a castrato? :shock:

yes I am. Just like Lance Armstrong.

'And then it occurred that maybe a career in music was not for you...'

I may have run into you at some point then. UtahDan and I were both in Men's Chorus in 93/94, and sang in the Thanksgiving program you referred to. I was also in a few other performing ensembles here and there and so we may have crossed paths at some point in the good ole HFAC.

Good times.

Wilberg and Rutter
 

I have the Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns CD and listen to it often in the car. "Come Thou Fount" is fun to listen to even though it has gotten so popular that I hear it more than I'd like to.

Tidbit about that hymn: It was removed from the latest edition of the LDS hymnal because it was thought to be too difficult for most members to sing. That seems like a dumb reason to me, but at least it was not removed because someone thought it was "too Protestant." My brother and I had heard a rumor to that effect and so my brother called Michael Moody (then the Church music jefe) and asked him. He told my brother it was because of the difficulty of the song.

Now, on what other sports board can you get information like this?

LA, thanks for the historical tidbit....
 

It was timely, as last Sunday my visiting daughter (a senior at BYU majoring in Media Music) played an arrangment of Come Thou Fount. I asked her why the hymn had been given the hook and she didn't know. I guessed it was because it was thought to be too difficult for a ward to sing (I know that was true of several hymns, including Each Cooing Dove, which I enjoyed as a child because when the fat old women sitting behind us warbled the melody, followed by the old men barking out the echo basso profundo, I laughed so hard it hurt). Armed with this information, I can now lord it over Miss Smartypants who thinks her dad is a cretin in matters musical.

BTW, the arrangement was outstanding, causing a dozen or so members to come up after and ask her where they could get a copy. I was surprised to hear her report that she had made it up as she was playing. I'm glad fifteen years of music lessons are paying off.

Nice to have you here LA. Hope we see you around more.

This time I got smart and checked the date of the post. August 2005. However, it says his join date is January 2006. How can you post before you even join? And why do these old posts keep getting bumped? I am so confused.

when we switched from phpBB to vbulletin, the join dates were lost. So it reverted to 1/06. We manually changed the join dates of the regulars, but we didn't bother for the dead.

I don't enjoy the cultural discussions on here.

Its a Miracle ,provided by CG ,to raise the deads. Amen!