The Autumn Bells are Ringing, but They'll Just Have to Wait

Two things before I head off to the exotic locale of Nashville, Tennessee for that thing the kids like to call Spring Break (look for me in the Nashville-edition of Girls With Low Self Esteem):

1. Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, provides a great take on the societal menace that is the Facebook Status Update:

Other than that, the comedy of status updates can be off the charts. Like my college classmate who sends out status updates so overwhelmingly mundane and weird that my buddies and I forward them to each other, then add fake responses like, "(Guy's name) … snapped and killed a drifter tonight" and "(Guy's name) … would hang myself if the ceilings in my apartment weren't too short."

It kills us. We can't get enough of it. We have been doing it for four solid months. And really, that's what Facebook is all about -- looking at photos of your friend's kids or any reunion or party, making fun of people you never liked and searching for old hook-ups and deciding whether you regret the hook-up or not. That's really it. All in all, I like Facebook.

2. Some blessed soul has been putting all of the old GSP Sing Song acts on YouTube. We're talking all the way back to the halcyon days of 1993. In the spirit of excess, here they are in all their glory.

1993-Referees

1995-Golfers

1996-Sheriffs

1999-Matadors

2000-Umpires

2001-Barbershop Quartet

2002-Huck Finn (bonus points to the first person who finds baby-faced Dan Carlson)

2003-The Beatles show is M.I.A. for some reason. I blame Demetrius Collins for this.

2004-Top Gun

2005-Travolta (I have no idea how this show won)

2006-Frogs (The show I enjoyed the most, and, in my opinion, is the best one on this list)

2007-Firemen

2008-Magicians (I'm just going to act as though I never saw this show)

2009-Peter Pan

Man, We Make Our Own Movies

Tomorrow I promise to break out of the "1 sentence and a YouTube video" posting format, but for tonight, I'll leave you with the knowledge that I had a great visit to Abilene this weekend, and the men of Gamma Sigma Phi made me quite proud in bringing home their 7th Sing Song title in the last 8 years.

Where'd You Park the Car?

At the beginning of the post, I should take the time to apologize to those of you who live outside of the "bubble" and have no idea what I am talking about when I say the words "Sing Song." In fact, I apologize because if I took the time to actually explain it to you in sufficient detail, you probably still would not be interested in the subject matter and I would have deprived you of a small portion of your life, which is ebbing away right now...tick, tick, tick.

If you're still reading, and I have no idea why you would be after that stirring exposition, here is my $.02 on Sing Song 2008.

Of course, everyone left Moody on Saturday night talking about how the 6-time reigning champions had been dethroned in both the men's and women's divisions by the Kojie Bumblebess and the evil empire's train conductors, but as someone whose time in Sing Song is past, I'll tell you this: It's almost more difficult to watch as a spectator, than it was to be involved as a competitor/participant (sure, I could use the more gentle, affirming term "participant" solely, but in anything that involved a contest with the moonies, it was nothing if not a competition).

Sure, my time standing on the stage is gone, and that's a good thing, but a small part of me still hurts for the guys in club that had to be there when the dream died. Those that I talked to on Saturday night kept saying that the streak had to end sometime, but you never want to be part of the group responsible for such an event. Despite the fact that ACU has the 4th-highest total number of NCAA Championships behind UCLA, USC, and Stanford, the largest bragging rights on the Hill each year belong to those who win the big event in February.

From Huck Finn to the Beatles to Top Gun to John Travolta to Frogs who turn into Princes to Firemen, that group for the past 6 years was the men of Gamma Sigma Phi. Now, that title has been passed (albeit unwillingly) to our bitter archrivals, the evil empire. Wherever you are to read this, take a little time to hum a few bars of "We Believe" in remembrance of a fairly remarkable streak.

Dedicated to All You, All Human Beings

It's that time of the year once again.

Time for a member of the Chicago Cubs to make a recklessly bold World Series victory prediction? No, although that did happen. Thanks, Ryan Dempster.

Instead, it is time to travel to the Key City for the phenomenon known as Sing Song. Here's a post from February of 2006 with full photographic evidence of the event that was "The Frog Show". (Warning: The mustache I'm wearing in those photos may be unsuitable for discerning [read as: reasonable] persons).
You can find the pre and post-show entries from last year's show here and here.

For a more focused, and much less biased, view on ACU's largest annual event (I'm looking at you, Lectureship), I'm turning things over to my friend, Sarah Carlson, whose Sing Song piece ran in Wednesday's edition of the Abilene Reporter-News.

Besides Sarah's excellent writing, another highly enjoyable portion of that article is the GSP-galaxy feud breaking out in the comments section. My favorite comment by far is from "TC Hunter 21" who writes: "Personally I think 7 is pretty small, 25 thats an actual accomplishment...lets wait and see what happens."

If that's not a former/current moonie sounding a little bit too much like a Yankees fan taunting a Red Sox supporter by stating that the Boston club's 7 titles are nice, but it's small fries compared to the Yanks' 26 World Series championships, I don't know what is.
Everyone who is headed out to Abilene, be sure to travel safely, and I hope to see some of you there.

Saturday Night in East Berlin

If the words "Abilene Christian University", "Gamma Sigma Phi", "Sing Song", "The Windmill", "Demetrius Collins", "Luke Reeves', "Clark Packer", or "Ryan Mack" mean anything to you, please watch the following video:

Where Amazing Happens.

Seasons Fill My Mind and Cover Me

In the ongoing saga that is my newfound obsession with Liverpool FC, the latest chapter was written on Saturday at the JJB Stadium in Wigan, England.

Thanks to the superb efforts of midfielder Yossi Benayoun, the Reds took home a 1-0 away victory over Wigan Athletic. As you can see from the photographic evidence submitted above, Yossi is not going to be knocking on the doorstep of People's 50 Most Beautiful any time this millennium, but the man delivered a game-winning goal in the 75th minute to break Liverpool out of the Premiership lull that they were mired in for the last two matches against Birmingham and Portsmouth.

In yet another installment of reasons why I love English football, I bring you this nugget of gold from the Wikipedia page devoted to Wigan Athletic F.C.

The most popular football chant used by supporters has been "You Are My Sunshine," but recent additions are the Frankie Valli classic "Let's Hang On!" which was representative of the club's record of 1-0 small goal leads, especially in the 2003-04 season. Other notable favourites include: "We Come From Wigan And We Live In Mudhuts, oo-agh-oo-oo-agh,you should be a wig-in-a!" and "Teale Will Tear You Apart Again" - a parody of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" sung mainly when winger Gary Teale (now with Derby County) was playing, although it was first heard some ten years ago at Old Trafford, in ode to Ryan Giggs "Giggs will tear you apart". . Other chants for players include "Zooo!" for former captain Arjan De Zeeuw (now with Coventry City) , and also a chant to the tune of "Baby Give It Up", replacing the titular words with the name of striker Henri Camara. A new and recent chant is to the tune of The Automatic's hit, 'Monster', where the fans sing "What's That Coming Over The Hill, It's Emile Heskey, It's Emile Heskey!!' Another song is "We've won it 2 times, Auto-Windscreens, We've won it 2 times" mimicking Liverpool Won it 5 times song. Fans used to show their support for long-serving, former manager Paul Jewell, with the satirical, "Who Needs Mourinho, We've Got Paul Jewellio!"

I realize that the Red Sox have "Sweet Caroline", the Evil Empire has "New York, New York", and the Rangers have Pat Green's "I Like Texas" after home victories, but as a whole, I think American fanbases are far, far behind our English counterparts in the creativity department. I'm pretty sure I would make every effort to attend more sporting events if I could basically combine the enjoyable parts of Sing Song with watching sports.

All the Leaves are Brown and the Sky is Gray

Congratulations to Ben Grant for correctly naming "Africa" by Toto as the Sunday Song of the Day.

I know that you've been waiting with baited breath for a little video of this year's winning show, so here you go:

Thanks to Heath Huston's dad for shooting the video. Also, you'll like the footage from the celebratory singing of "We Believe" at the end of the Saturday night show. There's a lot of background noise, but it's good nonetheless. I'll also be sure to post the video from Hutton when he produces the final cut. Enjoy!

Gonna Take Some Time to Do the Things We Never Had

Congratulations to Mr. Ben Grant for correctly naming "Theme from the Bottom" by Phish as the Thursday Song of the Day.


Well, this afternoon I arrived back in Waco from my weekend in Abilene for Sing Song. My friend Patrick Vincent always says that "It's a great day to be a Gamma Sig", but yesterday was one of the best of those days. Appearing this year as Firemen, the men of Gamma Sigma Phi took home their 6th straight Sing Song victory. Even though Sing Song may be one of the most bizarre things that I was involved in during my time at ACU, and its appeal is almost impossible to describe to some people, it is incredibly satisfying to be involved in a winning tradition that began before I pledged and that has continued after I graduated.


There should be a video produced by Hutton Harris documenting this year's show coming in the near future, but for now a picture of Mr. Harris and I will have to suffice. Even though it was great to see my boys take home victory #6, it was even better to see so many of the people who mean so much to me. I still remember going to Sing Song when I was in high school and looking around at everyone talking after the last show until all hours and thinking, "Who are these people that just stand around in a coliseum talking to each other for hours on end?"

After the show last night when I was backstage talking to my friend Jenny Nofsinger, we realized that we had become those people. The people I came with would constantly try to pull me away to go somewhere, and when we would start walking, my friends would see someone else they knew and they would begin to talk. Those moments of community are etched into my memory. It seems that we are given those moments to carry with us through the valleys of life, to remind us of what life can be at its best.