Cambodia Trip - Arrival in Singapore

Well, we just arrived in Singapore after an 18 hr flight from Los Angeles (short layover in Tokyo). All has gone very well - no incidents whatsover. Folk are in various states of adjusting to different time zones - some have slept well, others haven't.

We have a 6-7 hour layover now but will be in Phnom Penh in about 8-9 hours.

We're now looking to find the much-anticipated showers!

UPDATE 3:32 A.M. Singapore time

Josh & I found the showers. Feel much more human now. I changed in to shorts and a light cotton shirt in anticipation of our landing in Cambodia this morning.

Have finished about 80 pgs in "Killing Fields, Living Fields" - a history of the Evangelical Christian Church in Cambodia. Very interesting. Both encouraging and sad.

The airport in Singapore is the nicest I've ever seen (Friends have told me it's one of the nicest in the world). Looks more like the lobby of classy hotel.

Everyone is looking around and taking pictures. I've given up on sleep for the time being and will just wait till I'm tired. I couldn't sleep much on the flights.

I'll try and update in Cambodia. Not much news for now - just put on John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and you'll get most of the picture . . . . .

Bye for now

Tim

Cambodia & Music Room

As I write, we are hearing Josh play drums in the "finally about to be completed" music room downstairs. The drywall has been put up and they'll be mudding on Monday. I'll post some pics after it's all painted.

Also - wanted to prep those who visit for our Cambodia trip. I know that there is an internet cafe near the mission in Phnom Phen. Each day, our assistant pastor will attempt to publish updates on our church's web site. I will also try and add to our blog if and when possible. The church site will likely be the best source to see what's happening.

The church's website is at http://www.fremontalliance.org/ . Go to this site and there's a "Cambodia" menu item. From that item, choose "Team News". I believe that this is where Roger will be updating our daily "diary".

You can always come here if you prefer bad puns and a strange sense of humor. ;-)

See ya.

tim

Lora Gets Her Foot in the Door . . . .

Time for a little update on Lora. We've got two pieces of news from the last month.

First, Lora is sporting some very chic footwear after her recent foot surgery. No they didn't amputate anything - they just removed that 6th and 7th toe that she's been sporting for years. She's healing up ok now, although it was a little rough at first. I don't know if I'm going to be able to break her of the habit of making me serve her breakfast in bed, but we'll see......

On another note (pardon the pun) Lora has a new job!! She'll be starting this fall as the vocal music/general music instructor at Trinity Lutheran School in Fremont. Our previous director, Julie Patchen, left at the end of the last school year to take a job in Elkhorn and after a few generous bribes to the school board at Trinity, Lora was offered the job.

Pop Lora a note to say congrats & get well if you have a chance. We'd post pictures of the wounded foot, but we don't want to scare small children or large adults.........

Tim Davis? Who Are You Really? . . .

Over the last month, our family has made a stunning discovery about a close friend. We now realize that we have had the wool pulled over our eyes for years. It is hard to believe we could have been so naive.

Before I proceed, you really need to examine the following two pictures closely. Please prepare yourself for a real shock.

First look at this picture, taken in the last year, at a fine, upscale restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky. Look VERY closely at the man on the far right in maroon T-Shirt. Does that face look familiar to you ? It should. Read on . . . .

Now, examine this next picture, taken by a private investigator near Washington D.C. Our suspect is the guy in the back with the hat, which he uses to keep you from looking at his hair more closely. Now imagine this guy in a flowered shirt and shorts. Imagine him with his true, naturally curly hair (which he's had straighted to hide his true identity) and a few years younger.

Are any bells going off yet? Hmmmmm.....

Supposedly, this man is "Tim Davis", a minister of sorts who claims to have gone to school in Kentucky and claims to be no older than say 40 or so. When "Tim" lived in Fremont, I always had this nagging voice in the back of my head saying that I knew him from somewhere before.

This last month, as we were watching a video together as a family, it finally dawned on me who this "Tim" really is . . . . .

Do these pictures from Tim's younger days ring a bell?

Can you say "Book 'em Danno"? Yes, back in his younger days, he used to go by the name of James MacArthur (one of his many aliases). As hard as it may be to accept, my friend "Tim" is none other than "Danno" (Danny) Williams of Hawaii Five-O fame. I'm sure this his new identify has been assumed to allow him a little peace and quiet in his personal life and to avoid the pesky autograph seekers and paparazzi who turned his life into a game of hide and seek.

He may have been hiding . . . . but we've been seeking . . . .

Yes, some plastic surgery, a change of hairstyle (to get rid of that natural curl), and a few touches here and there, and you can see how he almost pulled it off.

If you still don't believe me, rent some old episodes of Hawaii Five-O. Watch the facial expressions carefully. Watch the little lift of the lip as he talks. Note the rise and fall of voice as he speaks. Once you see it, you will have not doubts that Tim Davis is actully Danny "Danno" Williams.

The Cat is out of the Bag.

Can anyone say "Book 'em Timmo"

Fiddler in the Pit

As if our lives weren't busy enough - last week I spent 5 days in my old stomping grounds - the orchestra pit at FHS.

Me in the pit with Mandolin and my trusty Ibanez Pat Metheny Hollow Body

The director asked me last December if I knew how to play Mandolin, as they would be putting on "Fiddler on the Roof" this year and the book was for Mandolin & Guitar. Thinking I could pull the old studio guitarist's trick of tuning the instrument like a guitar and wailing away, I said "sure"!

After the music arrived and I a student loaned me a mandolin, I realized I had made a big mistake. Given the tuning and string gauges, I couldn't tune the thing like a guitar. Yikes - what to do now? After trying to learn all the chords from scratch (ok if you're playing 3 chord country songs, but not for a broadway book), I visited my favorite guitar store in Omaha (Russo's) and asked for help. My old buddy Ned looked at me like I was an idiot and said "Hey - it's just like playing a guitar upside down".

At first I didn't follow him, but then I saw what he meant. The guitar is tuned (from thickest string to thinnest) E - A - D - G - B -E. The Mandolin is tuned (from thickest to thinnest) G - D - A - E, each string being in pairs. If you ignore the last 2 stings on the guitar, it is the same notes reversed.

So, with this newfound knowledge, I sheepishly went back home and started to try and think "upside down". This made things a lot easier (until I started looking at the single -note lines).

If I'd been really smart, I'd have found a left handed mandolin, and played it backwards, so that it was playing it like a guitar forwards (yes - your head should be spinning about now). But there wasn't time to find left handed mandolins - not even with Ebay.

Pretending to read a D7b9 chord.

So, long story short, after about 5 weeks of practice, I got the point where I could fool most of the people most of the time. It was really interesting - even during production week, I found new voicings for various chords and played things differently as the week progressed.

I actually got to the point of enjoying playing the thing, but not enough to keep me from posting it on Ebay tonight. I also have a newfound respect for Chris Thiele of NickelCreek.

Lesson learned: Next time I get asked to play an instrument that I don't really play - go to the music store first, pick the thing up and try and tune it to a guitar. If you can't - say no or plan on some time for woodshedding . . . .

;-)

Only Visiting This Planet - Larry Norman (1947-2008)

Yesterday was a very sad day for Christian Music. After struggling with health issues for more than a decade, Larry Norman died yesterday (February 24) in Salem, Oregon.

For those of you who are of the younger generation, Larry was to Contemporary Christian Music what Elvis was to Rock and Roll. If you asked the average CCM fan today what the first Christian Rock album was, they would not have the slighest idea. However, back in 1968, a young 21 year old created a groundbreaking album called "Upon This Rock" on the Capitol label, which was probably a decade ahead of its time. "Upon This Rock" is often referred to as the "Sgt. Pepper's" of Christian Music.

Most CCM critics and reviewers regard Larry's "Only Visiting This Planet" as the best, or one of the top 3 Christian albums of all time.

I was a huge fan of Larry's in my younger years and saw him in concert 5 times, once driving with some friends to Norman, Oklahoma to the "Boomer Theater" to see him. When I bought his albums via mail order in late high school/early college, Larry's dad would write nice personal notes on the packaging when he sent things to me.

Many people also are not aware that a mini rock opera written by Larry during his days with the band "People!" is credited by many as the inspiration for Pete Townshend's writing of "Tommy". (The Who was on tour with People! and saw their performances night after night in the late 60's).

My personal favorites of Larry's are:

• Nightmare (from So Long Ago the Garden) - [one of the best Christian lyrics ever written]
• Reader's Digest (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• The Great American Novel (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• I Am the Six O'Clock News (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• The Outlaw (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• Forget Your Hexagram (from Upon This Rock)
• I Don't Believe In Miracles (from Upon This Rock)
• Unlucky Blues (from Something New Under the Son)

For those in our youth group, we listened to "In Another Land" while setting up for the Valentine's day banquet a few weeks ago. Kind of ironic, isn't it.

Larry was also eloquent in interviews, magaine articles and in liner notes. I'll close with my favorite sections of Larry's liner notes to "In Another Land"

"today there was no bomb scare . . . just the reality that something exploded long before we knew it, and now we are living in the fallout. all of us are crippled and mutated from the radiation of that moment, but from the outward appearance we look normal, at least to each other. the earth is a dying planet, man a dying race. there are strange things in the sky at night. some people say that it is help from other planets, but i fear that it is evil let loose, vaporizing and streaking across the universe.

funny sad place we've turned this world into, the courts free killers on technicalities, people are starving and we burn and bury food because the economy would fluctuate if we fed them, women seem to be trying to rule the world now that the children have proven themelves incapable of establishing love and world peace; only a few generations ago women started dressing like men and now men are starting to dress like women, the world sems to be crumbling and yet people are eating and drinking and living unnaturally as though there were no right and wrong, as though their lives will never end.

Some people say there is no God, others say that we are all God. sometimes i look out over the city late at night and all the lights look like diamonds and rubies on a black jewelers cloth, all set in straight little rows and sprinkled on the hillsides - and i wonder how we have ever fallen so far. and then i look up in the sky with its far superior jewels; i look up and find myself waiting. and smiling." - Larry Norman, September 1975

Here, there be music . . . . soon . . . . .

Well, we're finally close to finishing our "music room" which we've been working on (or should I say not working on very much) for the last 14 months. Over the weekend, the boys and I got all of the insulation in place.

To those we've mentioned the project to, I've included some pictures, and will offer some explanations as well. This should help some of you who've expressed an interest in doing the same.

The picture above shows the southwest corner of the room. The funny looking insulation is called "Sound Attenuation Fire Blankets". They are made of a wood by-product and have much greater sound dampening characteristics than normal insulation. In addition, as their name implies, they are VERY fire-resistant. They are however, murder to work with. They are very itchy and smell like sheep when you first put them up.

Here is a picture of the stuff, up close and personal:



We placed this stuff on of the inward facing walls between the ceiling joists. You'll also notice some steel strips in the first picture. These are RC (Resiliant Channel). They are tacked on the studs and the drywall is attached to it, and either not attached to the studs at all, or attached only at the points where the Resiliant Channel intersects with the drywall. This reduces contact points where sound can be transferred to the wall. (BTW - the first picture does not have all of hte RC in place).

We also placed R-24 fiberglass insulation below the Fire Attenuation Sound Blankets in the ceiling (going the opposite direction) to provide extra sound insulation. Because the ceiling had to be lowered, we put this right above the new ceiling (which is what you see in the picture). This also creates an acoustic "dead space" between the R-24 layer and the Fire Attenuation Sound Blankets in the ceiling joists.

Our next step is to get the drywallers in to finish the drywalling, then we paint. Our plan is to do at least two of the walls in EVH's "Frankenstrat" design. The other walls may be a Beatles wall or a music/instrument brand logo wall.

We'll keep ya posted and provide pictures when it's all done.