Yellow

Brilliant reediting of a Muppet Show video to show Beaker singing Coldplay's "Yellow."  (not sure yet how I [Orin] feel about beaker making any other noise than "Meep meep".)



To see to original video of Beaker singing "Feelings?" -- almost as funny -- click here.

lala

"Walk Away Different" now on lala.com.  Woo!

smartcatholic.net

Hey everybody, a friend of ours, Doug, just started a new website and he wanted us to help spread the word.  Doug says:

The Story: Last year I made a trivia game for our Jr. High Youth Ministry, and I had several parents ask me to make an version with tougher questions for them, so . . .  I set up a Catholic trivia site: www.smartcatholic.net -- Then, I did a Google search for catholic trivia and found some good . . . and some bad information about the Catholic Church.

So pay his new site a visit, and let him know what you think!

Muppet "Ode to Joy"

Yay Beaker!

2008 Healing and Hope Novena to Our Lady of the Snows

Orin coordinates the liturgies for this annual event at the Shrine, the Healing and Hope Novena. Each night we celebrate mass at 7:30 with a specially-picked presider and homilist, good music ministry, meaningful ritual, and communal prayer. Each night has a different focus, i.e. Finding Healing and Hope within... Physical Infirmities, The Loss of a Loved One, Spiritual Difficulties, etc. The 9 nights of prayer lead up to August 5th, which is the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows.

Oddwalk and friends are providing music ministry the night of August 4, Finding Healing and Hope within Social Injustices. Please join Orin and many others in prayer at the Shrine July 28 to August 5, 7:30 each night, come for any or all.

Retreat Pictures and a Guitar Hero

Retreat participants try some "Nose Jousting"

The modest prayer table

The founder of the Marriage Encounter Movement, Fr. Calvo

Noah is a Guitar Hero!

Muppet Habañera

We'll probably be posting more of these over the coming days - Muppets and classical music make for a pretty good mix:

Retreat!!!

Our blog posts might slow down over the next couple of days as Oddwalk is leading a retreat for the teenage children of the National Marriage Enounter Conference being held in Jefferson City, MO this weekend.  We'll write more once the weekend is over.

Hopefully not to floppy disks anymore though

Jesus and Satan were having an ongoing argument about who was
better on his computer. They had been going at it for days, and God [the Father] was tired of hearing all of the bickering.  Finally God said, "Cool it. I am going to set up a test that will run two hours and I will judge who does the better job."

So down Satan and Jesus sat at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They did spreadsheets. They wrote reports. They sent faxes. They sent e-mail. They sent out e-mail with attachments. They downloaded. They did some genealogy reports. They made cards. They did every known job.

But ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, the rain poured and, of course, the electricity went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.  Jesus just sighed. 

The electricity finally flickered back on, and each of them restarted their computers.  Satan started searching frantically, screaming "It's gone! It's all gone! I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours. Satan observed this and became irate.  "Wait! He cheated, how did he do it?"

God shrugged and said, "Jesus saves."

Ratings

No big whoop, but the blog has added a 5-star rating system under each post.  Even this one, which can't rate that highly.

Typo of the Year

Newspaper misspells its own name on masthead.  To the left is the July 21 edition of the paper.

Below is their editor's correction today.

More details here.

Erin's Birthday Weekend

Orin's wife Erin celebrated a birthday on the 18th. Here are a few pictures of the celebrations.

The night before her birthday, Orin and Erin stayed at HoteLumiere, which is not the new hotel Erin is sadly pointing at in the picture.  We thought it was, but oh well.  We did have a good time though!

On Sunday, Erin planned a big bingo extravaganza.  Earlier in the afternoon, Many folks came over to prepare by eating lots of food and decorating bingo bags.  Here's Erin and Elise.

Guess who made this bag.

Then later it was off to bingo at St. Stephen's in Caseyville, IL.  We took over two tables with 18 or so people.  No one one, though Katie did have a "wait" (being one number away) on the final game, a cover-all with a $500 prize.  At the above table was Orin (taking the picture) and Br. Ricky, "Aunt" Peggy, Mom Pam, Jennifer, Jason, Br. Ray, and Emily.

At this table were Pete, Danielle, Katie, Megan, Brad, Jolene, The Birthday Girl, Erin C, Elise, and Stefanie.  A good time was had by all (we think)!  Happy birthday Erin!

"Walk Away Different" now on iTunes!

Click here (not the image) to access iTunes' listing of our new CD with GIA, "Walk Away Different" - yes, the long wait is over!

You can buy any track for $0.99, or the whole CD for just $9.99!

We'd also appreciate it if someone who wasn't us dropped by to write up a (preferably) good review.  : )

Happy listening all!

New Look & OddPoll

Hi all - we've updated the OddBlog's look again, revisiting a theme from a couple years ago, but tweaking it a bit.  All the content is still the same, just a fresh new face to look upon.

We've added a poll to the sidebar on the right, please vote on the new look!  You have about a week to decide (we know it's a tough choice that will require much contemplation, perhaps even hour upon hour of prayer).

We must be amazingly popular in Finland.

www.cm-store.fi - Seriously, this is the third Finnish site where you can buy "Walk Away Different."  

Anyone want to guess what makes us so "in demand" in Eastern Scandinavia?

Soccer? No, Seminary

Thanks to Oddwalk friend Ricky for calling this story to our attention - Ricky says:

Check this story. MLS player retires to enter seminary in Maryland. He was on a good team too.

The now-former professional soccer player had this to say:

"After years of discernment, I feel strongly that the Lord has called me to become a priest in the Catholic Church," Hilgenbrinck said. "Playing professional soccer has been my passion for a long time and I feel blessed to have successfully lived out this dream. My passion now is to do the will of God, which is wanting only what He wants for me. Though I will miss the game of soccer, I know that I am moving on to something much greater."

Caption Contest: Burke in Rome

Orin's friend Jared sent him this photo of a welcome ceremony upon former St. Louis Archbishop Burke's arrival in Rome.  He had some interesting remarks to go along with it.

Anyone else care to add captions in the comments?

Power to Witness and Power Up!

This Saturday, July 19th, Oddwalk will be part of a day-long event at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL called Power to Witness which will culminate with an evening concert called Power Up! This day will feature national Catholic recording artists Tom Booth, Vallimar Jansen, and Sarah Hart. The flyer below says it all. It should be a tremendous opportunity for people of all ages to deepen their faith and recharge their Christian battery. The event is free for those who register by Thursday, July 17th. Registration even includes a buffet dinner at the Shrine Restaurant. What a deal!

We certainly want to encourage the Oddwalk faithful to join us all day on Saturday. You won't be disappointed.

More Musical Charts

Sent to Orin by his friend Brad:

The Vatican Rag

I (Orin) have been recently reacquainting myself with the music of Tom Lehrer.  Here's one of his songs that belongs over on this blog:

Can a day get any better?

Today Orin (& Erin) purchased two items.

A red, Roland AX-1 keytar!

and

Two iPhone 3G's! (though we won't be using them until the end of the month)

iSound.com

So, "Walk Away Different" is on iSound.com now too.

That's all, carry on.

Christpower!

Today, I(Shannon)am heading to the metropolis of Russellville, MO for a service/retreat camp called Christpower. This program, an idea started in St. Louis, MO several years ago, will gather 49 teens from around the Diocese of Jefferson City for a week of service and deepening of faith. I will serve as the Music Coordinator.

Our theme for the week is Mercy At Work, an idea taken from Isaiah 58: 6-14. Our theme SONG for the week was written by Orin. Yay! To hear it find the pODDcast on the right side of this page, click "posts" and scroll down to Mercy At Work.

This post is probably good enough on it's own, but I found this video of my son Noah attacking a balloon and couldn't resist:

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #4

Hello! Here is yet another update from the Young Neighbors adventure that Orin finds himself on this week. It sounds like they're doing very well and having some great experiences in our nation's Capitol. Here are some of the highlights from Thursday:

This picture was taken on the drive to one of the work sites. This location is called the International House of Prayer. Anyone want to guess what it used to be called?



Apparently some body art and t-shirt making broke out at Peace Camp:




One of the work groups helped to clear brush at a house being looked after by Mary House, one of the work sites for the week:



At the Community for Creative Non-Violence or CCNV, participants watch a video on the history of the organization. Apparently, CCNV's headquarters used to house naval offices before the Pentagon was built:


As we've mentioned before, Orin is serving as the Prayer and Music Coordinator this week. This picture shows teens working to plan one of the prayer services:


One of the nights of Young Neighbors is typically focused on learning about a different culture or two. On Thursday night, the participants ate an El Salvadorian meal and took part in a Brazilian-African drumming and dancing demonstration:

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #3

Hello Everybody!

The last few days have been busy ones for Orin and the Young Neighbors crew in DC. If you aren't sure what we're talking about, please check out the last few blog posts.

If you've been with us all week...here we go!

Here is one of the groups pulling weeds at the Community for Creative Non-Violence:



Another group took part in a "Peace Hike" at Peace Camp:



Zak, one of the participants, had a birthday on Tuesday. Here is Zak holding the birthday cake that he (other folks at his work site) was encouraged to toss back and forth at increasing distances:


I believe this is the throwing of the cake:


A sign at Mary House, one of the work sites:


At Mary House, the work team was kept busy by making vases out of recyclables:


These pictures are of the Community Food Game, one of the processes Young Neighbors uses to show the difficulty of some members of society to obtain a healthy meal. The activity, originally developed by the Atlanta Community Food Bank, helps young people see the real impact that lack of income, transportation, and exploitation have on the problem of hunger:






These pictures show YNIA participants and staff from UCAP (United Communities Against Poverty) preparing for a nature hike:





On the nature hike, Orin spotted a moth with a cross on its back:



Participants at the CCNV clean out a large food pantry in preparation for an inspection:


At Peace Camp, participants process the morning over lunch with M.J., the Camp Director:



On Wednesday evening, the whole Young Neighbors group attended Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, ate a quick dinner, and headed down to the National Mall. After touring many of our national monuments, the group settled at the Lincoln Memorial for the evening prayer service. The Lincoln Memorial picture shown below is not of the prayer service itself :