Looking for Music Suggestions...

I volunteered to make the year-end slide show for my department's banquet. I actually enjoy this kind of thing, and it's an easy way for me to give something to the department and actually enjoy it. I especially enjoy the humor aspect of the job. One year I diagnosed all of the faculty with various inane but funny disorders. This year, I am mulling over the ideas of how to poke appropriate fun at our facult. But, I'm struggling with what songs to put with the pictures. The struggle is that the songs need to be publicly acceptable...probably meaning no cursing. An unusually high number of my songs that I feel fit all say some combination of "Fuck," "Fuck the president," or "Fuck the war." Um, that's probably not very nice to a group of diverse adults who may or may not agree with me.

Although we are a Christian school, I do think that my psychologist classmates could handle the rare damn, hell, or shit. Any ideas? The slide show is usually about 15-20 minutes, so I have some leeway with a broad range of songs. I typically go from a funny, upbeat feel to a more serious, saying goodbye tone. What suggestions do you have?

Sandra McCracken and Derek Webb

We saw the pair of them in concert last night. They were playing at two venues close to our home last night and the night before. Although it was the best choice for us not to, I still wish we'd gone to both shows. Derek Webb's music, specifically, has been such a big part of my own journey and gets so much stirred up in me. Maybe he gets the Holy Spirit stirred up, it sure feels that way.

What stands out to me the most, however, are the ways in which Derek's music really speaks in such honest ways about marriage. Watching him and his wife Sandra on stage, it's so refreshing to get a snap shot of a couple who seem to live and fight together so well. I think couples often fail to acknowledge that how we fight is one of the most important aspects of how we love. I continuously learn this about my own marriage every year.

Here are some of my favorite lyrics that Derek Webb has about marriage or relationships. Do you have favorite lyrics on this topic? or favorite Derek Webb lyrics in general?

"Reputation"

i've got a reputation with everyone
but i don't want one with you
i know you know me well enough by now
and you're loving me as well as you know how
but i need one more chance to let you down
'cause no one else will give it to me now

with you, i'm so glad to get into a bad situation
'cause nothing makes us close, nothing like a little incarceration

I Wanna Marry You All Over Again

I wanna buy you an old upright
I wanna accidentally stay all night
I wanna read the Bible and I wanna make out
I wanna marry you all over again
I wanna fall in love and say we’re just friends
I wanna race you all the way to Kansas City

I Hate Everything (But You)

baby don’t give up
we’re the kind of folks who will always live
right around the corner from something big
yeah, yeah, yeah
so baby come on home
you can be the girl on my telephone
and will be your lion made of stone
yeah, yeah, yeah
come on home
yeah, yeah, yeah

(chorus)
it’s been one of those kinds of days
and i feel so out of place
and i hate everything, everything
i hate everything but you

My Life Story

Life Soundtrack
IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

*Updated to correct the omission of the "Getting Back Together" section that occured previously.*

So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie

I got this from Lorinda.

Opening Credits:
a) Everything to Everyone—Everclear
b) Fool for You–Nicole Nordeman

Waking Up
a) Inches from Life–MxPx (Wow, a song all about our tendency to avoid real life and its feelings).
b) Pregnant Sound Clip–Brak: The Space Ghost Soundtrack (This better not be a cruel foreshadowing)

First day at High School:
a) Cowboy Take Me Away–Dixie Chicks
b) Your Song-Elton John (Eh, high school was pretty awesome for me..)

Falling in Love:
a) One of These Days–FFH (falling in love with Jesus maybe?)
b) Hymn to the Last Generation–Larry Norman (why are all my love songs about dying, annihilation, or going to heaven?)

Fight Song:
a) Seven Words You Can’t Say On TV–George Carlin (This is so perfect…)
b) Strange Things are Happening-Fern Jones


Breaking Up:
a) All The Small Things–Blink 182
b) Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring–Bach

Prom:
a) Take My Life –Third Day
b) Down on the Corner–Creedence Clearwater Revival

Life:
a) I like Big Butts–Sir Mix A Lot (Seriously, does this have to be my life’s theme?)
b) Pontiac Cadillac–Mustard (A song about fried chicken, classic cars and broken relationships..great!)

Mental Breakdown:
a) The River-Garth Brooks (Ah, my country stage, I was close to a mental breakdown at 13. )
b) Reader’s Digest–Larry Norman


Driving:
a) Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door–Bob Dylan and Tom Petty (Remind me not to drive recklessly.)
b) Praise Song-Third Day (Interesting….)

Flashback:
a) The Littlest Birds–The Be Good Tanyas (Great flashback song! I love it!)
b) Light the Fire-Breakaway (Not the type of Christian music I’d like to flashback to…)

Getting Back Together:
a) Barely Breathing-Duncan Sheik (hmm..fitting)
b) Another One Bites the Dust-Queen(I never did think getting back together was a good idea.)

Wedding:
a) Knox 5000-Mustard (Well, it did feel like a big race that I don’t really remember)
b) Hangin’ Around-Counting Crows

Birth of Child:
a) Responsibility–MxPx (Ha ha ha….ha ha…rofl…)
b)We Are The Champions–Queen


Final Battle:
a) Time of our Lives–Green Day (hmm, fitting)
b) Roly Poly–Mustard (A song about bugs and roaches in the ashtray..interesting?)

Death Scene:
a)A Doodlin’ Song-Peggy Lee (A song about noodlin’ with a doodlin’ song . . .)
b) In the Light-DC Talk (Walk toward the light..)

Funeral Song:
a) Let’s Make Love-Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (What’s up with sex songs and my death?)
b) I, Grover–Sesame Street (My life’s accomplishment: Putting my shoes on the right feet and getting my own cereal..wonderful).

End Credits:
a) Alive–POD (I’m dead but I feel alive…)
b) Lord, I Lift Your Name on High–WOW Worship (I hope the praises in heaven are better than this…)