Friday Musings

David Crowder & Third Day
Sunday night Lauren and I watched these two bands play in Ames. (Thanks for the tickets Nate!) Going into the show, I had a couple thoughts. I was excited to see David Crowder for the first time. And I wasn't quite sure how Third Day would be. Don't get me wrong--I like Third Day, especially the older stuff. But it seems they dropped off a bit on their more recent efforts and I haven't found myself listening to them for a while. Turns out there was nothing to worry about--it was an *awesome* concert from both of them. Third Day may be older, more mainstream, and less original than when I first saw them in 1996, but hearing them play favorites like "Consuming Fire" and "Thief" took me right back. The crowd was great, and singing "Blessed Assurance" with 2500+ people gave me goosebumps. You can read Mark's glowing summary of the night here, where he quotes Mac as saying: "This wasn't the biggest night of the tour, but it was definitely the best." More pictures here.

Hoosiers
My wife and I watched this classic last night. I've seen it many times, but it has been a while. It is the greatest sports movie ever made. And it makes me want to go out and play basketball immediately after viewing. Something else I appreciated last night were all the beautifully scenic, nostalgic shots of rural Indiana. Which reminds me of Iowa and how much I enjoyed growing up on a farm and shooting hoops against the side of the shed. I know, it's cheesy, but I don't care.

American Idol
This is the top search on Technorati.com right now. We saw it for the first time this season on Tuesday and didn't think the women were a very strong group of singers at all. And some were just flat-out annoying. Why do they keep singing old songs like "Wind Beneath My Wings"? Obviously Simon was dishing out the criticism pretty hard. I'm not a big fan of the show, just curious on how many hits this will get me.