Why Just Christmas?

Every December, what are some things we see every single year? Often Christmas lights, Christmas movies, gifts, specials, songs, and loads of other stuff (like candy growing on trees). What I was wondering was, why do we only listen to Christmas music during Christmas season? Is something wrong with it the rest of the year?

The reason why I'm even mentioning this is because recently I found myself listening to a very good song; and it was a Christmas song. To be specific, it was Jackie Evancho's "O Holy Night".

I would advise listening to this as you read

It is a very good song, sung by a very good singer, and has a very good message. What about that dictates it can only be heard once a year? And for that matter, what dictates we can only listen to "Christmas" music during that season? Most people listen to the same Christmas songs nonstop for the time surrounding Christmas, then don't hear them for the rest of the year. Often times when someone puts on a Christmas song (this person usually being me) another person actually asks them to turn it off. Why is this? Because the song is a Christmas song..........................

And that means it can't be played any other time? I'm still figuring that one out. Okay, so I do like the music. There are some really good Christmas songs out there. And if a song sounds good, why not listen to it? Especially if it has a good meaning. Okay, I feel like I'm repeating myself here.

But that song I was listening to, "O Holy Night", is actually off an EP of the same name. On it are four songs sung by Jackie Evancho "Silent Night" "Panis Angelicus" "O Holy Night" and "Pie Jesu". So maybe this post is a bit of a review as well... along with being a bit of a rant. But it is still a good album nonetheless, even if the reason I'm talking about it is because I'm complaining/ranting.

Now speaking about playing Christmas songs other than in the Christmas season, I listen to Jackie's songs all through out the year. That also means I am listening to these four songs from this album in the middle of a Texas summer as well. Now what's wrong with that? Well, I don't know. Other people manage to find something wrong with it. It doesn't always make sense, but it's tradition or something.

Well I am going to start a new tradition. Listen to good music through out the entire year! And fortunately for me, Jackie is coming out with another cd (full length cd) on November 1st. This will be the third release of a cd in a single year for her, her other two ( "O Holy Night" and "Dream With Me") have been certified Platinum and Gold (respectively) at the present time. Already she's making, or has already made, a third album. This newest album will be called "Heavenly Christmas" and I believe available only through Walmart. Here's a link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/17656937

This is the cover for her latest album

The most interesting part? At the time of writing this, that album doesn't even have any album art and yet people are already pre-ordering it [Edit: it seems Walmart posted some cover art for it literally hours after me making that statement, go figure. Posted the album art above]! You want to know why? Because those people are smart and are willing to listen to good music any time of the year. I imagine I will be listening to these Christmas songs next summer. After all, why just on Christmas?

Anyway, here's a music video from her Christmas album just last year.

I guess I've said all that I need to say... I think. If I find anything else to complain about, I'll do it another time. Or anything to rant about... or review... or advertise... or rant about....

Back to listening to good music, regardless of what season it is!

School Assignment, still read it though

I had needed to do an assignment for a class, and I liked what I did since it related to subjects I enjoy discussing, so I decided to share it here. Tell me what you think (the assignment was to make a list comparing some contradictions between creation and evolution and then discuss some of them in greater detail):

Contradiction	Creation	Evolution
Sun and Earth	Earth created first	Sun came first
Origin of Death	Death came after sin as punishment	Death is permanent
Origin of Man	Created in God's image on day 6	Evolved from ape-like ancestor
Original form of Earth	Earth started as water	Earth started as molten rock
Noah's Flood	Is a historical event which explains fossils and much more	Is an impossible myth that contradicts with "evidence" for an old earth
Origin of Life	Life came from the living God (life came from life, does NOT contradict science)	Life evolved from a non-living primordial soup millions of years ago (This contradicts an observable law of science)
Origin of Matter	An all powerful ever existing God created all matter and energy	All matter and energy arose spontaneously (different theories have different answers)
DNA	An all knowing intelligent God created the complex coding seen in DNA	Information came about without an intelligent creator (contradicts science, information must come from intelligence)
Evolving	Everything reproduces after it's kind within it's genetic information, or even lose information which is more of devolution	One kind of animal can change into another, which requires addition of information which is impossible without intelligence
Miracles	The very core of Creation relies on an all powerful God who created everything supernaturally	Evolution relies on there being no god and uses only natural processes, there can be no miracles or anything supernatural
Man's Specialness	Being in the image of the Creator, man has dominion over the earth and is above all the rest of Creation, and has an eternal soul	Man is just an animal and is no more special than anything else. When man dies they die just like an animal.
Logic and Reasoning	Logic was made to follow universal laws of order by an All Knowing God of Order	Our minds evolved randomly and are controlled by chemical processes that arose from random chance, therefore we cannot trust our own mind's wisdom

Key contradiction 1: The order of creation (and original form of earth)

I chose to only mention the sun and earth for this, so that is what I put in the table. In reality there are many more aspects of this I could have discussed.

The evolutionary theory requires that dense gases and matter gathered around to form the sun billions of years before a ball of molten rock would form to eventually become the earth. Stars came first to evolutionists, and that included the sun. All other celestial bodies, such as planets and the earth, formed billions of years after. Another conflict that is underneath this is the fact that evolution says the earth started as fire (for simplicity’s sake), the Bible says it started as water.

Now on the other hand, Biblical creation clearly states that the earth came before the sun and stars, as well as the moon (which evolution claims formed closer to the time of earth than the sun). When the earth was formed, it began as water and land came afterward (Genesis 1:2, 6-10). It wasn’t until two days after the earth was formed that we see the creation of the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 1:14-18).

This isn’t even getting into other aspects of the order of creation that evolution gets wrong; there is birds and fish created on the same day (Gen. 1:20) vs fish evolving into land and then sea creatures, plants being created before the sun (Gen 1: 11-12, 14-18) vs evolving billions of years afterwards, man and dinosaurs created on the same day (Gen 1: 24-30) vs man evolving millions of years afterwards, etc. But I chose to mention just the sun and earth in the above table.

Key contradiction 2: The Supernatural vs the natural (and several other points)

One of the sharpest contrasts between creation and evolution is the fact that creation requires there be miracles and supernatural beings, while evolution strictly forbids it. This, I believe, is where the science for evolution falls apart, right at step one. Since evolution requires only natural processes (that follow the natural laws of physics), there is no reasonable explanation for the origin of all matter and energy, now why to explain how life came about, no way to explain logic, and no way to explain pretty much anything. Their problem is there is no way for something to come from nothing, and that is what they need to explain their world view. Where did everything we see today come from?

Creation, on the other hand, has a reasonable answer for this. Since creation relies on the supernatural, which by definition supersedes the natural (and it’s laws of physics), it is very easy to explain the origin of everything. It goes something like this, “In the beginning God created…” (Gen 1:1). Right there we have our answer; an all powerful, all knowing supernatural being, which is above nature and it’s laws (and which actually created those laws), is the one responsible for everything we see today. A more detailed answer to this problem may be found in John 1:1-5

 “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Words was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it”

“God created everything. . . and nothing was created except through him”, that makes our answer pretty easy. Provided God had the power to do so (which of course He did)  and was telling the truth when He wrote this down (and of course, He was), then creation has no problem answering this.

Key contradiction 3: Man

The final point I will discuss is the conflict between Man’s place in creation. When we compare the worldviews, we see two drastically different opinions. On one side we have creation which says Man was created in the image of the Creator Himself (Genesis 1: 27), and was also created perfect to live forever with the Almighty, and later turned away from the Creator and had to live with death and suffering (Genesis 3); while on the other side we have evolution, which says man evolved from an animal and his life has no meaning, when he dies he dies and there is nothing left, that he is no more important than an ant or a leaf. There is a drastic contradiction between these two beliefs, isn’t there?

The Armorer

[So here's a little parable I wrote a couple years back, with minimal editing. Please comment and share this so others can see it.]

Back in the time of swords and spears; back in the time of bows and arrows; back
in the time where God and science were one. Back in the time of the Medieval era, there
was an Armorer. He had been taught by his master how to make armor, as his master
before, and his master before that, and so on. He had been taught things about making
armor that were as old as armor itself.
But he had been taught more than that. He had been taught things about mankind,
those who would wear his armor, that were as old, and older, than man itself. He had
been taught about God, and how to listen to him.

And now, in this time, there was a war going on. This war had been raging for
generations. And this armorer, and his fathers before him, had been making armor for the
soldiers. But they made no ordinary armor. When they made armor, they were lead by
God, to make armor that would fit the exact needs of the one who would wear it. And for
generations this armor had been accepted. But now it was no more.
The armor that this armorer made was shaped irregularly; it was hard to move
properly. The armor had been designed to protect a certain thing at a certain time, as God
had intended. The armor was designed for a single moment, to protect them from the one
blow that would end their life. But the soldiers didn’t care, they wanted the new armor.
This armor was light, covered everything evenly, and looked better. It was made faster,
and they were all the same.

But there was one soldier who was different than all the other soldiers. He
believed that what the armorer made was better, better because it was designed by God.
His father had taught him about God, and told him stories about how He has a plan, how
He is wiser than all of man. And he believed that there was a plan with this armor. But he
didn’t understand his plan up to this point. He had been a peaceful farmer his whole life.
Yet he was drafted into the military. He hadn’t seen his wife in years, didn’t even know if
he would ever have any kids. But he knew there was a reason.
This soldier went to the armorer, and asked for a piece of special armor. The
armorer was glad to have someone who was willing to put their trust in his armor, and
God. So the armorer took his time making it. He took several days praying and seeking
out what this armor should look like. And then, after many more days, he presented the
armor to the soldier. Both the armorer and the soldier had been disappointed when they
had seen it the first time, the armorer while he was making it, and the soldier when it was
given to him. The armor was only a three inch thick circle of steel, only about as wide as
a fist. He was told to strap it over his stomach. He thanked the armorer, then he went off
to war.

The soldier fought with this awkward armor for many days. Then one day the
army was trying to hold a village. Reinforcements were hours away. They had been fighting all day. Fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, friends, even woman and children
had all died in the fighting that happened that day. The rest of the soldiers were fighting
great. With their modern armor, they could get hit and shrug it off. They could fight
freely, without restraint or being thrown off balance. But they weren’t protected from the
one fatal blow that would always end their life. But this soldier only had his one piece
of ridiculous armor. He was getting cut and beat up left and right. He had almost no
protection.
Near the end of the day, when no one thought they could go on any longer, and
that reinforcements would never come, a boy was seen crying in a burnt hut. He was
only a few years old, but he was crying loud. And an enemy soldier heard this boy, and
became irritated. So he aimed a crossbow, the most advanced weapon of the time, a
weapon that allowed a soldier with almost no training to kill a heavily armored knight,
who had been trained his whole life, in one shot. He took aim at the boy, and was about
to fire. But the soldier, the one with the strange piece of armor, ran and covered the boy
with his body.
Then the crossbow was fired. It went straight though the soldier with ease. But it
became imbedded in the armor, the specially designed armor. The bolt was stuck halfway
through the steel, the steel that was directly above the little boy. After the bolt struck,
many other bolts and arrows started to fire. But they were all fired at enemy soldiers.
The reinforcements they had been waiting for had finally come! But the soldier, as he lay
there dying, wondered how this armor was so special. It hadn’t protected him at all. Then
he looked at the child in his arms, the child that would live because of his armor, and
knew why the armor was so special. Or did he?

What that soldier didn’t know, and what the boy found out later, was that that boy
was his son. When the father had been drafted into the army, he had left his wife home
pregnant. But he didn’t know that. And with time, the mother wasn’t able to work, so she
moved in with some distant family members in a village many weeks journey away. And
that boy had been growing up in that village. Then one day, a group of soldiers came to
defend that village. A village full of woman and children, including the mother and son.
And one of the soldiers defending that village was wearing a very odd piece of armor. A
single circle of steel about as wide as a fist and three inches thick over his stomach.
And near the end of that day, most everyone in that village had been killed.
Soldier, peasant, man, woman, adult and child alike. Only a few were still alive. Those
few, amongst others, included the soldier, the boy, and the mother. The next day, a list of
all causalities was taken up. It was found that all male descendants of all the soldiers had
died in that battle, except the son of that one soldier. The one soldier who still accepted
the plan of God. And that soldier was the only soldier of that day whose bloodline
continued. And continues now.

And now, if any of these things were to happen you, what would you do? Would
you still do what God had designed you to do, even if no one accepts you for doing it?
Would you still follow Gods plan, even if no one else around you does? If someone were
to give their life for you, would you want to make that sacrifice worth it?
Who are you in this story? Are you the armorer? The soldier? The son? Are you
some one else in this story? I hope that reading this changes yours or somebody else’s
life, or makes them see things in a new light. Or teaches them something new, maybe
something about God? I’ve learned some things in writing this, and now I’m passing this
on to you, and whoever you pass this on to, and so on. Am I the armorer? Or had God
passed this on to me, like the soldier passed life on to his son? That’s something for me to
learn. And I hope you learn your place to.

Rewriting Genesis

In these days, many Christians are compromising their beliefs to fit into the world. One way they are doing this is by trying to fit evolution into the Bible. One of the ways they are doing this is "You're stupid for limiting God, He could have used evolution if He wanted to!" However, what they fail to see, is that the Creator TOLD us that He did not use evolution. The creation account is clearly written. If you wanted to write Genesis in such a way that it is obvious the Almighty created everything about 6,000 years ago, in 6 literal 24 hour days, you would leave it just the way it is. On the other hand, if you wanted to write Genesis in such a way that it is obvious the Almighty used evolution and millions of years, it would need to be entirely rewritten. So, I will show you a post I made on another forum recently, where I did just that:

In the video we watched for this week it was mentioned that to clearly state that creation took place in 6 literal, 24 hour days you would write it just the way it is. However, to clearly state that God used long periods of time to create everything you would need to rewrite not only Genesis, but the entire Bible. I decided what it would be like to rewrite just the first chapter (roughly). Tell me what you all think.

"In the beginning, God created nothing. There was no earth yet, and everything was rather boring and empty, so God said 'Let there be light' and nothing exploded and started expanding over billions of years to form the universe. And God saw that this huge, powerful and random explosion that created all light and matter in the universe was good. Since there was no earth and sun yet, He couldn't name the difference between day and night, so He sat around for a few billion years."

"God was bored again and decided to shake things up, so He took some of the random matter expanding through space and directed it to form into the earth over billions of years before creating the sun. Suddenly bored of a giant ball of rocks and lava, He decided to make turn it all into water over billions of years, and He then separated some of the water from the rest with an expanse in the sky. Seeing this work He had done over billions of years, and the earth floating there for no apparent reason, He called it good."

"Bored with just a big ball of water and a bunch of random fire and junk floating through space, He decided to make plants. So over millions of years, he made some of the minerals floating in the mud across the face of the earth and had it evolve into plants. After about the first day, He realized that the plants early ancestors wouldn't even be able to survive without the sun... and that caused a dilema. However, He saw this as very good."

"After having created the plants, God decided it would be a good time to create the sun. [from this point onwards I am adding to what I wrote in the post] After waiting millions of years for the plants to form, while supernaturally holding them together, He finally had some of the swirling gas in space create the giant reactor hanging in the sky now. While doing this, He also caused some floating rocks to start crashing together and form the moon. He would later use these two floating objects, the sun and moon, to signify the difference between night and day. After supernaturally causing the plants to survive for millions of years without the light of the sun, they finally got a break. Looking upon the millions of years of rotting plant matter, horrible weather conditions, and cosmic explosions, He saw it as good."

For this rewrite, I tried to keep the order that we see written in the Bible and explain those through natural processes. As you see, it doesn't work. The Bible says the earth came before the sun, evolution REQUIRES that the sun came first. Evolution also requires only natural processes and no guidance from God. As you can see, in that couldn't happen. Now you either have a choice in this matter, believe what the Bible says as it was written, or believe one of man's constantly changing opinions on the matter. The two don't fit together.

Questions to ponder

So the name of this blog is "De' Tinker's Thoughts" which is slang (or whatever the term is) for "The Thinker's Thoughts". And since I'm De' Tinker, it naturally implies I do some thinking. I have many posts already on here about my thoughts on matters. But this post will be different. I will simply ask you some of the questions I've been asking myself, and see what kind of answer you have; or just let you continue to think about them. I will also have a couple of statements in here, please tell me your response to those as well.

The borrower is slave to the lender. And America is called the "Land of the Free". So why is America over 14 trillion dollars in debt?

Why is it that someone who kills a pregnant woman can be convicted of double murder, but if that same woman has an abortion she was just exercising her rights over her body and did not commit murder?

Evolutionists say that they don't allow religion to effect science. Science, real science, the type of science that allowed us to walk on the moon, go to the bottom of the sea (parts of it), fly around the world in a single day, and so much more, is all observable and repeatable. Evolution involves something in the past that can't be repeated or observed, but instead have faith in their beliefs of the past. Does that sound like a religion to you?

Many Christians put so much effort into the latest health fads or whatever the worlds says is the right way to become healthy. Why do they try to use man's methods to achieve a God given potential for health? Why not use the Creator's methods to achieve the potential for health He gave us?

People who don't believe in a higher authority often talk about morals. Without a higher authority, there is no absolute for morals. So why do they punish people for what they believe to be wrong?

Why can kids no longer play games like tag or hide and seek (amongst many others)? These were staple games amongst kids when I was younger. Are they really "unsafe", or have the kids and their parents just become to soft?

In Evolution, it is said there's a chance for anything to happen given enough time and chance. I have come to realize that Time and Chance are the chief gods of Evolution. The third being, Imagination.

There is a multi-million (probably billion) dollar industry in health and fitness. They try to sell you all these fancy equipments, meals, and routines. However, it doesn't matter how fancy, simple, cheap, expensive, complicated, well thought out, easy, hard, etc your routine/diet/or whatever is. If you don't do you or use it, it just plain sucks. It's even worse when you use it/do it and it sets you back.

Why is it that decades before steroids people were setting verifiable strength records that have gone unbroken today with all of our "knew knowledge" in techniques and technology today? Some of these even being from the late 1800's.

If the Old Testament takes up over three quarters of the Bible, why do so many people talk about it less then one fourth of the time?

If mankind truly started out dumb and has gotten smarter, as atheists and evolutionists like to believe, then why have we found batteries several thousand years old? Or temples designed to have their own natural air conditioning requiring no power or maintenance for several millennium? Or pyramids that are thousands of years old yet built in such an advanced way that we couldn't repeat it today?

Why in America is it okay to question the government but not Darwin, when in many other countries you can question Darwin but not the government?

Why does America believe that teaching people to rely on the government will make them more productive and boost the economy?

Why is it people used to care for each other, help the sick, and feed the poor because they wanted to help, and now that the government is in charge of all that, no one helps (for the most part)?

The majority of people's food comes from some kind of grain (I won't even talk about all the processing). However, our digestion system isn't designed to digest grains and such, nor I body to process it. Our digestive tract is of more a medium length, suited more towards meat or ideally fruit (and vegetables). Our teeth range from blunt molars to sharp canines. We are omnivores, and are best suited for a majority fruit diet. I wonder why people are fat these days...

When America was founded, it was believed that the more kids you had the better off financially you would be. Why has that belief been reversed? Why do people assume that the more kids you have means the less money you will get?

In a letter penned by Thomas Jefferson was the famous quote "separation of church and state". What people don't realize is that it is often misquoted. In context, Jefferson was saying that the Constitution had built that wall of separation by saying that the government could not declare an official religion, therefore protecting people's right to freedom of religion. People now use the quote to get prayer out of schools.

The only type of person who is completely safe to pick on (the list is building) is a Christian adult white heterosexual male with no deformities or mental problems. If you choose to pick on anyone else, you are either a racist, sexist, bully, heartless, homophobic, non tolerant, or are discriminating in some other way. Why is this?

Praying in schools has been banned in schools and the workplace because it is considered unconstitutional and offensive, yet it is still just fine to curse in those same places? Cursing is offensive, but still part of our right to free speech all the same as praying.

It is taught these days that fat is bad. However, it is also taught that without fat we would die. How is this?

It is considered conventional wisdom or whatever that eating raw meat is bad (and will kill you). Show me a lion, bear, ape, shark, eagle, maggot, or any number of other animals that get sick from eating raw meat.

That's all for now, I may write another post like this sometime or write posts about one of these questions/statements. Please tell me your thoughts on these, even if you pick one and say a quick one sentence reply (I would like a lot more though).

Man's "Perfection"

The name of this post might imply another rant, but that's not what it's actually about. Here I'm just talking (or thinking aloud) about the closest to perfection that man (as in, mankind) can reach, and my experiences in that. I once heard a quote to the effect of "perfection is right in front of us, yet always out of reach". Basically that means we can always find something to do/add/remove/change/etc to improve something, make it a little closer to perfect, but it will never achieve that perfection. This is the only way man can move towards perfection. And this is what I'm doing.

I've been doing just that with my workouts. I remove some stuff, add others, and am otherwise refining it. I keep on taking steps to make my workouts, and there for myself, a little more perfect, even though I will never actually get there on my own. This will be a continuation, in a way, of a previous post, "The perfect workout".

The basic premise I outlined in that post for making the perfect workout was:

1) make it simple and

2) DO IT!

Just those two steps. It may sound simple, and that's because... it is. I don't want to repeat that post, so if you want more info read it yourself. I will just be explaining how I have been "perfecting" my own personal routine.

Right now the routine I'm trying to work with (meaning use and refine) is in two parts, routine A and routine B, used on alternate workout days. I workout Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and alternating between A and B would look like this over two weeks:

Monday: A, Wednesday: B, Friday: A
Monday: B, Wednesday: A: Friday: B

This allows me to work very hard on the selected exercises, lift heavy weights, workout the entire body throughout the week, and exercise three times a week, while still getting plenty of rest. Now to tell you what each routine actually is (mind you, I'm still refining it).

Routine A:
Moderate weight (enough for at least 5 reps) cleans
Heavy weight (enough for about 3 reps) power cleans
Light (enough for usually 8-12 or more reps) overhead press
Moderate-light behind the neck press
Heavy Dumbbell overhead press
Light Barbell curl
Light Good morning

Routine B (this is the one that's really under construction):
Light weight Front squat
Light weight Overhead squat
Light weight bench press
Light (might try moderate) weight incline dumbbell bench press
Light weight squat

So in theory, I should have plenty of time to recover so I can always see improvement without risking over training. This has gone through some work, for instance I was originally planning on one routine I did three times a week, but some of the exercises (mainly the cleans) required more resting time. I also have taken out a couple exercises I didn't enjoy (therefore wasn't putting lots of effort into, wasted energy on, and might have one day made me not do the workout), mainly the bent over row (barbell).

I decided to do the two alternating routines after I had done the first part (A) and was very sore on the next workout day. I had still wanted to workout, but I knew if I did it would be over training. So instead I did different exercises that for the most part left alone the muscles that had been heavily stressed before.

Now I have in set up so that routine A hits mainly the arms, shoulders and back while routine B hits mainly legs, chest and core. Of course since these are compound movements, every exercise uses nearly every muscles, but only certain ones are stressed heavily enough to worry about. I don't know how much this routine of mine will change, but I will be sticking with it for at least this month. Who knows what it will be like next month?

Anyway, this is just me learning and gaining experience. This is how man's "perfection" works in everything. Adding, removing, changing things to try and (hopefully) improve them and move towards perfection. And for right now, this workout routine is pretty close to perfect as far as I'm concerned.

God decided to show off...

So it is obvious now that I really enjoy talking about Jackie Evancho. This post is no exception. The day before writing this I had the privilege of seeing her perform live, in person. But a few things happened.


This served as a countdown both through her twitpics down to the day before when she flew to Dallas, and as a countdown for my final hours before seeing her perform. I think she has improved in just the few weeks since this was recorded in Atlanta.




Then I got to see her. Here is the "review" that I wrote, hopefully with proper spelling [WARNING MASS READING AHEAD]

The entire day counting down to the performance was unique. First off, I could hardly sleep, and had to take multiple naps throughout the day to make up for that. I am rarely this excited for anything. Spending the entire day waiting was not easy, so I made an entire tribute video and posted it to YouTube in the morning and later that day did a workout and took my naps (one before and one after). Still had to wait several more hours; but… eventually the time came. After getting the best clothes on that I had (ones that were black and red, of course), “Off to Dallas” I was!

When I arrived (which is saying a lot in Dallas), I walked around for awhile. Eventually, I was able to meet up with a few other Jackie Fans (first by meeting Craig Rasmussen, who introduced me to several others) and we talked for awhile. Finally it came time to get to our seats.

After I was seated up front, stage left in the Orchestra section, the wait began once again. Strangely though, I wasn’t excited like I had been earlier. After leaving my house, I grew very calm. Sitting in my seat, I continued to feel very peaceful. As it turned out, this feeling was the calm before the storm. While sitting in my seat, I realized I didn’t know what I was in for. Boy, was I right about that. Seeing the Dallas Symphony Orchestra accompanying Jackie Evancho was quite the experience. Many professionals are beginning to say she could be the world’s best singer, if not history’s (she has some fans in high places it seems). Yeah… I didn’t know what I was in for.

My wait soon came to an end. The lights were dimmed and the conductor came out. The orchestra proceeded to play several pieces. I was trying to use my new found experience (read: three class sessions in music appreciation) to identify all the instruments and pick certain aspects of the songs out. As I found out, I had much to learn. This is what was going through my mind during this part (from what I can remember), “And that’s an oboe, I think. That’s an English horn. That’s a double bass, glad I got that one right. Those are timpani’s, and there’s the bass drum. And those are flutes… I think. And that’s an oboe. No! That looks nothing like an oboe! I just really like that name.” As you can probably tell, I was enjoying myself. I was new to the more classical style music as well, so it was very enjoyable to hear some live.

As the first piece progressed, I became very impressed. There were several parts where I felt like clapping or cheering if it had not been an orchestra. When the first piece was over, I determined I definitely thought it was worth a hearty clap (is there such a thing?), even though I had no clue what the piece actually was. The second piece played was nice as well, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. Always so picky…

When this second piece was done, the conductor announced Jackie coming up, which received a fair amount of applause. After saying this, he turned around and begins directing the orchestra through the beginning of “Lovers”, which is one of my favorite of Jackie’s songs. There was the steady build up in the intro, lasting a total of maybe 45 seconds to a minute. Mid way through this, Jackie walked out, which sent the crowd into uproar and standing ovation, drowning out the sound of the orchestra. Fortunately, the crowd managed to quiet down in time for the orchestra to finish the dramatic intro of the song, then it quieted down and Jackie began to sing.

The events that happened in this song are too blurred. She immediately held the entire audience captive. Even some others who sat by me, who I assumed who regulars at symphonies, seemed dead quiet. Fortunately for me, my seat was right in front of the large speakers, so I heard the song rather loudly. I always played this song louder then any others, so I didn’t complain AT ALL. When Jackie finished the song, there was a momentary silence as the orchestra finished fading out. I was in a daze or something, and it never even occurred to me to stand or clap or anything. But I didn’t have to remember, I was reminded when the entire audience stood up nearly at once and gave a standing ovation like I had never heard before. It put to shame even the standing ovation she received when she walked on stage. Jackie hadn’t seemed to be expecting this (I hadn’t either), and she was jumping around on the stage, curtsying, giving her trademark double wave, clapping with the audience, and I could she that she was laughing and had a bright beaming smile on her face.

Once the crowd died down from this standing ovation, the orchestra began “Ombra Mai Fu”. I recognized this one quickly, even though it was probably the song I enjoyed least on her CD. I never had enjoyed the overall tone of the song before, having this strange skipping/dancing/happy/sad blend to it that didn’t suit me (I liked the darker, deeper feeling songs such as “Lovers” which we had just heard). However, I wasn’t there for the song selection. I was there for the voice singing the songs. And in this particular song, Jackie does some very nice notes. I was always impressed by what she could do with this song, as it is an opera song I believe. It requires great skill to sing, and sing it she did. This song received LEAST applause from the audience out of all the songs, and by that I mean at least 15-20 seconds of shouts, cheers, and of course the standing ovation.

Finally I got to see the harp on stage in action. As soon as I had seen that harp before I knew what song it was for, and now here it was. The harp was for “The Lord’s Prayer”. This hadn’t been one of my favorites either, but hearing the orchestra perform it live made me appreciate it much more. Out of all the songs that night, I enjoyed hearing the orchestra perform this one the most (I think) beyond what I already felt about any song. Naturally though, hearing Jackie sing it was something else. I particularly felt something special when she sang “Thy Kingdom come” and the next several lines after, but that is for another time. Naturally, this received quite the uproar as well from the crowd once it was finished. Not a single song that night would go without a standing ovation and such major enthusiasm from the crowd. She also reacted strongly to the crowd here as well, since the crowd was giving her such applause.

After this, Jackie sang “All I Ask of You” and “To Believe”. By this time, I was so drawn into Jackie’s voice that afterwards I literally forgot that she sang these songs at this point! I remember my eyes being locked on her during these songs, especially “To Believe” to the exclusion of everything else. As a matter of fact, by the time she got to To Believe everything around Jackie was a blur in my eyes and my muscles were beginning to twitch. I can’t remember much else of what happened during these two songs, except that I was very surprised to here “All I Ask of You” (didn’t know she would sing that song) and enjoyed Jackie giving the spoken prayer during “To Believe”.

The next song was “O Mio Babbino Caro”. I recognized this one quickly as well, since it was the song that introduced me to her so long before it seemed. This was the song that made her famous on “America’s Got Talent” after all. As it was during most of the songs, I can’t remember what happened as she sang, I was to drawn in. This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. She received a very animate standing ovation with the completion of this song as well, just as all the others.

When the intermission came after “O Mio Babbino Caro” I wasn’t sure what had happened. I don’t think I had ever been so focused on a song before. I wasn’t even capable of focusing on the orchestra. Once the intermission was over and everyone was seated, the orchestra began playing once again. This time, it took me a couple minutes to even notice there was music playing compared to what I had just experienced. Compared to Jackie’s voice live, very few things qualify as even note worthy music in my, oh so humble opinion.

It was time for Jackie to come back up. She was announced once again, and by this time I can hardly even remember what happened. Either she received another standing ovation as she entered or the orchestra began to play the mellow intro of “When You Wish Upon A Star” so the audience had to refrain. As it should go without saying once more, she received a standing ovation. I can’t even remember what happened because I was so drawn in.

My favorite song, “A Time For Us” was next. When I recognized the beginning of that song, I was pretty dang happy. Of course, I can’t remember much of what happened because my eyes, ears and mind were locked on watching perform to the exclusion of almost everything else. The irony of the situation is the most recent events I have the hardest time remembering. But, that’s Jackie for ya! However, I did remember that this song received some of the loudest, and longest, applause (and naturally all during a standing ovation).

“Angel” “The Impossible Dream” and “Pie Jesu” followed as the final songs. My memory is almost blank here, except for the fact that it was intense for me. However, it seems that “Pie Jesu”, which was supposed to be the encore song, was done without Jackie ever leaving the stage. The audience was giving her such a thundering applause (2,000+ people in a very well built acoustical room like that) that it was decided to do the encore immediately. This was one of the songs I was waiting for, and it was also one of the ones that made her famous on “America’s Got Talent”. She has moved so beyond that now. I’m pretty sure that the only reason there were people sitting during the standing ovations was because they either had knee problems or were in to much shock. I can’t prove this theory, of course, but I’m pretty sure that was the reason.

After she finished the final song, she received a very resounding applause once again. When that died down, she gave a short “thank you” speech and even, for the first time I had heard of, called us her “support”. She repeated that phrase multiple times. She is so mature and quick, but even the excitement got to her a bit as she stumbled with her sentences slightly (I have heard politicians do worse on their well rehearsed speeches, and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t rehearsed). Once she finished this, there was another standing ovation. When she exited the stage there was yet ANOTHER standing ovation, this one lasting nearly two whole minutes if not more. Jackie came up at least three, if not four for additional waves, curtsies, smiles, giggles, etc during this time.

Overall, this performance has locked Jackie even more solidly in as my favorite artist. No other artist or band even comes close now. She has broadened my tastes of music so much, and even given me songs that I may never tire of. I hope one day to witness her live in concert again.

A few other events that happened throughout the night. I can’t remember when these happened, just that they did.

The first was early on. After one of the standing ovations had died down, Jackie bent down to get a drink of water and someone shouted “Jackie say hi!” so she popped up and gave one of her cute little hi’s.

Of course, as I said, I had never witnessed her so excited from a crowd. While she was being cheered, it appeared she didn’t know whether she wanted to jump up and down, curtsy, tug on her dress, give her double wave, clap for the orchestra, or whatever else she was doing. Jackie was just having so much fun up there. Even those who are blind or deaf can enjoy Jackie.

At one point during a standing ovations (during one of the final ones I believe), Jackie was doing her jumps and curtsies and double waves, when she turned around and gave a double wave to the orchestra and those in the Choral Terrace. Nearly everyone up there stood up and gave her a double wave back. It was really something.

Another time was when someone shouted “Thank you” and Jackie said the same back.

My favorite by far was after this. When she had said “Thank you” back to the crowd there were many laughs and giggles in the audience. Jackie giggled at this to, then after a moment, gave a big double wave to the audience. This sent waves of laughter throughout the entire audience, amidst some clapping. I felt that the audience was on the verge of a standing ovation… for simply having Jackie wave at them. What other artists can do that?

A few other memorable moments for me happened outside in the lobby. My second favorite little moment was while I was walking out and heard someone behind me comment to a friend “I felt ambushed… but in a good way!” I am sure many others that night felt “ambushed” as well by Jackie’s charm and talent.

Other moments were when I was walking around and seeing people (especially grown, tough looking men) wearing Jackie shirts or proudly holding her cd in their hand (I even saw a man use it as a fan for his face, he didn’t want to let it get very far from him!)

There were probably many other wonderful moments I forgot, or even complete songs,  but it’s the experience that counts. I was there. I witnessed what may be the world’s, if not history’s, best singer live in her youth. I even learned many things about myself. So this is a review or critique, right? I only wish I could describe that night to you. So since I can’t, I will simply repeat something I have said before,

“God decided to show off, so he made Jackie Evancho”