jason gantt's "wasting your time"

AWESOME ALBUM ARTWORK

Ambrosia “Life Beyond LA” (1978)

Does this album cover belong to the original soundtrack to “Logan’s Run”?  No, but good guess!  I love this band and I even love this album artwork.  It’s a little bit like the Kenny Loggin’s artwork but Ambrosia didn’t dress quite as weird.  They’re in some kind of futuristic world but they dress classically because there are still Old Navy’s around in the far off future of 1978.

This is the art on the inside sleeve.  I think it’s pretty cool actually.  The flags make it look like they’re at the Olympics.  The guy on the right (Joe Puerta-bass player/singer) is posed pretty casually for a guy in work overalls.  

10 Albums That Definitely Had an Impact

#3 “Reel Life” by Boy Meets Girl

The year was 2010.  Moviegoers were being thrilled by “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D” and I was fresh out of the beginning of my middle age, full of all the hope and enthusiasm that comes along with being in your early mid-30’s. 

One day, I heard a song called “Waiting For A Star To Fall” on a radio station that plays 80’s stuff.  It was a really well written and produced tune.  There are 2 lead voices: George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, the members of “Boy Meets Girl”. 

I immediately bought their record, Reel Life (1988) and found what might be the only start-to-finish great pop album of the 80’s.  If you can bring me a 10 song record from the years 1981-1989 that is better than this record in the areas of handling synthesizers tastefully and giving awesome saxophone players room to work, I’ll have to love it on account of how much I love this one. It’s the kind of record that proves that even though different decades of music may have their own noticeable fads, there are always solid, creative professionals who do great work.

Boy Meets Girl is still making music together.  Merrill and Rubicam (that’s a pretty cool last name) take turns on lead vocals and write all the songs together.  They also wrote “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” for Whitney Houston, who took both songs to #1. 

Anyway, May of 2010, my wife and I had just begun expecting a baby.  

We were listening to the “Reel Life” record a lot.  All of a sudden, “Waiting For A Star To Fall” took on a whole new meaning for us. 

“Waiting for a star to fall and carry your heart into my arms

that’s where you belong, in my arms baby yeah”

That came to mean a literal baby for me. I don’t know if they had this meaning in mind when they wrote it but it made the song so much more special to me.  We ended up making it 2010’s “Take Gantt Christmas Single”.  (We refer to our baby as “Blueberry” in that recording because we hadn’t met her yet.)

One morning, I woke up super early for no good reason so I looked up their website and the site had a contact email address. So I reverted back to a teenager and emailed them a fan letter at 3:51 am…

> Date: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 3:51 AM
> I just in the last year found your music and have latched on to the “Reel Life”
> album like a crazy person.  “Waiting For A Star To Fall” was the first song I
> heard and it’s become one of my favorite songs ever.
> “If You Run” is too awesome for words.  The prechorus and chorus are just
> perfect.  Anyway, I’m looking forward to checking out your other
> material but I just  wanted to let you know you’re great so you can stop
> wondering what I think.  :)

To my suprise, I got an email back from the Girl half of the band…

-Hi Jason,

-Thank you for letting me know what you think!! I like your kind words!

-Enjoy checking out our other tunes as you go. I too have a fondness for If You Run -

-the chorus just feels good to sing.

-May your day be glorious.

-Shannon

Hopefully, I’ve set the stage for a collaboration with them in the future. 

BoyMeetsGirlMeetsJason!

Here is the song referenced in the email - “If You Run”

Amy’s Adventures in Adolescence

I love words. I’ve enjoyed reading for as long as I can remember and always had a book with me when I was young. I love writing with pen and paper. I value penmanship. I have a genuine fondness for the English language.

In sixth grade, I was delighted that I scored high enough on a spelling test to participate in a school-wide spelling bee. All those years of reading were paying off by displaying my extensive vocabulary, and here was my chance at glory. I didn’t need to prepare because I already knew so many words from all that reading.

I excitedly shared the news with my parents. My dad made plans to be off work to watch me win.

The day of the bee finally arrived. When we drew numbers to choose our order, I selected “one”, a number befitting a winner. I stood at the front of the line while my dad sat in the audience waiting for his daughter to make him proud.

My word was “doctrine.”

My mind raced. What did she say? Doctrine? Is that even a word?

My heart started beating faster and faster. I was running out of time, so I said the only letters I could think of.

“Doctrine. D-O-C-K-T-R-I-N. Doctrine.”

Wrong. I took my place in the audience and hoped everyone would miss their words so I could have a second chance. In the first round my friend Lauren misspelled “abolish” and took her seat next to me. I scoffed to myself because I could have spelled that one easily. A few minutes later, we chattered to each other about how easy everyone else’s words were, until we were silenced by a resounding shush.  S-H-U-S-H!

-Amy