Guilty pleasures

It's all Steph's fault.

No, really. She's the one who introduced me to Il Divo, a new male chorale group put together by American Idol's venom-tongued emcee Simon Cowell. These guys have some serious opera and theater cred, and I shamefully confess that I fell in love with their cover of Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart." Of course, Il Divo sings most of their songs in Italian, which automatically makes everything more sexy (at least to us Americans) because we can't hear how inane the lyrics really are. Still, you haven't lived until you've heard four high-octane professional male singers belt out Italian versions of "Unchained Melody (Seza Catene)" or "My Way (A Mi Manera)" -- so head to their website and check them out.

I like them enough we picked up their first CD, Il Divo, the second one (Ancora) is on order at our local CD shop, and we'll be picking up The Christmas Collection before next Christmas.

My kids got introduced to vinyl the other day when Steph and I set up the new stero/CD/tape/turntable unit a co-worker gave me a few months back. I pulled out my stash of late '80s contemporary Christian albums (Greg X. Volz's first solo album, some of Steve Taylor, Michael W. Smith). Man, some of that music was bad...but I love it.

Okay, that's enough public shame for one day. Enjoy the new blog theme -- this one has earned the approval of both my wife and my mother, so it's probably sticking around.