The Howards hosted us well in Berkeley and Zach had arranged a couple of concert opportunities that really paid off. Before we performed, we went to church in San Francisco and met up with my best friend, Tom Dudro. We toured the most basic part of the city that every tourist ought to see--Fisherman's Wharf. There is so much to do along that stretch of road, that we had little time to take them elsewhere. On a rather interesting side-story about Keaton, he was conned into helping with a break-dance show. Every ethnicity was represented in this break-dance team--except white. So, when the host asked for "two really tall white guys" to volunteer from the crowd, Nathaniel and I pointed out Keaton rather dramatically. :) They ended up picking him and renaming him to make him "black," which they associated with "cooler than he was before." His nickname? Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Could be worse, right? At least now he had basketball skill. The other guy was granted the nickname of the "greatest black man who had ever lived" (to which most of us thought they would say either MLK or Michael Jackson [seeing as he had just been beatified]). Wrong. The other white guy volunteer had the name of Obama thrust upon him. Their show was talented and funny. Their politics... well, it was San Francisco, what should we expect? We then returned home to change and get ready for two performances.
The first place we performed was the Howard's normal church. In Berkeley, to attract potential Christians to the gospel, they promoted a really relaxed atmosphere. The pastor reminded everyone to listen with open minds and open hearts and we sang, in English and Latin. It was awesome to bring into the open air voices that were not heard in that city very often. Voices of medieval and renaissance Christianity were brought to the ears of moderns and post-moderns for a dialogue that many had never thought about. I hope it struck much of the congregation as a bit more than "cool" (which is was) and served as a testament to the roots of Christian worship through music. After all, that's why we do these concerts in the first place. :)
The second venue that Zach cooked up was a warehouse in an industrial district that acted as a multi-purpose room including but not limited to Christian worship. With the relaxed setting, we mixed it up in a similar structure to what we did in Southern California at my house. Several Hillsdaleans were there and we were more than happy to hang out with them afterwards. When things settled down, we headed up to Allen's house in American Canyon to catch up with the family we had not seen in too long-- the Zarcone's!
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