I knew it from the start
You would break my heart
But still I had to play this painful part
You wrapped me 'round your itty-bitty finger
With your magic smile
You kept me hangin' on a lovers cross while
You put your spell on me
Took my breath away
But there was nothin' I could do to make you stay
I'm gonna miss you
-Milli Vanilli (1989)
RyuKen has officially announced that he is leaving his post as Praise and Worship Leader at our church - my heart hurts. You may remember RyuKen as he was featured not once, but twice. To spare you from having to reread them here is a quick summary: I once compared his musical and vocal awesomeness to my sexiness; I stand by that assessment.
Could you imagine a world where I was withholding my sexiness from you all!? What if there were no more pictures of me looking amazingly delicious for you to daydream [fantasize] over!? What if I no longer interacted with the world with my silky-smooth-phone-sex-voice!? What if my antics were no longer documented for you all to read and live vicariously through me!? WHAT IF I JUST DISAPPEARED! This is simply no way to live! I'm sure many of you are wondering how life went on before you knew (or least heard of) me. Just writing this all is making me sad and a little bit nauseous. This is exactly the type of world-shattering hole that RyuKen is leaving in my life :(
His sheer awesomeness is mesmerizing at times. When he hits the stage and does his Mick Jagger walk into a robot dance sequence into a technical tutting display into a jump split and catches his guitar that was thrown to him from the drummer then lands in a crane technique stance, it gives me goose bumps - AND THAT'S JUST HIS STAGE PRESENCE! The real show starts when he starts picking the axe and his vocals are on display. Powerful vocalist. The guitar adds that extra flare (I think he only knows 4 chords but he still ROCKS THAT ISH).
Since I too am an artist [writing is an art you haters], I have come to deeply appreciate RyuKen's style. I have seen amazing Praise and Worship Teams. A few weeks ago while in California we attended a local service. There were 4 people leading - 2 guys and 2 girls. They were F'n awesome. Each one of them had a solo that showed any one of the four could be the lead. I was blown away by their talent. So much so, that I leaned over to Nelly and said that they were they were better than the team in Texas. After I said it, about 3 seconds passed and I leaned back over and said "well, better than everyone except RyuKen." This kid has truly set the standard for emotionally moving me through song and gymnastic-style dance.
We all have our "thing," no matter what it may be, that moves us. It could be that singer that is just amazing. Maybe it's that musician that plays flawlessly and leaves you speechless. It could be an actor that makes you believe that they are truly living the part they are playing. Some people see sports figures and are just floored - Michael Jordan played the game like no one before or since. Jabbawockeez and Poreotics are dance crews that change peoples lives. This is what RyuKen does with his performance. He is truly singing for the Glory of God - when he is up there, nothing else matters. When he is leading us, you can see his very soul.
I know that he will succeed in all areas of life. He is moving on to a new job that will require a lot of his time. I completely understand this - in fact a favorite saying of mine is "That ass isn't going to shake itself." This means that when it's time to work, dammit it's time to work.
RyuKen, I wish you well in all your endeavors. God will have his hand in all you do. To you, my friend, I say:
How do I say goodbye to what we had?
The good times that made us laugh
Outweigh the bad.
I thought we'd get to see forever
But forever's gone away
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday
In closing, I would like the people of cyberspace to rest assured that I have no plans to remove my sexiness from you - that would be cruel and unusual punishment. And I look to damn good to not share it ;)
Wow.
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