recording update

well here's what's up with the recording:

-jodi told me I needed a shower today. this tells me I've been spending lots of time recording. this is a good thing.

-yesterday, I lost a song. lost it. the whole thing. my computer froze, stopped playing a song while I was recording a track, made a farting noise, then restarted. when I went back, the entire song (about 1 GB) was gone. fortunately, I purchased a backup external hard drive just last week and was able to restore everything. He was definitely looking out for me on that one.

-we're close! about 80% done. a little vocals, a little more guitar, some cello and tambourine. then mixing, mastering, artwork, photos and replication. okay... so we're not very close.

peace up

props to google

so last week, jodi's experience with google went like this:

she was trying to remember some boy-band from the 80's (incidentally called "the boys") and did a google search for it. unfortunately, what came up was a link to a child pornography website. not only did it come up as a regular link - it was a sponsored link (i.e. part of a pay-per-click deal where google gets paid 5-20 cents for every person that clicks on the link). the ad pretty much said "come see little boys get r#ped for the first time".

jodi was understandably upset. so we wrote an email to google together. here's part of their email response:

"... please note that we do not accept advertising for child pornography on Google. I have investigated the site that appeared for the search phrase you mentioned and have taken the appropriate action...."

we did another search and the sponsored link was gone.

so we can now use google again. and we're both happy we didn't have to take this onto the Factor.

slashed tire & worship in the desert

okay, so maybe it wasn't slashed - but it looks just like someone sabotaged our transportation out to yuma for our gig last night. i swear i wasn't going all that fast. good thing we were in a 4runner and not one of those ford exploders.

Fred and the whole crew at Foothills Assembly of God were so warm and fuzzy. and man, can they worship out in yuma! we really felt at home there and hope to go back soon....

kurt shows his "affection" for sirena. you should have deleted this while you had the chance....

paul, jodi, and leslie - workin' the merch.

the bad boys of Christian rock. is that possible?

of note is the el bandito facial hair stylings of yours truly.

keep or shave? that is the question.

nashville, part 2

yes, two posts in a row about nashville. except that one was about a gig....

and this one is about a hurricane evacuee.

we've found someone who wants to stay with us for a couple of months. I won't mention her name until everything goes through. but we're excited to have connected in this huge world. please pray for her. she's at a church in nashville right now. she needs shelter. she needs transportation. she needs a new life. and like all of us, she needs Providence too.

-j & j

nashville cancelled....

... well, not the whole town of nashville - just wahba's appearance there.

I was scheduled to be part of an indieheaven.com showcase at rocketown (the name of a song, record label, and now club in nashville, all affiliated with Michael W. Smith, a.k.a. CCM diddy).

I put a lot of thought and prayer into this trip. I would definitely have been going into the proverbial 'hole' with this one. flight expense, paying Steve (my percussionist from Ohio) to come down and play, hotel, rental car, GAS!

and not to mention that, well frankly, I can't stand nashville.

to be fair about my unreasonable, unfounded opinion of this town, I've never really been there. I've only heard about it - and what's worse - I've heard the music that comes out of it.

I'd prided myself on the notion that I didn't need nashville, and therefore would regularly boast my intentions of never associating myself with the town.

alas, despite my complaining and bragging, the first opportunity I had to gig there, I took.

come on, admit it - it was a good opportunity, right? and I had a good chuckle with God at his calling to get over my apparent loathing of the town.

I'm getting to the point, I promise....

last week I found out the gig was actually in the 'coffee bar' area of rocketown (they have a main stage, a skate park, and a coffee shop). then I found out that the noise and the clientele (mostly youth I guess) usually make for a noisy, somewhat chaotic atmosphere in the coffee bar. evidently, at the first indieheaven.com showcase last week, it was difficult to hear artists play and pretty distracting.

so... the showcase has been moved to a coffee shop at a church in Franklin, TN - which I'm sure is a great place to play, but very similar to lots of coffee-shop-in-a-church places I frequently play here in AZ.

so yeah. we cancelled. and I hate that word. cancel.

mad shout-outs to ken who was trying to arrange an envoy from NC to come see us in nash-town. maybe someday soon... but then, maybe never?

hurricane housing update

we'll we've spent 4 days trying to adopt Katrina refugees and have had no successful leads.

we've signed up on about 10 different websites and haven't had anyone call or email. we've even considered going down to the Veterans' Coliseum (where over 1000 Katrina victims currently reside in close quarters) and just picking out a couple or family.

unfortunately, they have the place protected and even volunteers can't get in unless they have an assignment for that particular day and a special card to swipe.

so we're planning to volunteer - jodi's doing some training and volunteering this week - and I'm talking to some red cross folks about volunteering medical services.

we'll keep ya posted on the quest for our new family members!

hurricanehousing.org

by tomorrow, over 1000 hurricane victims will have been flown into Arizona. jodi and I have decided to try and host hurricane Katrina victims. interestingly, when we googled "housing katrina victims" - we got lots of news stories, a few website links, and NO churches or denominations!

if you're in the state of Arizona, the AZ department of housing and urban development (866-641-8102) has a list of those who want to host hurricane victims.

and while we don't necessarily align ourselves politically with MoveOn.org, we've placed an ad on their housing list. pray about this with us....

MoveOn.org just launched a website, http://www.hurricanehousing.org/, to connect your empty beds with hurricane victims who desperately need a place to wait out the storm.
You can post your offer of housing (a spare room, extra bed, even a decent couch) on http://www.hurricanehousing.org/ or search there for housing if you need it.

MoveOn will pass requests from hurricane victims or relief agencies on to volunteer hosts, who can decide whether or not to respond to a particular request. The host remains anonymous until they reply to someone looking for housing.
I just posted my own offer. I hope you will too, or pass this on to people you know:

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

wedding crashers

jodi and I saw wedding crashers for her birthday this week.

it was so funny. we could've done without the raunchy parts - but the dialogue was flippin' hilarious - and the Will Farrell cameo was perfect.