article & CD reviews...

hey y'all. here's a decent article on me and the music ministry. not bad, considering the cover story of this issue features an all male parody of "swan lake."

overall, the new CD has gotten some decent reviews (thanks to the Big Guy). you can read some of them here.

guilty pleasures (I've been tagged)

so I guess I've been tagged by ken. who is, in fact, one of the people I would have tagged myself I only he hadn't been tagged first. but here is my list of guilty pleasures, INPO.

1. the Darkness.
2. myspace. be my friend... pleeeeease?
3. compressors are audio "effects" - I own about 5 and have made several friends into true disciples.
4. daydreaming about lightsabers. go ahead and say it, phallic.
5. my ipod... but I can quit any time I want.

I guess I have to tag somebody. let's tag jodi (she'll post on my blog), and... andrew (though I suspect he feels he is above these sophomoric lists).

exorcism of emily rose

we watched the exorcism of emily rose at 1826 this week. great acting. kinda spooky. good conversation-starter re: spirits and demons.

the real emily rose was apparently named Annalise Michele, a german 19-year old college freshman who supposedly suffered from demon possession from 1968 thru 1974. read the whole creepy story here.

01.14.06 - rage music festival

above is the photograph depicting kurt (with funny face), wahba and carl rocking out real hard at the rage music festival. we apparently started playing at the same time kids in the way began their set.


i've never heard anything by kids in the way - and i don't recall ever even hearing their name before. evidently they have quite a draw since about half of the 12-or-so people that came specifically to see us apologized, then left during our 2nd song. never fretting, and recalling similar previously painful experiences, we continued to rock our hearts out. by the end of our set, a new legion of kids appeared, dancing, singing, clapping, spraying water on each other, and (dare i say) worshipping along with us....

good day and OAF pictures

today was a good day....

slept a few hours after my shift ended at 7am today. then booked a gig or two for the band. did an interview to promote my music in one publication and got a phone call for an interview with another publication.

i also got reimbursed today for the vandalism my poor Toy-yoda sustained last month (fidelity national fully paid for my wicked ipod setup - yesssss).

and finally, I found a link to pictures from the oblivious action figures CD release party. sheesh - could God take any better care of me?

lettuce

this is delightfully random....

steelers beat the colts!

maybe the stars were aligned just right. maybe the gods found favor with us (probably for the bad call on that Polamalu interception). for whatever reason, our steelers beat the indianapolis colts in the playoffs today!

ebay auctions

hey kids. in case you're looking to spend more money, I have a few things up for sale on ebay. mostly CDs... and one digital camera.

contact be before you bid - I might be able to give you a good deal - but only if you're cool.

blonde joke

I'm usually not a fan of making fun of people for what God has given them. but this is probably the best blonde joke ever!

note: this post was inspired by, and previously linked to ken's blog, but some folks didn't see the link to the joke right away.

shameless self-promotion

it's crazy being my own manager, producer, recording engineer, roadie, publicist, and booking agent.

in the past 24 hours, I've made over 25 phone calls, sent more than 20 emails, and visited 5 bookstores across Phoenix. and in the past month, I've mailed out about 180 CDs. all this for rock 'n roll (not really).

anyway, we're really excited about playing the rage music festival this weekend. we'll be unveiling a song we've never played live before ("all that we need", a.k.a. "grace 4 granted" or "80's worship song" for those of you who have the new CD). we'll be gettin' our Jesse's Girl groove on....

kole's blog

friends of ours have begun a blog for their son, Kole. Kole was diagnosed with cancer in late 2005. this blog follows Kole's story - his diagnosis, treatment and healing, miracle by miracle.

we invite you to pray with us and become part of the story....

andrew's cell phone

our friend Andrew boldly decides not to replace his cell phone. mad kudos, boy.

searching for god knows what

right now, I'm reading Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What - one of the two books I got for Christmas (the other of which is Louie Giglio's i am not, but i know I AM. I finished that one in a couple of days and it rocked my world so much, I already made my sister borrow it to read it).

here are a couple of quotes from Mr. Miller to ponder....

re: theology

It makes you wonder if guys like John and Paul and Moses wouldn't look at our systematic theology charts, our lists and [formulas] and scratch their heads to say, Well, it's technically true; it just isn't meaningful.

re: the gospel

But if it is more, if it is a story about humanity falling away from the community that named it, and an attempt to bring humanity back to that community, and if it is more than a series of ideas, but rather speaks directly into this basic human need we are feeling, then the gospel of Jesus is the most relevant message in the history of mankind.

holiday round-up

the past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. a warm, fuzzy, crazy, wonderful whirlwind. here are some highlights:

• after lots of work, we have our 22-month niece, Shannon, saying "unk-john" (that's me), and "jodi" (still working on the "aunt" part).
• we discovered that our PA friend Kylee Jo is already "speaking in tongues" with her boyfriend....
• our nephew, Luke, does pretty well on a bed of nails (see pic below).
  

• my sister and her family are finally moving back into their home in Columbus. due to a house fire in JUNE, the four of them have been in a little town home/apartment for 6 months!
• Bob Evans only has childrens' menus *sometimes*. their non-smoking section is kinda... smoky. they still make a mean biscuit - but you have to request them several times - and you have to ask for butter a few more times.
• ken and chris and me commiserated about the state of the Church and our lives.
• Gary S. Jackson is still Gary.
• Wes and Diana got married... FINALLY (that was the word of the day).
• hope still feels like home!