ups and downs

well the past few months have definitely been a roller coaster re: the worship ministry. in December i hired a radio promoter to push a song from my CD to national radio in hopes of getting the thing some exposure. i was also approached by a record label with a contract for a new album, national distribution, and high-level radio promotion. things were looking up.

since then, the radio promoter has done very little to get my song to track and I've seen little to no results from it. I'd paid him $500 (which is actually cheap for national radio promotion) to promote me to radio after a trusted friend referred me to him. as of now, his website is down and he will not return any of my phone calls.

with the label, I finally received a contract in March and was having a really good (read: expensive) music lawyer from nashville look it over. when my attorney went to negotiate the contract, the guy at the head of the label wouldn't return his phone calls.

next thing I knew, we were hearing stories from bands who'd already signed with the label that he'd "run off" with their money. at present time, the label guy who contacted me in December has changed all his phone numbers and the label website is down. guess I should be happy I didn't actually sign with them!

but things are getting better as of yesterday. I'm signing on with indieheaven for a little radio promotion and for their new booking agency.

we also had a great gig opening for by the tree last night. me and my boys played our little hearts out. all the guys in By The Tree were so sweet. each one of them complimented our band's energy and songs. the lead singer and bass player offered to get a copy of my CD to their label rep.

I'm really thankful for so much that God's given me/us. just trying not to lose perspective. my close friend and (soon ex-) lead guitarist (punK!) suggested I take a fast from the whole worship thing. I'm praying about doing just that at the end of the summer.... would you hold me to it?

iTunes update

i've recovered all my lost files. as you may remember, when I reformatted my hard drive, itunes removed a bunch of songs from my library (naughty itunes, you're naughty).

i ended up having to download a 3rd party app called podutil. they have a free version of it that rawks! this thing looked at my ipod and my itunes library and automatically figured out what files were missing. among the 114 songs that were erased were entire albums by Copeland and Kings of Leon, VanHalen, the Strokes, Ryan Adams, Kanye West....

but they're finally back. my babies are back! and I'm still trying to talk my entire blogosphere (all 3 of you) into boycotting itunes....

back from vay-cay

so we're back from our trip to see my parents in Florida and our cruise to Bahamas. all in all a great, relaxing departure from our increasingly stressful lives. jodi did jab her fingertip while showing my mom how to work the food processor we got her (for christmas). and I did get a mild jellyfish sting on the nipple (the right nipple to be exact; and no, I didn't have jodi urinate on it to take away the sting). but it really was a bon voyage.

so we're back and refreshed.

BTW, have you seen this? keep watching till the end when he does the seizure-dance. we are witnessing a dance revolution.

the beeeech

there are a lot of great things about being at the beach. sun, surf, sand. good food, good times, sleeping a lot. reading a good book, listening to good tunes.

but the best - i mean the very best thing about being at the beach for me is this: taking a shower in the evening. picture it: you've spent the day a little grimy and sweaty from the salt water and the sun. you've got sand sticking to you in weird places.

then after you get back to your room in the afternoon evening, you take a shower. you come out clean, shaven, and TAN from being in the sunshine all day. it's my favorite part of the day, and definitely the best part of being at the beach.

we leave west palm beach today to take a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas with my parents and my aunt toots who's visiting from egypt! life is rough.

okay, so it's been a while. enough already. updates on gigs, baby, record label, itunes woes, etc are coming soon.

meanwhile, these are some funny letters from kids to god.

wahba in a video

click here to see me playing my best air guitar in brandon's new video.

interestingly, this was directed by Frenchy - a great guy who's also done work for Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Gwen Stefani, among other, completely non-related, but ridiculously famous artists. check out his portfolio over here.

interesting arab debate

this woman has some guts. i didn't know they could exercise their freedom of speech like this on arab television. to be fair/honest - this was translated by an Israeli company - so take any "translation bias" for what it is.

p.s. strange things are afoot at wahba's other blog.