best week ever... or best week this month

much to catch up on from this past week. here's the run-down....

wednesday, 10/26 - my birthday! we led worship with youth for truth at grace chapel (who were so warm and fuzzy). then went off to buca di beppo for a late b-day dinner with carl, leslie, jodi, josh and paul. i'm feeling pretty stinkin' old. trying to embrace the 31-ness.

thursday - finished mixing! done. that's it. no more for me to DO to get the album DONE, because it's done. I've already uploaded my whole album to the mastering engineer's website (see "monday").

friday - i finally got to sit down and play around with my birthday gift - an ipod! i'm going through the slow process of ripping all my CDs and getting them onto this monster. i've already used 10 out of 60GB on it. and we're not close to being done with loading up!

saturday - after more toying with the ipod, jodi and I went to a halloween party at a grad-school-buddy's house. she was a flapper. I was a sumo wrestler - the costume was inflatable with a fan that kept me looking more sumo than I already do. slicked the hair into a bun and the whole deal. please don't ask for photos. it wasn't exactly a fond halloween memory in the making.

sunday - did acoustic worship at crosspointe in the morning, then had my birthday party. jodi really went all out for this one. she made me homemade carrot cake. all the cups, music, decorations, and prizes were themed around star wars. we divided into teams and played games like light saber-balloon relay races, and pin-the-light-saber-on-the-vader. she even got me my very own light saber (not a real one of course). you rock, boss!

monday - today is mastering day. I'm biting my fingernails about this one. I've never had a real pro try to master - or even listen to an album I've produced. the mastering engineer is a gentleman in Nashville named Hank Williams - he's mastered several grammy winners/nominees, as well as the latest records by DCB and Passion.

sorry so long. we'll try to keep up. hope you're well!

campus crusade - 10.19.05

this week, me and josh led worship at ASU's campus crusade. so, so, so cool. it was one of those times when there was little need for a worship leader, and an incredible need for 100+ college students just to sing songs and clap and make noise for God. Alex, Jack, and the whole ASU Cru crew were mighty hospitable.

"yyyyyou should have a wrinkly collar like mine"

-paul 'p-diddy' deluca

after the worship gig, we headed to my big fat greek restaurant on mill ave for the meat lover's platter.

we boys ate our fill, mm-hmm.

done recording... another setback

as of today, we're done with recording for the album!

jj heller and her husband, dave, came over to record the final few vocals for the album. i've already mixed 3 songs - 10 more to mix in the next few days. i'm so thankful to the Big Man. yippeee!

today I realized another setback though. my mastering dude no longer works with the same company. he might not even be doing mastering anymore. I liked him so much - and the work he did on my last album was amazing. not to mention, he was the cheapest person with a dedicated mastering studio i'd ever met.

having to choose another mastering studio/engineer will most likely cost me 3-4 times what my other guy would have cost. there might be good news about who I end up choosing though. we'll keep ya posted. meantime, if you get a minute, please pray for us as we mix and master over the next few weeks. thanks so much.

let the mix begin

it's a wednesday and as of today, I'm all done recording (with the exception of one female vocalist we're trying to get into the studio next week).

and I'm almost completely done editing all the songs. this is where I painstakingly go through each vocal, guitar, bass - everything recorded - and "clean up" the track, getting rid of extra noises and making sure everything lines up and fades nicely. the goal is to set aside mixing days for just mixing and not much else.

speaking of which, I'll (Lord willing) start mixing this saturday and through next week. all going well, we should be started on the mastering process by the last week of October!

in other current events, as I type, Jodi is on the very last hour of her comps (comprehensive exams - three lovely 9 hour days of intensive testing, with questions custom made by her advisor based pretty much on everything she's ever learned). it's the last major milestone in getting her PhD before she actually completes her dissertation.

so life kinda sucks. i'm waiting for my wife back while she waits to get her husband back. hark! the end is in near sight!

getting closer...

as of today, I *think* i'm pretty much done with all the vocals on the album. finished "saint" and "my Jesus" this week. I've still yet to record some odds and ends - a possible guest female vocalist who will remain unnamed until she is actually sitting in my studio recording harmonies on 2 of my songs. kurt's solos on "saint." also a cello track or two. some extra guitars on "my Jesus".

then comes track clean-up and digital editing. and we're off to the mixes. I've actually called discmakers in an effort to have everything's lined up when the dang thing is finally mastered.

it's a beast. but a fun, playful, rewarding beast.

meantime, we're practicing every day this week for the crash competition. my drummer, Josh, has been using an in-ear click all week, and he's sounding pretty darn good. hopefully we'll start using it for every practice, then start using it live. that will be a huge relief.

okay, i'm not really talking about anything of any real consequence, so i'll go to bed now. g'night. G'bless.

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?