i like jason mraz

i can't believe i waited so long to buy the new jason mraz record - "we sing. we dance. we steal things." i loved "waiting for my rocket to come" and "mr. a-z"... how did i not just go buy the latest when it came out. well i bought it tonight and i've been listening to it while i work on my sermon for sunday (the fact that i'm preaching may have cost me a couple of gigs on the road, but commitments are commitments, right?) and i'm pretty much loving it. so next time you see this
in the store, spend the money. or just go to itunes and get it for $9.99. it's worth it.

lost in translation

i saw this door hanger at a hotel i was at recently. unfortunately i didn't have my camera with me, just my phone. i'm not sure i would have been daring enough to snap a picture with my phone anyway. here's what went on in my head when i saw it.



"no moleste" = "do not disturb"...



proof that molesting is disturbing?!

what is the world coming to?

coming back around

around two years ago, i got a phone call from my buddy farns, who had worked with me a couple of times on the road. he told me that he had dropped my name for a gig and then told me he'd kick my butt if i said no. a few minutes later i got a call asking me to run sound for jaci velasquez at a festival in florida. i hesitantly agreed to do the gig... hesitantly because the only sound stuff i'd done was studio work and a couple of gigs with friend's bands at bars. i had never worked on a digital console, never run sound at a festival, and certainly never for a grammy-winning, platinum-selling artist.

-- a quick interjection to this blog --
when i got to the festival, the farns was there. he was running sound for anther band, and could have very easily run sound for jaci also. instead, he passed the job on to me so that he could help me get my foot in the door of live sound while he was around to be sure that i didn't fail terribly. farns = good people, and a great asset to the touring community.
-- interjection finished --

well i did the festival, more nervous that i'd ever been behind a console, but made it through the show and even had some random guy come and tell me that i did a much better job than the guy who had been there the night before. after that experience, i wasn't afraid to run sound for anyone on any console.

fast forward to about two weeks ago. i got a text from my friend brian. he told me that he'd dropped my name for a couple of gigs. a few minutes later i get a call asking if i can run sound for a couple of shows for jaci velasquez. unfortunately i was only available for one, but had a great time and hope it's not two years before i work with jaci and her band again.

sunday morning - 3 am

kroger on franklin rd in brentwood tn. i'm in a van with 5 other guys returning from a show in dayton ohio. as we pull up i see that the parking lot is full. since it was 3 am i wasn't as mentally quick as normal, but i did notice that the cars weren't parking in front of the kroger... they were parked in the extra spaces away from any of the stores in the shopping center. then i realized that all these cars belong to people that were doing exactly the same thing as me. apparently the brentwood kroger is the equivalent of a park and ride for professional touring folks.


i couldn't even get high enough so that i could capture the nearly unending-ness of the cars. seeing this really made me feel like i was part of something.

i had another thing i was going to blog about

but it'll have to wait, because i was doing my usual rounds of my friend's blogs and stumbled onto a new feature on the mercyme blog -- the "cover tune grab bag". so instead of spending time reading what i would bore you with

watch this

it may be funnier for those of you who follow christian music and know these guys for their own tunes.

when riding a motorcycle...

you should always wear gloves... but should probably also wear sunscreen........

oops

back where i love to be

it had been a while, but a couple weeks ago i finally got back to where i feel most comfortable, not to mention happy -- standing behind the console, mixing the show. people always ask me, when i mix, "how did it sound out front?" my reply is pretty much always along the lines of, "if i didn't think it sounded great, i would have done something different." it got me thinking the other day about how great my job is. i get to be around music, and i get to make it sound exactly the way i want it to. i'm not sure there is a better gig for me. thanks to anthony evans who made this particular day possible.