don't hate

props to this truck driver in baltimore. (click the picture and read the deflector) whether she meant to or not, she's totally preaching the gospel of love... if only by discouraging the opposite.

on the theme of music again.... go get this record. now.

no picture for this one

last night I ripped about a 6 inch hole in the crotch of my pants while trying to climb from my lighting tower to the stage. I often refer to this as "gigging" my pants. I spent the rest of the night telling everyone I met about the giant hole in my pants, just to get the weirdness out of the way..... thanks to raleigh for being so cool

oh the choices

today we're at the cricket arena in charlotte NC. on my way to catering, i stumbled upon a concessions stand and wondered what they had at this one..... not much.





oh, and if you like counting crows, you need to get their new album, saturday nights and sunday mornings.

1,333

for those of you who don't talk to me, ever, i am currently on tour as the utility tech instead of my normal gig as something to do with sound. my responsibility during the show is to run mediashout (seen above). for this show, mediashout is responsible for the lyrics on the screen. during prayer time last night i pulled out my calculator/cell phone and added up how many times i press space bar - which advances to the next lyric slide. the numbers just kept adding up until.... 1,333! and that's just the space bar touches. sometimes i get fancy and press some other buttons to make it fade to black. but if we only count the necessities - 1,333. we normally do 3 shows a week. that adds up to 5,000 space bars every week. we will have done 48 shows by the time this tour is over, which makes -- 63,984 - only during show time. if we count rehearsals and sound checks this tour will have strengthened my space bar pushing finger over SEVENTY THOUSAND TIMES.

notice that there are no words run together at all in this blog... i am good at space bar

h to the izzo

yesterday in baltimore i walked in and saw this. the orange tape was left over directions from the night before. normally the tape is already cleaned up from the last show before we get there. who was it?

need another hint?


that's right. the american gangter himself, jay z, was in the venue the night before. who says Christian bands don't play real venues?

dude, where's the edison

sometime during load in, kenny finds some sort of fan motor. because kenny is kenny, he finds some 9 volt batteries and, together with carter, checks to see if it works. it does - the fan spins with just one battery. it spins faster with 2 batteries. then we hear kenny say "dude, where's the edison". for those of you who don't work with electricity very often, it basically means the type of plug and wattage that you have in your house. we all know that it's probably a bad idea for kenny to plug it this little motor in to that much power. but instead of stopping him - we all fumbled for our phones so we could take video of what was about to happen....

tastes of the road with Culmer

Jeff Culmer, blogger extraordinaire, is always blogging about the lives of other people and it seems that no one ever blogs on him... until now. he will help us explore what it's like to eat on the road.

this face followed the statement, "i just ate a vegetable i've never had before and it tasted like oatmeal." forgive the poor picture quality... it was taken with the cell phone.

later, to make up for the lack of dinner, Culmer had some mott's strawberry applesauce. thanks to Christy for helping with this picture by holding a flashlight.

after a long night of work, culmer enjoys a snack. who knew that dipping spicy nacho doritos in dean's french onion dip could be so good?!? try it - it's worth it.

according to culmer links increase traffic... we'll see

not your average bathroom graffiti

please ignore how creepy it is that i took a picture in the bathroom, and instead focus on the picture.


this picture comes from a bathroom in freedom hall in johnson city TN. the local crew told me that the venue is used for science hill (i think they said) middle school events and monster truck rallies. i normally am really annoyed by graffiti, but i kinda like this one. despite the fact that my young friend had a bit of trouble with the first cursive "l" -- i bove Jesus?!? -- i think he makes his point. thank you my young graffiti artist friend.

crew free time

those of us who work on the road often joke about "living the dream". most often these jokes come up out of frustration because of conditions being crappy - like only being able to shower once every couple of days and sleeping on a bus speeding down the road. truth be told, there are plenty of times that we really are living the good life. this is what happens when we work hard and get done before lunch. we play hard too. notice that great form.



thanks culmer for the pics.

man lounge?

every day Christy puts out tape arrows so that we can find our way around in a place that most of us probably haven't been before. i always look for the star, which we use for the crew room so that the local crew won't go in there, and catering... that's pretty much all i ever need. this day was a lot like the others. here's what the crew room often looks like.

on this particular day, there was a new tape arrow... one that intrigued me and the other guys. what in the world is a man lounge? and are we allowed in it, or is it just for the artists? when i felt sure that there was no artist in there i had a little peek inside. what i found was beautiful -- and was even better when i found out that crew was allowed in. there were couches, and cable, and even a hot tub!


here's to the man lounge. may we meet again.

beginning

i blame Culmer, Farns, and Carter for my decision to begin blogging. they just make it sound so fun.