Come and Listen

In Loving Memory

2009-06-28T14:09:00.002-04:00

As of six this morning, my grandmother, Lina, exited this life on earth with us and entered her everlasting life in Heaven with Jesus. If you ever had the blessing of meeting her, you know how amazingly loving she was. She is missed so badly, but we rejoice at the thought of seeing her again with Christ and all the Saints. Pray for her and our family.
I am dedicating this web log in her memory; I won't be writing here any longer. But I'll leave it up...you'll find her beautiful, loving words of encouragement scattered throughout the comments. She loved me as much as any grandmother ever could have loved her grandson. She was like Jesus to me.
I love you, Mimi. I miss you. I will see you some day soon.
Thank you for everything you did and everything you were.
Thanks for loving me. And all of us.

Trevor Hall @ Jammin Java

2009-05-18T14:11:00.003-04:00

Trevor Hall's CD Release show is at Jammin Java on Monday, July 27th. I am going. It is $12 dollars. Let me know if you want to come, and I shall buy you a ticket.

Amore Alta Studios

2009-04-15T10:12:00.004-04:00

So I've been doing so much recording lately. What a blessing it is! Really...I'm very grateful for all the opportunities that have been coming my way. Pray more and more come! It's been awesome.
I decided it was time to buckle down and make a web site...so as of now, www.amorealta.com is officially on air! Check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks to David Story for helping me get it online and Teddy for taking some pictures.

2009-03-19T17:52:00.001-04:00

Yes, that's his own arm.

2009-02-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

2009-02-03T10:57:00.001-05:00

My 200th Blog Post!

2009-02-01T16:32:00.001-05:00

2009-01-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

2008-12-08T18:37:00.002-05:00

Recording Equipment Archive

2008-12-03T13:38:00.003-05:00

This will be on the forth-coming website, which is being held at www.amorealta.com. Billy will be building the web site. It will be sweet.

Computer:
Apple Macbook Pro 15 inch
2GB RAM, 120 GB System Drive
2.2 GHz Intel Duo Core
Lacie 300 GB Firewire Audio Drive

Software:
Logic Studio Pro 8
Ableton Live 6
Propellerhead Reason 4
w/ all Commercial Refills
Celemony Melodyne Studio

Virtual Instruments:
Arturia ARP 2600
Arturia Minimoog
Arturia Moog Modular V
Rob Papen Blue
Rob Papen Predator
AAS Lounge Lizard

Plug-Ins:
IK Multimedia T-Racks 3
IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX
IK Multimedia Amplitube 2
IK Multimedia Amplitube Jimi Hendrix
IK Multimedia ARC
IK Multimedia Classic Studio Reverb
Izotope Ozone 3
Izotope Spectron
Izotope Trash
Izotope RX
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3
Celemony Melodyne Plug-In
PSP Suite
Audio Damage Suite
Sonalksis Suite
CrySonic Suite

Interface:
RME Fireface 800

Hardware:
Event ALP 5 Monitors
M-Audio Axiom 49
Presonus Faderport
Presonus Bluetube
dbx 266XL
(2) Groove Tubes DI Box

Microphones:
M-Audio Sputnik
Rode NT1A
(2) AKG C1000s
ElectroVoice N/D 868
(2) ElectroVoice N/D 468
(3) ElectroVoice N/D 767a
Sennheiser e835
(2) Shure PG56
Shure SM57

Guitars:
Carvin Cobalt C780
Fender Nashville Power Telecaster
Fender Standard Precision Bass
Fender Standard Jazz Bass
Dean Backwoods 6-string Banjo

Amps:
Orange Tiny Terror Head
(2) Orange PC112
Peavey TKO 115 Bass Amp

Effects Pedals:
BBE Sonic Stomp
Boss DD6 Delay
Boss RT20 Rotary Ensemble
Boss GE7 Equalizer
Boss CS3 Compression/Sustainer
Boss NS2 Noise Suppressor
Boss CE5 Chorus Ensemble
Marshall Reflector Reverb
Marshall Vibratrem Vibrato/Tremelo
Vox 874 Wah
Ernie Ball Volume

Drums:
Gretsch Catalina Jazz Drum Kit
18” Kick, 14” Snare, 12” & 14” Toms
Zildjan ZHT Cymbals
20” Medium Ride, 18” Fast Crash,
16” Thin Crash, 14” Hi Hats
Remo 12” Djembe
Meinl Bongo Cajon
Fat Congas String Cajon
Fat Congas Bajo Cuban Cajon

Fiction Family

2008-11-25T10:41:00.003-05:00

Fiction Family is a new musical collaboration between Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek. They have completed album that is due out on my birthday, January 20th, of this next coming year (2009, duh). Yeah, I'm excited. Thanks for the birthday present guys. I'm extremely stoked, as Jon Foreman's four season-themed EP's are completely wonderful...and Sean Watkins is from Nickel Creek, and that's all I need to say 'bout him.

Oops...

2008-11-19T11:53:00.002-05:00

My Top Ten Favorite Musical Artists, In Order

2008-11-13T08:44:00.005-05:00

2008-11-10T10:31:00.002-05:00

It's a Beautiful Day for Democracy

2008-11-04T13:23:00.002-05:00

I texted Evan today, when I walked outside at around 9:30 am to go vote.
I wrote, "It's a Beautiful Day for Democracy," which it is.
It felt awesome to vote, especially in the same elementary school I went to.
I voted:
-For McCain, and begrudgingly for Palin. If he dies, I'm headed straight out of this country. I respect Obama and think he's a great guy, a good Senator...but it came down to him needing a few more years of experience to convince me he's ready for the presidency. And, I imagine I'll most always default for a move AWAY from a larger government.
-For slots. I believe you cannot legislate morality, and I don't even believe that gambling is a "sin." I believe it's fine in controlled moderation, and I believe that it is THE INDIVIDUAL'S RESPONSIBILITY to moderate this, not the government's. So I say, make it legal and tax it heavily. I say the same about drugs, but that's a separate issue.
-For Bartlett. At least we can have a little bit of Maryland, right?
My predictions: Obama, a Democratic Congress, and a slow decent into Socialism, eventually leading to the fall of the American Empire. Then the aliens will come.

Weekly Things to be Done Once a Week

2008-10-29T13:34:00.008-04:00

I want to blog on a specific schedule, in some cases...I mean, part of it will still be spontaneous and what-not, but I want to have a specific day be this, another day be that, and so on. So today, I want to declare Wednesdays "Things I Really Like (with pictures!)" day. It's going to be random things aside from the stuff you all know I already really like/love (God, You guys, music, etc.) So here it goes...the first weekly installment of...
Things I Really Like (with pictures!):

1. Things made out of bamboo
2. Zen gardens with fountains/streams, raked sand, and rocks3. Harmoniums
4. Being Facebook free!
5. Tea with a lot of Lemon6. Charles Peirce, Father of American Pragmatism
7. Bad Girl Pop, currently "So What" by Pink
8. The fireplace in my basement at home
(no picture)

How Long is a Year, Really?

2008-10-27T13:08:00.003-04:00

A year ago, I asked Kaitlin Elizabeth Gresh if she'd like to go get coffee. I took WAY too long to get to her house, I went to the WRONG house first, and we never got coffee. We went to the Double T diner and she got a Greek salad; I got crab dip. The next date (although she would say the first one didn't count as a date...we disagree on this) was much more artsy-fartsy: we saw Pete Francis at Jammin' Java. Then it got fancier and we went to a fancy-pants restaurant in Old Towne Ellicott City. And we've been on many since then. The official date of official dating is November 6th, so mark your calender, but call her, not me...I don't care too much :) jk. Love ya Kaitlin...thanks for a year!

Anonymous Comments

2008-10-14T09:20:00.001-04:00

I welcome, invite, facilitate, encourage, etc. comments and discussion in and on and around and under and over and (other relating prepositions) this blog. Please! If it's mean, say it. If it's nice, say it twice. If it's true, don't hold back. Do not hold your tongue. This is a safe place to spit what you're thinking about what I'm thinking, writing, doing, etc. Don't be sassy just to be sassy; when you say something, do it because you believe in it and you care about me and/or others reading this. I won't ever assume your intentions are impure; I'll trust your good judgment (after all, I'm sure it's just as good if not better than my own).
BUT. It has come to my attention on several occasions that there are some people leaving anonymous and often crass comments here on mah web log. If I'm wrong, correct me; if you care to take responsibility, please do. At least in my mind, it would make your thoughts much more valid if you signed your name. I am less likely to truly consider a comment that the writer won't even assign his or her name to. If you can't attach your name to your thought, I'm not so quick to believe YOU even believe it...why should I? I'll consider most everything. Just have the guts to take responsibility for what you've written.
So either my blog is gaining popularity, or people I don't know are simply flipping through blogs and find mine offensive in some way. I don't care either way, I'm just glad you're reading, and I thank you and wish you well as usual:
Thanks for reading, I wish you well.

The M-Audio Sputnik

2008-10-12T16:58:00.002-04:00

This mic is the reason David Story's vocals sound so good on The Superfluous EP, which you should purchase right now from the iTunes store. A good mic doesn't need any equalization, or frequency gain adjustment, or "bass-mid-treble" for those of you that have ever messed with the sound system in your car to any extent. It simply sounds good already, and has picked up all it needed to pick up for a great sound when you go to listen back and mix the recording. I went ahead and bought this mic, because I've found my current large-diaphragm condensor, or vocal recording mic, is really only good for banjo. I'm looking forward to good vocals and other sounds.

2008-10-10T10:12:00.003-04:00

Come With Me. We'll Sleep in My Car.

2008-10-07T13:23:00.001-04:00

Merge onto I-695 S/BALTIMORE BELTWAY OUTER LOOP toward GLEN BURNIE.

2.5 mi

Merge onto I-95 N via EXIT 11A toward BALTIMORE (Portions toll) (Crossing into DELAWARE).

71.6 mi

Merge onto I-295 N toward NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE/DEL MEM BR/NJ-NY (Crossing into NEW JERSEY).

6.4 mi

I-295 N becomes NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE N (Portions toll).

60.5 mi

Merge onto I-195 E via EXIT 7A toward LAKEWOOD/SHORE POINTS.

28.6 mi

Merge onto NJ-34 S via EXIT 35A toward GARDEN STATE PARKWAY SOUTH/BRIELLE.

1.6 mi

Enter next roundabout and take 2nd exit onto NJ-34 S.

0.9 mi

Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto CR-524 SPUR/ATLANTIC AVE. Pass through 1 roundabout.

2.5 mi

10:

Turn RIGHT onto BROAD ST/CR-20.

0.0 mi

11:

End at Manasquan, NJ

Watch a Cat Lick

2008-10-06T10:31:00.000-04:00

I Ordered 250 Business Cards

2008-09-25T10:38:00.002-04:00

NEW!

2008-09-20T23:18:00.001-04:00

m13

2008-09-17T13:06:00.004-04:00

*Disclaimer*
Much gear and tech talk will occur in this blog.
Consider this before reading, but please read.

So, in my line of work, one of the perks that comes with the job is getting to see gear before it really drops. The sales reps from the different companies bring by all the new toys for us to play with. And, then they let us buy them at less-than-cost, or less than what the store would pay for them. After all, some of the best sales work I've done is centered around the pieces I personally own. Makes sense for both sides, you see.

As some of you have seen lately, I've accumulated a lot of guitar effects pedals. This was inspired by David Story, even though he ditched me half way into my pedal foray for an all-in-one deal, but I'm not too bitter...after all, he built the actual board I keep mine on. I've been buying pedals from work and off craigslist, and I've accumulated fourteen different effects pedals and other utility floor units. I will list them here:

1. Planet Waves Chromatic Pedal Tuner
2. Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem Pedal
3. Roland EV-5 Expression Pedal
4. Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor Pedal
5. Boss DD-6 Digital Delay Guitar Effects Pedal
6. BBE Sonic Stomp Sonic Maximizer Pedal
7. Vox V847A Wah Pedal
8. Whirlwind Selector A/B Box
9. Marshall Reflector Digital Reverb
10. Boss RT-20 Rotary Speaker Sound Processor
11. Boss GE-7 Equalizer Pedal
12. Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble Pedal
13. Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer Pedal
14. Ernie Ball VP JR. Passive Volume Pedal

This gives me a lot of great tonal options, and everything is neat and clean and sounds wonderful. BUT. The pedal board is a little heavy and bulky, and there is no way I can find a case for it. It's also too fall to fit all the pedals, so I have to switch things out, depending on my mood. But it's wired perfectly, powered efficiently, and the thing is virtually noiseless (no background hum). I love it, and I'm very proud of it. It's unofficially voted the best pedal board of any Bill's Music employee. So it rocks.

Now, take a break for a little history. About ten years ago, a new company named Line 6 released a modeling amp. This amp could model, or reproduce with some accuracy, the sounds of a lot of different amps. And it was all in one chassis. Pretty neat, but not for me. I've got a great tube amp (see my earlier post on the Tiny Terror by Orange Amps), and I don't think the modeling stuff is really comparable to the "real deal;" as hard as you try, you can't make a transistor sound and react to your playing like a vacuum tube.

So I put Line 6 on the back burner. I didn't want any of their amp models. But then they started modeling effects. Now, effects are already transistor - not tube - based. So you can model circuitry with more circuitry and not sacrifice tone and sound quality. Their top gear came in the form of the FM4, the DL4, the MM4, and the DM4. These covered all the effects and they all sounded great. But I wanted them all in one...plus Reverb.

And then, behold: the m13
Every great pedal ever, plus a looper (with reverse!). You can save 12 "scenes," or sets of 12 pedals with all your custom settings. You can save those onto your computer. This is everything in one box, sounding good, easy to use...finally. Rarely does a new product really make a splash in my music technology world; I more of a traditionalist. But this is a cannonball, friends. I'm excited. Sale price is $500. I get it for $(can't say). My pedal board is on craigslist for $1000.

Psalm 51

2008-09-15T10:00:00.002-04:00

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

Song:
Jon Foreman
White as Snow
Winter EP
Listen

School, I'm Back at School, Sweet.

2008-09-04T10:49:00.001-04:00

Here's mah shedjool:
Here's meh takin' sum notez:
Drawin' pikchas...
Bein' smart...

Death and All His Tricks

2008-07-22T13:06:00.007-04:00

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I think Heath Ledger was brilliant; a truly great actor.

I also recommend you see this movie, and that you take Jesus with you.

Violence and killing have been tweaked and twisted by the entertainment industry to make a dime, and in the mean time, they've bred a generation that finds these things funny...

Sitting there in the theater, I was a bit taken back when I heard people laughing during the opening scene as the Joker nonchalantly shot his henchmen during a bank robbery. I even caught myself laughing when he made a pencil "disappear" into a victim's head.

Now, this movie isn't visually disturbing...I don't remember seeing blood at all. And even when people were killed, you didn't see much of anything; the death was implied. What is disturbing is that you found yourself laughing at this character who is killing and causing chaos for the hell of it (literally, the hell of it). People are cracking up as he is fooling with the detonator, trying to blow up a hospital. Death had a painted smile and a sinister laugh.

Dive into the subconscious of our culture, if you will. We fear death above all things, arguably. Anything we fear, we typically will run from or alter so we're no longer scared. Because we hate being scared...I know I do. Don't we paint the face of violence and chaos and death? Don't we dress it up on T.V. and in the Cinema so that it won't really scare us? So we don't really have to look at it and say, one day you're going to win and I'm going to lose, and you'll have the last laugh? The last LAUGH.

This movie made me a little more aware of how we are so desensitized to the realities of life. We can't conquer death by laughing at it. Sure, laughing takes away the pain momentarily. But then you find yourself all alone when things are quiet, and you realize it's still there, and even more menacing from being ignored. The only thing that can conquer death is the Love of Christ.

I know, you're probably thinking, yes, thank you, I know this. But why are you watching television? Why are you going to the movies? Why are you taking in any form of entertainment? What effect is it having on your view of life, death, and Christ?

Why are you laughing?

Are you scared of something?

I'm dedicated to being more consistent and truthful in asking myself these questions. Remember that when all is said and done, the companies on the other end of the camera lens are out to make money before they are out to help our culture. And you're responsible for not buying into the lie. Going to see the movie isn't buying the lie...all you bought at that point was the ticket, and I'm not talking about monetarily buying a lie. I'm talking about spending your time and effort mindlessly watching something, and not making the effort to become aware of Christ in everything. When that happens, you've lost much more than just money.

I found Christ in this movie (because He shows up in the most seemingly-odd places). He's all over the place, keep your eyes (heart) open. Death (sin) is no joke. It does not have a smile under the painted face. It doesn't laugh once it has you. It simply kills you, and makes other people laugh...and so the cycle continues. Jesus conquered death when He died on the cross so we wouldn't have to hide from it, so it wouldn't enslave us.

So we wouldn't have to laugh at it.

Summit Lake 2008

2008-07-11T18:58:00.003-04:00

My fourteenth consecutive year at Summit Lake was the best yet. No jokes. Well, there were lots of jokes. But I'm not joking about it being the best.
As sort of a side note, I love when annual things get increasingly more enjoyable while maintaining the same general form and function. It's an indicator to me that I'm participating in something that's fulfilling it's purpose in following a positive progression. I feel that this facilitates a sort of steady anchor mentality about the annual gathering that we can all look forward to every year.
So, you can count on God to show up at camp. You can count on a great week.
I wasn't counting on a great week. I was fussy about having to be a pre-teen counselor and I wanted all my dude friends to be there all week like I was used to. I wanted to come and go as I pleased and I wanted to play music all day and not worry about anything. I'm such a child sometimes!
And then I realize how things fit together. Being a pre-teen counselor was a pretty awesome experience, even though I was only a 75% pre-teen counselor because I was doing a lot of music stuff still. It was neat to hang out with Andrew and Jake and Jason and Jeffrey and Josh and Lucas. I got to make them take showers and play on inflatables with them and do other sweet stuff. I gave a devotional one night and they paid attention for a good chunk of it. Then we digressed into where the Arc of the Covenant was today; some think it's in the Titanic, others believe it may be in there back yard. A lot of funny things were unknowingly said all week.
I also did a pre-teen workshop that was pretty popular. We all got together and played percussion and learned about timing and syncopation and solos and the like. Then we quit early to go play basketball.
Oh, and speaking of BASKETBALL. David Story, Paul Mercer, Evan Ponton, and Russell Knight (especially) brought the eighties back...both from the past and from a score of 1-5 to win the Ballin' Torney. And I shaved my head so I could score the winning shot from down court. It really was a shot in the dark. My hand totally slipped. It shouldn't have gone in. But it felt so very good. I do really love sports.
The music was awesome, as it tends to be when playing at these functions. Everything fit together well, and it was great to play with Evan and Mark and David and Jake and Andrea. I just like when everything clicks and I forget about the cables and the levels and the tunings and the effects and I'm just playing. That happened this week.
I got to go to Sheetz. Robert Wallace is a maniac after 11 pm. He's awesome.
Lots more awesome stuff happened. Buckets were filled with water. Pre-teens actually changed their clothes and brushed their teeth. Dodgeball was called (by the best announcer ever). An old camp romance (or the joke of one) died with no heartache. Deer were not hit by my Camry on the way to Sheetz. The Hinterland was sold and posters were signed and David was made fun of for having posters of himself made up. The pool was clouded with kid-dirt. Ballin' went down hardcore-like. Inflatables were bounced upon. Rock and Roll was played...
Messages were accepted.
The Word was read and heard.
Challenges were faced.
Souls were ransomed.
Love was felt.
Jesus won at Summit Lake again.

Stupid Movies. I Hate Stupid Movies.

2008-05-30T18:26:00.003-04:00

So I went to see the Strangers at midnight. I felt like I was getting on a roller coaster, because I immediately regretted going once I bought the ticket and couldn't turn back. But I always feel good after getting off a roller coaster. I want to scream and laugh. And ride it again. After this movie, though, I just felt so...so...eh.
Yeah. The mask thing is scary. It was good. Way to go, movie director. When the mask guy walks out from the shadows in the background, that's just good horror stuff. But everything went downhill from there. Whenever something scary would happen, things would just get all loud and bright really quickly. Basically, these three people in masks screw with this couple all night, and then tie them up in the morning and stab them while they sit next to each other. And then the movie is over. The three people had NO relation to the couple, there was no twist, no plot, no real meaning. They just took off their masks off and slowly stabbed them to death.
A good scary movie makes you think...it's not just loud and fast and gross. Good horror movies twist your mind. So, I ask, what happened to Hitchcock?
Oh, and also, these two boys find the couple the next morning, and one goes to check her pulse, and she wakes up, screams, and grabs him...and the movie is over.
Gay.
Good job with the trailer, you got me. Your movie sucked.
(I'm in a stupid mood. I just wanted to warn you not to see this).

2008-05-25T13:17:00.002-04:00

2008-05-13T15:09:00.003-04:00

Guys, Hey Guys, Look at What I Built!

2008-04-29T21:26:00.003-04:00

So I built a little cajon. I'm going to build them from now on instead of buying them. I'm going to keep taking Theatre Production classes so I can use the wood shop. Rock on.

"And This is Christ in You..."

2008-04-27T09:21:00.002-04:00

I sent a text to you all last night that said pray for me please, I really need it right now. Thank You. To everyone of you that prayed, or would have prayed had you gotten the text, thank you. You're prayers worked awesomely and God rapped me up in his perfect love. I cried and thanked God for you as each of you responded. I'm crying now as I'm writing this. God's love flowed from your prayers. Thank you very much, the Spirit of God is inside you. He loves you and I love you. Keep praying for each other.

2008-04-21T18:11:00.001-04:00

Joga ma - Trevor Hall

Lime Tree - Trevor Hall

Seriously, this is the last one...maybe.

2008-04-21T10:07:00.003-04:00

Um. I bought new cajons. Three of them. But they come in a set, with a bag, and they nest inside each other, like Russian dolls. They're made by Pearl. They're called tube cajons. So now my percussion kit will actually have no "skins," just wood playing surfaces. If people say something about "the skins," referring to my percussion, I'll be sooooooo ready to correct them. Unless you consider wood the skin of trees...actually, that's more like bark.

Book of Beauty

2008-04-17T21:42:00.001-04:00

Book Of Beauty - Trevor Hall

For His Renown

2008-04-16T21:06:00.003-04:00

Passion '08 in Atlanta...I was there. How can I describe it? Let me try.
Those of you who have been to Passion, you know how I feel, for the most part. But then again, you don't (and that's ok!).
Something died inside of me in that Arena. Something I've held close to my heart for years and years. Something that had full command over the rudders and the sails. It was not my (little) faith. It was my fear. My fear that God is not here with me, that he is somewhere else, if he exists at all. My fear that the Church is dead and gone. My fear that sin will always win. My fear that this "love" is a big hoax to calm my fears of death and being alone.
My fear that I will die one day...
and that
will
be
it.
I imagine everything getting warm and black...life and the world either quickly or slowly fading from me, and then...nothing. No clouds, no gates, no angels, no songs, no thrones...no God.
If you are to ask me what I'm most afraid of, it is this: that there is no God, no Jesus, no Holy Spirit. Nothing but what is here, in front of my face.
Knowledge could have easily chased away this fear. I could have opened the Bible and prayed regularly on my own. I could have actually learned. But I presupposed I had the knowledge. I had gone to church EVERY SUNDAY. For my entire life. I've heard the stories. I've sung (all) the songs. I knew the history. And I ate it up. I was church, I thought.
But then the time came to choose sin or purity, and I found I had nothing really to base my choice on, so I went with what I wanted, with what felt best. I never really dug into Christ, I never really took root in Him. I just trusted my church and my friends and my family to give me that righteousness. So the wind blew, and I was ripped out of the ground easily, even though they tried to hold on to me (thank you).
Then I screamed at God. Asked Him why I couldn't stop sinning, why he wouldn't help me, where His "freedom from sin" was. I thought it was actually spiritual to be cynical towards God...to be stubborn and unbelieving and close-minded.
Now the Devil had me for sure. He could snap his fingers the moment I tried to stand up and my back would crack and I would lay there on the floor, cursing God and everyone that tried to help me up (I'm sorry). The Devil liked that. He loved when I would just lay there and refuse God's hand, His forgiveness, His love. This is the worst situation I could be in. Sinning, but even worse, denying God's love and grace...that is why I couldn't stop sinning. That is why I wasn't free. I forgot how much He loved me, how much I meant to Him, and how He would ALWAYS take me back...
So after the music and the talks at Passion, we just sat in silence and prayed to God. I asked Him what he wanted to say to me. He said to me, "I've always been here. I know you think I left but I've always been here. And I always will be." I encountered Christ. It really had nothing to do with the talks and the music and the people (though these things were amazing). It was just me and my God, telling me He's here and He loves me.
So I left my fear there, in that (oddly comfortable for an arena) seat. I mean, I still get scared. But it will never again rule my life the way it has been the past few months. I will sin everyday. But I will get back up and take God's grace, and make His love complete in my life. I will go to church and learn about God and enjoy other Christian brothers and sisters, but then I'll go home and read the Bible for myself, and pray on my own. In other words, I'll learn who God is and get closer to Him (note: this will never happen by just going to church, it only happens when you get with God on your own...that's what I'm trying to stress).
I could tell you about how hanging with Evan was awesome. Or how we met Amy and Rachel (shoutout!) from Belfast, Ireland, and how they were awesome and encouraging. Or how I got delayed in security at the airport on the way home because they gave me the wrong boarding pass, and how because of that delay I got to ride the escalator and train with Charlie Hall and his band and thank them for the music that weekend. Or how the messages were inspiring, and the music was awesome (the opening with the string section in Chris Tomlin's band was EPIC). Or how we raised enough money to build some 11 wells in Africa, and a bunch more money for the Passion World Tour. Or how the weekend as a whole was just ridiculously fun.
But I'm just going to say that God loves me. And if He loves me, He loves you.
This is my testimony.
My God is MIGHTY to save us.

2008-04-14T21:10:00.001-04:00

Liquor Store

I CAN HAS CHEEZEBURGER?

2008-04-09T18:50:00.006-04:00

For more of these, go here: http://icanhascheezburger.com

Random Links and Crap

2008-04-01T15:18:00.005-04:00

Two tracks off of Trevor Hall's new album leaked...listen to them here.
Bought my last cajon, unless someone releases some better ones.
You can see a picture and hear how it sounds here.
Endorsed by Chris Steele (Trevor Hall) and Reinaldo de Jesus (Braddigan).
I already own one of their cajons, which I know would rock if it just had a little work done on it. Lucky for me, this company offers free service and upgrades, even if I didn't buy it from them. Now that's good customer service. You can listen/see that cajon here.
I found an awesome list of ridiculous band riders.
Creed's is especially fun to read. See them right here.
(David Story, take note for City Reach).
Particularly, as I'm reading some right now, John Mayer's is hilarious.
Of course, I'll give you the link...right here.
I canceled Netflix. I have no link for you.
It was a big waste of money. But then again, I am a big waste of money.
A company called Electro-Voice recently released an awesome line of microphones that utilize neodymium magnets. I'm not sure where neodymium comes from, but according to the way these mics sound, it must be mined from magical caves by little dwarfs in some enchanted land. Anyway, lined up with there price and feature counterparts (Shure, Audix, AKG, Sennheiser, etc.), they sound amazing. Nice and loud with a lot of articulation and killer feedback rejection.
Every time I sell one of the EV N/DYM mics, I get $10 in cash from the EV sales rep. So you can make some sweet cash selling these mics. EV also wants you to buy these mics. I already bought the kick drum mic, and it's by far the best kick drum mic I've ever heard. They offer a special dealer employee accommodation discounts: 40% off of dealer cost (or 40% off what Bill pays for the microphones). So for the $200 (retail) mics, I end up only having to pay $70 or so. So I bought a few and am going to save up for some more.
Oh, yes, and you can read about them and see them here.
I ordered two 767's for back up vocals, a 967 for lead vocals, and later on I'm going to get two 468's for guitar cabs and/or drums. I already have the 868 and it ROCKS.
I just think mics are neat. Each one has it's own special characteristics and sound, and sound quality isn't necessarily tied to price, which keeps things fresh. It's a lot of fun to test them out in different combinations on different instruments with different placements and signal chains. It's the way we grab up the sound waves so you can hear them louder and later!

EVERYTHING is Spiritual

2008-03-24T13:24:00.001-04:00

Wife Swap Comes to Frederick

2008-03-23T17:55:00.003-04:00

From ABC.com:
"Maryland is the home of the Sheron family whose lives revolve around anti-soccer Mom Donna's (46) passion for art and fulfilling her dream of running a busy coffee shop. Dan (53) is a sensitive visual artist who supports Donna's dream. Creativity is really important to Donna, who encourages the children to paint even on the walls of their home. Their busy café hosts art showings and screamo-rock bands on the weekend and employs kids Jessi (20), Courtney (18) and Clinton "CJ" (16) to run the business, while Skylar (14), Jonah (11), Danni (9) and Sunni (8) hang around doing their homework and watching the bands. Donna is not a strict mom at all, and thinks parents are too restrictive with their children. She could care less about picking up the house after working a long day, and doesn't ask her children to do chores. She likes to defy gender stereotypes and encourages her children to pursue everything except sports, which both Donna and Dan detest."

Busy Coffee Shop: She owns the Mudd Puddle, which was recently shut down by the Frederick Fire Marshall due to an over-abundance of scene kids at the "screamo-rock band" shows. It's been recently re-opened after a new capacity number was assigned. This dive, located in the industrial outskirts of Downtown, has traded hands at least three times in the past two years I know for sure, and I've heard perhaps a few more.

Mrs. Sharon is in charge of the youth program at a local Non-Denominational church called Daybreak, which meets a stone's throw from the Mudd Puddle at the Delplaine Arts Center. (FBCGV fast-fact: this is the church that hired Arin after he left/was fired from our church).

From what I understand, they will book any and every band that contacts them via their myspace. So now is your chance, aspiring hardcore kids with CB Drumsets, Squire Guitars, and Rouge Amps. Hop on the Mudd Puddle train before they really shut it down.

From the ABC Wife Swap Interview:
"I would love it if my kids did chores, but it's pretty obvious from the state of the house that they don't. A long time ago I made a chore schedule for the kids. I posted it on the fridge--they all laughed at me, and I eventually took it down. Everyone works so hard at the coffee shop that I hate to harass them when they come home. Since I don't clean much myself, I can't expect my kids to do it. I hate cleaning anyway, so I'm not going to do it unless it's totally necessary. If my mom or the pastor never came to visit, I don't think my house would ever get cleaned."
"We're not big on rules, so I we don't have many for the kids. There's only one rule I'm firm on--Don't Wake Mom. I can't stand being woken up."
"A clean house is a nice idea, but really, its not that important to me- we're too busy having fun & rocking out."
"All of our social lives center around the coffee shop. We all love rocking out with screamo bands and getting rowdy in the mosh pit. One of the kids' friends said I was the most teenagery mom, which I thought was totally cool."
"We disagree most about the finances. Dan is in charge of paying the bills and watching the bank accounts. I hate dealing with that stuff. He always wants to go over the budget with me, but I'm just not interested in that. I have better things to do than to talk about money. I'd much rather be doing something creative than talking about bounced checks or balancing the books. It makes him mad that I won't discuss the money with him, but I just tell him to work it out -- I'm too busy."

A while back, Teddy, Evan, and I were approached by this lady to play at some benefit for some thing I can't remember (sorry) at their church. When Teddy couldn't because he had college orientation, she assured us that "the devil was doing this" and that "we were hoping a lot of kids would get saved, but now..." It freaked us out. We held our tongues for the most part, played the show, and I haven't seen this lady since. She also promoted this strange "movement" and prompted her kids and their friends to participate in it: Persecute Me. I wrote a blog a while back about how this was pretty wack to...waving crosses in people's faces and trying to get them to persecute you. And saying Jesus was doing this type of thing during his ministry...

I have no real commentary on this, unless it seems like I've implied something. Yeah, I don't like it...the whole situation (church, coffee shop, Mrs. Sharon), it strikes a weird chord in me. But I may be listening to the wrong song. What do you all make of this?

Read up here: http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap/index?pn=recap#&t=71879

Yeah GiGi!

2008-03-19T20:13:00.001-04:00

I love that you can hear Teddy laughing in the background. I also love that the kid that said the most wasn't quoted at all. And Seth looks hot.

2008-03-13T14:10:00.001-04:00

In Advance, for You

2008-03-10T21:08:00.004-04:00

Paul, Mark, and Jake
at the Pour House
in Downtown Westminster
Friday, March 14
8:30 - 10:30pm
Set List:
A Murder of One - Counting Crows
Ride a Tear - Pete Francis
Riddle - State Radio
Running to Stand Still - U2
Hold Me Down - Motion City Soundtrack
Empty Glass - Rich Price
Rain King - Counting Crows
Photobooth - Death Cab for Cutie
Solace - Braddigan
Customs - Braddigan
She Doesn't Get It - The Format
Hugo Boss - The Lost Tourists
Jezebel - Iron & Wine
Uncover Me - Judd & Maggie
Where We Gonna Go From Here - Mat Kearney
So They Say - Pete Francis
Cocoons - Trevor Hall
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Doubting Thomas - Nickel Creek
First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
You Find Me - Trevor Hall
Beautiful Lunatic - Trevor Hall
The Eleventh Hour - Jars of Clay
Arc of Time - Bright Eyes
If I May - Pete Francis
Burning the River - Pete Francis
The Lime Tree - Trevor Hall
Queen Bee - Rich Price
The Rascals Have Returned - Trevor Hall
Ghosts - Trevor Hall
-----------------------------------------
Red - Electric w/ Band
Green - Solo Acoustic
Blue - Acoustic w/ Band

2008-03-10T17:47:00.001-04:00

Grant me
Intellect to understand you
Reason to discern you
Diligence to seek you
Wisdom to find you
A spirit to know you
A heart to meditate upon you
Ears to hear you
Eyes to see you
A tongue to proclaim to you
Patience to wait for you
And perseverance to look for you
Grant me a perfect end
Your holy presence
A blessed resurrection
And everlasting life

Love.Serve.Remember

2008-02-29T08:32:00.004-05:00

Kaitlin and I went and saw Trevor Hall last night, sandwiched between Passafire and The Wailers. The Jamacian DJ kept telling us this was a night of "Roots Rock Reggae," and asking us how we were feelin' tonight. I didn't really answer him, but I bet you know, I was feelin' reeeeeeeeeeeeal good. We were close:

So he finished, and it was awesome, and I scoot closer to ask him for his set list. But before I can ask him for it, after he says, "Thank you very much Baltimore," he kneels down and reaches over to me with the set list. He just smiled and handed it to me. Cause we're soul mates. I said thanks. Cause I'm thankful.

From Her Majesty's Shore...

2008-02-27T20:14:00.004-05:00

Behold, from England, the TINY TERROR (bear sounds! bear sounds!). Really simple, no fancy 3 channels/Reverb/Presence/Resonance/Built-in Effects/Footswitch/Pre & Post Gain/Graphic EQ/Etc. Just volume, tone, and gain. Driving the tubes hard and getting that REAL distortion.
(Break for short rock guitar history lesson).
Distortion is the sound you hear in most rock music records when the guitar sounds fuzzy and, well, distorted. Now way back when, in the days of Hendrix and Townsend, amps were not very loud. So musicians on the fore-front of this harder rock movement commissioned people like Jim Marshall (founder of Marshall amp company) to build them bigger amps. These amps used vacuum tubes, like most electronics at the time. When you would turn these amps up loud, you would push the tubes hard and make them hot, creating a distorted sound. And the hard rock sound was born.
(Back to now-a-days...)
I can NOT crank a Marshall Stack in a dorm room, or in a studio, or in a church. People rarely turn these up past "2," so to speak. But this Tiny Terror is only 15 watts at it's highest power, which is still considerably loud. But alas, the Brits thought of everything with this little bugger. You can take one of the tubes in the power section and turn it off, so it only puts out 7 watts. That way, you can crank it and get a great tube distortion sound at a comfortable volume. Great for recording or live situations when your amp is being run through the PA via a mic.
So I'm looking forward to getting some sweet legit tube tones. British amps also have their own special voice, a la Vox, Marshall, etc. Totally out of this country. Oh yeah, and I got it off eBay with a carrying bag, used only once, for $200 off the sale price. We don't sell these at work. I'm like, the best bargain hunter ever. I'm done spending money on music stuff for a while now...well, until I find a speaker for the amp!

Farewell

2008-02-20T09:43:00.001-05:00

2008-02-12T23:55:00.002-05:00

The 5th Floor...

2008-02-07T12:05:00.001-05:00

...of the library is an "Absolutely Quiet Floor," and in small print on the sign that informs me of this floor's noise ordinance, they tell me I should report noise to the library's circulation desk. There is also a supplementary rules pamphlet I can read up on if I want to know more about the library's literary laws. I'm no tattle-tale, but this clock ticking is awfully loud. Actually, it's less of a ticking or tocking and more of a clicking and clocking. The attack isn't sharp enough to convey an initial "T" sound. But, all the same, he's telling me it's 12:17 p.m., and I'm doing some math and determining I have about a half of an hour to write to all whom will read this about my first two weeks back to college.
From my comfy big chair on the fifth floor, I can see (out of the big window in front of me) Baltimore's Tallest, stretching just above my wooded horizon. It's a cloudy day, and the temperature has dropped from comfortable to uncomfortable over night. I went skateboarding yesterday night, with out any extra layering above my t-shirt. By the time I took my guitar out on the balcony at 1 a.m. to play for whoever wanted to listen as they walked by, the wind had picked up and after three heart-felt Trevor Hall covers, the guitar and I went back inside.
My room had cooled off after the extra five or six people who don't live with Alex and I had left (all these college guys really mug up a room), and I was able to turn off the light, undress halfway and climb up into my bed. I watched the video gaming that I fall asleep to every night for a few minutes before rolling over and dozing off. I didn't bother to set my alarm because on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have one Spanish class that starts at 1 o'clock. And that's it.
But I woke up at 9 and ate breakfast at 10 and bought books at 11 and studied until 12:17. And here I be. Typing to you and to myself.
Classes are interesting and relatively easy (so far, as far as out of class work goes). I can relax within this schedule and map out a steady studying time. I can practice classical guitar and learn about stagecraft and think about philosophy and maybe even memorize some Spanish. Kaitlin is here Monday-Wednesday-Friday and we get to eat lunch together, which always makes my food taste oddly better. The air seems cleaner on these days, too.
The people I've met here are great. My floor just has some good people on it. We have a lot of fun and we have a lot of jokes and stories and things. Sometimes I can't stand that our room is "the room," it seems...we'll have an average of five or six guys in our room every night. And we just signed up for Netflix, which I'm selfishly regretting. They touch my guitars, they ask what I'm listening too, they stay in my room till past-my-bedtime, they want to go eat late night pizza at the Dining Hall. And I love them. Every stinking one of them.
I am enjoying myself here. It feels good to know that He has me here. No matter whether I've been running somewhere else the entire time or not. He's got me. No matter what.
He's got you, too.

I Need Your Help!

2008-01-15T11:38:00.000-05:00

So you may recognize this as my room layout, without the random crap furniture I've amassed over the years. I took it all out and took my beds apart. And I want you to please help me put it back together. Either put this picture in paint and edit it then send it back, or offer suggestions. I'm open to other furniture coming in, my furniture going out or staying there, sleeping in a hammock, you moving in, a monkey (caged or not) sleeping there with me, etc. Anything goes basically, except I don't want swords hanging on the walls. That freaks me out.
So arrange me room. If I pick your design, you can help me put it back together and I'll take you out to dinner. And I'll put a sign up that says "Designed by (your name)." Are you excited? Good. Get creative. Please. I'm completely serious.

The Elephant's Door

2008-01-01T22:39:00.000-05:00

I've never been more excited for an album.

Christmas Dorm

2007-12-07T20:15:00.001-05:00

Master Chief is not replacing the Star or the Angel or anything, so don't get all sassy with me, if you were even getting sassy in the first place.
I have one more week here then I get to come see most of you glorious people more regularly. God Bless, You!

Baltimore Snow

2007-12-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

I want to let everyone know that Baltimore snow is pretty. Put some Sigur Ros on your iPod, find a dry spot to sit, and watch the stuff fall. It'll make your heart lighter than the snow itself.
Updates, I also have Amplitube 2 now, which is a collection of over 14 different revered amps, some 20 plus effects, different speaker cabinets and mics, and even a built-in tuner and metronome as icing on the guitar cake! Very fun stuff, can't wait to use it live and/or for recording.
Listening to the Sufjan Stevens Christmas Album of course, Sigur Ros, a new Trevor Hall song on his myspace, and waiting for the Jars of Clay Christmas album. Also waiting to play with my best buds and musicians extraordinaries, Teddy, Evan, and Mark, in a Christmas Family Show Thingy at the Pour House in Downtown Westminster. It's December 22nd at 7:00pm. Please come and sing along! If you don't sing, you'll be asked to leave, after I stop the music and make a huge scene. Jk, jk.
All the Nooma's have been posted on this blog:
http://noomatic.blogspot.com
PLEASE pass this along, share it with everyone, talk about it, start a love revolution. If you've seen these videos, you probably have heard God speak through them. I know I have. I made this blog to share the good news, and for you to be able to do the same in an easy way. Take advantage of it. I want to read about it in the paper or on the news one day soon.
I'm getting in a good habit of journaling. Pray that I stay consistent. God keeps laying it on my heart, I keep starting then stopping, etc. I feel it's imperative to my spiritual health in a way. And, all the smart people in the world journal. Like my mom, and Pastor Mike, and Teddy, and all you other smart people. If you don't, I still think your smart, and I love you.
I was in work last night, and Dennis Chambers walks in. Many of you don't know who this is. He's drumming for Santana on tour right now. You've definitely heard his drumming if you haven't lived in a cave for thirty years, whether you know it or not. He has a Class A sponsorships with Pearl, Zildjan, and Shure, meaning he gets whatever he wants. Berklee and other music schools have awarded him honorary doctorates in the field of percussion. I sold him a keyboard stand for the Yamaha Motif XS8 someone GAVE HIM ($3200 keyboard). So there's my brush with fame. Wait until Kevin Lloyd hears about this.
Hope you all are well, see most of you soon, Merry Christmas, Jesus was born to rescue and love you.

The Laptop Rig

2007-12-04T09:08:00.000-05:00

An alternative to direct peer-to-peer file sharing (i.e. Limewire, Kazaa, Bearshare) is a torrent client, like Bittorrent. Torrents are download files that, upon completion, are mounted on your desktop as programs. I've been downloading things mostly to try them out, because it's hard to find serial numbers for them and so they just turn into trial versions.
A lot of torrents don't work, so I often pick a bunch and it turns into a hit-or-miss endeavor. Recently, I successfully picked up some awesome software by and audio company called IK Multimedia. I have Amplitube Jimi Hendrix edition, and Amplitube Ampeg SVX.
Now the first, AJH, is a derivation of their popular Amplitube software designed for guitar. It's a plug-in that can be recorded or played live, and has a bunch of different amplifier and cabinet simulations, along with some stomp box and rack effects, and a convenient tuner. But this version of Amplitube has the exact emulations of all the pieces of Jimi's coveted rig. It has the vintage hand-wired Marshall stacks, the fuzz and wah effects, and even some other things he experimented with. You open up the presets folder, and you chose Discography, pick any of his albums, then you pick the song, and what part of the song, and BAM! You have pure Hendrix tone loaded up and flowing out of your laptop. So yeah, I'm having a flipping ball with this.
I also have Amplitube Ampeg SVX. Ampeg is arguably the best bass amp company, and they have some sought-after vintage pieces like the SVT and the BA series amps. These are exacting software emulations of the best Ampeg sounds. Four different heads to choose from, an assortment of cabs, effects, etc. All are editable just like their real hardware counterparts. I'm yet to try this out but I think I'll bring it to church on Sunday and have Jake play through it.
Both programs feature 7 or 8 different mic simulations and placements, copying the famous sounds of SM57's, U87's, and C414's, amongst other classics.
These are super fun programs that I can't wait to mess around with more.
I know, I'm geekin' out fo sho.

Search for the Perfect Cajon

2007-11-26T14:24:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I may have found it. It's got a string side that is drilled on like the Pearl I had (but sounds better because they aren't just guitar strings), and a fixed wood side like the new one I got. So it's basically an all in one RHYTHM MACHINE. And it was...$175 off ebay! The seller says it was only used for one session. They retail for $299. So I'm excited to get it later this week.

Just Some Paul Mercer Updates...

2007-11-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

Took a pic of my dashboard and all the cool stuff on it. I just got leopard, the new Mac OS, and there is this new feature with which I can make my own dashboard widgets. Look close, you'll find Evan, Teddy, and John's blogs there so I can check for updates. Because they actually UPDATE! I'll put you on there if you update. You know, if you want to update and all. Sorry for yelling at you.So LATELY! I've been doing school stuff. Takin' some exams, doin' some studyin' and what-not. I dropped Wednesday at work, now only being at Bill's Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, cause I was working a little too much. It was interfering with school. But when finals are over (Dec 12), I'll be working full time, just in time to make the Christmas big bucks! I've already had a taste of it; I've helped a few parents with some guitar surprises and other things like that, so I'm anticipatory.
I've got the music itch and want to play out more and maybe do some recording. I'm going to get some new software soon. Right now I use Digital Performer illegally, so I'm going to either buy Steinberg's Cubase or Mac's Logic software. Read up on them and tell me which you think I should get.
I got a new cajon off ebay for 60 dollars and it sounds sweeeeeeeeeet! I'm selling the old one to buy the new software. It was a wonderful box and shall be missed, as it taught me to love boxes and appreciate their musical overtones and enjoyment of play. Farewell, Kevin the cajon.
I drove up to see Braddigan in Philly this past Friday with Kaitlin and we visited Katie at St. Joseph's (yeah holla shout out Katie!). Way too much driving, but it was completely worth it. I love Brad more and more every time I see him! This time I kind of had the realization that I shouldn't always be trying to talk to him and what not; he's already part of my story and a lot of other people deserve the chance to have him be a part of their story. I need not take any of this precious time from either him nor them. I'm just thankful for what he's written in my book and taught me. I got to talk to Tiago and he was glad to see me again. Brad calls him and Rey the smile factory, which is completely true; smiles are LOUD!
I got to see David Crowder on Sunday night and that was AWESOME too. I was pleasantly surprised. The openers where really enjoyable, especially Phil and his cool loops and digital stuff. That was super cool to see/her. DCB faded into "The Lark Ascending" from a Sigur Ros song, so that was basically the coolest way to start a show, ever. I had been kind of "eh" about Remedy, and that night I realized it was a live album, as in it is most enjoyed when heard live. You can't really convey the energy of that stage through an album, and while as an album I don't really like Remedy, as a show set I loved it. Upon listening to the album, I couldn't stand the song "Can You Feel It" because it's full of weird synthesizers and has this hardcore 80's back beat. But when they kicked into it and sung "...the love in this place, can you feel it," I could totally feel the love in the place! It's so refreshing to go to shows where the artists know where their melodies come from.
Also, during the same song, Jack was playing this sound box thing. I have no idea what it is, but I want to play with one. If you can find out what it is, I may seriously give you twenty dollars.I hope you all are well, and once again, thanks for reading/checking in on me. I'm feelin' life right now and I hope you are too.

Go Get It!

2007-11-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

If you get a chance today, pick up a copy of the New York Times. There's a great article about Contemporary Christian Worship Music in the arts section. It's really well written and unbiased and actually displays Christianity in a positive light! Is it a crime that I'm starting to like this paper!?

Theatre at its Finest.

2007-11-05T09:27:00.001-05:00

Wiki lets me down!

2007-11-05T09:15:00.001-05:00

Found this one Wikipedia while studying today: "People who were unhappy with the Ming Dynasty would send secret messages hidden in cookies to plot against the emperor."
Now I'm worried everything I studied there was a lie.

Imogen Heap and the Vocoder Comeback

2007-11-02T10:02:00.000-04:00

First check out this brilliant and beautiful song:
Hide and Seek

I was listening to this the other day, as it was part of my new "Rain" playlist on the iPaul shuffle, and I was trying to figure out how she was doing the harmonies. It sounded like a harmony engine, which takes the melody and builds parts around it, or she could have sung the extra parts and effected them with filters and other things. But it sounded too robotic almost to be something like that. Autoharmonizers fool me all the time and this isn't one of them, I figured.

And so the other day at Bill's I was chatting with Don, our keyboard fellow, about getting a little portable synth with a mic to effect some vocals or something. We started discussing how real audio actually plays a part in electronic synthesis, and he brought up the idea of a vocoder. And I did some reading:

"In 1970, electronic music pioneers Wendy Carlos and Robert Moog developed one of the first truly musical vocoders. A 10-band device inspired by the vocoder designs of Homer Dudley, it was originally called a spectrum encoder-decoder, and later referred to simply as a vocoder. The carrier signal came from a Moog modular synthesizer, and the modulator from a microphone input. The output of the 10-band vocoder was fairly intelligible, but relied on specially articulated speech. Later improved vocoders use a high-pass filter to let some sibilance through from the microphone; this ruins the device for its original speech-coding application, but it makes the "talking synthesizer" effect much more intelligible.

Carlos' and Moog's vocoder was featured in several recordings, including the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, in which the vocoder sang the vocal part of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Also featured in the soundtrack was a piece called "Timesteps," which featured the vocoder in two sections. Originally, "Timesteps" was intended as merely an introduction to vocoders for the "timid listener", but Kubrick chose to include the piece on the soundtrack, much to the surprise of Wendy Carlos.

In the late 1970s, vocoders began to appear in pop music, for example on disco recordings. A typical example is Giorgio Moroder's 1977 album From Here to Eternity. Pink Floyd made extensive use of the vocoder on the album Animals. The machine is featured prominently on the Alan Parsons Project album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination and later on the I Robot album. Vocoders are often used to create the sound of a robot talking, as in the Styx song "Mr. Roboto". It was also used for the introduction to the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland.

Vocoders have appeared on pop recordings from time to time ever since, most often simply as a special effect rather than a featured aspect of the work. However, many experimental electronic artists of the New Age music genre often utilize vocoder in a more comprehensive manner in specific works." from Wikipedia

Later on the article sights that:
"Imogen Heap uses the vocoder and her voice only for the song "Hide and Seek" on the album Speak for Yourself. She manipulates this via a MIDI keyboard to create the harmonies she intends her modified voice to create." She's bringin' back some good old Moog analog synthesis!

So she broke up her voice and played the parts like chords on her keyboard! I think that's crazy. Sometimes people knock electronic music, and rightfully so in some instances because a lot of people just set drum machines to run automatically and pull up pre-made patches to play on top of them (yes I've done it, no I don't consider it a masterpiece by ANY means). But then you come across something catchy and/or moving that also took a lot of time and talent to produce, some good honest music, and the computer becomes a real instrument.

A cool visual representation of this idea of the computer as it's own instrument is Imogen's Glass Piano, which features a keyboard controller laid into the typical space that the keys would be on a piano. Inside the body, the strings are replaced by her computer, sequencers, outboard processors and effects, drum machines, etc. Cool idea huh?

Roadtrip Anyone?

2007-10-26T12:12:00.000-04:00

Is anyone interested in going up to a Walking on Water surf video premiere in Ocean City New Jersey with me on Sunday? I may not even find the premiere, but I miss the shore a lot. It's only 3 hours away, and I'm looking for someone to come! I'm up for staying up all night, driving home early, whatever. I'll be home on Sunday for church, but I'll probably head up after that. Get back to me, it's going to be a good time and maybe some Braddigan hang out time perhaps?

Time to Celebrate Communication!

2007-10-24T10:48:00.001-04:00

On this day in 1861, the first transcontinental telegram was sent.
I wonder if it was received...I sure hope so.
I think that this is really something interesting to think about. I mean, for hundreds of years before this, people had to communicate via written mail. Telegram was the first electronic form of communication. From then on we see advances in communicational means come about in an exponentially faster fashion. After the telegraph, the telephone comes about later, then faxing less later, e-mailing even less later, then cell phones, im-ing, text messaging, video chatting, etc. It seems eventually we'll have a new way to communicate every day.
So let's send letters.

More About Recording

2007-10-21T22:46:00.000-04:00

For those of you who ask and/or were wondering, the picture below is not of me, it is of my friend and co-worker Jeff Way. I know the haircut through some of you, but yeah, for right now, Jeff is hooking me up with free time while I'm waiting to try out again for the recording program. That night he opened up the mic cabinet, and I wet myself. I've never been able to get my hands on $10,000 worth the mics before, so I was a little flustered. We just tried out some stuff on the cajon and guitar, it all sounded awesome. Next week I'm going to take a stab at playing one of my songs, By the Tide, with drum set and all other instruments. Hopefully it turns out alright, and I can put it up for you all to dig.
Teddy and I are probably going up to Ocean City NJ this Sunday to chill with Braddigan for a Walking on Water premiere. So I'm stoked about that.
I miss all of you all. I'm a little sad lately. Pray for me.
Thanks, cause I know you all will, because you're awesome and incredibly loving...I miss seeing that all the time, but I still know it's there.
Oh and p.s. I'm thinking about getting "love." tattooed on the top of my hand, starting between at the spot between the thumb and the index finger and moving towards my wrist. And maybe the same with the fish symbol on the other hand. Not sure I'd spend money on that though, and not sure I live it enough to tattoo it on me sometimes.

2:00 am, UMBC Studios. For Free.

2007-10-19T18:23:00.001-04:00

Yeah, Just Another Braddigan Show...

2007-10-12T12:56:00.000-04:00

New album is awesome, even though I've heard all but one of the songs already. He played piano on the last one, which isn't really his style, but it's a sweet song. We talked for a bit and he prayed for me, it was awesome. This was after I was playing Rey's drum kit. He advised me on cajons and such.
Trevor Hall is awesome, may have liked him better than Brad, but it's probably cause I've seen Brad so many times. Trevor rocked so hard though, the vocal delay was awesome and I think I'm going to try that out at work sometime.
Got to talk to Taylor Carson to about a bunch of stuff. He's a great guy as well. They are all awesome guys.

How I've Been Working Lately:

2007-10-09T10:25:00.001-04:00

I learned how to take screen shots today which is cool.
I've been messing around now that I have my piano set up.
Possible writing some stuff.
If I ever released an album, for some reason,
It would have to be a concept album.
It would have to tie into and flow.
Not that albums that don't are bad;
Some of the best albums aren't concept albums.
But "Retreat" and "House of Cards" don't really belong on the same album.
"House of Cards" needs a bluegrass arrangement,
And "Retreat" needs...well, I don't know what it needs, but something.
"By the Tide" needs to be on an album all about the shore.
So maybe I'll make three albums.
Maybe I'll never write an album, or another song, ever.
I never really know.
Sometimes I think I'm ready, and I'm like,
"Oh yeah, cool idea, let's rush back and bust out the guitar or the piano."
And then I hate the melodies and the rhythms,
I think, "I'll never be able to write something that's new and fresh."
And then I go study, eat, play Halo 3, go to church, hang out with people, get on the internet, go to work, and all the time I don't really feel like there's any expression in my life.

My Latest Piece

2007-10-08T18:34:00.000-04:00

Thirteen Paradigm Shifts, Donald Miller

2007-10-08T07:50:00.000-04:00

1. Other People Exist: Simply coming to the understanding that the world does not revolve around “me” but that everybody is having an experience, created by God, loved by God, and that we needed to repent of showing partiality...

2. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them: We began to understand that people, subconsciously, merit a religious or philosophical idea not on logical conclusions, but on whether or not the idea creates a “good person”...the definition of a good person being whether or not a person is kind to them, tolerant and understanding, able to listen without arguing and so on.

3. Nobody will listen to God unless they know God loves them: We came to believe there was usually a hidden pain behind hostility, that many people have been hurt by the church, or people or perspectives they believed to represent God. Many times its as simple as an interview they saw on CNN, but an apology and kindness went a long way in helping people understand God was loving.

4. Other people have morality and values: We came to understand that Christians do not own morality, that everybody lives by a moral code, not always informed by an ancient text, and yet it is there. Calling people or even thinking of them as immoral was, then, inappropriate. In fact, we often found that people who did not know Christ lived a morality close to his heart in many areas we had ignored, ie; community, tolerance, social justice, fairness and equality, freedom, beauty and so on and so on.

5. Find common ground: Often the morality of others overlapped Christian morality, and we came to understand that in these cases, we would focus on the overlapping issues. We came to see this as kindness, just as though we were on a date or making friends, we did not focus on what we didn’t have in common, but rather on mutual feelings about life. We would not say or do anything to combat people unless they knew we loved them, and this takes a great deal of time.

6. Define terms in their language: We were careful about Christian sayings and phrases that might be offensive: Crusade, sin, immorality....we came to understand that concepts were more sacred than terms...

7. Telling somebody about the gospel is about them, not us: We were careful not to try to “build our organization” and respected peoples freedom and space. Sharing the gospel became an exercise in friendship, rather than an attempt to grow a machine. Often, people feel used if they feel they are being recruited. The gospel, we learned, is really about them, their feelings about God and truth, about sin, about life.

8. Don’t let spreading the gospel feel any different than telling somebody about a love in your life, about your children or a great memory: We realized that in telling somebody about Jesus, we were telling them about somebody we have come to love and need, and about something that had happened to us, an encounter. This keeps us from sounding preachy, and allows us to share part of ourselves in a friendship.

9. Include lost People in Your Community: Our organization was not exclusive. We invited non-believers into the community if they wanted to be invited. We were careful not to not be ourselves with them, but they were certainly invited and enjoyed being a part of the group. We explained terms that we used, what we believed, but other than that, continued as normal.

10. Apologize for what you represent: We discovered that many people have been offended or hurt by what they perceive Christianity to be. We allowed ourselves to stand in the place of “Christianity” and apologize whenever necessary.

11. Be authentic: We discovered the need to be as honest about our lives as possible. We did not feel the need to sale Jesus, as much as share what He has done in our broken lives. We had no problem sharing our doubts and fears about faith, along with our commitment and appreciation for what God had done.

12. Pray for the Salvation of others: We discovered the need to pray for others. This would insure God was working in peoples lives, as we asked Him to. We discovered the work of evangelism is something God lets us watch, but very little of it is what we manipulate. We repented of not believing evangelism was a spiritual exchange between a lost person and God, rather than believing it was a series of ideas we were supposed to convince others of.

13. Ask people if they would like to know Christ: We decided to initiate, whenever the relationship called for it. We were not afraid to ask people if they would like to know God.

Pneumatic

2007-09-25T09:54:00.000-04:00

The past week, I've woken up every morning at 6:15 a.m. to go to morning prayer at 7:00 a.m. with the UMBC chapter of the Agape Christian Fellowship, which serves other big colleges in the Baltimore/Washington area. They are all very kind people, but when we meet to pray, they all pray out loud at the same time in this same kind of moaning voice, and they clap and stop their feet and sometimes babble in what I think they may think is tongues. Honestly, I'm a little scared about this and it makes me feel like I'm not a part of the group because I'm not as charismatic as them, because they all pray like that and I don't. And they also pray a lot of things like "Come Holy Spirit, Come," and I wonder to myself, I don't think he's gone anywhere...Jesus said that the Spirit would always be with us. I would never say this to the whole group or do something to through off their group dynamic or undermine the leaders. I've been going because it keeps me accountable to them to wake up early and pray (usually afterwards when things are quiet and peaceful). But I don't think I can keep going without becoming part of the group, which I'm not led to be right now.
The other Christian fellowship here is InterVarsity, and I understand that there is an InterVarsity group on most American campuses today, which is good to hear. I've visited and talked with them, and I feel like it's kind of unorganized.
Don't get me wrong, the people in these groups are awesome, I love them dearly as brothers and sisters, and I'm full support of these groups. I just feel like God is leading me towards something else...
So I look around, and there really is nothing else.
Then I can feel it, one of those undeniable instances where I feel God is speaking to me, telling me, "Start your own."
At first I freak out, and I answer back, "No no no no...I can't speak in public, I'm just a worship leader, and even then I fall short." And just when I'm ready to jump on the boat and head to Nineveh, I feel a huge tug on my heart, something of a fundamental assortment of ideas...and this is what I have been given so far:
1. Intimate Worship: In an acoustic setting, without a PA or a stage to seperate us from the rest of the group; a real time of focus on the lyrics as open letters to a God, and thanking him for the beauty of melody to accompany the prayers.
2. Intense Bible Study: getting some good materials and encouraging people to study the word like they study for a class, and encouraging them to go even deeper than that. Sparking good conversation about God's love in the scripture and what it means to us and the world around us, and how we can apply the love.
3. Multi-media: the Nooma videos have been such a huge encouragement to me, and I think more people need to see them and discuss the ideas. I'm looking for some other videos and multi-media stuff like this too.
4. Service Projects: I want to drive into the city and help other churches do service projects, or maybe as the group develops, come up with ideas for some of our own. Even right here on campus, I'm sure we could think of ways just to serve our classmates and staff/faculty, just let them know that we love them and Jesus loves them.
So that's all I have so far...I'm not out to be a youth pastor, I don't want to start a church. I just want to share God's love in a way that everyone can identify with. This group is really going to focus around love; what it means, what it looks like, the role faith plays, how we can apply it, etc. I'm open to God's direction and the suggestions of his people right now.
I want to call it Pneumatic, because of the idea for Rob Bell's Breathe video. I want to focus on the fact that God and His love is so intimate that it manifests itself in our very breathe. I'm looking at Friday nights, as an alternative to the parties. Or maybe Mondays, to get the week started off right. I just want to focus on the basic idea that our faith is built on: Love.
This needs a ton of prayer! Please pray for me and please pass this on to everyone you know who prays! I want God to be right there with me as I plan, directing my thoughts and my hands and feet. Pray for this right now.
Oh, and John, I'm gonna need Mac Photoshop, cause we both know...what's a cool ministry without a cool logo? Just kidding about that, but yeah, I'd like to design a logo to catch eyes and draw attention to flyers, posters, etc. and something to build a web site around, put on powerpoints, tattoo on my body...you know the deal.

Should I Get It? $90...

2007-09-24T14:10:00.001-04:00

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Reading Sweetwater has FINALLY Paid Off!

2007-09-18T21:16:00.000-04:00

Good greetings friends and family (as in that's all who reads this blog, cause if you read, you're at least a friend, and that's a lot to me!), today I've got that fuzzy warm feeling of contentment and hope. If any of you have ever eaten some manner of informal meal with me at my house, you've seen me read a Sweetwater ProGear or a Musician's Friend catalog, probably chowing down on some Ramen. Sometimes I'll ask you to quiz me, as in give me the make and model of some piece of gear, and I'll return the price and the description. I do a pretty good job at this, because I read them so much. Some of you may think I read them too much. But I've always said that one day, it'll help me get a job.
So today I was called in for an interview at Bill's Music, my favorite music store (and possibly the biggest in Maryland) which is a mear 3 minutes from campus. Before the interview started, they had a gear test that consisted of some 50 questions that I took. And I am happy to say I massacred it, mostly thanks to my mealtime reading...and a lot of personal experience of course. Well, Bill's son (he's like 40 something) took me in the back for the interview, and after talking and looking over the test, he offered me a position as a sales engineer in their recording department! I start tomorrow; I make $6.50/hour base pay and for the first two months I'm guaranteed an extra $6/hour as a set commission while I'm getting my feet wet. So I'm starting at $12.50/hour, and he said most people make an average of $10-$14 an hour in commission, on top of the $6.50. They treat their people well here! I work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5-9 and Saturday from 10-6, which leaves plenty of time for study and prayer with Agape group, plus chillin' with friends, and much less time for facebook and other novel wastes of time.
Pray for me as I start this! I'm so thankful God has led me to this, and I'm really hopeful He'll teach me a lot through this experience.
I woke up early today and went to prayer with the Agape group from 7-8, and it was a huge blessing. Just seeing the campus all nice and clean in the morning, breathing that crisp, cool air, praying with loving people, and then eating breakfast with them was a gift from God. I just gotta keep it up! Working out too, I started yesterday, and I really like it and I'm about to go do lower body.
Thanks for reading FRIEND, be blessed today!

My Hinterland Experience

2007-09-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

I'm so done! David Story and I are through!
He just kept cheating on me and lying,
and then he'd tell me he loved me,
which made it worse.
So I finally just ended it.
OH EM GEE, it was like the worst break up ever.
I cried like, every night, but I just had to do it.
SHEETZ MEANT NOTHING DAVID!

Just kidding everybody, I mean I'm done engineering the much anticipated album of David Story's, The Hinterland. I mean really, I say it often, but it was great fun recording it. I learned soooooooo much about how to take a project from start to finish like this; how to communicate with the artist, how to translate that into my engineering, and you know, how to make it sound good! It was just a great overall experience, more than just one more thing to have under my belt, but a great time that ended up teaching me a lot.

I'm glad and blessed to have this little part in it, you know? And it's something I really believe in. I can be a real stickler about what I listen to and enjoy. But, I mean, I really believe in this project and these songs. There's a weight to The Hinterland that I got kind of an inside look at, and I'm convinced it's something great.

So whether or not it launches Mr. Story to the top of the charts or not, I'm blessed to be a part of it, and I know you'll be blessed when you give it a listen to. Just trust me, you'll dig this record.

Get your hands on it when it drops at the end of the month.

Come see us play at the Frederick Coffee Co. on October 5th.

Hey and thanks to everyone who read this post. Your time means a lot to me, thanks for taking interest. I'll pray for you right now as I think of it, that God will bless you through what I share on the blog. And I'll pray that all I share points towards Him. My faith has been attacked in college, and I thank God that he's remained faithful as a firm rock for me to plant my feet on when the wind and the rain blow hard on campus. Pray for me there, I'll pray for you here.

God is good All the time.
All the time God is good.

Seriously, Watch the Whole Thing

2007-09-13T22:47:00.001-04:00

Help Me Out!

2007-09-09T14:18:00.000-04:00

Here in the basement of Chesapeake, we like to play a little ping pong. Well, maybe a lot of ping pong. And it's been known to get a little intense...Jin's fallen a few times, and I've keeled over with laughter a few times, etc. But we (or maybe just me, and people are laughing at me rather than with me) like to rock some sweet Girl Pop on iPaul while we're battin' it up. So far I've assembled what I think is a pretty decent playlist, but now I'm asking for your help to complete it. Keep in mind that it needs to have a sweet beat, horrible lyrics, and you know, good for ping pong. I don't know what that last requirement looks like, but use your imagination.

Here's what I have so far:
Come Clean - Hilary Duff
Crazy in Love - Beyonce
Don't Cha - The Pussycat Dolls
Fergalicious - Fergie
Get the Party Started - Pink
Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
Hips Don't Lie - Shakira
Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
Milkshake - Kelis
Music - Madonna
No Scrubs - TLC (love you Evan)
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
Toxic - Britney Spears
Wannabe - Spice Girls
What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani

Now gimme somethin' sweet.

Thrice, You Are Great.

2007-09-03T10:44:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited for the new album, which will be released in four parts:
Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire.
It's good because Fire will be all heavy and hardcore,
with baritone guitars tuned to drop C and intense double bass,
while Water will be softer and a bit more melodic.
As for Wind and Earth, I don't know what to expect.
All I know is for Earth I saw they were recording themselves digging.
I'm really excited for this album,
as well as the new Braddigan and David Crowder.
Oh and Pete Francis too.

The Dorm

2007-08-26T19:04:00.000-04:00

Walk In:
Turn Left, Room mate Jin's Area:
Swing Right, Room mate Collin's area:
Right More, My Dresser Wall:
Step Forward, Room mate Brian's Area:
Turn Right, More Brian and Back of the Wall:
Next to the Wall, My New Console:
My Blue Bed, to the Right:
See Yourself Out...
...and lock the door, I've got expensive stuff in here.

Hangin' Around

2007-08-20T09:19:00.001-04:00

This song is really summing up how I'm feeling at this point in my life, getting ready to leave for college and all. I mean, I really do love Mt. Airy, it's a wonderful place to grow up and live. And I'm not necessarily wanting anything more exciting or larger, as far as location and its experience go.
But the other day I caught myself saying, I need to get out of here!
I'm looking forward to a balance between Mt. Airy and Baltimore (more Baltimore, of course). I'm looking forward to being alone up there for a little while, and I'm looking forward to making new friends. I'm looking forward to a real learning environment, one that can really foster my falling in love with what God has for my life, not just vocationally, but in general. I'm not going to college to just get a degree, I'm going to college to find part of God's plan and get back in touch with His will.
The timing couldn't be more perfect; I'm thankful He knows this and trust He'll give me the strength and comfort I'll need for this transition.
Really, I'm looking forward to a new experience that I know God will be in, whether I expect it at times or not.
I'm excited about being home on weekends for church, friends, and so DUNNY can do my laundry. I'm not sure she knows this yet, I just don't trust anyone, including myself, with doing my laundry.
Plus SMYDEK has me pretty excited, to be honest with you. Leader's Retreats are highly enjoyable and encoraging.
I love Mt. Airy very very much, but...
I really have been just hanging around this town too long.

Hangin' Around, as performed by Counting Crows:
http://media.putfile.com/Hangin-Around

She sat right down on the sofa
I said, "Where have you been? I've been waiting for you.
Cause last night I had something so good
These days get so long and I got nothing to do"

I been hangin' around this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town so long
I been hangin' around this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town for way too long

We spend all day getting sober
Just hiding from daylight
Watching TV (Blame it on the rain)
We just look a lot better in the blue light
Well, you know I gotta get out
But I'm stuck so tight
Weighed by the chains that keep me...

Hangin' around this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town too long
I been hangin' around this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town for way too long

And this girl listens to the band play
She says "where have you been?
I've been lyin right here on the floor"
Well, I got all this time
To be waiting for what is mine
To be hating what I am
After the light has faded

Hangin' around this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town so long
I been hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town for way, way,
Way, way, way too long

It's like, spot on, you know? Actually, you wouldn't really know, cause it's my life.
God speaks through "secular" music as much as he does through "Christian" music.
At least to me. I don't know about you. Cause it's your life.

Nice and Easy

2007-08-14T14:44:00.000-04:00

I'm recording David Story's new album, Hinterland.
It's going very well.
Here is the opening track,
Highway Song

Dispatch Zimbabwe

2007-07-18T18:16:00.001-04:00

I stepped off the bus onto 8th Avenue, looked to my left, and there was Chad Urmstrom.
This was an awesome experience to have witnessed and participated in.
Wait to download the tracks until they have been properly mixed and mastered.
I don't care what anyone says, Carnival was a SWEET new song.

I Did It For You...

2007-07-12T11:01:00.000-04:00

In The Studio from Braddigan and Vimeo.

Widgets, Continued

2007-07-11T13:46:00.001-04:00

NEW WIDGETS!
I now have one that tells me where the cheapest gas is in town (or around town...cause mt. airy has about 1893324984 gas stations). Now I know which one to go to.
I'm going to the beach in a few weeks, and now I get the tide feed on my Dashboard straight from the Duck research pier, about .25 mile from our beach house.
I do love the mac.

From the Dashboard...

2007-07-11T12:58:00.001-04:00

So if you press F12 on your Mac, your Dashboard pops up. It comes with a calender, clock, calculator, etc...just general utilities you may need at any moment but don't want to search for and open; all you have to do is press F12. These little utilities are called widgets, and there are thousands of free third-party ones out there for download. For example, I have a little Bible verse locator, a metronome, a guitar chord finder, a dictionary/thesaurus, a wikipedia widget, ad something called a book bot that has over 3000 classic books for your free reading! The dashboard widgets can all access the internet at anytime. My newest widget is this Blogger widget, where I can update my blog right from my dashboard! I can't insert photos, but it's enough to just have without opening Blogger in my Safari browser. So I'm posting from it right now, and it's sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

New Braddigan Album

2007-07-11T08:47:00.000-04:00

Take some time to check out Braddigan's Blog (to the left <--- with the other links). There is a video about the new album. I watched it yesterday and I really have never been so excited to hear new music. The stuff sounds AWESOME. It's coming out in September and I really cannot wait...I might go looking for a leak somewhere. Not really...I mean, Brad and I are such good friends that I would never rip his album before it came out. Anyway, I'm thinking about having a listening party when it comes out, like where we all lay outside on the front lawn and listen to it with our eyes closed, all the way through, no stopping (not even bathroom breaks, you can pee BEFORE we start jammin'). And I'm sure I'll play it non-stop at work.

My Future Wife, Shannyn Sossamon:

2007-07-11T00:03:00.001-04:00

Live from (Where Ever).

2007-07-08T22:17:00.000-04:00

So I'm finally getting around to making my Mac musical. I know, what alliteration-ary spledor! Anyway, I've put Reason on it but cannot really use it until my controller comes in with all the other hardware on Friday. The guy I bought Reason from sent me 2 DVDs worth of extra Refills (or Reason Instrument Patches), which expanded my sound library greatly. I also went through great lengths to get the update for Reason to run on my newer Intel Mac, because the program was written for the Macs with the Motorola chips in them (Teddy, this is why Reason would click on those Mac Mini's in the 2nd practice room). My Reason is running up to speed now. And now for my latest eBay purchase:

I know, "WHAT IS THAT!?"
And of course, I'm going to tell you...
IT'S A SNAKE! AHHHHH!
No, not like that snake. A snake is a group of audio cables that make it easy and organized to connect a bunch of inputs and outputs together. This one that I bought will connect all eight 1/4" line outputs of my Presonus Firepod with all eight XLR inputs of my Yamaha powered mixer.
In other words, I can record 8 different tracks at a time at a live show, while having 8 nice preamp-ed signals sent to the live mixer for the house mix. All on the Macbook Pro. All neat and organized with my new snake.
Are you excited? I am.
I'm also looking to do some recordings for local people to see if I have the capacity to start a small label of my own. Now that I have the gear, I want to make sure I can take care of entire projects before I decide on audio engineering as a career. I'm going to be working with JB from work on a 5 song demo, and I'll be making $150 for that, which isn't bad to start off with. We'll see how it all ends up!
Camp was awesome, music was so good, had a great time, Transformed.

Exile from Babylon, Dream Interpreter

2007-06-30T10:02:00.000-04:00

From Daniel Chapter Two (NIV):

"As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

"You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

"This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

"After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

This was Daniel's interpretation of the King of Bablyon's dream.

In which kingdom-period do you think we're in right now? Which kingdoms throughout history have been represented in this dream and prophecy? I found this PROFOUND when I first read it Thursday night, because if Babylon was one of the kingdoms in this prophecy, wouldn't America, which is much more powerful now than Babylon was then, be one of the "kingdoms" included? There are also more dreams that Daniel interprets as prophecy later in this book...ones that have come true through history, like the Greeks defeating the Meades and the Persians.

Take that, 300.

Mac Freeware

2007-06-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

The mac is here in full force. I'm growing more aquainted with the everyday features that apple offers...up until now I've only used macs for audio engineering. So after I got my Safari internet up and running, I decided to check out some mac freeware. Freeware is, of course, free software; little programs that do little tasks. I found some really cool stuff.

Nestopia is an emulator for Nintendo games. There are plenty of places to grab the nintendo rom files. Just choose your game, drop it onto Nestopia and you are playing the games of the eighties.

HandBrake is a DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X. Using HandBrake you can take a source video from a DVD image, DVD, video_ts folder, NTSC, plus a couple of others to boot and easily convert them to MPEG-4 video. Alternately (or additionally) you also have the option of converting them to a number of audio outputs like Vorbis, MP3 or AAC. Some of the other handy features and latest updates to HandBrake for Mac include; user presets, AppleTV/PS3 support, surround sound, and Quicktime style chapter markers. It’s all open source, it works great and (best of all) it’s free.

MacSaber takes advantage of the motion sensor in newer Mac laptops (it’s not yet compatible with older ones). It senses the speed and acceleration of motion as you swing your laptop around, producing varying lightsaber sounds (of both movement and striking). The site also mentions keyboard backlight effects, and invites you to try it out in a dark room.

These are fun to mess around with...there are also some really cool ones like a Journal application and so on. If you get a mac, got to freemacware.com and check some of them out.

Behold, The Mac.

2007-06-23T09:49:00.000-04:00

BlueMax Compressor

2007-06-17T15:20:00.001-04:00

I love buying things off ebay. Small things, all under $100. I've bought a media card, a cell-to-usb cable for my phone, a case for my laptop (it was $2.25 and it retails for $50...it got here in 2 days), a pair of shakers, and a few other small things. It's just good to find quality used gear that I don't have to spend a fortune on.I've had my eye on this compressor for a while now. It matches my Bluetube Preamp perfectly. It retails for $199.99, and I got one that is only a year old for $80. It is a nice little piece to add to the studio...it will really clean things up. I'm looking forward to using it.

Something to Discuss

2007-06-14T13:36:00.000-04:00

My blog friends:
Please take some time and thoroughly read over this site,
and let us discuss it in a stream of comments
if you so care to...
www.persecuteme.com

The Studio, Re-vamped

2007-06-13T11:15:00.001-04:00

For those of you who recall, one of my first blogs (some 100 posts and 15 months ago) was an overview of my studio in my basement. I posted pictures, gave descriptions, and confused a lot of people with my gear talk. The gear downstairs handles 4 mics at a time, 40GB of music data, and lacks any real processing and/or mixing power. My studio downstairs is wonderful, don't get me wrong; some wonderful times have been had there, good music has come out of it, and even a little money every once in a while falls in my pocket because of it. But as my experience, knowledge, ability, environment, and circumstances change, so my recording must follow.

Welcome to the new,

extremely powerful,

ultra-portable,

Amore Alta Studios.

Built around a brand new Macbook Pro, the system can fully rely on Intel Duo Core processing power with up to 2.2GHz of speed, 2MB of RAM, and a ATA 120GB hard drive at 5200rpm. The computer ships with iLife '07 on board, which features a host of essential and useful programs including iTunes, Garage Band, Safari, Quicktime, etc. I has a built-in iSight camera at the top of the screen for video-conferencing with all my Mac buddies (so far just John). It features high-speed graphics cards and ultra-fast wireless built right in. Lastly, it comes with Front Row and the Remote. With a remote that resembles an iPod nano (which, by the way, I got a free red nano with my laptop), you can step away from your notebook and control all the music, photos, videos, and dvds in your computer. Simply spectacular machine, this is.The notebook will be loaded with the finest in audio production software, Digital Performer. DP comes loaded with all the necessary processing plug-ins you need, including compression, equalization, reverb, delay, etc. It can run as many tracks as the computer can handle, which I'm sure will be a very high number with the Macbook Pro's processing power.In order to get those tracks from an analog mic signal to a digital computer signal, I'll be using the Presonus Firepod interface. With this interface, you can plug in eight different mics or instruments at a time, and have each recording on a separate track in DP. You can also link multiple Firepods together for a total of 24 simultaneous input tracks!
Using an ultra-fast Firewire 800 connection, no signal will lost on the Mac end of things. The interface also has great built-in preamps. I'm already a big fan of Presonus' preamps; I own their Bluetube stereo preamp and I think it sounds amazing. Each of the eight channels also features a line output around back of the interface. This means that I can go to a live show, run the eight mics and instruments through the interface and into the computer for recording, then run the line-outs into the mixer for the live sound! I can then take the computer home and mix the live show in the comfort of...well, I don't know...A coffee house? My dorm room? An airplane? A cruise to the Virgin Islands? MARS!? What I'm getting at is, this is some serious power in a very portable capacity.
I'll be monitoring my mixes with these Event ALP 5 reference monitors (finally I'll be using some real monitors!). My Sweetwater sales engineer told me these kick out a lot of bass for being relatively small speakers. So when I want to hear that big BOOM from underneath the djembe or cajon, these will deliver.Now I keep catching deals at a good time, I suppose. My free iPod nano is coming with my laptop, and with the Firepod, Presonus is giving me this free 4-channel headphone amp! This way I can take the single headphone output from the Firepod and turn it into 4 headphone outputs for an entire band to record all at once, being able to hear themselves loud and clear. It also has another set of monitor outputs with level control so I can have two pairs of monitors running at the same time. Thanks Presonus!For all my midi and sequencing work, I will of course be using Reason 3.0. With all the space on the hard drive, I'm going to invest in even more Refills (extra instruments and sounds) to fully expand my Reason library. I'm also going to put the minimoog on my Macbook Pro. This is a plug-in version of an infamous analog synthesizer that usually costs upwards of $2000. It has all the controls right on top, just like the real hardware version. So I just open it up in the computer and play it, either for live performances or recording.
I'll be playing midi instruments on this 49-key M Audio Axiom keyboard controller. This is more than just a piano controller, however. The pads on the top right can be used to trigger drum sounds and have a better feel than the keys when playing software percussion. The knobs and faders can actually control software parameters in my programs on the computer. For example, every time I open a new song in Reason, I can move a fader on the keyboard controller and a corresponding fader will move on the mixer in Reason. You can assign each knob and fader to serve a different purpose. This is great, because I won't have to use a mouse to move the knobs and faders in the programs. It plugs in to a USB port.
The fine folks at Sweetwater built this entire package for me (excluding the computer and software) for under $1000. I'll be paying for it with money I've saved since I first started getting an allowance when I was 6 or so. They also through in some monitor isolation pads and all the cables I'll need to connect everything.
I am VERY excited about all this.
Music is coming.

A Blog Update Post

2007-06-12T14:46:00.000-04:00

Wake up, Evan.
It's time to keep the horses away from our food.
View from Alpine Tent, aka Boy's Playground.
And yes, we went to the beach. I bought a longboard...
...that Teddy likes to ride.
Sunburn made me midly grumpy, but I'm alright now.
We had oodles and oodles of fun camping!
My new Macbook Pro will be here by Friday.

Meinl Bongo Cajon

2007-06-02T12:27:00.000-04:00

This is on it's way to my house! I'll be at the beach when it gets here, but I'm so excited to play it. Technically, it is a cajon (wooden drum), but you don't sit on it, it sits on you...in your lap, in fact. It has two different pitches on the playing surface, just like a pair of bongos. You can slap, roll, etc., just like on any other hand drum. This was bought with a gift certificate from the lovely Ms. Diana Krop, who has been like a grandmother to me for my whole life. Many thanks to her. This is going to be a great instrument for drum circles and little acoustic jams, as well as a great addition to percussion island...all mic-ed up of course!

The Gospel

2007-05-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

"I am the Way:
Follow me and take my hand.
I am the Truth:
Embrace me and you'll understand.
And I am the Life,
and through me, you'll live again.
For I am Love."

Hands On Ministry

2007-05-26T14:27:00.000-04:00

I'm here at work, at the Vintage Coffee House in Downtown Mt. Airy. I work with a great guy named JB. He's a fellow Christian and we often converse, bounce ideas off of each other, etc. I always feel like this is a great place to work, a real positive environment conducive to discussion and encouragement.

Today JB and I were discussing whether or not certain preachers have been anointed by God to directly heal people. We started off talking about Benny Hinn, and how the Apostles (after Jesus had ascended to Heaven) healed people in the temple courts, etc. I have never seen (in person) someone being healed by a preacher laying hands on them in a service. So I've just never believed in it. I really wasn't sure why I didn't; I mean, some of the things that happend back during the early years of the church just don't happen any more, right? But then again, I've seen Christians lay hands on someone who is ailed and pray for them, then later I learn that that person had gotten better.

So I wonder, what is the difference between what goes on in these healing services and what goes on when people pray over the sick? I took some time just now to pray that God would help me to discern His truth in this matter. Maybe you reading this could be a part of that, as often you who comment are.

Inexplicable; as in, I have no idea why.

2007-05-23T14:40:00.000-04:00

There are countless reasons not to drink alcohol excessively and/or illegally. We all know it's unhealthy, illegal if you are underage, and reckless. It kills your liver, can get you arrested, and impairs your judgement. So please, don't ever argue for excessive or illegal drinking; you'll just sound very unintelligent.
If we agree on these matters, let's continue. If not, close my blog, shut off your computer, and do a lot of reading and investigation concerning alcohol abuse.
Now there are these general conceptions that we generally agree on, in a most general sense: the abuse of alcohol is irresponsible and immoral. But from a subjective stand point, from a personal perspective, it simply rips me apart, and it seems much more heavy than the mainstream consensus. And I have absolutely no idea why.
I get this weight in my chest when I hear about it; especially from or about friends. The kind of weight I feel when I see when I hear of someone having died suddenly, unexpectedly, or when I see a fight. My chest feels like it caves in; I become nauseous and my head throbs. And I think to myself,
What in the world is wrong with me?
I've tried to really convey these emotions to others, but I feel like I've failed every time. I wind up sounding judgemental or just blindly angry. Because, the truth is, I don't know what to do when I feel this way. It sweeps over me, catches me off guard, and knocks me over. I want to cry. All the while though, I think is this that big of a deal, or am I over-reacting?
I wonder why I feel this way. I consider whether or not it's deep in my soul to hate substance abuse so much, as if God programmed me to hate it. And I wonder all along how I could ever channel these emotions into something God can use to help others. Because I want desperately for Him to work through me to fight against substance abuse. But I am directionless, I feel.

I was perusing Facebook albums the other day, and came across a friend's post-prom album. Her friends were holding and drinking cans of beer, acting ridiculous, being photographed, posting themselves on the internet, etc. But all the while I saw my friend with a bottle of water in her hand.
I thought, that is so good! I'm so glad she's got respect for herself, she loves herself! I was so relieved that she had not become like everyone else in this situation.
I told another friend later how happy I was for the friend that had not been drunk when everyone else was.
"That bottle was filled with Vodka," I was informed.
I was too ignorant of partying practices to know this is what went on; I thought they didn't have time to empty out bottled water and fill it with what I have heard is a very bitter, strong substance.
And my chest caved in, and later that night I cried.
I still don't really know why.

Prom

2007-05-16T14:57:00.000-04:00

Photo by Teddy