What's On My Mind

Hey, I'm still here. Haven't gone away! I think that I have been distracted a bit by some stuff that is going on at home. I won't go into details but suffice it to say it is "teenager stuff". I think that should about say it all! I can't wait until this ends. It can really take it's toll on you. Mostly I deal with trust issues. I wonder how far I can go. Am I being too naive? Or, am I doing the right thing to maintain trust on my end? I'm not talking about being a pushover. No, not that at all. I'm just trying to figure all of this stuff out. I wonder all too often if I make the right moves or not. Do I make the right decision or not? The thing is, you never really know until much later - if ever. This isn't a movie where there is a script and you know how it is going to turn out. Many times you just have to go on your gut and hope it all works out. Sometimes it doesn't though, and that is where it can really hurt. Parenting just isn't easy. Challenges are unique to every age. A friend talked to me today about troubles with their 5 year old and asked at what point does it end. I don't think it does. It just changes. You just go with it. I can say one thing now: I do ask God a lot of questions. I know he has the uber-answers. I just hope that I open my eyes and my heart enough to listen.

Well, that has been on my heart and mind as of late. I think some of you can relate. Talk to you all soon.

First Gig Together

This was a priceless night at C the J tonight. Alec and I got to share the stage for the first time. Here we are with a rock star 'tude. I am so proud of him. He is such a gifted musician. We did three songs. One of them he didn't know yet, Let God Arise. Naturally, he didn't listen to it until we were driving to the gig. By the time we rehearsed, he had it down. Now, I wouldn't recommend that method but there you have it. Katrina is the same way. This was a huge thrill for me. I think it was to him too.

I got a bunch more up on my facebook page.

New Member to the Family!

Well, we have a new member to our family! Here is Katrina's hedgehog, Sonny. He is still little as you can see. Kat says he will grow to the size of a...mousepad. Yeah, that's it. More pictures are on her Facebook page.

Hotel California

This morning for our Leadership Community "New Leader Song", we did Hotel California by the Eagles. This was one of the best ones we did (although I think I say that all the time!). The whole band was great but we had three guitar players all up to the task. We ended up learning the live version. The studio recording has like 6 or 7 guitars. What was great is that there is a live version on You Tube from their recent tour that was great to use. Thank goodness for You Tube! The video was great in that you could tell what each guitar player was doing for the various lines in the song. So, our communication during the week was made much simpler. Since one of our players, Chris Stell, had a double neck, he was Don Felder and did all of his parts. Bob King had the 12 string acoustic and did all of Glen Fry's lines. I got to do Joe Walsh's stuff. Although I did miss playing the classic intro/verse guitar parts, I was excited to play Joe's stuff. He is one of my favorite guitar players. It's like he almost inserts a quirky sense of humor in what he does. I can identify with that.

So, I was thinking today about the song. I have always liked it. However, after playing it I have come to realize that it could be somewhere in a top 20 of the greatest guitar songs ever made. There are so many of those songs out there but the way they put all of their parts together in this song was wonderful. If you really get into their solos, for example, they aren't technically difficult (mostly pentatonic scales). However, all the notes and runs mesh together perfectly.

I think that it could be in the top 5 amongst great double guitar songs. I would include it with Thin Lizzy's the Boys Are Back in Town and Boston's More Than a Feeling. I know there are others. Can you think of any?

TSO

I got to go to the TransSiberian Orchestra concert yesterday. Oh my. It was my second time and even better than the first. The picture to the left, although not very clear, still somehow tells the story! We had a great seat on the floor right in front of the sound board. Highlights:

A great synchronized flame show to Requiem. Literally, shooting flames all across the back of the stage and behind the soundboard (and us). Amazing.

Funny moment came halfway into the show after they stopped and introduced the band. They said something about having a lot more songs to go. There was a brief (maybe 3 seconds) pause where the whole place was quiet and someone in the seats far behind us yelled "Freebird!"

If you haven't seen them yet, go next year. You won't be disappointed!


Before the show. We weren't that far away.









The soundboard right behind us. Maybe I can check our budget for one of these.


Ok, maybe not...