Had a great time in Nashville.  

It was so much fun hanging out with Brody and Randy.

The coffee shop we met them at was killer.

Here’s my playlist from the trip:

Brooke Fraser- Lead me to the Cross, Hosanna

Needtobreathe- Spare the Time, Restless, Again, Return, We Could Run Away, Streets of Gold

Sara Groves- The Long Defeat

Christopher O’Riley- There There, (Nice Dream), No Surprises, Polyethylene Pt.2, How I Made My Millions, Like Spinning Plates, Sailing to the Moon, The Tourist, Cuttooth, 2+2=5

David Gray- Alibi, The One I Love, Lately

Today the guy I work under at Providence, Dave Owen, and I are going to Nashville for the day to scout out venues for a conference in April we’re organizing.  Southwest has a direct flight there from Raleigh, so we’re able to fly out early this morning and come back tonight.  

Also, it looks like we might get to meet up with Brody and Randy this afternoon.  

So it should be a fun day.

Two posts in one day might be a new record…not to mention that they’re both done before lunch.  This is absolutely worthy of a second post.

As is the case for most of us, I love looking at blogs of people that I’ve never met.  Actually I think most of the blogs I read are authored by people that I’ve never met in person.

It’s weird though how much you can know about these “blog friends”.  I’ve been following two blogs that are somewhat related, at least in my mind, for some time now.  I found them through Brody’s blog.  They are aaronivey.com and stevenbush.org.  This morning I went to Aaron Ivey’s site and found a post about his friend (in real life) Steven Bush.  I’ve gathered that his friends (in real life) call him Bush.

Bush and his wife are going through the process of adopting a little boy whose name is August.  I think they are only days away from adopting August, and they still have about $ 4,000 to raise.  So he is selling some prints of his photography on his site to raise this last bit of money.  His site says that if he can sell 140 prints they will have raised all the money they need.

The prints are only $ 35.00…which is a great price for some awesome looking prints.  So get some early Christmas shopping done today…or make your kitchen look a little hipper. I think I’m going to order “Farmlands of Ethiopia.”

If you already have all the photography you need and still would like to give money to the Bush family here’s a link for that.

I think this is the second time they’ve done this….so some of you may have already seen/downloaded this.

Isn’t this such a cool idea?

My favorite part of their explanation is “we would tell you what key its in, but it keeps changing…the first chord is C.”

So if you have Pro tools, or some other editing software you should go get it….its only 99 cents.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Oh and, I would link to this but I can’t figure out how to link to itunes….so just go to itunes and put in radiohead….it’ll pop up.

Any Tom’s lovers out there?

I’m not sure if I like the stichout kind.  They don’t look like slippers though…so I guess that’s cool.

These guys are so cool.  Tell me another dude that can sing like this…..you can’t, don’t even try, he’s amazing.

Let me tell you about my friend, Patrick.  Pat is a stud.  He’s funny and incredibly talented. I met Pat about 4 years ago while he was still in school at NC State.   I was pretty new at my job at Providence and in need of some help, so he started playing electric with our band some, and we all quickly realized that he had some amazing talent.  We were recording a CD at that time, and Patrick, without knowing any of the songs very well, jumped in and helped us in the recording process.

He’s one of those guys that’s in like 7 bands at one time and can play a plethora of styles well.  Yes, that’s right, a plethora.   

If you’ve played music with bands you know that there are certain players that make everything sound better…they have this knack for figuring out what the song needs and doing that.  Patrick is that kind of player.  

So anyways, he has recently quit his job – and has decided to try to support himself through music…recording and playing with other bands.  So if you need a session guy or a road guy, hire him…you’ll thank me.  Just have him back in time to play with me.

Also, he’s recently started a blog, so when you have a sec, go check out his cool pics, taken by Shelly Moore, and say hello.

This is a video of Patrick and I setting up to play at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest.

Last night, some of our (former) good friends, Ben, Lindsey, James and Callie, came by and hung out.  I might or might not have had a little feud going with Former Friend Ben, but that might or might not be relevant to this story.  So, this morning when I got up I noticed that I had a text on my phone.  It was from Former Friend Ben, who told me to check my e-mail.  So I did, and found a very sweet message, so I innocently thought, from them, the Four Former Friends. But, then there was a link to some pictures and videos….

Yep you saw it right. That’s hundreds of plastic forks stuck in our yard and hundreds of post-it notes on our car. Their videos only poured salt on our wounds….

Well, Danielle and I had other things to do this morning, so Bennett had to clean it all up.  It took her an hour and a half, poor kid.  She had to skip breakfast too.  Bennett wants to know if you still feel like Champions, Former Friends?

Mark Driscoll was asked this question:

What are some of the major blind spots of megachurches?

Here is his answer:

The major blind spot of megachurches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms.  Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types who sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a seafoam green chair drinking herbal tea-the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons.  A friend of mine calls them “evangellyfish”: men with no spiritual vertebrae.