I work on a staff at a church with a bunch of guys that love to golf.  So when we leave for a few days, we play golf.  I don’t play that often, so when these opportunities roll around I get pretty excited.  

To be honest though (this will be the one tree hugger comment for the year) I really just like being outside.  I spend too much time inside, at a computer near florescent lights….man i hate florescent lights, they suck my energy.  

Anyways, I’m excited to play some golf.  I’ll try to have some good pics/videos when i get back.

The above picture is me at last years golf outing after I drained a 3 footer….it was a great shot.

later.

A few months ago I went to a Radiohead show in Charlotte.

The lighting set up was amazing.  

I found this article on Radiohead’s website.  It’s a description of how they did it.

Interestingly enough a few weeks back I was at Buckhead church in Atlanta, and they had a similar setup.

We were able to come home from the Hospital on Sunday afternoon.

Eden is sleeping and eating really well.

Danielle and I have been able to sleep a decent amount at night.

Bennett and I have enjoyed finding creative ways to play with Eden’s blankets.

Eden Hope Renstrom was born at 12:01 this morning. 7 pounds, 2 oz., 20 1/2 inches. Mom and Baby are both doing great.

Thank you for your prayers.

Sorry that I haven’t posted my pics from The Myriad show….I left the card reader to my camera at the church….so I’ll have to post them tomorrow. Andrew got a really great shot though….go check out his picture from last night.

I’m not sure if any of you have read the Ben Gibbard article in the current Paste, but it’s incredible. They let him write it himself, and it’s such an interestingly introspective piece. It’s almost weird how honest he is in the article. He says some things about life and love that I think you’ll all find fascinating.

He also writes some cool things about songwriting that I wanted to post here, especially in light of what David Bazan said in Paste last month about songwriting. Here are a few of Gibbard’s quotes:

I’d like to think I’m a far better writer now than I was 10 years ago. When I first started the band, and I began writing in the way that has marked the trajectory of how I go about making music now, I was convinced that my writing was wildly descriptive and very dense and interesting, and people were really going to have to chew on this stuff. But now I’ll play a song like “Bend To Squares” and it’s like, “What the [junk....he used other words...sorry to be so ccm] am I talking about here? This song makes absolutely no sense.” I would just write what I thought were profound, dense lyrics. They may be about something in my head, but they don’t translate to being about anything that anybody could understand just listening.

I decided a handful of years ago that I just want to write songs that you can understand as soon as you put the record on. There’s no need to veil what’s happening in the song the way I used to.

My goal as a songwriter now is to simply write some memorable turns of phrase. The reaction I’d like from every song is “Wow, I listen to this song, and it’s about such-and-such, and there’s this lyric in there that’s just awesome.” At the end of the day that’s what I want.

Isn’t that great stuff? I’m not sure if he and David Bazan are polar opposites, but I do think that Ben is allot more comfortable with his music having a message.

What do ya’ll think?….where would you fall between the two views…..Bazan: don’t push a message…..Gibbard: don’t get in the way of the message?

Did any of you see this? Thoughts?

I thought it would be cool to put up some pictures and video from the making of Adore and Tremble…..and maybe even talk about why we picked such a weird name. But before that I thought I would show you one of my favorite things about the Adore and Tremble Project. My one-of-a-kind Adore and Tremble tee shirt. My sister in law, who is one of the funniest people I know, made this shirt for me for the night of the release. What I tried to do with music, Natalie did with tee shirt design…..if anything says Adore and Tremble it’s obviously Tina the llama and the Liger from Napoleon Dynamite.

Last Friday morning I had the chance to grab coffee with Andrew Bryant. Andrew is an amazing photographer from the Raleigh area, who I’ve known of for a little while, but hadn’t had the chance to meet. So it was fun that we were able to carve out some time to hang out and talk about bands and artists that we’re both into and about how cool it is  to see Raleigh becoming a welcoming place for artists to live. We’re also thinking about working together on some stuff in the future.  It was an encouragement and challenge to me to see how he serves people through his art/work.  He’s got a great site where you can see his work and blog as well.  So go check it out when you have time.

Friday evening, Mike, James, Ben and I all traveled to Wendell to play at a coffee house type thing called First Friday. We haven’t ever played non-full band versions of the Adore and Tremble songs, so it was a lot of fun to try playing the songs in different ways.

From left to right, Mike, James, Me, Ben.

This picture cracks me up. I took it Saturday morning.  It’s the line that formed in front of the library on Saturday morning. A line to get into the library on Saturday? Really? I guess I shouldn’t laugh too hard…I was right there with them.Danielle and Bennett were out of town for the weekend, so I had time to go sit in the quiet study room at the library….I love the quiet study room. I didn’t hang out in the quiet study room that much before we had a baby, but now when I have the time, I love to go the quiet study room.

I also love the chairs in the quiet study room. Little bit of rock….little bit of groove in the seat. Very nice.

About a month ago I contacted Aaron Niequist, and asked him if he would consider reviewing my CD. Aaron is a really accomplished musician and worship leader. He has served at both Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, Il) , and Mars Hill Church (Grandville, MI) as a worship leader. He was kind enough to say some really nice things about the Adore and Tremble. You can read his post in the blog section of his website.

When you have time go check out his blog and look around at his other posts. He has a CD which came out yesterday. I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing….the clips I’ve heard on his website and myspace sound great. He’s written a bunch of corporate songs that have this really indie rock feel to them….i’m excited to see this type of sound invading corporate worship music. You can buy his CD at cdbaby.com.

Rebecca Schlieman, a friend of ours, and an incredibly talented photographer, took some pictures of me last night for some advertising we’re doing soon. Rebecca and her husband Joel were kind enough to keep shooting through the rain and all my blue steel mishaps.

When you have a chance go check out her blog here

I’ll post the final product when we get them.