George said it best...

There's a short cut to the highway out of town why don't you take it

Don't let that speed limit slow you down go on and break it

Let us be the remedy

And the problem is this

We were bought with a kiss

But the cheek still turned

Even when it wasn’t hit

And I don’t know

What to do with a love like that

And I don’t know

How to be a love like that

When all the love in the world

Is right here among usAnd hatred too

And so we must choose

What our hands will do

Where there is pain

Let there be grace

Where there is suffering

Bring serenity

For those afraid

Help them be brave

Where there is misery

Bring expectancy

And surely we can change

Surely we can change

Something

And the problem it seems

Is with you and me

Not the Love who came

To repair everything

Where there is pain

Let us bring grace

Where there is suffering

Bring serenity

For those afraid

Let us be brave

Where there is misery

Let us bring them relief

And surely we can change

Surely we can change

Oh surely we can change

Something

Oh, the world’s about to change

The whole world’s about to change

--david crowder band's "surely we can change"

Project Witness: The Lost Footage

yep folks. this is where i grew up. at least until the 5th grade. but i do not claim it. and i can speak for the rest of my family when i say 'we glad we aint there now.' if you dont know why, turn on CNN tonight, or here's a link that explains somewhat. i do know that its not how the media shapes it to be.

Keep Singing

Another rainy day

I can't recall having sunshine on my face

All I feel is pain

All I wanna do is walk out of this place

But when I am stuck and I can't move

When I don't know what I should do

When I wonder if I'll ever make it through

I gotta keep singing

I gotta keep praising Your name

Your the one that's keeping my heart beating

I gotta keep singing

I gotta keep praising Your name

That's the only way that I'll find healing

Can I climb up in Your lap

I don't wanna leave

Jesus sing over me

I gotta keep singing

Can I climb up in Your lap

I don't wanna leave

Jesus sing over me

I gotta keep singing

-mercyme

"come on and we'll sing. like we were free."

show review!

this was to be my first show experience at lazona rosa. i must say it was enjoyable. i've been a fan or mr mat kearney since i saw him on vh1's artist's on the rise. his diversity and originality blew me away, and still does. i bout these tickets for jer's birthday. knowing he enjoyed kearney, but hoping he would enjoy it as much as i figured i would. yes i understand how selfish that SOUNDS, but that wasnt my initial intent. anyways, back to the show review. we get there when doors open, and while the twenty-some-odd people rush to claim their spot right smack in front of the stage, jer kar and i gradually made our way to our spot, right in front of the mixing console. why is this you ask? well if the dude is mixing the show from there, where do y0u think it's gonna sound best at? (if he's a good engineer)...i rest my case. so we were there an hour prior to showtime, and basically just stood there and talked. allow me to paint a visual for those of you that have never been here. its basically a warehouse with a bar. much like austin music hall, but lazona is more of a club-like stage and place. stage in the corner. bathroom stalls with no doors etc. so. show gets kicked off at 9 on the dot. opening band titled wild sweet orange. i had already check them out on itunes, but hadn't listened much. wasnt really blown away, but they were fairly good. kearney actually said later they were weeks away from signing a major record deal. so they play for about 35 mins, and then a 20 minute set change ensues, and kearney opens up with "crashing down" i believe. from there i have no clue of a set list, and i'm pretty sure there wasnt one. several times he asked what do you guys wanna hear? he played his first hit "nothing left to lose" in the middle of the set which i found interesting. his next to last song he took a request and someone wanted to hear "what's a boy to do?" kearney's response was "i dont even know how that one starts. i havent played that on this whole tour." so he commences to try and figure out how to start it, and he finally does start it, just him and his acoustic. then he gets to verse 2 and draws a blank. he spends a moment in thought, then asks the audience what the next part is. someone yells out a part of the song, then he says no thats the end of the song. from there he cannot figure it out, so continues with the part that was the end and just finishes the song from there. thats part of what made the show raw. he then closed with "undeniable." 

as far as musicianship goes, i expected good things considering he's fairly well known. the band consisted of kearney who played acoustic as well as some piano, 2 electric guitar players, (one of which was a multi-instrumentalist which i will get to momentarily), a bass player and a drummer. the drummer didnt impress me, but he hit his licks. the stage left guitar player played and was the primary background vocalist. he did well i was impressed with him. the stage right guitar player i was probably most impressed with. he played electric, one song picked up kearney's acoustic, one song played played bass as the bass player played piano, went back to play electric until later when he played the lap steel for 2 songs. and for one song, played an accordion of all things. oh and he sang too. now how incredible is that? like i mentioned previously the bass player played piano some, at one point he also had his bass strapped on and, while sitting at the piano, would play a piano lick and then play a bass line and alternate that a few times. i was not disappointed. it certainly was not a packed house, and it probably could've been less than $25, but it was his first headline show in Austin and i was most impressed with mr. kearney. if you click the pic below, it takes you to a show he recorded about a yr ago. so you can have a little taste of what we experienced. enjoy!

cheers

"meet me in chicago, down by the water line."

here's a quick rundown of the weekend prior to last night (sunday the 10th).

thursday night i left college station (so nice when i get to leave) after class and went to p-ville to jeremy and kari's casa for the friday festivities that kari and i had secretly planned. actually kari had planned, i deserve no credit whatsoever. all i did was have some sort of an idea what was going on and drive. if you have yet to figure out what the festivities were, it was a scavenger hunt. i'll direct you to jeremy's blog for more details on that.

friday evening i got to have dinner with my buddy jordan and went to see chuck and larry with stan and mrs windy and jer and kar. the jury is still out on my thoughts on that movie. it was funny, but im probably not any better off having seen it. after the movie, still in birthday mode, we wanted to go to 6th st. to a comedy/improv club called esther's follies. ive heard great things over the years about it, so we wanted to go check it out. well the last showing was at 10 and we didnt get done with the movie and things in time. so then we ended up going to mozart's on lake austin blvd right next to hula hut. it was the second time i have been out that way, this time at night and i still loved it. place like that is just another reason why i miss austin.  i got some slammin fruit tart thing and a cappuccino served in a soup bowl-ish glass. it was outstanding. foam and all. and sat right by the lake, only light from the moon and the candle lit coffee shop. it was a tranquil experience.

saturday i woke up and headed straight for college station to meet my dad for the aggie game. he accompanied me since it was an early game. turned out to be a great game despite the extreme heat index of 150 on the field, which we were mere rows from, and standing the whole time (we cheated however and sat down. it was hot. so sue us.) anywho, no matter who you were rooting for, it was a great football game all the way around. well not all the way around but it was exciting. 

After the game, it was my turn to go to work. for every home game its my job to take the footage from the main top camera and put that into the computer to be edited sunday afternoon for whats called the 12th man video, which alumni purchase every week as well as for internet stream on aggieathletics.com. The only problem is you can't do it any faster than 1X. So it does take the whole 4 hrs the game took. This wk i had 2 editors capturing so it cut down immensely. i got done about 11pm and headed home to arrive a little after 1am.

sunday went to church, then headed to p-ville for the big show. headed downtown a few hrs before showtime to eat and whatnot. got some  grub at potbelly sandwich works on the drag, which i highly recommend by the way. after that we got our tickets and later went to the show.

SHOW REVIEW COMING!!

cheers

first wk and beyond

every year at this time, i remember why i enjoy summer so much. could it be the scorching heat? the sweat filled days? the ever growing theme park lines?...well yes and no....but in reality, its because I dislike school so much. the work, the class, the stress, the lack of money in my pocket..i could go on and on really... we started school this past monday, the 27th... and it went.... debated the whole wk whether to drop physics, finally did within the last possible hr. only to add botany...yeah....botany....so excited. but other than that the schedule is pretty decent. history of jazz, prof is actually a jazz pianist. other profs should really take notes from this guy. he lights up like no other when he talks about jazz. why cant other profs do the same, and display their love for whatever subject? anywho, i also have an art history class, and finally sign language 3. hopefully these classes will help me get that gpa up. i know mother would appreciate that.

this year at work im doing the internet stream of home volleyball games..pretty lame but its pretty fun. my other assignment is to capture footage into the computer from the main top camera for football and the highlight reel from our instant replay machine. which i do right after the games are over, several games begin at 6pm. you do the math. has to be done before sunday's because that footage is used for the "12th Man Video", which i edited last yr, that the alums pay for the whole game tape.

this past wk i did take part in filming a commercial to be shown during football games this yr, i share about a 3 second spot with 2 other of my co workers. for the aggie bucket of corn. i helped edit it as well, and i must say we went in with the sole intent of making it the corniest commercial possible. and i must say i think we succeeded. so if you people venture to a game, be looking for my beautiful face.

getting ready for Mat Kearney show on sunday the 9th at la zona rosa..pics sure to come