always

Lately i've been pretty podcastalicious as i am trying to find a new local church in Spokane and still keep up with my brothers and sisters in Hollywood. There's been a lot of good stuff but two things have come at me that my mind and face immediately followed with the non-verbal equivalent of (or maybe i actually just said it aloud...) "zing!" And i give them to you.

"...or whatever we're doing when we think we're not worshipping." - David Dark

"There is no worship neutral." - Joseph Barkley

something good on the radio!

Last week the Paste blog gave me the heads up that Wilco was playing on the live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. Yep it's true, Garrison Keillor and crew are still broadcasting from Saint Paul, Minnesota with their old-timey live radio show, complete with the chronicles of Guy Noir private eye, the news from Lake Wobegone, silly commercials read by the host, and all the goofs and stumbles of doing it all live. You can check out the list of local stations that broadcast the show or stream it online from the website, saturdays at 5pm Central.
Wilco was good, but they played all new stuff which i haven't really gotton into yet. The bluegrass/country singer Patty Loveless was on the show too. She was great and did a Don Williams tune with some lines i particularly enjoyed:

Hand fulls of dust, hand fulls of dust
Sums up the richest and poorest of us
True love makes priceless the worthless
Whenever its added to a hand full of dust

Throughout the show, from music to comedy, they kept bringing the little jabs of truth to keep you thinking. And it's all wrapped up in a nearly forgotten art from- the live radio show. Tune in next week for special guest Neko Case!

don't miss the boat...like it did

So i know i'm getting to this a little late, but my listing is largely consumed by the Jon Foreman seasons EPs right now. If you didn't know, the Switchfoot singer made a 6 song EP for each of the 4 seasons. I knew they were out there but until recently had only heard a couple tracks, and since they didn't come to emusic (basically my only music source this year) i hadn't picked them up. Anyway, they're fanTAStic! Really fantastic. If you don't have them already, go get them! they're all on itunes. it's easy. Now, you may be thinking, 'marc, 4 EPs is kind of a big commitment...' But it's ok. just buy Fall today and after you see how marvelous it is you can pick up the others as their seasons come...if you can wait that long!
On Fall The songwriting is brisk, smart, and stirring. The instrumentation is driven by a beautiful, natural, clear, acoustic guitar; with lots of chamber orchestra sounds giving the mixes body. The percussion is simple and unique, driving where needed without being overbearing.
Each EP is equally good, and each fits its title season faithfully. They're magic. Go buy them.

back in The Kane

so i'm back in spokane for a while. a long while. it hasn't really set in yet. it still feels like i'm just here for a holiday or something and i'll be going back to where ever else i live and whatever else i'm doing with my life in a week or two. it's kinda weird. what was weirder was a few things that happened when i went down town (in contrast to the LA experience i just finished) to the coffee shop to get to the bottom of my google reader and see who i could run into.

• i found parking
• a quarter got me a whole hour in a meter
• two complete strangers walking toward me greeted me politely
• got an invite to sit in on a blues gig
• paid a mere 4 bucks and change for and iced americano, cup of drip, and a pastery
• after i finished my coffee i was served up with a "welcome home beer," a free Black Butte Porter. mmm.

none of this happened in LA. as weird as it is, i think my time in The Kane is gonna turn alright.

a real gig!

During part of my break from classes i had the honor of joining the guys formerly of Plumbline and Fin who are now under the front man's name Joseph Barkley. Joseph is the music pastor at my church. They needed a guitarist for a camp they'd booked in Montana, and they asked me to go. It was a blast! They had all some fun stuff planned for us and the speaker during the day, which we didn't really expect. We did a little rafting (which was freeeeeezing), some hiking, and some skeet shooting. It was great getting to know the guys in the band and i get to head back next week! Yeah, that mean missing a whole week of school, but i figured i came hear to learn how to make money playing guitar, so i may as well go do it.

Last Quarter!

I can't believe it's already my last quarter at MI. New classes are:

Guitar Repair and Maintenance 

Guitar Heroes of the 60s and 70s 

 learning solos, intros, etc from the greats

Guitar Studio Recording 

learning some songs inside and out and re-recording the guitars to back up tracks

Advanced Groove Concepts 

 gettin' funkalicious, playing in odd meters and over meter/groove changes

Developing the Art of two-line Improvisation 

this really old, brilliant gentleman who's played with all sorts of people you wouldn't believe got bored and started trying to improvise two lines at a time like a bach fugue, or with chord tones, scales etc. should be mind blowing!

National Doughnut Day!

Yeah, this is for real. check the googler. I celebrated! twice. once before i knew...and once after.

pancakes

I was defeated by this glorious (or embarrassingly gluttonous) plate of pancakes recently at the Griddle in West Hollywood. As with most places in Hollywood the food's not cheap but, c'mon, pancakes for dayz! In the future i would recommend this plate for 3 people who are really pumped about eating pancakes. The list of pancake types was intense. These particular tasties are of the Baileys and kahlua variety which, ended up being a bit rich for my tastes.

Today with a more manageable portion of homemade mulit-grain blueberry pancakes i had an unfortunate incident when cutting into them. Anybody know how to get a blueberry juice stain off of white paint?

the Hoff

my best friend Jeff is visiting me this week, and as we were strolling along toward the record store who did we see? none other than David Hasselhoff.

we followed him into urban outfitters to confirm the sighting. he had a purse dog. he struts exactly like you would think he would. awesome.

people who know people i know or sorta know or used to know

i'm constantly amazed at the small world network of rock'n'rollers having a go at following Jesus.

one night last week while i was rehearsing with Jon Hans and Friends my guitar tone was particularly bitchin. it called to mind an album from a little known (or so i thought) band called The Cinematic Underground. i asked if any of my bandmates had heard of these genuises, and Jon said, "how do you know them?" Which i followed with, "How do you know them?" Jon, a former YWAMer, had spent a summer with Nathan Jonhson, the super-genuis leader of the Cinematic Underground, at a YWAM conference in England. I know of the band because they are friends of the Contemporary Music Center of which i am an alumnus, and had briefly met Nathan a show in Brooklyn on the CMC road trip. weird.

last friday i helped some of my new friends from Jon's band put on a show at a cool warehouse space downtown. a rockin' new band called Brown Sugar Sinks performed. good people. And i met some other good peeps at the show including some who go to my church whom i'd yet to met. in one random conversation, the band Telecast was brought up, i think because of a mishearing of the name of this sweet band. Anywho, I told the others that i used to know some of the guys in Telecast, because some of them played in Buddy Ruckus, who was a big brother band to my band growing up. Apparently one of the guys, who i hadn't seen in mmm, 7 years is the lead music guy at a church nearby. huh.

i think there were more too, but i'm failing to remember. it's just interesting (not new news, but wonderful news none-the-less) to me how God blesses those with a common mission, in him, to run in the same global circle. He is so good.

the big time?

this week i played out in Hollywood for the first time with my friend Jon Hans. We played this Irish pub called Molly Malones, a cool space. We arrived early, having not played there before. The drummer notice that Nick Lachey, formerly of boy band 98 degrees, was in the bar. We thought that was odd, but ya know, it's Hollywood. Next a few singer/songwriters hit the stage, trading songs (that weren't the great). Petty soon our buddy Nick was right up on stage next to the host of this little singer/songer party. Apparently they share the same label and had done some co-writing. So he joined her for a couple songs. Then, Chris Daughtry, came out a did a few songs. What? yeah. So i'm weirded out and chuckling to myself when i realize, Nick Lachey and Chris Daughtry are opening for us!

Ah yes, the fine print. So after all their whole set (which ran late and made all our peeps wait around), the hosts invited everyone to the after party at the bar around the corner with no regard to us. I'm sure they and their posse were all gone by the time we started. So, were not the big time, as you knew already. But while they beat us in vocal chops, we totally beat them in rock'n'rollness.

Come on Down

well, shoot. I meant to get this up before monday...I went to the Price is Right! it was a lot of fun. It kinda became a whole day experience between, the waiting in line at 6am for tickets, coming back early for security checks and an interview with the producer and finally the taping. Well, if any of you happened to be watching the price is right on Monday, i was there in the audience just to your right of contestant's row, 5 rows back, which got me plenty of camera time! only i forogt to post this, so probably just my parents saw me.

in memory of my 'stache

It all started last year for "mustache March...and maybe April" as i put it. then i just had a 'stache for until about October when i decided to go big or go...normal? anyway, here's the night before it all came off.







Well, it's nice not to have to wax up the old stache in the morning, and it's also nice to be able to eat without also eating my stache. But i do miss it. The funny looks and random conversations that it generated. Even on the subway where people do not talk to one another, i'd get to meet all sorts of people just cuz I had this huge thing on my upper lip.
Although i did receive many complements with exclamatory expletives I think the best one came through action. There were three high school students on the subway squished into a space for two trying to get a good self-taken picture of themselves...or so they would have others believe, but not me. I saw what was going down. I knew the lines, the nervous talk of how good the picture of the three of was. I had done this too many times myself. Actually they were just trying to document the guy with the huge mustache they had seen on the subway to show their friends. I was that guy! Thanks random high schoolers, for the best compliment i could have received.

Jungle Room

So my roommate met some dudes at a bible study that were into music and took a liking to one of his songs. One of the dudes used to work at the Jungle Room, a recording studio in Glendale, and had access to it after hours. They decided to record one of his songs in an all night session last week and I tagged along. The studio has a modest homey vibe and some pretty solid gear. I was just browsing the studio credits and there are some pretty entertaining ones: Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, and Billy Idol ...I ended up playing bass and guitar for the track. I was really nice just to be recording again, but here was my favorite part

Yep. Tielines to the control room right here the in bathroom!

more life lessons from music school

At the end of last quarter we had a quirky substitute in my reading class, while the real teacher was on the road for a week. He pretty much started class by telling us that he doesn't read all that well and that we don't really need to either. The more complicated stuff we were looking at, like 6/8 (i think he was just to lazy to change the metronome) and cut time he just sorta glazed over. The second day i walked into class to him telling a story about how he became an Honorary Citizen of New Orleans. He was just there playing a gig and then the mayor wanted him to come to a banquet for which he didn't have the right attire. Apparently when you become an Honorary Citizen all you get is a plaque, which my teacher was to drunk to remember receiving until he found it in his closet a few days later. The story ended something like this, "So, remember to always bring a necktie...and don't get too drunk."

This is why i pay the big bucks people.

And here's another quote from Schroeder. "Pop Schlop! Nobody ever lost any money by underestimating the taste of the populace."

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Goals for 2009

After seeing a few people post some goals for 2009, i was reminded of my Dad always saying, "if you want it happen, write it down and review it often." So I took some time the first weekend of this year to reflect, pray, and contemplate (something i picked up in my Capital Christian Center days) and write some goals for '09. So, i've been working on some of them already, but i figured if i put them up here, then i'll be obligated to report at the end of the year, and a little accountability never hurt anybody, even if it's just for my own guilty conscience.

The Goals:

Journal More (at least once a week)
Ok, so i've had the same journal since 2003 and i'm not even close to the end. Shameful, i know. But during my weekend of reflection i did a little "journal harvesting," a term i picked up from Morris Weigelt (side note: who wrote, this book that changed so much for me) meaning read and remember how good God is. Anyway, one a week, sadly, would be a big improvement.

Practice Guitar at least 18 hours per week
18 because that's 3 hours a day with a day to rest, or a couple days where there's not as much time and I slack a little.

Send Snail Mail
My folks were helping my grandparents go through some things last year and they found some really old letters. It was go great to touch the yellowed paper, see the handwriting of my kin, and get a glimpse of what their lives were like. I want my kids and grand kids to be able to do that! And write now i'm all about investing in people in ways that aren't a screen. I didn't put a number on this one, cuz really, if i send one letter, i think that would be more than last year...

Finish at least 2 songs
Again, one more than last year. With all the guitar practice to be done, songwriting has been pushed to the back burner. I started a lot on songs last year and only finished one.

Memorize more scripture
I started making a better effort to memorize scripture at the end of last year. I started in James, cuz I was reading it through in my quiet time and I found, "But be doers of the Word, not hearers only deceiving yourselves. (1:22)" Uh...whoops. I'm probably doing a little deceiving... Then in Chapter 2 There's the whole "Faith Without Works is Dead" section. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17)," right? Or as the Tracy Wilde Amplified Version says, "Faith comes by hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing the Word of the Lord." (Tracy, I'm not making fun.) So what better way to hear it over and over than to memorize!
Jesus knew the text. When he was tempted in Matt 4, he answered with, "It is written..." And one of those ends, "...man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Ok, really, I could go on and on with reasons to memorize, but i'll stop. I didn't put a specific amount in this goal because i want make sure i contemplate each piece as I go, making sure to get it in my heart, not just my head.

mojo monkeys

my roommate and I saw the the coolest band last night at this great bar called Busby's where a Capt. Jack Sparrow look-alike (not impersonator, i have to make that distinction here...) was the bar tender. They're called Mojo Monkeys. the from man was the drummer, standing front and center behind this dirty 3 piece with just a crash and a little trash cymbal with a bite taken of it. He wore a sequins black top hat and a black tank top tucked into belt-less jeans. the guitarist played this beauty of a Gretsch with some vibey tremelo. how cool are these dudes? I heard some Stones, Spoon, Wallflowers, Tom Waits in there = good. then they pushed back the drums and this great country band called 29 mules did a set with four singers all trading lead and great harmonies. dig it.