Summer in Carolina is HOT to say the very least. Thankfully, we’ve had some rainy weather that past week or so which has brought the temp down quite a bit. At work they’ve moved us into this joint team area they call “The Bull Pen.” It’s basically an entire window row opened up with one long table of two sides stuck in the middle. Upsides are: We all have a nice window view of the plaza in front of the Atrium on S. Tryon street, There’s a much better social vibe being able to talk directly to team mates instead of IM-ing someone a few rows over. Downsides are: hearing someone talk on their phone line then hearing them on the phone line of the joint meeting super delayed, some of us, myself included talk kind of loudly when we are on phone meetings and this can really hurt concentration when you’re into something complicated, and it gets hot being on the sunny side in the mornings. They notoriously keep this building too hot. Fortunately, this team has a liberal work at home policy and I try to maximize that by taking advantage on the days I have the more complicated work or a heap of it. Speaking of which, we are all so busy these days.
Well, I think I finally have a line on a reasonable Life Fitness commercial treadmill. I’ll be going to check them out the first weekend of August. I am so ready to get my home fitness program going. I’ve been out of the gym completely for a few months now.
I FINALLY placed the order for the physical copies of my solo album, Faster. I’ll create a website with bonus content and have a larger article and maybe video to go along with that when they are in hand and ready to go on sale at a few stores and iTunes. I’m excited to have that show on the road after so long.
The whole getting my project dropped by the guy who was producing it has really left the new album, “Late Summer” in limbo for the time being. I’m now looking at re-imaging that album, producing it myself and maybe, just maybe recording it in Nashville with Tim Galloway and some of his industry professional friends. I mean that would be an experience right? We’ll have to see how the year unfolds. Lots of things around the house I need to take care of before I spend money on such a luxury but I’d definitely like to be able to call myself, “Nashville Recording Artist” someday. It’s funny that it even matters to me considering my amateur status.
The day spent recording with my old buddy, Neil was a lot of a fun a few weeks back, but just like every other time before it seems that it was just that, a one day sort of deal. I think that they key to my continued writing productivity is getting myself competent enough with Reason that I can simply do all the elements with the software that I cannot play live and just use that going forward. I have it all setup in my office, which in truth is too small. Eventually, I need to setup another pc and space in the basement for the purposes of recording and long term, I want my own drum kit and isolation booth. Dealing with people and music has turned into a real drain on me creatively, I’m sorry to say.
There’s talk of making another go at getting music going at our church. That said, I’ll definitely show up and have my part ready. I hope and pray that it goes better than the last time but I’m not really sure if TPB at the church really learned any lessons from the failures of the past. I think expecting God to just make everything work out great is a bit naive. God expects us to give excellence and that starts with preparation in my humble opinion. I still dearly want to be a part of a great church music. It’s been a long held ambition of mine.
Summer’s been spending more time at the house with us and recently even spent the night. That felt good having her around. I’d really like to see her get a new direction and fire for her future. I think getting around the right kind of people, church people could really help. Like most kids, she doesn’t want to spend time at church. I’m going to leave that one up to the big man and keep her in my prayers.
God is great and he continues to be good to us. I sincerely pray for an end to the violence in Israel and Palestine. I have friends who come down strongly on both sides of that conflict. I will only say that I am for peace and an end to the violence. 1 life lost is too many. 1 innocent child killed is unthinkable. I know that for my western mind it’s hard to really put myself in the mindset of either side, but I pray for a common ground and more than anything else and end to the violence. I’m going to add an amazing animation that Felicity turned me onto which sums up the conflict precisely.
May God bless and have a great week.