Category Archives: personal

I’ll Take The Physical Challenge

Last Friday night, I played a show with Matt Wheeler & Friends (yes, we’re looking for a better name). Matt is a good friend who leads a band called August to October. But he often plays solo shows, although they seldom turn out to be solo. It’s usually Matt on vocals and guitar, Shawn on drums, Mark on harmonica, and me on bass and guitar and the occasional backing vocal. By the way, you can grab some of Matt’s music by clicking here (I helped with the recording).

Anyway, Friday night, we played at a place called Live @ The Hub, a local artist showcase by the Definition Collective. Although my band, Superficial Charm, is playing there in March, I’d never been there. All I knew was that it was in Manheim and that it was on the third floor of the building that it’s in.

So I got the address and punched into the Maps app on my iPhone, and off I went. Jen wasn’t feeling well, so she and the kids didn’t accompany me. The weather was also pretty poor. The sky had dropped quite a bit of ice and snow on us in recent days. But I made the journey, and after figuring which building I was going to, and then figuring out where to park, I started grabbing gear from the back of the car.

Thankfully, Matt and Shawn were in the parking lot and waved me down. This was good, because I had no idea how to get into the building.

“Hey, guys!” I said. “What’s the quickest way to the stage?” I had my acoustic guitar, my wife’s bass, my POD, my gig bag, and my (admittedly small) PA system, so I wanted to get the loading in done as quickly as possible so we could soundcheck.

“Up over the roof then up the stairs,” Matt replied.

I thought he was joking.

I was wrong.

Matt and Shawn each helpfully grabbed some of my gear and we slipped and slid across the icy parking lot, finally arriving at a small wooden staircase. It looked like the kind of small wooden staircase that would lead up to someone’s deck or patio. The stairs were covered in snow, but up we went.

Up two flights.

Only to arrive on a rooftop.

“Cool!” I said to Matt. “Are we doing our rooftop show U2 style or Beatles style?”

The roof was even icier than the parking lot, which I suppose is to be expected, since no one drives on it.

We skated and skidded across the roof only to arrive at another staircase. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I thought as I tried not to plummet over the edge of the roof to certain injury.

Up the other stairs we went.

Through the door at the top of the stairs.

And directly onto the stage. Nice.

I got one more load of gear from the car and then we set up.

We didn’t have a huge crowd, but Erik, who was the host that evening, told us he received over a dozen texts from people saying something along the lines of, “hey, we started coming out, but the roads were pretty bad so we went home.”

I chuckled and said, “Are you kidding me? We crossed an icy rooftop to play here!”

After the show, we tore down and started lugging our gear out. Down the stairs. Across the icy roof of doom. Down two more flights. Across the parking lot. Matt and Shawn helped again, and then we went back up to get Shawn’s drums. Right about then, Matt got a text from his wife, asking him when he’d be home. We all knew that he was to get home immediately. So our friend Ryan, who is the pastor at Veritas Community, graciously offered to help us. I laughed and warned him about the treacherous path down to the vehicles. It didn’t bother him.

So he grabbed Shawn’s floor tom and djembe and exited, stage right. Within three seconds, he was back, eyes wide with surprise. “Holy cow! You guys weren’t kidding!”

As we loaded the last of the gear into Shawn’s car, I commented that this was the most physically challenging load in I’ve ever done. Shawn said it was way easier than going in the front way.

This is one of the reasons I play music. To have stories like this. How else could I ever say that I carried all my gear across a frozen rooftop on a cold, windy, icy night in January?

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-09

Best Albums Of 2010

Okay, so my “best of 2010” list is a bit late, but still…

The three best albums of 2010, at least as far as I’m concerned:

3) The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

I’m no hipster, but after reading so much of the buzz about Arcade Fire and their new album, The Suburbs, I took the plunge and grabbed a copy from Amazon MP3 when they had it on sale one day. It’s not my typical style by any stretch, as I tend toward upbeat alt/indie rock (Weezer, The Shins), acoustic/folk rock (Iron & Wine), and good worship music (Paul Baloche, Carlos Whittaker). I’d describe The Suburbs more like “baroque indie pop.” This was my first exposure to Arcade Fire, and I have to say, I was blown away (soon after buying this album, I bought their other two albums: Neon Bible and Funeral). From the weirdly compelling piano-driven opening of the first track, I was drawn into the music, and the whole album, and the overriding narrative in a way I simply didn’t expect. Maybe because I spent my childhood in the suburbs, I could relate to the way the characters in the songs strive both to escape from and retreat back to their suburban homes, and the way they lament the fluid, changing nature of the places where they grew up. I’ve also discovered that The Suburbs makes a great running soundtrack.

Standout tracks: “Ready To Start”, “Month Of May”, “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”

2) Hurley by Weezer

I’m one of those people who can never get enough Weezer. I have all of their albums, and I plan to buy whatever else they put out. While I adore their earlier work, which was partially the soundtrack to my college existence, you won’t find me bashing Weezer and saying, “Their new stuff is okay, but it’s no blue album.” I like their newer stuff, too. It’s been a kick watching Rivers Cuomo transform from the angst-ridden, too-self-aware, ironic geek and loner he was at the start into the angst-ridden, too-self-aware, ironic husband and dad that he is now. But while his writing has changed, I think it’s changed for the better. I mean, we all grow up, so why can’t Rivers? Such is the foundation of the opening track, “Memories,” in which Rivers conjures up images of early Weezer and the fun of the alternative music scene back in the mid ’90s (“back when Audioslave was still Rage”). If you ร‚ย get this album, and you should, get the deluxe version with extras, which includes some real gems, the best of which are Weezer’s cover of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and “Represent,” which Weezer recorded for the World Cup. Plus you get the great image of Jorge Garcia’s face on the cover.

Standout tracks: ร‚ย “Trainwrecks”, “Unspoken”, “Smart Girls”

1) Ragamuffin Soul by Carlos Whittaker

I’m a sucker for good worship music. And I’ll be honest: there isn’t much of it out there. Most of it is so vanilla and so uninspired that I can’t imagine taking the songs into my church and leading my congregation with them. As a worship leader, I’m always looking for the best worship music out there. That’s why I was so excited for Ragamuffin Soul by the worship leader, blogger, Twitterer, adoption advocate, and all around cool guy Carlos Whittaker. When he released his EP as a prelude to the album, I almost immediately had all three tracks from it in my worship rotation at church. When the full album came out, I didn’t hesitate; I pulled the trigger on that bad boy right away. This is an album of great songs, almost all of which are perfectly appropriate for corporate worship. The nice thing is that while they’re great for the band to play (two guitars, bass, drums), they translate well to the solo acoustic guy as well as the more diverse team that I sometimes have (congas, violin, trumpet, mandolin, etc.). This is flexible and fun music, but most importantly for a worship album, it’s Christ-centered and God-honoring. Plus, I have to mention that when I started doing the Couch to 5K program last spring, “Can’t Start This Fight” helped me through more than one tough mile.

Standout tracks: “No Words”, “We Will Dance”, “God Of Second Chances”

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-10

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-03

Reflections on 2010

I already wrote about what I plan to achieve in 2011, but how about a look back at 2010? I figure the best way to compare where I was a year ago with where I am now.

A year ago, I weighed 220 pounds. Today, I weigh 158.

A year ago, I could barely walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Today, I can run a half marathon.

A year ago, my size 36 pants were getting a bit tight, and I really should have been wearing 38s. Today, my 32s are getting kinda big around the waist.

A year ago, I had been working at Manheim Township School District for a few months, and I was still feeling my way around in many ways. Today, I have over a full year under my belt, and I’ve relaunched our website.

A year ago, Superficial Charm was just Jen and me since we had lost our drummer, Jeremy. Today, Superficial Charm is a three piece consisting of Jen, Jerry, and me, and we’re having a blast.

A year ago, I was leading worship for our Sunday service at Crossings Community Church,ร‚ย as well as Revolution, our Saturday night ministry. Today, it’s just the Sunday service. This still makes me somewhat sad, but I think things worked out the way they had to be.

Resolved, 2011

Every year I seem to have the same New Year’s Resolutions: lose weight, sleep more, and read the Bible.

And every year, I fail at all three.

But not this year.

This year, I did lose weight. Sixty pounds to be exact. And while I didn’t spend as much time in scripture as I wanted to, I did get more sleep. But beyond that, I made some major changes in my life that were, frankly, long overdue.

In April, I started running. I started with the Couch to 5k program and then progressed to a half marathon in September. If you know me, you know just insane that is.

I started tracking what I eat, counting every calorie obsessively. While my wife has grown tired of my obsession, especially now that I’m down sixty pounds, it’s nice to have somewhere to focus my OCD. Besides which, this is the third time in my life that I’ve lost a significant amount of weight, and this was the hardest time. I don’t want to do it a fourth time. I don’t have it in me. So that means I’ll keep tracking my calories, because if I can control those numbers, I can control my weight. And I am terrified of gaining any back.

So what are my resolutions for 2011?

First, keep running. I’d like to do another half marathon in the late spring or early summer, and I’m considering a full marathon after that. Plus the Red Rose Run and maybe a couple 5k runs along the way.

Second, keep the weight off. I weighed in this morning at 159. I want to close out 2011 at 159 or less. The running and the calorie counting will help, as will the Soloflex I recently acquired.

Third, my old standby: read the entire Bible. My plan is to use YouVersion on my iPad to follow their Bible-in-a-year reading plan. I use my iPad every day anyway, so why not use it to help me achieve another goal, right?

I think the lack of a plan has been part of the problem in the past, anyway.

Oh yeah, and I want to build my own custom WordPress theme for this site. ๐Ÿ™‚

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-12-27

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-12-20