When Creativity and Spirituality Collide Video...

"Tell Me All Your Thoughts on God, 'Cause I'd Really Like to Meet Her"

Do you remember this song from the '90's? The lyrics were ringing in my head this morning when I woke up and couldn't remember the one hit wonder who wrote it. "Tell me all your thoughts on God, cause I'd really like to meet her. And asked her where and who we are." Apparently Dishwalla wrote it, but no one cares. However, their words lived on in my memory this week as I thought about how people are always trying to spread their beliefs to other people. In Christianity, this phenomena is often called Evangelism, the spreading of your faith to others. First off, do not associate the word, "Evangelical" necessarily with that either, because I know the baggage that comes with a word like that, especially after just going through election season. Sorry about the Religious Right to people who are not followers of Jesus. Know that they mean well, even if sometimes it comes across as loopy. Enough on that though, that is not where I want to head with this...

Since this week at church we were talking about world missions, it was interesting to me to be thinking about what is more important, spreading your faith, or assisting those with greater needs than our own (or those in conjunction with one another). What I'm referring to by saying, "needs greater than our own" is people who do not have clean water, have HIV, the genocides, sex slavery...we know the terrible list of all the indecencies in the world. Something that one of the members of our group at church said this week though, specifically in regard to sharing our faith with others, is to remember that we are both learning from each other when these dialogues happen. So often I see evangelism as a "me trying to convert you to exactly how I view the world". Now I want to be clear that I'm not trying to water this down either. I believe, even if some consider it narrow minded, that accepting Jesus Christ into your life and following him is the only way to receive salvation. However, when "sharing my faith", it is not that I am going around looking for people who think differently than me so I can then convert them. It is that I develop relationships with people who maybe are followers of Christ, and then some that are not, and then learn from both of them. I usually learn more about how to follow Jesus much better when I am around people who do not consider themselves believers in God.

The words from a song on Relient K's new album (which I don't really recommend buying, but has a few good songs) say, "I'm not saying I'm right, I just want you to know". They repeat this phrase over and over, screaming it at the top of their lungs, as if to get their point across. Here are select words to the rest of their song, "I Just Want You To Know":

"I'm a human being, Being happy and sane
Oh, but human beings, We all need to quit, Being inhumane

Yeah I don't wanna say I'm right
I just want you to know (x2)

To know that there was a man, Who lived one day
With holes in his hands, as some do say
And I believe we'd be friends, if we talked and we prayed
So we do, that's right we do.

Yeah I don't wanna say I'm right
I just want you to know."

I think this approach sung by Matthew Theisson is right on. It is an approach of creating awareness, but not being over the top with it. So that is my challenge of the day: Learn from every person around you and never look at it as just a mission to "convert" the other person, but to show the person why God has you excited with your life, and let them show you the same. Remember that nearly every person on this Earth thinks that they have the truth, but really we are all a bit off the mark.

Go. Love. (Matt. 28:19, 1 Cor. 13:13)

PS - Here is the song if you are interested in it (and no its not the best of songs, but buy it if you like it...):
http://www.box.net/shared/n7oue0m6mf

Signature Entertainment Inquiry

True Story: A couple of weeks ago, "HollaXandertheGreat" sent me an email looking for me to sign him. Here is what he said:

"If your looking for some rappers holla back at me...

I also be writing rock songs but I cant really sing but I can always rock...

but w\e jus let me know what the deal is..."

I responded that I would like to see his grillz...





Ok. I actually was very polite and said I had all the artists I would like to work with signed already. I gave him a good luck and said, "Always strive to be creative and as perfect as you can be."

Oh man.

Joshua James story for yah

So. My life is a little out of control. But it usually is this way and I like it.

I've been working at Starbucks and its been around 35 hours a week. That doesn't sound like much, but almost all of my days off have been for the 3 weddings I've had in three weeks. So, getting started on my own business has been so hard, but I'm still moving forward. I'll try to do a life update on this blog deal soon.

But I am choosing to tell of the Joshua James concert I went to a couple of weeks ago. You probably have never heard of him, but he is an awesome singer/songwriter from the Midwest. Joshua posted a Myspace bulletin asking for any fans to give him and his band a place to sleep (a total of 6 guys). Since this is his first tour with a full band, they are not really reeling in the cash (by any means) and can't afford a hotel, so they just sleep in their car. It sucks that musicians have to do this, but that's the way it is. So anyways, my buddy Owen and I decide to contact them and tell them they can stay at my place. Well, my place is actually my parents place, so after my mother's approval we were golden.

The day of the show I worked from 8-430 at Starbucks. I came home, ate a quick meal and headed down to Baltimore. The venue was called 8 X 10 and was a really cool place. The concert was great. There were 3 openers, who all played great sets, and then Joshua James played an entertaining show. But here is where it begins to get interesting.

Now I had just gotten back from a wedding a day before and had worked the whole day (as I said). I left the concert immediately after the show and had Owen stay and make sure the band knew how to get to my house. The reason for this is because I was working the next morning. At 4:45am. Yikes. So I got home at 1:30am, in bed at 2 and was back up at 4 so I could leave at 4:25 to go to work. It seems many of my "night's sleep" are naps anymore. And there is more drama. Joshua James' van and trailer ran out of gas on the way to my house, so Owen had to go back and get them gas. They didn't end up getting to my house until around 3 in the morning. I tried to get up to say hi, but it didn't work out so well. But more...

That MySpace bulletin that Joshua had sent out had some good responses. So Joshua had a notebook with everyone's names and numbers for when he gets to the town. The problem: someone in the band lost the notebook. So, the band just plays the show and hopes that someone will show up to say "hey are you guys coming over tonight??". Hilarious.

I worked from 4:45am until 10:15, so I was home at 10:30. Everyone was still sleeping except for Owen, who looked like he had died and gone to Heaven. He was so excited to be sleeping under the same roof as Joshua James. When I got home, everyone was still asleep. So I fell asleep for 45 minutes and sent Owen out to get breakfast. I woke up to everyone hanging out in my kitchen and Owen and I served some killer omelets and toast for the guys. We chilled for a few hours and had a lot of fun. My parents found it hilarious that they left for work around 8:30 and there were 7 men in their house who they did not know at all. Beds set up everywhere. What a great time.

So the point of this blog is just entertaining, but also just to realize how hard it is for quality musicians to try and make a career. So many people I know always complain that there is nothing to do. Here is my attempt to tell you to go to concerts and have a good time. Has anyone ever been inspired by a random blog story though? Well, let this be the first.

“Why I love Top 40 Music”

Reason number 542: Because of the creative lyrics. Below is a list of a few of the top songs on iTunes, their place on the chart as of today, and snippets of their lyrics. Some of the songs are repeated on the “Top Singles” chart because they are sold in different formats. You may notice a common theme throughout the lyrics and find out how sarcastic the title of this blog is.

Note: THIS BLOG IS EXPLICIT.

#2 song: Katy Perry “I Kissed A Girl”

“[Chorus] I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong, It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

[Verse] No, I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter
Your my experimental game
Just human nature
It's not what, good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey”

#4 Lil Wayne “Got Money”

[Verse 1: Lil Wayne]
Now I was bouncing through the club
She loved the way I did it but
I see her boyfriend hatin' like a city cop
Now I ain't never been a chicken but my fitty cocked
Say I ain't never been a chicken but my semi cocked
Now where your bar at?
I'm tryna rent it out
And we so bout it bout it
Now what are you about?
DJ show me love
He say my name when the music stop
Young Money Lil Wayne
Then the music drop
I make it snow I make it flurry
I make it out alright tomorrow don't worry
Yeah Young Wayne on them hoes
A.K.A. Mr. Make It Rain On Them Hoes (Young Money)

[Chorus: T-Pain + Lil Wayne]
Got money (yeah) And you know it
Take it out your pocket and show it (then)
Throw it (fly), This a way (fly), Thata way (fly)
This a way (fly), Thata way, Gettin' mug
From everybody who see that
Hang over the wall of the VIP
Like (fly), This a way (fly), Thata way (fly),
This a way (fly), Thata way”

#9 – Lil Wayne feat. Kanye West “Lolipop”
#10 – Lil Wayne “Lolipop”

[Intro: Lil Wayne]
“Ow…Uh Huh No Homo…
Young Mula Baby
I say he so sweet
Make her wanna lick the rapper
So I let her lick the rapper

[Hook: Lil Wayne]
She she lick me Like a lollipop
She she lick me Like a lollipop
She she lick Like a lollipop
She lick me Like a lollipop

[Chorus: Static Major + Lil Wayne]
Shawty wanna thug
Bottles in the club
Shawty wanna hump
You know I'd like to touch
Ya lovely lady lumps”

#16 Usher “Love in This Club”
#47 Usher feat. Young Jeezy

Chorus: “I wanna make love in this club” [repeated over and over]

#21 Ray J “Sexy Can I” [Explicit]
#49 Ray J “Sexy Can I” [Clean]

“[Chorus:]
Sexy can I, just pardon my manners.
Girl how you shake it, got a player it like (ohhhh)
It's a kodak moment, let me go and get my camera
All I wanna know is, sexy can I.
Sexy can I, hit it from the front,
then I hit it from the back.
know you like it like that.
then we take it to the bed, then we take it to the floor
then we chill for a second, then we shake that ass some more
Sexy can I, just pardon my manners.
Girl how you shake it, got player it like (ohhhh)
It's a kodak moment, let me go and get my camera
All I wanna know is, sexy can I.”

I can’t even get read anymore of these frickin lyrics. This is why I have to dedicate the next portion of my life to helping others make quality music. Music should always be about creativity; if we ever get away from that, we have ruined one of the greatest gifts mankind has received.

It’s no wonder that every girl in America is singing Danity Kane’s single, “Damaged”.

“I thought that I should let you know
That my heart is
Damaged, damaged
So damaged (so damaged)
And you can blame the one before
So how you gonna fix it, fix it, fix it?”

Attempt at a Podcast??

I am going to try and figure out podcasting. It seems interesting and a heck of a lot less time than typing. I am still figuring out how to do it, but it seems cool. I am also going to learn how to publish it in an RSS feed. My first goal is to figure out how to do it. Then I'll decide the direction I want to take with it. Technology is way to fun and interesting.

The link below is to my online file sharing service: Windows Live Skydrive. It's free and pretty sweet. You can store files online and then post them with a URL like this. It is my favorite site for online file sharing that I've found (and I've tried out around 6 - ha!).

When you click on the link below, it may just let you download or it may take you to the file sharing site. If you are on the site, click on the white document right in the center of the page. Let me know if you can access it, if you had any problems, or any other ideas you have.

You must have iTunes in order for this to work. For a free download, go here.

First Podcast from Jon Sigmon

"Changes" - The Longest Blog Update of My Life

I posted this on MySpace a few days ago and decided to throw it up on here...

April 25^th. I packed up my stuff and was gone from the Contemporary Music Center. The place was the most incredible place I have ever been. I learned about/gained experience in sound engineering, management, booking, live sound, production, publishing, stage management, marketing, graphic design, and record labels. But I learned so much more than the typical education. I found out my quirks and my strengths, my likes and dislikes, and whom I want to become paired with what I'd like to do. This doesn't even include how my eyes were opened religiously, politically, analytically, and the inspiration I received to impact my world. The CMC shaped me.

May 2^nd. I left my home in Lancaster, PA to head back to Geneva. Lancaster was a good time to see my family and digest the CMC. I set up a desk in my basement and got to work. One day I helped out at my church on a fully handicap-accessible playground. They had over 1,000 volunteers come through and build this thing and it was incredible. It is called Daniel's Den, dedicated to a handicap child named Daniel who inspired the project. The different aspects of this park were actually chosen by kids and are part of a community park that includes a couple of open fields and a baseball diamond. It is a really neat idea for the church to create the park on their ground for open community use.

May 9^th. Kelly and I decide to call it quits after almost two and a half years. This is the sad part of the story. We both still loved each other, but need time to grow apart. There are a lot of details here, but out of respect for her, I am not going to type that on a blog. There is a chance that we could end up back together, but as for now we have decided to split. At first it was very hard to deal with, but I know that it is for the best and have a peace about it. Kelly is an awesome girl and I wish her the best.

May 17^th. I officially graduated! The ceremony was great and as expected it was a bittersweet experience. I will never forget a lot of the memories from Geneva. From Little Bat to Showtime, from best friends to my first beer, from Fred Webb to Bill Pearce, it was amazing. Of course it was hard to say goodbye to my friends, but I had already experienced this once in December and again on the island. If I didn't get a chance to tell you, I love you my Geneva friends.

May 22^nd. Here I sit on my last night in Michigan. I have been visiting my family up here and it's been real nice. I started at my father's mom's house and saw that whole side of the family. Normally I only see them once a year at Christmas, so it was nice time. I went golfing with my grandma's husband, Chuck, and my parents came along. They planned to just walk, but were forced to play or not come at all. My mom planned to only hit off the first tee, but both of my parents had good first drives. It was pretty hilarious considering neither of them had ever really golfed. But then they got addicted. My mom used a tee for all of her shots and did pretty good. My dad also played well with the junky set of clubs from the clubhouse, but I don't think either of them will be taking up the game anytime soon.

After a few days at Grandma Sigmon's, I drove with my parents to my mom's side of the fam. The first night I saw my cousins, some of which I had not seen since middle school! It is pretty sad actually, but it was good to catch up with them over dinner and see what they are doing with their lives. I also got to meet my adopted cousin from Russia, Isabella, who is now 4 years old. There is a whole neat story of how that adoption happened, but it was neat to meet her. She is a whipper-snapper of a kid and a real doll. I kept throwing her up and down and taught her how to walk on a treadmill. All she kept saying while I was playing with her was "again, again, again". So cute.

So now what? I thought I had a good lead on a job as a production manager/marketing assistant in Chicago. I was talking to a girl who I thought was the person doing the hiring. I sent her my resume around two weeks ago after she sold me on the job. It turns out that the manager at the venue was the real person in charge of hiring. He met a person who used to be on the Smashing Pumpkins management team and before he even saw my resume, hired him. The frustrating thing is that my resume was in two weeks before that point, but I guess that is life.

When I finally get back to Lancaster in a few days, after a bachelor party in Pittsburgh with Joel and friends this weekend, I plan to get started on the job search. I want to do something in the music business industry. I love doing the business side of things and I want to help be a part of creating music that helps to shape who we are and helps us cope with the struggles of life. Because of this passion, I would love to be the manager of artist's or bands. Of course I have a broad list of interests: business (including entrepreneurship, finance, and marketing), computer/internet technology (I read around 30 articles a week online and spend countless hours reading and learning about this online), booking, being the manager of a recording studio, working for a creative company and doing their marketing, working for a publishing house, working at a venue, doing market research for a worthwhile company, or many other things.

For right now though, I am going to start my own company called Signature Entertainment. It is still in the formation, but I am starting it out as primarily a management company. There are around 7 artists or bands that would already like to work with me and another one that I would like to work with on top of that. This could be a full time job, but I won't make enough money to support myself starting out. So, my plan is to apply to Starbucks when I get back in town and try to get a job there. I'm actually really excited to work at a coffee shop, as weird as that sounds. I am ready to meet some different people and get out there in the "real world" (because no, Geneva is not the real world). I'm also helping a friend, Bryan Harada, start a web design/graphic design/photography company. This also could take up a lot of time, but I'm going to focus on the things I need to get done first before I take on too much. If it is one thing I learned in college, it is the ability to say no, so I'm feeling pretty good about all these possible commitments. To start, it is looking for a job that will pay those school loans.

As for personally where I am at, I am ready to get going. I feel like I've been on a vacation for over a month and desire to be productive. I've been working with dial-up internet and may kill myself if I don't get a wireless connection soon. Come Monday morning, I will be ready to go.

Go Pistons. Go Pens.

They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Politics. Sometimes I love 'em, sometimes I hate 'em. Either way, we gotta live with 'em, so here we go. I read an article yesterday about an 8th grade boy who professed that he was gay growing up. He asked a boy in his class to be his valentine and the kid ended up bringing a gun to school and shooting him in the head in the middle of class. yikes.

So what does the Christian community do with the gay community (not assuming these are seperate - see Ted Haggard, leading evangelist in the world one year ago)? For me, this is not a complicated question, but it seems like we have made it that way. Now I'm not one to say that pars of the Bible are more important than others (by any means), but I do personally put more weight on Jesus' life. God incarnate. God in flesh. God as man. Crazy. So I look to His life for answers. I'm sure you see where this is going: love.

Yep. Love. But how do we love people who are "living their entire lifestyle in sin". Well, the same way I love anyone I've ever loved. Why would I treat my God-following father any differently than my drug dealing friend? Why would I treat Jesus different from a homosexual? I shouldn't and I won't.

But what about gay marriage? Every time I turn this topic on CNN or Fox News, all I see is the Religious Right battling this issue and how it is going to underpin American values. Well, I hate to say it, but gay marriage is going to be legalized. Whether I agree with it or not, or whether you agree with it or not, really is not going to matter (in my opinion). So, with that conclusion, and with looking at Jesus' life of loving the "worst of sinners", why are Christians battling gay marriage. We are looked at as the enemy. When a gay person hears the word "Christian", the first thing most are going to associate that with is "gay hater". Umm...I don't really want to be associated with that.

So. I'm not going to battle gay marriage on Washington's door. Instead, I'm going to try and treat a gay person just like I would treat my father. With respect for the individual.

Anyone else in?

What is the world coming to?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20080304/tuk-padding-to-protect-pedestrians-dba1618.html

Ridiculous.

A Few Things I'm Learning/Thinking About...

- The first time I'm unemployed since I was around 15 years old could be when I graduate from college (hooray for irony).
- I'm going to have a whole host of expenses coming my way here pretty soon and not a lot of cash to pay for those.
- I should look for the beauty of God aesthetically - especially while I'm here on the island.
- Going running is refreshing.
- I have a gazillion interests but almost all of them relate to directly to the field of technology.
- I am overly excited to see Kelly in 23 days.
- I am going to read an actual book until I finish it rather than approximately 30 online articles a day.
- I have a ton of work to do with both of the artists I am engineering for, due a week from today.
- I do not know a lot of places to look for music business jobs.
- I do not know if I want to pursue music business.
- Marketing and Music Engineering are two of the most intriguing things to think about/do.
- Protestant's are about to officially become a minority for the first time in America's history (51% claim to be Protestant now, compared to 65% in the 80's - World News).
- I am trying to learn tons of new software - photoshop, illustrator, about 5 different video editing softwares, garage band, VLC, azureus, limewire, switch, iDVD, iPhoto, and all the other goodness on my Mac.
- I think I may borderline worship Steve Jobs.
- I don't think patriotic songs should be sung in churches.
- I am a Republican with no one to vote for.
- I've learned more from Kel than anyone besides my parents (often through just processing).
- Communication must be focused and concise (Big lesson here).
- I like watching films analytically and not just for pleasure.
- I listen to way too much music of way too many genres.
- I don't listen to as much music as I want to.
- I miss my friends from Geneva and want to call them, as well as high school friends, but never make the time to.
- Kelly is wonderful and I take her love for granted sometimes.
- God has blessed my relationship with her beyond belief this semester.
- I recommend renting the movie "Once" and listening to the soundtrack over and over again.
- I don’t know where I want to live in a few months (this should probably be a whole separate blog – ha)
- I love being organized and having a schedule.
- I need to figure out what to write on my different resumes.
- I need to actually spend time looking for jobs.

- I say "I" too much (Philippians 2:3-4).

This May Help Describe Some of My Thoughts...

“…through foolishness they, the people, deceived themselves into thinking that there was no right or wrong in music, that it was to be judged good or bad by the pleasure it gave…a spirit of law breaking.”
-Plato

“Music directly represents the passions or states of the soul – gentleness, anger, courage, temperance…if one listens to the wrong kind of music he will become the wrong kind of person…”
-Aristotle

"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception."
-Albert Einstein (When asked about his theory of relativity)

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."
-Ludwig van Beethoven

“[Music has the uncanny power to] ‘…trigger a flood of human emotions and images that have the ability to instantaneously produce very powerful changes in emotional states’.”
–Brain specialist, Dr. Richard Pellegrino

“Take it from a brain guy. In 25 years of working with the brain, I still cannot affect a person’s state of mind the way that one simple song can.”
–Brain specialist, Dr. Richard Pellegrino

“the lyrics become a philosophy of life, a religion”

“Music seems to be the most immediate of all the arts…Music possesses us…it really is as if some ‘other’ has entered not just our bodies, but our intentions, taking us over.”
-Robert Jordain, Science writer and composer of Music, the Brain and Ecstacy

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
-Berthold Auerbach

“I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.”
-George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.”
-Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-Decca Recording Company rejecting the Beatles, 1962

"Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard."
-Warren G. Bennis

"Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable."
-Leonard Bernstein

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels."
-Thomas Carlyle

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be."
-Abraham Maslow

"Without music life would be a mistake."
-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“A song will outlive all sermons in the memory.”
-Henry Giles

Another 5 a.m. Night...

Yes its true. I was in the studio until 5 a.m. last night. It was ridiculous, but I loved every second of it. I was engineering my artist, Tirzah, from the 1 - 4 a.m. slot in the main studio. Now normally the manager never engineers for their own artist, but we are really short on engineers after we had to have 3 quit because of being too busy. So now instead of engineering for one artist, I have two - Tirzah and Jon Li. Jon is a good kid - plays piano rock. He is improving vocally, but he is an unbelievable keyboard player. If you ask him to play any song he has heard even once, he will whip it out - Christian to Mainstream, Folk to Rap.

But back to last night, we were still tracking (meaning recording the tracks) at 3:50a.m. Now normally after you track, you spend hours editing, mixing, getting your levels right, tweaking stuff, eliminating noises, EQing every instrument, putting reverb on everything, tune up the vocals, etc etc. Basically, there is just a ton to be done, and we had to be out in 10 minutes (including saving the file which takes a few minutes to convert to a playable file). Luckily, while I was recording Tirzah I was adjusting all these things since I knew we would be tight on time. We ended up running about 10 minutes over into the next people's time (the 4a.m. to 9a.m. slot!) but got it done. I only got to listen to the song one time through to adjust levels and delete stuff before we mixed down.

So during our 9:30a.m. class, all the artists have to play their songs for the whole class, as well as the two directors (Tom and Warren), Danara from Columbia Records, and Will Gray who is an incredible musician/lyricist. The four faculty were lined up American Idol style and just posted instant messages in real time to the projector in our cafe. Their comments ripped apart our songs - from vocals to too much bass to saying "this has potential but right now it sucks bad". So...needless to say, the artists and engineers got their reality check on the day after working so hard on all these songs. With the three engineers having to quit, I ended up mixing/editing 3 artists songs. Josh's was a harder rock song, Jon did a piano rock tune, and Tirzah did a vocal/piano lead soft rock song. I liked all the songs, which was cool, but they all turned out at different levels of quality. I messed up on some panning stuff for Josh and the EQ was off for some of Jon's song (and both had some poorly recorded vocals not done by me). However, Tirzah's recording, who I spent by FAR the least amount of time on, everyone loved! Tom later told Tirzah that it was the "song of the day" - so we were really excited.

Turns out those late nights can be worth it! I am going to Boston with everyone this weekend and can't wait. I think it will be good to get a break from here, but I still love it. In a half an hour we are watching the movie "Spinal Tap" which I guess is both of my professor's favorite movie. Tomorrow morning we will talk about it.

Check out Tirzah's performance at her featured CMC Live performance at a quick website I made for her at:

www.virb.com/tirzah

That's all.

What's New...

Hello.

I thought I would give a lil update as to what I was doing on the island. First off, I will say that I am having a wonderful time. The people are much different than those at Geneva, but great. I am managing an artist and her name is Tirzah Lemmens. You should probably stop reading this nonsense and check out one of her older songs at www.myspace.com/tirzahlemmens. She is one of the best artists here in the program and is therefore sought after by the other artists for shows and recordings. I keep track of her schedule and help in any other way I can as well. Often times I go to her rehearsals and give feedback as to a better sound or trying new things. We have a solid friendship and it seems to be working so far.

I also am training daily on ProTools to learn how to do sound engineering. We usually train for about an hour and a half a day (4 days a week) and learn everything from how to mic things properly to how to record tracks to how to mix them once they are recorded. This part is awesome. It is optional if you want to do the engineering because it comes with a lot of time. It includes around 6 hours a week of recording an artist's songs plus at least one late-night session which is either from 1am-4am or 4am-9am. Those are rough because we have class from 9:30-12 and then 1-2:30 during the day. However, it still is really awesome. I also work in the kitchen, setting up/cleaning up breakfast every weekday from 8:15am-9:30am when class starts.

Class. Class is very awesome. It is different everyday of the week. Our first class at 9:30 is usually more of a lecture style and ranges from a movie discussion (we have to watch a movie every Monday night) to a short article discussion to experiences in the industry. The songwriting teacher (Will Gray - www.myspace.com/willgraymusic) and director (Tom Willett - www.tomwillett.com) is coming back from a week in L.A. and is going to tell us stories of meeting with top producers like Dr. Dre and T Bone Burnett. If you don't know who those two guys are, you should find out. Will is trying to get a contract and supposedly has some cool offers, as well as some real bogus ones.

A couple of days ago, an alumni came to teach us for the next couple of months. Her name is Danara Schurch and she is a marketing manager at Columbia Records. I was pretty intimidated by this title and her stor. As all the record labels keep firing people and downsizing, Danara was telling them that she did not want to live in New York and wanted to work from home...and the company told her to do what she wanted. So, now she is living on the island and will be interrupted periodically in class by a top Columbia director or P.O.D. will be IMing her. It's pretty crazy to me. She works on marketing a lot of the non-traditional Christian bands and has her own company (KDR group) that Columbia subs out its market research-type work to. That way she is needed by both companies and makes tons of money doing it. Genius. She is 25 or 26...

Yesterday she gave us an assignment to market the new "The Afters" video called "MySpace Girl". Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of their pop music, but marketing it...now that is fun. We have to figure out how to get middle school and high school girls (and guys too) to come and watch this "viral video". I will wait to post my groups plan for sake of confidentiality for Columbia Records, but the ideas us executives came up with, the label will actually be using! I will talk more about this once the video is released on February 13th. You can check out their site at www.myspace.com/theafters.

In case you were wondering, I'm currently listening to: Falling Up - "Captiva". I give it 3.4 stars out of 4.

That's all for now my peeps.

A Couple of Pics from the Island

These are some pictures from the bus tour we took.  This is from Aquinna, one of the five sections on the island.  I live in West Tisbury.

Interesting fact: In the picture below, the "rock" at the point of the beach is actually an old barricade used during WWII (or something like that).  Either way, the beach is eroding very fast, so no one besides the original Indians who settled here can use any of the clay.

The First Reaction

We had the first performance in which all the artists performed two songs last night and it was really fun.  In the program, there are artists and executives, the latter including myself.  Classes are very interesting as well.  In my first class we talked about how the church tries to compete with the movie we saw the night before and how it is not working.  He used an example of how he went to one of the arena churches and how their church actually was amazing.  It was phenomenal musicians, production, preaching.  Then the preacher brought out an elephant onto stage and he couldn't help but sit there and think "how the heck did they get an elephant? How much did they pay for that elephant? How do you ship an elephant? Does it crap everywhere?".  He said everyone else would be returning for the next 51 weeks, but that he was bothered that the mission of the church was to be just as sensory overloaded as the media we watch/see/listen to.  This all happened after he opened class with an intense, suspense short film with guns shooting at cars and suspense built up to the high heavens.  He incorporated this into a short book that he is sending us by way of an electronic copy.  Its neat though, because there is no teachers making you do your homework, grade your assignments, etc.  Learning is all done if you desire too.  As my teacher said, "Frankly, we've removed the bullsh**".  Welp, I like it and I'm learning more than ever before.

Anyways, the rest of the morning was spent critiquing the artists performances from the night before.  We sat in the upstairs of the lodge (for exec's only) where there are 12 leather chairs, some beautiful wood grained tables, and some sweet lighting.  I liked a lot of the acts of the night, which is good news because our next big assignment as executives is to sign an artist.  This means that we have to convince the artists to actually sign a legal document that says we will be their manager for the next few months.  We will then do all the actual things that an artist's manager does: advise, administer, direct, handle, arrange, engineer, govern, regulate, guide, lead, mastermind, positively exploit, promote, and be their quarterback (words tweaked from our class handout).  For the first two weeks we spend an hour and a half every afternoon learning the different equipment, how to handle it, and how to use it. Everything.  And this stuff is SICK nasty. Yesterday was Studio A (the main studio) and ProTools while today was about speakers, cables, monitors, etc (more live stuff).  For the evening, we finally have some extra free time so I may try and play a little guitar, read, surf the internet, or jump in a studio with someone and start at it.

God is teaching me a lot through the other students here, through my profs, and connecting a lot of thoughts that Kelly has tried to communicate for a long time.  Hanging out with artists all day is definitely going to help me understand her little artsy butt.  I miss her, my family, and friends, but right now I'm definitely still loving living on the island.

Pictures/Video of the island and the campus to come soon.  Check out the article as a nice challenge for us followers of Christ.

http://leftofzen.com/quotes-atheism/2008/01/14

Getting Ready To Go...

So I've begun the packing process.  I said my goodbyes to Geneva and am ready to live on the island.  I am not really nervous about the experience or fitting in or any of those things, but mostly in how much "stock" I am putting into this school.  Just like every other graduate, I would like to have a job when I graduate.  Because of this, I am hoping/praying that the Contemporary Music Center will be able to provide opportunities for me that I would have never been able to get.

Everyone I talk to asks what I am going to do at the school.  I make up some nonsense about music production or music business stuff, but in reality, I do not even know what I am going to be doing.  I do know, however, that I am extremely excited to see what it is going to be like and find out what I am going to learn about.  The other cool thing is that even if I cannot get a job from the CMC, I still have a business degree with a concentration in marketing completed from Geneva, so I feel like I am leaving myself some good options.  I definitely have a peace about it all and I can honestly say that I think God is going to take care of all the details I have coming on my plate in the next few months.

Well that is it for now.  My next update will likely be from the island.  I plan to use this blog to let everyone know how I am doing, what I am learning, and if I am surviving the cold (which my mother is 10 times more concerned about than I am - come on I'm a Minnesota-born boy!).  See yah my peeps!