Barry French's Blog

Looking back and ahead

2008-10-07T08:40:00.001-05:00

I'm about to resign myself to the fact that despite my best intentions, I'm good for about one blog entry a month. While I do enjoy it, there are just so many more things that take up my time, some of which you're about to read. So I thought I'd take a moment and catch everyone up from the past month and give you a head's up for what's down the pike.

I'll start off with a bit of sad news. I got an e-mail from Eowyn a few weeks ago in which she let everyone know that she is done as an artist. You can go to her site and read her latest blog entry to get all the details. The second single she released, "Life" never made it on to the Top 30 charts. It made me even more appreciative of the first single making the Top 20.

On the Big Blue Shoes front, Joel and I have finished a couple more songs ("Our Place" and "Everybody") that you can listen to on our myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/bigblueshoes. They're both very much Pop songs. So those of you expecting to hear the same kind of stuff I did with Eowyn are in for a surprise.

Last night I finished up the tracking for all of the instruments on the "special" project that I've been working on. More details about this one will follow later on once I'm able to talk about it. But in the meantime, I do have a story to share about one of the songs on it.

I can say that the project has 10 songs on it and I saved the one that I thought was going to be the easiest to record till the very end. The song is "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." I had recorded the demo for the song back in May so it's been awhile since I had played the song. So I listened to the song and tried to follow along on my acoustic.

As I did, I was just taken aback by the beauty of the chorus. I'm not talking about my recording of it, but more along the lines of the melody and the words. At one point I was just overwhelmed by emotion and began to weep as I sang along with the song. It was a very spiritual moment.

Three hours later I was almost weeping again. No, not because of the beauty of the song. But because it had taken nearly three hours to record 1 rhythm acoustic guitar that played the chords for the song and one lead acoustic guitar that played the melody line of the chorus at two separate spots! Talk about your roller coaster ride! I was so frustrated by the time I finished I didn't want to listen to the song! LOL!

Tomorrow night I'm making my way back to KY to visit the parents, see a friend I haven't seen since last year at this time, see some friends I haven't seen since their wedding (nearly 10 years ago!), meet my new sister-in-law, see my grandmother that I hadn't seen in about 10 years, and oh yeah, take in a basketball practice up in Lexington at this little venue I like to call Rupp Arena. It's going to be a very exciting trip. My best friend in the whole wide world (other than my wife of course) Joel is gonna meet me up there and take in the Big Blue Madness with me.

Next month is going to be exciting too! I'm heading to L.A. for a few days! More on this one later!

Until next time...

What a way to start the week!

2008-09-09T12:33:00.001-05:00

If the rest of the week goes as good as yesterday, then I'm in for a great week! It all started when I got home and checked the mail. I had a birthday card from one of my relatives which had a nice little gift inside. I also got a check from one of my client's for the latest music project that I'm working on. So far so good right?

Then when I made it to the top of the driveway I noticed a couple of packages sitting at the front door. It was my new pre-amp and new guitar! WOO HOO! For the curious ones out there, the pre-amp is the M-Audio Octane 8 Channel pre and the guitar is a Schecter C-1 Artist Limited Edition in a nice gloss black finish. I got one word for the stuff it's going to be used for... METAL!

Then after I got inside and checked my email I found out that three of my songs had been forwarded from TAXI for an Extreme Sports Instrumental listing a la Joe Satriani. It was a nice feeling. It had been awhile since I had gotten any forwards so it was nice to see that the "rush" I got from my first forward was still there when I got these.

A couple of hours later I finished up Phase 1 of the Easter Praise & Worship album last night. I handed my parts off to Joel and he finished up his early this morning and handed them off to the Arranger. In a few weeks we'll begin tracking the songs. If you enjoyed the Christmas album then we think you're gonna LOVE the Easter album.

As if all that wasn't enough... I got another exciting email late last night from a client that had received some of my music via TAXI. They decided to pass on all three songs. You may be asking yourself "Hey Big Blue, why are you excited about that when they PASSED on your music???" Here's why...

First, the fact that they even emailed me back to let me know that they passed is a BIG thing. As I've been finding, most of the companies don't take the time to contact you to let you know that they DON'T want your music. I don't sit around all day wondering why so-and-so hasn't contacted me yet even though I know they've got my music, but if I did, this would ease my mind.

Second, that group of songs were submitted back in April. Right after I submitted those, I took the next 3 months off from writing and focused strictly on improving my recording, mixing and mastering techniques. I know I still have a ways to go, but I feel like I'm closing the gap. Which leads me to...

The real reason why I'm so excited is that they left the door open for future submissions. They said they would welcome more material from me to review if I had any. WOO HOO!

So I've got my foot firmly entrenched in the doorway now, and I'm gonna see just how far inside I can go. Even if this relationship doesn't progress any further, I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks to TAXI for helping me make this connection. I know I wouldn't have done it on my own.

Now if only I didn't have this day job that requires so much of my time...

I'm still around

2008-08-11T12:26:00.001-05:00

As much as I would like to blog on a more frequent basis I've found that I just can't find the time to do it as consistently as I would like to. I don't see that changing any time soon, especially with football season here and new episodes of my some of my favorite shows just around the corner, or in some cases, Monk & Psych, already on.

But the biggest thing that will be taking away from my blogging time will be music. I've got a lot of time and money invested into making the dreams of being a full-time musician becoming a reality. While I'm still a ways off, I'm getting closer every week.

Last week I got the finished version of the Fall On Your Knees project that I did with my co-writer Joel. That same night we began working on the Easter 2009 project. I never dreamed that I'd be writing music that would end up being used during a worship service. I guess I should say, that's just a path that I never thought I'd be on. But that's where I am at.

Here's some irony for you. When I made the decision to join TAXI earlier this year, I did so with the intention of trying to get some of my instrumental or "secular" songs signed so that I could get paid for them, which would then support my "Christian" songwriting efforts. As of this date, I've yet to receive a penny from any of my TAXI efforts, however, I've made a decent bit of money from my "Christian" songwriting efforts that has in turn, actually helped support my TAXI endeavors! I hadn't really thought about that until I started typing this blog. Funny.

On another note, I recently got back in touch with a dear old friend from my college days. I hadn't seen or talked to her in probably over ten years but we picked up where we left off and didn't miss a beat - a sign of a true friendship. The best part is that we've stayed in touch beyond the "ok, we're all caught up now, thanks for getting in touch" phase - another sign of a true friend.

I think that's it for now. Nothing new to report on Eowyn's second single "Life" as of yet, though I expect it's gonna debut in the Top 30 either this week or next. Her radio people are trying a different strategy this time, if it works, this one may go Top 10! Here's hoping!!!!!

Until next time...

Life

2008-07-16T13:30:00.001-05:00

"...That's life. What's life? A magazine. How much? A dollar. Too much. That's life. What's life? A magazine. How much? A dollar. Too much. That's life. What's life? A magazine..." You get the picture. Although that dialog, or one similar to it, has appeared in multiple places over the years, I remember it vividly from watching an episode of Webster back in the day. Funny how some things like that will stick with you for YEARS yet other things like, oh I don't know, doing something your wife asked you to do 10 minutes ago seem to slip your mind so quickly...

So that story really has nothing to do with what I'm actually blogging about but there is a tie-in. Wait for it... Wait for it... OK... Remember how in my last post (I know, I know, I go 3 months without blogging and now I'm posting twice in the same week) I mentioned that there was a chance that for Éowyn's second single, it would be another one of my co-writes with her? Not only am I saying there's a chance... it's a definite! Which one is it you ask? That would be "Life." What's Life? The 2ND single off of Éowyn's current album Silent Screams, that's what!

It gets added to radio on July 21st. So if you live anywhere that has a Christian Rock station call them up and request the single. Let's see if we can get this one higher than "Silent Screams." And if we can't, oh well, that's life. What's life you ask? The song you need to be requesting starting next week!!!

Sorry for all the "what's life" jokes, I just couldn't resist. If you didn't find them as funny as me, oh well, that's life. What's.........

Until next time...

Time flies when you're having fun

2008-07-13T21:01:00.001-05:00

Even though I knew I hadn't blogged in a LONG time, I got a friendly email reminder from a friend of mine today (thanks Nate!) telling me the same. So I figured I should probably try and catch everybody up on what has been a quite eventful three months.

I'll start off with an update on the song I wrote with Éowyn called "Silent Screams." It was released to radio back in March of this year. Three weeks after it was released to radio it debuted on the National R&R charts at #28 for Christian Rock. It eventually climbed up all the way to #17 a few weeks ago. The song stayed on the charts for 14 weeks until this past week where it dropped off. About a week ago, my wife and I ran into Éowyn and her husband at Wal-Mart. I'm not able to say for certain yet, but it looks like her second single may also be one of my co-writes with her! Once it's official, I'll let everyone know. If you haven't already heard the songs, you can check them out at her myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/eowynmusic. The four songs that I wrote with her are "Silent Screams," "Life," "To My Surprise," and "Goodbye."

Back in November of last year we started some home renovation projects. Everything finally got wrapped up in May. The majority of the work had been finished in April but it took the contractors WAY TOO LONG to finish the last few details. It was VERY frustrating. But overall, we're very pleased with how things turned out. I now have a dedicated area to work on my music and I couldn't be happier. I still have one more thing I want to do to it but for the time being, I'm up and running and it finally feels like a studio to me.

Man oh man, was May ever a busy month! I had been hired earlier in the year to write a Christmas Praise and Worship album, Fall On Your Knees, with my best friend Joel. I had to get all the tracks recorded so that the choir that was going to be singing on the album would be able to rehearse with them. Then later in the month I drove to Dallas with Joel to record the choir. It was my first trip to Big D and I had a great time, despite the fact that my back was all out of whack and I was hopped up on Advils the entire time.

A couple of days after I got back from Texas my parents came down to visit us and see all the work that we had done on our house. They were probably just as excited about it as we were. After that, I had a 3-day work week thanks to Memorial Day and my 12-year Anniversary :-)

It's hard to believe that I've been married for 12 years now! Other than being a student, musician and a UK fan, there aren't many other things I can think of that I've done for 12 years straight! Normally, we would try and leave the house and go somewhere just to get away. But not this year. We were both exhausted from getting the house cleaned up after the remodel projects were finished. While we gained more square footage for the house, we did so by giving up our "storage" space known as the garage. So after doing a purging of all the junk we had accumulated over the years, we finally got the house to a point where it's 95% clutter free!!! Only have a couple of closets to clean out then we'll be done! So after all that, we decided we would spend our anniversary at home this year and just relax. We did however keep our tradition of going to the Olive Garden on our anniversary alive.

While May was a busy month for me at home, June would turn out to be a busy one for me at the office. After months and months of searching, our office finally found a new location to call home and June was going to be our last month at the old location. While not everyone was happy about the choice of our new location, I was VERY happy with it. It's about 12 miles, or 15-20 minutes, closer to me than the old one was. We've been there 2 weeks now and I'm liking it much better than the old location, except now I'm in a cube as opposed to having my own office. But that's a sacrifice I don't mind making for the convenience of being closer to home and getting to avoid the majority of the traffic that I had to deal with before.

Since joining TAXI back in January, I've had 16 songs forwarded to prospective publishing companies, record labels, music supervisors, and artists. So far, I haven't signed any deals for any of the songs. The common theme in all of my critiques from the TAXI screeners were that while the songs were good, they weren't necessarily broadcast quality. Well, in May I was given an opportunity to submit of my songs directly to the head of an A&R department. I had a few weeks to get the songs finished so I thought I would spend some money on them and have mixed and mastered by a professional. You know, that whole first impressions thing.

So I did. I worked with Fett from Azalea Studios and could not have been happier with the whole process. He worked his butt off to get 7 songs mixed and mastered for me in a very short time span. Not to mention, we had to record vocals for two of the songs. Not only does Fett know his stuff, but he's just a cool guy to be around. Even though we were crunched for time, he was still able to help me learn a few things along the way. I would not hesitate to recommend him for any of your musical needs. He was able to get all of the songs finished in time for me to make my deadline. I don't really know what to expect as far as the A&R thing, but I do know that the person has received the songs and is going to get back to me within the next week or so. Who knows where it will lead.

After finishing up at Fett's studio, I had the chance to go another studio here in town a few days later to watch some vocals being recorded for the Christmas project that Joel and I did. That was a blast too! Speaking of that project, I got to hear the "almost" final mixes for the projects (we actually did 2 albums) and I was blown away. I just couldn't believe that he and I wrote those songs! I'll post some info on here later as to how you can get your copy of the songs. At the end of this month he and I are going to start writing another album for an Easter musical service.

Well, I guess that pretty much catches everybody up. Oh wait a sec... one more thing. I did something yesterday that I hadn't done in over 13 years. I got a hair cut... I've had the occasional trim throughout the years, but not an actual cut. It's still long to some degree, but nowhere near what it used to be. It just felt like it was time for a change.

OK, now I'm done :-)

Even though Yoda says "Do or do not, there is no try" - I will try very hard to not take so long to blog.

Until next time...

GMA Week

2008-04-24T13:09:00.001-05:00

On Monday night I had the chance to attend a GMA showcase that was put on by a new friend of mine. Last year at this time I was playing in a GMA Showcase of my own. What a difference a year can make.

I remember thinking last year that I'd be having a chance to play several shows with Judah First. We played 2 more shows after that one I believe. Nowhere near the amount I thought we'd be playing. Anyways, this post is not about that. So moving on...

When I got inside the venue I saw one of the bands that had played last year at the same showcase we played at, Kennebec. It was great getting to see them again. I really enjoyed meeting them last year. Seeing them this year was kind of like a reunion to me. I had a chance to hang with Keith, Rick and Matt later on in the evening, discussing the greatness that is Mexican food.

I always enjoy finding new bands to listen to. That night I had the chance to find two more: This Fires Embrace and We As Human. I had a chance to talk to the vocalist from both bands after the night was over. Both of them truly have a heart for ministry. I hope both of these bands get a chance to go to the next level.

I also had a chance to make a connection or two that night. Nothing that will pay off in the immediate future, but the long term potential is there for sure.

Until next time...

Taxi update

2008-04-24T12:59:00.001-05:00

I know, I know. I go from not posting in over a month to now posting multiple entries in a single day. I thought I'd give a quick update on my progress with Taxi since the last month. So far, I've submitted over 20 songs since joining in January. I've received 11 forwards out of the 17 songs that have been reviewed. There are still 5 or 6 in pending status.

I was on a roll there for awhile. My first submission was returned but then I had 9 forwards in a row. Since then, it's been 2 out of 7. I frequent the Taxi message boards and have started developing some acquaintance-ships (is that a word?) with a few of the other members. I've received some great feedback on how to improve some of my mixes and overall sound quality. That alone has been worth the price of membership.

A couple of the most recent songs that have been returned were due to not being "Master Quality" tracks. The screener considered them as a really good demos but not high enough quality for the listing. Those of you who know me well enough will know that only served to motivate to get better faster.

I've spent a lot of time and money over the last 2 months trying to improve every aspect of the process, from the initial song writing to the tracking to the mixdown and finally to mastering. I've definitely seen a vast improvement over the last couple of weeks especially. But I still have a LONG ways to go before I'm on a level playing field with the rest of my competition. But I have no doubt that I'm gonna get there. Oh yes, it will happen!

Update on "Silent Screams"

2008-04-24T12:51:00.001-05:00

Since my last post, the title track from Silent Screams debuted on the National R&R Christian Rock charts at #28. It stayed there for another week then moved up to #24 in Week 3. Last week it slid down to #27 and then this week it dropped one more spot to #28. Considering she is an independent artist in the truest sense of the word, the fact that she's even able to chart a song speaks volumes.

The album is now available for purchase on iTunes for those of you who prefer buying music that way. The album is getting lots of positive reviews. On a personal note, I've noticed that the tracks that I contributed to on the album are getting some good feedback. That makes me happy :-)

2 more forwards and radio update!

2008-03-19T20:07:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week I found out that 2 more songs that I submitted to Taxi were forwarded to the same company that my first forwards were for. The songs are on my profile page, "You" and "Let's Take It Slow." It was for a Rock/Pop Instrumental listing.

Here's an update on the radio single. Last week, Eowyn's song "Silent Screams" was the 3rd most added song to Christian Rock radio. This week, the song was once again the 3rd most added song to Christian Rock radio. Even better, the song was only 7 plays less than the last song on this week's chart. Wait... it gets better! This week the song was picked up by RadioU in Colubmus, Ohio. That's one of the larger Christian Rock stations in the nation. So Eowyn told me that according to her radio promotions people, "Silent Screams" should be debuting in the charts next week!!!

Until next time...

My first radio single

2008-02-26T15:49:00.001-06:00

I just got word that one of the songs that I co-wrote for Eowyn's Silent Screams album is going to be the first single released to radio!!! The title track, "Silent Screams," will be released to Christian Rock Radio on March 3rd.

For more info, check out Eowyn's blog about it.

My first forward(s)

2008-02-26T09:29:00.001-06:00

As some of you know, I recently signed up with Taxi, an independent A&R firm in an effort to help further my musical endeavors. For those of you who aren't familiar with Taxi, here's a very simplified overview of how the process works.

Company A contacts Taxi telling them that they are looking for a certain type of song. Then Taxi will post a listing on their web site with a description of what the client is looking for. If you have a song that you think fits that description, you have an opportunity to submit to that listing. Your submission is then screened and critiqued based on specific criteria. If your song passes the critique stage it is then forwarded on to the client, hence the term "forward." If you song is forwarded, it's then up to the client to contact you if they wish to pursue any thing further.

Last month I made my first submission. It got returned but it was a good learning experience and it definitely helped me to improve the overall quality of my recordings. I'm still not close to being satisfied, but I'm miles ahead of where I used to be.

Last night I found out the results of my second submission. It was a for a "High Octane Instrumentals" listing that would be used for "sports highlight packages" and "car chase scenes." I felt like that listing was made for me. I submitted three songs ("Don't Give Up", "The Heart That Breaks", "Try This On For Size") for the listing and ALL 3 of them got forwarded on to the client!

Now I have to play the waiting game and hope that the client is enthusiastic about the songs as the reviewer was. I've been told it can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, or in some cases years before you hear back from the clients, if you even hear back at all.

In the meantime, there are SEVERAL listings that I have material for but haven't finished recording yet. There are around 15-20 songs that I have to write and/or record for about 8 listings over the next 6 weeks. It should be fun!

Until next time...

My first deal

2008-02-04T14:38:00.001-06:00

Well, it is now official. This weekend I signed off on the contracts for the songs that I contributed to on Eowyn's Silent Screams CD. Three of them were co-writes with Eowyn and the producer Travis Wyrick, with the fourth song being a co-write with Eowyn, Wyrick and Rob, the lead vocalist from Pillar.

I also got my copy of the CD and all I can say is WOW! The production is top-notch and will stand up against ANY CD you can find. Any. Obviously, I like the songs that I helped write :-) but there isn't a song on the CD that I don't like. This is her third album and I think hands down, the best one.
Of the songs that I didn't contribute to I would say that "Crashing" is my favorite, right now. Of the songs that I did contribute on, it would be "Silent Screams" with "To My Surprise" a close second. I really enjoy the lyrics that she wrote for that one.

Right now you can listen to five of the ten songs on her myspace profile. Later this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow, you'll be able to pre-order your own copy of the CD, which I highly recommend you do, from her official web site http://www.eowynmusic.com.

There is the possibility of more good news related to this CD but until it's official I'm not going to say anything. Don't worry though, as soon as I'm able to share, I will :-)

Until next time...

Important info for songwriters

2008-01-31T09:57:00.001-06:00

Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from ASCAP about an upcoming court case concerning royalty rates for songwriters and music publishers. Click here to read the entire message. Go ahead, I'll wait for you. Done? Ok.

The basic premise of the message is that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the DiMA (Digital Media Association) are wanting to cut the royalty rates that songwriters receive for their mechanical and synch licenses. The current rate is 9.1 cents per song. They want to reduce it to 6 cents per song. They also want to make even bigger reductions on the proposed rates for the digital products, or in the DiMA's case, eliminate mechanical rights altogether for digital products.

This case is going to have major implications throughout the industry. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on this situation especially as I start getting more involved in the songwriting aspect of my career.

Throw out the first pitch

2008-01-29T09:02:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently signed up with an A&R firm to help in pitching some of my music to various entities, in particular film and TV. Well, I submitted my first pitch about three weeks ago and a couple of days ago I got the results.

If you're interested in hearing the song I submitted, click here. The listing I pitched it for was a Romantic instrumental. I wasn't sure if the song was going to fit the listing or not but I figured it was worth a shot, if for nothing else, to get the critique.

The song was returned and not forwarded on to the potential client. The critique was actually quite good, and in fact, the song actually was considered on target for the listing. I've read that over 80% of the songs that don't get forwarded are a result of not matching the listing. So I ended up being in the less than 20% category this time.

The main reason that the song didn't get forwarded was that they felt the lead guitar tone didn't fit well with the rest of the song, wasn't uplifting enough, and that the overall melody needed to be developed a bit more. I couldn't argue with them. Quite honestly, I debated the night before on changing the guitar tone but just decided to leave it alone.

I was a bit bummed that it didn't get forwarded on, especially since it was on target for the listing. One of the other notes I got was about the quality of the recording. They said it was "Not great, but clean enough for the listing." Since then, I've spent some more time on figuring out how to improve the quality of my mixes. If you'd like to hear my most recent attempt then click here to listen to a song that I wrote this past weekend to be pitched for "High Octane Instrumentals" - think "car chase scenes" and "sports highlight packages."

Overall, I chalk it up as a learning experience. I realize that it's going to take some hard work to be successful at this but it's a challenge that I'm definitely up for. It'll be another couple of weeks before I hear anything about the pitches I made yesterday. Hopefully, I was able to learn from some of my mistakes from the first one.

Until next time...

Eowyn CD Update

2008-01-23T11:02:00.001-06:00

Here's the latest on the Eowyn CD. She has finished recording and uploaded some rough mixes of four songs to her MySpace profile. Of the four that she uploaded, I was a co-writer on three of them, including the title track "Silent Screams" as well as "To My Surprise" and "Life." I'm BEYOND ECSTATIC with how the tracks turned out!

Click here to check them out for yourself!

DC Talk, who's that?

2008-01-15T12:49:00.001-06:00

While working on one of our sites earlier today, I came across a picture of Rebecca St. James, which revived a memory I had from several years ago, which then led to another memory from even earlier.

When I saw the picture of Rebecca my mind flashed back to a conversation I had with my cousin, Dan Brock, back in the early 90's. He told me that they had just discovered a singer from Australia, in her early teens. I remember him saying that he and Eddie thought they had found a hit with her.

Before I continue, my cousin Dan started up Forefront Records back in the day. The Eddie I mentioned above was Eddie DeGarmo, from DeGarmo & Key.

That memory then set my mind racing back even further to a conversation that I had with Dan's mom a few years prior. This was before I realized who my cousin was. She was telling me that her son owned his own Christian record label and she mentioned a couple of the artists that he had on his roster. She said that if I wanted she would ask him for some free t-shirts and CDs. At that point in my life, I really hadn't gotten into a lot of the CCM artists yet. Since I hadn't heard of any of the artists I told her politely "Thanks, but no thanks."

So exactly who were those artists she mentioned? Well, the first one was DeGarmo & Key. The other was DC Talk. Granted, this was right after DCT had signed with Forefront and well before anyone knew what kind of success they were going to achieve. But still, I look back at that day and regret my decision.

Oh well, just thought I'd share with you a memory from my past and show you how random my thought process can be sometimes.

Until next time...

Christmas in January

2008-01-11T13:53:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago my buddy Joel approached me about the possibility of working with him on a project for his new job. The project is going to be a Christmas musical in a modern Praise & Worship style. By "musical," I'm not referring to something like "The Sound Of Music." In this context, musical is just an industry word for worship service. So, in essence, what we're doing is putting together a worship service for churches to use for their Christmas service.

Last night we got the official "green light" on the project. After letting out a big "Woo" followed by another just as big "Hoo!" we sat down to develop a game plan. As of right now the plan is to write 10 original songs, with the possibility of incorporating a traditional Christmas song as well. Stylistically it's going to be in the vein of Chris Tomlin and Travis Cottrell.

As I drove into work this morning, I listened to a compilation CD that we put together of some of the songs that we would like to be able to capture the spirit of for this project. By the third song I was just overcome with emotion and began to weep. I was thinking about the task that lies ahead of us and just thinking to myself "How can God be so good to me when I'm so unworthy?" It just amazes me to no end of how deep His goodness can flow.

Our deadline to have the entire project completed is July 1st. So over the next several months I'll be keeping everyone updated on where things stand.

Until next time...

Letting the cat out of the bag

2008-01-09T22:26:00.001-06:00

Well, for those of you who read through my "Welcome to 2008" entry carefully, you may have picked up on this. But for those of you who didn't, I guess it's about time to let the secret out of the bag. Well, it's really not that much of a secret anymore but I know that all of you out there don't know so now I'm going to tell you.

A few months ago I had mentioned that I had been contacted by an artist who had heard some of my music and was interested in possibly recording some of my songs for their upcoming album. Well, that possibly has turned into reality.

The artist I'm referring to is Eowyn. You can check out her music by going to http://www.myspace.com/eowynmusic. The short version of the story is that I will have 4 songs that ended up being co-writes with her and the producer, Travis Wyrick (POD, Disciple, Pillar). If you go to her page, you can see a video clip of when she was in the studio last month. The song in the middle of the video that has her singing is one of my co-writes with her.

She's currently finishing up the vocals for the album. She'll be having a CD release party down here in Nashville at the end of February. As that date gets closer, I'll provide more information on how you can get your own copy of the CD.

Oh yeah, the drummer and guitarist from Pillar are also appearing on the album. Needless to say, I'm WAY BEYOND excited about all of this. I'll keep you guys posted.

Yo Taxi

2008-01-09T22:11:00.001-06:00

After talking about it for about a year now, last week I finally decided to take action and sign up with Taxi. What is Taxi you ask? It's an independent A&R firm that assists writers and musicians in getting their music in the hands of the decision makers in the industry.

The basic premise is they provide you with a list of opportunities in various genres. You then look through the list and see if you have any material that may fit that listing. If you do, you can submit up to 3 songs (usually) for the listing. The A&R people at Taxi then listen to your music, and if they feel it fits what the client is looking for, they then "forward" it on as solicited material.

It usually takes 2-4 weeks once the deadline for the listing has passed before you hear anything about whether your song was forwarded or not. If it is forwarded, then it's up to the client to contact you if they're interested in pursuing anything further.

This past Monday night I submitted a song to my first listing, which happened to be deadline day. The listing was for a "Romantic Instrumental" in any style so long as their was a clear motif, a "button ending" and the song was emotional. If you'd like to hear the song I submitted, then go to http://www.shoutlife.com/barryfrench and listen to the song "You're My Everything."

Welcome to 2008

2008-01-02T22:17:00.001-06:00

It's hard to believe that 2008 is already here. In some ways, last month flew by. In others, it didn't end quick enough. Regardless, the new year is here. I didn't make one post through the entire month of December. It wasn't because I didn't have stuff to blog about. I just found that my time was being occupied by things other than blogging.

In keeping with the tradition that I started last year, here is my personal recap of 2007.

January

I moved my blog over to my own domain name, http://blog.bigbluebarry.com

February

Had my first car accident in over 14 years when I was rear ended

March

Played my first 2 shows with Judah First
UK lost in the 2nd round to Kansas
Tubby Smith left UK to coach at Minnesota

April

UK hired Billy Gillispie from Texas A&M to replace Tubby
Played a GMA Showcase with Judah First sponsored by ShoutLife.com
Launched our first site at the office: http://www.ccmmagazine.com

Celebrated my 11th Anniversary with my wife

June

Bought an HD TV :-)
Watched the Series Finale of Stargate: SG-1
Read "The Five Love Languages" book with my wife and saw a dramatic improvement in our marriage (that has continued to last)

Watched the 3rd installment of 3 trilogies back-to-back-to-back: Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3
Launched our second site: http://www.christianmusicplanet.com

July

Had one of the best visits ever with my in-laws and their extended families in Ohio
Launched our third site: http://www.preaching.com

August

Was contacted by Eowyn about co-writing some songs for her new album
Also contacted by the former vocalist of Jesus Freaks about doing some writing for a couple of projects

September (was a good month!)

Launched our 4th site: http://www.youthworker.com
Went to Missouri to visit with my new friends, the Koeshalls
Celebrated my 34th birthday
My wife got me a Pro Tools rig for my birthday
Got tickets to Big Blue Madness
Got to meet Mitch Malloy, an artist that I've been a fan of since '92

October (was a great month!)

Went back to KY and saw some relatives and dear friends
Went to the Big Blue Madness with my buddy Joel
Watched UK defeat #1 ranked LSU in football
Celebrated my wife's birthday
Played a couple of shows with Judah First

November

Basketball season tipped off
UK LOST to Gardner-Webb... I'm still recovering
I went to my first college football game, UK @ Vandy... UK won :-)
Went back to KY again for Thanksgiving and had the best Thanksgiving meal ever

December

Did some studio tracking with my friends from Missouri
Dim some writing with my buddy Joel
Began a bathroom remodel project in our home
Celebrated Christmas at home

Nothing to say?

2007-11-29T12:56:00.001-06:00

Earlier today I noticed that I hadn't blogged in over two weeks. I couldn't decide if it was because I was just too busy or if I just didn't have anything to say. I don't believe that it was 100% one or the other. I think it was more of a combination of the two.

Since my last blog, the Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone. This year we left for my parents house on Thanksgiving morning instead of the night before like we've usually done in years past. We had a wonderful time while we there and I do believe that this years dinner was probably the best one we've ever had. I definitely ate way too much!

We got back home on Saturday afternoon. I then watched the UK football team lose to Tennessee in a 4-Overtime thriller. It just ripped my heart out when UT blocked our field goal attempt! I thought for sure we were going to end the streak! But alas, it was not meant to be this year. But later that night, the UK basketball team played and thoroughly destroyed their opponent. That made things a little better :-)

This week has been a hectic one. We're hoping to get some renovations done on our house so we've been going through that whole process. A permanent place for me to practice and record is not that far off from being a reality!

And speaking of recording... some friends of mine from Missouri are coming into town tomorrow. We're going to be laying down some vocal tracks for a few different songs. If everything goes well, then I'll have some new audio clips with vocals to post over the next week or so!

I guess that's it for now.

Until next time...

Video Blog: UK-Vandy Game

2007-11-14T11:56:00.001-06:00

This past weekend I had the chance to go see the UK-Vandy football game here in Nashville. It was my first time getting to see the UK Football team in person, as well as the first time I'd been to a Division I College Football game. I thought it was also going to be the first time that I was rooting for the visiting team. But as you'll be able to see in this video, it turned out that UK fans outnumbered the Vandy fans.

Since I recorded the footage with my wife's new camcorder, I was able to add sound effects and music that my other clips haven't had. Hope you enjoy.

Big Blue Sadness

2007-11-08T08:45:00.001-06:00

I woke up this morning in a state of disbelief. Hoping beyond hope that the game that I watched last night was just a bad dream. Hoping that the upset loss by Kentucky to Gardner-Webb was just a nightmare. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

I can only imagine what the atmosphere is like in Lexington today. I'm sure that the talk radio stations, message boards, and chat rooms are filled with people hitting the panic button. I'm not ready to panic. Am I disappointed that we lost, or as Coach Gillispie put it, got "whipped" last night? Yes. Should we have lost this game? No. Are there any positive things we can take away from it? Yes, I think so.

One encouraging thing that I saw during the game last night was the play of the two freshmen Alex Legion and Patrick Patterson. These two guys seemed to be playing harder than everyone else wearing a white uniform. That is very encouraging because those are the two players that the new coach got to commit to the program. There is definitely a noticeable difference in talent between those two and the majority of the team.

Another reason I'm not going to panic is because this is just the 2nd game of the season. The team has only had a couple of weeks of practice to get ready for this season which started earlier than any other season in UK history. Granted, Gardner-Webb had the same amount of time to practice as UK did. But GW isn't breaking in a new coach and a new system.

While I don't think it's fair to compare this team to one of Pitino's early UK teams, "The Unforgettables," the situation does seem somewhat similar. In my heart, that team that Pitino had that lost to Duke in the game that had "The Shot" will always be one of my favorite teams, EVER. So any comparison done to that team is not done so lightly.

Back then, Pitino had a good group of guys (Feldhaus, Woods, Pelphrey, Farmer) that were not elite players but they worked really hard and they had one superstar, Jamal Mashburn, in the middle. I would make the argument that this year's team seems to have a similar makeup. There are some really good players (Meeks, Bradley, Crawford, Jasper) and there is one elite player (Patterson) in the middle. While I don't think Patterson is at the level that Mashburn was at, I think he'll get there.

That year was a turning point year for the program. They were back in the national spotlight once again. They would go on to be in four of the next six Final Fours, including three in a row from '96-'98 where they won two titles and were an overtime-loss away in '97 of pulling off the 3-peat.

When you look at the difference in talent that was on the '92 team compared to the '96 team, it's unbelievable. The '92 team had one player that made it to the NBA. The '96 team had three players drafted in the 1st round and four drafted overall.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's important to remain patient with the new coach. It will take time for him to bring in his players and have his system fully in place. With the exception of the four freshman, he has a team that has to "un-learn" everything they were doing under the old regime. That takes time. There were moments in the game last night that it looked like they resorted back to their old ways.

And let me give a tip of the hat to Gardner-Webb and their coach. He drew up a great game plan and his players executed it to a tee. They are not as talented as UK but they played a much more fundamentally sound game and they deserved to win last night. Best of luck to them and I'll be pulling for them to win the whole tournament.

Kentucky has the next couple of weeks off before they play again. They didn't schedule any games during this time in anticipation of going to New York. I think the practice time will come in handy because as last night proved, they need it.

It was once said that Tubby made the mistake of winning too much too soon. I guess Coach G is wanting to take the opposite approach. Oh well, if I can't laugh about it, I'd just be crying :-) lol

It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks up in the Bluegrass state, that's for sure.

Until next time...

Video Blog: JF Weekend - Day 3

2007-11-07T13:57:00.001-06:00

The third and final installment of the Video Blog for my weekend with Judah First picks up the morning, err... afternoon, after the first show.

It was a quick trip up the highway to get to the venue for our second show. We were playing on a stage outside of Viking Hall. I personally had never heard of Viking Hall but I have some friends from this area who had and apparently, it was kind of a big deal for a non-Country or non-Bluegrass, or more specifically, a Christian Metal band, to play there.

Bonus points for anyone who can name the song that was playing in the background of the previous clip.

I followed Aaron to the venue while The Beast went to pick up Keyth and Greg. We got set up and then anxiously awaited their arrival...

The band that opened up for us, Strands, played a wide variety of styles ranging from classic rock to southern rock to modern rock to praise and worship and nearly everything in between. You can take a quick listen to them while I'm giving you a glimpse of the crowd that was there, as well as a look at "The Wall."

At this point, I would be showing you clips from the show but since I don't have them ready yet, you'll just have to imagine it based on some of the pictures that a fan sent to The Beast.

And finally, the last installment of the video blog for this day and the entire trip...

Hope you guys enjoyed these. I'll be doing some "regular" blogging over the next few days on a variety of topics.

Until next time...
Big Blue Barry aka Triple B or as The Beast likes to call me, Triple Threat

Video Blog: JF Weekend - Day 2

2007-11-07T13:15:00.001-06:00

Day 2 started out with me waking up before the rest of the guys. I needed to get my oil changed before I made the trip home so this was going to be my best chance to get that done. So I headed over to Wal-Mart for what I was hoping would be a quick process. When I arrived I was told that it would be 2 hours before they finished. I didn't want to wait 2 hours but since I had to have this done I gave them the go ahead. I was pleasantly surprised when after only an hour my SUV was all ready to go!

My cell phone didn't get any reception there so I didn't realize that Aaron had been trying to call me to see where I was at. But once I got reception, he got a hold of me, we met up and then made a trip over to his mom's house to meet up with The Beast. From there it was time to grab some lunch.

Excuse me... I believe I ordered a LARGE coke?!?!

The first clip with the hair down.

On our way to pick up some stuff before the show, I got to learn about one of Aaron's favorite places to eat.

We then headed over to the venue to make sure all the little details were in place. I had some time to kill so here's a quick look at my view from the stage about 2 hours prior to show time.

Do you hear that? Off in the distance? It's us walking in to the venue to bring the Heavy Metal Thunder!

I was hoping to have all the clips of the show ready for you to watch at this point in the blog but that just hasn't happened yet. So in the meantime, here's the clip that I posted earlier (slightly distorted video). This is the 2nd song in our set, "Listen," the one in which I cracked my China cymbal.

Not being in the habit of performing on a regular basis, I was pretty much gassed after this song! Fortunately, I had 2 big bottles of Gatorade up there with me. The crowd took some time to get into things but they seemed to have a good time. There were a couple of girls who were headbanging just as hard as most guys I've seen.

This was the first show that I can ever remember playing without the aid of a monitor of any kind. I could hear The Beast's guitar coming from his amp, and I could hear some of Keyth's bass, but I really couldn't hear Aaron's vocals at all. But nonetheless, I had a great time! Keyth kept the low end solid, Aaron was running around the stage like a Wild Man, and The Beast, well, what can I say, was just a Beast on guitar that night!

On to one of my favorite parts about playing live... (note the sarcasm)

Disclaimer: No insects were actually harmed during the filming of this next clip, except for maybe their ear drums. That is, if they have ear drums. I don't know... Do flies have ear drums?

Now, even though I couldn't hear anything from where I was at, that was not the case for Greg, the Sound Guy.

After about 5 minutes, the kit went from how you saw it in the background of the last clip to how you'll see it in this next clip... Yep, just 5 minutes...

Of course, there are consequences for working so efficiently...

Since the Red Sox were playing that night, Keyth felt inspired...

And finally, a shout out to my wife...

From there, we headed over to IHOP to get something to eat. This would end up being the longest wait I've EVER had for a meal at a restaurant. They only had one server on duty that night and the poor guy had at least 12 tables of customers there. It took forever but when we finally did get our food, it was worth the wait. About 2 hours after we got there, we finally left to head back over to The Cave to get rested up for the next day.

Video Blog: JF Show #1

2007-10-26T08:57:00.001-05:00

I was able to get some of the footage transferred from my camcorder to my laptop last night of the first Judah First show from last weekend. The original footage was shot in wide screen mode with a 16:9 ratio. For some reason, probably due to my ignorance of the software, when I transferred the video it did so using a 4:3 standard ratio. So the clip you're about to see looks a tad distorted.

This was the 2nd song in our set. The song is called "Listen." I cracked my China cymbal during this song...

I'll be spending more time on the converting and editing this weekend and then I'll re-upload this clip along with all the others and hopefully finish out my video blog for the weekend as well. But I just wanted to upload this for those of you who haven't had the chance to see me play yet, or haven't seen me play in a very long time. Hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time...
Big Blue Barry

Video Blog: JF Weekend - Day 1

2007-10-24T08:38:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I had the chance to play some shows with Judah First. It had been awhile since our last show so I was very anxious to get to play again. Since I had so much fun doing the video blogs for my last trip I thought I would video this one as well.

In addition to my own short clips I also was able to video both of our shows in their entirety. It'll probably be the end of the weekend before I have them edited and uploaded. I used a different camera to record them with and it's going to take a bit more work to get them into a digital format for the web. But it'll be worth the wait!

Well, on to the videos!

After a pretty much non-eventful drive over there, I arrived at the venue...

Not long after that the rest of the guys showed up. They had played at this venue back in March (I was at the show but didn't play) so we were checking out all the things that had been done since we were last here. Philip became inspired to be the next Tony Hawk and wanted to go boarding down one of the skate ramps. The only problem is Philip doesn't really know how to ride a skateboard on a flat surface, much less a skate ramp. The video that follows can only be described as painful...

Amazingly, Philip was able to walk away with only some minor swelling and a small cut on his right cheek. After that, we began setting up our gear on stage. Here's a quick tour of my kit.

Here's a quick view of the inside of the venue.

While we were waiting for the sound system to be set up, Philip and Keyth rehearsed one of the songs that we'd be doing the next night.

This next clip didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. It's a bottle of Gatorade setting on top one of the main speakers. I was going for the "Jurassic Park" effect but it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.

And finally, the last clip of the night. This is Ketyh just goofing around with the "short" mic stand while Greg was getting the sound system set up.

It was so nice being able to set up my kit the night before the show instead of having to rush to the venue and try to get it done just before the show starts, which is how it typically goes. Keyth and Greg had to work the next day so they headed home while Philip, Aaron and myself headed over to IHOP to grab some food.

Once we got to IHOP and got our seat we noticed that there was only one waiter there and there were at least 12 tables with customers. It took about 15-20 minutes before we even got to tell them what we wanted to drink! Eventually the manager had to help take orders. It took forever to get the food, but once we did, man was it good!

We then headed over to "The Cave" to get some rest. Without a doubt, "The Cave" is one of the darkest places I've ever slept in. When the lights go out, you literally can't see your hand in front of your face, it's awesome! We briefly talked about what was going to be happening tomorrow and then we crashed hard.

Big Blue Madness Weekend Wrap-up

2007-10-18T09:53:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone enjoyed the video clips. I had a blast making them. I didn't shoot any more clips for my last day of being back home in KY but I thought I'd do at least a quick blog to wrap up the weekend.

After Joel and I left Lexington, we stopped at a Denny's near Mt. Vernon, KY. I had stopped there last year after the "Madness" and thought I would make that part of my little tradition that I began last year. It wasn't long after we sat down that the giddiness began to set in. We began coming up with lyrics for songs for a "fictional" rock band that we're in. One of the titles we came up with is "Carrot Cake Can Go Wrong Sometimes." Don't ask...

After finishing up our wonderful meal, topped off with a piece of Coconut Cream Pie, it was about time to head back to the homestead. But before that, we first had to have a conversation with the serving staff about what the Big Blue Madness was like, followed by our expectations for the upcoming UK/LSU football game. After about 20 minutes of great conversation we finally left to go back to my parent's house.

I ended up sticking around for the majority of the day while Joel headed back to TN early Saturday morning. Later that afternoon I had plans of watching the UK football game and what a game it turned out to be.

The short version of the game is UK was down by 13 points with about 3:00 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. They were able to mount a comeback and tie the game up in regulation. After LSU missed a last second field goal, it went into overtime. They traded touchdowns in the first overtime, then field goals in the 2nd overtime. Then came the 3rd overtime.

Kentucky's Heisman-hopeful candidate, Andre' Woodson, lofted a pass to the wide-open, and big-time clutch receiver, Steve Johnson in the end zone. TOUCHDOWN! They then had to attempt a 2-pt conversion but failed.

Now it was LSU's turn. They tried running the ball right up the gut with Jacob Hester, the workhorse from LSU's big victory in the previous week over Florida. His first run went for 6 yards, his second attempt went for 0, and then his third attempt went for 2. On that play, he came up slightly injured, as did the UK linebacker, Micah Johnson, who made the tackle on the play.

It's now 4th and 2. LSU had been perfect all season on 4th down attempts, including the 5 for 5 from the Florida game last week, as well as 1 for 1 so far in this game. They gave the ball to Charles Scott who had ripped off a 50 yard run in the first half. The running lane was clear, wide open. Then Braxton Kelly, the junior linebacker from LaGrange, GA came up and made the biggest tackle of his life. He stopped the LSU back after a gain of 1 yard, leaving them 1 yard short of the 1st down and giving UK it's first victory over a #1 ranked team since 1964, and the first time they had ever done it in Lexington.

The stands emptied as the fans made their way on to the field. It was quite a scene. I couldn't sit down while I was watching the 3rd overtime. After we scored, I stood up in front of the TV and remained standing until it was over. This victory definitely helped ease the pain of so many losses that UK football has endured in the past.

Well, after the game was over, I had to leave for Nashville. As I was listening to the post-game interviews on the UK Radio Network on the way home, they interviewed one of the players from the game. He said that after they realized that they had won, he was just overcome with emotion. He really didn't know what to do so he just sit there on the field and cried.

As I listened to the joy in his voice, I thought about what it must have felt like to have been a part of that team. To have gone through all the heartaches that they have gone through in years past and to finally put some of those ghosts to rest. I couldn't help but get emotional myself and a couple of tears rolled down my cheeks. For those who know me, I'm a pretty emotional guy anyways.

I listened to the post-game interviews the rest of the way home. And then after that went off the air, I found a call-in show featuring one of UK's greatest Basketball players of all-time, Kenny "Sky" Walker. I couldn't resist calling in. I call in to the local shows down here in Tennessee all the time, so I thought I had to take this chance. It was pretty neat getting to talk to the "Sky-walker" after watching him play when I was a kid.

All in all, it was an AWESOME weekend!

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 3, Part VI

2007-10-18T06:39:00.001-05:00

It was just after 11PM when things finished and we made our way to the exits amongst the sea of blue...

And one more entry before we started the trip back home...

An FYI... for those of you who don't know who Grant Hill is, the player that Mr. Shoemake referenced, he is the guy that threw the inbounds pass to Christian Laettner for Duke back in the 1992 East Regional Final game against UK, probably the best college basketball game ever played, despite the outcome. That pass led to "The Shot" which I'm sure you've seen if you've watched any TV on CBS during the month of March.

Well, this is the final installment of my video blog series for my Big Blue Madness trip. I hope you all enjoyed these little clips.

Until next time...

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 3, Part V

2007-10-18T06:33:00.001-05:00

This next clip shows you some of the more exciting moments of the night with the introduction of the Men's basketball team as well as the first time our new coach, Billy Gillispie, is introduced in Rupp Arena as our head coach. The place went nuts for him. Oh, and you may hear some dork that sounds a lot like me yelling throughout the introductions :-) Around the 1:26 mark is where things get good.

After a dunk contest, the men's team held a scrimmage. Here's the first of a couple of clips of that game.

And the second one...

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 3, Part IV

2007-10-18T06:29:00.001-05:00

After making our way to our seats, it was only a few minutes until the festivities began. Here's a quick view of the arena around the time things started.

Then a few minutes later, the UK mascots decided to "drop in" and join us...

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 3, Part III

2007-10-18T06:23:00.001-05:00

Before we went into the arena, I wanted Joel, aka Mr. Shoemake, to take a quick tour of the UK Basketball Museum. I took a quick shot of the 7 National Championship Trophies (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998) that are on display there.

After wrapping up the tour we then made our way into the arena...

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 3, Part II

2007-10-18T06:12:00.001-05:00

Day 3 of my trip was "Game Day," or in this case "Practice Day." For those of you who aren't familiar with the Big Blue Madness, here's a quick summary. It's the first time of the year that college basketball teams are allowed to officially practice. It started back in the early 1980's, but back then it was called Midnight Madness, because the practices couldn't begin until midnight on October 15th. Three years ago the NCAA changed the rule to allow teams to begin practice at 7pm on the first Friday in October before October 15th.

So some of you are probably saying, "You mean, you're driving up to KY just to watch the teams (insert Allen Iverson voice here) practice?" Yep. We REALLY love our basketball.

We arrived at the arena with plenty of time to spare. Traffic in Lexington isn't really all that bad compared to what I'm used to here in Nashville. This clip shows is from the back of the arena parking lot and features our first appearance by my good buddy, Mr. Shoemake.

We were both pretty hungry at this point so we decided to brave the long lines of the Subway that was inside the Civic Center, attached to the arena. You can also get a glimpse at the "sea of blue" that is already there.

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 3, Part I

2007-10-18T06:07:00.001-05:00

Ok, so Day 3 starts off with me taking a trip down to the official clothing supplier of UK. Every year that I make this trip back to KY I have to replinish my supply of UK clothing :-) This year is no different.

Here are the results, as well as a prediction for the future and a brief discussion of the upcoming events.

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 2, Part II

2007-10-17T21:03:00.001-05:00

Picking up where we left off in the last video, I ventured over to the building that my grandfather spent many hours in and discussed one of the dreams that I used to have when I was younger.

And the final installment of Day 2 finds me in line at the drive-thru of a popular eating establishment, as well as displaying some of the latest attire that I found at the local sporting goods store.

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 2, Part I

2007-10-17T20:51:00.001-05:00

My second day back in KY started with a quick visit up to my grandfather's property where I spent many an afternoon while growing up. He passed away in March of 2005.

I then took a short walk down to the area in between my parents house and his property. At the end of this clip I had a surprise guest show up.

Video Blog: BBM Trip - Day 1

2007-10-11T01:38:00.001-05:00

I decided to do something a bit different for my trip up to KY for the Big Blue Madness this time. I took along my digital camera so I could make some short little video updates to go along with my blog entries. So without any further adieu, here is the first entry from Day 1…

Then a little bit later that night...

New heads make a difference

2007-09-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

Since I'm going to be playing a couple of shows with Judah First in a few weeks it was time to get the kit set up again. At the present time, I don't really have a place to set it up and leave it there. So my gracious wife allows me to take over our dining room and set up the kit there.

A couple of months ago I had ordered some new heads for my kit but hadn't put them on yet. So today when I was setting up the kit I decided to put the new heads on. The heads that I was replacing were actually the original heads that came on the kit from the factory - a DW single ply head with a "coated" ring around the outer edge. They sounded ok but they're not the kind of head that I like to use on my kit.

The new heads were all Remo Pinstripe for the Toms, a Clear Powerstroke 3 for the Bass Drum and a coated Powerstroke 3 for the Snare. I got them on and tuned up and finished with the rest of the setup.

Since my wife was gone for a bit, I was able to play the kit without having to use the practice pads that I normally use. WOW!!!!! What a difference those heads make in the sound of my kit. It definitely inspired me to want to play again! Not that I need inspiration, but I've been very busy with writing and learning Pro Tools lately. Maybe a better way to say it would be that it definitely reminded me of just how much I enjoy playing drums. And nothing's more fun than playing on your dream kit with new heads, except for maybe playing on your dream kit with new heads in front of thousands (and thousands) of fans! lol

UK in the Top 10???

2007-09-29T23:50:00.001-05:00

What a crazy day of college football. Half of the Top 10 teams lost today, two of them (Florida and Texas) at home. It's crazy to think that as of right now, UK is currently all alone in 1st place in the SEC East Division and tied with LSU for 1st place overall in the conference! All they need to do is win one more game and they're bowl eligible for the 2nd consecutive year. I'm just not used to this kind of success in football with them.

With so many teams losing in the Top 10, as well as one other team (Clemson) that's ahead of UK in the standings, it's not out of the question that we're going to be ranked in the Top 10 when the standings come out tomorrow. That's just crazy!

Regardless of how this season turns out, so far it's been a very exciting ride! I can't ever remember being this pumped about college football in my lifetime.

No disappointment this time

2007-09-29T09:22:00.001-05:00

You always read about people that end up being disappointed after meeting a celebrity that they looked up to. I can honestly say that in all of my encounters with "celebrities" since being in Nashville that I've never had any that turned out bad.

One encounter that I'll never forget is when I met Sebastian Bach from Skid Row at a music store back in '99, but that's a story for another time. This entry is for a more recent encounter.

Back in 1992 I happened to catch an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The musical guest for that episode was a guy named Mitch Malloy. I had never heard of him before that night. After watching him that night I was hooked. I went out the next day and got his CD. It was catchy melodic rock and roll. I loved it!

I listened to that CD constantly. Even though he wasn't a Christian artist, there was something about that CD that just connected with me on a very deep, somewhat spiritual, level. There were many nights during my college years when I was dealing with sadness or hurt that I would just go driving and listen to that CD. As I said it really connected with me.

Mitch went on to put out another CD a couple of years later but it was a bit of a change in direction, less rock and more A/C. I liked it but not as much as the first one. Then after that CD it seemed like he just disappeared. This was back around 1996, way before being able to Google someone.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I was at the office when I got an e-mail for a friend request for a social network site I'm on (http://www.myccm.org/bigbluebarry). The request came from someone name Mitch Malloy. I thought to myself "No way!!! Is this the same guy!?!?!?"

I went to his profile page and sure enough, it was the same guy! One reason that I was so surprised was because this site was a Christian site. Turns out that Mitch had become a Christian artist during the last year or so.

I couldn't believe it. Here's an artist that I still listen to, some 15 years after the CD released, and now I have a chance to tell him how much his CD impacted me. So we exchanged some emails over that next week. Turns out he's also a UK basketball fan.

As I was reading through his profile I saw something that mentioned him fronting a legendary rock band, but it didn't mention the band. So I googled him and found an interview with him from about 7 years ago. Turns out that legendary band was none other than Van Halen!

Here's the short version of the story. After Sammy Hagar left Van Halen, before they went with Gary Cherone, Mitch was offered the spot in the band. It didn't last long as he didn't have a peace about the situation so he ended up declining the offer. But during his audition with them, they recorded him singing over some of their songs.

In that interview he mentioned that he still had those tapes. Since we were emailing each other I figured I'd ask him if he still had them. Turns out he does. He invited me over to his studio to check them out. So a couple of days ago, I did just that.

He couldn't have been a nicer guy. He played me the Van Halen tapes. They did "Panama", "Why Can't This Love", "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love", and "Don't Tell Me" as well as an unreleased song. After I found out about this, I thought that Mitch would have been a better fit than Gary Cherone for VH. And after hearing the tapes, I can tell you for certain, he would have been a better fit.

It was really neat to get to hear the stories of that part of his life. The conversation then turned to his new album and recording. His studio is incredible, very top-notch. He played me some of his new album and it sounds incredible. He even offered to help me out with any questions that I might have as I start getting further involved with production and recording.

It was just a really neat experience for me. He was the real deal and just a really nice guy. Take a moment to visit his profile page at http://www.myccm.org/mitchmalloy and check out his music.

Big Blue Ticketmaster Madness

2007-09-29T08:47:00.001-05:00

I got up this morning at around 5:40am. This being a Saturday, you may be asking yourself "...so Big Blue, why did you get up so early today?" Well, I'll tell you why. Today at 6am Central tickets for the Big Blue Madness went on sale. Supposedly. Well, if you went to the ticket booth then, yes, the tickets were available then. But if you tried to order them online at TicketMaster's web site, then you weren't so lucky.

I was on their web site right at 6, waiting for them to make the tickets available. At around 6:05am the page finally let me in to look for tickets. But once I entered in the security code verifying that I was a real person I then was taken by surprise. The site said that there were no tickets available!

I knew that people were really excited to go to this year's BBM to get our first glimpse of our new coach, Billy Gillispie, but I thought this was ridiculous! I kept trying but had no luck so I just gave up hope. I was pretty bummed out. I've had the time off approved for about 5 months now to be able to make the trip up there. So this morning I was feeling pretty sad.

I decided to go work with my new recording software. I did that for around an hour or so. I then thought I'd check to see if the official UK site had posted an article about how fast the tickets sold out. I'm so glad I did. They had posted an announcement that there was a problem with the online tickets and they were working to resolve it. A ray of hope suddenly appeared!

So I went back to the TicketMaster site and tried again. Still no luck. I tried again. No luck. Then on the 3rd attempt... I got a ticket!!!! Woo hoo!!!! It's in the lower level, Section 39 Row N, on the opposite side of the arena from where I sat last year. I'm closer to the UK bench this time. So I should be able to get some pretty decent photos (Click here to view pictures from last year's event).

Last year was the first time that I had ever went. I'm even more excited about going this year. I'm hoping to do some videos this time in addition to the pictures.

Ahhh.... I can hear the dribbles now...

Quick Update

2007-09-13T10:12:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to post a quick update for everyone on what's been going on for me the last couple of weeks. As I mentioned in my last post, for my birthday my wife got me a Pro Tools rig to do my music on. She rocks! I finally got everything set up last night with the new desk. I'll take a picture at some point and upload it. I haven't had much of a chance to do anything with it yet but plan on really diving head first into it over the next couple of days.

One of the reasons I haven't had much time to work on it is because I've been out of town. Last week I headed out to Missouri to do some collaborating with some new friends of mine, Rick and his daughter Mandy and son Kristian.

I can't begin to tell you how great of a time I had while I was out there. I felt like a part of the family from the moment I arrived. I had a blast being out there with them and was sad to leave. We had so many ideas to work with but nowhere near the amount of time we needed.

We were able to track a couple of songs but we definitely could have used a better engineer. I'm going to try and clean up the recordings as much as I can and then post a sample of the tracks. By the way, I was the engineer :-) What can I say, I'm a drummer! I'm sure that as I spend more time on this, my engineering abilities will improve.

We're hoping to get together again as soon as possible and do some more writing. I can say that after spending 4 days of living the "musician's life" - staying up late, going to bed no earlier than 3am and then getting up late, it definitely made it rough when I had to get back into my daily 7:30-4 routine yesterday.

Quick side note, major props to my beloved UK football team for going 4-0 this year! They pulled out a great victory over Arkansas on the road this weekend. I recorded the game and had to avoid contact with all sports and news agencies until I got home so I could watch the game without knowing who had won.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be heading up to KY for the annual start of the basketball season to take in the Big Blue Madness. Last year was my first time getting to do that. I'm even more excited about it this year since we have the new coach. Then the weekend after that I'll be playing some shows with Judah First over in East Tennessee.

Of course, I'll also be working on music and more importantly, spending time with my wife.

Until next time...
Big Blue Barry

It's here!!!!

2007-09-10T19:10:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to post a quick update. My birthday present from my wife just came in a couple of hours ago, it's a Pro Tools rig. My wife rocks!!!! So, if you don't hear from me for awhile it's because I'm in the process of getting everything set up. From what I hear from a couple of friends of mine who have Pro Tools, I'm going to be in for a long night tonight just installing all the software.

Until next time,
Barry

Update on my dad

2007-08-30T21:14:00.001-05:00

I talked to him earlier this afternoon. He's still in quite a bit of pain but he's able to sit up in his chair now so he's not relegated to staying in the bed all day. Just wanted to say thanks for every ones prayers so far and for your continued prayers.

Until next time...

Prayer request for my dad

2007-08-29T12:38:00.001-05:00

For those of you that don't know, my dad has a very bad back condition. He was born with an extra vertebrae in his spine which has no cartilage around it and for several years it's been up against a pinched nerve. Though he's disabled in the technical sense of the word, he is able to move around and walk on his own. However, most of the time he is living in a state of high to severe discomfort. Anyone who has ever experienced back problems knows exactly what I'm talking about.

I just got off the phone with my mom who was calling to let me know that earlier today while my dad and brother were on their way home from the store, as dad began to back up the van, his back went out on him. Mom said it scared my brother to death as he has never really seen my dad screaming in pain. My brother was able to help him get over to the other side of the van and then make it home.

Mom said they were barely able to get him up the 3 or 4 stairs on the front deck but they did. He's currently in the bed right now trying to ease the pain.

It's been awhile since I talked to him about his specific condition but the last thing I remember hearing him say was that the doctors can't operate, or won't operate, on his back because of the location of the pinched nerve. They said that the risk of him being paralyzed for life is greater than the chances of a successful operation. So basically, he has to live with the pain.

My entire family as well as several of their friends have prayed for healing for his back for as long as I can remember. I truly believe God can heal him. Why He hasn't I don't know. Are my parents perfect people? Nope. Is anyone? Not hardly. But I can't think of anyone who has more of a servant's heart and that tries to emulate the life of Christ more than my dad. Just knowing the condition he's in and not being able to do anything about it (other than pray) is tearing me up right now.

Please keep him in your prayers!

Could it really be that simple?

2007-08-23T15:29:00.001-05:00

Last night my wife and I had our regularly scheduled "date night" at Cracker Barrel like we do pretty much every Wednesday night. In case you're wondering, that's the only night they serve the Broccoli Cheese Casserole as a side item. If you're wondering who likes that, let me just say that my favorite meal is a Steak and Potato.

Anyways, I was giving her the latest update about my songwriting situation. Earlier that day I had read an interview with one of the artists that I'm writing for in which they mentioned at one point they felt God asked them if they were willing to give up their spouse for their ministry. At that point, this person realized that they had let their family and marriage fall beneath their ministry in order of priority. So they immediately made a change to fix their priorities and the blessings began to flow.

Just being completely transparent with you, my wife and I hit a crisis point a few months ago.
Over the last several months I have made an effort to make sure that I'm not putting my work or my hobbies over my marriage. I told my wife a couple of months ago when things felt like they had finally turned the corner for the good that I felt like a switch had been flipped inside. As corny as this sounds, I felt like I finally became a man. I can't really explain it other than to say things have been different for us ever since. A good different.

So I was sharing that interview with my wife that I had read earlier yesterday and I told her that I wrote the artist to tell them I had went through something very similar very recently. I then asked my wife "Do you think that's what happened with us? Do you think once I got 'us' fixed, that's all God was waiting on?"

Could it really be that simple?

But any of you who have been married for any length of time probably know that getting "us" fixed isn't always that simple. But I do wonder, could that be the reason that my most recent band situations struggled like they did. Was it just a matter of me learning to truly appreciate how blessed I am to be married to my wife and making sure she knew just how treasured she is?
I can honestly say that I love my wife now SO MUCH MORE than I ever have. It wasn't that I didn't love her before, 'cause I did, but now, things are different. And I think she knows that too.

Anyways, I'm just wondering if the reasons for my recent turn of events could really be that simple?

What a difference a day makes

2007-08-21T12:33:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone who responded to my last blog. Your feedback and encouragement was greatly appreciated. As a follow-up on that, I decided to just not respond to the guy. I didn't want to waste any more time thinking about it and wind up getting in a back-and-forth exchange. So I just let it go.

The very next day I received another e-mail from someone else who visited that same profile. They were interested in possibly recording some of my songs for their next album. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about it! We worked out the details and now I've got a collaboration agreement in place with them. As soon as I'm able to, I'll post more info about this.

Also during the weekend, I had a phone call with another person who basically requested the same thing. His daughter and son are in a group and he was wondering if I would be interested in letting them use some of my songs as well as also do some writing for them. Two people in the same weekend!!!

I'm so excited that I'm having a hard time containing myself. It almost doesn't seem real. My face is sore from all the smiling I've been doing. I'm always amazed at how gracious The Lord is with me. He treats me so much better than I deserve.

What a difference a day makes.

How would you respond?

2007-08-16T20:04:00.001-05:00

Earlier today, I received an e-mail from someone that I did not know. Judging by their e-mail, this person apparently felt like they knew me. To set up the situation, I have a music project that I titled Crushing Gray Melodies. I would like for it to take off and become a band situation but as of right now, it's a one-man show.

I created a profile for this project at a couple of Christian social networking sites because my long term goal for this project is for it to become a ministry (Note: that purpose is not directly stated anywhere on the profile - just in my heart). You can view the profile for this project at http://www.myccm.org/crushinggraymelodies or also at http://www.shoutlife.com/crushinggraymelodies. The layouts are different but the content is the same.

If you haven't done so, take a moment to look at the profile page before continuing on. I'll wait for you.

Done? Not yet...

OK, how about now? Good.

Here is a copy of a message that I received regarding my profile page. I'm displaying it exactly the way it looked when I received it, typo's and all, though I am not showing the person's name:

Hey guyz i think you have a great sound .

But really think about what I am about to say.

Listen with HOLY Ears.

I look at your shout to life page and look at your influences/ and i think these dudes want to make it in the music ministry before they minister to Gods people.

As I desperatly searched for a reason to add you guys I saw more CGM than CHRIST.

Dudes examine you intentions and know that GOD will use any of us . But we must strive to glorify Him.

If you are utterly angry by the time you get to this sentence you are hearing the words but not with GOD's Ears. If you are thinking about what I've said then The Holy Spirit will help you do the right thing.

I love You guyz and want you to succeed in all ministry.
apart from GOD WE can do nothing.

Blessings To you all

### ####

feel free to respond to me I will be praying for you .

I've never met this person nor have I spoken to him. Quite honestly, I'm a bit confused as to why he felt he had to send me that message.

So I ask you out there in cyberspace. How would you respond?

Firefox... if you don't have it, get it!

2007-08-02T13:12:00.001-05:00

As a matter of full disclosure I will come out and say that I am a huge Microsoft fan, not just because I have a brother-in-law who used to work there, but because in my honest opinion, though they are far from perfect, they do the best job of developing strong tool sets to work with in the web development world.

That being said... I think Firefox version 2 is the best Web Browser on the market. No contest. In addition to being able to easily customize the look of your browser by selecting a different "theme" you can also implement some handy little add-ons to enhance your overall web experience. I'm going to break these out into two groups - one for web developers and one for everyone.

Since I think most of you probably aren't web developers, I'll start with you first. In addition to the themes that I already mentioned, this one cool add-on alone will make it worth your while to use Firefox.

It's called Adblock Plus and the short version of this tool is that it allows you to block advertisements from showing up on web sites. For example, if you're a guy and you have a MySpace profile, I can promise you that when you login to your profile, the odds are that you will see some sort of suggestive ad. With this little add-on, you'll never see them again!

The way the tool works is that you "subscribe" to a list that acts as a database of "ad sites." You can also manually block them yourself by right-clicking on the ad and choose the "Adblock Image" option from the context menu. If you visit sites that are ad-heavy, not only will it decrease the clutter on the page, it also increases the load time!

Now for the web developers out there there are several cool little add-ons you can use that will increase your productivity and overall development experience in Firefox.

The first is called ColorZilla. This little tool sets in your status bar. Whether you need to get a 6-digit hex color or RGB colors for any element on a page, simply click the icon in your status bar and then hover your mouse over the element in question. The status bar will then display the info you're looking for.

The next item is called MeasureIt. This tool also resides in your status bar and works much the same way. If you want to know the dimensions of an element in your site, simply click the icon for the tool, then move your cursor to the "starting point" and then click the left mouse button, hold it down, and drag your cursor around the item in question. You'll then be given the dimensions of the item.

And finally the next item is the Web Developer add-on. This tool is wonderful! Especially if you do a lot of CSS-based designs. There are way too many features for me to go into detail about right now. I'll just say that if you're a web developer and you're not using this tool, you need to be! It's very helpful!

Until next time...

When is enough, enough?

2007-07-31T12:30:00.001-05:00

I was reading an article in the August edition of CCM Magazine in which the author talked about the spirit of consumerism. He talked about how easy it is for us to get caught up in the spirit. From saying “I want this” or “I want that” then progressing to the stronger statement “I need this” or “I need that”. When in reality, there are truly few things that we absolutely need in life.

This hit home with me. See, I had just been talking to my wife about how I would like to get another snare drum for my drum kit, as well as another tom too. I also just ordered some hardware pieces for my drum rack that I “needed.”

We have a list of several things that we would like to get done in or around the house, or that we feel need to get done, over the remainder of this year. We've taken care of a few of them but there are several others that are still undone or yet to be purchased.

As the author wrote, it’s so easy to get caught up in the spirit of consumerism. Though I don’t mean to, I know I end up trying to fill my life with things that I think will bring me happiness. I can’t lie, many of them do. It’s not eternal joy but I do get enjoyment from them.

I know that at the end of the day, what it all comes down to is that no matter how much stuff I have, it will never completely satisfy. No matter how cool or techie or expensive it is. I’m glad I know that. Now, I need to do a better job of reminding myself of when enough is enough. There’s that word again… need. But this time I think it’s warranted.

What do you think?

Blockbuster versus Netflix

2007-07-31T12:12:00.001-05:00

My wife and I recently signed up for a Netflix account. This is our 2ND go-around with them. We used them once before, I think in the fall of 2004, but every other disc we received had a scratch on it, so we cancelled the service before the trial period ended.

Fast forward to February 2006 - After watching an ad during the Super Bowl for Blockbuster we decided to give them a try. Things went pretty smoothly for the first several months. But then we started having problems with them sending discs that were either wrong, or were out of order. Our “queue” had been disregarded. We ended up canceling with them as well.

Which brings us to earlier this month when we signed up with Netflix again. We were debating between them and giving Blockbuster another shot. Both services have their pros and cons. We liked the fact that Blockbuster allows you to return the movies at the store and get more rentals for free. Netflix, on the other hand, has a “watch it instantly” feature that allows you to watch a movie online instantaneously. If you’re membership is $18 then you get 18 hours of instant viewing for that month.

The deciding factor for us ended up being the wait time for a specific set of DVDs that we wanted to watch. As well as being a tad nervous about going back to Blockbuster and having them send the discs in the wrong order again. The reason why that’s such a big deal is because we were watching a TV series in which the order of the discs is crucial.

I haven’t tried the instant viewing feature yet with Netflix but I plan on taking advantage of it. Anyone out there having any good or bad experiences with either of these services?

Humorous anecdote of the day

2007-07-24T22:10:00.001-05:00

So my friend and I were talking about this television show in which one of the characters evolved from a cat into a human over the course of 3 million years. I mentioned that I found the concept of other species evolving into human beings ridiculous, especially from a cat. My friend remarked "Yeah, at least with apes it kind of makes sense because they have disposable thumbs."

Farscape is coming back!

2007-07-17T10:14:00.001-05:00

I found out yesterday that one of my favorite television shows, Farscape, would be returning. It's not going to be on TV, however, instead it will be aired on the SciFi.com broadband channel. The early information is that there will be 10 episodes filmed. No word yet on which cast members are going to sign on to do the show. But with the cancellation of Stargate: SG-1, the odds are good that the former stars of the show, Ben Browder ("John Crichton") and Claudia Black ("Aeryn Sun"), will come back.

I never saw the show when it was originally on the air, even though it came on after Stargate: SG-1 back in 2002-2003. It wasn't until they began airing promos for "The Peacekeeper Wars" that the show really came on my radar. But it wasn't until my wife started watching the show and totally got hooked on it before I too got hooked on the show.

After watching several of the episodes during a Sci-Fi marathon of the show, leading up to it's mini-series, my wife was able to talk me in to buying Season 1 on DVD. By the end of the first season we were totally hooked. It was very compelling, and very sci-fi. The writing was very good as was the acting. Eventually, we got the other 3 seasons on DVD and then got the
mini-series as well.

Needless to say, we're both very excited to see some of our favorite characters back in action. Long live "Momma Crichton's Baby Boy!" :-)

Satch who???

2007-07-17T10:13:00.001-05:00

Picking up where we left off from my last album review... Have you ever heard a CD and within seconds immediately knew that not only was this going to be one of your favorite Cd's, it was also going to be a CD that you ABSOLUTELY HAD to tell your friends about? Well I just found one of those Cd's!

For those of you out there that are Joe Satriani fans, let me tell you about a CD that you ABSOLUTELY must get! The CD is called Resolution and it's by Andy Timmons. The opening song "Deliver Us" sounds like it came straight off of Satriani's Crystal Planet album. The melodies, rhythms, riffs and tones all sound like vintage Satch. My favorite Satriani album is
either The Extremist or Crystal Planet. I'll be honest, I haven't been as impressed with his last couple of albums. This album is THE album that I wish Satch would have put out after Crystal Planet.

The second track, "Helipad" continues the Satch vibe. Track three "Ghost of You" has a nice drum-bass groove going on underneath the bluesy guitar part then kicks into kind of a Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big) type of riff. The title track "Resolution" sounds like something you'd hear if Keith Urban teamed up with Satriani. This track is one of my favorites. With the right
set of lyrics, I could easily hear this as a Praise and Worship song during a church service.

That song is followed by an uptempo number "Redemption" that sounds reminiscent of "Satch Boogie." This is the type of song that will get you a speeding ticket if you listen to it while driving!

He does a tribute to the victims of 9/11 with a song called "Gone (9/11/01)." A classic ballad type song with lots of emotion. This one reminds me of Steve Vai than it does Satriani. But really, that doesn't mean much does it? Since Satriani was Vai's teacher.

There are a few other tracks on the album, and one of my favorites is a song called "The Prayer The Answer." The song is just packed with emotion.

I know that I've referenced Satriani many, many times during this review, but the Satriani fans out there will be back me up on this one. If you were to hear this album, but not know who it was, your first response would be Joe Satriani.

OK, I'm done talking about it. Now go out and get it!

In Living Colour?

2007-07-17T10:12:00.001-05:00

While searching for some songs for my wife, I took a moment to search for some music for myself. While doing so, I came across two Cd's that I didn't know existed. The first CD is entitled "True Other Self" by Vernon Reid. Many of you may not recognize Vernon Reid by name, but all you hard rock fans will recognize him when I tell you he was the guitarist for the band Living Colour. They had the hit song "Cult of Personality" back in the late 80's. Remember him now?

This album came out last year. For those of you who enjoyed Living Colour, then there is definitely some tracks on here that you would enjoy, in particular "Game Is Rigged" and "National Anthem." It's really hard to put his guitar playing into a specific genre because he combines so many different styles. I believe he is one of the most underrated and under appreciated guitarists out there.

The song that may end being my favorite is his cover of the Depeche Mode song "Enjoy The Silence." When I was first listening to the album, I wasn't paying attention to the song titles. As this one was playing, about half-way through the song I started thinking to myself "Man, this sounds a whole lot like a Depeche Mode song." Sure enough, that was the case! Now let
me say this, I'm not a Depeche Mode fan... at all. But I can admit that the melodies in that song are very beautiful. Hearing them played on guitar the way he arranged the song, sounds awesome.

If you were a fan of Living Colour at all back in the day, or you appreciate fusion with a little bit of rock and soul, then I recommend this CD.

Good to be home

2007-07-06T12:40:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week my wife and I traveled up to Ohio to spend some time with her family. In addition to her parents, her brothers and their families made the trip as well. We had a good time seeing everyone but I'm glad to be back home.

The temperatures for the previous week in Nashville had been up in the 90's and we were expecting to be like that once we go to Ohio as well. We were pleasantly surprised once we arrived to find the weather was going to be much milder while we there. The high was around 82 to 85 with the lows getting in the 60's. It was very comfortable.

We got there Sunday night before the rest of the family showed up. But it wasn't long before the phone rang letting us know that the others were on their way and would be there shortly. Once everyone arrived, we had some dinner and then began exchanging some gifts.

My wife's oldest brother and his wife are quite the world travelers. So whenever they go somewhere, they usually get us a magnet to add to our collection, or a t-shirt, or some other type of cool trinket. His most recent trip was to Japan. So this time I got a sweet letter opener in the form of a samurai sword and a very cool key chain!

The next morning we got up early and headed out to the tennis courts. This was going to be the first time that either my wife or I had played since the last time we were there, which was 2 years ago! For the first game, my wife and I played against her dad and her 15-year old nephew. I don't remember the final score, I just remember that we lost. Then I played against her nephew in a one-on-one game. I didn't fair any better then either.

Later that afternoon we sat outside in the backyard and shot a BB gun at some empty cans of Mountain Dew. We did this a couple of years ago and I believe it's turning into a tradition. This year, in addition to the old rifle we were using, her dad brought out a couple of BB gun pistols, which made me reminisce about my granddad. I used to have the same pistol that her dad brought out. Back then, I wasn't very good. But after going 3 for 3 with the pop cans two different times, I figured my granddad would have been proud of me.

The next day was spent trying to recoup from the tennis from the day before. I didn't realize just how bad out of shape I had become. Since I was not alone in my misery we decided to take it easy and go watch a movie. We decided on The Transformers movie. If you want to see a great action flick with lots of explosions and fast-paced action with incredible effects, then this is the movie for you. Just hearing Optimus Prime speak brought back so many memories of being a kid playing with the toys and watching the cartoon. The overall consensus was that is was a good "guy movie."

The next day was our day to head back home. Once we got on the Interstate in Ohio, I-71, we started counting how many state troopers we saw. Since we were traveling back on July 4th, I figured we'd see a lot.

In OH, for the 65 miles that we were on the interstate we saw 13 troopers. When we got to KY, we only saw 4 troopers for the 200+ miles that we were on the interstates. And then when we got home to TN, we didn't see any troopers for the 70+ miles we were on the interstate. Quite a contrast indeed.

We really enjoyed our stay there this year but it sure did feel good to get back to our house. I was able to get a little bit of rest before having to head back to work yesterday. We're on a tight deadline at the office (again) next week. Hopefully this launch will go smoothly.

Until next time...

Taking the plunge

2007-06-29T16:01:00.001-05:00

Last night my wife and I took the plunge into the world of HD Television. I'm all about technology and the latest and greatest "toys" but I usually wait a bit before actually buying them. I think it's because I'm patient, my wife thinks it's because I'm cheap. OK, maybe it's a little of both :-)

We did have some constraints that we had to fit the HD within, literally and figuratively. First off, we have a very nice entertainment center that was given to us as a gift when we moved into our home. The largest TV size we can fit in it is 27" so immediately we had our choices narrowed down for us. Second, we couldn't afford to spend $1000 or more on a TV. Plus, I wouldn't feel comfortable spending that much money on a TV.

After doing a little bit of research online I found that Wal-mart was selling a 26" Vizio model for just under $450. I thought that was reasonable for the technology and had decided to go pick one up last night. Well, once I got there, I was able to do an A-B comparison between that model and another model, an RCA, of the same size.

Both of the pictures were far superior to our current standard def TV, but the RCA seemed to have a slightly better picture than the Vizio. It also had a built-in DVD player "mounted" on the right side of the unit in the rear. The price of that model was about $100 more.

Normally, I would have just "settled" for the less expensive model but not last night. I decided to go with the RCA for a couple of reasons. First off, we've had great success with every piece of RCA equipment we've bought throughout our marriage. Secondly, it had a built-in DVD player as well as 2 more additional video inputs, so it provided more flexibility than the Vizio model did, when it comes to attaching external devices.

It was very fun to do some A-B comparisons last night between the standard definition channels and their HD counterparts. It's truly amazing how much clearer the picture is, not only on the HD channels, but even the regular standard def. Even our DVDs were significantly clearer.

All in all, we're very pleased with it. I can't wait until football and basketball season starts up again!

Until next time...

The "Unending" of an era: Stargate SG-1

2007-06-26T13:13:00.001-05:00

This past Friday night saw one of my all-time favorite TV shows come to an end - Stargate: SG-1.

Based off the movie Stargate, it was one of the most entertaining shows I've ever watched. My wife and I watched it every Friday night that it was on since 2002 without missing an episode. It was something we looked forward to each and every week.

One thing that I loved about it was that the show was in our present time. I loved the interpersonal relationships that the characters developed. I loved watching them grow over the course of the series.

As I watched the series finale, I couldn't help but get emotional. These characters had become a part of our "family." We had invested a lot of our time into them.

If you're wondering about the title of this post, it's related to the title of the series finale. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that the ending of the show was great and couldn't have been much better.

There are also 2 Direct-to-DVD movies being made to continue the stories of Stargate: SG-1, both of which will be released sometime in 2008. If those do well, then there will be more to follow. Here's hoping that they do well!

Patience, permission or procrastination?

2007-06-15T12:49:00.001-05:00

It's been almost a year since my last band played our first and last shows. Since then, I've filled in for another band, Judah First, on a couple of occasions. While I've had a blast getting to know those guys as well as playing shows with them, the shows haven't been as frequent as I would like.

I'm not as young as I once was and I know that I'm not going to be able to play out live forever. I'm at a point in my life where I feel like I'm at an airport waiting in "stand-by" to see if the plane is going to have a seat for me this time or if I'm going to have to wait for the next one.

I titled this blog "Patience, permission or procrastination" for a reason. I feel like I fall into one of those categories but I don't know which one. Am I being patient and just waiting for things to "feel right?" Am I waiting on God to "give me permission" to do what I feel in my heart He wants me to? Or have I already been given the "green" light and now I'm just procrastinating because of my fear of repeating the mistakes of my past experiences?

Anyone else out there know what I'm talking about?

A little bit of everything

2007-06-11T13:22:00.001-05:00

Just thought I'd write a few quick lines about a couple of different things...

The other day I was in Wal-mart getting some cat food for our attention-craving, plump, furry feline friend (yes, that's him pictured to the left). I walked past someone who was talking on their cell phone. I heard him say "Well, I really don't want to step on any one's toes." I thought that's very noble of him and I kept walking towards the cat food aisle. Upon my way back across the store I passed this fellow again. This time I happened to look down and notice that he was wearing a protective boot on one of his feet. Turns out he wasn't as noble as I thought...

If you like animated movies and haven't seen "Happy Feet" yet, then by all means go out and rent it. It was wonderful. The music was great and there really just aren't that many things in life that are cuter to watch than a dancing baby penguin. I'm not a dancer, not even remotely close to being one, and after watching this movie I couldn't help but want to dance. Thankfully for all those around me, however, I didn't...

I'm usually a patient person but I'm starting to get really antsy waiting for college basketball season to start up again. I know, the NBA Finals aren't even over yet (though for all intents and purposes they really are) and the NFL hasn't started yet, but I'm just really, really, really, really, really anxious to see what the new coach brings to the table...

One other thing... For any programmer out there, specifically those who use Microsoft products, check out Silverlight. Very cool stuff...

Until next time...

Welcome to the Waffle House

2007-06-11T12:50:00.001-05:00

I realized that I hadn't posted any blogs about the Billy Donovan situation. Now that the drama is over and the whole story has been played out, I'll just give my quick thoughts on it.

First off, while I don't think he handled the situation well in the beginning, I give Billy D props for taking responsibility for his actions and at least offering an apology to all those involved at his press conference where he was re-introduced as the coach of the Florida Gators.

I wasn't surprised at all that Billy left to go coach in the NBA. He has said numerous times, and as recently as a few weeks ago, that he was intrigued by the idea of coaching in the NBA. So when the Orlando Magic job came open I wasn't surprised at all that he left. After all, his main reason for not leaving Florida to go to UK was not wanting to uproot his family (I'm so glad that we got a different Billy). But with the Orlando job, he was going to be able to keep his family in Gainesville.

Also, by going to the Magic, he was inheriting a team that made it to the playoffs this year that has Dwight Howard on their roster, one of the rising stars in the NBA who is going to be a HUGE star soon, as well as 4 draft picks in this years draft, and not to mention plenty of room under the salary cap.

In other words, this was the PERFECT scenario for Donovan to leave Florida. And he did. And then he didn't.

When I first heard he had second thoughts and wanted to return to Florida, I thought he was going to be really hurting his recruiting ability at the school. I mean after all, he had said that he wanted to coach in the NBA, so you knew all the other SEC coaches were going to be using that against him.

Then when the details of his contract release from the Magic came out, I changed my mind on the recruiting. I still think he didn't do himself any favors with the waffling back and forth but the Magic helped him out big time by essentially "banning" him from coaching in the NBA for the next 5 years. Now Billy D can turn around and tell the recruits that he's not going anywhere for the next 5 years. Well, that will work for the class of 2008 recruits, but the classes after that will have no guarantees.

My biggest problem with Donovan was the way he consistently tried to deny rumors by issuing a "non-denial." I know leverage means everything in contract renewals but did he really think that Florida wasn't going to pay him whatever he wanted???

Oh well, this should be the last post about Donovan until hoops season kicks off and we have our battle of the B's for supremacy in the SEC: Billy Clyde Gillispie (UK), Billy Donovan (Florida) and Bruce Pearl (Tennessee).

Until next time...

The Three Trilogies, Part 3

2007-06-04T22:20:00.001-05:00

The third and final installment of this adventure finds us in between the second and third movie of the day. We had a little bit more time between the conclusion of Shrek 3 and our final choice of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. But due to the rain, we decided to just stay inside the theater and pick up some dinner afterwards. That meant MORE POPCORN for me!

After watching Pirates 2, I kind of felt like I did after watching the second Matrix movie... incomplete. That movie seemed to only serve the purpose of setting up the third movie. Overall, I enjoyed the second movie but it just left me unfulfilled because the story was incomplete. Needless to say, I had big hopes for this one.

After a few previews, the three hour adventure began. The effects in this movie were wonderful. Movies that take place in large bodies of water amaze me, the whole filming aspect of it all, and this one was no different. Visually, it was a great movie. But there were times when I had a hard time following what was going on exactly. Eventually I would catch on and everything made sense.

From a storyline standpoint, though I had read this was going to be the last movie of the franchise, it definitely felt like they left open the possibilities of more sequels.

I'm not sure if it was because I was tired from seeing two movies already, or if it was the three hour length of this movie, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as the other two that day. I liked the movie, but I think it may have been my least favorite of the three.

So there you have it, the 3rd installment of my blog on the 3 trilogy movies...

Until next time...

The Three Trilogies, Part 2

2007-06-04T22:06:00.001-05:00

We resume our adventure at the conclusion of Spiderman 3. We timed it so that once we finished watching Spiderman 3 we would be able to go ahead and get our seats for the second of our three trilogy movies, Shrek the Third. Our plan worked wonderfully.

As we sat there waiting for the show to start, the room was filling up rather quickly. It got to the point where there were only groups of two or only single seats left. Though that was the case, there were still several groups of four or more people that were showing up at that start time, which lead me to coin the phrase "Show up late, gotta separate!"

The Shrek franchise is one of our favorites. We both love Mike Myers in nearly every other movie he's been in (but not all of them) and with the addition of the Puss 'n Boots character in Shrek 2, we were VERY anxious to see this movie. It did not disappoint.

The advancements that they've made in animation from Shrek 2 to Shrek 3 is remarkable. I thought that they did an incredible job going from the original to Shrek 2, but I was simply blown away by the rendering in this movie.

There were a couple of scenes in this movie that made me cry I laughed so hard. One of my favorite characters in this franchise is the Gingerbread Man - "No!!!! Not my gumdrop... buttons." There is a montage scene with him that had me rolling. Which was then followed up by a scene with Pinocchio that had me in tears. Some people may not appreciate it as much but due to my personality and nature of what I do, I got a huge kick out of it.

If you've seen the first two Shrek movies then you most definitely need to see this one. It was well worth it. Quite honestly, I think it's worth seeing it at the theater again.

The Three Trilogies, Part 1

2007-06-03T23:15:00.001-05:00

As part of our Anniversary celebration this weekend, my wife and I decided to spend Saturday at the cinema. And when I say spend the day at the cinema, I mean literally spend the whole day there! Ok, maybe not the ENTIRE day but you get the point.

We showed up at 11:45am and bought tickets for three movies, each of which was the third installment of that particular franchise. We started out with Spiderman 3 and I gotta say, that this was my favorite Spidey movie so far. Not only was the movie simply entertaining but there were several scenes of dialogue in the movie that had a Christian world view to them.

I know I'm not going to remember the quotes exactly so I'm not going to try, instead I'll give you the general gist of what the quotes were about. One scene early on in the movie is with Peter and his Aunt discussing the topic of marriage. His Aunt makes it clear to Peter that for a man to be ready to marry, he has to be willing to put the life of his wife above his own. Sounds very similar to the teachings of the Apostle Paul, doesn't it?

One of the other scenes had a quote from the creator of Spider-man himself, Stan Lee. In the movie he says to Peter something along the lines of "You see, one person can make a difference." Seated next to my wife was a mother and her two pre-teen daughters. After that quote in the movie, the mom leaned over to both of her daughters and said "That's right girls. One person can make a difference. Now I want both of you to grow up and make a difference in the world!" My wife and I both thought that was a great parenting moment.

Coming up... Part 2 of 3... come on, you didn't think I could blog about 3 trilogy movies in one post now did you???

The Five Love Languages

2007-06-03T22:47:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago my wife and I started reading a book together, "The Five Love Languages" by Dr. Gary Chapman. Due to my work schedule towards the end of the month, it took us a little longer to read than we thought it would, but it was worth it.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, the basic premise is that the methods in which we communicate love can be broken down into 5 different groups or "languages": Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.

The author explains each different language in their own chapter citing examples of couples that he has counseled over the years. There were several examples that really hit home with us. Then at the end of the book you are given a profile test to help you determine what your primary and secondary love languages are.

Before taking the test, I knew that my wife and I were going to have different primary languages and I was pretty sure that we would have different secondary languages as well. I was right. For one of us, our top 2 were Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation and for the other one the top 2 were Quality Time and Acts of Service.

My wife's primary and secondary languages ended up scoring 10 out of 12 each, while the other three languages combined only totalled 10. Me on the other hand, had four languages that went from 9 to 8 to 7 to 6, with the fifth language getting a 0.

I can't recommend this book enough to married couples who are going through a rough spot in their marriage. And even if you're not going through a rough spot, I would still recommend this book. I wish we would have read this book years ago. It definitely would have saved us a lot of communication issues.

Happy Anniversary

2007-05-30T09:54:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week my wife and I are celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary. The day itself didn't turn out quite like how we planned it. At my job, we were going to be launching a new web site the next day so we had to have everything finished the night before. Well, one of the pages that we built just wasn't working right. When we finally left it was around 11:45pm at night. Not quite the way I had envisioned spending my anniversary.

Fortunately, we had already known that the web site launch was coming so we had planned to have the celebration during the weekend since we didn't know how late I would have to stay at work. Good thing we planned for that.

As I think back over the last 11 years I'm a little surprised that we've made it this far, to be perfectly honest. I know every couple has their struggles and marriage isn't easy. Believe me, that I know.

As I think back over the last 11 years I realize how blessed I am to have such a wonderful woman who chooses to be my wife. I'm sure that there are others out there who aren't so fortunate.

We've been reading the book "The Five Love Languages" by Dr. Gary Chapman. I would highly recommend that book to any married couple, regardless of how "well" your marriage is doing. It's been a wonderful resource for us. I wish we would have read it earlier, but that's my fault. I'm not really much of a reader (but be on the look out for a future post that may shock you!).

As I think about the next 11 years to come, I'm excited about what life is going to bring. Though I know we're still going to have our struggles, I think we're much better equipped to handle them now than we've ever been. I can say without hesitation that I love my wife much more than I ever have and I truly look forward to spending the rest of my life with her.

I love you honey!

I love music

2007-05-23T11:32:00.001-05:00

I love listening to albums that I haven't listened to for a long time. I have so many albums that it's impossible for me to listen to every album I own frequently. The album that sparked this blog was "Swing, Swang, Swung" by the band Guardian.

When the album first came out, it was quite a departure for the band from their previous work. Their first couple of albums would be considered Hair Metal or Glam Rock. But this album was acoustic driven. And a few of the songs even had a Praise and Worship feel to them.

As I listened to the album, it brought back memories of being in my old dorm room in college, as that's where I listened to this album the most, especially when I first got it. I remembered trying to learn how to play some of the songs on guitar. I think I was able to pick out a few of the parts, but I was still kinda new to the guitar at that time.

Then on the way home from work I thought I would pop in one of my CD's that had some of my original material on it that I had wrote for my last band and some of which I wrote afterwards. As I listened to each track I realized how much I enjoyed some of those songs, some more than others.

I then realized how busy my life had become this year, so much so that I hadn't recorded any thing since November of last year! That's just way too long. Maybe with all of the network TV shows coming to their season finale, I'll be able to pull myself away from the TV and get some recording done!

Until next time...

Back on track

2007-05-21T09:07:00.001-05:00

May 16th was a big day for UK basketball fans. Patrick Patterson, the highly coveted Power Forward from Huntington, WV, officially committed to play for UK this fall. He chose UK over Duke and Florida as well as a couple of other schools.

The deciding factor between the schools was ultimately distance. Since his family currently only lives about 2 hours away from the UK campus they would be able to see him play often without having to relocate.

This is a HUGE coup for new UK coach Billy Gillispie. After Coach Smith left, many felt that UK was no longer in the picture. And when Patteron's friend, Jai Lucas, committed to Florida on Monday last week, many felt that was a sure sign that Patterson would follow.

Gillispie only had 2 months to "seal the deal" on this recruit so he must be commended for his efforts. But it should also be noted that Coach Smith really did a great job of laying the groundwork on recruiting Patterson.

Oh yeah, Gillispie was also able to land another Top 50 prospect in Alex Legion a few weeks earlier. Legion had committed to Michigan but after they fired Coach Amaker he was released from his LOI. After his visit here, he committed almost immediately, even cancelling some of his other scheduled trips.

If Gillispie's off-the-court success is any indicator of what his teams are going to do on-the-court, then UK will be back to the position it's accustomed to being in before long.

Until next time...

Prayer request for a friend

2007-05-15T11:02:00.001-05:00

I got an e-mail from an old college friend earlier today requesting prayer as she faces the possibility that she may have cancer.

"Please pray for me as I am going through a very tough time right now. I went to the dr last week with what they thought was pneumonia and were treating me for that. I went in yesterday to have another visit and they informed me there was a cyst on my lung. She is thinking it is benign but can not rule out it isn't benign. She is sending me to a lung specialist in a few weeks for a possible biopsy. I'm scared to death that i'm facing this. I know the odds are in my favor since I don't smoke. However Cancer does run very strong in my family and that is why she is pretty worried. Please pray that God will give me strength to overcome this and that the news will be good when we go to the specialist."

Blog Rush

2007-05-11T18:35:00.001-05:00

I took some time this evening to copy some of my blog entries from this site to a couple of the other social networking sites that I'm involved with.

http://www.myccm.org/bigbluebarry/blog

and

http://www.shoutlife.com/bigbluebarry

Living versus Existing

2007-05-11T12:41:00.001-05:00

My wife and I are huge fans of the TV series Angel that ended a few years ago. For those of you who don't know what show I'm talking about, the premise of the show is about a vampire named Angel who was cursed by Gypsies and given his soul back. After that event, he began spending the rest of his existence trying to gain atonement for the wrongs he had done.

There was an episode in Season 3 of the show in which Angel learns that an old "friend" of his is now in L.A. with him. During one of the scenes, the two of them have a conversation in which the friend says that while Angel has been merely "existing" for 200 hundred years, this guy has been "living."

I guess I could kinda say the same thing. Obviously I'm not a vampire (or am I???) so I haven' t been alive (or dead in that case) for 200 years. But relatively speaking, I've been a Christian for a very long time.

As I thought on that conversation, I began asking myself, "Am I living or merely existing? Am I truly living in the fullness of God or am I just going about my life simply existing?"

If I'm honest with myself, that's an easy question to answer. If you haven't guessed it by now, then I'll help you out. The answer is existing.

The hard part is figuring out how to change that. See, I'm fairly laid back and very easy going. It's quite simple for me to let my life slip into "cruise control." Unless something makes me hit the brakes then I'm very content to just continue going down the path I'm on.

So that's where I'm at in my life right now. I'll be taking the next few weeks to figure out how I can change from simply existing and get back to living.

Until next time...

My Papaw

2007-04-23T20:45:00.001-05:00

Earlier today I went with my family to visit my papaw in the nursing home. He's been there for a few years now. He's suffering from Parkinson's disease and dementia. The last time I saw him was about two years ago. My mom said that he has good days and bad days so I didn't know what to expect.

When we first got to his room, Papaw looked like he was asleep. Mom made her way over to the side of his bed. As she spoke softly to him, his eyes opened up and he began to move very, very slowly. During the two years it's been since I last saw him I was amazed at how much his condition has worsened.

As Mom was telling him that he had some company there to see him, he started moving his head around to see the rest of us. When he saw my dad, he recognized him and raised his arm up to shake hands. When mom asked him if he recognized me and my brother he said "Yeah, I've seen them around."

I moved a little closer to him so he could see me a little better. We were looking into each other's eyes and I think the both of us were thinking the same thing - Who is this other person?

Though I love my papaw, I'm honestly not that close to him. Even before he was in the nursing home, I didn't spend much time around him. I know he is a good man, with integrity that's stays true to his word. But other than a few other generalizations, I really don't know him that well.
Before we left, I said goodbye to him and told him that I loved him. I asked him once more if he remembered me. Then I thought I would pull my hair back and try it once more. So when I did that, and asked him if remembered me, he started grinning.

After we left there we went by to see his wife, my step-grandmother. It had been a couple of years since I last saw her too. So it was nice to get to see her again.

Once we got back to the house it was time to install an air conditioner in my brother's room. It took us about 40-45 minutes to get it all finished. But now the room is a nice cool 72 degrees.

After getting that done, I took a few minutes to rest and then I began typing up all these blog entries, starting with the one for Friday night. I'll be here until tomorrow afternoon and then it's back home to start the whole work grind all over again, as we have another site that's due to launch on June 1st and we've yet to start on it.

Until next time...

Starting Out Flat

2007-04-23T20:44:00.001-05:00

After working many overtime filled weeks at the office over the last month, I finally got some time off. So I decided to take a trip up to KY to see my family and visit my papaw. But before I could do that I had to deal with an unexpected problem.

As I was loading up my SUV I happened to notice something bright and shiny sticking out of one of my brand new rear tires. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a nail of some sort but I wasn't for sure. So I grabbed a pair of pliers and began the process of removing said object from the tire. A few seconds later the object was out, as was the majority of the air that was in my tire.

It ended up being a piece of a screwdriver that had broken off. I'm not sure when or where I encountered this little piece of shiny mayhem but nevertheless, I would have been much happier had we never met.

So now I had to change a tire before I could head out. I didn't think it would take too long but any time spent on it was too long for me. I had problems getting the jack to work at first but I finally got it working. But then I had to find the place to put the jack to get the SUV high enough to change the tire. I ended up having to use 2 jacks to get it done. Thank goodness I discovered this before I left for KY. I would not have had both jacks with me in that case.

When I finally started on my trip I was 90 minutes later than I wanted to be. But I decided that I was just going to take my time and not try to rush to get there. This was going to be a small vacation for me so I was going to take my time and enjoy it as much as possible.

Several times throughout the drive I heard a slight "thud" kind of noise near my back tires. Since I had just changed that flat tire I was thinking it was related to that but I didn't know what was causing it. I stopped at one point and took a look at the tire to make sure the lug nuts were still tight, and they were. So I decided to not worry about it and just keep on trucking.

I made it in to town about 8:30pm and stopped at Taco Bell to pick up some dinner for me and the family. I will never EEEEEVVVVEEERRR complain about the fast food restaurants in Tennessee being slow again. It took at least 5 minutes to get to the point where I could place my order. After placing the order, it took another 10+ minutes to get to the window to pay. And then after paying, it took another 5 minutes to get my food. So all in all, I was in the drive thru for 20+ minutes.

I finally got home and everyone was there waiting for me. They were a little concerned because it took me so long to get home since I had called them just before I made it to Taco Bell to find out what they wanted. We feasted on our Taco Bell while watching the latest edition of "Deal or No Deal." We stayed up a tad longer getting caught up with each other before calling it an evening.

GMA Showcase

2007-04-23T20:40:00.001-05:00

Have you ever woke up on your own in the morning and you begin to panic because you have an important meeting or someplace you have to be that day and you notice the flashing numbers on your alarm clock? That happened to me on Saturday. I was supposed to be up by 8am and on the road by 9am. Fortunately, it was only 7:30am when I woke up to see that our power had went out during the morning.

After getting my things together I headed out to 3rd and Lindsley to meet up with the guys to begin load in at 10am. As I was pulling in, I saw the guys pulling in behind me. Mike, from Charis Core Mgmt, was waiting there at the door with some other people to help us load in.

I asked Mike what the situation regarding the drum kit was going to be. He said we would be using one kit so I gladly volunteered to let my kit be the back line kit. I mentioned that I had a DW kit with top o' the line Zildjian's. It was nice to see the other drummer's reactions to that statement :-) One guy even said "I'm not a drummer but you've got me excited about wanting to play your kit."

After clearing the house kit off the stage I started sitting my kit up. I had some help from a couple of guys from the other bands, John from Not Ashamed and Matt from Kennebec. As I was sitting up, some of the other bands started showing up. I couldn't help but overhear one of the conversations that took place. It went something like this...

Drummer: "So, that must be the house kit up on the stage, eh?"
Other guy: "No, that's not the house kit. That's the kit of the drummer from Judah First."
Drummer: "Really???? Wow..."
Other guy: "Yeah, that's the kit everyone is using today."
Drummer: "Sweet..."

What can I say? I'm a proud papa. I finished getting the kit set up and then got out of the way since we were the last band to play that day. While I was sitting around, Philip's brother Gary showed up. I've only been around him a couple of times but I think he's a great guy. We chatted about the state of our beloved UK basketball program for a bit while we waited for the show to start.

The first band to perform was Not Ashamed from Georgia. I REALLY enjoyed these guys. They had a great sound and stage presence. About midway through their set they did what's now becoming commonplace among bands - giving out their MySpace page info. And as soon as they did, I couldn't help but laugh. What's so funny you ask? The showcase was being sponsored by Charis Core Mgmt and also ShoutLife.com. For those not familiar with ShoutLife.com, basically it's a Christian version of MySpace. So when they gave out their MySpace page, it was like saying "Drink Pepsi" at a Coke sponsored event. To top it off, the 4 founders of ShoutLife were right there in the front row. And before they finished their set, they plugged their MySpace page a 2nd time! LOL!

The next band up was Bloodline Severed from North Carolina. These guys were having a rough week. On Wednesday night, their trailer was stolen containing around $12-13 grand worth of gear. Despite their setback they gave it all they had. Their drummer was fantastic. His footwork was amazing. I believe he has an endorsement and I could see why. And like the band before, they also plugged their MySpace page, which just cracked me up.

Before the next band took the stage, we were treated to a Christian M.C. from California. Not my cup of tea. That's all I got to say.

Up next was One Foot Forward from New York. They were quite a contrast from the first two bands. First off, their sound was much more mellow and CCM Radio friendly. Second off, they plugged their ShoutLife.com profile page. The bassist was the sister of one of the guitar players. She had only been playing for 2 months and I gotta say she sounded great for being so new at bass.

They were followed by the band Mile 7 from right up I-65 in Louisville, KY. They were also more of the CCM Radio friendly format. Their vocalist also played violin during a couple of songs. He had some effects hooked up to his 'fiddle' that really sounded cool. I really enjoyed listening to them.

The next band was 39 Stripes from Tampa, FL. Unfortunately for them, their vocalist blew out his vocal chords the night before at a show in Knoxville. They went ahead and played 3 songs but then they had to call it quits. And their drummer had been sick the night before. I'd like to hear them when they're at a full-strength.

One more band was left before we took the stage. That band was Kennebec from Arizona. They had kind of a funk-rock-p&w sound. They had a great front man who could really sing. The drummer was solid as well. Definitely worth checking out.

As the last chords died down from Kennebec, one could hear a low rumbling noise out in the distance. That noise was the Heavy Metal Thunder we were about to unleash on those in attendance! Though we weren't using the performance tracks, we still had some tracks that we were playing in between a couple of the songs. As the first track ended, we started in to the song "Speak To Me" and then chaos ensued on the stage.

Though I was stationary, my head was banging and my hair was flying. Philip, Aaron and Spencer were running around like madmen. I don't think the crowd knew what hit them! We plowed through our set of 6 songs, each one as intense as the one before it. By the end of the show, everyone there knew who Judah First was. During the last song, Gary was at the edge of the stage and he was soon followed by one of the guys from ShoutLife and they both rocked out with Aaron on "Devil's Dice."

Needless to say, by the time the set was done I was exhausted. I try to put everything I have in to each and every performance and this one was no different. It didn't help that I really hadn't eaten much before the show began.

We then got to meet the guys from ShoutLife and have our picture taken with them. I had a chance to talk to one of the guys, Steve, for a bit. He really enjoyed the show, which is always nice to hear.

After a brief rest, we began to tear down our gear and begin the process of packing up. We said our goodbyes and then headed home.

Friday Night Practice

2007-04-23T20:36:00.001-05:00

On Monday I got a phone call from Philip of Judah First. He told me that there was a slight chance that they may need me to fill in for them for their GMA showcase on Saturday. He said that it was a very small chance but he wanted to make sure I would be available just in case.

The next day I was visiting my friends at my old job and telling them that there was a slight chance I may get to play a show on Saturday but that I wasn't expecting it to happen. Just as I finished telling that to one of them my phone rang. It was Philip. Turns out they were going to need me after all.

Fast forward to Friday night. I met the guys at S.I.R. in Nashville. I wasn't familiar with the place, but after telling a few of my friends about it, it's apparently THE place to rehearse at. So after loading up my SUV I headed up there to meet the rest of the band.

We started loading in around 9pm and by 10pm we were all set up and ready to rock. I brought my iPod along with me so I could practice along with the performance tracks. We tried practicing with me using my iPod. I maxed out the volume level on it but it still just wasn't loud enough for me to hear the click consistently over the rest of the band. So we scratched the
performance tracks idea for the show. I really was hoping I'd be able to do it but since this was a big show and it would have been my first time using them, we decided against it for the time being.

We went though the set and I felt pretty good about every song. It was fun just getting to hang out with the guys again. We took a short break and then went back through a couple of more songs. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and load the trailer. We each headed out to our respective homes for the night to get some rest before bringing the Heavy Metal Thunder to
3rd and Lindsley the next day.

Post #100

2007-04-18T05:39:00.001-05:00

I had a few moments of spare time this morning, something that I haven't had much of over the last month, so I thought I'd post an update. Turns out that this post will be my 100th post in this blog. I suppose that's some kind of milestone. Maybe not, but with my love for sports and numbers I'm going to say that it is.

The main reason for my lack of blogging over the last month or so has been my job. We've been working on a redesign for one of our web sites for several months. Well, on Monday we went live with the new site. I'm very excited about this site and think that it's probably the best overall site I've ever been apart of. My basic routine for the last 2 weeks has been get up at 5:30am, get to the office by 7:30am, leave about 8pm, get home around 9pm, get something to eat, go to be around 11pm, and then repeat this process. It's been very tiring but in the end it was all worth it. But it's not a process that I want to repeat.

My wife has been helping out with adding content to the site. She really enjoys doing that, plus she gets to work from home so that's a nice bonus. She was very glad that the site finally launched because it meant she could slow down some. The last couple of weeks have been just as hectic for her as well.

Other news... I'll be performing with Judah First on Saturday, April 21st at 3rd and Lindsley for a GMA Showcase. The showcase is from 11am-4pm, we go on around 3pm. I haven't had much of a chance to practice over the last month due to my work schedule. Last night was the first time I've played in a while so I was anxious to see how rusty I was going to be. There was some rust, for sure, but it wasn't as much as I was expecting. I'll be hitting the skins again each night this week so that on Saturday we can bring the Heavy Metal Thunder!

If anyone out there reading this thinks about it, say a prayer for my family, in particular my papaw. He's in the nursing home with Parkinson's disease. The doctors haven't given any definite numbers, but they said it doesn't look very good for him to make it much longer, but that could mean 6 hours, days, weeks, or months. I'm planning to go up and see him one last time after the Showcase. We weren't as close as my other grandfather but he's the only papaw I've got left.

The only big basketball news is that the new UK coach, Billy Gillispie, hired his first two assistant coaches this week. One of them has some very close ties to the Lucas family, that would be John and not George, who has a son, Jai, that is looking at UK. If we can get him and the Patterson kid from WV then we'll be alright next year.

Until next time...

Billy Ball... Just not that Billy

2007-04-10T13:42:00.001-05:00

Well the coaching search at UK came to an end last week. And like everyone expected, UK hired a Billy to be their coach. But instead of Billy Donovan, it was Billy Gillispie getting the job. They were going to offer it to Donovan but he was content to stay at Florida. Texas' coach Rick Barnes was also in the mix but not sure to what extent.

After getting a chance to read up on this guy, I have to say that I'm very excited to have him as our coach. I honestly think he's the perfect fit for the job. He's just as obsessed with basketball as us UK fans are!

He's already paying dividends on the recruiting front. Earlier today UK received a commitment from a Top 20 4-star PG in Texas, G.J. Vilarino, for the class of 2009! Yes, that's right... 2009!!!! I can't remember the last time we had a recruit of that caliber commit this soon in the process.

Hopefully, we'll be able to land Jai Lucas and Patrick Patterson for next year. Tomorrow is the first day that recruits can sign again so we'll hopefully know something about one of them at least. Next year may be a little bleak, but things are definitely starting to look up after that.

Until next time...

Tubby Ball Heads North

2007-03-27T07:58:00.001-05:00

If you're a UK basketball fan then the last week and a half has been quite interesting to say the least. We started out with a 1st round victory over Villanova on Friday night in which the 'Cats played about as well as they have all year. That set up a 2nd round match with Kansas, the #1 seed in the West Region on Sunday. They didn't do so well in that game. The final margin of victory for Kansas was only 12, but the outcome was never in doubt.

Then the next few days were kind of quiet with people wondering if Tubby was going to have to fire some of his assistants. Then Randolph Morris started talking about possibly leaving and exploring his options with the NBA. Then on Wednesday of last week, Tubby met with the UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhardt. Everything seemed fine then...

Thursday afternoon at 2:30pm CT I opened up my web browser. My home page is set to ESPN.com. The first thing I saw on the page put me in a state of shock. I quite literally went numb for a few moments. The headline read "Breaking News: Tubby Resigns, Going to Minnesota."

I couldn't believe it! I sincerely thought that he was coming back for one more year. I did not expect him to leave. And especially didn't expect him to leave for of all places, Minnesota! I immediately called my friend Bradley to let her know what was going on. A few minutes later I got an email from my friend Kelly asking me if I had heard. I tuned in to one of our local Sports Talk stations down here in Nashville and for the next 3 hours, the only thing that was discussed with Tubby Smith and UK.

My first reaction to Tubby leaving was sad. I was sad to see him go because I think he's a great human being. He represented our university with honor, class, dignity and integrity. You never had to worry about the program breaking the rules under his watch. He took us to the NCAA tourney for 10 straight years, winning at least one game each year, which is something that no other coach can say they've done during that same stretch of time. But after having a day to let everything sink in, I now find myself happy about the decision. I think it's a win-win-win situation for Tubby, Minnesota and UK.

It's great for Tubby because he can now go to a program that will embrace him for just getting to the NCAA tournament. A program that won't have the high expectations that UK has each and every year.

It's great for Minnesota because they're getting a quality coach who will help turn around their program and also help turn out great individuals once they leave the program.

And finally it's great for UK because they can go and try to get a coach who's comfortable with being the center of attention 24/7/365. Someone who is able to recruit the best players in the country. Someone who can deal with the intense pressure that comes along with the greatest job in college basketball.

Most people are throwing out the name Billy Donovan as Tubby's successor. People in Florida, and most of the National media, say that there is absolutely no chance that Billy The Kid would leave Florida to go to UK. They ask "Why would he want to leave Florida?" That's a valid question. But I think the question they need to ask is "How much does coaching at UK mean to Billy?" I think we'll have an answer on that sometime next week.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see Donovan leave to come to UK. No matter how many titles he wins there, he was always be the #2 program at the school because Florida is a football school and football state. That's not the case in Lexington. Donovan's had SEVERAL opportunities to turn down the UK job over the last week, like Pitino, Thad Matta and John Calipari have already done, but he hasn't. He keeps saying the right things but he has yet to say "I'm not interested, please don't call."

Just for funzies, let's say that Donovan does come to UK. And somehow, someway, he manages to do the coaching job of the year. He somehow pulls off the miraculous and UK wins the title next year. Do you think people would say "Sure he won the title, but he did it with Tubby's players!"

Until next time...

UK vs The Competition Part 3

2007-03-25T18:00:00.001-05:00

Here is the updated chart from my previous post, with all the numbers updated to include the first 4 rounds of this year's tournament. The teams in bold are still alive in this year's tournament.

Tournament Teams from 1997-98 season to 2006-07 season
	Team	Titles	Final 4	Elite 8	Sweet 16	Round 2
1	Kentucky	1	1	4	6	10
2	Duke	1	3	4	9	9
3	Connecticut	2	2	5	6	8
4	Maryland	1	2	2	5	8
5	Kansas	0	2	4	5	8
6	Arizona	0	1	4	5	7
7	Gonzaga	0	0	2	4	7
8	North Carolina	1	3	4	4	7
9	Michigan State	1	4	5	6	7
10	Florida	1	3	3	4	7
11	UCLA	0	2	2	6	6
12	Wisconsin	0	1	2	3	6
13	Indiana	0	1	1	1	6
14	Syracuse	1	1	1	4	6

UK vs The Competition Part 2

2007-03-22T09:09:00.001-05:00

Here is the updated chart from my previous post, with all the numbers updated to include the first 2 rounds of this year's tournament. The teams in bold are still alive in this year's tournament.

Tournament Teams from 1997-98 season to 2006-07 season
	Team	Titles	Final 4	Elite 8	Sweet 16	Round 2
1	Kentucky	1	1	4	6	10
2	Duke	1	3	4	9	9
3	Connecticut	2	2	5	6	8
4	Maryland	1	2	2	5	8
5	Kansas	0	2	3	5	8
6	Arizona	0	1	4	5	7
7	Gonzaga	0	0	2	4	7
8	North Carolina	1	3	3	4	7
9	Michigan State	1	4	5	6	7
10	Florida	1	2	2	4	7
11	UCLA	0	1	1	6	6
12	Wisconsin	0	1	2	3	6
13	Indiana	0	1	1	1	6
14	Syracuse	1	1	1	4	6

UK vs The Competition

2007-03-17T09:33:00.001-05:00

There has been much debate over the future of UK's coach Tubby Smith during the past few months. Much of that centers around the fact that UK hasn't been back to the Final 4 since 1998 when they won it all. Here is a listing of 14 schools that have been consistently in the NCAA tournament since the 1997-98 season when Tubby started at UK. I found this information at http://johnclay.typepad.com/sidelines/2007/03/uk_in_ncaas.html . I've updated it to include this year's 1st round games and the first day of the 2nd round.

Tournament Teams from 1997-98 season to 2006-07 season
	Team	Titles	Final 4	Elite 8	Sweet 16	Round 2
1	Kentucky	1	1	4	6	10
2	Duke	1	3	4	9	9
3	Connecticut	2	2	5	6	8
4	Maryland	1	2	2	5	8
5	Kansas	0	2	3	4	8
6	Arizona	0	1	4	5	7
7	Gonzaga	0	0	2	4	7
8	North Carolina	1	3	3	4	7
9	Michigan State	1	4	5	6	7
10	Florida	1	2	2	3	7
11	UCLA	0	1	1	6	6
12	Wisconsin	0	1	2	3	6
13	Indiana	0	1	1	1	6
14	Syracuse	1	1	1	4	6

Of the teams listed above, Syracuse and UConn didn't make it into the field of 65 this year. of the remaining teams that did qualify, Duke, Arizona and Gonzaga all lost their 1st Round games.

So after Sunday's game, at least 1 team (UK/KU) from the remaining 9 teams will advance to the Sweet 16, with the possibility of 2 more (Florida, Wisconsin) joining North Carolina and UCLA who advanced on Saturday.

Bracket Busted

2007-03-17T09:21:00.001-05:00

Well, after a pretty decent start on Thursday, my bracket got shredded yesterday. Ok, maybe it's not that bad. I mean, I still have all of my Final 4 picks alive. And outside of the Midwest regional, I've still got 11 of the possible 12 Sweet 16 picks alive for the other 3 Regionals. Florida is my only pick still alive in the Midwest.

But that's ok because last night I got to watch UK play their most complete game in months as they beat Villanova in the first round to set up a game with Kansas. This kind of reminds me of 2004 but only in reverse.

In that year, UK was the #1 seed that many people, including myself, had picked to not only get to the Final Four, but to win it all. Well, in the last game of the 2nd Round UK got upset by the #9 seed UAB. Talent-wise, UK was the better team, but UAB forced them into playing their style of ball and was able to pull off the upset at the end of the game.

This year, UK is the #8 seed playing a #1 seeded Kansas team that many people are picking to get to the Final Four and then also winning it all. Talent-wise, Kansas is the better team, but if UK can force their will on Kansas and continue to the great defensive effort that they gave last night, anything is possible.

Last year, Kansas thumped us on their home court. But that was last year, and Morris didn't play that game. We're a better team this year, but so are they. They're scary good. It's going to take a great effort for us to win. But hey, anything can happen.

March Madness Update

2007-03-16T08:08:00.001-05:00

Well, had I not went in at the last minute and changed my picks, I would have had 14 out of 16 correct yesterday and would have the chance to have 15 out of 16 teams in the Sweet 16. Instead, I got 13 out of 16 right yesterday and can have up to 14 teams advancing to the Sweet 16.

I'm in two contests right now, and I'm in 2nd place by 1 game in each of them. I'd gladly come in last place if it meant UK winning tonight and Sunday and then advancing to the Final Four. They wouldn't even have to win the tournament, just get to the Final Four. Oh well, probably not going to happen this year, but with all of the bad luck that they've already had this year, who knows, maybe things will change for them starting today.

I'll post another update later today or tomorrow. Until then...

March Madness Picks

2007-03-15T12:53:00.001-05:00

This year was more difficult for me to make my selections than in most years past. Here is a list of games that I picked one way, then at the last minute changed. The team in bold is the team that I ended up switching to for my final pick.

1st Round
Midwest: Maryland vs. Davidson
Midwest: Butler vs. Old Dominion
West: Duke vs. VCU
East: Vanderbilt vs. George Washington
East: Boston College vs. Texas Tech

2nd Round
Midwest: I advanced Old Dominion to the Sweet 16 instead of Butler
Midwest: Georgia Tech vs. Wisconsin
West: I advanced Pittsburgh to the Sweet 16 instead of Duke
East: I advanced George Washington to the Sweet 16 instead of Vanderbilt
South: I advanced Texas A&M to the Sweet 16 instead of Louisville

Sweet 16
Midwest: I advanced Georgia Tech to the Elite 8 instead of Wisconsin
South: I advanced Texas A&M to the Elite 8 instead of Memphis

Elite 8
South: I advanced Texas A&M to the Final 4 instead of Ohio State

For every other game I picked, I kept the same team that I originally picked. I'm already starting to regret changing my Davidson pick to Maryland as they are in a dogfight right now, with Maryland only up by 1 with 10 minutes to go in the game.

The Week In Review

2007-03-11T22:41:00.001-05:00

The last week was yet another busy one for me. I got home early Sunday morning last week after playing a show in Virginia with the band Judah First. After getting some much needed sleep, I watched my beloved 'Cats play a great first half against Florida, only to fall apart in the 2nd half. A few hours later Bryan, a co-worker from my office, showed up at the house. He was going to be spending the week with us while he was in town for work.

The work week was filled with meetings and more meetings. We did manage to get some programming done though. We spent many a late night working some overtime while he was here, trying to get as much done on our project so that we could make our mandated deadline of April 16th.

Tuesday morning I had to drop off my SUV to get the rear bumper repaired after being hit a couple of weeks ago so I had a rental for the rest of the week, a Ford Focus. Surprisingly, it was a pretty comfortable car for someone my size. I wish it would have cruise control but oh well, it was just for a week.

Thursday I watched UK play one of their best games of the year as they knocked Alabama out of the SEC tournament for the 2nd year in a row. I was also planning on leaving with Judah First for another show but we didn't end up leaving until the next day. I also picked up the new Sevendust album that night. So far I'm really liking it. It seems to be the heaviest album that they've put out since the first couple of albums.

I set our DVR to record the UK game for Friday and Saturday since I was going to be in Kingsport while the games were on. At one point, I was going to be playing drums for JF for this show but it turns out that Chris was able to make it after all. But I accompanied the guys to the gig anyways. They had a great show and I had a blast hanging out with the guys before and afterwards. We drove straight back to Nashville after getting some great breakfast food at IHOP.

Philip, Chris and I got back to The Shed at around 6am. After we got everything unloaded, I went over to the body shop where I dropped my car off and waited for them to open. After dropping off the keys to the rental, I headed home for some much needed rest.

I got up a few hours later and began watching the UK game that I had taped from the day before. It looked the 'Cats were going to pull it out but due to a stupid lane violation call, they ended up giving Miss. State a chance to tie the game, which they did, and then proceeded to lose the game in Overtime. Unfortunately for me, I only set the game to record 30 minutes extra as opposed to the hour that I typically do. So I only got to see the first 90 seconds of overtime.

I had also set up Saturday's game to record in the hopes that UK would be playing. So I had to switch to that recording to find out that they lost. It was very frustrating to say the least.

Then Sunday night I watched the selection show to see UK getting an 8 seed and having to play against Villanova, a team that's very similar to us. If we are able to get past them, then we will have to play against Kansas in the 2nd round. If we play our best game, and Kansas has an off-shooting night, then we have a chance. But it's not going to be easy.

On The Road Again

2007-03-04T22:18:00.001-06:00

This past weekend was my first road trip with a band in nearly 6 years!!!! The last official road trip I had with a band came back in June 2001 with one of my old bands, 100 Watt Magnet. We played a show in Marble Falls, Texas called the Texas Rockfest. A couple of months later I left the band and the music scene.

Fast forward to this weekend. I accompanied a band, Judah First, to a show in Bealeton, Virginia, which is about an hour outside of Washington, DC. For those of you who only keep up with me through this blog, this is probably the first time you've heard of Judah First.

I first met the guys a few months ago when I answered an ad that they had placed looking for a drummer. I auditioned for them and I felt like it was without a doubt the worst audition I had ever done. There were several circumstances as to why but I'll just chalk it up to you can't always hit a home run and this was one of those instances where I thought for sure I had struck out.

They got back with me a little while later. The situation had changed somewhat. Their current drummer had decided that he would continue on with the band and play with them as much as possible, but anytime he wasn't able to make a show, then they would get a "go-to" or "backup" drummer to fill in for him. They offered me the chance to be that guy. So a few weeks ago I began learning their songs so that I could be ready to play out with them if the opportunity ever arose. That opportunity came this past weekend.

I met up with Philip (guitars) and Spencer (bass) here in Nashville. We got off to a late start due to the inclement weather that was going through the Southeastern US that day. We finally made it to Kingsport and met up with James Aaron (vocals). I also got to meet one of their old bass players, Keith, who would be playing a show with them the following weekend.

Philip, Spencer, and Keith ran through the songs while I was getting my kit set up. By the time I got all my kit set up it was 1:30am. Since we were in a residential area we had to wait until morning to do a full band rehearsal. The rest of the guys continued rehearsing their parts for another couple of hours. We finally went to bed around 3:30am and set the alarm for 9am.

I woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off. After the alarm finally went off, the rest of the guys appeared to be staying in bed. So I had to resort to other methods to wake them up so I went upstairs and began playing my kit. Spencer showed up a few minutes later and then we jammed through a song. I went back downstairs and the other two were up now.

We started going through the songs at about 9:30am Friday morning, less than 12 hours before show time. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, but this was also our first practice as a full band. I had practiced with Philip and Spencer once but never with James Aaron other than the audition. So we were able to go through 9 of the 12 songs before we had to start tearing down and packing up the van.

We got everything packed up and loaded and were on the road at around 11:15am I believe. As we were on our way to the show, we noticed that some of the instrument gauges in the van had quit working, mainly the odometer, speedometer, and fuel gauge. We pulled over to try and fix it to no avail. Then about an hour later it started working again.

We eventually made it to the venue, a bit later than when we wanted to. The kids that were there were excited about the show. We had several people helping us get our gear unloaded and setup. We got everything setup, did a sound check on one of the songs that we didn't get a chance to practice on earlier, then headed to the "green room" to get changed for the show.

After everyone got changed, we then went over the set list and talked about the transitions between songs. We had a time of prayer and then we went up to the stage to unleash the HMT - Heavy Metal Thunder, as Philip likes to call it.

From the first note to the very last chord, the place was rocking. The kids had crowded around the stage and they were into the show for the entire concert. We poured everything we had into that show. Many of the kids there were singing along with every song. Aaron did an incredible job of keeping the crowd involved. Philip and Spencer were both just giving it everything they had. That place had so much energy. It definitely helped keep me going. I'm currently not in the best physical shape that I've ever been in and the energy of the crowd definitely helped me get through the show.

Afterwards, we hung out with the kids, signed some autographs, talked about our faith. Eventually we had to start tearing down and loading up the gear, that's always bittersweet. I hope that I have an opportunity to play there again in the future 'cause those kids were awesome. By far one of the best crowds I've ever played for.

After the show was over we stayed with one of the most genuine couples I've ever met, Shawn and Arlene. If there is a nicer couple in this world, I'd like to meet them. They opened up their home to us and just made us feel like we were part of their family. I felt so at home just being there. I truly hope that I have a chance to see them again. They were just wonderful people.

Then the next day we headed back home. We had some great bonding time in the van. It was definitely a unique experience for me. It was the first time I've ever been on a road trip with a band where I wasn't "officially" in the band. As of right now, their current drummer is still their guy. At some point he may decide to step down, but then again, he may decide to stay on. But in the meantime, I know what my role with them is and that's totally cool with me. I had a blast getting to play the show and I can't wait until I have a chance to do it again.

Well, it's been a great weekend, but I've got to get some rest before the work week starts up again.

Until next time...

What A Day!

2007-03-04T21:58:00.001-06:00

This past Wednesday was quite a day. It started out with me having to stop by a body shop to get an estimate on my SUV because during the week before, my wife and I were on our way home from the store when we get rear-ended. Fortunately, no one was hurt. But my SUV did suffer some damage.

So as I was leaving the body shop, about to head up to the office, my wife calls. She said that she just had a blowout on the interstate. She told me where she was so I immediately turned around to go help her out. After I got there, I realized that the jack for her car wasn't in her car. I tried to use the one that was in mine but it was too tall and wouldn't fit. So we had to head back to the house to get the one for her car.

We picked up the jack and then made our way back to her car. I had no problem getting the lug nuts off but the tire itself didn't want to budge. The tire was so shredded that parts of it had wrapped around the axle. I was careless and tried handling the tire without gloves and cut my hand 3 or 4 times in the process.

I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the tire off with no luck. I went back to my SUV and we sat there for a couple of minutes, contemplating our next move. I decided to give it one last try and then we would call a tow truck. After a few more minutes of fighting, I finally got the tire off.

As I was about to put the spare on, a State Trooper stopped to come and offer assistance, which by this time wasn't needed anymore. So after assuring him that I was able to finish it from here he went on about his day. Five minutes later after I got the spare "donut" tire on the car, and removed the jack, we realized that the spare was flat.

Since we were only about 4 miles from a gas station we decided to just drive on the side of the road till we got there. I'm accustomed to having to drive slow on I-65 in the mornings because of all the morning rush hour traffic. But this was a first for me, following my wife on the side of the interstate, going about 15MPH.

We finally got to the gas station only to find out that they didn't have an air hose. So we had to go to another gas station to find an air hose. Fortunately, there was just down the road. We were able to get the spare aired up and then hop back on the interstate.

This time we were able to actually drive on the road since we were in a construction zone. My wife went to Wal-mart to get the tire replaced. In the process we were told that because we had bought our tires there before and because this tire had suffered some road hazard, that they were going to replace both of our front tires for free. That was a nice way to bring this morning's adventure to a close.

I finally made it back to the office. I looked like I was a mechanic for the day. I got to share my story with my co-workers and came out looking like a hero :-) So all in all, I guess I can't complain too much can I?

Weekend Review

2007-02-12T12:36:00.001-06:00

I guess I could break my weekend down to 3 different sections, Marriage Seminar, UK vs Florida, and Angel. I think I'll start in reverse order.

We spent a good deal of time watching Season 2 of Angel on DVD yesterday. There is a group of us at the office that watch Angel, as well as Buffy and Smallville, during our lunch break. It really helps break up the day and takes your mind off of work for a small while anyway. So, after watching a few episodes of Angel I became hooked. During the holidays, Best Buy had each season of Angel on sale for $19.99 each. I snatched up a copy of all five seasons! My wife had never seen it but I just knew that she was going to like it. Sure enough, at some point during Season 1 she became hooked like me. We've actually caught up and passed the point where the office group is at.

Then on Saturday night, I watched the UK vs Florida game. UK lost 64-61, but they SHOULD have won the game. Prior to the last minute, they had their worst 3-pt shooting night of the season. At one point they were 1-19 from behind the arc. They finished 3-22, with the last attempt coming up just short and hitting the front of the rim. Had that shot went it, Rupp Arena would have gone just nuts! But alas, it didn't. And Florida won... again... for the 5th time in a row against us. It's the second time that's ever happened to UK. And if we can't pull off the upset on March 4th, then Florida will do something that no other team has EVER done, beat us 6 games in a row.

I think our best shot to beat them was on Saturday, but I think they have a shot to pull off the upset down the road. They played well except the fact that they didn't shoot well. Some of that was a credit to Florida's defense. But a lot of that was UK simply not hitting their open looks. Florida should feel very fortunate to get the win. Case and point... Ramel Bradley, the SEC leader in Free Throw percentage, missed 6 FT's during the game. He hadn't missed more than 2 in a game all season. If he hits his average, UK wins the game.

Prior to that game, my wife and I spent the rest of the day going through a marriage seminar on DVD. It was put together by a Christian company, Family Dynamics Institute, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of it. In the end, I'm glad we went through it. It definitely opened up some doors for conversation. Some of the stuff that was covered we had already worked through ourselves earlier in our marriage. I mean, you don't stay married for over 10 and a half years without learning how to work through some stuff.

There was also a book that came with it that we started on, "Becoming One." We've read through the first two chapters so far. I expect that we'll finish it up over the next two weeks. So far it's been ok, but I expect it to get better.

All in all, the weekend went really good. I wish UK would have won, but the most important thing that happened was my wife and I were able to reconnect.

Until next time...

EMI To Sell Unprotected MP3's?

2007-02-09T08:22:00.001-06:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17064419/from/RS.2/

I'll add my thoughts on this later today.

Selection Sunday

2007-02-09T06:04:00.001-06:00

It's getting close to that time of year... March Madness. And before the Madness can officially begin, we get to sit through an hour-long show on CBS known as Selection Sunday. I just read a very good article on the whole process. The NCAA invited 20 media members to do a mock projection of the tournament field, using all the resources that they, the NCAA, themselves use during the process.

Click here to read the article in a new window.
Click here to see their Mock Projections.

UPDATED: February 9 @ 1:26pm

Here are a couple more articles written from some of the media members in attendance:

Pat Forde: What I learned at BracketCamp
Andy Katz: One long day in Indy generates Mock Bracket

A Brief Rant

2007-02-08T13:00:00.001-06:00

Just a few things that I wanted to get off my chest... First off, why do people drive 60mph in the fast lane when the speed limit is 70mph? What good is having an HOV lane? I get passed every morning by people in the HOV lane that don't have any passengers other than themselves. Why not do away with it so all the rest of us that have to commute in the morning can get to work?!?!? Staying on the topic of drivers... why do women put their makeup on in their car while THEY ARE DRIVING?!?!?!? Get up a few minutes earlier and do it at home so you're not putting anyone in danger.

Why do we keep a schedule of meetings for a conference room when other groups don't use it and then schedule their meeting at the same time as yours and then proceed to boot you out of the room just because their group is larger, even though your meeting was already on the schedule????

Why oh why do people respond to SPAM to further perpetuate the problem???

Why can't my beloved UK Wildcats play an entire 40 minute game without a lapse in focus and intensity just once????

OK, I feel better now...

Comeback Cats Again

2007-02-05T09:32:00.001-06:00

For the 2nd game in a row this season, and the 2nd year in a row against Arkansas, UK was able to overcome a 2nd half-deficit and pull out a victory. The weekend before last, UK trailed Tennessee early in the 2nd half before mounting a comeback and eventually turning the game into a blowout.

Then this past Saturday the Cats were looking at a 14-point deficit before Tubby proceeded to out coach his opposition and Cats began to turn up the defensive heat. With Randolph Morris getting beat on the defensive end pretty bad, Tubby pulled him out and went to a smaller lineup. He also went to a full-court press defense and the dividends were immediate.

After Ramel Bradley knocked down a huge 3, the defense created a 5-second call which lead to a basket and then the very next possession, Arkansas had trouble getting the ball inbounds and had to use another timeout. It wasn't long before the Cats had cut to lead to 5.

Then with the combined defensive/offensive effort of Bradley and the "mature beyond his years" freshman Jodie Meeks, the Cats eventually took over the lead and the game. They were able to knock down their free throws to put the game away.

Last year we were down by 18 against Arkansas at home before staging a furious comeback. This is a definite momentum-builder. Up next for the Cats is South Carolina at home. They handed USC their worst home loss since 1915 earlier this year, 87-49. With the home game against Florida coming up on Saturday, as part of the ESPN GameDay telecast, the game against South Carolina is a perfect trap game. Hopefully the Cats will not lose their focus.

The Bears Couldn't "Rain" In The Colts

2007-02-05T09:09:00.001-06:00

So last night was the 41st, err... Super Bowl XLI, for those Roman Numeral people out there. It was definitely not one of the best games that have been played in recent memory. From the 4 turnovers in the 1st quarter (the most ever in a Super Bowl) to the 8 turnovers altogether, people looking for a well-played game were left wanting.

I'm not a huge Peyton Manning fan (come on, he went to UT!) but I do respect him as a quarterback. And I must admit, I have really enjoyed the commercials that he has put out over the last few years. His marketing team has done a wonderful job with him.

As I watched the game last night, especially after the Bears returned the opening kick-off for a TD, I couldn't help but ask myself just how much pressure Peyton must be under. Here's a guy who most people would say is one of the greatest QB's of all time, yet, if he didn't win tonight, he would continue to be labeled as the guy who couldn't win the big one. Fair or not, that's how QB's are judged today. I was glad for him to win and be able shed that label once and for all. I'm curious to see who the next "great QB who has yet to win the big one" is going to be.

As I watched the post-game interviews, I came away so impressed with Tony Dungy. I've been a fan of his since he was the coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs several years ago. When asked about how it felt to be the first African-American coach to win the Super Bowl, he said that it was nice. And that he was honored to be the one to do that. He also said that he was even more proud of the fact that both he and Lovie Smith, coach of the Bears, were both Christian coaches and that they were able to show people that you can be successful by doing things "The Lord's Way." That was very cool to hear live on CBS last night.

For as many people that watch the Super Bowl for the game, there are even more that watch it for the commercials. I gotta say that last night was one of the weakest group of commercials I can ever remember seeing. There really weren't any memorable ones that stood out to me. The K-Fed spot was OK. But other than that one, I can't think of too many others that were great. I did enjoy the Budweiser commercial with the "Dalmatian" dog, it was cute.

I thought Prince did a great job for the half-time show. He's not one of my favorite artists but he's an extremely talented musician, and a very underrated guitarist. He definitely knows how to entertain.

Overall, I enjoyed the game and half-time show, but didn't think the commercials were anywhere near worth the amount of money that it cost to air them. Several million people are going to start going through withdrawal this week. Not me. College Basketball is just really starting to heat up and that's my favorite of all the sports. Go Big Blue!

New Becomes Old Becomes New

2007-01-30T15:33:00.001-06:00

Thanks to some understanding of CSS coding as well as adding a CNAME record to my domain name, I was able to get my blog to be apart of my regular site. I still have some tweaking to do to get the two sites to look alike, but I'm closer now than I was a few weeks ago.

So now the New format that I had started using a month ago before having to revert back to the Old format is now once again the New format, hence the title of the post.

I've got some stuff worth posting on but it'll have to wait until later, but it'll be worth of it! I'll just say it involves a drumstick, and not of the Thanksgiving variety.

Until next time...
Big Blue Barry

Apple Of My Eye

2007-01-23T08:33:00.001-06:00

Being that I tend to get known as "The Computer Guy" around the office, I usually get asked the question "So, do you like Mac's or PC's better?" For me, I'm a PC guy - though I admit I really do enjoy the Mac vs PC commercials that Apple puts out. I know that there are people who fall on both sides of the spectrum and are very passionate about their choice. I'm not going to get into a big debate, I'll just say that for me to do my job and do it well, I need a PC. I write database-driven apps in ASP.NET, and while there are other technologies that I could use, none of them come close to the power and ease-of-use that the .Net platform provides.

That being said, I will say that Apple has created some of the coolest "toys" on the market. I've got the Photo iPod - 30GB HD with the ability to store digital images. I love how easy it works with iTunes. And now Apple has just revealed that they are entering the cell phone market. While I doubt I'll get one of these anytime soon - retail price of $500-600 - they sure do look sweet!

Great Story

2007-01-19T10:08:00.001-06:00

I just found an article about a college basketball player who as a freshmen was told that he wasn't good enough to be a walk-on for the team and now as a senior is LEADING THE NATION in rebounding! It's a great read, even for non-sports fans.

Click here to open the article in a new window.

Jack Is Back!

2007-01-16T09:16:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite shows, and quite possibly THE favorite, 24, returned to TV over the last couple of nights. Without giving away any spoilers to those of you who may not have had a chance to watch them yet, these last "4" episodes have been awesome!

My wife and I began watching this show in 2005. A friend of mine from work knew that we were Alias fans and suggested that if we liked Alias, we would LOVE 24. Man was he right! Since he had the first 4 seasons on DVD, he let us borrow them.

We went through Season 1 over the course of a few weeks and then the same thing for Season 2. Season's 3 and 4 only took us the course of a weekend each. We were hooked!

Last year for Season 5 we decided to watch it "live" as the show aired. While we enjoyed it, it wasn't quite the same as being able to watch it on DVD, back to back to back to back to... well, you get the idea.

After watching the first 4 episodes of this season, I have to think that this is going to be one of the best season's yet. Last night's final 10 minutes were as intense as anything they've done. I can't wait till next week!!! It's going to be rough only getting to see one hour after getting four hours the last two nights!

I'm running out of time!

Robots

2007-01-12T14:18:00.001-06:00

A co-worker sent this link to the rest of our development team earlier today. You have to see this to believe it! No CGI baby, this is the real deal!!!

Click Here to watch a Robot climb up AND DOWN a set of stairs!!!

Sticking To It

2007-01-12T13:03:00.001-06:00

At some point in 1998 I made a switch in the drumsticks that I used. Prior to that, I used Pro Mark 5B sticks. During that year I came across a pair of sticks made by Vic Firth, the American Classic Metal with a Red Nylon Tip.

That became my stick of choice for two reasons. First off, it was the longest stick I could find, 17" in length. Secondly, I loved the look of the Red tip. It matched the color scheme of my band and I thought it looked cool. Those two things aside, I also liked the way it sounded and played.

Fast forward to this year. I've been practicing quite a bit lately. But one thing I've noticed that I was having a harder time with the sticks than I used to have. So I decided to buy a couple of pairs that were in different sizes. I tried out a Vic Firth 5A and 5B, both with nylon tips.

After playing with both pairs I decided on moving to the 5A as my stick of choice. It's not as long as the Metal stick, 16" compared to 17", but it's much lighter. A lot of my old drumming style was more about laying in a solid groove and not adding too many fills. While that is still the case, I'm trying to expand that a bit.

What about you other drummers out there? What sticks do you use?

UK Gets New Practice Facility

2007-01-12T12:53:00.001-06:00

The UK Men's AND Women's Basketball teams finally have a practice place to call their own. I'm amazed that a program of UK's stature and recognition didn't already have one, but at least now they do. Other schools such as Florida have had better facilities than us (I know, I know, I'm not really a part of the team but a man can dream can't he?) for a long time, but not any more!

Click here to view the entire article in a new window.

Here are a couple shots for you to enjoy.