Ladies And Gentlemen… Kyle Ray
Remember the other day when I said that someone was going to be joining me on The Roadshow as a ‘soldier of interactivity’? Well, today I’d like to introduce you to SkörInc’s newest member, Kyle. I’ve known Kyle for a long time now and am excited to get out on the road with him and make this tour the most interactive tour online.
So would everyone please welcome Kyle to the world of SkörInc. You will hear me talking about him and get to know him well over the next couple months and eventually start to love him as we do. And while you’re at it you can follow Kyle’s Twitter that we started a couple days ago @kyleray.
And since we’re all here talking, I’d like to ask you all a question. Since there aren’t many people, outside of this here circle that know, that know we are going to be joining The Roadshow, I’d like to start with you guys. What are you looking for as far as interaction? What do you folks that can’t make the show want to see online? How can we make you feel as connected as possible through cyber space? I plan on asking this on The Roadshow Blog once it’s launched but I wanted to start with you. So let’s hear it. Comment here and the go say hey to Kyle.
Ready? Go.
Fee’s Photo Shoot
I tagged along today to Fee’s photo shoot for their next record. Obviously these are ‘behind the scenes’ photos of the photo shoot, which I’m glad Josh didn’t get mad at me for taking. We spent most of the day outside of downtown Nashville in some rundown areas, and under the freeway. You know, where bands normally hang out when they are getting their pictures taken. We had a great time hanging out and trying to not step on any nails and I think the pictures are going to look great.
That’s all for now. I’m tired and Kristin and I have an Office to watch.
Positive Post Tuesday
This is Kristin. Most of you know her in some way or another, and yes, she has been the subject of more than one Positive Post Tuesday, and most likely will be the subject of many more in the future. And since she never would on her own, I’m going to brag about her a little. Kristin completely blows me away more and more the longer we are married. We are quickly approaching our nine year anniversary and every day I am taken back by how awesome she is.
Most recently she has randomly started working for a promoter from home giving away cruises, (yeah, I know) and has had to completely adapt to a new way of structuring her day. She’s making calls and organizing things like crazy and still has the energy to deal with the kids and keep the house functioning. Yep, blows me away.
Another things she has started doing, is organizing our grocery shopping and house stuff. She’s gotten into making cleaning products like laundry soap and the cleaner that you clean counter tops with (whatever that’s called). And here’s the thing with that stuff. It’s better for us chemically and a heck of a lot cheaper. Both things I am down with.
All this to say, I am completely taken back by the woman that decided to marry me. Almost nine years and I couldn’t be happier, and hopefully she feels the same. She’s the best wife and mom I could imagine for me and the kids, and I’m humbled every day she puts up with me.
Welcome to Tuesday. You guys know the rules. This week’s Positive Post Tuesday is hosted over at Annie’s Blog called ‘AnnieBlogs’ because she does, in fact, blog. Head over there and join the party.
Ready? Go.
Stats Suck Sunday – In Bullet Points
Welcome to Sunday everyone. You all know the rules. I’m sitting here watching Madagascar 2 and have several things on my mind and it’s a perfect day for some bullet points. For those of you just joining, here’s how Stats Suck Sunday works. I write random things and we talk about it. Then you guys write random stuff and we talk about it. What makes that different than any other day? I’m not sure, but we can bet your stats will be less today then they are during the week. Here goes.
- First up, I want to draw some attention to something that I think is pretty cool. You may look at it and not think much of it, but it’s something that (to my knowledge) isn’t being done yet in new ‘Christian Music Twitter Craze’. Check out MercyMe’s blog and take a look at their Twitter updates in the sidebar. Notice anything awesome? Yep. All three of their feeds are coming into the sidebar (@bartmillard, @robbyshaffer and @mmslobs). Not reinventing the wheel here, but it’s cool to try new things.
- I played this morning at church and I’m not entirely sure it could have gone worse. First off the electric guitar player didn’t show up so it was a ‘one guitar’ Sunday. The problem? The songs were primarily electric and I was playing acoustic. Broke a string on the first song of the second service, stalled before the third song to change it, but in the process of changing it, I lost my pick forcing me to use my non-existent fingernails. Can we say ‘train-wreck’?
- ‘God Gave Rock And Roll To You‘ has been stuck in my head since lunch.
- In case you missed it, we did a last minute broadcast of the MercyMe / Addison Road show the other night and it seemed to go off without a hitch. In fact we had almost 4,000 people watching online thanks to you all spreading the word so fast.
- Randy and I rode about 80 miles on scooters yesterday all over the Nashville area. Hopefully there will be some video documentation once I have the energy to edit it. Oh yeah, and he’s 30 and I’m not.
- We had 2 out of 3 boys in our bed before five o’clock this morning. One that wouldn’t stop yelling “Mommy Poop” and the other that said he was scared.
- Still hoping to kick this cold I have had for a few days, but I don’t think riding a scooter for the entire day helped any.
- I realized yesterday that any time I go jogging, which isn’t often, there’s no possible way that I look like a jogger, but more like someone running from the law. Maybe that’s why I don’t jog.
That’s about it for now. All the random thoughts floating around in my head right now. Hopefully you are all having a lovely Sunday. Let’s hear your Random thoughts.
Ready? Go.
Thirty
I’ve known Randy since we were seven. We were on the same little league baseball team together. We went to Jr. High and HIgh School together, graduated together and now we work together. Today he turns thirty, and that completely weirds me out. Thirty? Really? What the heck happened?
We’ve got a ton of stories over the past twenty-three years. Some that we can look back and laugh at and some that we would never tell our kids to avoid the risk of them acting like us, and I’m sure there are plenty more to come.
Randy’s been in Tennessee for about six months now, we’ve had a pretty cool time living in the same city again, and one thing’s for sure. SkörInc wouldn’t be what it is today without him working way too many hours making things work right. Today he’s taking the day off work, and see what this whole new decade of life is all about.
So, head over to Randy’s blog and wish him a ‘happy thirty’. And for those that have already crossed the ‘thirty’ line, I’m curious, did you notice anything change?
Happy Birthday Randy.
Pray For This Guy
Ever since Aiden was born he has had, what sounded like, a rattle in his chest when he takes short breaths or plays too hard. The doctors said it was something called ‘Tracheomalacia‘ and that it would go away the older he got. Now that he’s four his doctors aren’t so sure that it will go away on it’s own and he may need surgery. Basically what it means is that part of his throat isn’t as strong as it should be… I think. The surgery would do something to remedy that, but I don’t know many of the details. On top of that, he has also had a ‘sunken chest’ or Pectus Excavatum, which has the potential to affect his heart and lungs the older he gets. Again, something the doctors hoped would go away but hasn’t. And again, on top of that (as if that wasn’t enough) the doctors noticed a heart murmur that they are concerned about and we need to get looked at pretty quickly. This could all be because of his chest or could possibly be something else.
Last week Aiden had some x-rays done to make sure his chest wasn’t pushing too much on his lungs and tomorrow we have an appointment at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for an echocardiogram to make sure that his heart murmur isn’t being created by his chest or if it is something completely different. I’m not sure the next steps that would need to be taken if there is an issue with his heart, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. We’re pretty convinced everything will be okay but would envy your prayers for this little guy.
Thanks so much and we will keep you all posted.
Coming This Spring
Alright folks, check this out. Most of you may have heard about The Rock & Worship Roadshow coming this spring. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s going to be a great tour with MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Hawk Nelson, Tenth Avenue North and Addison Road starting in mid-March. Now, what you haven’t heard is that SkörInc will be joining them to make this the most interactive tour on the internet. We’ve been working on some pretty cool things the past few weeks and we’re planning on taking everything to the next level with one goal in mind. Occupying your entire day…. every day.
We have sought out a second soldier of interactivity and he will be joining me on the tour to bring you things that have never been done before. Yes. Two of us will be on the tour and it’s going to make it amazing. We’re both really excited to get going on things and make this tour something memorable for those that attend and those that can only be involved online. Later this week I will introduce you to the guy joining me so we are all friends before the tour starts. But for now check out The Rock & Worship Temporary Site to see if we will be coming to a city close to you. You can also follow The Roadshow on Twitter for special announcements and last minute updates.
It’s gonna be crazy everyone. Who’s ready?
SkörInc Artists – CCM Reader’s Choice
So check this out. It’s time to vote for for some of your favorite SkörInc artists at the CCM Reader’s Choice Awards. Now here’s the thing. There’s a bunch of SkörInc artists listed in there, but I wanted to make sure it was easy for you and get the list of all the artists we have the honor of working with. Sound good? Here goes.
- Best Band: MercyMe
- Best Duo Or Group: Shane & Shane
- Best Male Artist: Phil Wickham
- Best Female Artist: Natalie Grant
- Best New Artist: Joy Whitlock / Addison Road
- Best Worship Artist: Brenton Brown
- Best Songwriter: Brenton Brown
- Best Tour: Revolve Tour Featuring Natalie Grant / Winter Jam 08 Featuring MercyMe
Seems pretty simple right? There’s a lot of great artists to chose from, but quite honestly, the coolest and best are listed above. So go there now and vote for your favorite SkörInc artists, and watch for the winners to be announced in May. Spread the word and let’s show folks the power of ‘blogging well’. Sound good?
Positive Post Tuesday
Welcome to Tuesday. Hopefully you’ve read the new ‘rules’ and are ready to get started.
This week I wanted to write about someone I have never met, but has continually supported me and what I have been doing on this blog. Gene Pensiero has been involved in this blog in one way or another for a long time. I don’t know how many times he has posted a Positive Post Tuesday on his blog, but it’s got to be close to as many times as I have on here. His name has popped up on here since the beginning and he continues to encourage. In fact, it seems like every time I turn around Gene is doing something to encourage someone, and more often than not he’s reaching out to me to offer support across the web.
In a world plagued with negativity and challenge, it’s amazing to see someone reaching out and truly showing authentic concern for something that he is involved in. Gene‘s a refreshing guy to ‘know’ online and I hope to buy him coffee one day in person.
If you haven’t check out Gene’s blog and ‘Follow’ him on Twitter Here.
Alright, now it’s your turn. Today’s Positive Post Tuesday is hosted over at Luke Mundy’s Blog, so make sure to write something nice and head over there to add yourself to the list. My hope with spreading this thing around is that we can literally take over Tuesdays with a positive voice on the internet. Let’s continue to make this thing as big as we possibly can.
Head to Luke’s Blog now to be a part of the fun.
Peace Train
This song blows me away every time I hear it. Easily one of my favorites. Maybe it’s because ‘peace’ has become such a watered down word lately and I’m not sure we will ever see true peace this side of heaven, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. ‘Peace’, not the song.
Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
That’s not an easy thing to do. Lately I have been quite literally blown away by the petty-ness of men. Men in business. Men in friendships. Men in communities. The insignificant things that so easily turn people into spiteful enemies and destroy what God has called us to do. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men.”
So what happens when it’s not up to you? What happens when you are making the ‘effort to live in peace’ and that petty-ness is turned against you? I suppose it doesn’t matter right? I suppose we are just supposed to make every effort we can to create that peace. If we are walking toward that goal it doesn’t matter if true ‘peace’ is ever achieved.
For now, I’ll hit ‘repeat’ on this song.
