soooo, um...

I've never been very good at subtlety. whenever i try, i think that i'm being coy and slight. but the truth is i'm painfully obvious. just ask any girl who i had a crush on in high school but was too afraid to ask. so instead of trying to figure out a clever way to say it, i'll just say it.

Go buy Britt Nicole's new record When The Lost Get Found. Right. Now.

why would i need to be subtle about this? because it would be a veiled attempt of massive self promotion. Britt, Josh Crosby and I wrote a song called Glow that is on the album and i'm pumped about it. she's a great singer and i hope she does well.

now if you are reading this and you are from springfield, IL, then you probably already know this. how? well, because my parents are probably the best publicists ever. i have an awesome family and my parents are so proud of me that they still have my kindergarten coloring book pieces of artwork adorning our fridge. well, ok, they don't really. but you get the idea.

which brings me to my next thought. connection with art.

i went to a fancy recording and music business school. before i dropped out, a professor once told my class that the reason people like certain music is because they have a connection. i was instantly repulsed by the idea. good music is good music. if it's good, then people will like it. but over time i've realized that he was completely right.

there's a lot of good music out there. probably more than any of us could listen to in a lifetime. but we stick with the stuff that we have a connection to. that connection could be almost anything. the obvious example is when you see a band live and then afterwards you seem to like their music even more. or maybe there's a certain CD you listened to on spring break, and now every time you hear it, it reminds you of that time. there have been many artists who have broken through to a new level because their song was featured in a popular TV show. remember when green day's Time Of Your Life (or whatever the official title was) was in the emotional last episode of ER? a SoCal punk band broke through to moms and dads because that song connected with so many people.


5 or 6 years ago i lived in chicago and was a youth leader at my church. our worship band was a good group of guys who spent of lot of time together. in that period of my life, i listened to a LOT of worship music. Hillsong United, Tomlin, Crowder, etc... I listened to that stuff because i had a connection. a big part of my life was centered on that. but once i moved to nashville, i stopped. i'm not ripping them at all, but honestly, when i hear that stuff now, it seems boring and lifeless to me. and before you start accusing me of a wavering faith because i don't listen to worship music, let me say this. the new glorious unseen record is awesome. they're a worship band i listen to. but those dudes are good friends and two of the guys used to be room mates so there's my connection. oh, and i did some additional engineering for the record. well, there i go again with the shameless self promotion. i'm not sure how to wrap this one up. i'm probably distracted because i'm watching charlie wilsons war and i absolutely love Philip Seymour Hoffman in this movie. he's becoming one of my favorite actors.



it's entertaining and also very educational. it's portrayed as the incredible achievement that it was at that time in the early 80s. but the whole movie makes it obvious that our meddling in other countries' affairs were not really in our best interest in the long run. we won the battle but lost the war. ok now i'm ranting about politics so i should just stop now. bye.