This Guy Falls Down

Mark Lee. Rocks.

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Remind me to tell you...

Well, the fam and I are loading and leaving for Disney World today.   I'll be out of pocket til Tuesday*.  Be sure to check my Tumblr site as I'm planning on posting a bunch of pictures and shorter posts while I'm gone.

I mentioned on Twitter yesterday that I have about 7 ideas for blog posts, but no time to talk about them.  Here they are, so you can pester me about it until it happens:

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Awesome movie, looking forward to the book.  I plan to review it.
2. The death of the Southern Gentleman?  I had a great conversation with the wife about this the other day, and it came up in an interview as well.  I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.
3. There is a certain scene in Picnic at Hanging Rock that really made me think, esp. in the light of Flowerdust's, um, boob post.  Yes, you just witnessed history:  never thought I'd say that word on here...
4. I have a couple of thoughts in response to Hugh Hewitt's response to the Evangelical Manifesto.  Confusing, huh?
5. I plan to talk about biofuels and the world food crisis.
6. Ever heard of the 101 Things in 1001 days project?
7. How about the Domino effect?  I'll talk about both of those soon as well.

Yes, this post should be filled with cool hypertext and whatnot, but you're bright kids.  You can track all these things down.

See ya in a few days...

* Sing it with me!  HUSH HUSH!  KEEP IT DOWN NOW!  VOICES CARRY!  OHHHHH HUSH HUSH!  Man I'm such a boob.  Wow, twice in one post.

Awesome Kendall Payne news

Saw a couple of your comments about how awesome Kendall Payne is.  I couldn't agree more having done two tours with her!  I just got an email with a cool announcement:  she's doing a Christmas album AND a worship album this year!  I'm sure both will be great, but I'm especially intrigued about the worship album...

Go to Kendall's website for details.

75 Skills Every Man Should Master

Yes, it's from a magazine for guys, so of course there are a few crude and unnecessary entries.  But there are some real gems in this list that make it worth a perusal, whether you're a man or somebody who hangs around men, which would be, just about all of us...

(via Elizabeth Grattan, aka Radio Elizabeth)

Watercooler Wednesday: What's the best concert you ever saw?

For my edition of Randy Elrod's fabulous Watercooler Wednesday, I'm going to talk about something near and dear to my heart.  In addition to performing somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 shows with Third Day, I've also been to hundreds of shows myself.  I've been to shows at stadiums, rock clubs, arenas, amphitheaters, churches, bars, schools, parking lots, and empty fields in the middle of nowhere.  I've seen rap shows, rock shows, and rap rock shows.  I've seen it all.  But the big question, and the question I'm also going to ask you, is "What's the best concert you ever saw?"

Many great concerts come to mind*.  As much as I want to come up with some hip and obscure show, I've gotta go with U2.  I've seen them 5 times dating back to Zoo TV.  But the absolute best time was when I loaded up with the rest of the band guys and friends drove to Chicago to see U2 on the Elevation tour.  It was just a few weeks after 9/11, so it was a really emotional night for everyone there.  I remember Bono striking one of his signature poses by hugging an American flag.  And of course the production was absolutely unbelievable.  The song arrangements were killer.  I'll never forget the intro to "Where the Streets Have No Name".  And the show opening with the house lights on and they ease into "Elevation" and turn the lights off on the "mole diggin' in a hole" line.  And "Beautiful Day"!  It was just a magical evening that I'll never forget!

What about you?

* Gun, Cinderella, Pearl Jam, The Scorpions (great story), The Rolling Stones (Steel Wheels! I still have the shirt), Jeff Healey (another great story), Eric Johnson, Extreme, Coldplay (in a club BEFORE they were huge), Wilco (killer!), Gary Louris and Mark Olson, Bon Jovi, Jacob's Trouble, The Choir, Bride, Drivin n Cryin, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sheryl Crow, Clint Black, Motley Crue, Travis Tritt, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Jars of Clay, The Dixie Chicks, Van Halen, The Wallflowers (that was seriously one of the best club shows ever!), The Black Crowes (best festival set ever), Yngwie Malmsteen, Mr. Big, Winger, Kiss, dc talk, Ryan Adams, Loretta Lynn, Gov't Mule, The Police, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, you get the picture...

Valentine's music

No this post is not what you think it's going to be.  This is not about romantic music - it's about two bands that both ROCK and both happen to have "Valentine" in their name.  There is a glut of heavy music out there, and unfortunately there are some really cool bands who are getting lost in the shuffle.  These are but two examples:

• Bullet for My Valentine, Scream, Aim, Fire:  What a title!  I bought this album mainly because they're from Wales and I have a good friend from Wales.  They land in kind of a no man's land between the Avenged/metalcore type thing and the power metal of, say, Dragonforce.  I kind of rolled my eyes at first because I'm not really into the power metal thing.  But it just grows on you and stays with you.  There's something oddly endearing about the Welsh accent gang vocal shouting "OVER THE TOP!" on the title track. If you like both the newer screamo/metalcore stuff AND old school Iron Maiden you will love it.  I'd give this about 3 1/2 stars out of 5.  It's been in heavy rotation for me as of late.
• Twelve Gauge Valentine, Shock Value:  I've had this album for months and only now has it gotten under my skin enough to make a good assessment.  I love it.  Good old Southern metal like a stagecoach from hell that burns down the whole dang town.  If you like Maylene, you'll be all about this stuff.  I can't quite describe it - it's not quite as catchy as the Maylene, but it also somehow feels a little more authentic.  Apprarently the band recently broke up.  Well, R.I.P., Twelve Gauge Valentine!  Great stuff.  Solid 4 out of 5.

So there you have it.  If you have a refined metal palette like I do, get to it.  Buy these records.  If not, keep on enjoying the Sting and Strauss...

Erasure!!!

Not the band, the action! For only the second time in this blog's history , I'm pulling down a post. Even though it's been over a decade since the issue in question, it just feels a little too close to home for me to link to that story.  I'm an artist, not a journalist!
I do still intend to share some thoughts about the Christian music industry in the very near future. 

Thanks, and sorry for any confusion...

Jumping on the "M-Train"

OK, so you may not get this if you didn't go to Georgia Tech, but a buddy of mine put this little rap video together and it's been getting a ton of "buzz". So why not post it here? (Jumping on the M-Train is what they call it when you change majors from Engineering to Management to avoid dropping out of school...Mr. Lee here jumped ship from engineering but switched to a major called History, Technology, and Society)

Help me build the new me

If you'll look around, you'll see that I'm trying to revamp/streamline this site.  It's just felt cluttered for a long time, and I haven't updated some of the books and CD links in months.  So rather than letting it fester any longer, I took out anything I'm not really using now.

One thing I really want to get better about is the link love.  I am going to try and build a good blogroll that accurately reflects other blogs in this corner of the blogosphere.  So if you feel like you would qualify, please leave a link in the comments section below and I will add you accordingly.

Bon Jovi show

Being the good husband that I am, I took the wife to the Bon Jovi concert last night.   Felt like I was at a screening of 27 Dresses, as there were about 5 females to every male in attendance.  But the show was amazing and easily one of the better concerts I've ever been to (which says a LOT).

Daughtry opened up and did a really great job.  In fact, I would say they probably looked and sounded the best out of any opening band I've ever seen on one of these big arena tours.  Daughtry knew how to work the "80's" crowd, as they threw in the Foreigner classic "Feels Like the First Time" and even a little "Home Sweet Home" before they launched into mega-hit "Home".  That song, along with the rest of their string of radio hits, had the crowd really going.

Bon Jovi was pretty great.  Hit after hit after hit.  And the production was unbelievable.  Multiple video screens that they could reconfigure during a song.  A stage of lights that was raised during a song to reveal that it, too, was a video screen.  And the band was pretty much spot on.  Bon Jovi was in his usual form.  Sambora was playing great and belting out the background vocals.  But drummer Tico Torres was the real winner here tonight.  I didn't realize what a SOLID drummer he is - he held it down for a long two hour set.  Impressive.

They played pretty much every Bon Jovi song you'd ever want to hear.  They didn't do Runaway, but I saw them do that last time they were in Atlanta.  Always was a standout, as was Sambora stepping up to lead vocals on I'll Be There For You.  I think the highlight was Daughtry coming out and taking a guest vocal on Blaze of Glory.  But they were all great.

Great show.  Great night. 

Anybody out there still Jabez-ing it?

Remember the Prayer of Jabez?  What ever happened to that? 

See, these are the kinds of things I think about in a given day...