Even Artists...

This is such a timely video for me and I'm sure many others. Emily Haines is the lead singer and lead writer for a group called Metric. I had not heard of them until I saw this other video on Barton Damer's Blog, ABC.

Her honesty and transparency are so encourageing and it inspires me to communicate in the same way. If you are an artist who is discouraged or staring in the face of a seemingly impenetrable wall, don't stop creating! Put yourself in a vulnerable place and see if all these insecurities in you might possibly turn into art that connects with those same feelings in others.




~A

Hope Is Here: Album Cover

WAAAAAHOOOOOO!

A big thank you to everyone who submitted a picture for the new "Hope Is Here" album cover. Take a look and see if you can spot yourself, or your loved one, or your dog. :)

"Hope Is Here"
Available
April 5th, 2009

Release Party / Night of Worship
April 5th, 2009 - 6:00PM
Hope Fellowship Church - Frisco, TX

See you there!

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 20

Yes, I'm back and in action on Monday. Through a network of blogs and email I came across today's cure for the mono-like symptoms that Mondays kill you with. "Gonna take a sentimental journey..." If you have 12 minutes, this is well worth your time. I know you have at least 12.

Short film called "Signs"



Happy Tuesday Eve
~A

Hope Is Here: Album Cover

For those of you that do not know, we are working on a new recording project at church called "Hope Is Here". We have solicited those on our main church email subscription list for personal photos that we can use in the cover design. Thanks to all of our Hope people who have sent pictures already, but we still need more.

If you are able, and I know you are, please send an individual casual shot of yourself and your family members to me: aubrey@hopefellowship.net

I have a lot of family shots, but really need more individual ones to make this thing work. If you are still confused, here is an example of what I need...

Perfection!

Even if you have attended Hope in the past and have become estranged for whatever reason, please send me a pic. (i.e. TN people). :) Heck, if you are a complete stranger, send me a pic and you just might find yourself making a cameo appearance!!! Come on!

Let's see those beautiful headshots rollin in!

Thanks,

~A

Weekend Update 2/14 and 2/15

Setlist
For Who You Are - E
God Of This City - B
All It Takes - E
Kindness - E

Report Card
Rehearsal 4.1 - Went great and we learned a new song. I want to come up with a good way for people to take notes during rehearsal. Any ideas?
Technical Execution 3.75 - Pretty solid weekend. My brain was stuttering on a couple of songs.
Transitions 3.5 - Short and simple. I could've prepared better for my spoken transitions between the first and second song.
Content/Flow 3.9 -Worked well with our series about sharing your faith, "Jesus For Sale".
Church Participation 3.75 - Not bad, but still praying for more people to really engage with us in worship and focus in on God.
Energy 3.5 -About average.
Movement 4.0 - We tried a little something different: going from a medium/fast song to a slower/medium to a slow and back to a medium song with a good groove. Normally our movement gets continually slower, but this time we picked it up a notch at the end. Felt good and I think it worked, but it was something different nonetheless. Different is good.

Overall = 3.79

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 19

I hope all is well with you today!

Don't wait another moment to snap out of the Monday mire!

This will do the trick...

Discuss this with your friends and closest confidants.

Someone is going to give you $100,000,000.00 (100 million dollars). All you have to do is, for the next year, every day, (365 days or 366 on leap year) go into a completely dark room for 8 hours. Here's the catch: some time in that 8 hours you will be punched really really hard on some part of your body. (i.e. face, neck, privates, kidneys) You have no idea when it will come or where, but it will come. Miraculously, each day you will wake up healed from any wounds resulting from the beating. Would you do it? Would you even be able to do it without going crazy?

Talk amongst yuhselves! (spoken like Linda Richmond from Coffee Talk)

Good luck,

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 18

Oh yes! It's Tuesday again. That means it's not Monday and I am posting yet another belated Case of the Mondays post. I hope that you made it through 'til now.

She's controversial I know, but dang funny. Check this out! Just take the time to watch it until the lady says, "I love Jesus, but I drink a little." Then laugh like a little girl,even if you are one.




Merry Montuesday!

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 17

Well, it's Tuesday already, but if you still have a Monday hangover sit back, relax, grab a morning cup of Joe (if you drink the bitter junk), and take in the simplicity yet coolness of this music video.




Missed Monday so have a tranquil Tuesday,

~A

Weekend Update 1/21 & 1/ 22

Had a solid weekend as far as worship is concerned. We had a lot going on during the service including communion and a missions promo, so our time was tight. In spite of this, I felt like the coupling of communion and worship was as strong as ever. Normally we go quietly into communion with our 4th or 5th song, but this time we changed it up and did "Wonderful Cross". It ended up with a kind of celebration feel instead of somber. I thought it was a great fit for going into communion, celebrating the cross then remembering His sacrifice.

Setlist
Song of Hope - A
For Who You Are - E
From the Inside Out - A
Wonderful Cross - A

Report Card
Rehearsal 4.0 - Another good one. Had some technical issues that held us up because we didn't have a sound guy at rehearsal.
Technical Execution 3.5 - We struggled a little on Saturday night, but it came together on Sunday.
Transitions 3.7 - Kept the transitions shorter and therefore cleaner. I felt like I didn't put enough thought into my spoken transition.
Content/Flow 4.0 - Pretty good content all together, but only the last line really lined up with the message, "Slavery is Freedom".
Church Participation 3.75 - Up a notch from last week. People really loved "Wonderful Cross" and "From The Inside Out" was strong.
Energy 3.5 -First service on Sunday was interesting because we didn't have a lot of people in there in the beginning. But hey, the people who were there came ready to worship! Love those people.
Movement 4.0 - Not a real theme running through the whole set.... except... uhh... God... and Jesus... and worship. :)

Overall = 3.78

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 16

Nice!

The title of this photo... "Weird and Gifted Asian". So fitting.

Happy Monday!

~A

Weekend Update 1/17 & 1/18

As the Foo Fighters say, "I've got another confession to make." A new found love for the Key of B has welled up in my heart. I know that it's the black sheep of the Signature family, but this weekend its tarnished reputation was polished up a bit in my opinion. I had accidentally and purposefully chosen two songs in the key of E and two songs in the key of B this weekend. The way it worked out the keys changed from E to B to E to B. Initially, my heart sunk. I had finally crafted the perfect set for this weekend's big idea and now it was ruined by the ugly stepchild of key signature. Now, I have no problem with the circle of 5ths or transitioning from G to D and even back again, but E to B... yuck! But wait! The bad taste is gone now! It turned out to be beautiful and the transitions were so smooth. This was also due in part to the fact that each of the songs ended with the either E or B respectively. So, from this point forward B will forever be different to me. :) (oh and it was also the first week that we have ever done 3 original songs in one set.)

Setlist
Stand In Awe - E (original)
Cannons - B
All It Takes - E (original)
Less of Me - B (original)

Report Card
Rehearsal 4.5 - We started on time and were able to finish on time with effective rehearsal in between!!! Way to go!
Technical Execution 3.5 - Good all around. Bill did good with the guitar parts despite his nervousness. We struggled with tempo, but we always do. :)
Transitions 4.1 - Good transtions (see above) but I went a little long on my encouragement time.
Content/Flow 4.25 - Again, it lined up well with the big idea for the weekend.
Church Participation 3.5 - It took people a while to warm up, but they were in there by the end.
Energy 3.25 - Not horrible, but we weren't necessarily feeding off the energy of the congregation either, if you know what I mean.
Movement 4.25 - Thematically and musically good stuff.

Overall = 3.91

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 15

Oh this is beautiful!

Spock singing about Lord of the Rings' diminutive Bilbo Baggins. I didn't know ole Mr. Nemoy was such a mac-daddy. It's astounding that this didn't make the MTV top 10 videos of all time list, right behind "Thriller". I mean the choreography is definitely top notch.



Monday is here! Don't waste it by grouchin' around.

~A

Weekend Update 1/10 & 1/11

Getting back in the habit for '09. By next week, I'll have the average scores from '08 weekend updates. We'll shoot to better those marks this year.

Setlist
Marvelous Light - G
Everlasting God (Chorus) - G
Mighty To Save - G
All In All (old school) - D

Report Card
Rehearsal 4.0 - Good start. Efficient rehearsal. Great job team!
Technical Execution 3.0 - Not bad. An unforseeable cable issue, but other than that pretty solid. Oh wait! I stunk up the chording on the last song.
Transitions 4.0 - Felt like they served the purpose of getting more people engaged.
Content/Flow 4.0 - Good support for message and in context with weak is strong
Church Participation 4.0 - the people were with us. They sang out the last song... loud. Way to go!
Energy 3.75 - Good energy especially during the last two songs.
Movement 4.0 - Good movement from first to last song.

Overall = 3.82

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 14

Ok guys and gals... Cheer up! It's Monday and you should be feverishly and joyously working away right now, but instead you are mulling around feeling peaked (that's peak-ed) and nauseous. Well, it sounds like you do indeed have a case of the Mondays. There are few ubiquitous cures for this malady, but you are in luck. I just so happen to know a surefire solution to this so solemn sickness...
The Meat and Three... (Pronounced Meet'n Thruhee)

Stop what you are doing right now and take an early lunch. If you are lucky enough to be within driving distance of one of these delightful dives, go! Do Not Delay!!

For my "not-so-southernly acquainted" friends, a "meat'n three" is a place that serves a variety of vegetables and meats "of the day" and you simply choose one of the meats and three of the veggies. It is simple and oh so tasty. If you happen to be on an early-January health kick, you could try the meat'n two... it's for sissies, but inherently comes with less calories.

Here are few of my favorite combinations:

1. Open faced roast beef sandwich with squash casserole, mac-n-cheese (yes, it's a veggie) and collard greens!

2. Chicken Casserole with fried okra, green beans, and spinach casserole!

And any true meat'n three meal would be incomplete without a good hot not too dry piece of cornbread and yes a glass (sometimes a mason jar) of REAL sweet tea... (none of that Dickey's crap!) If you're so inclined, you can top it off with one of the dessert selections of the day. My personal favorite is blackberry cobbler a-la-mode!

Tip #1: If you do not see the word "casserole" describing at least four of the daily menu items... go somewhere else!

Tip #2: If you don't like the selection today, take a look at the tattered poorly laminated menu (some of the fancy places actually have it under the acrylic table top), pick a day that has better selection and go back.

Tip #3: You should probably count on being useless for the rest of the day!

Don't hesitate, accellerate! Monday is leaving us and won't return until next week!

~A

Do You Have A Case Of The Mondays? - Vol 13

And we're off!!! The first Monday of 2009! Yeah!!! It's always nice to be back from vacation, back at work refreshed and all. Anybody?

Ok, so even if the holidays have been a little less than restful, take heart. Stop and take a rest right now.

Here are a couple stop motion videos for your Monday viewing pleasure.



and if that wasn't cool enough...



Don't worry, there's always someone who is wasting more time than you!

Have cheer in the New Year!

~A