Not sure where music fits into your life, but it is most unmistakably married to our core. Its amazing the associations our brains can make with music and the specificity with which the association is made is remarkable. Right now, if I was to hear Jars of Clay “Love Song for Savior” and I would immediately begin to think about church summer camp from the late 90’s. I would have thoughts so specific that I could paint them on a canvas. Thoughts that have not been brought to the forefront of my consciousness in years, yet are as vivid as they day they were imprinted in my mind. Thoughts that are more a part of me than anything else. Songs that invoke such introspection are interesting because musical elements influence the concatenation of memories more so than the lyrical expression. If asked to write down the lyrics in the first verse of the song mentioned above, I would be lost, but I could hum the melody in my sleep.

I love songs that have unmistakable melodies. Songs that sound like every slow song played at your Senior Prom. Sara Bareillas’ album, Little Voice, has one of these songs; “City”.For whatever reason this song has a nostalgic feeling and makes me think of…

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Last night, just about every friend I have came over to the house and spent the evening with the soon-to-be-leaving Sebastians. Last night was not too un-like past get-togethers. Obviously, there was food, along with a healthy portion of frolic inside and out with the seemingly innumerable amount of kids that we all have. As always, there were few hurt feelings and a busted mouth or two from some roughery, but again…normal.

Though, as I settled down from the rush of keeping the cheese dip stirred, or the chip bowls stocked, or the fruit tray refilled, I began to think about the reason we were all there. Celebrating what was, and what is to come for the departers. It’s an answer to prayer that the Sebastian’s are fulfilling their desire’s to move to a more job-fruitful and family-rich area of the country. It’s a release for them as they’ve been on hold since they first had the desire to relocate. It’s a release for us (party goers) as we now don’t have to ask, if they’ve sold their house, or quit their jobs, or found a place to stay in FL. But as I stand there in-between telling Landon and Taylor to quite hitting each other and trying to have an adult conversation with other dads as we keep the littlest ones from getting crunched by the crowd, the thought that our close friends are moving away from us becomes more deafening the cry of the babies in the background; the roar of the TV as 5 people attempt to watch the finale of the Biggest Loser while 35 other dis-interested people try to conversate; the clunk of the back door as kids (and bugs) flow in and out like air in a servodrive subwoofer. You know when you’re in your car and your thoughts are so loud that you realize that you’ve driven 20 miles without even one peep from the radio? How deafening our thoughts can be is amazing. How fast my brain is toggling between the “remember when’s” and the “one time’s” and the “what will we do when’s” is amazing.

Friends like the Sebastians are hard to come by . They’re like the free DR. Pepper bottle caps in the 1990’s. You’d always hear about them, but you never could quite get your hands on one. Friends you hug tighter than a loved one. Friends you call and have nothing to talk about but spend 20 minutes on the phone. Friends you always want to be around cause they just make you feel betting about being you. These are the kinds of friends that all of us have had for the length of time we’ve been blessed to know the Sebastians.

From Numbers 6:24 - 26
I pray that the Lord will bless and protect you, and that he will
show you mercy and kindness. May the Lord be good to you
and give you peace.”

j

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Apparently, Lando thinks he’s ready to line up with his pops…

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I dug up these old pics from 2004 with my good friend David Russell. The first is from a cd release gig we played for Creg Darby. The other was a gig we had at an Assemblies of God youth camp in Springville Alabama.

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You know…being an audio nerd, I tend to follow the environmental factors that might be pushing in on the AV trade. I’m always reading related sites, reports, white papers, forums, trying to gather as much information as possible to make the best decisions for my church and other clients that I work with. Having said that, Pres Obama’s desire to postpone the DTV switchover is crazily out-of-this-world retarded. His reasoning is that “some people aren’t ready and might find themselves in a position without a television signal” come February 2009.” Ok, so, is it just me, or can we agree the three years of warning for those who obtain their TV programming via over-the-air sources is plenty of time to get a converter box or a new TV or subscribe to cable (where available) or satellite? Can we agree that the government pretty much subsidizing the changeover by providing converter box coupons to pretty much everyone who could breathe. I think it’s a joke in the first place that the Government exerted energy, time, and tax dollars to engineer legislation that would require TV stations to broadcast in a Digital format, but now that we have the mandate on the books, how about we go through with it? How about we allow personal responsibility to have a chance in the 21st century?

Warmly,
Josh “wishes Gov’t would add this to the playbook” Oswald

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Says Lando to his pops, as he tries to navigate his fire rescue cozy coupe car around the living room.

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