THE BAND ROCKS! UH, WHERE'S SECURITY?!

Ascension. The name popped up on the day of Ascension the day that Jesus left earth for heaven. Sounds like a good name for a band, right?!

Well a twisted version of Ascension performed at the Huntsville Fairgrounds on Saturday for Gospel Music Day and afternoon of mostly traditional gospel, country, bluegrass and a bit of contemporary worship.

Normally our band plays worship music with a very slight edge, with the background vocals of Nancy and Charles West. However, Saturday afternoon, our was comprised of singer Pauli Pine, Adam Cormier on guitar, Eric Helliwell on bass, who was on loan to us, and me on drums. We wondered can we pull it off? Will it be an embarrassing mess? Will this be the end of our music careers? Haha!

Fueled by a rockin' practice on Friday, we four were ready to take to the stage with this "new sound" of Ascension.

Upon arrival at the Fairgrounds, we found the agenda running behind, just like a typical festival. In fact, the early performers forced Ascension to hit the stage an hour late. But when we did, we played hard.
Our "bass player on loan", Eric, told us to just have fun. "Guys, don't worry about technique. Don't worry about wrong notes. The practice is over. Just have fun." He was a real encouragement and put my mind at ease.

The emcee introduced the sponsors, including LIFE 100.3, which he managed to botch up into a name something like FM 98 LIFE radio. Obviously he has not listened to the station. It always irks me when we take the time to sponsor an event by pouring thousands of air time into the promotion and, from the stage, they don't get our name right. Ah well.

Blam! Our first song kicked "Holy Is The Lord." We feared our opening song would "flip the house" and send the older country music fans back to the horseshoe pit because this version of Ascension was a four piece rock band, not the nice worship band as before. Remember, our lead was on vacation and haha so were we!

Fans stayed. They clapped along. Applauded! Sang!

In the middle of the set, Eric comes over to the kit and shouts at me "anytime you want to just get together and jam, let me know!" I said "Eric...you like us don't you!" Quite a compliment from a guy on loan. Gosh, we had fun!

Our three original songs came off quite tasty, too. "Set Me Free" written by Charles West is a mostly softer song about asking God to help us through the regular trials of life". "Lord Let Us Love You" was written by our singer Pauli Pine a beautiful, melodic song with a fun rhythm, humbling asking God to use us as we are. And, "Victorious", written by Adam Cormier is a straight ahead rocker that simply "Praises the Lord".

The drum kit the promoter provided was an acoustic kit from Bethel Church. Our sound guy Dave spent an excessive amount of time on miking it and balancing each drum so we would have the punch to cut through the outdoor pavilion. Not using a digital kit, I switched from regular sticks to "hotrods" which are sticks make up of a dozen little wooden straws glued together into a half inch stick. I can put a little muscle into the rhythm without the regular noise level. The hotrods chipped and after the first three songs, splintered into the air with each beating, barely missing my eyes and by song four I was back to the regular Headhunters maple sticks.

I've played gigs with Ascension before. All church gigs. Church is nice. But this turned out to be the most fun show for me. It was "the 4 piece rock band version of Pauli Pine and Ascension. We didn't have our leader "the warden" checking every beat and note for perfection. We just played what was inside us we just had fun.

That's why I joined... for fun!

Another dream come true that I never thought would happen. I figured that being a drummer in a band had passed me by. Not so. Hmmm. I may never go on tour and I may never play with Switchfoot, but Ascension is just what I need at just the right time.

Hope Blake, Dottie and Doug bring us back next year!

Setlist - August 15, 2009

Holy Is the Lord
Sing To The King
Everyday
Lord Let Us Love You (original)
Mighty To Save
Shadowfeet
Set Me Free (original)
Lord I Lift Your Name On High
Victorious (original)
Beautiful One

THE GYM

I achieved a bit of a gym-goal. I’m hesitant to share it because sometimes when you reach a goal, people think you’re boasting. Well, I guess they think what they want to think - so - whatever.

I go the gym pretty regularly. I like the atmosphere. I like getting out of the house. And I like staying in shape and trying to beat the age progress. You know that feeling? It’s when you look in the mirror and exclaim - "who’s that?!" Hahaha.

Well last winter I weighed 187 and realized that it was more than I liked. And, as in the past, I wanted to be 180 but unwilling to give up the Coke and chips.

I challenged myself to get less than 180 by spring and if I could find the willpower, I’d go for 175, just to see how I felt at that weight. Maybe be a bit leaner, if that isn’t too vain.

Last night when I weighed in I was 168. I’m pretty happy. Here’s what I did.

I stopped working out with a partner. Some partners have been really good coaches but of my friends just want to "lift more". My goal wasn’t to be bigger. That’s what you wish for when you’re 17. When you’re older, you want to lose weight! I didn’t want to get bigger.

Without a partner, I reduced the amount of time in the gym. No chatter.

Next I found an ab workout video on You Tube, demonstrated by some ripped 25 year old. In the video, he does about 20 different exercises, all for abs, which is a lot more interesting than a zillion non-stop crunches. I don’t know anything about the guy but the routine is awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk_usVg7Fp0&feature=PlayList&p=3829A6A488802C53&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12

I’ve never been interested in supplements but a gym rat told me about an EAS powder supplement product and I decided to give it a try. It maximizes my after-work-out repair-time. I suppose it’s helping but not totally sure.

Lastly, and the most significant change in my workouts was using an iPod for music. The earphones have eliminated the distractions from the gym-music, the general conversations in the gym and the spinning class. My choice of gym-music has kept me really focused on the goals.

Each time I went to the gym and saw my weight decrease, even by a pound, I was encouraged. I cut back on Coke and chips a wee bit, and even a wee bit seems to have made a difference. And a couple of people commented on the change, so that kept me looking forward to the next workout.

Oh, one other thing. My summer milage on the bike kept my cardio up, doing about 150-200 km a week during biking season. To me, biking does not feel like exercise. It’s a place for my mind to refresh and buffer.

So that’s my system. Did I encourage you?

I'M DIGGING B. REITH!

One of the cool things about working in radio is you get to hear a lot of great music. Right now I’m hooked on B. Reith. He’s a hiphop artist and I guess most people my age have an adversity to hiphop. So, at this point I haven’t convinced Steve Jones to add him to the playlist on my show. For now you can hear B. Reith on the Slam.

I’ve got a couple of his songs in my iPod and it makes the gym workout time a lot more productive.

B. Reith. Check out "Go On" and "Mess". Both songs are from "The Forecast", an EP.
New album drops in September. ("Drops" - that’s a hip word. I heard AJ use it.)

ON STAGE THIS WEEKEND!

This Saturday afternoon, our band Ascension is playing at the Huntsville fairgrounds. I think this will be our first non-church show, which is pretty cool. Nobody preaching, no girly announcements, no offering - just us doing a 45-minute set. Nice!

Here’s a partial set-list:

Lord Let Us Love You - an original by Pauli Pine, our singer. It’s got a great groove, but not too cool for worship leaders to add to their worship set.

Might To Save - Laura Story, I’m sorry. Our version is just a wee bit better!

Beautiful One - Tim Hughes wrote it but Jeremy Camp made it a radio hit.

Victorious - a song written by our guitarist Adam Cormier. It’s got a good rock beat. I like it. It’s a keeper.

Set Me Free - I believe this was co-written by Charles West and Pauli Pine.

For the last year I’ve been banging on an electric kit, which I’ve come to really appreciate. So has our sound guy, Dave. But from what I hear, the organizers are having everyone play on an acoustic kit so I’ll bring my hotrods and hopefully make alot of noise.

You wanna come? 1pm, Saturday, Huntsville Fairgrounds.

His Banner Over Me Is Love

I was at the gym yesterday, working out, listening to my iPod. I usually listen to upbeat stuff like Relient K, Anberlin and some classic rock stuff but for a change I programmed a praise and worship set. Haha - Not the best music to work out to, but it gave me an uncanny feeling of God’s love.

It was really amazing. Visually, I was at the gym, but in my headspace I felt like I was somewhere else. Somewhere alone, but good.

Then I got "a feeling" like I should listen to only praise and worship music for a month - nothing else - and see how I feel.

Should I? Is that a Holy Spirit thing, or just a random thought?

GIVING WITH STRINGS

For my birthday a few weeks ago, my wife got me a custom license plate. I think some people call them "vanity Plates". I like "custom". Anyway, I’ve noticed a lot of license plates with the Toronto Maple Leaf logo, and the Remembrance Day Poppy and the "heart".

Well, I just read about another image you can get on your license plate. Jesus. A drawing of Jesus. Too bad you can only get it if you live in Florida, but maybe someone in Ontario would have the initiatve to get the licensing office to offer drawings of Jesus. Is that cool? I know I know - Canadians aren’t as bold about their faith as Americans.

I talked about this on the air last week. When I got to my office, a listener had left an angry voicemail. (Not uncommon. Listeners often like to complain about Christian radio, especially if they’re financial supporters.) I listened to the fellow complain about how improper it is for me to have a vanity plate because I am "taking advantage of listener donations". Then he hung up.

I was so steamed I tracked down his number, phoned him up (off the air) and asked him why my personal spending bothered him. He said his money was supporting my bad spending. So since he is a donor, I asked him about taking my staff out for dinner and where he would draw the line at an acceptable level of spending. He asked me why I would do a staff dinner. I said, "well for team building and to say thank you for your extra hard work". And he said - "why would you want to do that?".

I know LIFE 100.3 is listener supported and we try to be good stewards of all the money that comes in. I guess different people view expenses differently. But one thing that really saddens me is conditional donations. When we give, we give to help, to support and show our passion.

There’s no strings, right?

NOT EASILY BROKEN

Hey, I’ve got another movie to recommend to you. And - it’s "pastor-approved!". It’s a movie produced by T.D. Jakes - the evangelist. "Not Easily Broken" is about young couple going through the trials of marriage. If that sounds a lot like "Fireproof", ya, that occurred to me to. But I think the acting in "Broken" is a bit more professional and the script is a bit edgier.

For some reason I think that a movie that is overly Christian would be "all Christian" - the actors, the writers, everyone. Producers don’t promote the movie that way - just assumption I tend to make.

Morris Chestnut is the lead actor, got his first role playing "Jason" in "A Nightmare On Elm Street" and probably best known for his role in "Boyz n the Hood", neither of which would appeal to me but he handled the role very convincingly.

It’s a PG13 movie with "parents strongly cautioned" for its sexual references and several uses of the word "ass" in a variety of ways. If it weren’t for the fact that T.D. Jakes was behind it all, I might have passed on it. I’m glad I didn’t.

T.D. Jakes is the founding pastor of The Potter’s House, a mega-church in Dallas.

Movie link: http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/noteasilybroken/