MY LAST SHOW WITH AFT

Last night was my final show with Anthem For Today. I guess it's time for a change for me. The band is going through some changes and I want to leave while we're still friends and feeling good about our accomplishments together.

It was a bittersweet show at the Salvation Army Citadel in Kingston. Davey Hooper was attending a funeral back in Oshawa and unable to play so GI Holm had to play two guitar parts. (Not a problem for him.) He was in great "poser" form!

Pip was playful with the audience - probably the best I've seen him.

Robbert had problem solving to do before the show with the lights. Often there are issues and Robbert is amazing at figuring out solutions.

Chad Izatt was the fill-in drummer for this show. He's a new friend from Brockville. There's been a lot of drummers in AFT and Chad pulled it off great! I forgot to ask if he had fun!

AFT opened with two worship sets - Pip on drums, GI on lead vocals and Cas Vander Grift on piano.

The promoter Fred Grendel was fabulous as was his crew. Very helpful and treated the boys like rock stars! Thanks Fred, Les and Jeffrey.

Well, it's over for me. I'll probably check out future shows and can't wait for the release of the second album later this Spring.

By the way, the fun I've had over three and a half years is documented in my new book "Herding Kittens" which comes out mid-April. $20 is you want an advance order.

Chad's dad Chris Izatt - one of my best friends from my
Kingston days.

Rich VanDorp on FOH.

Cas Vander Grift on piano during worship.

SHARATHON 2016

Our 17th Sharathon wrapped up yesterday. LIFE is listener supported and a registered charity. I don't own it. I just founded it in 1999 and I guess perceive me as the owner, but I am not. No shares. No pension. Just the honour of working in ministry and radio, which I love.

The 2-day radio fundraiser supports LIFE 100.3 and represents nearly half of our annual budget.

We began planning in November for the March event and, after all these years, the LIFE team is such a well-oiled machine that things always fall into place. Not that it's easy - there's so much detail and the inside organization of Sharathon has grown each year and it amazes me how my staff tends to the detail and problem-solves the surprises so efficiently.

Coordinators for volunteers, donations, food, promotion and programming. Let's not forget all those Sharathon videos. Quite the operation.

We had visiting artists perform live and a few pastor come by to offer encouragement.

Steve Jones is LIFE's Operations Manual and without him Sharathon would not be as fabulous as it is. He wants no praise; he takes care of things I am unaware of until I see the evidence of his work.

Yesterday, on Day Two, we had the severe freezing rain. Volunteers cancelled their shifts on Phone Central but we had two visitors from VOAR radio in Newfoundland - Sherry Griffin and Tina Taylor who jumped in to take pledges.

Our monthly goal was so far from being reached I was convinced that it was not going to happen. But it did!  Seriously, I said, "it's impossible!" Thank you listeners and praise God I have once again learned, "never say it's impossible".

As Sharathon was wrapping up and the excitement to announce the final results was near, Steve told me the power went out and we were on back-up power. No problem. Then he told me the back-up power only holds for 45-minutes and then normally the generator kicks in, and because it is powered by natural gas, it's good for a long time. But the generator malfunctioned.

Tim VanDyk, my producer and tech troubleshooter, went up on the roof, in the ice storm and blowing wind to manually start it. It did not. So a generator repair guy was called in.

We ended Sharathon quickly, before the power went out. We reached the monthly goal and missed the One-Time by just a few dollars. Amazing! 15 minutes after we announced the totals, the reserve power went out as my staff was tearing down the decorations and putting offices back together with only the emergency lights and cell phone lights to guide them. It was actually fun!

Soon after we went off the air.

With the affects of the storm, our Sharathon, still was a party inside and an successful overall.

I have an amazing staff. Thanks everyone. I am so proud of you guys. You've learned so much about radio that I can stay out of the way and watch you guys make it happen!

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Sometime, when I'm not looking, the frozen ice moves in from out in the middle of the lake, and it's stacked up.

I don't see it happen - and there's no noise.

Weird. Majestic.

Looking east over Lake Simcoe

Slabs of ice, stacked up on the shore.

Three levels of frozen ice.

THE STUDIO IS "ALL NEW"

The main studio where we broadcast has been renovated and given a fresh new look! We removed the ceiling and opened it up to the roof. Up high, unseen in this photo, are the additional lights that are turned on when we're shooting videos.

View from behind the board. We kept the neon sign but the
wallpaper graphic is new.

View to the back of the DJ. The white curtains help absorb sound
that would normally bounce around and create echo. Above, are the spidey lights,
three lights - one over each mic.

It's a bit like Gotham City. Notice the "batlight" in the sky is
actually the LIFE dot!

View from Gotham City of the DJ area - Evan Duran
on the air. The microphone and computer to the right is where a co-host or
visitor would speak.

Evan on the air. Computer to the right is multi purpose. It checks
the Internet, also edits phone calls. The bottom left are the
microphone processors.

CRUISE - CARIBBEAN 2016

January 30-February 6, 2016 on Vision of the Seas - Royal Caribbean.

Janice went snorkelling with the Manatees in Tampa.

We saw Robbie Krieger of the Doors play in Tampa.

Not a bad room!

Leaving Tampa, just fitting under the bridge.

Key West - where the A1A highway begins.

Biking in Key West.

View of our ship from a tender.

Hanging in Belize.

Stinging eyes from salt water.

The Masquerade Theatre.



In Cozumel at the beach.



Not sure where - all the ports are the same.

Knocking the coconuts from the tree.

Key West - Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.

U

Us in Cozumel.
 

Janice swimming in Cozumel.

A SHORT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON THE PASSING OF DAVID BOWIE

I’m a David Bowie fan. I am not a super-fan but passionate enough I guess.

Classic Rock is one of my favourite music formats although I can’t claim to know it as well as my radio friend Jeff Woods.


For many years "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" was, and still is one of my all-time favourite albums. After that I am a Bowie fan on a song-by-song basis. Most of his work after "Station To Station" was too avant garde for me and I have heard most of it. I’ve followed him in the news stories over the years and I have seen him twice in concert.

A likely question from my Christian friends is, "Wasn’t David Bowie gay, or a transsexual?"

I can’t confirm if he was anything other than heterosexual. I know he was married, twice. And there are children. I am aware of his statements to Rolling Stone magazine about being bisexual.

I can’t comment on his personal life - I did not know him personally. I don’t have any right to judge his actions. Only his family and close friends have that right.

There are stories I’ve heard about Bowie that I don’t agree with but I could apply that to my friends. I don’t agree with everyone about everything they say and do but I can still appreciate their talents regardless of their religious beliefs. In other words, you don’t have to be a Christian for me to admire things you’ve done.

Did Bowie believe in God? To answer that would be a guess because I don’t know how he lived his nonpublic life. Based on his lyrics I would say he believed in God very much. There are many references to God in his songs. I also recall that at the 1985 "Live Aid" concert, he went down on one knee and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. I was not a Christian at the time and I was shocked that he would do that. Shocked that a great rock star had humbled himself to God before a stadium of fans and worldwide TV audience. Obviously, I have not forgotten it.

So, taking him at face value, I would say he believed in God.

But whether he did or not, and whether he was anything other than heterosexual or not, I don’t know. I am a music fan and he was a musician. His contributions and influence on other artists and their music are unquestionable.

I remember once he was interviewed by Dinah Shore. She tried to corner him and said, "You must admit, rock and roll has been very good to you." He replied, "Yes, and I have been very good to rock and roll." Touche.

Today, listening to "Changes," filtered through my Christian ears, has brought a few tears to my eyes.

"Turn and face the strange, Ch-ch-changes. Pretty soon now you're gonna get older. Time may change me but I can't trace time."

BAD MOTIVES

Boy, oh boy, there's a lot of condemnation and judging on Facebook. By Christians. You know - us guys who aren't supposed to judge people?  Of course I'm not talking about you - I'm talking about somebody else.


I'm talking about people who have found some dirt about someone famous and feel it's their responsibility to exposure the faker! I'm talking about Christians calling out (fake) Christians.

I'm embarrassed to be a Christian when people whom I respect are going on Facebook and publicly calling out the fakers - by name. Fakers are the people who don't live their lives in line with scripture OR are incorrectly interpreting what the Bible actually says. ("Interpreting" in this case means you think your interpretation is 100% correct.)

I should ask, if those people doing the "calling out" fully understand the Bible verses themselves, for sure - 100% sure. Oh, sorry. Of course they do.

I know that "calling them out" is the Biblical thing to do, but the contempt and distain in the tone of the words by the people doing the calling out, makes me sick. May I publically call you an arrogant big-mouth? May I use your name?

Listen, if we call out everyone who doesn't interpret Bible verses to mean the same thing we do, there's going to be nobody left.

Wanna know what I think?  Ok.  "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached." Philippians 1:18.

So what if their lives don't line up? That's between them and God. Mind your business. If they are faking it, eventually it will all unravel and you can say "I told you so".

Is the person you are calling out a lousy ambassador for Christ?  Maybe. But, aren't we all?

To me, it doesn't matter what their motives are, or if their lives are unholy. God's word is still God's word. It's about the message not the messenger. An unholy person isn't going to detrail God's word.  God can handle it.

I know people whom I don't consider to be serious followers of Jesus. I might even think they are fakers. One high profile person comes to mind, and because I know them personally, I know they don't mean what they say. But I also believe that the Philippians verse is bigger than the speaker and the message will still touch lives.

Having said all of this, you may be right. Maybe the speaker is a faker, or preaching it wrong. Maybe "calling them out" publicly is not the nicest way to do it.

You may disagree with me. And if you want to call me out for posting this, that's fine. If it makes you feel better, do it. I dare you.

That's what I think, anyway.