Washed up - a recap

Memorial Day was my birthday. I cannot remember a worse birthday in my life. The year I spent in bed with mono while my mom and brother went to the California Balloon Festival runs a close second, methinks.

Not complaining (OK, maybe I am). Not griping (ditto). It just stunk. In retrospect, what really stunk was my attitude, not the situation.

Allow me to explain.

On Sunday night we had one of the craziest storms I have ever witnessed in my time here. While the wind and rain went CrAzY outside one of the businessmen in our church gave a presentation about the coming economic collapse of the United States economy (and, believe it our not...it's coming. Maybe more on that later.) Scary enough in and of itself. It was a bit comical how the lightning and thunder complimented the points he was making. I almost expected to hear evil organ music in the background finished off with maniacal laughter.

Of course that evening we had a get together after the evening service at the church. Everyone was somewhat somber due to that evening's subject matter, but still were enjoying the time of fellowship. Cleaned everything up and got home around 11:30 pm. Went down to the basement (where my kid's bedrooms are) and needed rubber boots to get around.

There is not supposed to be water in the basement. Water and carpet don't mix.

Two rooms and the hallway were soaked. Granted, there wasn't 11 inches of water, but the carpets were SOAKED. Worked until 2 am trying to save what I could. there wasn't so much lost as there was frustration and inconvenience.

Basically I spent most of my birthday dealing with the mini-disaster. Maybe mini-disaster is an exaggeration (however, possibly storm related was the untimely demise of my desktop computer...so mini-disaster may be correct.)

Reality check time. It's just stuff, and I tend to place WAY too much importance on stuff. Stuff that can be damaged by water, or fried by power surges, or "borrowed" by the less scrupulous among us. Stuff that is only in our grasp for a fleeting moment. I started freaking out about the stuff, then eventually realized how my priorities are upside down.

Honestly? I still like stuff, but I realized something valuable that day. Maybe it wasn't such a bad day.

Another year older, hopefully a little wiser.

Interesting Stats

The phrase " the role of music in church service" makes up a full 20% of web searches leading to my blog.

Closely following is the phrase, "bottom of the ninth bases are loaded"


I bet they were disappointed.

Another possible option for the future of the biz

Interesting...

Verizon makes music on the go | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

A few points. First, I didn't realize that V Cast is the second largest music store (right after iTunes) w/ over 3 million songs. Also the idea of traveling recording studio is unique. Verizon's approach certainly is.

What I don't understand are the somewhat conflicting statements...

"Artists are frustrated with the traditional music-producing model,
which is broken," said Ed Ruth, director of digital music for Verizon.
"They are frustrated that labels aren't innovating."

and

Ruth said Verizon isn't looking to replace the record labels. But he
said he feels the company is in a unique position to bring innovation
to the industry.

"We don't want to disintermediate between the artist and the record
label," he said. "What we're trying to do is help the label save some
money by introducing a more streamlined process. And we can also help
the artist market their songs by offering them in a variety of
different formats."

If the model is broken and the labels aren't innovating, how does saving the labels money help?

Sounds like the creative control could very well shift to the artist/producer and Verizon could become a label (which also controls a low overhead distribution ecosystem), which could eventually morph into a digital beast strangely resembling what we have now with songwriters STILL begging for the royalties they rightly deserve. Just because you cut costs and increase sales doesn't mean more money will make it to those who pour out their souls for a song.

Who knows? It is interesting to watch.

Numb

I've started and stopped several entries today. Just been going through so much turmoil with my Pastor's son being so sick the last few days.

He went home to be with Jesus at 9:45 pm tonight.

I'm numb. He was only 25. We grew up together. He was like a little brother to me. When they were younger, my real little brother fought with him like they were brothers. I just don't know what to say or what I really feel. Deep down you KNOW God is in control and has a plan, but it is a little difficult really understanding that now.

Keep his family in prayer. He left a wife and two sons behind. Two very young sons that happen to be spending the night at my house right now. My two youngest set up a sleeping area in the living room for them to camp. They are sound asleep, with no idea of what tomorrow will bring.

I don't either.