I've been waiting since last year for Burgers and Bands to come back around. See poster below. This year, I will be playing drums for the GHFC House Band and with The Big "L"ife. I have been planning for this since last year and I'm excited to finally be able to play these songs again. These are some of my favorite worship songs I've played throughout the years. I've teamed up with Clinton Mosley and Jason Chavez to play a set of revised worship music classics. Some of you have heard many of these song in practice recordings throughout the years. Now, you'll have a change to hear it live and worship along with us.

Here's some of the songs we're preparing for that evening:

I miss being able to practice on a real drum set by myself. Living in an apartment has forced me to rely on practicing on an electronic practice pad kit, which has been good to at least in keeping me brushed up to some extent. But there is a distinctive difference between electronic and acoustic. With acoustic kits, you can feel the drums responding back to you. It takes a bit to re-adjust. I need to do this more often.

I'm practicing with Tommy Igoe Groove Essentials Groove 16 Fast (drumless track). The drum sound recording off of my camera.

Needless to say, though there has not been much activity here on my blog, it is not because there hasn't been anything going on.

First, playing drums in Alive in One continues to be productive and progressive, but overall a lot of fun and a blessing. On June 14, we set up our own show at Sound Matrix Rehearsal Studio showcase room where we played and Pastor Rich Perez gave a message. Two weeks later we played at Foursquare Mission Church "Training Dayz" shows. Even though we were the last band on, there was still a good bunch of people that stuck around and it seems that they had just as much fun as we did.

We've currently signed up with Loren Israel's Band Boot Camp. It's a 6 month artist development workshop. Loren is a musician/producer known for bringing bands like Less than Jake and Jimmy Eat World to the forefront. There's certainly a lot of potential in our development as individual musicians and as a band and it will be very interesting to be able to work one on one with someone in the industry to get some feedback and pointers that will hopefully bring us to a new level of musicianship and professionalism that we have not yet touched upon.

It's been a discussion since last year but it is now coming to fruition...my best friend and former Downhill Supercruiser band mate, Clinton Mosley, and I are preparing to play for Burgers and Bands at Granada Heights Friends Church as "The Big "L"ife". Joining us on bass will be Jason Chavez. We'll be taking some old school worship songs and giving them a sonic face lift. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Also, in preparation for Burgers and Bands, I will be playing in the GHFC Jazz Group. We usually play between bands so, I am unsure how that will work when "The Big "L"ife" is getting ready. We'll see, I guess.

Life in La Mirada is going as smooth as to be expected. Kelly and mom have gone through all our stuff and they are planning for a yard sale at my cousin Minerva's place (near Biola University) on July 19.

Kelly is anticipating a job with Kaiser Permanente. The great thing is that the office she will be working at is only 5-10 minutes away and it is completely separate from the medical offices (so, no having to deal with doctors...yes, unfortunately, there are way too many doctors out there that think they're God). I think this will be a really good situation for her and I'm excited to see her excited about this, too. Please keep her in your prayers.

I haven't had a chance to do much video lately, but here's an older video that I hadn't posted. I sync'ed the original video sound with the sound system recording. The video sound picked up a lot of the ghosting that the sound system recording did not pickup. But video sound was picking up the delayed room reverberation of the other musicians and singers so it sounded really off. But here it is spliced together.

I am now officially living in La Mirada, CA! Thanks to all our friends and church family for all the help moving our things. I have to admit that Saturday was probably one of the toughest OCD days of my life. It has been a while since I've felt the extreme panic of OCD, but this time it was an all day thing and it was one thing after another. I know it was as equally difficult for my wife to cushion the impact of my anxiety, but I realize that she is too good for me and I thank her so much for trying so hard despite of all the things going on. It was a stressful day for everyone for sure, but all glory and thanks to God for keeping us alive and giving us this new chance to establish ourselves in a new community.

I did have to do some intensive behavioral therapy that evening as I helped move things around the house and seeing things from the bathroom being mixed up with my things and things for other rooms. I even got a grease mark on my pinky that I noticed after having moved my drums around and I really had to keep myself distracted to stop looking at it.

At this point, I'm fully aware that my drums are completely contaminated and I'm okay with it. But, with OCD, it is very very easy to come up with new things to avoid and be afraid of. I have to keep this going. And in a lot of ways I know God has made this move happen so that I can get out of my comfort zone and really work on some difficult things.

Been quite a number of events to recap. Haven't had all too much time to really spend working on the web site, but here's a bit of a summary...

My first show with Alive in One was rather unusual for me. The venue didn't have good acoustics and their PA system was burned out. So, we had to adjust. It was my first "rock" show where I had to hold back quite a bit. (Being that I was usually fronting my own band in the past, I never really cared about such a situation, but this time I knew I had to do what what appropriate for the rest of the band). It was also my first performance where I used a metronome in my ear about 90 percent of the time. It was definitely an unusual experience, but it was a very good experience. We played our music the best we could given the circumstance and I think we did well.

I've been in the middle of getting ready to move to La Mirada, but the move in date kept getting pushed back. My wife, her mother, and I were originally planning on moving in to our new apartment by April 26. We spent Tues, April 22 getting things ready. By Thursday that week I developed a urinary tract infection. I was in the middle of worship team practice when I started feeling a lot of pain and later notice blood in my urine. My friend and worship leader, Justin, took me to Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital where my wife met up with me a bit later and they confirmed the infection. I didn't get home until almost 2AM and as much as I didn't want to miss work, I woke up that next morning with still quite a bit of discomfort to not want to get out of bed or even try to walk around much. I did finally recover well enough to get back to work by the following Monday and I'm still feeling really good.

Alive in One, the band I play drums for, will be playing our very first live performance, this Saturday, April 12, at:

Lakewood Youth Center
4658 Woodruff Ave.
Lakewood, CA

Time: 8PM
Price: FREE!!
ALL AGES

Had a lot of fun at Family Jam. We played about three sets and jammed on some great worship songs. We also got the Kore Kids to come up and do their songs with a live band. Unfornately, my video camera got knocked down and didn't get their awesome performance on camera.

Here's a video with one of my better drum solos that day. Still got some things to work on, but at least I got to try out some licks I've been working on.

This weekend I will be playing drums w/ Justin Francis at Family Jam. We'll be jamming on some praise and worship, some of Justin's originals, and having some fun with the Kore Kids music.



Join the family celebration at Family Jam 2008 March 15 from 11 am to 2 pm. It will be a community-wide Easter party.

Come to South Campus for family fun games and activies. Giant Easter egg hunt, live music, bounce houses, delicious food, door prizes and more. Activities are free, low additional cost for food.

GRANADA HEIGHTSFRIENDS CHURCH
11818 La Mirada Blvd.
La Mirada, CA 90638

www.ghfc.org

Okay, the Life of the Mind conference itself IS NOT canceled, but we're not going to be leading worship after all. Recording with Justin Francis is still on and I'm still schedule to play at Family Jam at Granada Heights Friends Church.