A Dare, A Tat, A Beer and a pound of chocolate cake.....

That about sums up my afternoon yesterday.

At Gracepoint Church, we do things a little differently, the pastor, Devin, does his messages as a 'series' so for three weeks, six weeks, or a similar amount of time, he will use a them and discuss the Bible. He has done such series' as: CSI (Crusafiction Scene Investigator) where he took an evidence trail to find out 'who crusified Jesus' (it turns out to be all of us, he died for all of us!!) and other great themes to get the word out. The next series we are going into is called 'Tattoo' and it is going to discuss what 'marks' us as people, I'm not exactly sure what angle(s) he is going to come at it, but knowing Devin, it will be good! Let's just say we are going to really step outside of the box for the series!!

My loving wife, K, made some excited comments about someone who is going to be getting a tattoo and I asked her when I was going to get mine (it's something I've wanted for quite some time) well, lets just say that she pretty much dared me, and said 'Get one tonight!' I said 'O.K., I will!'

After church we went to have lunch with Wojo and Jean, friends from GP, and the discussion came up, K mentioned a tattoo parlor we had heard good things about and the next thing we know, Wojo has his laptop out, has found the phone number, and is calling the place to make an appointment.... K and I went to the place early and looked at designs, chose lettering and waited (a busy tattoo parlor must be a good sign!) .. and waited. we spent the entire afternoon there and finally I was called in! The artist had been drawing up what I wanted, so I felt like a schmuck for having felt put-off by the time that it took to get to me.... Back east the artist would have taken the design and told me to come back in a couple of days when he had it all drawn up, this guy drew it freeehand and put the lettering on it freehand and it was ready to go!!! The guy looked a little intimidating, with a Slipknot shirt on and a bit of a brooding approach.... Again, I should smack myself for letting first impressions get to my thoughts, he was a really nice guy, was extremely easy on me, we talked about bass and motorcycles and stuff the whole time! An hour and a half after go time and he was done with the outline. I got a Celtic cross, so there was a lot of detail in the rope-work. I was stoked, it looked really good! We took a break so I could go to the bathroom and so he could get some fresh air (I bet staring at peoples arms/legs.backs could make your eyes go buggy after a while.) so another hour and a half later, it was finished. The fill-in work and shading wasn't on he original drawing, that would have taken a really long time, it looked even better than I could have hoped! Jay is certainly a pro! I will strongly recommend him to anyone who wants a tattoo (and has thought about the permanent nature of the art, and has made sure they aren't getting something they will regret... all improtant things to keep in mind)

I was touched the most by K's show of support, and the way that she showed me she cares. I was trying to think of what I had come up with (months ago) that I wanted to get wit my cross (I've known for a while that I wanted a cross to be my first tat) and at lunch she called it out like I had just told her what I wanted 'Lord Reign in Me' so an extra note of thanks and appreciation goes out to the LOML, thank you for listening to my silly ideas (some day they may become reality....)

I chose this phrase "Lord rign in me" because I have vises, we all do, and I've been trying for a long time (I've been leading worship to some degree for years and years) to get my mind in the right place, to remember that while I keep my words straight Sunday at church, I also need to keep them straight every day of my life. as a leader in the church, with any possibility that my actions might reflect negatively on my church life, I need to live my life for God, with God, and to live EVERY DAY like I do on Sunday. I can't help looking at this tatoo and singing the chorus to the song I got it from:

Lord reign in me, reign in Your power
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won't You reign in me again

Wojo (the worship leader at GP) had just discussed a similar concept in our morning band meeting, and I just think it all came together for me. I need to get my temper under wraps, I need not sound like a sailor on shore leave when I'm out at bars, I need to focus my energy on me. I need to make sure I am living the way I should be, then I can truly feel better about my part in leading others in church. Thanks to God that he accepts all kinds and knows the meaning of the word forgiveness, only he knows how much I've been abusing that gift lately. Who knows, maybe my tattoo will start a conversation that leads someone to turn to God in their life. I can only pray that it will.


So there are tons of pictures from my experience!!!!

Love,Love, Love

Advertisers in Las Vegas do a good job of hyping things before they are even an option, so by the time The beatles Love ( the new Cirque show in town) was open, I was already sick of it. I know that sounds a bit drastic, but really, I had heard so much about the show and seen the billboards for so long, it was no big deal that there was a new show in town... Now, I've got to go on a bit of a rant...

I understand the Beatles were one of the biggest innovators that pop music has ever seen.. I know that they did for music what, at the time, no one else could do... I understand that they are Giants... Why in the world can't the show have a band playing the music.... It's not like we haven't made even more leas and bounds in the industry, and a full band wih a couple of competant keyboard players could nail those tunes just as effectively. I can almost see having the vocal tracks cued in, but even then you could find some convincing vocalists to copy the vocal parts effectively.

That said....K got me the soundtrack for LOVE th other day, and all I can say is WOW... George and Giles Martin took original recordings and mixed them up a bit. they took song parts and put them on top of other songs, took outro's and made them intros.... Giles re-mixed the Beatles... What a dream job, for a guy to follow in his father's footsteps and work with the Beatles' music... The only parts added in the now would be strings to go with George Harrison singing 'While my guitar gently wheeps', and not only a great song, an old recording of it, just G ond his Guitar. Seeing as George Martin wrote the scores to a few other beatles songs, I wouldn't even say that it is too much of a departure, and the part is true to the old Beatles sound. I can ony imagine how great this must sound in the theatre, with a full-on sound system going on '10'......

K and I loved Mystere, it's a great show that leaves you almost breathless... I can't imagine the training and physical ability that is needed to do the acrobatic movements that these frogs are doing... and the original music was cool (I must add that we got tickets comped to us by the guitar player from Mystere who comes out to see us play and jams with us.....) I can't imagine that anoy other Cirque show could capture my imagination like that one did... even with great music... Not to mention that the tickets are wicked expensive... to no have a band to pay, I can't imagine why they might be so high...

My opinion is this... get the CD... it is a great teatment of some great songs... I have to say that I have enjoyed all 26 tracks several times already...

A nice addition to anybody's collection, LOVE makes the Beatles a little more modern in production quality and has a lot of fun too!