Vlog Day 56 - Grandview

I wandered around Grandview, Missouri a bit today - had lunch with my friend Phil, visited IHOP's prayer room, which has teams that keep prayer and music going 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's pretty cool - you'd have to experience it for yourself. The facilities are a bit spread out within the town of Grandview (part of the sprawl that is Kansas City), but part of the land is located across the street from the Truman Farm, which is where President Harry Truman spent part of his life, learned to farm, and 'gained his common sense', according to his mother. I stopped at what is left of the farm and was able to take the cell-phone guided tour. Pretty interesting, and not super involved, which was nice.

Vlog Day 55 - IHOP Kansas City

I'm staying with my friends the Samuels south of Kansas City. They are part of the International House of Prayer, which is dedicated to praying for the nations and teaching the gifts of the Spirit to the younger generations. It is a really neat place full of people here to seek God and to learn from the scriptures. They had a guest speaker this Sunday, Bill Wiese, who shared his experience of a vision he received about hell. It was really interesting to hear about his vision, and to hear the scriptural references he found to back up the experience. He's a really good storyteller.
I went with the Samuels to their home group in the evening, and we sang some praise songs together, and I also played 'I Am Not A Thief'. It's a great community they are part of, and I was blessed to be able to spend time with all of them.

Vlog Day 54 - Lawrence Tornado

Today was a pretty chill day - I visited the Watkins museum briefly (did you know they made electric cars at the turn of the century? Milburn did, that is) and then spent most of it in Signs of Life Books (google search it, it's a cool place in Lawrence), and half the time they were playing my music. I spent the time editing video, writing a letter, and talking to people. I also wandered around the bookstore, which rose incredibly in my estimation when I discovered a Square Halo book on its shelves!
Square Halo Books is a publishing company that my friend Ned Bustard started (Ned helped design my album cover and does other great stuff through World's End Images) which publishes great books on art and music - look for a new book out soon, on the business of art/music.
After Rachel got off work, we decided to ignore the tornado warning sirens and walk to get something to eat, which was perhaps not the wisest move. As the storm clouds overtook us (with lightning and beginning to swirl ominously) we took shelter in Wheatfields, a local bakery/pastry shop, and ended up waiting out the storm with other customers in their pastry kitchen. I managed to document the event. Fortunately, the tornado didn't touch down in Lawrence, passing northeast through the city before developing into an actual tornado of swirling wind.
I left Lawrence around 9pm to drive to my friend's house in Kansas City, and the last couple shots in the video are me trying to document the incredible lightning show I received on my drive - miles away and safe enough to drive past. I tell ya - weather is no joke out here.

Vlog Day 53 - Signs of Life Books

My friend Rachel lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where she graduated from college, and she is friends with people that work at Signs of Life Books, a bookstore with lots of great books - both Christian and non - that has managed to become a center for the arts and music in Lawrence, combined with a gallery and coffeeshop - just a really cool place to hang out. They set me up with a show at the bookstore, so I arrived from Tulsa, rented the PA system at Mass Street Music, and played for Rachel, her friends, and others that stopped by. It was a great night. Afterwards we went to a friend's house and hung out around the campfire.

Vlog Day 52 - Tulsa

My friend Ben Walker is a fellow Wycliffe MK (PNG) who graduated from Houghton and lives in Tulsa at the moment, where he's finishing up a master's degree. He connected me with a group that he is involved with that has a lunch every Thursday for international students who go to the University of Tulsa. They invited me to come play for them, so I was able to stop by and play a few songs, which people really connected to - I think I've found my niche. =)
Ben showed me the newly renovated library on campus and then I wandered around the town for the afternoon. I visited Gardner's used book store, which is one of the biggest I've seen, and discovered the golden 'oilman' accidentally before Ben took me to Tally's Diner on Historic Route 66. It was a beautiful evening, so we meandered through downtown and walked along the river while Ben told me a little bit about the oil-rich history.

Vlog Day 51 - Jump Zone

I went to JumpZone with my nephews Jack and Charlie today and my brother Ben - Jack was the one running around and jumping on the huge air-filled playplaces and slides, so I just followed him and got worn out. It's a pretty sweet place though, available for parties for both small kids and big kids like myself. And since they had a membership I got to play for free! I added some of the canned music from FlipShare to the video below - adds to the cheesy enjoyment factor. Enjoy!

Maybe I should get one of those head-mounts for the FlipVideo...

Vlog Day 50 - Peel Mansion, Wal-Mart Museum and Steakburger

I visited the sights of Bentonville, Arkansas today - saw a really neat old house built by Colonel Sam Peel, who was a soldier in the confederacy before moving back to Arkansas and becoming a statesman. It was recently renovated with the help of Wal-Mart and is a pretty cool place. Some really pretty gardens and one of the oldest oaks in the area. The largest sycamore is now in pieces, and they have a giant ring from the trunk sitting against the house.
Sam Walton's original 5-10 has now been converted into the Wal-Mart Visitor's Center, which acts as a museum for the company and catalogs its growth from a small variety store to the incorporated international company that it is today. The museum is really interesting, and shows how Mr. Walton's company grew through a focus on people promoted and exemplified by the man himself - this guy was really committed to providing decent goods to people at the lowest price possible, yet his passion for this was combined with a care for the customer and the people that worked for him, as well as a sense of humor. He was not a person that was wrapped up in himself, and I think the world has benefited from his efforts, for the most part.
Right next to the museum is The Station Cafe, which claims to have the best steakburgers in Northwest Arkansas. I have to admit they are pretty good - as are their chocolate malts. All in all, a great day!

Vlog Day 49 - Friends & Harvey's Video

My friend Harvey Robinson just finished the excellent video he took of me performing in his kitchen, so I'm embedding it below. Harvey does really good work and has some good equipment. When I traveled through Greensboro, NC I got in touch with him and set up a time to visit his home, where he films. His work with Monkey Whale Productions is pretty incredible, and I hope you'll check it out.
Back to the tour, today we generally hung out around the house and I helped with some chores (like mowing the back yard). It's been really great to have some downtime with family here in Arkansas. In the evening we went to visit Franny's family nearby and I played some songs for them. Here's part of 'One Girl for Me' in their living room, and playing with their dog Molly and nephew Charlie.

Vlog Day 48 - Church

I visited my brother and sister-in-law's church today for the 11am service. It's quite a large church, and they have a scan-in system for the kids, which is pretty cool and necessary, I'm sure.
The church is named Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas, and they unveiled a new song that one of the members has written - it's actually a decent song, and here's a piece of it.

Vlog Day 47 - ChickFil-A

My nephews are 3 and 1, and some of the cutest kids ever. We took them to the playplace at ChickFil-A and they had fun running around and climbing. I had also never eaten at ChickFil-A, so this was my first taste, and it was pretty dang good. For those of you that don't know, ChickFil-A is a restaurant in the south that uses cows as its spokes'people' to get people to eat more chicken. The chicken itself is REAALLY tasty.

Vlog Day 46 - World Garden

I drove the 8 hours from Nashville to Bentonville, Arkansas today - stopped in Memphis for lunch, which I discovered was not conducive to a streamlined drive. Did you know that on half the streets in Memphis (maybe more) you can't turn left? This means that turning left involves intense circumlocution and lots of extra time. But all's well that ends well.
In Bentonville I played at World Garden Salads, a new soup and salad place that just started last fall and has a really neat focus. Through their sales they provide funding for orphanages around the world - a seventh of what they make from their soup and salad bar goes to seven different orphanages, so when you eat there (and the food is really good) you are making a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of children who otherwise would not benefit. Their food is great and they roast their own coffee - which is also phenomenal.
Rick and Mark's vision is to provide a fair-trade network for coffee growers and farmers both locally and worldwide that also benefits those who normally go without. They want to extend their food and craft resources to many different countries by purchasing coffee, tea, and spices directly from farmers, and crafts directly from artisans or through other trade resources such as Ten Thousand Villages. It is a really unique idea and one that really is working and making sense. World Garden is now beginning to think of franchising. You can hear directly from Rick in the video below - pardon the excited girls in the background. =)

Vlog Day 45 - Pancake Pantry, Nashville, TN

In Nashville I'm staying with my friend Paul Zimmerman-Clayton (who is releasing an album himself, shortly. check it out by clicking the link) and meeting some of his friends - a bunch of really cool people. I know Paul through Matty Rineer, another musician who grew up in Lancaster and moved down here to Tennessee. There's a few of those around.
Matty had off work today, so he came over, picked me up and showed me around. We visited the Pancake Pantry for some excellent pancakes - the perfect consistency and flavor and on a Thursday, mid-morning, when most restaurants are slow, there was still a line out the door. Nothing to compare with how it is on a weekend, apparently...

Vlog Day 44 - The Blue Plate Special

When traveling through Charlotte, NC, I met Pat of The New Familiars who recommended I get in touch with Matt Morelock at WDVX. WDVX is a community radio station in Knoxville that hosts singers, songwriters, bands and traveling musicians on weekdays during the lunch hour for a live performance. So today I played at the station, which was a lot of fun. I can now say I've played on the same stage as Nickel Creek and Bela Fleck (though not at the same time). Here's some footage of Knoxville, one of my songs and Matt and Jon Ladeau who played after me.

Vlog Day 43 - Chattanooga

I wandered around Chattanooga today for a few hours - quite a nice downtown area. A lot of history has come through here: as the beginning of many people's journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears the site of a couple major battles in the civil war, and one of the first areas to benefit from hydroelectric dams. Just kind of wandered around and took it easy..

Vlog Day 42 - Mount Paran and Covenant College

Dr. Tilley is the current headmaster of Mount Paran Christian School. He was at Houghton College for a couple years while I was there, and is just a really great person - Mount Paran was glad to get him back, and Houghton was sad to see him go. I stopped by and visited him for lunch and got a tour of the building.
The 'new' building is a state-of-the-art performing and fine arts center that houses an incredible recording studio, the Murray Arts Center recording suite. Brent Maloney, the studio manager and also musician with the band The Saturn Project, showed us around. They are just beginning the process of making it accessible to the recording industry and teaching recording technology to students. It was pretty amazing.

I then took off for Lookout Mountain, where I'm visiting my friend Matt Brown at Covenant College. He's another musician, singer-songwriter who crafts some pretty stellar pop-folk tunes that are just a lot of fun, with the band Third Lobby.

Vlog Day 41 - Easter Song

I hung out with my friend Andrea at her church (Stonebridge) this morning, and then we had brunch with friends of hers nearby. Brunch was fabulous (I remained stuffed for several hours) and we also had fun hunting for easter eggs and sat in the sun talking about spiritual things. I played 'I Am Not a Thief' as well. Playing songs for friends is probably my favorite thing to do - totally unplugged and relaxed. Isn't GRACE amazing? I could go on, but read the Gospels for yourself.

Vlog Day 40 - Marietta

Saturday was a day for sleeping in, hanging out, and then a concert in Marietta. Stonebridge Church is a neat congregation nestled in a storefront just off the square in downtown - it reminded me a bit of being in Lancaster with one-way streets and on-street parking. I walked around the square a bit, which you can watch in the video below.

The inside of the church is pretty cool too, very coffeehouse-ish with mood lighting (multi-configurable) and optional round tables or chairs. I helped Andrea set up and then welcomed attendees of the event. Some really friendly people that I enjoyed getting to know. Here's a song from the concert, 'Play Switch'.

Vlog Day 39 - to Kennesaw Mountain

I traveled from Loganville to visit some friends north of Atlanta in the Marietta/Kennesaw area. Joe, Zeb, Andrea, Bethany and I graduated from Houghton College together, and now they are all living and teaching in this area. It was really good to see them, and the guys climbed Kennesaw Mountain together. This large hill was a pretty big battleground during the civil war, and the north and south duked it out with tons of cannon fire.
After climbing the mountain, we headed back to Zeb's house for dinner and played some Cornhole (with beanbags and boards) while Zeb's wife Lindsey made some excellent honey mustard chicken with rice. We followed dinner with the game Things and passed the time with laughter and fellowship. Good times. Oh yeah, I didn't get video of this, but there was a tornado warning - we watched two groups of clouds converge just south of us and start spinning around before they broke up and headed further south. It was pretty crazy - first time I've seen that up-close.

Vlog Day 38 - World of Coca-Cola

I visited the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta today - exciting stuff! I've always wanted to visit the museum since I'm such a fan of the drink (definitely not a Pepsi person), but haven't had a chance until now. It was pretty busy, as you can see from the video.
Once we negotiated the line we were herded like cattle into the 'paraphernalia' room which is chock-full of CocaCola memorabilia. Here we were given a talk by a guy, which I included a short snippet of. He also mentioned that they're missing 4 Norman Rockwell coke paintings, so if you happen to have one, let me know and I can talk to them for you... =)
After the video snippet the screen raises up and doors open and you enter the main exhibit, where I got a shot of me with the statue of the hero and creator of Coca Cola. Perhaps my favorite part was all the commercials from around the world - hilarious stuff! Then of course the tasting room and on home. By the time I left I had to go to the bathroom.

Vlog Day 37 - Stone Mountain

I visited Stone Mountain Park with Angela, Kessia, and Andrea - we climbed the huge hunk of granite that can only be found here in Georgia. It was pretty impressive. And it was a gorgeous day for a hike, blue skies and not too cold. It was extremely windy at the top, which you can hear in the video since this video camera doesn't have a wind guard on the microphone.
So that was fun, and then we hung around in the park until the sun went down so we could watch the laser show, which is a regular occurrence during the summer. This was one of the first of the year, due to spring break this week. You can hear the commentary on the show by the little girl sitting on our left (the microphone is sensitive). I am pretty impressed with how this camera functions at night - you can see a lot of what is going on, and if you watch this video tomorrow you can probably even see it in HD. I only clipped a bit of the beginning and end of the show, so stop by Stone Mountain itself to see the whole thing.

Vlog Day 36 - Dance Dance Revolution

Today I chilled with my friends who live here in Georgia - they're a missionary family that was also in Ghana with Wycliffe, so our families grew up together. I'm really enjoying my time with them. To relax we play Dance Dance Revolution, Mario Kart and Wii games. It's lots of fun. Here's some video of us playing DDR - I'm pretty bad at it, kind of like Guitar Hero. I guess if you can do the real thing it doesn't always translate to video games. That's a whole other skill set.

Vlog Day 35 - Eddie's Attic, Decatur GA

I visited Eddie's Attic for the open mic, which is well-known among musicians for its attentive listeners and the quality of musicians that it attracts. Having said that, however, there were one or two acts that we had to suffer through. But Eddie, the founder, lets everyone who signs up (you have to sign up a few months in advance) have their two songs in the spotlight. I caught him before the night began, having a burger, and had a good conversation - he's a cool guy.
I walked around Decatur beforehand as well, but unfortunately there wasn't much to see. Or maybe I just didn't know where to look - it always helps to have someone with you who lives there, but barring that I did the best I could. Back at the open mic, some people were late (which Eddie says usually doesn't happen), so in the confusion, and what with people playing their two songs, I got on closer to 10:30 - only 20 minutes late, which is impressive for an open mic.
Like I said, there were some REAlly good musicians and singers and it was mostly lots of fun to listen and hang out with friends from college that live in the area. Finalists were a girl from North Carolina who has a killer voice (reminded me of Brandy), the Erickson sisters (folk, Iron and Wine style), and Chelsea Lynn Labate (cross between Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michealson) - the latter of which ended up winning the competition. Because it IS a competition, and that's partly why so many musicians are there.
I didn't video all the acts, but here's a little bit of the song that I sang, 'Voices', and a flavoring of the place.

Vlog Day 34

Today I drove to Georgia. More later.

Vlog Day 33 - Bok Tower Gardens

In the town of Lake Wales in the middle of the state of Florida, removed from civilization, is a great big bell tower called a Carillon. Built by Edward Bok, the Ladies' Home Journal magnate and editor during World War I and the previous 25 years, the structure towers above the gardens that surround it. I spent a relaxing afternoon strolling through the gardens and listening to the carillonneur, William De Turk, play music. He performed a set of classical pieces and ended with the more familiar songs from The Sound of Music - I taped part of 'The Hills Are Alive' for your listening pleasure. Afterward, he came down from the tower and talked to us, answering various questions that we had and generally being friendly.

Vlog Day 32 - Epcot

I went with my friend Matt, his girlfriend Melissa and his friend Ivan (and family) to Epcot Center today, in the Disney World park. It was pretty cool - I've never been to any of the Disney World theme parks before. As we were walking around for twelve hours, it struck me that westerners (and particularly Americans) seem to play just as hard as they work, almost as if to have fun you have to expend tons of energy in recreation. Not that it wasn't fun - I had a blast hanging out with friends and riding the rides, being exposed to new experiences and learning new things. It was just interesting how dedicated everyone seemed to be to the experience and yet how tired everyone was. I wonder if we've forgotten how to rest.
I got to ride Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Mission to Mars, The Land, and a few others that were pretty cool (a really neat aquarium and greenhouse), but the country exhibits were probably my favorite. Different cultures representing themselves, albeit in a fake touristy way, but they did have museum displays that were actually interesting, and later in the afternoon there were live performances by musicians from each country. The Moroccans were jammin'! We ended up at the Norwegian restaurant for dinner (no goat cheese or real Norwegian bread, unfortunately) and the girls got to meet all the Disney Princesses except for Jasmine. Finally, the day culminated in a spectacular fireworks show. Notice how it's accompanied by music - the whole day was accompanied by background music intended to inspire and encourage and keep us happy. I think it probably works subliminally...

Vlog Day 31 - Wycliffe Tour

Today I took a tour at Wycliffe, led by my friend Chris who is also a connector/facilitator at Wycliffe. She had some interesting things to say about the work that gets done here at the office and around the world.

We were also able to meet with a national translator from the Brazilian Amazon who is here to develop relationships and partnerships with Wycliffe. You can hear some of our conversation in this video. There is much more about the tour that doesn't fit in this short video, though, so I recommend that you visit the office in Orlando yourself. You can also find out more on their website. Everyone is needed to accomplish the task of Bible translation.

Vlog Day 30 - Wycliffe Headquarters

Today I visited Wycliffe in Orlando, met with some folks and visited with some old friends. I love the folks here - very welcoming and friendly and excited about what they're doing. Missionaries are some of the coolest people.

Vlog Day 29 - Arthaus

In Port Orange, next to Daytona Beach, is a non-profit organization that celebrates the arts. Named 'Arthaus' and founded by my aunt Laurie Ring, it has been celebrated by local media as a place where kids are encouraged to be creative and expressive, and to grow in their artistic abilities. It's a great thing - today I stopped by for a tour.