3.17.2008

Now, back to AJ's regularly scheduled life....

I promised in my last post that I would blog about my life soon. Unfortunately, now that I sit at my computer to do so, I realize I don't have much to write about; but I'll give you what I've got.

1. Job searching. I'm still looking for a job. I'm still hoping for something music-related, but at this point it's about time to start exploring other options. I haven't really had any leads, except with a small recording studio in L.A. that I don't think will turn into anything. The economy being how it is, and me having the little to no experience I have... put two and two together. And if you know of any jobs, send 'em my way.

2. Hangin' with the girlfriend factor. This doesn't happen nearly enough as I wish it did, because gas is freakin' expensive and my lovely Eleanor is far away from me in Fullerton. But we see each other sometimes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, and I fall more in love with her every time. I hung out with her and her family yesterday; we were supposed to take a boat to Catalina Island to attend a surprise birthday party for her cousin. But because of expected bad weather, they wouldn't let anyone make the trip twice in one day, so if we went out to the island, we'd have to stay overnight. We went out to brunch instead with the other cousins and her aunt and uncle who were supposed to go over with us; so it worked out okay for us. But I feel bad for her cousin who was trapped on the island and whose birthday party was forfeited by bad weather.

3. Hangin' with m'friend Jeff. I certainly love my family and love hanging out with them, and I'm grateful to my parents for letting me stay at home while I'm looking for a job, but I think I would be certifiably insane by now if I didn't have Jeff to give me a reason to get out of the house. Jeff is the "assistant worship director" at the church we used to attend in Redlands (before the house church); he also leads a monthly Saturday night worship service--the "River of Worship"--at the church. In addition to just hanging out with Jeff and his wife Carmen, I've played guitar for him at some River of Worship events as well as a few other worship things, like chapels for a Christian high school and Christian Community College. He's a great musician and a terrific worship leader, and it's always a pleasure to play with him.

The most exciting thing Jeff and I have done recently is gotten the chance to lead worship with the River of Worship team for the singles' ministry at Harvest, the Riverside megachurch. We had the good fortune to have a really good sound tech working for us, who recorded the whole service. Jeff did a lot of editing to an already good recording, and he's posted the songs up on the River of Worship Myspace page. This will probably be the only time I'll ever promote a Myspace here on my blog, but the recording is really good and you should check it out: www.myspace.com/riverofworshipmusic. The acoustic guitar that you hear is me; Jeff sings and plays the piano. Give him a bunch of views and song plays and leave a comment and make him happy.

4. Composing rocking music. I just last week finished my latest composition, an art song for bass/baritone voice and piano called New Hope. The text is by my uncle Tom; you should check out his blog because it's cool, and you should check out New Hope in particular because it's the text of my piece. I'm trying to put up the information about the piece on my website but my host server is down for maintenance or some crap like that; I'll let you know when it's back up. I have a couple more composing projects waiting in the wings, and I'll post about them as they begin to take shape.

So that's about it. Check out Jeff's Myspace and comment, check out Uncle Tom's blog and comment. And comment here too. I was reading over a bunch of old posts a few weeks ago, and I used to average 5 comments a post, 7 sometimes, and I even got 12 or 15 occasionally. Why doesn't that happen anymore?

UPDATE, 10:55 pm: My host server has apparently resolved its troubles, because I was able to get on and update my site. So go to the Music page and check out the info on New Hope!

5 comments:

Mike Morabito said...

1.Keep trucking I've had almost the same results and I'm looking for a "normal" job. I'm divided - on one hand I'd say do what you want, follow your dreams, etc. But on the other hand I would say look for open doors where ever they are and work as unto the Lord.

2.The Girlfriend Glad to hear that you guys are enjoying each other so much. I'm looking forward to us all potentially getting to live near each other again in the Fullerton area.

3.Friends are so necessary. I'm glad that God has blessed you with Jeff out there and that you guys get to jam together. I miss worship practice at the pointe. Unfortunately, I can not access Myspace on this computer. Bummer.

4.Uncle Tom's Cabin I miss that guy. I love, love, the New Hope poem. Very cool. It brings me back to the time when I had the realization that he was the smartest person never to be a president of a college.

5.The Music. If possible you should record it and put it online. I would love to hear it.


It's good to see that you are keeping yourself working rather than falling into a hole of idleness.

-Mike
ps. Thanks for the B-Day call, we just had a chill dinner at PF Changs with Fouad, Meredith, and my Bro and Jen. I'm not to big on birthday's. Funny thing is that a ton of people wished me happy birthday on facebook and I can't access it on this computer so I may not be able to respond till a much later time.

Darth_Harbison said...

"This doesn't happen nearly enough as I wish it did"

I think the great grammarian has fallen . . .

Mike Morabito said...

Also, I agree that most of our blogging community out put has gone way down. I'm not sure what to make of it.

I read an article that said that there has been a decline in Facebook and Myspace Usership. But I wonder if it is just a decline in communityesque things like blogger as a whole.

I feel like our main blogging community died while we were on our trip. Is that how you feel?

Mark, I don't see anything wrong with the quote. But then again I'm more a "words-thoughts" person rather than a "thoughts-flow-structures" person.

-Mike

Idhrendur said...

Blogger action tends to go through cycles, as different sub-communities doscover it, everyone joins, then some lost interest. It's the normal way of things.

That's my commenting for now.

Ryan Maguire said...

AJ,
It's good to hear what you've been up to lately. Good luck on the job-factor.