Larryboy

Papaw

2006-11-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Some of you are probably wondering what the name means. Well, it is a southern term and endearing one for one's grandfather. I felt like I should write a blog about my Papaw. It seems fitting that just this month ten years ago, he came to my house for a visit, and after hanging out with him for the day, he went to sleep, had a stroke, and for all verbal matters, he never woke up. This month my Mamaw (grandmother) moved near where my family lives. I never thought that this would be the case, but as I begin pulling things out of closets, I began to see my Papaw in a flush of memories. Memories that I had forgotten were there. I remembered sitting at the foot of his bed while he was crosstiching, and seeing his mouth through a magnification lamp that he used. It use to entertain me for hours, just sitting at the foot of the bed watching him crosstich and seeing the difference in sizes between his face in the magnifying glass and his normal face. He was an avid puzzle-doer. I remember that he had this one puzzle that was a giant red dot with a thousand pieces. All this to say that I miss my Papaw. And now being twenty, it really makes me wonder what sort of wisdom that I may be missing out upon by not rediscovering some of the deeper things about my Papaw. There is a part of me that wishes there was some way to have another time with him, not to go back in time, but just to sit there and ask him the questions that I never would have thought to ask when I was ten. My Papaw was a unique man, but I must be content I suppose with the memories that I have of him teaching me to play nintendo, yelling at me when I messed up in Mario, and showing me trees. There is a part of my Papaw that I will never know, and for that I am sad. I never got to ask him what he saw in my Mamaw, or what it was like to be in the National Guard when the united states integrated the Central High School in Little Rock. I never got to ask him if the fifties were really that great. His legacy lives on though, when I ask my Mamaw, his wife of nearly 40 years about these questions, she lights up and gets to talk about her love. Value the elderly, and their wisdom. Here there stories, learn from them, ask them the questions that you might be afraid to ask, and begin to uncover yourself inside of them.

Moving from Cynicism to Sincerity

2006-08-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

I have entitled my blog (where I am living.) I find myself coming out of relationships with people in the church that were not very authentic or life giving. They are people that I am learning to forgive and paining for their lack of authenticity with others. Over the last year, I have remained in some ways bitter toward Christians, not to God, though I have been rebellious toward him. I am bitter toward an inauthentic niceness that is proceeded by a lack of real friendship. This somehow made me a cynic of Christianity. Now I am moving to a place where I can cry out to God, that he would break away the blinders from those people and make them fall to their knees asking for character. Real and honest character. I want to be sincere in my loving people, in my wanting them to know Christ out of the love that I have for them, not because it is the "Christian thing to do." I cannot sit back and watch the church hurt people, but I cannot sit aside and be a cynic, instead I must be a sincere follower of Christ and lover of people that is actively involved with helping the chrurch to really love others as themselves. I am called to sincerity and honesty, but cynicism will do me no good.

Random thoughts on an attempt to deeper understanding

2006-06-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what keeps prompting me to blog. Maybe it is the ability to put my thoughts down on website for the public to see, or maybe it is just a creative outlet for me, I'm not sure. But now, more than ever, I feel called to continue to devote this website to Christian Art, and it's importance in our society. I feel that Christian Art is one of the most important things that we can devote our lives and finances to at this venture in the church. I feel that the art medium has a deep connection with the soul of humanity. There something "creative" in the image of our living God. I feel that art reaches beyond the words that we fail to use in our attempt to unravel the mystery of Christ to others. I feel as though anoited brushstrokes can take the place of ums... in the conversation with the skeptical. Our inability to communicate the power of Christ to people seems to be coming through in our art. It is the mirror of our ability to connect with the world and the human condition. If our art is not reaching the world, we can be sure that we are not effectively reaching people ourselves. Perhaps we are not tapping into the mystical power of the Holy Spirit. I am not talking about rolling in the isles, but rather asking the Holy Spirit to infuse us with his creativity and ability to connect with the world. I have found that Christians that have an inability to connect with the world are not accessing the Holy Spirit's power. Let us not forget that the Holy Spirit was the first encounter we had as a lost person. If this is the case, the Holy Spirit is very in touch with the world, just as we should be. Let us break the barriers of subculture and release the creative power of the living God into our art. Let our God breathed strokes paint the canvas, let our characters be empowered with the focus of the Holy Spirit, and may he guide us so that our art touches those who are far from him so that their heart will be connected to the father's.

Sitting with mamaw

2006-06-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Sitting and teaching my grandmother how to blog!

Movie Times

2006-06-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have decided that perhaps it is best that I continue my blog, despite not being on the road, but in changing it to a place where I can blog my ideas and thoughts about being a Christian Artist. When using that word, I don't mean a Christian Music Artist. I mean exactly what it states, that I am an artist much like the many artist before me, that posesses the single most creative force in the universe living inside of me. That being the Holy Spirit. This is a way for me to blog my thoughts and my plans of the ministry that I will be doing in my new job as a fast food artist, and the dramas and things that I do with New Life Church. My new post includes the fact that I tried out to be a baseball player in a feature film entitled The Final Season. No one go see it because they never called me back. No I'm just kidding. It should be a really great movie, but there was never a call back. Guess I just didn't have what they were looking for. Anyway, that is all for now. Please keep reading as I update my continuous adventure of following God and chasing the dream of touching the world through the artistic medium.

Number 80

2006-05-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

Today we preformed our eightieth and eighty-first show on tour in the beautiful city of chattanooga. It was fun, I had some friends from Georgia come and it was good to hang out with them. There are just 6 shows left and that is starting to sink in. I am going to be done very soon. It kind of blows my mind that I am already finished. I know that I will miss it, and I hope to do it again sometime, but who knows where life will take me.

JAX blog

2006-04-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Jacksonville, FL. Home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Navy base just down the road. So here is my blog about the past couple of days. I don't feel like there is really a lot to talk about. I had a day off yesterday and I hung out with my Navy cousin. You know, after seven years of not seeing each other, I thought that we might have something in common, but we still don't. I think I will probably write him into a movie someday. Cruising through a rough part of Jacksonville in a red pickup truck with a confederate flag on the roof bumping rap music at the threshold of pain was an interesting experience for me. It is not something that I would ever do, but it takes all kinds. Today was an easy day with only one show so we woke up, ate lunch, slept, woke up and did a show, took a shower and went back to sleep to prepare ourselves for a fun filled adventure at Disneyworld. I am going to epcot, so i should have some good stories.

First Baptist such and such

2006-04-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

It seems that our next few venues are going to be at the enduring Baptist churches. They are interesting places to do theatre. Now I know why southern baptists don't do theater in church. Anyway, my grandpa came and saw the show today, bringing along my cousin Jared, who turned out to be a huge veggietales fan. He sang along with the whole show he said. One of the wonderful joys of having people you know come to see the show, is that they usually want to take you somewhere. The past two days I have had ice cream. Ice cream has become the way that I measure how much family comes to visit the show. I never knew that I would be measuring my family in ice cream, but you must understand what a delicasy it is to have ice cream on the road. It is not something that is usually catered because it melts, and you just can't have any on the bus because there is not enough room. So the past two days I have had a frostee at wendy's, and a McFlurry (R) at McDonald's. It has been awesome. These little places in the south are really hard places to do theater. They are poorly attended, and most of the time poorly cultured areas of the United States, thus the low attendence and lack of crowd participation. I am looking forward to our day off tomorrow in Jackson MS. After that we head to Florida and back to big towns throughout the south, southern towns that are not rural towns that don't care about theater. Anyway, I am proud to hail from the north, it is not as bad as people make it out to be.

Arkansas I saw

2006-04-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Being on the road is lonely sometimes. I don't really know why, but I am in a lonely phase today. I wish that I could say why, but I am lonely none the less. Do not fear, take heart (just as I am writing this a baring my personal soul to anyone that could care to read, I hear in the distance, could you tell us where we could find Kyle Rains.) At first I was shocked, who could be looking for me, but as my eyes slowly panned around and saw out of the corner of my eye, my Aunt Bertha and Uncle Kenneth, with a young girl, whom I did not recognize at first which turned out to be my little cousin whitney, whom I had not seen in six years or so. They made my day. We did the show in Bill Clinton's home church today, well, at least the name of his home church, this building is brand new. After the show, me and some family went out and grabbed some burgers at wendy's I had a frostee. God bless family. They are so necessary, they can give you that brief glimpse of home that is just enough to push you through.

The Fall of the Cucumber

2006-04-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today I fell. That's right live and in person in front of about 600 people on my way out for my big number, I fell. Perhaps the miracle faithful readers, is not that I fell and I am alright thanks for asking, but that I managed to pick myself up off of the ground inside of a giant balloon before the lights came back on. Though I got up as fast as I could, my costume is inflatable, so I lost a lot of air on the way down. I could not properly inflate on stage, so I ran off as fast as I could. This pretty much concludes my miserious day in Texas. Tomorrow we embark upon the great adventure of Arkansas.

Wichita Falls

2006-04-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today we are in the great state of Texas still. We have been here for about a week now and things have been very interesting. Last night we professionally taped the show so that Big Idea could use it as an extra on the DVD of the new feature film that they are making to be released in 2008. We were all excited to hear that the new veggietales movie is being picked up by a major motion picture company. Anyway, the filming of the show was done with four or five state of the art tv cameras, as well as a camera on a boom for the cool swooping shots. It was fun doing a stage show and being filmed in front of a live audience of about 4000 people, it was a fun show. It was a lot of fun. Today we woke up and did a two shows with a ticket count totaling 1000 for both shows. At the second show there was about 400 and they didn't seem excited about anything. Days like today are what makes this tour so hard. We go through these drastic changes from day to day, and we are expected to keep the same amount of energy that it takes to do the show really well. Then if we do not perform to the energy that we once had, we are lectured.

Sugarland

2006-04-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, my blogging skills have been terrible now, so I am trying to get back on track. The everyday thing hasn't worked so well because of our unbelievably difficult schedule after disneyland. Our director came and made some changes to the show and so that took up some time. Then, our host was switched with another character. Then my friend marissa and I went and hung out in colorado springs. I have been under the weather for a while and so that has affected my blogging. Anyway, today went well and I had a day off yesterday in San Antonio. I went and saw the Cheetah touring group of the Lion King. It was weird seeing a show on my day off, because I knew what those people were feeling. I knew all of the people's jobs. I knew how some of the costumes worked because my costume was made by the same man. It was still a lot of fun to see a show. Anyway that is all for now. I will blog soon.

oops again

2006-04-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since I last blogged about my experiences, so much has happened that I haven't found the time or the internet access to blog for a while. Disneyland was awesome and I had a lot of fun spending a couple of days there. Then there was the phoenix Arizona area that was really fun. While I was there, a man whom we called coach because of the shirt he was wearing. He was in the marine corps at one time and was now going to go back to war. He wanted a souvenir because he didn't get to sit with his wife and kids at the show because he was helping backstage. He and I talked for a while at dinner and he shared some things with me about the church and how cool it was. He told me about his house and how he can't even afford his own house anymore. It was right at the base of the mountain in the picture. He was a cool guy so I got him a program and he got me his hat that he wore in the corps. I really didn't want to take it, but it was one of those awkward thank you gestures that you give someone when you are grateful, but do not understand why they want to give you something. Anyway, I now have his hat, and a neat memory and story that I am sure I will tell over and over. Vegas was okay, I walked around a lot and avoided the hooker cards that people were handing out on the street wherever you walked. I spent most of the day walking up and down the strip and trying to soak it all in. It was interesting to see families there. I just cannot understand why anyone would take their family to Vegas. There is just not a lot of family things to do. The hotels were pretty incredible and did not cease to amaze me. I liked Vegas okay, and it seemed like a town that could be a lot of fun if you were just going somewhere to relax and spend money. I will stop there for now because there is just too much to tell in one post, I am sure most of you are wondering whether this post would ever end.

Oops to Faithful readers and my professor

2006-04-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have blogged my thoughts. There were several venues in a row where I didn't have the time to journal. Here we are today in the lovely bay area. Apparently we are not that far from San Francisco, and by the way the Braves beat them in a slugfest last night 14 to 6, that was just a sidenote. The land that we have traveled through in the past few days has been beautiful, and I continue to want to move out here in the west. I like the weather and the culture and the people. It is kind of interesting, but a part of me wonders if I would ever transfer out here sometime and go to one of the big state schools in Oregon or California. It seems that there is just a need for Christians who are willing to listen and learn to move out to the Northwest. I have especially enjoyed Oregon on this group of dates. Oregon's stages were less than comfortable, but the land was just so beautiful, I had to enjoy it. On our day off, the promoter of the tour for the shows in the Northwest took us out to Porter's, a steak house in Medford, Oregon. The food was so good, that they had to explain how each meal was dressed. It was a great treat, and then the next place that we went to we were all excited about. We just knew that is was going to be an awesome theatre at the cascade in redding CA. The only problem was that it was a converted and renovated movie theater that they were now using for productions. It was a great place for a concert and not a good place for a theatrical production. There were no wings. That was frustrating, but today it is a really nice place with a climbing wall in the event center. I gave it a go and made it up twice, but then my arms said that is was time to quit that mess. Seems that I am not in as good of shape as I would like to be. Oh well, I am in better shape than I was in college. Tommorow, is the beginning of DisneyLand, so I should have some good pictures to show all of you readers.

Oregon Trail

2006-04-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

I used to play that game Oregon Trail, I think everyone did when they were young in my generation anyway. Most people probably did it for the hunting part of the game where you got to shoot down bison and deer. I got all of that from the game, but what I didn't get until now was why anyone would want to come to Oregon. It just seemed like such a bad idea in the video game. Now I know why people would want to call Oregon home. It is such a lovely state. I looked out from the top of the church today and saw the lush green rolling hills, and beyond them, the snow capped mountains. I took a walk today around the church. What I viewed was okay, and I could have shown you a picture, but pictures don't pick up scents. While walking, it smelled of fresh rain and pine. There were a few more smells than that, but that was all I could process. I walked down to a creek where everything around the creek was covered in green. The dead logs that lay across the creek were clothed in a layer of moss.

Spokane and Shaved heads

2006-04-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

The show is over, I am showered, and we have got about 4 hours to kill in the middle of Spokane. Next to us lies a beautiful park with carnival rides and apparently a sky lift that takes you over the city, hopefully I'll get some cool pictures tonight. This is a cool part of town. I am excited about the opportunity to explore the city for a few hours. Earlier, I stopped in some cool shops, like Auntie's Bookstore, where apparently, the guy who wrote Fight Club stops in all the time. There were a lot of books in the store that were autographed by the author. That was something different than Barnes and Noble. Also next to Auntie's was Uncle's, a cool game store where I bought a charades type game called Stage Fright, I thought it looked fun. Also, at Auntie's I bougt a book of plays, The DaVinci Code, Brave New World, and my old English teacher's personal favorite Tess of the D'Urbavilles. All of the books look interesting. I am not sure where to start. I think that I might start with Brave New World, it seems weird. I saw a movie on Sci-Fi once, that was based on the book. I liked the satirical approach to the way the author thought that the world might end up. So... that is what I will be up to for the next couple of weeks. Hope everyone likes the picture.

Breathtakingly Beautiful British Columbia

2006-03-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

The cream of the crop, this was the view when i stepped off the bus this morning after a long and difficult sleep on the drive through the Canadian Rockies. Well, It was a long drive throught the night, and a difficult sleep, but it was all worth it for the Kalowna BC. Today was a fun day, we put the crew in the costumes in between shows and let them walk around in them for awhile. I thought that it was fun because they left with a new respect for what we in the costumes do. I have a great respect for what the crew does everyday so it was fun to watch them try to do what we do.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

2006-03-29T09:30:00.000-08:00

This morning we woke up bright and early because it was that time where the bus needed cleaning. It needed it badly, so we got up about 9:00 and came into the beautiful church in Calgary. This church has a waterfall in the front lobby of it, and it serves a neat purpose. The waterfall serves as a humidifier for the whole building, and they also turn it off and use it as a baptismal. I thought that was pretty cool if you ask me. Anyway, after the first show, Cheyenne, Patrick, and I took a walk toward downtown Calgary. Well, we tried to walk to downtown Calgary. We didn't succeed because it was well over 40 blocks to downtown. We probably walked for at least 35 blocks before we quit and turned around. It was an enjoyable walk through the streets of Calgary, or down Edmonton Drive. We had a good walk before we turned back for lasangna, yuck. I find it hard sometimes to complain about food when we are on a tour sponsored by world vision, but I am sick of Lasanga. I didn't eat very much. Both of the shows went exeptionally well and the audience was sold out both times. It was a fantastic venue, we all enjoyed it. Oh Canada, after all that walking, our hotel was downtown anyway, so we got to see the city. It is pretty nice. I am sitting here in the lobby of the Best Western in downtown Calgary. It is okay, we are sitting here waiting for the runner to come and take us back to the bus so that we can feast on whatever Canadian cuisine they have to offer us this time. We must be in a pretty heavy part of French Canada, because a lot of things are in French and English. I think that my favorite thing about Canada has been the Liberal newspapers that publish the stories about the downfall of the American Empire.

Alberta 1

2006-03-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

today was a good day in Canada, an enjoyable stage with two great audiences. It was a lot of fun. It is good to be back into the swing of things. I am excited about our upcoming group of shows. Tomorrow, we are in the beautiful city of Calgary. This is the first time I have ever been in Mountain Time, so that has been interesting. Anyway, I better hit the showers otherwise I might get in trouble. Nothing really interesting about today the same as always.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2006-03-28T12:45:00.000-08:00

Oh Canada 3, well this was a day off in the wonderful province of Saskatchewan. It was a fun day, Troy and I took a cab to the big mall, which was one of the smallest malls that i have ever been to. It was an interesting day, we started out by combing through the mall and finding a store called 'stiches.' It was a pretty amazing store. I bought hoodies for $10 a piece. I bought about 6 items of expensive clothing for about $60. It was amazing, and then I shaved my head. That's right, don't pass that over this statement too quickly. I SHAVED MY HEAD. I did, I have secretly always wondered what it would look like if I shaved my head, and you know what, it looks good. I like it. I like it a lot. I will probably do it again sometime. I like the way it looks and feels. Anyway, shortly after that we took a cab downtown to eat at a little place called Taverna, an Italian resteraunt in Saskatoon, where the cook was a huge veggietales fan, so Troy and I signed autographs. It was pretty funny. Then we walked up broadway Ave, where all the good clubs and bars were, so there, in the art district we found this great place called Starbucks where i sat down and had a Strawberries and Creme Frappachino and Troy had a hot chocalate, as well as a chocolate cookie. We then called a cab, who turned out to be crazy and a little bit older than the two of us. He told us the stories of drive by shootings that he was the driver for in Edmonton Alberta, and to stay away from the Asian people in Edmonton. He also told us where the good clubs were, depending on our gender preference, anyway, it was an interesting day.

Oh Canada! 2

2006-03-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I wish that I could say that this trip to Canada was more amazing and fabulous than our first canadian blunder, but it isn't. We got here this morning, and there stage extensions were in steps, which is bad for those of you that do not know. The veggietales are giant inflatable balloons, and they cannot walk up and down steps. So they fixed the stage, but the stage is not attached to anything so we are waiting on someone right now to drill the boards that are holding the extensions in the air for us. It is not a pretty thing. The wings, the place where we get in and out of our costumes, are really small, but the stage is not really terrible, if it doesn't collapse while we are dancing around on it. Well, maybe it is bad, anyway, I will blog about the results, but hopefully not from the emergency room in Winnepeg. Just Kididng

Miles for Mochas

2006-03-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

Today I am at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is almost a sold out crowd today, and so the first act has been fun, that's right, I am blogging during the intermission of the show. I know that probably is unproffessional, but I have gotten used to the amount of time that I have until the second act. Anyway, the theatre is lovely, it seats right around 2000 and it is at 1827 right now for Veggietales Rockin' Tour Live. It has been a fun day. I took a walk to go see Grand Forks' grand buildings, but I found none. We walked and walked and walked along the icy wet sidewalks. Pacing through snow and puddles to get to... This! The main strip, but then in the distance, what to our amazment, we saw our goal, well we at least made it a goal so that the walk was not pointless, our salvation with a green circular sign and a little mermaid calling our name. At first we thought that it might be a mirage, but it was 35 degrees and we thought that mirages only happen in heat, right? Anyway, it was all worth it when I had a Venti vanilla latte listening to some cat on the guitar that couldn't sing a lick, ahhh Grand Forks ND! Oh that is the place for nobody!

Milwaukee

2006-03-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here we are in Milwaukee, WI today. Well, we are not really in Milwaukee, but we are in a suburb of Milwaukee. Anyway, it has been a fun day. My family came today and I got to show them around. It was really fun. I got to show them the bus, where I stay and live while out on the road. Today was an interesting day, stage wise. We had a shallow stage today. Shallow stages are difficult, but they usually aren't to terrible. The variable that made this one particularly difficult was the giant drop off on the front of the stage. The warning line became imperative to our endevour of preforming the show. We had to pay extra attention to what was taking place. Anyway, it has been a fun day.

Peoria and other news

2006-03-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

I took a walk in Peoria today,
along the Illinois river,

I saw Africa today,
Cement rocks against the blue sky,

I saw the Titantic today,
Beat up and rusty,
Thousands of souls kept shut.
tight art not to be let out.

This is a sort of poem. It doesn't really make a lot of sense. I just thought that it would be cool to finally put some pictures up. So here they are, some pictures for those of you that are a little more visual. There was a woman today who was so excited that the veggietales had come to there church. She just could not get over it. She told me for a long time about how she thought that we were so cool and that she was so excited to be doing security detail for us. She was something! Anyway, charlene and crystalin and I went down to the riverfront today to see the river and found some interesting things. The church that we were in was a pretty amazing building. It used to be a shriner hall and Frank Sinatra had actually played the venue where we were, and it was now a church. The people from the church were pretty cool and helpful. A girl named Amy helped us to go to the Dream Center which is a building that houses the old YMCA. We were led there to work out, but I wasn't feeling that so I left. I took a lot of photographs today. Some cool ones were from the showers at the venue. We should have used them, the showers at the hotel are out of order now and have been for sometime. Anyway, my family will be at the show tommorrow. Today was a great show, it is amazing what a little r and r can do.

Star Plaza Theatre

2006-03-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we were in the Star Plaza Theatre. It was quite the venue. You walked into a 3000 plus seat venue that basically went straight up into the air. All of the seats were that glossy sort of red. The kind of red that you would expect at some Hollywood theatre. Everything seemed a little nicer. They actually had a room set up specifically for the meals that the cast and crew would be eating. They had official feeling dressing rooms with couches and things like that. It was just a cool feeling that we all got performing there. My personal favorite moment of the show is the silhouette that you catch when you first come out and the spotlights are on you. You can see no one, and for that moment you feel alone out there in the spotlight. You watch the hazy beam climb upstage until it hits you and then you hear everyone cheer. There is no better feeling than that. Performing a great show for people that are very excited to be there.

Fort Wayne

2006-03-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

Today we are in Fort Wayne. Another day on the road, nothing amazingly special about this venue, other than it is connected to a hilton hotel, where I blog from now. The day is young, and we are already off work. That is exciting! We have a whole day to just relax. It should be pretty uneventful, but if any good stories come out of it, you can bet that they will make there way to this blog. Anyway, thanks for reading.

Michigan Morn

2006-03-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

I woke up in michigan this morning, only to find out that my freind troy would not be joining us for today. Archie and Jerry also took ill with the flu wink, wink. It kind of killed the morale of the cast. We got up and reblocked the show and Jarred the show captain, took the wheel and helped Archie do some songs, but jerry just had to sit it out for the show. His lines went by, but he didn't. The show went well, but we were unable to shoot off the confetti cannons because of the child mosh pit directly in front of the stage. It is kind of a small venue. I was not too bad of a show, I guess it has gone well thus far. We are all trying to stay healthy.

Another day in PA

2006-03-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

Another day in Pennslyvania, there is nothing really special to say about today, other than it was Saint Patrick's Day and there were very few people out to see veggietales. This was the smallest crowd that we have had. There was about three hundred for the first show and about 600 for the second show. I just didn't understand why no one wanted to see us in Pittsburg. Oh well, I wasn't to hurt, after all half of the cast and crew feels under the weather. One of the crew guys got food poisoning and had to stop four or five times during the night to throw up. About four of the cast woke up with sore throats and fever. It makes me nervous, so I am trying to get good amounts of rest and keep myself hydrated. A pretty regular day here in PA.

Oh Canada!

2006-03-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

The canadian landscape... well I didn't really see any of it, but at least I got to visit the capital of Canada. Ottawa was a pretty cool city. The venue was less than comfortable, but the city was nice. We got held up at the border at Canada and combine that with a two hour delay thanks to some bad weather, it makes for a lot of angry veggietales fans. We got to Canada only to discover a stage that was twice as small as anything that we would ever safely agree to perform upon, but it had been extended to accomadate our needs with plywood. The only problem was that the plywood was raised off of the ground a couple of inches. So there we were, three hours late and loading in about thirty minutes before the doors were supposed to open on the most challenging stage that we had encountered. It was difficult to say the least and frustrating. A sold out crowd waited as patiently as possible while we tried to make things come together. We finally got everything set up and the show started about an hour and fifteen minutes later. It was crazy. The venue was soo small and oversold-out it seemed. There was a mosh pit of ages 4-9 right at the stage because they couldn't see in the seats that they had. You could feel the energy in the room, with the temperture rising to an uncomfortable level. Then it was over and our hotel for the showers was in downtown Ottawa. So Troy and I went for a walk and found the paliament building, the Canadian white house. I have to admit, all the trouble before and braving the two mile walk in -15 degree windchill in nothing more than a hoodie was all worth it to see the Canadian castles. They were breathtaking buildings, and you could literally walk right up to them and knock on the door. We took some cool pictures and then headed back to the hotel. When we woke up again we were in Buffalo New York. Just about 20 minutes from the beautiful niagra falls, well at least I think that they are beautiful. I wish that I could see them, but there just isn't time. I guess that is what takes away from the glamour of touring. Going from city to city, you just wish you could stop to breath and soak it all in, but you can't because you need to get to the next cool place that you aren't going to see. I guess for me it is like golf. They say that in golf you come back for the great shot that you hit in the whole game that you play. You usually only get one shot, but that keeps you coming back. Seeing the Canadian Parliament building was what keeps me going for now, and knowing that I will get to see some really cool places coming up.

Whew What a Ride

2006-03-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

Anyway, here is a post while I am actually on the road. Today is a stop in Amish country, we are in the beautiful town of Lancaster PA. Being here has been interesting, I took a run with Karen this morning and some other members of the cast, only to quit about half way through, which was okay with me, I think that total I ran and walked around 3 miles this morning, and probably walked another three miles to go to lunch and stop at the mall. Anyway, it has been rough going getting around this crazy town. It really makes me want to get a horse and buggy. No, it is not really that far away from civilization, they have a cool outlet mall here where I found some sweet kicks. Running around this morning in Pennslyvania, and seeing all of the farms and silos really got me thinking about our society and the Amish people. I am fascinated by the simplicity of their lifestyle and thier chosen ignorance of the world that surrounds them. I'll admit, the whole idea of farming and tilling the ground while waiting for my parents to decide who the best seamstress would be for thier grandchildren sort of captured my thoughts for a minute. I imagined myself, coming home to my wife who was hard at work churning the butter on the front porch while our six children swung around the tree. Her hair was long and beautiful and she was excited to have me return, because I was the best thing that had ever happened to her. And for a second, I felt as though maybe technology has ruined everything, and maybe coming home to my blogging wife and my teenage daughter who I can never get attention from because of her stupid I Pod. I don't know if I am really getting at anything other than to let myself know that I need to keep it simple stupid. I think that it was Clay Crosse who said "It all comes down to a man, dying on the cross saving the world, rising from the dead, doing what he said he would do." Anyway, I am going to try and keep my life as simply focused as possible, and use all the complexities of this life for the bettering of the simplistic mindset that I keep. And again I realize that it wouldn't be that great to be amish.

2006-03-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hello faithful readers, not that there should be many of you right now, because I just started this thing and really no one knows about it. Anyway... To those who are reading, the tour starts tonight and there is a lot of stuff to be thinking about for me. I just purchased a laptop computer and I will be using it to keep everything organized and neet, especially when it comes to journaling. I will be composing a post just about everyday, so keep your eyes peeled for updates. As for my updates today, I purchased some tax write offs... aka.. gig supplies, for instance, this laptop computer could be called a gig supply since I am using it to chronicle the tale of veggies. Also, the guitar strings that I purchased and have yet to put on are also a neccesity to the gig that I will be doing, since I am in need of a musical intrument really badly with all the free time that we will have. I am not really sure where we leave for tonight. I know that it is pennslyvania somewhere. If you are intrigued and would like to keep track of me as I travel from city to city, you can visit my schedule at bigidea.com/events. Anyway, I think that is all for today, there will be a lot more to write about as time goes on, like tommorrow for instance. Bye Bye

Soundcheck Nashville

2006-03-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at this wonderful thing that they call blogging, but I am learning to be more interesting in the way that I communicate the reality of what is going on here. I am a very ambiguous writer that does not communicate well through the words that I write, but I will try to get acclemated with the keyboard in front of me. Rehersals have been grueling to say the least. Operating a cucumber that is nine feet tall and four feet wide is no easy task. It is a full body workout with every run of the show, but I am learning to get better at it, and my body is learning how to speed up it's metabolism so that I can operate the ti bo machine. The coolest thing about this whole rehersal process is that it has taken place at soundcheck nashville, which is this huge professional soundcheck facility. Big Daddy Weeve was there today. I didn't meet any of them, but some of the people in our group of vegetables did. There are very famous people in and out of Soundcheck nashville all of the time. Not that I am starstruck or anything, but it is fun to walk past people that are in conversations with people we think of as famous or they are talking about them and on a first name basis, because they are just people. One of the guys on tour with us is not easily impressed by the show of famous country singers, but he from LA and was a host manager at a very expensive sushi place on sunset blvd. Anyway, aside from the fun stories at lunch about Paris Hilton and her diamond studded farrari, everything has been pretty basic.