I was seriously laughing out loud at this story example here, though, reading that it’s not appropriate behavior was a little convicting (as if i didn’t already know that)… i’ve certainly given people the wrong phone number and avoided others because i knew meeting would end up in the dreaded conversation… some people you just don’t want to have a conversation with…

of course, i’m sure some people feel the same about me… and it’s good to know that God overlooks that aspect of my personality and still reaches out to me…

i’m not much for conversation in the first place, but i learned in my days of retail management that conversations are crucial to relationships of any kind… i learned this in several ways, but we’ll leave it at that…

it’s cool to realize that God is speaking to us throughout nature… and convicting to be asked if we’re listening…

peace… love… bdg…

okay… before i close up shop… here’s the results from my picks and predictions…

11 right, 12 wrong… bummer…

peace… love… bdg…

so the show’s over and there’s just a bundle of artists coming through summing things up… and things are starting to wind down… i suppose that i’ll wind down as well… i will probably be updating a little more tomorrow to catch up on the events of this morning (besides sleeping in a little bit) and probably a bit about the wild and crazy after party that we’ll be heading to right after the Doves…

peace… love… bdg…

So i kind of tuned out a bit and was walking around, but sure enough as soon as i walk away they start handing out more awards… here’s a couple more for you spoiler lovers…

Female Vocalist: Natalie Grant
- New Artist: Aaron Shust
- Artist of the Year: CHRIS TOMLIN

not too much in the way of surprises…

Aaron Shust came back with his three Doves and cried when someone asked if these awards would change him… he said that today he’s a sinner saved by grace and tomorrow he would also be a sinner saved by grace…

peace… love… bdg…

couple more winners for you as Zoro speaks to us and as Leeland’s Rocketown performance plays on the mainstage…

- Urban Album of the Year: This Is Me (Kiki Sheard)
- Male Vocalist: Chris Tomlin

okay, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber just announced the radio station winners for the year… not much to report there since i didn’t pay much attention…

peace… love… bdg…

one of the interesting things that’s different this year is the inclusion of more music performances, but not live… they apparently recorded a number of performances last week at Rocketown… so far, they’ve shown performances from Family Force 5, DecembeRadio, and RED… pretty interesting…

They also let Bart Millard of MercyMe give a little tribute to Audio Adrenaline… tribute in that he poked a lot of fun on their debut album and the lyrics therein, but also acknowledging that they were very influential in the formation of MercyMe…

Other door… several artists who have come back here to do their little press spots have tried to walk off the wrong side of the stage… which reminds me of American Idol and the audition footage where they kept telling people to go through the “other door”…

peace… love… bdg…

Grayson has come back stage and shared the story about how on the set of Talladega Nights, he had to “sucked up all the guts that [he] had and asked the producer if he could change the script or if [he] could just say something like “oh crap” instead of what [he] was supposed to say… what a charmer and only 8 years old… very well put together and quite respectful…

Here’s some more of the night’s winners:
- Worship Song: Holy Is the Lord (Chris Tomlin)
- Urban Song: Imagine Me (Kirk Franklin)
- Inspirational Song: Find Your Wings (Mark Harris)
- Pop Contemporary Song: Praise You in the Storm (Casting Crowns)
- Rock Contemporary Song: Me and Jesus (Stellar Kart)
- Rock Recorded Song: Breathe Into Me (RED)
- Rap/Hip Hop Song: Never Look Away (KJ-52)
- Producer: Ed Cash
- Songwriter: Aaron Shust
- Song of the Year: My Savior My God (Aaron Shust)

more to come

peace… love… bdg…

Thor Ramsey is apparently the comedian who hosted the pre-show… he’s a stand-up comedian who controls the Bananas series and the Thou Shalt Laugh DVDs which have a second one coming out later this year… He’s back here trying to be funny and he’s not too bad, but i won’t forget that he was outstaged by Mark Schultz during the pre-show…

Back in the actual show… the hosts have come out on stage… Donnie McClurkin and Brian Littrell are both lobbying to sing and Natalie Grant keeps telling them that they can’t.. their efforts to get around that have caused her to call them juvenilies… pretty funny… then they mention that Natalie had twins 9 weeks ago… then the tables turn as they announce that Rebecca St James and a cute little boy from Talladega Nights who’s name i’m currently trying to find… and Natalie and Donnie both started quoting lines from the movie and Brian called them juveniles… Grayson Russell - that’s it…

Rebecca and Grayson served up the award for Group of the Year… if you don’t want to know who it is then i wouldn’t recommend reading the next line that say that Casting Crowns won…

peace… love… bdg…

T-Bone came backstage and livened the place up quite a bit with his booming voice and over the top antics… he rapped a bit of his new song “Name-Dropping” which is due out sometime later this year on his ninth album… he’s pretty loud and crazy, but actually very funny…

on the big screen (which is actually about a 27 inch television in the corner) TobyMac, Kirk Franklin and Mandisa are opening up the program with “Lose My Soul”… Kirk’s decked out in Virginia Tech gear which is a pretty nice touch… the song sounds great and the choir really brings it all home…

peace… love… bdg…

Habitat for Humanity and Word Records teamed up this year and they started building a house for someone in downtown nashville that will later be moved to a local neighborhood… Building 429 was chosen as a spokes-group because of their clever name… they came backstage with a bunch of Habitat folks as well as the future homeowner and the president of the American Bible Society to talk a bit about the project…

peace… love… bdg…