GMA Week 07: Day 2: Entry 3 – oopsie!
or not… i guess those were all cancelled on me… fair enough… well… i’m working a bit on my article and i’m charging up my technical marvals… then i head over to interview Britt Nicole and hit up the illect recordings/sphere of hip hop suite for some good rap cookies….
peace… love… bdg…
GMA Week 07: Day 2: Entry 2 – Come thou fount…
Well it was good to talk to Sara… she’s always a good one to chat with… and currently six months pregnant to boot… new baby, new album, lots of good stuff to talk about… unfortunately, it started a little late and even though i cut it a little short, it ran a little late and i was a few minutes late to the Bridge Deli and, assuming the best, my next interviewee was m.i.a…. oh, Switchfoot just walked by… i didn’t realize that the whole band would be here… anyway, i decided to walk on over to the Hilton since i’m supposed to meet a band for lunch… not sure if i’m supposed to actually interview them or not since you know it’s lunch, but it should be free food and i’m starving… aside from a couple cups of coffee and a banana, i haven’t eaten yet today… and it’s kind of like it’s quarter after 1 for my stomach… something smells good…
it’s pouring outside right now so, i’m glad i’ve already walked over here… bummer… i don’t know where my afternoon interview is supposed to be… just realized that… bummer…
okay, just got called away for the lunch thing and yes, it was an official interview as well… kind of strange to be recording in a sports bar while everyone is just eating and what not… much less conduct an interview… anyway, we mostly chattered away and had a good meal though the publicist seemed to want it to be a little more focused… it was a pretty good time, and probably a really good test for this iPod mic… on the way out a chatted a bit with Rob from Pillar since he was in the lobby… he’s a nice guy… actually, i’ll say that he’s a really nice guy, ’cause he said he might be checking out the site right about now…
Currently, i’m outside across from the Hilton… there’s a fountain and some benches here to make a park and that’s cool and all, but these benches aren’t very comfy and it’s kind of loud here… it’s nice to be outside though… away from the people noise… i should probably go figure out where to meet this next interview…
peace… love… bdg…
Well, sleep came too late and morning came too early, but that’s the nature of the beast here… it’s almost 11 and it seems like i’ve been up for the whole day already… and really, i’ve only gotten 2 interviews under my belt today… the third one is scheduled for right now, but um… let’s just say that if the guys from this band are actually here where they are supposed to be, they look nothing like their press photos and i have no idea where they might be…
good talks this morning though with The Afters and Chris Rice and some good things to come still… i also got a bit of my article typed up so hopefully that will be done by the end of the day… i scooted over to where my co-workers are supposed to be doing some video interviews, but it was vacant… wonder what happened…
Also, i finished uploading yesterday’s pictures… apparently it was cut off last night… more pictures will come later today i’m sure and hopefully i’ll be getting better at uploading to Flickr so that they’re better organized… i’m gonna go try to grab a coffee and head off to my next interview… Sara Groves… i need to be on my a-game…
peace… love… bdg…
GMA Week 07: Day 1. Entry 3-?.
KJ-52 came to the back of the airplane and used the potty… i thought about wedging the door shut as a joke, but airlines have totally lost their sense of humor lately so i changed my mind… the flight crew also doesn’t like to hear passengers yelling “woo hoo” as the plane takes off… other passengers don’t seem too keen on it either…
Seriously though, KJ was on the plane, a few rows in front of me and on the other side… he looks so different when he’s not performing, it’s kind of funny actually… Anyway, landed fine in Nashville… actually about 15 minutes early which was pretty cool… put me on pace with Josh who was supposed to beat me by like a half hour… of course, Chris was running on Unthank time and was late picking us up, but it’s all good… thanks to Chris for the ride…
Headed to the hotel and due to God’s providential timing – which is sometimes good and sometimes bad – Holly just happened to be checking in at the same time… could’ve been awkward i’m sure… check in went pretty smoothly and we went up to the room with hopes to drop off our stuff and found the door propped open and the maid was in the process of cleaning the floor… we didn’t have to wait all that long, dropped off our stuff, settled in a bit, got ready for registration and remembered that we were still really hungry…
after another brief encounter with the CMC kind, we headed to White Castle and, let me tell you… Harold and Kumar were/are incredibly dumb… Going to White Castle… that’s a bad call… besides not being real food – i mean, there’s no way that’s actual meat – those things will be haunting you the rest of the day… enough said…
Registration was pretty uneventful, i mean, we checked in… the attendees are wearing hard hats to remind us that the Word Label artists are building a house with Habitat for Humanity this week… pretty cool idea actually… i’d love to do that some day, maybe when the boys get a bit bigger… the goodie bag – er, ad bag – included a custom Bible portion of the book of Psalms from the American Bible Society and a DVD for ABS Presents… i haven’t really looked at all the paperwork in there, but there was a schedule and a bunch of other stuff i’m sure will find the bottom of the trash can soon enough..
We went ahead and raided the press room next and then the magazine stands… it’s super cool to see the HM Magazines on the rack there knowing that i have an article AND an ad in there… i know, i’m silly… but ooh… that reminds me, i need to type that up… anyway, after that we bumped into Mr. Robin Parrish… had a nice little chit chat and then the amigos moved on down to the Global Cafe for the Word Records New Media networking event…
This is a good idea, the Global Cafe is a cool place… but inevitably… yeah, it happened… the clash that everyone had anticipated since last week occured and it was a simple handshake at first then, as if dipped in awkward sauce that rivals a hot fondue meal, there was conversation… anyway, i declined starring in a video blog for a certain other outlet and sipped down a rather subpar white chocolate mocha while slowly enjoying a chocolate-chip cookie that could easily have been mistaken for a personal pan pizza… and there was a bit of networking going on… good stuff too… and there was a contest and somehow Josh managed to win the grand prize… funny thing is, he’s gotta figure out how to get it home now…
though i was pretty full from that ginormous cookie, we headed off to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe… i ordered the bodacious boneless chicken strips (or something to that effect) expecting some good buffalo wings without the bones… and i’ll be honest… i didn’t like the sauce one bit… and it wasn’t strong enough to cancel out that other stinking meal from earlier in the day…
back to the hotel for a brief unloading period where i called home and Josh got on the internet and Chris thumbed through his free issue of CCM… then we headed down to the worship extravaganza “hosted” by Michael W Smith and featuring Hillsong United… actually, Josh left us for some fancy schmancy inside look at a recording studio… but Chris and i got to the Ryman for the event… the Ryman is great and all, but our view wasn’t… we were under the balcony and it was a pretty odd angle… and as much as i don’t want to sound cynical or like i’m missing the point, i really felt like the service was very manipulative…
we all know that music can be that way, but this felt more like a pep rally than anything else… the lulls, the high points, the drums pounding in the hands waving the jumping… it all felt so staged… so contrived… anyway, when Smitty got up there, he introduced Jim Caviezel who gave a motivational speech about his time filming The Passion of the Christ and then stood oddly like a bodyguard as Smitty lead us all in Above All…
IT’S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!!
as we were heading over to the songwriter’s showcase, i was reminded by the noise that there was an outdoor roof party co-hosted by Syntax Records and Beatmart Recordings… i managed to convince Chris to head up to the roof and take in some hip hop culture… we saw a few songs from Willie Will, a video from Soul P and a song or two from Soul P while sipping down a Jones soda (sugar free blech)… There were peanut butter ande jelly sandwiches floating around the party as well as milk cartons… Saw TobyMac and he kind of blew me off, but it’s okay… saw KJ again, minus the glasses… and as we were leaving, i said hello to JustMe and Ajax Starglider…
The songwriter’s showcase was pretty cool… but i’ll have to tell you about it tomorrow… i’m getting tired… and this is getting too long… no one will read it all, much less comment…
’til morrow… keep it locked…
ps. there are pictures from today, but i’m not the best at taking pictures… http://www.flickr.com/photos/40751948@N00/tags/sunday/
peace… love… bdg…