Sorry about the flood of entries, but last night, i couldn’t keep a connection actve for very long and i ended up just shelving a bunch of entries before i finally turned in for bed… just one of those nights, i guess, which started with, yes, missing Robert Randolph and the Family Band… they didn’t show up and Jars of Clay played instead which is fine, but, since i’ve seen them before, i finished up my chicken fingers and headed out to try and catch the INO acoustic showcase that featured Sara Groves, Caedmon’s Call and The Afters among others…

The Bourbon Street Blues is a club that happens to be on a rather seedy alley… i actually walked past it, because i didn’t see their sign behind all the signs for showgirls and, believe it or not, nude karaoke… even if i were into visiting those types of places, i’m not sure that even sounds like a good idea… anyway… moving past that i came to the club as Sara was clearing out and heading over to her other performance… Despite missing her, though, i did get to see Derek Webb with Caedmon’s Call sing a few tunes and i saw The Afters play their mini-set… both were quite good…

After that, i headed back over to the Wildhorse Saloon and got there in time to catch the Switchfoot portion of the Music Builds show in its entirety and i must say, the’ve come a long way sing the last itme i saw them… when they were done, we decided to take off and get out of the sweaty, packed club, bypassing the Third Day set… i got back to the hotel pretty early (11-ish) and struggled to get some work done while the connection kept dying out… i’ve just noticed that the pictures did in fact upload last night and you can see them all at Flickr… hopefully, i’ll be able to add some descriptions and such later, but at least you can see them… off to another set of interviews… more on today, later…

peace… love… bdg…

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peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat… okay… after dinner we had the choice between the traditional worship service – this year hosted by Michael W Smith and featuring Israel Houghton among others – or the new tradition, which is the Peanut Butter and Jelly, hip-hop on the rooftop party featuring many artists from Syntax Records and Illect Recordings… Chris and the gang went to the Ryman, while i climbed the stairs of the McKendree Center…

It was absolutely great to be able to see JustMe and Sintax.the.Terrific perform finally… i feel very good about that… it’s always good to see the whole illect crew and even without a suite this year, it’s still something of an oasis in the midst of the whirlwinds that surround conferences like this… i walked in as PageOne and DJ Because were working on their set and got to see all of Just Me with MC Till helping hype the crowd and then Sintax… Next up was Soul P and then the Syntax cats took over and kept things rolling.. elsewhere in the building, i happened upon T-Bone crushing some barbells in the weight room while i took a call… all in all, a good night of hip-hop…

peace… love… bdg…

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Since i’ve written a handful of album reviews for CCM magazine, i was invited to a Salem sponsored celebration of the 30 years that CCM has been in print… i headed down to SATCO (San Antonion Taco Co.) for some free nachos and some chatter, how-do-you-do’s and i suppose what they call in the biz, a bit of schmoozing…. Not much of a schmoozer, i didn’t expect to stay too long, and had planned to hit up PF Changs with Chris and a couple friends…

It turned out to be a pretty good time, rather encouraging to realize how many people are at least aware of who i am in this world… and i was glad to have stayed long enough to see Jay (the most recent editor of the mag) present a plaque that included the cover of the first issue and a cover of the final issue as well as some words of thanks to John Styll, current GMA President and original editor/creator of the mag… really touching event actually… they had cakes with the covers printed on them as well and i took some pictures, but i’m not entirely sure if they’ve loaded up online just yet… my connection seems to be acting up tonight…

peace… love… bdg…

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Going back in time a bit… registration went pretty smoothly, though it was in a different place than it has been… in fact, a lot was different – even beyond the revamping of all the resteraunts (one sold out and became a Quiznos)… it was an interesting day leading up to that point… it was as if i had met up with an old friend, but didn’t have anything to talk about, leaving us drenched in awkward silence as we try to remember what it was that we liked about each other…

see, the first year i came down, i was welcomed with a warm embrace… i was at what seemed at the time like the top of my game… i had justsigned on with CMCentral, there was talk of revival, and all seemed to go quite well… last year, my second GMA, was shrouded in sympathy, hope and the excitement of meeting up with friends… my situation had apparently been the talk of the town shortly before my arrival and it seemed that it was a year to re-establish myself, reassure my contacts and move on…

this year, it started out really slow… i almost felt out of place amongst the unfamiliar faces… i expected it though, and i figured that it would work itself out… it has and i’ve officially caught my stride, sore legs and all, but i just wonder if there will come a time when i’m the strange cousin that no one wants at the reunion, but everyone knows they have to invite anyway…

Anyway, at registration, i met up with Chris from The Bridge and we caught up and people-watched for a while, spotting lots of fun folks, artists and otherwise… said hello to some of the folks that i work with at my dayjob and moved on… and now, we’ll move on…

peace… love… bdg…

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