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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One more interview to go, and i had to break plans and run back up to the hotel for another cooling off… now that i’m up here, i’d be lying if i said that part of me doesn’t want this interview to get cancelled… it’s nothing personal, because i really do want to speak with Matt Brouwer, but it’s so very comfy up here… i could almost curl up for a nap… right… now…

anyway… i have to say that i’m pretty happy with the events of the day thus far… the five-block of interviews went well and even though i felt a little like a doctor, running behind schedule, i really wasn’t… the clock in one of the rooms was about 6 minutes fast… and the day is just beginning, really… Robert Randolph and the Family Band!… i’m just really excited about this concert… which makes me slightly nervous about whether or not it will work out…

welp. time to transform and roll out as my boys would say… more later…

peace… love… bdg…

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So that went pretty well… i’ve always enjoyed Grits on one level or another and it’s good to catch up with them… as always, they have “big things planned”… so, as promised, no more punches to roll with and i’m back up here in the room cooling off with a cup of half frozen Dr. Pepper with the a/c cranked… seriously, it’s probably in the 50s in here and it’s awesome…

lunch was yummy and i have a few minutes before i’m needed anywhere else and i’m watching another segment of Sportscenter as it repeats in endless loops… The Predators lost their final playoffs fame yesterday and a lot of traffic around here was quite disappointed…

well, i have a few things to prepare before i head out again… i’ll be trying to work things in here and there and i’ll get some fun stuff posted asap…

peace… love… bdg…

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i’m interrupting this blog-cast to remind you all that there’s some fresh content on the front page…

and by fresh, i mean an InTRuview with Braille that i think you’ll all like, even if you don’t like hip-hop… and a brand new Left to Write that somehow managed to take me two months to write…

enjoy.

peace… love… bdg…

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slight fog of being tired, slight buzz of excitement, yep… i suspect i’m ready for the first batch of interviews…

there seems to be a lot going on in Nashville this year… in my hotel particularly as there’s always a flashmob of tourists from England or somewhere that breeds a similar accent… made breakfast a bit of an adventure since it was quite crowded and loud… but there was plenty of bacon, cinnabuns and coffee to go around, so i’m not really complaining… i headed back down to my morning interviews which, after a disappointing cancellation with Derek Webb, meant BJ Harris, a classically-trained illusionist and Mike Farris… then a two hour break…

Well, i got to the BJ interview a few minutes early to find him locked out of his hotel room (i’m sure there’s a joke there – an illusionist locked out – but i’ll pass) and then headed down to the McKendree Center to interview Mike… only to find out that Mike’s sick and he cancelled his interviews about ten minuted before i got there… Rolling with the punches, i headed down to the press room to see what there was to see before heading up to my room for some down time, time to wake up, time to relax, time to write…

Then my phone rings, or sings as the case may be, and yadda, yadda, yadda… i have an impromptu interview with Grits now in about a half hour… then, i’ll hustle back up to the room, cool off in this glorious a/c and eat some leftovers from last night’s PF Changs for lunch, before resuming my normal schedule with a Chris Sligh interview…

oh, nice… Sportcenter is using Paramore’s That’s What You Get as a backdrop for Top Plays…

anyway, i’ll have about five back-to-back interviews starting at 12:30 with a little room to breathe after that… so, we’ll see how much i’ll get written… i’ll do my best…

peace… love… bdg…

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i’m entering the twentieth awake hour of the day right now… granted it was a 25 hour day for me with the time change, but i’m tired… i think i mentioned that before… many apologies for the lack of consistent updates today, but silly me apparently didn’t shut down my laptop all the way this morning and the battery drained sometime between Dulles Airport and the hotel…

since i’m tired, i’ll just make some promises before i turn in… i promise to write some updates tomorrow about the following: registration, people watching/celebrity spying, Salem @ SATCO, Peanut Butter Jelly Time (take TWO), and the songwriter showcase… and that’s just the make-up entries… i’ll also be interviewing illusionist BJ Harris, Mike Farris, Chris Sligh, Salvador, Needtobreathe, Paul Alan, Ayiesha Woods and Matt Brouwer during the day and hopefully, cross my fingers, seeing Robert Randolph and the Family Band in concert with Switchfoot and Third Day tomorrow night…

but now, i must sleep…

peace… love… bdg…

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the first time i came down here for GMA Week, i dared to stray off of the beaten path of broadway, commerce and 2nd… rather than staying close to hotel and visiting the close showcases, i remember choosing to head off to a somewhat distant venue on foot late at night… i remember this distinctly because i remember walking back to my hotel somewhere in the one o’clock hour and encountering the kinds of characters that your parents warn you about…

i wasn’t necessarily concerned for my own safety or anything like that, but i felt a tug on my heartstrings as i considered the irony of a city that revels in being the center of the Christian music industry, which is home to many great artists who do many great things to help people from many lands through partnerships with many great organizations, seemingly ignoring the many great needs and people in need living in its own backyard…

today, i was privy to another glimpse of this as i ate my McDonalds value meal, watching CNN news broadcast from the television on the wall, apparently marking this as a somewhat upscale McDonalads and noticed no less than three homeless people enjoying the warmth and sharing soda refills from a Happy Meal cup that they had picked out of the trash…

i’m just not sure what to do with this, right now… but it’s weighing on me…

peace… love… bdg…

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well, i did a lot of waiting for lift off actually as the plane sat on the runway for a good half hour or so and eventually ended up landing a good 45 minutes later than planned… fortunately evertything went pretty smoothly otherwise and, after a twenty five dollar cab fare, i made it over to my hotel in time to drop off my bags and catch a church service at a local building of worship type persuasion…

i’m not going to name the church, because it’s not really important, but i will say that it took me at least five minutes to find a door to enter and the door that i found ended up leading me around the backstage area of the church until i found my way around to the back of the sanctuary… not the best first impression and the odd looks i got from the ushers passing out bulletins didn’t help at all…

Anyway, it was a reminder of how i’m sure we can all be better at treating visitors to our church…

After church, my room still wasn’t ready, so i headed to the closest, cheapest place i could find to eat that was not White Castle (see previous not to self)… that’s right, Micky D’s… i’ll revisit that experience in another entry, but right now, as i sit here on the hearth of the hotel lobby fireplace (not very comfy, mind you) it seems as if the manager may have a room ready for me… too bad all the good napping hours have passed…

peace… love… bdg…

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