P.S. two more things

I forgot to mention this...

1. I'm trying to get my stuff up on the iTunes store. Us Indies have to apply and then they check you out and decide if you're worth bringing on. You can all help me by going to the iTunes store and just running a search for my name. If they see that people are looking for my music they'll probably be more likely to pick me up, and that would just be awesome.

2. Of all the records that are coming out this year, including mine, I think this might be the one I'm most excited about...

a few pictures

I wanted to post a couple shots of this past week. I've been working overtime finishing up my record. We should have it ready for mix by the end of next week and it's really starting to sound like a great record. My studio has been rented out this week, so we've been cutting vocals at Cason's house and today did a ton of overdub percussion at Sir Paul Eckberg's.

Cason's been in a big Jay-Z mood recently, so in between every song we would work on we had to stop and watch a track from the "Fade to Black" DVD. Hopefully that will put the three rap songs (something I've never done before) into better perspective.

Anyway, here I am, singing the song "New Beginning" in Cason's kitchen. That microphone is a Blue Baby Bottle. I ordered one the other day, to use on my vocals for this record, only to find out it's three weeks back-ordered. Thankfully, Phil Madeira happened to have a couple of them and loaned me one for this week to help me finish up. Pretty cool-looking, eh? (the mic, not me...)




Cason's Self-Portrait #1


Self-Portrait #2 (He is a bad, bad man...)


Here I am, listening to the track...


In other news, it snowed here the other night and Paul took this cool shot of our house. It makes it look like we live on some big piece of land out in the country somewhere. He's a good photographer. We do not.


Here was Ella and I the other night


and she started pulling up yesterday! Here she is in the kitchen against the dishwasher. Extra points if you can spot Bobes and his dad in this shot...

someday all the good things will not fade away

I imagine I'm as prone to nostalgia as anyone. In my line of work, maybe a little more prone than others.

We've been watching this tv series "Freaks and Geeks." Maybe the title comes across a bit more alienating than intended, but the show is incredible. It got cancelled before the first season was even finished, and has just been released as a box set a year or so ago. This post is not about this show, just to let you know, but this show has been the impetus of much thought over the past couple of weeks.

See, nostalgia always seems to be accompanied by a sort of bittersweet ache. There's a longing for something you can't define that sort of lingers in the autumn evenings of those memories. You kind of feel like crying, but you don't. You kind of feel like laughing, and again you don't. But the one thing you don't want to do is jump back into your real life. Not quite yet. Like a snooze button, you keep reaching for five more minutes.

Why? What is this thing that drives us to go back to the past? We haven't talked to these people in years, that store isn't even there anymore, we're over her and she's married now anyway... Like more than a few late-night thinkers before me I must come to the conclusion that there is something lacking, not in us, but in the world we live in.

I find myself so deeply resonating with this show, because it is an incredibly well-done look back at the high school years, and also because it ended so soon. I'm learning as a writer that your creations develop. I imagine characters are similar to melodies. I'm sure they have a technical definition, but I would be pretty unable to say what they are. I also can't tell you how important they are to me and how I hope the ones I really love will continue to be heard for many years beyond me. I've created work that I thought was good and that has been really meaningful to the people who heard it, but that was ended too early, just like this show.

I'm getting away from myself. The point is: I am resonating with this art, both for what was created and for what was done with it. They included this booklet that has little thoughts on each episode and it's amazing to see how these writers tried to get as much out of each one as they could, knowing their time was so short. You can tell the art was a product of much love.

The Bible tells us that "whatever is good and pure and holy" etc... are the things we should be thinking about. Like any command like this, you have to make the best you can with it. There is only one good and perfect thing and that is Jesus and His love. There are a million facets to think about within it, for sure, but I believe God has also given us things like art and memory as other ways of thinking on these good things. Obviously, we are fallen, and any work of art or any recollection will be, by nature, imperfect, but there is still truth in these things.

That longing we feel is not something to be ignored. The sadness that those fondly remembered times are over is real and is worth something. It is a pain that came with a curse, and it is also a reminder of a great promise. There will be a time when those aches are healed, not by finally forgetting them and leaving them in the past, but by entering into a new and holy world where time ceases to be an enemy and every good thing will stay present and true.

I wrote a song called "I Miss Those Days" a few years ago that addressed these same heart-strings. I fear I will only grow to know them more as I get older. I'm sure I'll think back to the days when I rocked Ella to sleep like I think of my brakes going out in my old Mazda at 40 mph. I'll miss them (like that Mazda didn't miss Bobes' car). I'll miss playing Christmas shows with Andy and Ben like I miss The Normals. Maybe not quite as much, but still... I'll miss this house with the screeches of the train yard a block away like I miss the long walks I used to take with "friends" who may or may not have become "more than friends." Every day is a precious, precious treasure, one that can sometimes be seen best through the lens of a song or a story. For now.

So I sit here at my kitchen table, the one that spent forty years in my grandparents' house, and am letting myself feel the ache of what is past. But I will be glad that there are things worth aching for; songs worth singing, hands worth holding, stories worth telling, and vows worth taking.

I'll probably never watch anything with these actors in it again. I don't really want to see them being anyone other than the people they already never were in the first place. Somewhere, though, if only in my living room for 43 minutes at a time, they are real enough to be true, and for that I am grateful.

love and crockpots

Well, good afternoon webalogues, I hope you've had a good Monday following a good weekend. We had a nice weekend here in Osenga-land. We were actually home and not running around crazy. It was very nice.

I got to go today and look at the building I've been really hoping would work out for the studio. Cason and my ever-faithful-with-his-awesome-hair intern David joined me. I should hear back in a couple days whether or not I'm going to get one of the rooms. Man, I really hope it works out, this place is awesome. I won't talk about it too much cause it will just get my hopes up that much more, but I'm hopeful.

In other news, I've put more stuff up on ebay today. The guitars are my cousin Dean's, one of them is a killer tele. You can find my auctions here and, as always, you should bid on them all.

Some fun stuff is going to happen with my record this week. We're in the "fun stuff" stage so we're going to Phil Madeira's tomorrow to get him playing some B3. I can't wait. That's like a dream come true. Garett will hopefully get to knock out some percussion later this week, as well. The studio is rented out during the day this week so I'm trying to tackle a vocal a night. I'm also working on finishing up Matt Long's mixes this week, too.

My wife has been rocking the crock pot for the past week or so and something is smelling very delicious in our house right now. Mmmmm.... Ella's in her Johnny-Jump-Up "running" back and forth and sharing her wide and varied opinions with everyone in hearing distance. She doesn't know any words, so we're a little unsure what her opinions actually are. She's very excited about something. Probably her four teeth. Or maybe we'll find out she's a commie...

She's ten months old today and I can't even believe it. It's so much fun to hang out with her these days. She smiles so big, is crawling all over the place and pulling up to her knees. These are precious days.

Alison has a meeting with her "new moms" group at church tonight, so the Ells and I are going to hang alone tonight. Of course, we'll be taping tonight's "24" to watch when Alison gets home. I tried to not watch the first half of the season premiere last night, but failed miserably.

I guess that's all for me. Please keep praying about the studio thing and I'll let you all know as soon as I hear back. Love and crockpots to you all...

geek vs. nerd

Today's Discussion Question:

is there a difference between a nerd and a geek? What is your definition of each term? Is one worse than the other? Is one accepted into society with interests on the fringe while the other is cast to the side of mainstream community and association? Are you neither, one or both?

Go.