Tubes, Family, and Christmas

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Merry Christmas everyone!

I do hope you've been having a wonderful time in between two of my favorite holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas, obviously). It's been a busy time for me and my family, and I see no signs of a slow-down any time soon - even over school break.

Tonight, my family is going to see the tree lighting in downtown Geneva. It's the kick-off of the annual Santa Lucia Festival. Apparently, she's a Swedish saint who gives out cookies. Awesome. We're gonna try to score a few sweets and watch Santa (not a saint) light this big tree outside the Courthouse on Third Street. (If I ever have another daughter, I might pull for the name Lucy.)

Next up...

What happened last week:

Eleanor, my 15-month-old, got tubes put in her ears. If you're not familiar with the procedure, it's fairly simple, but for a *musician* dad, it's intense. Read about it HERE. It's called a "myringotomy". I'm emotionally drained right now and kinda depressed. Hoping tonight will help.

And what's coming this week:

Two huge recording projects from some friends - one new, one old. Gonna be a lot of work - probably 4-5 full, 8-hour days in the studio before Christmas, but well worth it. I'll be doing tracking and mixing for both recordings.

And last of all:

I've had the weight of the next Restoration Project album on my shoulders for a few months now, with little forward progress. I've started tracking, but haven't really felt "right" about any of what I've done so far. I plan to bring in a couple of friends from Redeemer Fellowship to kind of get some fresh energy and perspective on things.

Gonna be interesting. Gonna be hard work. But I was just reminded again of a belief that I have long held to:

I want to be known as an individual who, by God's grace, has pushed the limits of human capacity - to live, to love, to create.

I look forward to the release of the next Restoration Project album in Spring 2013 and hope it breathes new life into our world.

Merry, Merry, What is Christmas?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adventskranz_Porzellan.JPG

It's almost time for my annual new year resolutions post. I'll get to that soon. I'm still thinking about those...

But today, I want to ask you a simple question:

After the Christmas lights turn off and everybody goes back to work on a gray, overcast day in December, what are you left with? What was the point? What does Christmas mean?

Here's an interesting read if you're looking for a good answer to my question:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/12/23/the-best-christmas-songs-tell-the-truth

My guess is that if we really examine our own hearts, we'll find that the meaning of Christmas - for us - has been hi-jacked a little bit by our culture: good feelings, spending time with loved ones, presents, "peace on earth", "Jingle Bells", eating awesome food...

Armenian Cookbooks and a History Lesson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Armenian_Empire.png

I've been shopping for Christmas presents this afternoon - for an affordable Armenian cookbook, in particular. I didn't realize how difficult the task would be. I guess I didn't realize (until I looked at a map a few minutes ago) just how small and insignificant Armenia is in the world. I mean, Armenia is on par, size-wise, with Israel. But I'm not saying that Israel is insignificant. I guess I'm saying that people see Armenia as insignificant, but it's not.

Here's a fact for you: People complain about Israel or Palestine "losing" land - or any number of "countries" (IE: ethnic/religious groups in that region) but Armenia seriously lost a lot of land to Turkey. It's like 700 km from Yerevan to the Mediterranean, and you've got to figure that Armenia at one point stretched at least 200 km both to the North and South of Musa Dagh, which is basically right on that sea. But let's keep in mind that the history of this region of the world has always been messed up. Land is trading hands all the time, and it's been that way for way over 2000 years. I don't want to get into a debate over whose land it really is... My opinion is that all land is on loan from God, and one day he's going to take it all back for himself anyway...

So my quick history/geography lesson came as a result of researching various regions of "Armenia". You see, to at least some Armenians, they still call parts of what is now Turkey "Armenia". I don't disagree. But I also don't think it matters, in some senses. What I mean is: politically what you call a place matters. Historically what you call a place matters. But when it comes to calling a place your home, if you're an Armenian, if you grew up in Cilicia, for example, you're likely to call your childhood home "Armenia." I think.

Back to my quest for an quality Armenian cookbook.

I'm not sure there is one. I've found a lot of "church lady cookbooks" - you know, the ones the ladies at churches compile and print for their congregations? Yeah...

If I had the money, I think this was the most promising one I found. Again, I think it's too much money:

http://www.armenian-cuisine.com/about.htm

- this bad boy is 65 USD, including shipping!!!

Looks pretty cool, but you can't really look inside. A ton of pictures, but could probably use either fewer and more recipes or just fewer all together. And cheaper, please. But again, this one hits the mark as far as hip factor goes. It sounds like the authors have a killer restaurant in Lebanon...

My second and third choices are pretty much equals, and I'd hate to settle on my gift by buying one of these seemingly lesser cookbooks. Again, the problem with shopping for cookbooks online is that you can't really get a good feel for them. Here are those two:

The Recipes of Musa Dagh - $20 on Amazon.

and...

Simply Armenian - Only $17.

So what do you all think I should do? I'm totally torn. Oh yeah, this search has also help me to come to the conclusion that Armenians don't use cookbooks, so the mere fact that I'm even looking for one is paradoxical.

Merry Christmas! Plans for the Week

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful time this week with family and thinking about this unbelievable historical event we call Christmas.

I can say for my own part that this really hasn't felt like the Christmas season at all. Life is messed up. Second only to sleeping, I have spent more time in a hospital this past week than anywhere else, doing any other thing. My dad should be coming home today - doctors think.

Needless to say, I had grand plans for the week leading up to Christmas - all of the things I'd be able to accomplish with more time to work at the studio. Almost none of it happened, but that's life. The last two days, I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to get everything done this coming week that I need to.

I think the basic answer is just to take everything one day at a time and do what I have to do to make it work. Here are just the main things on my list:

• Scribble up a promotional plan for Fundamental, my new record, coming out on Jan. 25th
• Finish up my media contact list for promoting said album
• Put together my 2011 summer festivals contact list
• Record pre-production guitars and vocals for Restoration Project #2
• Write up the recording schedule for ResProj #2

All in all, I think we're probably talking a good, clean 40 hours of work on these things - and I'm about 90% sure I won't be putting that in before next Monday. Again, that's life.

Now, just a quick word to put this all in perspective: I love my family and I love spending time with them. In some ways, I feel blessed to have been able to spend the time with them that I have. Life is a balance. We all always have to hold both ambition and responsibility with an even hand.

Off we go... happy Monday.

All I Want for Christmas

http://www.glguitars.com/instruments/USA/guitars/asat-classic/enlarge.asp