Last night I volunteered for the Skillet/TFK/Decyfer Down tour. Though I haven't worked a show in a while, I found it was easy to get back into the flow of how the event typically goes. It was a good night, sold-out show with a packed house of 1500 and many willing to buy the TFK merchandise I ended up selling.
The show was a long 3 1/2 hrs with a two-hour teardown afterwards. Here are a few of my favorite moments from last night:


- The peanut butter chocolate cake Jesse scavenged from catering
- TFK's intro music, Ennio Morricone's film score from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
- The "emergency gaff tape" stuck inside a glass box
- Amber texting Decyfer's backstage number for fun...and winning
- Skillet's "Best Kept Secret" encore followed by anticlimactic, Jars of Clay exit music


And for the favorite quote of the night:

"I admire your strength...and your earrings." - Bob, event volunteer to me during load-out

Dear Former Classmates:

Today is the day we graduate. Or we were supposed to. To tell you the truth, when they told us to look to the left, look to the right, I didn't believe any of us would be a statistic. I didn't buy into the myth.
But slowly, surely, only a third of my initial friends left, or transferred, and now I only know two or three of the near five hundred graduating today. Am I saddened by this? Maybe. Disappointed? It's worn off. But I'll tell you a few things I'm not expressing at your absence.
For most of you, I do not agree with what the baccalaureate speaker said about those seated before him working the hardest. Being the most determined. I still know you, I know how you're making things happen in your lives and have more self-motivation than I could ever dream of having.
I do not believe we robed and tasseled today are better than those who haven't made it here yet. One more semester or a few more years, you'll get here and have the same joy/relief/fear/anticipation that I do right now.
That said, I do not believe a degree is a be-all, end-all. Hell, it's just a piece of paper. Some of you have discovered this and are actually doing things with your life. That makes me so happy for you.

A Well-Deserved Victory

There are many things wrong with the current music biz. It's refreshing to see something work in the artists' favor.

http://www.ascap.com/press/2008/0430_ratecourtdecision.aspx