the story i find myself in

damien rice - new album november 14th. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! click here for more info.

Posted by ashdown at 10/31/2006 11:31:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

dont know if you are subscribed to these guys or not - but if you are interested in studying and discussing worship - they are in a 5 week study that began last sunday. go check em out here, subscribe and join the discussion. two nuggets from this week: 1 - worship isnt determined by what you say or sing. it's how you live. 2 - a worship series isnt designed to teach us how to sing better - it is designed to show us who God is and what are the ways he wants us to respond to him. man these seem so fundamental but they pack so much weight. God help me to worship you with my life and not just with my words and songs...

Posted by ashdown at 10/31/2006 08:59:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

this sunday was an amazing sunday. we are currently studying nehemiah and this week was on the topic of letting go. God was rebuilding the city through nehemiah and along the way there were some people who were trying to thwart his process - saying we want to live in the rubble and not change. hardened hearts to the process of renewal. a great message for our crowd. in our meetings in planning for the service we came up with the idea to go ask people on the street what is the hardest thing they have ever had to let go of. then after that we asked them if they would let go of their shoes and donate them to our homeless ministry at the church. something that people probably have abundance of and something simple that other people are in need of. the response was great. of about 14 people we asked, 4 people gave us their shoes. so great!! so yesterday morning we showed this video in the service and then our pastor taught on letting go and being a part of renewal and rebuilding and we gave our people a chance to respond...and it was amazing! at the end of the service we wheeled out 4 trash cans and asked people to donate their shoes and all 4 cans were filled! over 200 pairs of shoes. it was great because it all was genuine sacrifice. it didnt feel like people were guilted into responding. it was a celebratory time of sacrifice. as simple as we might think it is - for our people to give up stuff was so great! it makes me excited to see how we can continue to practically be a part of restoring and rebuilding God's kingdom here in houston.

Posted by ashdown at 10/30/2006 09:10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

oh yes.sweetness i just hope it is as good as the black album. we shall see...

Posted by ashdown at 10/28/2006 02:07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so yesterday i wrote / finished my first song using logic and the good ol oxygen 8. for a listen - click here. enjoy...

Posted by ashdown at 10/26/2006 01:54:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

yes - i am addicted. cant wait for tonights episode. holler.

Posted by ashdown at 10/23/2006 07:40:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

i know this has been around for awhile - but i am just now discovering it. it is a beautiful thing. for more info - click here.

Posted by ashdown at 10/23/2006 02:36:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so yes - it was an amazing evening. the only bummer was the nasty smoke filled room + the delay for T A L to start due to computer/visual problems. but once that was fixed it was all good! they do some very sweet visuals with all their songs - all the visuals timed up perfectly to the songs. go see these guys on this tour if possible. so so great. here at the pics: these last two pics capture my two fav things of the evening: 1. the violin player. man he is amazing! he did a lot of looping and put some sweet effects on the violin. he is so tasteful too. what an incredible musician. 2. the suitcase rhodes. as you can see we got to stand right at the front of the stage next to jimmy and watch him work his magic. i think the rhodes is my new fav instrument. he looped it many time which was brilliant - and as you can see he had his hands full with two other keyboards as well. amazing.

Posted by ashdown at 10/22/2006 03:45:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

t minus 4 hours and counting....i think i should probably take a nap so i am all good to go for the late night...

Posted by ashdown at 10/21/2006 05:09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

yep. these boys are at it again. new cd comes out oct 31st. for a free preview from the upcoming album click here and download away. enjoy.

Posted by ashdown at 10/20/2006 02:56:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so because of saturdays craziness i took today off - and man it has been so refreshing! taking my time when getting up - yummy coffe in the am - just straight chillin. amanda is off today as well - off from school but not off from work. she is swamped...keep her in mind this week... also stumbled upon these guys today: Four Tet - really sweet electronica music. man - that is my favorite genre right now. and speaking of electronica music.... THE ALBUM LEAF IS COMING!! yes!!! this sat night we are heading to see them. i cannot wait. anyone wanna go? let me know.

Posted by ashdown at 10/18/2006 06:02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so after two abnormaly late nights - i was draggin like a mug on sunday morning...but after a good practice and some kolache's i was ok...sunday morning went well - had to throw a curve ball at the band and they did great! we ended up doing a song that they didnt have a chart for (center) but the band followed like a champ! after church we headed out to cafe artiste with lindsay and monte. always a great time at cafe artiste...and i must say the eggs benedict there...wow...if you come and visit i will take ya there. after the grub it was back home to relax and chill!! the first time we really just got to sit around and catch up...crazy!! then around 6pm we went back to the church for recess. recess is the sunday night prayer service i am leading with the youth group. good stuff as well. then because of nikki's love of bakeries we had to take her to la madeline. oh yeah. breakfast for dinner. my favorite for sure. we closed the place down and crashed back at the apt around 11.30pm. it was great to have nikki here. man we miss her much already. and now it is time to see the bears go to 6 - 0! lets go bears!!!!!

Posted by ashdown at 10/16/2006 06:01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so because of the late night we didnt get much sleep because we had to head back to houston to meet spur58 and get them all settled for the show that evening. but we did have time to eat some yummy food at austin java and head to waterloo records. man, that is the best record store ever. go there if you get a chance. they have everything. so after a see ya soon to the marlows (they were coming later for the concert) we hit the road back to houston. it was smooth sailing all the way back and we met up with the spur crew around 3pm. i opened for them and had my friends diedre and christina play cello and violin play with - so we rehearsed a little bit - got a sound check then it was time to open doors and rock and roll! the show went awesome! i did four songs: where i belong fall like the rain save me be still my soul i felt like i was received well from all the spur fans...all in all there were around 500 people there so it was a blast to play for them! amanda came up and sang be still with me so that was doubly amazing as well. here are a couple of pics: the head-less drummer is my dogg talley who plays on sunday morning. it was a great set and much fun. amanda took these pics and i had nikki take some on my slr. so if i ever get around to developing those - i will post some for ya. after us a band called how ironic played - then spur took the stage. wow - these guys are very talented and have a great sound. the show was wonderful. a long day but a great time as well. i am so glad nikki was here to hang! we didnt leave church til around 11pm - stopped at got taco bell (nothing like a late night meal) on the way home and headed to bed. another early morning on sunday...

Posted by ashdown at 10/16/2006 05:25:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so on fri morn amanda had to work til noon. then after that we got in the car and headed to AUSTIN!! we surprised nikki with ticketes to damien jurado and rosie thomas! we had a blast in austin - got into town and met up with chris. from there we headed down to the lake and ate at a great little place called the hula hut. necole met us at dinner and after a yummy meal we walked next door to mozarts cafe. what a great place! huge patio overlooking the lake. so so sweet!! from there we drove back down to 6th st and walked over to emo's where the concert was. the opening band went on at 10.30pm and played for an hour. oh, and THEY WERE HORRIBLE!!! so after enduring that ear pain it was good ol rosie's turn! man she is so funny and so good live. here are the pics: rosie had her brother sing and play on most of the songs and it was so great! he must be the one on the albums because it sounded exactly like it. after rosie finished damien jurado and his crew made the stage. by this time it was like 12.45am and we were beat...so we stayed til like 1.30am and then headed back to the marlows to crash. what a marvelous day!

Posted by ashdown at 10/16/2006 04:48:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

seriously. get this cd : Dark Light Daybreak. we headed out to walters on washington tonight and caught a great show. NOW IT'S OVERHEAD is freaking amazing. buy the album. nikki is here and it is great!! looking forward to more weekend fun...lots more planned but she doesnt know! hehehe

Posted by ashdown at 10/13/2006 12:33:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

first - NIKKI IS COMING!! whooo hooo! should be a great time. also wanted to let everyone know i will be opening for Spur58 this sat night at 7pm at First Pres Church of Houston. if you are in the area come on out! cant wait to see all of you there...

Posted by ashdown at 10/11/2006 08:11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

it was a torrential downpour day in good ol h-town. so ya know what i did... played around with this puppy...wow...what a program...so so much. anyone have any advice on some good tones/synths? i am currently going through each one to see what they sound like? and advice?

Posted by ashdown at 10/10/2006 05:01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so confession time. i have been bloitering for a while now...over at Ragamuffin Soul. time to give the brotha some props. carlos is a fellow worship leader and has a great blog and podcast. go over and check it out. keep up the good work los!

Posted by ashdown at 10/09/2006 08:40:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

thanks to my dogg marlow we got the link. click here to download my album. enjoy!

Posted by ashdown at 10/09/2006 07:14:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

my album is on itunes!! whoo hoo!!!! happy downloading.... i dont know how to make a sweet link to the store but you can search my name and find me there! anyone know how to make a link to the music store? let me know... it'd be sweet if ya left a customer review or so...if ya like the album...

Posted by ashdown at 10/09/2006 05:56:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so i finally got around to seeing this flic (thanks ben for the reccomend) and it was heavy. wow. kinda wish i had a heads up with what the content was - but anyways it was good. bjork did a fantastic job in this film. she made it for me. anyone else seen this? thoughts?

Posted by ashdown at 10/08/2006 08:02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

our three we have watched this week: very interesting / disturbing movie...who's high school experience was like this? it is a mobster/drug dealer movie. the plot was a little confusing at times and there was much mumbling. but once it all came together it was a pretty good flic. what a beautfil movie! i know it has been around for a while - but we never got to see it, so thanks to good ol blockbuster online we watched it tonight. such a great film. it looks stunning and the story is so great. surprisingly a good film. an interesting commentary on american culture and what family life looks like and such. and cage did a great job in this film. many laughs.

Posted by ashdown at 10/07/2006 10:04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so your fav graphic designers and mine - ryan and holly sharp have finished the new sharpseven website. do yourself a favor and check them out: SHARPSEVEN DESIGN :: CREATE SOMETHING NEW. and if you ever need anything done - use them. so so great.

Posted by ashdown at 10/06/2006 11:14:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

yep. amazing. so so amazing. more to come later...

Posted by ashdown at 10/06/2006 10:41:00 PM | Permalink | Comments