refuel

This is a video I just made for our upcoming youth retreat. The theme this year is refuel. The kid is my best friends nephew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GBKIU3IyBc



What do you think?

LSU is beautiful!

Isn't she so pretty? Lori and I got to go to the LSU game v. Kentucky with Lacey, Ryan, Ryan, and Andre. LSU spanked them 29-0!

With all my heart, I'm sorry.

I'm obliged to apoligize to you today. I've neglected you, my most gracious blogsters. I know you're all up-in-arms, waiting to hear of my most recent excursions and blunders. It's been far to long since I've filled each of you in on my comings and goings. For instance, did you know I went to New York City in August? Or that I went with my GIRLFRIEND? Or how bout that I've been talking to my Mom for the first time in FOUR YEARS??!! I bet you didn't know my brother (Tim) was in Iraq either! See? I need to keep you all updated with my life. Otherwise, how will you know these important happenings?

So lets start back in July. July 10th to be exact. That was the first day I called Lori! To say we met online is less than appealing, but it resembles some of the truth. In fact my friend and her friend talk online on Everyones Connected. When it was discovered (by my friend) that Lori would be moving to a city about 45 minutes away from me to lead worship at the local church, he suggested (to her friend) that we should "hook up." About a month later, I found myself placing a phone call to the young lady I would later be privileged to call "girlfriend." Come Thanksgiving I'll be on my way to Missouri to meet her family!! (Her birthday is May 19th...note to guys - when your girlfriend tells you her birthday...remember it...that will score you points.)

Let's move to August. Lori and I had been talking for almost a month, and theRevolution student ministries College and Career trip to NYC was quickly approaching. Bro.Derek suggests..."why don't you see if Lori would like to go?" So, of course she did! NYC was terrific! We went to a Yankees' game, Battery Park, the WTC site...heck, a few of us even ended up in Brooklyn at Juniors, only the most famous cheesecake joint in NYC!! I'll post a few pictures at a later date (probably about the same time as the Germany pics).

By the way, the Saints, who most people thought would only win 4-5 games this year are already 3-1. My prediction is 9-7 with a legitimate shot at an NFC wildcard spot!! GO SAINTS!!

Whew!!

So much for posting everyday. Let's try weekly instead!! I'm going to have to post ALL my pics online so you guys can see how cool this country is. Monday we took a 5 hour train to Munich and stayed till Tuesday. When I have access to photoshop, I'll post the pic of the Glokenspiel on here. The Munich townhall is this MASSIVE gothic building with a gigormous clock on the front. Beautiful!! Tuesday we took a bus around the city to see all the sights! That was neat, especially since it ended at Schlöss Nymphenburg, the summer home built by Emperor Maximillian for his wife when she finally gave birth to a son. That was neat.

Last night when went "German Bowling." It's actually called Kaegeling. There's only 9 pins, the lanes are narrower, and the balls are smaller (with only two holes...some have no holes). It was so fun, but kinda hard. "Strikes" are very rare.

Today we're going up to the town chapel (set high up on a hill), so Shane, Robert, and Alexander can practice for next week. The town is making them sing....heh heh! More to report later. Right now, I've got to go.

Ciao!

(Update!!) Here's a picture of the steeple at Glockenspiel.

Hallo von Deutschland

*Disclaimer
I'm using a German keyboard, so disregard any typos (you know, y's and z's and what-not. bitter)

I'll be able to post pictures tomorrow, as I don't really have time today. <


It's gorgeous over here. When my brother and I drove in (he has 1 of only 11 Pontiac GTO's in all of Germany), everywhere you looked, you saw mountains, and large square patches of these little yellow flowers. There are also a lot of windmills here. I wasn't expecting that.

Every time you go up one hill (not mountains, I found out) and down another, there's a new town, each one unique and characterized by its own church. I haven't seen any Gothic or Baroque churches yet, but I will soon.

Tonight we're going to a gospel choir concert. That should be interesting!! They also told me I could play the pipe organ if I want to. ACH!

Anyway, I've got to go now. There will be plenty of pics later. Stay posted each day. I'll normally post at either 6 or 7 AM (Central Standard Time) or about 2 PM (CST). You can also stay in touch with me via email at jessy.keys@gmail.com.

Tschuess!

To capture or not to capture

So, I'm in to photography right? Right!

I was perusing my sister's future mother-in-law's photography website today and started thinking. I have a great DSLR and really want to build my skills as a "hobbiest-photographer." I have a growing knowledge of Photoshop CS2. And I think with some practice I could make some really good shots.

So the question is, should I attempt to start a "Photo-a-day?" I'd definitly have to post everyday. But it means I'd have to take pictures everyday too. That'd be tough. I'll give it some thought though.

Also, Chantell, I know how anxious you are to hear about my birthday revelry yesterday. But I'm trying to locate a picture of a friend of mine that I'll need to post.

Gotta get back to "work" now.

New Orleans Night Life

For those of you who, for whom, the news of New Orleans and the gulf coast has been relegated to the bottom right corner of page 11, directly beneath the Billy and the Boingers in concert Ad, allow me to relay some great news!

NEW ORLEANS IS COMIN' BACK BABY!!

Our college and career group decided to go downtown to night to celebrate a friends birthday at a great New Orleans restaurant. The Red Fish Grill is one of New Orleans great steak houses. The sign in the picture is located a block away on Canal st. This picture was taken only a few weeks after residents were allowed to come back to the City. I thought it was pretty funny because Red Fish Grill is a $20-30 a plate (a la carte) type of place...but it's still considered "Casual Dining!" I LOVE MY CITY!!!!

Anyway, tonight I plan on taking a ton of pictures, and if you're lucky (which you all probably will be), I'll post some when I get home.

Oh yeah, and just for the record.......

I fell in love with a black man

In case I ever failed to mention it, I'm a pianist. Not specifically jazz, or blues, or pop, or anything. I just play the piano for the glory of God. No matter what I play, I play everything for God's glory. He's given me this talent (however miniscule or great it may be), and I love to use it for him.

As a pianist/organist, I love to hear others play. I especially love to hear great musicians like Jack McDuff (organ), Tak Kwan (violin), Elton John (piano-duh), Richard Smallwood, Harry Connick Jr., Louis Armstrong, Artur Rubenstein, et al. Listening to other people's work gives me insight as to how God blesses other musicians talent. It gives me hope for myself (please don't think I covet their talent, I only what to be as good as Christ allows). That all being said...

Today, along my daily routine of shirking off my normal duties as Desktop Support, I was perusing my Google home page and came across a WikiHow article outlining what it takes to become a jazz pianist. Naturally that caught my attention (see above). One of the steps mentioned listening to other artists and examining their work, blah, blah, blah. But one thing caught my eye:

"Warnings
During your search through Jazz piano history, you'll eventually come across Art Tatum. There's a dilemma here because, if you come to him too early, you won't appreciate his music, which would be a loss, but if you come after you've gained some musical understanding, you'll quit the piano the next day. This is a serious warning - Oscar Peterson nearly quit after hearing Tatum, and so did many others. "

I thought (to myself), "Is there someone so great a pianist that his very sound could cause a person to give up his own abilities?" (probably not so eloquently...i think very 'ungrammatically')

So I decided to open up my handy-dandy Itunes music store and do a little research and listenin' too. Needless to say, I've fallen in love with Art Tatum. I'm hopelessly smitten by his smooth, lyrical runs, and chromatic flair. This guy's speed is incredible!! I wish I knew how to post a music sample, because I would let you listen in a heart-beat. I instantly bought 2 albums!! He's THAT GOOD!

Chantel, please note - I AM FINALLY POSTING AGAIN! You can keep any snide "bout-time" comments to yourself :-) cheerio!

Where You Can Find Me: The Ghetto Paul Returns

Where You Can Find Me: The Ghetto Paul Returns

Check out Chantell's continuing commentary on the "Ghetto Fabulous" Apostle

An official member of Gen IPOD

Hence the title of my blog.

I've been reticent to post about my latest purchase until I better acquainted myself with it.

Let me start with a little disclaimer: I hate IPOD! There! I've said it for the whole world to hear. As incredible a tool, and as culturally relevant as they've become, Apple should be condemned to the gallows for ever creating Itunes and the MPEG-4 compression. Don't get me wrong Itunes is a great and powerful source for podcasts, music, news, videos, etc. But, if I buy music (or anything else) from a provider, that provider should provide a way for me to backup my property. However, thanks to MPEG-4 PROTECTED compression, that's quite impossible without a little help from outside sources such as Db PowerAmp. That is my rant. Now on to the post:

I love my new 60 gb Ipod 5G. (huh? I thought I hated IPOD)
With 60 gb of storage and the ingenius high-quality MPEG-4 compression, I'm able to fit TONs of music on my toy. As a worship leader at church, I'm constantly buying new music. This creates an opulent mass of CDs which always seem to get lost. Now, I'm a good little music archivest, and as such, I rip all my music to 3 machines at a Constant Variable Bitrate of 192kbps. This, in turn, bundles all my music nicely into little lumps of date amassed at about 38 GB (currently). I like to have access to my music at all times AND conserve space. Enter IPOD.

Now that my music is all ripped to .m4a format at about 128 Kbps. My music takes up only about 22 gb of space on my machines (although I kept the mp3s on one to send to members of the Praise Team--don't tell CCLI). As an added bonus I can keep all 5000 songs on a nifty little box, smaller than my own hand.

To top it off, once I ever start to create rhythm and music loops for our praise team, I can load and play them all from my IPOD during the service!!! How cool is that???

For an interesting list of famous people who love their ipods and have published their favorite songs on their's go to the itunes music store. Download it here.

Thou Single wilt prove none

Ok, so yesterday was sad for me. You'd think I would be sad merely because I was lonely, with no 'significant other' to hold and whisper sweet nothings.

Well ok, that'd be right. You see, last year I had the opportunity to take the most extraordinary young lady to dinner. I was so funny the day before -setting up reservations at a beautiful, cozy little jazz restaruant; finding the right present that wasn't too 'romantic,' but showed some thought. Some people probably would have called it "cute."

The night was wonderful. Beautiful weather; divine food; walking down a historic uptown street in the crisp night air, up too a 150 year old house, turned restaurant; hearing the soulful sounds of the piano drift ruminantly out of the open door. I was in my element.

You see I love to do nice things for people. Spend money on them, make them feel special, send flowers for no reason, say nice things. That's why last night started out particularly sad. For after all the effort of that long lost Valentine's Day, I neglected the most important part of any relationship. (aside to all the guys who's girlfriends are really really mad at them all the time.....how often do you call her....it's not enough). I went for one ENTIRE week without calling. Needless to say, she was ticked.

Now, she's marrying a wonderful guy. I'm still single and drowning my singleness blues in the dolefull tunes of BB King and Robert Johnson.

My evening wasn't a total waste though. I decided to stop off at the mall and pick up some Godiva chocolates for my step-mommy and a stuffed giraffe with some lemon cookies for my sister. I'm glad I got to make someone feel nice on V-Day.

I think, though, that Shakespeare knew what I was going through:

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'
(Sonnet VIII)

Here goes nothing

I suppose it should be better to stick to one thing and do it well. But it is my bold nature to take on many different endeavours half-heartedly.

That being said, this is my 4th blog-type site attempt; others being: www.everyonesconnected.com, www.myspace.com, and www.youthglue.com (our youth intranet).

Maybe I'll do this one all "supa-killa." But that's what I said about Myspace. We'll see how this goes.