Immersion Worship

Alright readers, help me out…

The facility that The Summit meets in is fantastic. It’s just the perfect size and is in a fantastic location. The facility management have been good to us and have let us do things like permanently mount a projector and screen, store our rolling stage there, add our own industrial power outlets etc. There has, however, been one problem that we’ve had since day one, and I’m determined to eliminate it: It’s just too bright.

Check out these photos:







The problem is the long wall of glass to the left of the room (stage right).

What’s wrong with lots of daylight? Well, a couple of things. The first is that there’s so much daylight that even with our powerful projector and long throw lens, the projected image suffers from light interference. Any dark images or videos are just not visible on the screen. The second is that the brightness of it isn’t really conducive to personal worship. People are very self-conscious when it’s bright and everything is visible.

So I need to darken the room by blocking light from these windows. And I want your suggestions. Here are the criteria:

1. Very easy and quick setup. We’re in full setup and tear down mode every week, and the schedule is already packed. We need something that can be done in less than 5 minutes.

2. Small form factor. When it’s torn down, we have to store it, and we don’t have much space. Smaller = better.

3. Small footprint. We have a side aisle and communion stations between the chairs and the window. We can’t encroach on this space by more than six inches or so.

4. Inexpensive. We’re a 1 year old church plant. We don’t have mega church funds.

Got any suggestions?

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Oops, we’re late. Christian makes his Christmas Confessional, and we recap our NAMM experience. With no Monkey News to speak of, we decide instead to talk about how to transition from surviving to thriving in a worship ministry. Better download the podcast, quick!

It’s our one year anniversary celebration service! Goodbye teens, it’s number 19…

And here’s the video I referenced in the confessional:

We also played this:

Did you ever wonder whatever happened to The Karate Kid and the guys from Cobra Kai? You’re never going to believe this…get him a body bag, Johnny, yeah!

I want William Zabka on my podcast…

When my step-mum was visiting Rhonda and I last year, she bestowed Christmas gifts upon us, one of which was a calendar. Before you roll your eyes and give a sarcastic ‘whoop dee doo’, it’s actually quite a cool calendar for me, because every month there’s a picture of somewhere in the Cotswolds, taken in the month it represents.

I grew up in The Cotswolds. Well, not quite; just a little north east of The Cotswolds. Cotswoldsurbia. But there’s enough of the Cotswold charm and quaintness present in the town that I grew up in that pass of it could pass as Cotswoldian. So, for your viewing entertainment, I’m going to post each picture every month, with a little spiel.

Here’s January (click on the picture for a bigger version):

This is Snowshill in Gloucestershire, located near Broadway (which is in Worcestershire, just to confuse you), and is about 30 miles or so away from where I grew up (in Witney, which is in Oxfordshire just to add another shire to the mix). Famous for Snowshill Manor, an old house that’s open to the public and is protected by the National Trust. I went there once, and I think it was there that there is this pointy, odd looking war memorial. There’s also probably a lot of farm land and sheep around as well. Much like the rest of the The Cotswolds.

So in amongst all the trade wheeling and dealing and hob-nobbing and schmoozing, it turns out that NAMM is generally just about musicians and musician-enabling-manufacturers getting together and saying “we’re awesome! yay us!”.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because there are some truly remarkable musicians around using some truly remarkable products, and a four day pat on the back once a year could be appropriate.

So how was it for me? Well, first of all, I apologize for the lack of pictures. There was just so much there, with so little time to see it all, that I just got lost in it all and forgot that I had a camera bag on my shoulder. However, I did manage to get these pictures of Steve Hunter:

Steve is one of those folks that puts in an awful lot of hard work for little recognition. Also known as a session musician. Anyway, his collaboration credits are numerous and impressive - Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, David Lee Roth, Tracy Chapman, Aerosmith - and it was great to see and hear him amongst a crowd of just 20 or so people gathered in a corner of the Fender booth as he played some Gretsch gear.

Now here is where I step in to dangerous ground and might possibly have to relinquish my man-card for a while: I love Daisy Rock guitars and I want one. Yes, that’s Daisy Rock as in ‘Guitars for Girls’. I played one some months back and was blown away by it’s playability and it’s sound, and if it wasn’t for the fact that most DR guitars are bright pink and involve flowers and hearts, I’d probably have bought one by now. However, check these out:

I think it’s clear that if they had a different name on the headstock, most people would be more than happy to be seen with guitars like that. So, I’m warning you, especially those of you at The Summit; I might just turn up with a “girl’s” guitar one day.

All in all, a most excellent show and I hope I can go next year. I definitely want to give a shout out to Chris Locke at BBE for hooking me up and I look forward to working with them in the future. Buy BBE products, people, especially anything with ’sonic maximizer’ in the description.

I’m going to NAMM today, courtesy of my friend Danny. Since I’m a complete gear head, this is awesome. I’m taking the camera, and I’ll be posting pictures. Watch this space.

I’m trying to get back in to the swing of things around these here parts. Here’s the next installment: Coming of age, it’s number eighteen…

A month or so ago, I bought some Ribena from The British Grocer in Fullerton. One day I made some for Rhonda with hot water, and she thought it was great. We ran out and I ordered four bottles from ukgoods.com. They arrived on Thursday afternoon and today (Saturday evening), the first bottle is already empty. Apparently, it’s quite popular in the English Guy house. And that pleases me…just a little taste of home.