andrew dodson

In a few weeks, I’m going to the Resurgence Conference in Seattle.  The conference is titled Text & Context, and I’ll be hearing the likes of Mark Driscoll, John Piper, CJ Mahaney and a few others.  I’m pretty excited about the trip, and I’m pretty anxious for it to get here!  Joining me on the trip will be Rick, Jeremy, Shane, Tim Chase & John Martin.  It will be tough for that group to stay out of trouble, I’m sure.

I always enjoy traveling, and especially going to new places.  Rick, Jeremy and Shane all experienced Seattle previously, so they’re veterans.  Getting to see Mars Hill Church will be interesting, as will all the sights around Seattle.  I’ve heard the seafood is tremendous, so I’m sure we’ll eat well.  I will, of course, have my camera, so be looking forward to pictures.

Most of our trip’s logistics are already in place – plane tickets, car rental, hotel, and conference registration.  All that’s left is for the time to get here and for us to all show up to get on the plane.  It should be a great time!

“It’s an honor just to be nominated.”

I received an email this morning through my Flickr account.  Schmap is possibly going to use one of my photos from my trip to Minneapolis for a travel guide.  Ironically, it’s a photo that I took of the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant, while I was there for a Desiring God conference.  I won’t get any money to allow them to use the photo, but it’s nice to know they might use it.  I’m no Kari McGrath, but photography is definitely a small hobby of mine.  The photo is below:

I’m planning on posting a couple of extensive posts soon (more theological in nature), but for now, we’ll have to settle for some more random blogging:

• That bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis?  Yeah, Josh and I drove across that bridge last fall when we went to the Desiring God conference.  For some first-hand coverage of the situation, visit Desiring God.
• I’m halfway through Chasing Daylight (woo hoo!).  The posts mentioned above will deal with my reading of this book.  Look for them this weekend, or early next week.
• I’m excited about the previously mentioned internet ideas that CLS is pursuing.  I will likely share more about these this weekend, as well.  I didn’t come up with the ideas, but there is one in particular that I have done the majority of the work for so far, so I’m particularly interested in the result of that idea.
• The JMB DVD is nearing completion!  We will preview the DVD this weekend and see how it’s coming along.  Bert has been hard at work mixing the camera angles together for your viewing enjoyment.  We should have it completed in the very near future – just in time for our slate of fall concerts that are coming up soon.
• I’m buying a new ride cymbal tomorrow – a 20″ Sabian HHX Manhattan ride.  I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time and found a person getting rid of one in Lexington.  He’s going to be in Frankfort tomorrow, so I’ve made arrangements to meet up with him and do business.  You can hardly find them used on eBay, which is one reason it’s taken me a while to get one.  New, they go for $350.  Yeah – not gonna shell out that much for a cymbal that I don’t “need.”  But, I’m getting it at a great price and it will satisfy my desire for a jazz sounding drum set.  It’s designed to sound like the popular rides from back in the day when jazz ruled the music world.
• Speaking of money, I paid off my biggest interest-bearing debt today!  I’d originally planned on paying it off over the next two months, but I was itching to pay it off.  So, I took some money out of savings and paid the sucker off.

This post may break my personal record for most categories used.  Stay tuned for more this weekend…

Two hundred people got trapped in the St. Louis Arch yesterday.  Some were in trams, and others were at the top.  If this ever happened to me, I’d hope to be stuck at the top.  I visited the Arch a few years ago, and it has an amazing view of St. Louis.  Getting to the top and coming down weren’t as exciting.  I’m not sure if the “trams” are still the same, but at that time, they crammed four people into a tiny, egg-shaped elevator that took you to and from the top.  Getting stuck in one of those could be quite nerve-racking.

This my last day of work at CLS for the week.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading to Jonathan Creek to record their praise band.  I’ll be back on Friday.  While I’ll be “working” at J-Creek, there’ll be a lot of downtime.  Some of the downtime will be spent getting a jump start on mixing the J-Creek portion of the recording.  Some of the downtime, I’ll actually be doing some work for CLS, remotely.  The rest of the downtime, I hope to be kicked back reading a book or something of the like.

I’m attempting to get everything squared away today, so that my absence from CLS for the next three days won’t be noticed as much.   I’m getting all the art ready, getting orders written up, invoices sent out, etc.  But, it’s difficult when our internet is down!  It seems we had a billing glitch with our service provider, so they shut off our internet.  We’ve been told it will be 72 hours before we’re back up-and-running.  Needless to say, we’re heavily considering making a quick switch of providers.  Not good business on our current provider’s end.

Through all of this, however, I can highly recommend Sprint’s mobile broadband service.  We’re using a laptop with one of their USB cards to get by in the mean time.  It’s very close to broadband speed, and has helped us keep up around here.  My boss’s comment:  “It’s good that it finally came in handy that I also own a cell phone store.”  Yes, that it is.  The only catch to the broadband cards is they only work on Windows PC’s.  Bummer.  Otherwise, I’ve been impressed with its performance.

So, the next time you hear from me, I’ll be blogging from J-Creek.

There is a rumor floating around the internet that says the Dave Matthews Band will be performing two concerts at Chicago’s Wrigley Field next summer.  It’s even popped up in a Chicago newspaper article discussing the Cubs upcoming season.  Something to the effect of “the only certainty in center field next season will be Dave Matthews, whose band is scheduled to perform during the All-Star break.”

This highly interests me.  I’ve never visited Chicago, and I’ve missed DMB on tour for the past couple of summers.  I’ve always said that if I ever go to Chicago, I will have to visit Wrigley Field.  I better start saving my pennies, just in case…

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I’ve finally added pictures from my trip to Minnesota.  Either click on my new Flickr badge in the sidebar, or follow this link:

> Minnesota Pictures 

I keep meaning to post pictures of my recent trip to Minnesota on my Flickr site.  I took several pretty good shots, so hopefully, you’ll get to enjoy these soon….. Stay tuned…

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In the coming weeks, I’ll be doing a fair amount of traveling – something I always enjoy.  First up is a JMB gig in Illinois.  It’s a campus ministries retreat for Vincinnes University, and we’re leading worship all weekend.  We went last year and had a great time.  We’re very much looking forward to it.

The following weekend, I’ll be off to Minnesota for the Desiring God conference.  I’ve never been to Minnesota, so it’ll be a new experience for me.

Here’s a list of states I’ve visited (excluding states I’ve “passed through”):

1. Kentucky (where I live, of course)
2. Ohio (used to live there, visit often)
3. Tennessee (lots of trips to Tennessee, unfortunately)
4. Indiana (lots of trips to the Hoosier state, unfortunately)
5. New York (senior trip)
6. Pennsylvania (trip to Gettysburg)
7. Illinois (JMB gigs)
8. Virginia (DMB concert in Charlottesville, vacation to Virginia Beach)
9. North Carolina (vacation to Raleigh)
10. South Carolina (vacations to Myrtle Beach)
11. Florida (lots of trips to Florida)
12. Georgia (vacation to Atlanta)
13. Alabama (vacation to Birmingham, maybe another trip or two?)
14. Louisiana (vacation to New Orleans when I was a baby)
15. Oklahoma (college band trip to Tulsa)
16. Missouri (several trips to St. Louis)
17. Okay…not a state…but it counts – Washington, D.C. (SCB performance for GWB’s first inauguration, and a trip to see Jeremy when he was in grad school)

It’s interesting that I’ve never stayed or visited West Virginia – I’ve only passed through.  Also, I’ve been in Michigan for all of a couple of hours.  On a trip to Taiwan a few years ago, I had a layover in the Detroit airport.

I find it disappointing that I haven’t visited half of the United States.  Hmm… gotta work on that…

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Howdy folks. I’m blogging from my Holiday Inn Express hotel room in Atlanta. That’s “my hotel room,” as in – just me. It’s not that I’d mind sharing a room, but having my own room is definitely a preference. I’m missing out on some fun stuff back in Frankfort this weekend, but I always have a good time traveling and playing music.

I picked up a NKJV of the Bible this morning before heading down here. I’ve flipped through a few passages so far. It’s definitely better than the KJV (sorry if that’s your preference), but I’ll be sticking with the NLT or NIV as my preferred translations. I would compare the NKJV to the English Standard Version, or the NASB. Readable, but still “poetic” in style.

I saw Walk the Line last night. Definitely a good movie. I’ve never really listened to Johnny Cash’s music, or read much about his life, so it was interesting to learn a little bit about him (even if it’s through the veil of Hollywood). I’m highly intersted in purchasing his live recording from Folsom Prison. Just the whole idea of doing a live recording at a prison intrigues me.

I’m outta here. See you back in Frankfort…