what i love most about the oscars:

that glen hansard now has one.

also, i love watching acceptance speeches. my wife, toni, cannot stand acceptance speeches. i argue that this is when those people become human, when slight cracks in the facade appear and we get to peer inside, find out what motivates them, decide whether their actions and words in their moment of glory are a result of being genuinely affected and humbled by the event or are merely presenting further affectations and projections of a calculatingly conceived persona, stuff like that. she says, “no, this is when those people become nervous and incoherent and say stuff they’ll regret, or forget to say stuff that they will then regret not saying. nothing good will come of it and i for one will not participate in such suffering.”

she literally can’t be in the same room as an acceptance speech.

here’s some of what she missed last night during the 80th academy awards ceremony:

marion cottilard, performance by an actress in a leading role: “Oh — thank you so much. Olivier, what you did to me, Maestro Olivier Dahan, you rocked my life. You truly rocked my life… …And — wow. Well, I’m speechless now. I — I — well, I — thank you life, thank you love, and it is true, there is some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much. [mandates an effusive french accent for it to achieve a convincing and effective air.]

daniel day-lewis, performance by an actor in a leading role: “…I’m looking at this gorgeous thing you’ve given me and I’m thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson… [what? this doesn’t even make sense! seriously, this guy is crazy. a golden sapling? this is a hyperbolic positive to the greatest degree. well, actually, the speech was quite good, crazy, but good, just like mr day-lewis.]

glen hansard, achievement in music written for motion pictures (original song): Thanks! This is amazing. What are we doing here? This is mad… …This is amazing. Make art. Make art. Thanks. [except when he said “thanks” it sounded like “tanks”. he’s irish.]

Ethan Coen, adapted screenplay: “We, uh and thank you very much.”

then later… Ethan Coen, achievement in directing: “I don’t have a lot to add to what I said earlier.”

see. now, that is just good television.

i must admit, it was hard to sit through three “enchanted” performances knowing mr. vedder and his musical contributions to “into the wild” had been passed over. but, i’m pretty sure the three “enchanted” songs split the academy votes allowing glen (and marketa irglova) to win. had eddie been in the mix the glen (and marketa irglova) votes would most likely have been split and i am really glad that glen won. he probably wouldn’t have, had eddie been in the mix. so, i’m sure you can see the problem with finding any issue whatsoever with the three “enchanted” songs, as “falling slowly”, from the “once” soundtrack, as performed by glen hansard (and marketa irglova), is just ridiculously beautiful, yes?

oh, and also, john travolta is a scientolgist with an ot (operating thetan) level of V.

so we were waiting for our flight to pittsburgh when i told bwack our drummer, after he had showed me his playlist that he said he would post later, and after he told me he was very tempted to cheat but that his list turned out ok and that he was then glad that it turned out ok so he wouldn’t have to cheat, i told him, i said, “i’m going to video mine. i’ll get on the plane, sit down, open my laptop up and see what happens. of course i can video multiple attempts and just post the best one, but they won’t know that, they’ll think they’re seeing it happen right in front of their eyes, sort of magic like.” but i knew i wouldn’t really, cheat that is. unless the bee gees popped up. then i would. but i sat down on the plane and i opened my laptop up. and this is what happened exactly the first time. this is who i am. i guess. sort of. at least tonight, on my way to pittsburgh.

in case there were visual difficulties, here it is in alternate form:

1. broken chords can sing a little – a silver mt. zion
2. chief – patty griffin
3. mrs. robinson – the lemonheads
4. reservations – wilco
5. love can damage your health – telepopmusik
6. super-charger heaven – white zombie
7. diamondback – mekka
8. goodbye – patty griffin
9. blue turning gray – clap your hands say yeah
10. bubble toes – jack johnson

bonus: (this game is too difficult to discontinue once started!)
11. joyful noise 4 – crowder cover (a live recording from a board mix, background vocals only, of a group from atlanta ga covering one of our songs that has a lot of words, many of which they had not yet learned. awesome.)
12. all good naysayers, speak up! or forever hold your peace! – sufjan stevens
13. nlg 1.0 (this would be the first mix of ‘never let go’. our labeling system is now no longer a secret. now if you only knew where to look on www next time around.)
14. hanging around – cardigans
15. it’s good to be king – tom petty

i might comment later regarding your playlists and reveal who i’d like to hang out with and such. actually, i doubt i’ll say who i’d hang out with based on a shuffled playlist as that would be ridiculous. but, i’ve read them all, the playlists, and, in summary, wow. on the surface it would appear that many of them are incongruous (ian fleming likes this word a lot so i thought i’d try it here) with others. i’m going to have to think about what significance this might hold, i think. also, out of all of your playlists, there was only one britney spears song. that too seems significant. britney spears is an anagram for presbyterians.

some pals of mine asked this of me, and now i ask it of you:

1. grab your preferred digital media player.
2. push play in shuffle mode.
3. report here in the comments the first 10 tunes that pop up.
4. i’ll comment later with my list as well.
5. cheating is prohibited, as it would be in poor taste.
6. this will decide whether you are a likeable person or not.
7. at least that’s what my friend steve told me.
8. when he said this, the part about being a likeable person, i panicked.
9. but it turned out he was kidding.
10. sort of.
11. he did seem genuinely bothered by the two bee gees tunes though.
12. i mean, 2 out of 10!
13. that’s quite a lot of bee gees really.
14. but what i’m trying to say is don’t cheat.
15. you’re still a great person.
16. at least i think so.
17. well, maybe.
18. i mean, we don’t really know each other, so it’s sort of risky for me to say that, the you being a ‘great person’ thing.
19. i mean, you could be someone who pulls the wings off of fairies and such.
20. so, if you’ll just comment back listing the 10 songs, then i think we’ll know each other a little better, and can then perhaps make statements about one another definitively.
21. concrete things like, “oh, i see you like the bee gees.”
22. of course i’ll deny it and say, “no. i mean, yeah, i like that one song, but i wouldn’t say, ‘i like the bee gees.’ i wouldn’t go that far. no.”
23. then you’ll go, “i’m sorry, we can’t spend any more time together.”

ps. if you typically read at a safe distance without comment, i humbly request you make exception and allow this to be your introductory entry as i’ll need representation from the silent majority.

first i should point out that it seems a number of subscribers still have an old link for this blog. you need to rid yourself of the old link and apply the new one for a much more aesthetically pleasing experience. if you cannot view the “chat” window then you are not viewing this in an appropriate manner.

http://www.xanga.com/emprise34

if this is the first you’ve heard or seen of the “chat’ window, then what follows will make very little sense. there is a tv/chat module on my blog page that you can submit questions to. a while back, the good people of emprisetv’s chat room suggested a system of answering the questions posted in the questions section, it being that i answer them here in a post. and so i shall. i think the way it is supposed to work is i’m supposed to choose the ones that have been voted for most and answer those, but that is sheer nonsense. there is no question too small, and so i will attempt to open the inner machinery of my mind for all who have shown curiosity. i will start toward the most recent and work my way through with no strict adherence to order.

and so, let us begin:

question number 1: “just curious, do you know if you guys are playing soulfest 2008 yet?”

the answer to this one is simple. yes. we do know.

question number 2: “is there ever a time when you feel that performing is just business as usual?”

the answer to this one is less simple. the short and truthful answer is “no.” where it gets a tad complicated is when i attempt to enunciate the fact that we never feel like we are performing. where the word, “performing,” feels an improper description, i’d suggest a more accurate term might be, “facilitating.” we are using music to create an atmosphere, or environment, that brings an awareness of the reality we live in: the very presence of god. this, in my mind, can by no means ever become “business as usual.” it just seems an impossibility. as well, we just plain love music and the making of it together. add to this rooms of people singing along with us and it’s just pretty fantastic, to be perfectly forthcoming.

question 3: “another world is possible?”

this is perhaps the most complex question of the bunch. for one, if not for the slight bit of punctuation at the end, this could be a rather robust statement or admonition. but, with the addition of the interrogation point, i’ll assume the intent was in fact to interrogate. so, then i must decide if this is a statement of determinism vs freewill or perhaps senordiecast was inhaling mind altering substances when a transcendental moment presented itself with no one around to share it with. after much thought, i have decided that senordiecast does not smoke the johnson grass and was in fact presenting a theological and metaphysical dilemma. and so, i will answer with verve and reverence as i believe. yes, senordiecast, yes, another world is possible.

question 4: “nite dcb. have a safe trip and sweet dreams. thanks for allowing us into your world. blessings, bongo ”

this is not a question. however, it is a very kind statement and well appreciated as such.

question 5: “what’s in the fridge?”

(judging by the date of this question it was obviously asked in regards to the fridge on our bus. since i currently am not on the bus the answer that follows is completely fictious.)

three shelves
a light
7 aluminum cans that contain diet coke
8 aluminum cans that contain sprite
a large number of bottled waters (i’m unsure about the pluralization of “water” here. of course, i could have typed, bottles of water, but instead went with the colloquial.)
1 styrofoam carry out box with some brown, unidentifiable food stuffs that is pungent and enveloping.
4 ketchup packets
some grapes
various cheeses
a bag of lettuce
mitt romney
2 opened boxes of baking soda that are obviously losing the battle with the styrofoam-box-food-stuff’s aromas
a fork (!?)
3 dr peppers
1 bottle of yellow mustard
wait? mitt romney?
seriously, it is just not possible that mitt romney is in our fridge. that would be ridiculous. and what kind of name is “mitt”?
also, the patriots did not have a perfect season

question 6: “i went to the show in cincinatti and there was alcohol being served. i was shocked that it was being served at a christian concert. can you tell me why it was being served?”

yes. i’m pretty sure that the bar was selling alcohol because it is a bar and that’s what bars sell. they typically like to make money and so they buy things, such as beers, from a distributor for a certain price and then mark it up to sell to people so that they will get a profit and get to pay their employees and get to stay open and such. alcohol is usually a pretty big seller for bars. i am sorry this was shocking.

i might add, both historically and currently, there are many people who love jesus, and follow him, that also enjoy alcohol regularly. if you have not encountered these people first hand, you should attempt to enlarge your peer circle and i think you’ll get a clearer picture of the diversity of the body of christ. there are denominations and traditions that denounce alcohol, and there are those that condone it. these beliefs are typically culturally specific and attached to a particular sect’s interpretations of a few particular passages in scripture. i should state here that we, as a band and as individuals, do not, in any way, condone drunkenness, as it is stupid, nor under-aged drinking as it is also stupid and against the law, and trust that those in attendance at various dates on our club tour are intelligent enough to arrive at both of these conclusions as well. it is not very difficult to observe the damaging effects of abusing alcohol. it is simple that way; abuse it, it abuses you back, most of the time immediately.

(an aside: in my experience, most conversations about alcohol with those who adamantly reject it as a possible beverage choice, present that it could cause a brother to stumble. this is awful logic. apply this logic to various food items ordered at your next public meal. there will doubtlessly be present various numbers of people who struggle with obesity or high cholesterol or heart disease, who would really love one of your cheesesticks. there will also be those present who are vegetarian, myself included, who are attempting to not ingest meat. i’m sure you see the trouble with this line of thinking. this was the very argument that peter and paul were having regarding idol meat. i will not attempt further argument here since there is plenty to find out there, if one were truly curious, that would present things in a much more scholarly and organized manner than i could hope to present it. i will also state here that i shall not require you to cease your carnivorous ways while sharing a restaurant with me.)

and finally, i should state the reasons we went on a tour that had as its venues bars and clubs exclusively. we wished for the story of god to be experienced beyond the safety of our cloistered church environments. it was our deep hope that many who would not frequent a bar would come join us and experience the reality of the presence of god in an environment that they might not typically suspect to experience such a thing in. we believe, if we are reading scripture correctly, that once the veil was torn, that in an instant, suddenly, god was everywhere. the symbolism and consequences of this moment are epic! the way human beings access the maker of heaven and earth were forever changed. suddenly, once and for all, through the ultimate sacrificial offering, suddenly, he is everywhere. every second is lived in the very presence of god. there is no moment that is not holy. there is no space that is not sacred. it is the awareness of our reality that shifts, not this reality. therefore, all that is needed is for our awareness to change and we begin to view spaces and people and cultures and music and art and eating and drinking and sleeping and waking as moments and spaces and places where god is already active and present. our hope on this tour was to give people a physical, tangible experience of this reality.

question 7: “what’s your favorite guitar to doodle around with?”

my olson.

question 8: “i went to the manhattan ks concert and there was no alcohol being served. can you tell me why?”

yes. because of question number 6.

question 9: “what does emprise34’s profile picture mean?”

self explanatory.

question 10: “when are you coming back to austin?”

i don’t know. i think i might go down there to eat at papasito’s on friday. i love me some salsa.

question 11: “oh yeah, my husband is a music pastor, and he truly looks up to you guys. and i guess what i’m trying to say is… can he come over and play with ya’ll?”

the short answer is, “i doubt it.” i have made a couple of assumptions here: one, that when you say, “play,” you intend the verb to indicate the making of music, and you do not intend it to denote your husband’s coming over for the engagement of imaginative pretense. second, i also have assumed by your usage of the colloquial, “ya’ll,” you live close enough to us for this -– his coming over – to be a real possibility, as in you don’t live in new york or calgary. and so with reluctance and careful thought i answered, “i doubt it.” here’s why: first of all, we never, ever, just sit around playing music. this is proven fact. we have only practiced as a band once and it didn’t go well. so we just don’t. and also, i too am on staff at a church and when i am in town i’m spending most of my time catching up with what i missed out on while away and trying to get stuff done for when i’m away next. ben, one of our community pastors at the chuch, is also a fantastic musician, a guitar player to be exact. ben is always wanting me to “play” with him and i never have the time. he always says, “hey dave, let’s jam.” (he doesn’t really use the word, “jam”. no one would use that word, ever. my use here and now being the exception, obviously.) “no, ben,” i say. “i’m sorry, but i cannot.” seriously, you can ask him. so, if there arises such an occasion to have someone come over and, “play,” unfortunately, ben has first dibs.

question 12: “you may not know how to answer this, but i’m gonna ask anyway. how are you guys so stinkin’ cool?”

magnets.

question 13: “will we get to watch you guys play golf on this new tv contraption?”

yes.

question 14: “do you know the muffin man?”

yes. and actually his name is robert. he prefers, “robert,” to, “muffin man.” just something to keep in mind.

question 15: “my name is david. this is my blog. every time i try to answer a question it gets deleted! so my question is, how do i answer these questions without deleting them?”

self explanatory.

OK KIDS. THAT’S ALL FOR NOW. MORE TO COME AT A LATER TIME.

first, i should say, i went on vacation, so, “i went on vacation.”

secondly, i should insist that it was awesome. “it was awesome.”
there was whale watching.

there were whales to be watched. [that blob is a whale, i'm told]

there was a baby jesus nativity scene that i think i should point out.

and this tree that reconstructed nirvana songs in my head for some reason.

if you are not familiar, vacations are these wonderful instruments of the modern world that should be applied liberally, with much frequency and enthusiasm. i’m sure you’d agree. mine came to an end with much sadness and joy. sadness ensuing while packing the 80spf sunscreen into the zip-lock bag for safe passage through the airspace located above mexico. joy upon uneventfully passing through customs with all the formalities surrounding reentry into the former country of texas.
and what might be the reason for such joy, you ask? well, i’ll tell you. it was this – the first tasks at hand involved a little dvd that we had captured audio and video for on the remedy, club tour. yes, it was time to once again sit in front of the computer screen in attempts to sort through the madness, and i must tell you we have run into quite a fun problem. i’m not sure we can pack all that we have put together onto such a tiny object as a dvd. so far we have a full evening of concert footage, and, of course, some happy behind the scenes tour footage, plus, what is turning out to be a step-by-step instructional video on how to play such fantastic items as the guitar, or keytar, or theremin, or modified guitar hero controller, or bass, or violin, or the ubiquitous turntable, or that weird thing jack is wearing that has pretty blue lights and lots of buttons. yes, it turns out that with this herculean bit of video we have been assembling you could, for all practical purposes, be us. it is true! the only thing we do not expose is that mike d has asperger’s or that my diagnosis of him was confirmed by the simply fact that he runs on the balls of his feet.
what i’m attempting to say here is this – after disappearing on a vacation and after flying back home through the mexican air with a fresh mexi-tan, you will assuredly feel rested, but you may make assumptions of what will and will not fit on a dvd. more to come on this at a later date. we don’t even know when it will release, all we know is that shane, our fearless engineer will begin mixing on monday for the audio side of things and that nate, the guy doing the video side of things, has at this point made it about halfway through the editing. pray that both of these guys go inhuman on the thing and pure magic erupts, seriously,
i’ll keep you updated on how things are going and maybe stick a clip or two up here along the way.
for now, i’m just glad to be back with much excitement ahead this year.

so, the good people of xanga shipped me this fancy camera-contraption that will allow me to broadcast thrilling events such as: driving north along i35 on a 20 hour drive to play at chicago house of blues. the future is here and it’s pretty amazing. we turned off the audio for the drive as the potential of aural broadcast caused gary, our bus driver, much nervousness. he assured me that he could not maintain a G rating for that duration of time. thus, we will have audio only when it is deemed suitable and would be a welcomed enhancement to your overall emprise tv experience. undoubtably, this will be fun.

if there is anything specific you might be interested in observing here on emprise tv let me know and we’ll attempt to accomodate at some point along the way. our plan for now is to broadcast when we it occurs to us to do so.

happy viewing!

edit: the above picture is not the tv module for viewing the live video feed. it is simply a jpg of an old television. to view the live video feed you will need to visit my page here.

i’m still unsure exactly what happened. it ended, heroically, like this: my wife confronting a large man, suggesting that this large man put into practice a different system for the reading of his newspapers while traveling on a plane. it was awesome.

here’s how it began, at least from my perspective. i awake to laughing. wait, i should backup. we had arrived at the airport at 5am yesterday morning. ok, now there is context. so, i awake to laughing. i try to open my eyes. i don’t see anything. i remember that i had pulled my cap down to sleep. i push my cap up. my wife toni is talking to a lady across the aisle from her, one row up. they are laughing and pointing at this lady’s feet. or, more precisely, the items that are taking up the space that this lady’s feet should be occupying. i ask, “what’s going on?” toni responds, “would you look at this? [!] this guy walked on the plane with the largest stack of newspapers i’ve ever seen [!] and then starts reading them and shoving them under HIS seat. not the seat in front of him where HIS feet go, but under his seat where HER feet go. [!!!] this has been going on the whole flight. she [assumedly the lady whom toni has been addressing] asked him if he reads papers from around the world or just the contiguous united states and he replied, ‘oh, i read everything,’ with a snooty smirk.” i lean over so i can see.

i am astounded and confused. i pull my hat back down. the distant rustle of paper and toni’s discourse concerning inconsiderate people and the associated pet peeves they provoke continues until the wheels hit the ground in san diego.

pet peeve: people on airplanes oblivious to other passengers.
random pet peeves?

i have to say, this tour has been nothing short of fantastic thus far. it is just beyond agreeable to play the new songs. and the folks showing up have been nothing short of the best. however, my favorite bit about this tour is the towels and socks business. i’ll include some pics of this nonsensical wonder! but first i must tell you what happened in houston.

in houston, a couple of the guys who were staying at the shelter that night came along with the folks that were to pick up the towels and socks. these two grown men, upon seeing the enormous pile of towels and socks began weeping. they could not fathom that a group of people who had come to attend a concert caring what the heck was going on down at a homeless shelter. grown men. weeping over a pile of towels and socks. this is beautiful. this is the kingdom of god, here and now. this is simple. goodness.

here are a couple of pics:

houston

san antonio

i’ve also been writing a bit of information on a piece of paper that we’re handing out at each stop of ways to get involved with some organizations that are doing long term work in each of the cities that we’re going to on the tour. click here and then click on “be remedy” in the middle of the cross to check out all of the stuff going on in the cities we’ve hit so far.

let me know if we’re going to see you at one of the upcoming stops. on this tour we’re getting to hang out with everyone afterwards and i’ve already met a number of you which is just fantastic!

and don’t forget to bring your towels and socks with you!!!!

REMEDY CLUB TOUR DATES

10.03 new orleans. la house of blues
10.04 austin. tx la zona rosa **sold out**
10.05 dallas. tx house of blues **sold out**
10.06 houston. tx berry center
10.07 san antonio. tx floore’s country store **sold out**
10.09 albuquerque. nm kiva auditorium
10.11 phoenix. az celebrity theater **sold out**
10.12 san diego. ca house of blues **sold out**
10.13 hollywood. ca the wiltern ***new venue***
10.14 anaheim. ca house of blues **sold out**
10.16 san francisco. ca the fillmore **sold out**
10.18 portland. or the crystal ballroom
10.20 seattle. wa the moore theater
10.21 spokane. wa the service station **sold out**
10.22 boise. id the big easy
10.24 denver. co fillmore auditorium
10.25 manhattan. ks mccain auditorium
10.26 tulsa. ok cain’s ballroom **sold out**
11.01 chicago. il house of blues **sold out**
11.07 cincinnati. oh bogart’s
11.08 philadelphia. pa electric factory
11.09 boston. ma ***venue change***
11.10 new york. ny hammerstein ballroom
11.11 washington. dc 9:30 club
11.13 raleigh. nc raleigh memorial auditorium
11.14 columbia. sc township auditorium
11.15 orlando. fl hard rock live
11.16 atlanta. ga the tabernacle

ok, for all good people coming to a REMEDY tour stop listen carefully. there is an especially happy thing we shall do together. we (the band) are asking that everyone coming bring TOWELS AND SOCKS with you to the show. yes. you read that correctly. TOWELS AND SOCKS. in each city we have located a local shelter to drop these items with. we would like these concerts to leave more than just fuzzing memories of sonic delight. we think it fitting for the night to include concrete expressions of remedy. thus, we have contacted the local homeless shelter in each city and overwhelmingly towels and socks are the items most needed. thus, here’s what we would ask you to do: bring towels and socks to the concert! yes, yes – BRING TOWELS AND SOCKS WITH YOU TO THE CONCERT! don’t show up with out them. we will make a big heaping pile of them and then later drop them at the local shelter where there shall be much rejoicing.

REMEDY CLUB TOUR DATES

10.03 new orleans. la house of blues
10.04 austin. tx la zona rosa
10.05 dallas. tx house of blues
10.06 houston. tx berry center
10.07 san antonio. tx floore’s country store
10.09 albuquerque. nm kiva auditorium
10.11 phoenix. az celebrity theater
10.12 san diego. ca house of blues
10.13 hollywood. ca the wiltern ***new venue***
10.14 anaheim. ca house of blues
10.16 san francisco. ca the fillmore
10.18 portland. or the crystal ballroom
10.20 seattle. wa the moore theater
10.21 spokane. wa the service station
10.22 boise. id the big easy
10.24 denver. co fillmore auditorium
10.25 manhattan. ks mccain auditorium
10.26 tulsa. ok cain’s ballroom
11.01 chicago. il house of blues
11.07 cincinnati. oh bogart’s
11.08 philadelphia. pa electric factory
11.09 boston. ma ***venue change***
11.10 new york. ny hammerstein ballroom
11.11 washington. dc 9:30 club
11.13 raleigh. nc raleigh memorial auditorium
11.14 columbia. sc township auditorium
11.15 orlando. fl hard rock live
11.16 atlanta. ga the tabernacle

the latest David Crowder*Band cd, REMEDY IN STORES NOW! if you haven’t gotten REMEDY yet, pick it up here:

or your local record store. if they don’t have it, tell them to get it.

no freaking way!! you guys are ridiculous. i just looked at iTunes and we’re sitting at number 6 in “Top Albums,” no, correct that, i just checked again, it is number 5! what in the world. (!?!) i mean, wow. i should warn kanye, but seriously, this is amazing! my apologies for the over abundance of exclamatory punctuation, but seriously, this is just fun. how freaking good does something like remedy look up there in the middle of all of that business? i must say, 50 looks a tad upset about the whole matter [furrowed brow, hands on side of head in mimicking 50 pose]. kanye, here we come…

click the itunes button to persist with the climb!