So, I saw this on the shelf at my local grocery store and I thought–GREAT! I love Dreyers Grand Light (or I think they call it Slow Churned now) so I thought for sure I’d love this stuff too. And I did–it is very good. (I tried the PB Cup, and it was yummy too).

Then I noticed this funny description of the ice cream on the side:
“Vanilla Flavor with mini Nestle Toll House Morsels and Cookie Dough Pieces”.

Vanilla Flavor? What?
I didn’t even notice it until Christy said something like “Well, it’s not ice cream, it’s frozen yogurt or something” and alas, it is not…it’s Vanilla Flavor.

Yeah, they also label it as a Frozen Dairy Dessert.
Sooooooo it’s not ice cream.
It’s not frozen yogurt, or sherbet, or sorbet, or frozen juice, or that italian gillato stuff…no…it’s FLAVOR. What is that??? Like…frozen cool whip??

I’m not sure exactly what I’m eating here…
However…it was yummy.
Yummy sugar chemicals…

It was a long shot to begin with–but it’s very unlikely that our song was chosen for the American Idol contest.
Read here.

We’re not too sad about it because we didn’t really have our hopes up high anyways.

If you are curious (as we were) about some thoughts and discussion from other songwriters, take a look here. Here’s an excerpt that proves very interesting, but is most likely accurate given the way the singing auditions are done:

I writer I talk to in Nashville told me today that one of his
co-writers was called and told he is in the Top 20. I don’t know when
the phone call happened, but I assume it was today.

Also interesting is that supposedly they said they had 39,000
entries! Honestly, my guess is that with that many entries, they just
randomly selected 10% and chose the top 20 from there. I think it would
be physically impossible, unless you assembled a staff of hundreds, to
sort through 39,000 songs in 9 days. And the odds are good with that
large a group, a random sampling of 10% probably got enough decent
songs to select a strong top 20.

If you like Star Wars, then you should watch this.
Whoever put together this video is a genius.

Also, I found a really funny “The Way I See It” quote from my double-tall-nonfat caramel macchiato.

Scientists tell us we only use 5% of our brains. Biut if they only used 5% of their brains to reach that conclusion, then why should we believe them?

…he’s got a point…

ALSO–There are more Idol Gives Back videos and songs for purchase from iTunes. All the proceeds go to support the causes. Seriously folks–there’s never been a better reason to spend money on iTunes!

EDIT ADD 2: American Idol’s TV special last night “Idol Gives Back” has now raised over 60 million dollars (and counting). It’s amazing…and I totally called it last night, too–as soon as Secrest announced that they had raised 30 million at the end of the show, I said outloud “It’ll be double that tomorrow”. I’m awesome…

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EDIT ADD: Here’s my iMix #4. It’s perhaps the best one yet–one of the songs is free this week, so you might as well get that one (and it’s a GREAT one, too…).

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Social Justice

We.
for the most part.
are failing.

I have been struck in the past year or more by the increasing attention given to social justice in our world. I don’t think it’s because I’m working at a college (where social justice is a HUGE front-burner topic) or because we moved back to Los Angeles. Also-I don’t think it’s because it’s always been this way and I just haven’t noticed it…I’m talking about a paradigm shift of our culture in dynamic proportion. Bono and one.org, Angelia Jolie, Rick Warren & his P.E.A.C.E. plan, the InspiRED collection, Ethos Water, Idol Gives Back…and a zillion more people and organizations that are FINALLY doing what the rich and affluent should be doing–giving to the poor and caring for those in need. It’s all around us, and the opportunities to get involved are endless.

I think in ten or twenty years we will look back on the decade of the 2000′s and say this was the decade where the world changed. This was the time in history that people starting looking outside of themselves and giving to help those stricken with disease and poverty. I bet if I talked to 500 students at APU about what was important to them, 499 of them would talk about some aspect of social injustice and what they plan to do about it. I mean, these kids are traveling around the world building schools and hospitals–giving medicine and running water to communities that are desperate for the crap we throw away in our trash cans and complain that we have too much of. It’s completely ridiculous. How is it that America is using up 2/3 of the world’s natural resources? It’s because we have money. We’re buying it and importing it…

Thank God for those that are using their fame and wealth to fight social injustice. This isn’t going away, and I think it’s only going to become more of an important issue in the lives of our young people—the ones that are our future–these are the guys and girls that care what you think about the 30,000 homeless people in the city of West Covina, or the dying AIDS victims in Africa. They are the ones that are saying “Hey, rather than spending $5,000 on a new in-ear personal monitoring system, why don’t you buy food and water for people dying of starvation…” (Hey–that’s a true story, btw–happened to me a few months ago).

I was just incredibly struck tonight by the wonderful fact that the biggest TV show on the planet, teamed up with some of the biggest celebrities on the planet, were able to come together in the name of GIVING back. By the end of the show they had raised 30 million dollars–a number I’m sure will grow by tomorrow morning.

What are we doing? 

Word up church–what are YOU doing about it?
Are you talking about social justice at all? Are you doing anything in your communities or around the world to help those afflicted by social injustice?
If not, you really don’t have a great lookin’ future…I’m just saying…

There is a hilarious preview tomorrow night’s episode here. You have to go watch, NOW.

otherwise, catch ya later.

So I’ve been putting together Pop/Rock mix-CDs for my office. I’ve created three of them, and they contain some pretty hip and awesome music! After a couple of people saying they liked them (and frankly, loving them myself) I decided to publish them as iMixs on iTunes. Basically, I submitted my cool office mixes to iTunes, and now anyone can check them out and buy music from them. I don’t get any kind of discount or perqs for doing it, I just get to share my tastes with the world, and it’s fun! So check out Daniel’s Office Mixes on iTunes–Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3. They rock. Number 4 is coming soon…
–Side Note: The “Just for You” section of my iTunes was suggesting a David Gray album, so I bought it. I heard a lot about David Gray, and in my courses at CSULA a lot of people told me that my style was similar to his–so I had to get it. Also, I recorded a few tunes (with Mariah Carey’s drummer and Stu Hamm) at the same studio where he recorded several of his albums, so I was intrigued. It’s actually very good, I’m enjoying it so far…

Heroes returns tonight! I am so totally stoked. This has by far been one of the best new series this year, if not THE best new one. My DVR is set, and now that The New Adventures of Old Christine (one of my wife’s favorite shows) has moved to 8:30, we can record 24 AND Heroes! Yay! I SO can’t wait…

YES. We saw an exclusive screening of Jerry Seinfeld’s new movie, BEE MOVIE. It was quite hilarious, containted tons of great cameo voices, and was completely appropriate for all ages. We’ll totally take Nathaniel to see it when it comes out in November. He can’t wait. On that note–it’s fantastic that Seinfeld can make a movie that, by it’s sheer humor is truly funny, AND is completely appropriate for children. For instance, I think Shrek 2 is funny (and I am excited to see Shrek 3) but I would not let Nathaniel see it because of it’s largely adult humor. This movie is able to be funny without being gross, and is really original. Jerry Seinfeld is truly a hilarious dude, and I can’t wait to see the final product in November!

We got to hang out with an old college friend yesterday, Aaron Stewart. He was up visiting from Henderson/Las Vegas area. I had forgotten what a really funny dude he is. I actually lived with him for a while in the mods with Jay Murphy and Jeff Martinez–A5.
Good times.

Just a quick excerpt from Jenna/Pam’s blog (Pam from The Office):

Sorry for the repeat of The Office this week.  Next week is all new.  We have a bunch of new ones coming up.  They are all great.  My personal favorite is Women’s Appreciation.  Michael takes all of the ladies to the mall.  It’s great.  But, the one not to be missed is Beach Day.  Seriously.  Don’t miss it.

Well, doesn’t that sound fun!

Mike’s b-day celebration was last night. I had a rehearsal in Irvine until 8:30, so I couldn’t get there until pool-time. It was fun! Check out his blog for some pics, including one of my butt. (OK, you don’t HAVE to go see that one…but it’s there.)

EDIT ADD: Just a note–in order to vote for our song (if they pick it for the TOP 20) you will have to register on americanidol.com

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The word from the American Idol website is that they’ve received thousands of songs to review for the songwriting competition. This is good odds; at least it wasn’t TENS of thousands or HUNDREDS of thousands. So we will wait and see what happens next.

Voting for the top 20 songs starts May 2nd, which means that they’ll be reaching the people they pick for the TOP 20 songs in the next week or so because everyone they pick for Top 20 has to sign a publishing deal (and why wouldn’t they?) but that takes a little bit of time. So I guess we’ll know in the next week or so whether or not they choose one of our songs. Very exciting!

And FINALLY…goodbye Sanjaya. This is not especially good for me points-wise in our little game…I did not pick him to go or to be in the bottom 3 this week. BUt he sure cried like a baby through his whole video re-cap. That was pretty hilarious.
All in all, it was a little shocking to see the top and bottom people this week. I still love Melinda Doolittle. She’s the best!

LOST was awesome. I love the last half of this season. Where did Locke go?
Oh-and did you HEAR Sawyer mention Bernard when he talked about the mix-tape he gave Kate? Interesting…

I just entered two songs in the songwriting contest for American Idol. 
One of them Christy and I wrote together specifically for the show.

If we get picked for even just the Top 20 songs (which will be voted for by America) we get a 75% publishing deal with FOX (or whatever that company is) along with $10,000 in royalty advances. That’s not if we win, just if we get picked in the Top 20!
Of course, if we win, they’ll record the song…

The worst school shooting in the history of the US happened earlier this morning at Virginia Tech University. 33 people are dead, including the gunman.
This is pretty scary stuff.

Mike also links to another news story.