Tomorrow our family heads to Nashville!

The four of us are headed out to record a kids musical for Word Music that Christy wrote. 

Woo Hoo!

We're so excited...can't wait to visit with friends, can't wait to hear our music in the studio...and we can't wait to hear all of this hard work come to fruition.   Christy has really done a superb job writing this (in my humble and oh so non-biased opinion), and it's been a blast for us to do together. 

I'm sure we'll take pictures...

Fall is a weird time, especially this Fall.  I can't put my finger on it, but I think it has to do with the fact that it rained all day Tuesday and then on Thursday it was 95 degrees.   The weather has been really disappointing.

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I don't really like Halloween. 

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that Christmas is almost here...which means lots of rehearsals and performances and all kinds of stuff to do--and THEN--being the horrible gift-givers that Christy and I are--finally purchasing a meager amount of Christmas presents and cards on...say...oh...the 26th...and then carrying the guilt of being such inconsiderate, unloving Holiday folks...

But today during orchestra practice we played a piece that felt REALLY Christmasy, and I got in the spirit of things for a moment...and it felt joyous.

But Christmas feels more like Winter than Fall, and I like Winter.

Not Fall.

Fall is dead to me.

My church in San Diego is hiring a Multimedia Director. 

Check it out and apply here. 

Good luck!

I was going to write an introspective entry about the fact that we're flying out to Nashville next week to record a musical that my wife wrote...and how cool it is going to be...and the emotions that accompany such a journey...

But honestly, right now the main emotions I feel are panic, frustration, stress, and anxiety...BECAUSE MY INTERNET IS DOWN at home.  !!!!!!!
I can't send any emails from my home computer with attachments...I can't upload Pro Tools sessions to my iDisk...or do any of the hundred things I normally do on a day-in and day-out basis in order to do my job.  And of course it had to happen this week, the week before we leave...

And now everything is taking twice as long because of the gazillion work arounds + time on the phone with AT&T trying to get it fixed + time with the technician that comes out to fix it + him telling me he can't fix it + all of the copying of data to external drives and trips to Starbucks to upload files (what I'm doing right now) and the eons of time wasted due to this incredible inconvenience. 

I know I'm wallowing...I know, I know, I know...(wah wah)

I guess I had no idea how much I rely on the stupid internet in order to live.

I know there's a lesson the Lord is trying to teach me in here somewhere...I JUST KNOW IT...but I'm too caught up in the moment right now to see it...

OK...I better go, only 2 more hours until this 600MB file is done uploading (thank you, slowestinternetconnectiononplanetearth).

1,000 frownie faces.

I snapped this photo the other day while walking past.

And I start thinking to myself...

Wait a minute--this is odd.  Don't "vacancy/no-vacancy" signs appear only on motels and such?
Why in the world would a senior apartment complex have a "no vacancy" sign out front?
Is there ever a time when they would need this sign? 
Are people dying here left and right to necessitate a DAY-TO-DAY informational sign to let people know just when they can move in?

WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THIS SIGN?

I'm supposed to be writing some fantasy/adventure music right now to be licensed for trailers and such.  The guy for whom I am writing the cues needs me to be specific to the genre without ripping anyone off.  We don't want to be sued.  Oh, and also, it should be highly original and modern--nothing from 10, 20, 50, or (God forbid) 200 years ago.  I need to be original.

Shoot. 

That's a tall order, friends.

AUGH.  I need the creative juices to flow...

Just to keep you on the up and up, here are some exciting things that have been happening in the So-Cal-Semsen household:

-Nathaniel is currently shooting a couple of commercials for Gap.  He's doing two different things for them--an internet spot and a TV commercial that will eventually turn into something like 11 different spots.  I'm sure you'll see them on TV towards the holidays (Thanksgiving/Christmas time?).  That's just a guess, though...the internet spot will be an interactive card-making device of some sort.  I think from what I heard that you'll be able to make custom video holiday greeting cards where Nathaniel pops out of a large Christmas present and says something to you...but stay tuned...more on that to come...
Random facts: he is rehearsing and shooting all last week and this week.  He's not the only one in the commercial, there's a whole troop of dancers and three other kids, so he will be one of many.  This is SUPER exciting for us and a great experience for Nathaniel.  He got his own private trailer last week on the set and Christy just about flipped out.  "Hey Nathaniel, lets go back to your trailer and eat lunch." What?!?  It is a tad surreal.  He is shooting more this week...and we're attempting to gently guide and teach him to be grateful and humble in regards to this opportunity and to not think he is entitled to star treatment 24 hours a day.  We will be measuring his head daily with a tape measure to make sure it doesn't start growing...

-Nathaniel also shot some stuff for an independent film titled "Pickin' and Grinnin'".  This means he now has his own IMDB page!  Check it out! 

-I just finished scoring my fifth episode of Travelscope, and now have my own IMDB page as well.  If you click over and see it, you might notice that only three episodes of the show are listed, as the other two are in pre-production for season 4 (which airs in June 2010?) and aren't up yet.

-I recently orchestrated Travis Cottrell's Easter musical "Run to the Cross".  I can tell you from hearing the songs (again and again while I orchestrated) that it is a tremendous, powerful work.  He and his team wrote some beautiful songs that will stir your heart to worship.  It is one of my favorite projects of his and I can't wait for y'all to hear it.  I think it'll release sometime in the next month or two from Brentwood-Benson. You're gonna wanna hear it, its awesome.  Also--the Jesus Saves Live books/orchestrations just got released and shipped out to Midway.  We sight-read through "To the King" yesterday and it was very fun.  Can't wait to do more of these songs and hear our peeps sing/play them...what a GREAT album!

-Christy and I are finishing up our kids musical for Word Music and will be flying out to Nashville in two weeks to record and making the DVD this Christmas with the Midway Kids Choir.  We're SO stoked for this cool, cool adventure.  Christy has done the lion's share of this thing and she has done an AMAZING job.  I'm getting a bit choked up just thinking about how lucky I am to have such an amazingly talented wife.  She is creative, passionate, and talented...and I'm get to work with her.  I'm happy. 
The kids at Midway are already rehearsing the songs and they are loving it...we are trying to soak it all in, but again, it is a bit surreal...

-I started doing some work here and there for www.praisecharts.com (my absolute favorite worship leading resource in the universe) and my first chart was published yesterday on their site.  It's a Christmas song by FEE, and it's a COOL one.  I kinda fell in love with it while transcribing it/arranging it and I'm sure we'll do it this year.  It COOKS.  But in regards to this opportunity, it is a privilege to work for a company that puts out a product I use on a weekly basis and that I respect and love so much.  I don't know what I'd do without them, and I KNOW my ministry wouldn't be the same...not even close.  With praisecharts + planning center + Travis Cottrell,  I feel like I have everything I need on a weekly basis.  It's hard to remember how I survived before these great resources were around...so thanks Aaron, Travis, and the praisecharts peeps, you're awesome.  I love you.

-Midway Baptist is awesome.  We just cast our Christmas show and were blown away by the talented people that auditioned.  We're doing The Christmas Post this year (a broadway-type show) and this cast is going to rock the stage.  It's suuuuuper great to see that already, and not just the week or two before the show...
We had a sweet, sweet time of worship yesterday and my choir and orchestra people are becoming more and more committed and passionate about worship than ever--and they're doing it TOGETHER.  Even though we were working hard yesterday in rehearsal there were some moments of musical bliss where things clicked and they GOT IT.  Those times make me so happy...and I just delight in seeing the altos work and work to get a tricky part and then NAIL it, and nail it again...and then for the basses to finally get that tricky line that they missed three times before...and then GET IT.  I dance a jig in my head when that happens...and it's happening more and more lately...which means a happy three-hour ride home in the car instead of a crabby one...
And in the interest of linking at least one thing in every section, here's a link to Midway's newly designed site.  You'll find bios from Christy and I on there, and I won't spoil the surprise, but I will tell you there are some little treats in there...

All in all, we're thankful for how much is going on and praise God for the opportunities He has laid out before us...

Not quite as good as the clip at the end of last night's show, but still a WINNER of a preview...

I CAN'T WAIT

Starbucks VIA Instant Coffee hits stores today all over the U.S. of A---and it's YUMMY. 

My first memory of instant coffee dates waaaaaaaaay back to a little glass jar of Folgers Instant that my mom (and her mother before her) kept tucked away in the cupboard for when coffee-drinking guests came over...which, as I remember, never actually happened.  I'm pretty sure that freeze-dried stuff has a shelf like of about 1,000 years since it was always in that same place in the cupboard, nary to be used by my family.  My mom drank tea every day, several times a day, and I didn't drink coffee until college.  I think I've spent the last ten years making up for the lost coffee-drinking years of my youth.

Starbucks, however, has been working on this brand of coffee for TWENTY whole years--and in my humble opinion, they got it right.  And you know what else is cool?  They made a 10 oz. travel cup that has a removable bottom where you can slide up to six packets of VIA to take with you wherever you go--IN THE MUG!!!  It looks a little bit like that thing that Newman used on Jurassic Park to smuggle those dinosaur DNA packets off the Island--which--JURASSIC PARK SPOILER ALERT--if you remember, got buried in the mud after those screeching, flappy-eared dinos ate him up in his jeep.  Mmmm.  That was an awesome movie.  But I digress...

Drop by your local Starbucks for a taste of VIA sometime over the next few days.  It's really good stuff.

EDIT ADD:

The Jurassic Park mug (as I like to call it).

Shows that premiered last night that I watched last night with great anticipation:
-Cougartown
-Modern Family

Shows that I watched last night that normally aren't on Wednesdays:
-Community, saved from last Thursday night.

Shows that I watched last night that Christy made me:
-The New Adventures of Old Christine
-That Jay Mohr show that I can't remember the name of...

Shows that I am watching reluctantly and are about to give up on and that I yell obscene things at the TV in my head during most of:
-Glee

I know what you are thinking.  That is a LOT of TV. 

And you would be correct. 

It was a wonderfully relaxing Wednesday night.  I spent most of the week in my large, cave-like studio composing all kinds of tracks for kids music and walking home from Pep Boys carrying Noah on my shoulders for 2 miles and all sorts of other nonsense--so having a night off with Christy was a delight.  Staying up until 4:15am Monday night and being woken up by a darling, almost-6-year-old at 7AM the following morning gives Daniel only soooooooooo much patience until some form of recovery occurs--and that recovery was last night's Ultimate Slack Down.  But enough excuses for my television extravaganza, let's debrief, shall we:

Crap
crap
crap annnnnnd
crap

Oh wait, that was just Cougartown.

I mean, what WAS I expecting?  Was I expecting Courtney Cox to play a character funnier than Monica from Friends?  Was I expecting that it WASN'T going to be completely about sex?  Was I expecting it to be funny?   Was I expecting good writing?  Good actors?  Less botox??

I GUESS I WAS, OK??

But evidently my expectations were too high. 

Just stay away from Cougartown, it was terrible.

Modern Family...uuuummmm...slightly painful at times, and also slightly funny.  I'm not a huge fan, but it wasn't as bad as Cougartown so it earns one or two more episodes before I shun it.  The dad of the "regular" family is pretty funny.  I've seen him at Starbucks twice now on Alameda (near Pavilions) and if I see him again I will give him a high five.  He did well...
This is a one-camera show, so we get spared the laugh-track and instead get some great dry humor and comedic timing.  It also looks like a documentary-style thing like The Office or Parks and Recreation, and I like that style.

Community was pretty funny.  It was my favorite from last night out of all that I watched--and that is not that high of a compliment given the rest of the bunch.  There were some hilarious moments, and one character, in particular that I instantly fell in love with.

The only reason I watched Jay Mohr and Julia Louis Dreyfuss is for Christy.  She likes these shows, but apparently she like EVERY comedy...from this decade or the past, no matter what it's about, soooooooooo there you have it.

And Glee...ohh oh oh oh Glee...how you have let me down.  I shake my head at you in utter disappointment.  You reek.  You smell of marriage-hating and Anti-Prop 8 agenda (and that's about as frank as I get on this blog).  Not that I'm going to bring up Prop 8, because, honestly,  I don't wanna talk about it right now...but I just can't decide whether this show is a comedy, a drama, or just a couple of producers' and writers' attempt to ruin our teenagers forever.  OOOoo, I have an idea,  let's put in a line like this, "Dishonesty is like food for a marriage.  Without it, a marriage dies..."

REALLY?!?!

REALLY?!!?!?!?!!?!! (one thousand exclamation/question marks in random order)

LISTEN UP FOLKS---HONESTY is what makes a marriage work--NOT dishonesty.   You want to ruin your life? Go ahead, be DISHONEST.  Just be dishonest with yourself, your mate, your friends....and let's just see how far you get? OK? How about THAT.  And I'm not some 12 year-old spewing this out, this comes from TEN years of real-life marriage--and not just a happy-go-lucky marriage--but a marriage that both spouses have had to WORK on constantly.  But it's AWESOME.  And I wouldn't trade it for anything.  So you want to tell the world that DISHONESTY is food for a marriage?? Really, Glee writers?

NUH-UH.

You people out there--be TRUTHFUL.  Even if it hurts.  Don't lie to your friends, don't lie to your mate, and don't lie to yourself...cause that's lame, and a sure-fire way to never grow past where you are right now. 

UGH.

GLEE--WHY DO YOU WANT ME TO HATE YOU?
IT'S LIKE YOU ARE TRYING TO BREAK UP WITH ME!

Here's hoping Thursday night TV will not disappoint. 
Oh wait--it won't.  Nothing can possibly disappoint me as much as last night's TV.

Yay for THE OFFICE!!!!