American Idol Update: Grand Finale

Well... it's down to Adam & Kris. At this point it could go either way... but EVERYBODY is saying that all of Danny's votes will go to Kris now. If that is the case... he could win it all tomorrow night. I think (of the two) Kris has the most "marketable" voice. Kris could release a Jason Mraz/One Republic style project and do pretty well with it. Adam will probably make it big on Broadway or in Vegas... but he doesn't have that "recording" voice.

First up...

Adam: He is singing a song that he has already sung earlier in the season... "Mad World". He is going with the "vampire look" for this one. It's a little creepy for me... with the fog and the long coat. He is just a little flat on every note (especially on the last note of the song. He tuned it up before the very end.) This is exactly what I'm talking about... THAT was a Broadway performance.

Kris: He has chosen "Ain't No Sunshine" to sing for his first song tonight. Man... I am really liking this. This performance is so full of emotion. I like what he did with the "I know... I know... I know"... section of the song (That part usually annoys me a little). He changed the melody up some. WOW! That was awesome!

First round definitely goes to... Kris!

ROUND TWO: ding ding. (OK... so that's what Ryan said)

Adam: He's going to have to "bring it" at this point. Kris definitely took the first round. Adam is singing "Change Is Gonna Come" for his second song tonight. The boy can sing... there's no doubt about that. He has pipes that won't quit... and a range with no lid. I like this a ton better than his first song. Cue: The "tongue hanging out of his mouth" scream. There it is. We have seen it each and every week this season. The judges are gushing over that performance. It was strong... but I wouldn't say that it was the "best that he has sounded all season".

Kris: He is singing Marvin Gaye's "What's Going' On" for his second song. From piano to guitar all in one show. Impressive. The unplugged vibe is pretty cool. I think I liked the first song better though. He is a little "pitchy" on this one. This is definitely his genre though. Kara is really getting on my nerves with her overly dramatic critique. She's got this "attitude" thing going on.

Second round goes to... Adam

ROUND THREE:

Adam: For his third song he will be singing a song written by Kara for the show called "No Boundaries". He can certainly "sell" a song. He is all over the place pitch-wise on this one though. I wonder if the judges are going to rave about this performance too??? Good! Randy caught it! It wasn't all that great. His pitch was all over the place. Oh Kara... come on... we KNOW it was your song... but how did Adam do?

Kris: He will be singing the same song. If Kris nails this one... I think he could win the competition. Ouch... his pitch is off too! What is going on? For one thing... it's just too high for him. WOW... did he just drop a word? The song is a little too BIG for him. Not a strong performance.

FWIW: I would love to have heard Allison sing this song. It's not a great song... but Allison would have rocked it anyways! Neither of these guys could nail it down like Allison could have. Sorry... THAT IS JUST A FACT.

My pick for the next American Idol...

Well... I didn't like either one of them all that much. It could go either way tomorrow night. I really... really... don't care.

American Idol Update: FINAL 3

I have to tell you... it is so difficult to continue following the show... with Allison gone. Last week was a HUGE mistake. I still can't believe it happened... but then again... look at Daughtry. Allison will be HUGE with or without the win on AI. I can't wait to see what she does next.

There are only the three guys left. They will each sing two songs on tonight's show. The first song will be "judges choice" and the second is "their choice" As always... I will be blogging in real-time as I watch the show.

First up...



Danny: He is singing "Dance Little Sister" by Terence Trent D'Arby. This style is definitely his "thang". This song doesn't have much of a melody line. Paula picked it... so they can't really complain about it though! He sounds so soulful on this. Oh yeah... he's pulling a Philip Bailey vocal banter with the sax player. Oooh... the sax sounds so "thin". Auuugh! These guys have the best audio team that money can buy... and that's the way they decided to EQ the alto sax? OK... I thought Danny sounded pretty amazing on this. Lots of energy... lots of fun. What a start! Great job, Danny!

Kris: My Opinion: I really thought that Kris should have gone home last week. It should have been Adam, Allison and Danny tonight. Anyhoo: Randy & Kara have chosen "Apologize" by One Republic for Kris to sing tonight. I LOVE this song... one of my favorites. Well... we'll see what Kris does with this song. He's a little pitchy right out of the blocks. There is a very annoying instrument being played on the chorus. What is that??? Could it be that anemic alto sax again? Ha ha! He sounds really good on this song. A few rough spots... but I still liked it. It was a great song choice for Kris. Another great choice would have been something by Jason Mraz.

Adam: Simon to chose "One" by U2 for Adam to sing. WOW! Simon had to get clearance from Bono for Adam to do this tune. Unbelievable! Here he goes: He's a little flat on the first chorus. The guy sings with so much emotion. It's in his eyes... it's in his voice. WOW! I know that they want them to make the song their own... but I'm not sure if I liked what Adam did with it. It didn't just knock me over... but it was good. It was better than Kris' performance.

OK... first round picks for tonight:



























So now... they get to choose the song that they will sing. First up...

Danny: He chose "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker. Hmmmm.... not sure about this one. The arrngement is just too exposed for his powerful voice. He will sound so much better if he "let's it fly" at some point. I hope he does. I don't know about this. I'm just not feeling it. The judges are gushing... I don't get it. Vocal master class??? I don't think so. Oh well... it was nice... but not a final week performance.

Kris: He picked "Heartless" by Kanye West. Let's see what he does with this song. I'm liking the fact that he is pulling this off with his acoustic guitar... and NO BAND!!! Impressive! WOW! I loved it! Great job, Kris! That was amazing! That's the best Kris has sounded all season. He may have some sort of a strategy here. Better late... then never... huh?

Adam: He is singing "Crying" by Aerosmith. This is definitely in his "wheelhouse". Here he goes. First of all... turn the BGV vocal down. She's overpowering Adam. There is something about his vibrato that is just not doing it for me on this song. What a voice! What a range! There's that "tongue hanging out" scream again! He can definitely "bring it"... but I think that I'm just tired of hearing it.


Second round picks...














If I WAS to pick someone to go home tomorrow night... which I will not... but if I were to pick one... it might be... even though he did a great job with his second song tonight... Kris

American Idol Update: FINAL 4

Sorry about the gray text. I know that it's hard to read... but Blogger.com would not let me write in white text for some reason tonight.

This week's mentor is Slash... and the music style is ... what else... classic rock! Obviously... Adam and Allison have an advantage tonight. It will be interesting though to see what Kris and Danny can do with this genre.

First up...

Adam: He is singing "Whole Lot of Love" by Led Zeppelin. The band is absolutely HOT tonight! WOW! What pipes! Unbelievable! The dude can "sky"! Adam is definitely in his element tonight. Un-be-stinkin-lievable! How is anyone gonna top that???

Side note: OK... so Kara is freaking me out a little tonight? Does she think it's Halloween or something? Weird.

Allison: She is singing Janis Joplin's "Cry Baby". She should sound great on this song. Very nice. The vocal riffs after the first chorus were SCHWEEEET! I really wish she hadn't followed Adam. If kris had been next... maybe the sound pallette would have been reset. Man... that's gonna hurt her. Yup... there they go. They are not thrilled with her performance. She still sounded great! Simon said that it was too close to the original. WOW! Now THAT'S a compliment!

First DUET of the night...

Kris & Danny: They are singing "Renegade" by Styxx. Great song! Here they go. Ohhh... Danny definitely doesn't have the rock vibe going. His voice is not quiet "edgy and focused" enough for this rock tune. I think he will have a tough time with his individual song tonight as well. Kris actually sounds better than Danny on this tune... exept for the fact that he is so "pitchy". Can he hear himself??? It was just OK. The band was amazing!

Kris: He is singing "Come Together" by the Beatles. He got to play with Slash! How cool is that?? I'm actually liking this... a lot! He sounds pretty good. He needs to "get into it" with the guitar a little more. He just didn't seem comfortable. It was good... but I don't know if it's enough to get him through this week.

Danny: He is singing "Dream On" by Aerosmith. Man... I sure hope he knows what he is doing here. NOT a good choice. This could really hurt him. Michael Johns did this song last year and absolutely NAILED IT! I just don't see Danny going for those octaves at the end. Does he have the vocals to pull this off? We'll see. Did they just turn him down on the pre-chorus??? What happened? It's not working for me. Yikes! Here he goes (holding my breath). Well... they were definitely high (multi-pitched) notes. Not quite the "sound" that the notes were supposed to have... but he went for it. Impressive! This is just not his genre. He is probably safe though... with Kris still in there.

Another duet...

Adam & Allison: They will be singing "Slow Ride" by Foghat. They should have some fun with this now that the competition is over for the night and they can relax. There goes the tongue! They look so much more comfortable out there together than Danny and Kris did. Definitely rock stars! They sound great together too.

OK... my picks for tonight...









































Going home tomorrow night...

Stories

The single most effective ministry tool that we use at NewPointe is the LIFE CHANGE STORY. We can sit in our creative meetings all week long... and brainstorm all kinds of cool, innovative and impressive creative elements to help support the messages... but a STORY about a person's personal journey to Christ... will always have the biggest impact.

For Easter Sunday... we created a video made up of several stories to set up the song, "How He Loves". We got the concept for the video from Lifechurch.tv... and then created our own. The process was a lot of fun... but also very time consuming. We filmed about 9 different people telling their personal stories of how Jesus Christ radically changed their lives. Then Jane Miller actually watched all of the video footage... and transcribed all of those stories (17 pages in all) so that we could easily select the highlights. John Bunn went through all 17 pages and selected 100 potential phrases and color coded each one. Those 100 story pieces were attached to 3X5 Index cards. The Weekend Design team then got together to read through the cards and assemble a "story board" for the video. Here are a couple of photos of our team during that process:












































After we put all of the pieces together... my son, Brandon got busy editing the video (not any easy job). WOW! If you didn't get to see it on Easter Sunday... you can check it out here:

Easter Chairs from NewPointe Community Church on Vimeo.

The Innovator's Brain

I was reading an article by Phil Cooke on his BLOG, The Change Revolution that I thought was pretty interesting. Check out what he has to say about the innovator's brain:

Research indicates that true innovator's brains are actually different from other people's brains. The big difference is that original thinkers - iconoclasts - innovators - whatever you want to call them, see the world differently than everyone else. Too many of us think "automatically" - in other words, we assume the way things should be, take a lot for granted, and don't challenge our perceptions. But innovators don't make those assumptions, and generally see the world the way it is. The secret of being an innovator? Bombard the brain with new experiences. Force yourself to see the world in different ways. Travel. Meet new people. Think from different experiences. Live a life of novelty. It's no surprise many of our most innovative writers, artists, actors, filmmakers and more were a bit eccentric. They didn't live their lives the way everyone else thought they should. Jesus was a great example of someone who lived outside other people's expectations. As a result, these unusual people produce far more creative work because they refused to see "normal" as normal. What's your experience? Is there a routine you can break out of? What behavior can you shatter that would give you a new perspective on living? - Phil Cooke

WOW! "Bombard the brain with new experiences". What have I done lately... that is not a part of my regular routine? Now that really challenges me to "make time" in my schedule for spontaneity and non-routine activities. That's great... planned spontaneity!

OK ... so here's the deal: I am going to starting doing one "little something" (Hey, it's a start.) that is so totally out of my normal "routine" every week. I don't know exactly what that looks like yet... but something to stimulate creativity and... INNOVATION. I do a lot of creative stuff all week long (It's a part of my job)... but I wouldn't consider very much of it to be truly "innovative". I think we all spend way too much time being "copycat" artists. We are just re-creating other artist's stuff. It takes whole other level of creativity and free-thinking to be "UNIQUE".

So... what can YOU do this week to break out of the expected... the routine? What can you do to wake up your "innovative brain"? Have fun!

The New Music Store in Strasburg

April and I were asked to do the interior design for the new music store that our son, Brandon will be opening soon in Strasburg, Ohio. The owner of the store said that he would like for us to give it a "Jimmy Buffet" feel. He wanted it to be not only a relaxing place to shop for musical instruments and accessories... but also a fun place to learn about music. So... we took a look around the place... came up with a couple of good ideas... and went to work.

There was already an old "kiosk" in the middle of the showroom that was sort of the centerpiece of the store. So... we decided to turn into a "tiki hut". We ordered real thatch, bamboo panels, colorful party lights and tropical accents... and voila... a tiki hut. We also applied palm tree silhouette decals (from wallwords.com) to the walls around the store. All we have left to do is add a couple of 7 ' artificial palm trees... Paint the inside of the hut... and add some bamboo posts to frame it all in. Here are a few photos to show what the store looks like... so far.

This Morning @ NewPointe: Set List

We had an interesting morning at NewPointe. About half way through the closing song... the power went out. It was pretty wild. No "boom" or "crack"... just OFF. So... we had to cancel services for the rest of the morning... as well as the Training Day event for our Service Programming Team. Here are the songs that we used this morning @ NewPointe:

"World That Breaks" (opener) - Britt Nicole

"All We Need" - Charlie Hall

"You Never Let Go" - Matt Redman

"Mighty To Save" - Hillsong United

"You Are My Hope" (closer) - Skillet

We did get (almost) an entire service in. Hopefully... we will be able to post that on Vimeo. It really was a great message... so you should check it out later this week.