Hey all!

FINALLY! I get to update my blog! This is going to be quite an entry so buckle your safety belts! I'll speak through pictures :)

Here are some of my co-workers (laborers)!
On the right is Jill Ritchie, who is currently with Piper Down as a keyboardist/singer and on the left is Laura "D" DeBettencourt, who is SoulSeed's sound tech and also Piper Down's booking agent. They're super cool sisters who have been taking care of me. This was in the parking lot at Costco. They kept saying to me, "why are you taking pictures at Costco?? Do people really want to see that?" Apparently so!


Next is Mr. Seth Irby.
For summer project he's headlining with Captain Oblivious and he actually IS Captain Oblivious for many reasons. hehe :) Love you Seth.
In all seriousness, Seth is a great singer/songwriter and an excellent performer. It's funny because every time Seth performs, he seems to break all the rules that we learn in our communication drill classes. But it all works out in the end "Cause it's Seth." Great guy. Gotta love the lip ring, which he mentioned he wasn't allowed to wear at his Korean friend's wedding. Good to know for future reference.


This is a picture of one of our summer project groups, Mangofish!!!
Laura "D" is in the picture 'cause she and myself invited ourselves over to Mark's (a Keynote intern) place for dinner. haha. nice.
Up top on the couch is Phil (electric guitar) and Hillary (lead vocal/keyboard), in the loveseat next to "D" is Thomas (lead vocal/keyboard), then there's Bobby on drums, and Mr. Raul!!! The crazy bassist from Mexico. The kid is CRAZY good. Got chops out to wazoo. Rock music is way too easy for him.


Next is a picture of a bunch of students, most from the summer project band Swerve.
Chris Wachoziak is on the bottom left looking towards the camera. He's the drummer from Proof of Purchase. A real heart for God. He said this about quite times: "Getting up early in the morning to meet with God has literally changed my life." Praise the Lord! Next to him is Stephen, the drummer for Swerve. My Latino brother! You can play baby! He's got the Afro-Cuban beats going on. Awesome stuff. Standing up next to him is Ms. Mary Alice who is a killer keyboardist/organist. Sitting down with the camera is Jake, electric guitarist, standing up is Joey (funny kid. does a great Chewbacca impersonation. Studly man. Truly studly). And with her back turned towards the camera is Miss Lindsay Haddix, whose parents are currently raising support to be on staff! Pray for them to report to Keynote soon! Lindsay has a GREAT voice and is one of the three vocalists in Swerve.


I just love the face Mary Alice is giving me in this picture. "What...are you doing?"


Here we have some more students! From left to right is Chris Gibson in the blue shirt who plays electric guitar for Captain O, Mr. Kurtis, who is a KILLER drummer, some of the fastest hands I've seen, and next to him is Mr. Jake, crazy electric guitarist who can play a mean rendition of "Neon." All three of them are in Captain O right now touring in Australia! Pray many people come to accept Christ and that they rock it out for Jesus!


And here they are performing an original song Chris Gibson wrote for one of the coffeehouses:



PIPER DOWN

Here is Piper Down!



On lead vocals we have Mr. Seth Irby, on electric guitar with the crazy hairdo we have Mr. Sam Leo who wears soda cans strapped to his feet, back on keyboards there is Jill again, Dan Bongard on drums, Rob Cashell on the bass guitar and Mr. Matt Burgoyne who is a newlywed on electric guitar. These guys are INTENSE. But I like their message and how Seth shares his story with the audience. Awesome stuff.

Here are some more great shots:



Seth on the chair-nice




Students getting into it:


And now for our newest formed summer project gospel group, SOULSEED!!!!WOOHOO!!!
So many people on staff told me that they have been praying for a gospel summer project group for years and years and years. So to finally see the fruits of their labor in prayer with their own eyes was EXTREMELY exciting.
This group was brought here in part through Crusade's IMPACT ministries, mainly geared towards African-American college students. They can SINGGGG!!! And play too. Man it was so good to hear some gospel music played at the coffeehouse. More pics of them to come!


Here are some more pics from our coffeehouse on 6/3/05:
Mr. Joey C. from Swerve again:

Mangofish:

And Mr. Seth Irby again with Chris W. from Proof of Purchase, our worship band





Each Friday night we had a "Holy Grounds" coffeehouse as they called it and I was part of the logistics team for the time being while training. I had to do a lot of things like pack up the tour boxes for each group, which contained flashlights, an atlas, batteries, paper towels, duct tape, comment cards, buckets of pencils, etc. Basically everything they needed to operate as a band. I also got to be on food duty for the June 10th coffeehouse, for which we got some good ol' fried chicken!!! WOOHOO! Here are some pics from our fun dinner time:

students here are just waiting in line for the food to be served. In the hat with the pink shirt is another Hillary, another vocalist from Swerve. The girl can sing! Really funny girl too. Don't ask her for her elephant jokes. TRUST ME. Besides, mine are better :) hahahaha...you know I love you Hillary!
And next to her is Lindsay Cole!!!! The coolest MPD coach in the world! Lindsay helped a lot while I was raising support for new staff training and after Cory got really busy with things, she sort of took over and helped with several things in my MPD.

Here we are standing around some more...

And...the food!!! Finally!

Praise GOD for fried chicken. Man...I really wonder what God is going to give us to eat since there won't be any killing up there, thus, no animals killed or cooked, right? Man...God...no steak either? whew...wow...He's gotta come up with something good


Students eating on the grass


This is just classic. Gotta love it. Great shot Steve. hahahaha...And next to him o the left is Sean, bassist from young Isaac, and a clearer shot of Lindsay Haddix, vocalist for Swerve again.


And our featured band for that night was...CHASING ELVIS!

Up front on vocals and guitar is Jimmy-really funny guy and very down to earth. Good brother who prayed with me about some things I was going through. Thanks man! Mr. Randy Pahl is no electric guitar, Mia Pahl on the bass guitar, Mr. Dave Roux on drums and Arlee Brandt on keyboard and vocals!! They were definitely fun to watch.


Next up...the group I played drums with for this coffeehouse...
OSOBOE MNENIYE!
The title is basically translated as "Minority Report" from Russian

These were the Kazak's from Kazakhstan and I had the privilege of sitting in with them as their temporary drummer for this coffeehouse! Unfortunately, their drummer Pakhit got stuck in Russia because of a missing document he needed to get into the U.S. Needless to say, he was stuck there for about two weeks more until he was able to fly out here to Indy. And by the time he got here, there was only about a week left in the summer project :( So sad...but I'm glad he at least had that much time to stay in the U.S. and receive some training and exposure to other groups and Keynote music.

Here I am on drums!
Checking my tempo on the metronome...


Looking somewhat like I know what I'm doing


Looking like I don't know what I'm doing


Looking a little bit more like I know what I'm doing


Here's the whole group! They are really so talented. Domira, their lead singer/keyboardist is such a great songwriter!!! Man! I love their stuff. It's very unique in style and they have a lot of variety in what they write and do. It was really an honor and a blessing playing with them. Dennis on the left is on electric, Asselyah is on vocals on the right and Mr. Russ on bass guitar who had some REALLY sweet bass grooves. Good stuff. He just bought a Fender jazz bass when he got to Indiana as well. :) hehe...I know you're enjoying that thing Russ!



Here we are in a group pic afterwards with our communication drill coaches Dana Russo on the left, and Denise Disarro on the right! Chris Kellum, our other comm. coach was taking the picture.


Again, it was a fantastic night and I was ecstatic to have been able to play drums with them and perform for the coffeehouse. It was nice to do something musical during this whole time of training! I was mostly doing other things besides music since I wasn't placed in a summer project band or helping with one directly. If any of you would like to see some clips or have a copy of the DVD for that night, please let me know and I'll see if I can get you a copy!

There are SOOOO many more pictures, which I will post up very soon. Again, sorry for not doing it earlier. My PC didn't have Ethernet connection for the longest time and I wasn't able to upload pictures at work! More to come very soon!

This entry was posted by Christopher Wu, on Wednesday, June 22, 2005. You can leave your response.