Newsboys Concert!!!!

I went to a Newsboys concert tonight. It was being held at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village. Will Call was at 5, and the doors opened at 6. Since Will Call was at 5, I figured I should get there early. I got there around 4:15, went inside about 4:55. I got my ticket and found a spot to sit down to wait for the doors to open. I had talked to one of the guys there, trying to find out some info about when Will Call was going to start, since it was nearly five and no one was there yet. Well, he saw me sitting down (reading) and came over and invited to me join a Q&A session that Duncan Phillips (of the Newsboys) was going to be doing. One of the questions he answered was about Pete Furler stepping down from the touring side of the Newsboys. When the Q&A session ended, the doors were almost ready to open. Once they did, I went inside to sit down. Found my section, found my row... but I could not find my SEAT! Why? I was in section B. No problem. The sections were labeled. Then I found Row V, the very last row. No problem, there. The rows were labeled too. Then I looked at the seats to find seat 22. Let's see... the first seat in the row was seat 24. Wait. That can't be right. My ticket said Seat 22. But there was NO 22. How could that be? I have no clue. Even the ushers were baffled. Even the people at the ticket table were baffled. So, what did they do? Did they move me to another seat? Nope. They just brought me a chair. It was quite funny. One of the ushers joked about it later too. I made a new friend with the person sitting next to me. Her name's Misty and she recently moved to California from Texas. We chatted as we waited for the concert to begin. And then, it turned out, my seat wasn't the only seat missing! A young mother and her daughter in the row in front of us were missing their seats as well! The concert began with Bread of Stone. I'm not sure if I ever heard of them before, but some of their songs sounded familiar. The lead vocalist and guitarists are brothers, from Indonesia. After them, it was VOTA (formerly known as Casting Pearls). I was videoing them and taking a few pictures with my camera during their set. I think it was during the last song, one of the ushers tapped me on the shoulder and asked me something about taking pictures. He said to be careful. During intermission, I asked him if I wasn't allowed to take pictures. He said I wasn't supposed to. So, during the Newsboys' set, I didn't take as many photos. Until everyone else started taking them. Then I figured, it probably wasn't as big a deal then. Everyone really started taking pictures when they moved from the main stage to their "B" set so they could "B" closer to the fans. That's when they went down "memory lane". It was pretty fun. They sang a few choruses of their older songs. Jeff did "not ashamed" and Duncan did "Shine"... they even did a few dc Talk songs. They even did a whole dc Talk song later. And Duncan got to do a little bit of his spinning drum kit. They did their fake exit and came back for a song. You know, I had forgotten that the Newsboys are more than just a band. They're a ministry too. They're involved in the Baja project as well as other things. They're not just out there to play music and make money ... but to minister to others and fight "physical and spiritual poverty".

Why am I so big on the other side of the Newsboys? It's been two and half years since I've last seen a performance by them. I kinda stopped following them so closely since then. Recently, someone had asked me if I had heard of a group called the Newsboys because they saw a video of them. When I said yes, and that must've been their new DVD that came out and how I wanted to get a copy. They said, they certainly hoped what they saw wasn't what I wanted to see. Basically, they didn't think very highly of them. And me being me, I get defensive about things I like. And that's how I feel about the Newsboys, especially now, after going to their concert. Now, I haven't gone to to many concerts. But I can tell you, there was a lot of prayer at this one. There were scripture readings in it and messages spoken. The Newsboys aren't just a band. It's a ministry as well. And that's something that someone didn't know about they group. They just judged them according to what they saw. They didn't judge them on their message or what they did ... just what they saw. If you want to know more about them and their ministry, here are a few links.

Newsboys - their official band website
Wipedia site - here's your crash course on the Newsboys, courtesy of Wikipedia
Global Tribe - Official Website

The Price is Right

Did anyone watch today's (3/18) episode of "The Price Is Right"? This is the one with the Dodgers guest starring on it. I haven't watched it all yet. I skipped some parts. So far, I've only seen a little bit with James Loney and James McDonald on it. They didn't say anything. What was hilarious was ... the contestants had to guess what the retail price was to go to the next "Under the Lights" event. The guy who won the bid ... only bid $1!!!! All the other people bid over 1000, which was the retail price for the event. Now, I listened to it twice. Nowhere did he say it was for two people. Correct me if I'm wrong... but the retail price for one person is 500. Then for two people it would be 1000. And the guy isn't even a Dodger's fan. He was from Atlanta!

Interesting Dream

So, right before I woke up, I had an interesting dream. I was at a Dodger game with Nina. I don't know who they were playing. It might have been the Padres. Roberto was there. He had several players signing things for him. It was like laid out on the top of the outfield wall or something. We were in the the field level seats, by the left field foul pole. As soon as one player would sign a baseball, Roberto would hand it to a different player. The baseball had several autographs on it. The funny thing was ... he was using a black sharpie to sign them. Andre Ethier was signing to our left. Matt Kemp was signing to our right. Russell was hanging out with Kemp. He was telling Matt how he likes to knit, "you know, knit one, purl one." The players were leaving and the game was about to get started. I leaned over the wall, trying to get Kuroda (I think) to sign something for me. I started to fall over, but Roberto pulled me back. I told him thanks, he saved my life (Or my day or something like that). But I had dropped the baseball I was holding. It was the baseball I got from the Cubs game. A security guard picked it up and threw it past me into the field section seats. I went to go get it back. Some people were throwing it back and forth. Finally, they threw it towards me. It bounced on the step and hit me smack in the middle of my forehead. So, I went back to my seat. We were sitting in the first row, to the right of the left field foul pole. Nina got up to get something. Kuroda was the starting pitcher that day. And he gives up a lead-off home run. It lands in the left field level seats, bounces towards us... and lands on my seat! Cool. On the next pitch, it's foul. And it bounces and rolls under Roberto's seat. Sweet! I think there might have been one more foul ball into our section somewhere in the dream, because I thought Roberto already got one and then we got another one for Nina. Anyway, that was my interesting dream.

Don't know what to say

I know I've been quiet lately. My uncle Tony (my dad's oldest brother) has been in the hospital for the last two weeks. Long story short, he traveled to China for some treatments for his cancer. He returned around the beginning of the month. His chances weren't good when he left. Now we're preparing for the worst. I mentioned his situation a while back (December). Things haven't gotten much better. On one hand, he has lived longer than the initial prognosis. But now... we've been having tons of family coming through to see him while he's here. I'm not sure when he's going to fly back to North Carolina. But they've pretty much told us that it's over. They're out of answers. It's hard to imagine, that his grand-kids will grow up, never knowing him. He has five right now and two more on the way. The next couple weeks are going to be tough. I've never had anyone close to me pass away, except for my grandmother who died when I was in high school. I don't know why, but this time around it's different.

Josh Groban and Michael Buble

I didn't drop off a cliff

Or anything like that. Has it already been over a month since my last post? I had intended to post while I was in Richmond (California) but didn't get around to it. Long story short, my trip was extended an extra day when raging storms dumped snow on the Grapevine, shutting it down for a few hours. We decided to stay rather than to drive down and see if it was going to be open by the time we got there. Then the day after I got home, I broke out into hives (!!!) ... most likely from my friend's dad putting a ton of chlorine in the hot tub.

Opening Day is coming up. April 6. And do you know where I'll be? Sitting in section 129, Row 20 at Petco Park, to see my Dodgers facing the Padres. I figured, since I had pre-sale privileges, might as well use them. And since Opening Day tickets are actually available, I had better luck buying opening day tickets at Petco Park than I did at Dodger Stadium. Which, was true. I am so excited. Now I'm even more excited ... because I will be wearing my brand new Russell Martin jersey for the very first time at Opening Day!!! My cousin (Michael) wanted to surprise me with it. But then he had to come ask me, what size did I wear... and well... that ruined the surprise. Now I can't wait for it to arrive!!!!