This Guy Falls Down

Obscure Olympic Events

After most people go to bed feeling good about themselves and thinking about the results from gymnastics or swimming or track and field, a funny thing happens.  The Olympics keep going.  And if you're like me and have cable television and a newborn baby that has you up at odd hours, you are blessed with being able to watch some odd sports.  I've gotta admit:  I've actually kind of gotten into a few of these, to the point that I'm considering an Obscure Sports Quarterly subscription and a TV package that includes ESPN 8 ("The Ocho")...

While there are the obviously obscure choices like badminton and table tennis, here are a few that have caught my attention:

1. the steeplechase:  This one gets the prize for me, simply because I wasn't sure if I really saw this or if I dreamed it.  I asked Stephanie today which sport had a footrace with hurdles that were like horse hurdles, and a jump into a pool of water.  She looked at me like I was crazy.  Maybe I really did dream it up.  Nope.  That would be the steeplechase.
2. trampoline:  Athletes jump on a trampoline about 20 feet in the air and do all sorts of flips and whatnot.  It gets trickier because they have to stay within a small square portion of the trampline.  I really got into this one.  Very artistic and very athletic at the same time.
3. speedwalking:  Another one I thought I might have dreamt up.  It's just like it sounds:  you walk real fast.  While the dudes look pretty weird, I have a huge appreciation for what they do.  The main event is 20K, which is really close to a half marathon, my race distance of choice.  And the whole walking thing isn't far off from the Galloway run/walk method I like to utilize.
4. cycling:  Not the street cycling, but the indoor racing in the big wooden bowl.  Since I am the least coordinated person I know, I have a tremendous appreciation for sports which involve equipment.  The circular nature adds a little bit of NASCAR flair, and you're sitting there going "how do these dudes not wreck all the time?"
5. canoe/kayak:  The Chinese built a little whitewater river with a stadium beside it.  That right there is intriguing enough, but it's pretty amazing watching people not just go down the rapids effortlessly, but they have to go through all these little gates, not unlike downhill skiing.  And they make it look so easy...

Summer Reading Club, the home stretch!!!

OK, I know it's been a few weeks.  Hey - I've been busy!  But today you have the unprecedented, well, only a little bit precedented opportunity to take part in the Summer Reading Club!

• To participate, all you have to do is set up a little blog post about the books you've been reading.  A list would be kind of cool. 
• Put a link back to THIS POST in the body of your Summer Reading Club blog post.
• Use the Mr. Linky tool below to link back to your post.  Be sure to link back to the Summer Reading Club post, not your general blog URL.
• Bear in mind that the SRC ends NEXT WEEK.  For the final Summer Reading Club blogging party, everyone will do a list of what they've been reading.  It might not be a bad idea to start getting those lists together.  I mean, if you're interested in winning some kind of prizes...

Christian Crossover?

I've had this idea on my mind since our recent Billboard article which featured us on the cover with those exact words underneath us.

What do you think about the idea of "Christian crossover"?  What are some artists you think have successfully "crossed over" in your mind and done it in the right way?  Or do you think that Christians have no business participating in the culture at large?  Do you use words like "sacred" and "secular", or as we in the band joke "circular"?  What do you think our role is?

I know that's a ton of questions, but I'd love to hear your feedback.  I have my own opinion that I'll share with you later, but you go first.  I don't want my opinion to taint yours...

(my contribution to Watercooler Wednesday)

Out of the "fog"

Not long after I got home from Montana, the site of my last blog post, something felt a little wrong.  Just a tickle in the back of the throat.  As much as I tried to avoid it or deny it and keep a positive attitude, a cold hit me like a freight train Saturday night after our show in Michigan.  So I spent my Sunday in that "fog" you get when your brain is only operating on about 70%.  Well, I'm back today, sort of.  Consider this post my feeble attempt at getting something resembling momentum that I can use towards bigger and better blogging feats.  What that last sentence meant, I have no idea...

A little electronic postcard from Montana

1. Consider this a little care package, sent to you all the way from Missoula, Montana, home of the University of Montana Fighting Grizzlies.  OK, so I made up the Fighting part, but it sounded good right?
2. It seems like forever since I've posted around this joint so I figured I'd send some love from Montana to try to get some little bit of momentum going.
3. I've been busy, what with the baby and the album release and the Our Manager Doesn't Own a Globe Tour.  I also have a bunch of stuff I want to talk about around here, but haven't had the time.
4. Oh yeah, the baby.  Did I tell you we had a baby?  My beautiful wife Stephanie gave birth (with the assistance of some medical technology!) to a beautiful baby girl named Katherine Marlow.  I'll do a "we had a baby" post soon, but check out the wife's blog for more details (and some cute pictures!) 
5. I read Picnic at Hanging Rock the other day.  Very subtle, subliminal, slightly creepy, kind of gets under your skin in a good way.  Think E.M. Forster meets Charles Frazier meets, I don't know, M. Night Shamalama dude.  I'll try to get a full review going around here.
6. The Summer Reading Club is winding down!  Only 2 more weeks or so until you have to put your books down and we do some kind of statistical analysis and give out a couple of prizes.  Oh, dang.  I gotta figure out what those prizes are.
7. Skribit - keep on using that little Skribit box over there to the right.  I think it's cool as junk and I intend to use it both here and on the Third Day blog to try and get closer to the sweet spot as far as content goes. 
8. Facebook - i have like 150 unanswered FB requests and like 35 messages in my inbox.  Facebook is cool, don't get me wrong, but it's starting to feel like another email account that I have to check...
9. Twitter - Twitter, on the other hand, pretty much rules.  I wish they made it easier to find people.  And I wish it didn't crash multiple times in a given day.  But it is the one online app that has changed my online experience more than any other.  If you don't already follow me, I'm "marklee3d" on Twitter...

That's probably good for now.  I will try and get a little more regular around here.  Wait, that kind of sounded like a Doxidan commercial.  You know, when nature needs a helping hand.

OK, on that note, peace...

Summer Reading Club, back with a vengeance

Well, I had big blogging plans for this week. I set up that cool little Skribit widget and was excited about testing it out. I had a cool idea for Watercooler Wednesday. Over on the Third Day blog, I was going to do a bunch of stories behind the making of Revelation.

Then a sweet baby girl named Katherine Marlow Lee decided to come into the world a few days early :)

Now my blogging plans have changed. Look for those Revelation tales to crop up sometime between now and the beginning of the Music Builds Tour. I'll fool around with Skribit in the next couple of weeks as well.

And look for a picture of that sweet baby girl to materialize in the next day or two.

But in the meantime, I give to you, what you've all been waiting for. Well, what 14 or 15 of you have been waiting for. Another Summer Reading Club link up! Well, here it is.

• Post what you've been reading on your blog, with a link to this post.


• Use the Mr. Linky box below to enter the URL of your post.


• REMEMBER: Link to the specific SRC post, not your general blog URL!

NOTE: Not sure what's going on, but the Mr. Linky logo isn't showing up in the post. BUT if you click on the little question mark or blue box it will still take you through to the Mr. Linky widget. Sorry...

Creative chaos, literally: Third Day on local TV

Every Thursday comes and goes and I think "this week I'm going to participate in Creative Chaos" and I never do. But not this week. I've been up since before the crack of dawn to do a performance, and that's gotta be worth something, right?

Third Day performed on local TV today. Local TV is always "chaotic". And since we played some music, I hope that qualifies as "creative"!

At any rate, go HERE to see what I've been up to this morning!

(this is my first EVER contribution to Creative Chaos!)

Stagefright

Maybe if I demonstrate that I will actually respond to your Skribit requests, you will make more of them!  I think making anonymous requests an option would help too, but that's another story...

OK, stagefright.  It's a little known fact, but I used to get TERRIFIED right before going onstage.  And not just right before.  I would have this sense of dread all day, from the moment we arrived at the venue until we played.  It usually went away when the show started, but if I was having a bad night, it would just cripple me.

So what happened?  We were doing a show with Jars of Clay in about 1995.  Because it was near Atlanta, they wanted to play first, even though they were the bigger draw at the time.  So during their set, I stood out and watched the show.  I was having fun.  I looked around and saw that everyone else was having fun.  And it felt like God was saying "Mark, why don't you just do THAT when we go onstage?".  Then instead of dreading the performance, I was looking forward to a time when I got to have fun doing what I loved to do.

So do I get stagefright now?  No, not in the traditional sense.  If anything, there are nights when I wish I had it, just a little bit.  It helps to focus, and I want every time I go onstage to MATTER.  I don't want to act like it doesn't...

Do I get nervous before going onstage nowadays?  You bet.  But it's not in the traditional "stagefright" kind of way.  I can let myself get worried about technical things.  What if my gear's not working?  I just have to trust the team I have around me, that my guitar tech and the rest of the crew are going to be looking out for us.  I still get nervous before we play a new song - I don't want to mess it up and let everybody down.  So when we're doing the first night of a new tour and there are a bunch of new songs and a lot of technical things to think about, I'm a ball of nerves!

One more thing:  TV.  I don't get nervous when I'm playing on TV, but I do get nervous in the time leading up to it.  So, with two TV performances in the next week, I ain't gonna lie to you:  I'm nervous!  The key is to not think negative thoughts, and to channel the nervous energy into the performance...

ADDENDUM:  I don't think I clarified this well enough, but I think there's a big difference between "game day jitters" and true stagefright.  Being a little nervous before something is OK, even healthy.  It makes you take it seriously and it makes you prepare.  True stagefright comes from a different place.  That's the enemy - the voice that's telling you you're not good enough. 

As you were...

Skribit

If you'll look to your right, you'll see a little box that says Skribit.  I'm not really sure exactly what it does, but it was designed by a Georgia Tech student so it has to be good :)  Seriously, if you want to give it a try, it's a way for you to tell me what you'd like to see me blog about.  I think you just post your idea in the box, and other people can vote or add their comments to it.  Don't be nervous, don't be shy - step right up and have a try!

If it ends up being cool it would be perfect for the Third Day blog...

What country day looks like for me

Like I said in that last post, country day is so important to me.  I want to get my answer just so.  Ergo, I'm putting it in a separate post.  But first let me get this out of the way - I don't talk about it much, but I'm a MASSIVE country music fan.  I go through different phases (like my recent metal kick!), and of course I'm a rocker at heart.  But country's a VERY close second...

SO...here goes nothing:

Old School Country:

1. Buck Owens - He is not only the reason I got into country music, but a huge part of why I got into music, period.  Seeing him play that red, white and blue acoustic on Hee Haw every Saturday night was like the coolest thing in the world when I was about five.  Blame it on Buck and Ace Frehley, I guess...
2. Hank Williams - You will detect a theme here, but I give massive extra props to the rare "singer/songwriters" in country music.  Hank would've been among the first as far as country goes.  And I don't know who played steel on those old records (I should!) but he's amazing.  One of my very earliest memories in my life was my grandmother singing "Hey Good Lookin'" with me on her front porch.
3. Johnny Cash - No explanation needed, but I'll throw in a little story.  His road manager used to do shows with us from time to time. About a year before he died, those guys were on the phone right before we were taking the stage at a festival.  Mac said "Tell Johnny we think he rules!"  Word has it that Johnny turned to June and said "You hear that, June?  Those boys think I rule!"
4. Kenny Rogers - I'm seriously thinking about getting a WWKRD? bracelet.  Of course, "what Kenny would do" would involve acting in some made-for-TV movies, a chicken restaurant, and doing design work with Donald Trump. 

Others worth noting:  Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, The Oak Ridge Boys, Willie Nelson

80's/90's:

1. Clint Black - Like I said earlier, my fascination with country all started with Clint.  I've seen him in concert about three times, and they're always awesome.  He fits the singer/songwriter mold, and he's an amazing musician to boot.  If you don't believe me, track down the footage of him playing drums with Eric Johnson on Austin City Limits!  Clint had a black acoustic guitar, so I, up until a few years ago, always played black acoustic guitars...
2. Alan Jackson - Another great country singer/songwriter.  And he's from Georgia. AND the dude's got a MASSIVE string of hits!  My personal favorite is the Talkin' Song Repair Blues.  Remember When is a close second.  And Chattahoochee ain't bad either.
3. Travis Tritt - Another Georgia boy who rules.  He puts on a great show, and he's a mean guitar player.  And I'm Gonna Be Somebody is one of the best songs ever.  And it sure doesn't hurt that old Travis throws in a heavy helpin' of Southern rock!
4. Restless Heart - I had a chance to write a song with their singer Larry Stewart a few years back, and it was a huge honor.  Actually the honor was when he played Why Does it Have to Be Wrong or Right? on MY GUITAR.  It also kind of ruled when he sang on a demo for me!  I think I'll Still Be Lovin' You is the best country love song ever.  Side note:  that song was written by Kennedy/Rose.  Another country group that I LOVED during this era...

Others from this era worth a mention:  Trisha Yearwood (Georgia gal!), Alabama, George Strait, Garth (of course), Steve Wariner (great guitars), Vince Gill (more great guitars)

Current:

1. Phil Vassar - Phil's primary instrument is piano, which sets him apart from the pack.  Plus he's a GREAT songwriter with a big string of hits both as an artist and as a writer.  He came to a Third Day show a few weeks ago and I had to play it real cool so as not to freak him out!
2. Jo Dee Messina - Phil Vassar actually wrote I'm Alright and Bye Bye, two of her big hits.  She's one of those artists that you hear one of her songs and go "oh, I didn't know she sang that!"
3. Martina McBride - I think Martina's probably got the best female voice in country music, perhaps of all time (although I also dig LeAnn Rimes). 
4. Little Big Town - They've just got a cool vibe about 'em.  Sort of a country Fleetwood Mac. 
5. Jeffrey Steele - He is my songwriting hero, as far as country goes.  If you follow the genre at all, you don't have to look far to find a song you love that Jeffrey wrote.  Plus he's a great artist in his own right.

There are a bazillion other artists I could've mentioned:  Luke Bryan (another Georgia boy!), Josh Turner, Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry.  I hate to say it, but I even dig the new Jessica Simpson country song!