Got to brag on my life

Laurie put together a video for encounter’s two year anniversary this morning.
Unfortunately she was working in the nursery and didn’t get to see it played on the “encounter jumbotron.”
But she did a great job picking out photos that really highlighted the message we were looking for.
The band played the song, “And Now my Lifesong Sings” and we displayed the words over the bottom 1/4 of the video with MediaShout, similar to what we do with most other songs.

Here’s the video with Casting Crown’s recording of the song:

DJ Shadow In Tune and On Time

DJ Shadow did a full gig recently in London with his DJ setup as well as an amazing visual/cinematic experience.
I love it.
The music along with the visuals is almost hypnotic and the combination of the two is great. I’m not sure if it was live or edited later in but it would appear several times that the video is primarily displayed using rear projection onto three screens but then it’s also projected from the front so the visuals appear on him while he DJs as well. I’m certain it’s just great video editing that took place later on – but it’s a cool look and idea.
He also utilizes a number of inteli-beams lights around the stage for added effects.
You can check out the set online on Ben Hanbury’s blog (just a heads-up, it’s a huge download)

Huckabee gains union support

In what might be an odd twist, Mike Huckabee gained the support of a national trade union this week, along with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
Both Huckabee and Clinton received endorsements from The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and Edwards picked up a nod from the carpenter’s union.

The Machinists union has 700,000 members and estimates a third of the membership votes Republican. It is the first time the union has done a dual endorsement. It chose to do so this year to encourage all members to participate in the election…
“Mike Huckabee was the only Republican candidate with the guts to meet with our members and the only one willing to figure out where and how we might work together,” said Buffenbarger. “He is entitled to serious consideration from our members voting in the upcoming Republican primaries.”

Read the full story from the AP and Houston Chronicle

In other news, it appears the candidate list for the Texas GOP Straw Poll in Fort Worth will be mighty slim this weekend.
Huckabee just announced he would not be attending the event, which will leave “only two” GOP candidates making an appearance.

While the GOP hoped for a star-studded event featuring all the candidates, just two will appear, diminishing the poll’s importance in the early stages of the presidential race. But party officials predict thousands of delegates will still attend, making for a big political show in Cowtown.

Now I am confused by the article in the DMN. It says (as written above) that only two candidates will appear – but then later in the story it lists five candidates who are appearing:

Ron Paul: The Lake Jackson congressman, the only anti-war Republican running, is making the biggest push, providing buses from Houston, Austin and San Antonio. A former Libertarian nominee for president, he’s emphasizing gun rights, opposition to abortion and a call to dismantle the IRS.

Duncan Hunter: The California congressman emphasizes his role in building border fences, and he chaired the powerful Armed Services committee until this year but has had trouble gaining traction.

Hugh Cort: A homeland security expert and self-described Christian conservative, he warns that Osama bin Laden is smuggling weapons across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Raymond McKinney: The Savannah, Ga., Republican emphasizes a shift toward nuclear power to cut pollution and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

John Cox: An Illinois businessman and former county GOP official.

Did I miss some special/fuzzy math somewhere? Either way, being his home state, this is Ron Paul’s chance to show he’s worthy of a nomination. If he can’t win in his home state (especially with the top dogs not attending) his campaign could be in trouble for sure. If you were lucky enough to get an invite and want to pay the $50 for a ballot ($75 at the door), I hope you enjoy your time and vote Huckabee. For the rest of us we’ll just stand around and watch the results from home.

Finally, Huckabee has a scheduled blogger’s conference call this afternoon. I’d love to be a part but my regular job kinda keeps that from happening. We’ll try and get a link to the audio of the call as soon as it’s available. Maybe they’ll hold a call on Saturday or Sunday one of these days.

Billy Graham released from hospital

After nearly a two week stay, Billy Graham is going home.

The Charlotte-born evangelist was admitted to the hospital, 20 minutes from his home, in the wee hours of Aug. 18 because of intestinal bleeding. He had two more episodes while at the hospital, but none since doctors cauterized the bleeding in Graham’s colon Aug. 22.
“We have been pleased that he has been able to come back from this incident as well as he has,” Dr. Lucian Rice, Graham’s personal physician, said today. “He will continue to have therapy at home, and I feel that he can have a very good recovery.”

Vote for Thaxton

Yes, this is for another radio station other than OrangeNoiseRadio, but I’ll always give love to friends and family…

Thaxton has an opportunity to be named the 102.1 Edge Feature Band of the Week.
From the band:

Please vote for our band, it’s easy…NO Regietering just select THAXTON and submit vote, don’t forget to listen to our song. WE NEED YOUR HELP! Below is what the station sent us, please go to these links!!!

Each week one band is chosen as the Edge Feature Band of the Week. The featured band will be highlighted on the home page and local music pages of the Edge website. Their song will also be played over the air on the Local Show with Chris Ryan!

The featured band will be chosen based on 2 factors:

1) The number of times your song is listened to

2) The number of votes your band receives on the local music voting page

The votes and downloads will be tallied every Wednesday at 4:00 and the new featured band will be updated on Thursday morning each week.

LISTEN TO THAXTON’S SONG

VOTE FOR THAXTON