Catholic Podcasts…

Jeromey Balderrama

I’ve been meaning to post this for some time. While I do need to catch up on some life’s happenings, as well as some reflections from a six-week retreat that I’m taking part in – but I’m still struggling to find some time. I would like to share in an email that I wrote a few weeks back to a few friends of mine, and expand on this a bit. And give you an idea of a latest technology obsession of mine…

Friends of mine may know that I have been listening to a PodCast put on by Fr. Roderick Vonhögen, a diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands. For the last year, Fr. Roderick has been producing Catholic Podcasts (starting with the Catholic Insider) taking place in Rome. Fr. Roderick was in Rome during John Paul II’s death, as well as the Papal Conclave and offers some audio accounts of those events. Currently Fr. Roderick hosts a podcast called The Daily Breakfast, a 25-minute show that includes music, Catholic news, reflections, Entertainment Reviews (including shows like 24 and Lost), Health tips and lots of other information! It’s a really interesting PodCast and I find myself starting my mornings with this show. The Daily Breakfast is entertaining and reaches a vast audience, including many non-Catholics. One of my favorite segments Fr. Roderick does is called “The Peculiar Bunch” which “answers all those questions you have about Catholics, but are afraid to ask”.

The Daily Breakfast isn’t necessarily intellectually or spiritually challenging, but it’s incredibly entertaining, and it offers a lot of Catholic perspective on everyday happenings. This is an amazing example of how the church can offer ministry over the Internet. Essentially Fr. Roderick has created a virtual faith community. For Catholics like myself who are searching for a meaningful faith community, this is a wonderful opportunity to hear daily reflections and dialog with a Priest on many pop-culture issues, but also taking part in this Internet community as well. Fr. Roderick is also busy forming the StarQuest Podcast Network, a network of Catholic Podcasts and currently features some other entertaining shows.

I’d like to invite you to take some time and listen to a few episodes and see what you think! You don’t need an iPod to listen to a Podcast. “Podcast” is simply a term for a radio/audio show that can be downloaded on your computer, then moved to an iPod or MP3 player – but they can remain on your computer and you can listen to them as well. A great program to download & year Podcasts is Winpodder – http://www.winpodder.com/ , but you can also use iTunes as well – http://www.apple.com/iTunes . To subscribe to a Podcast simply visit the web site and click on the “Subscribe” links on the top right-hand side of the web page. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me!

The Daily Breakfast Show – http://www.sqpn.com/scripts/dailybreakfast.php
Catholic Insider Show – http://www.sqpn.com/scripts/catholicinsider.php
Catholic Insider Site – http://www.catholicinsider.com/ – More information about both The Daily Breakfast and Catholic Insider, as well as information about Fr. Roderick
SQPN Network – http://www.sqpn.com

One update that I think is fun. A few weeks back. Fr. Roderick asked his listeners from around the world to send postcards of where you’re from. I ended up sending him a postcard, and he actually read it on the air – too cool! To listen to that Podcast, download DB#88 – March 10th’s and listen towards the end of the Podcast!

New Band Opportunity

Jeromey Balderrama

Note: This post was originally a lot longer, but thanks to that stupid new Xanga editor it’s now gone. Their Undo/Redo controls are horrible – I won’t be using it again any time soon…

Geez, it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted here. Sorry about that. These last two weeks have been pretty crazy to say the least. It bothers me too because the perception is that I don’t post because I don’t have much to talk about. That’s quite the contrary. There have been so many times in these last few weeks when I thought or experienced something and said "Oh, I should write about this" but don’t have the time for it. I need to get better about making time. There are some really neat reflections or things that happen and if I don’t capture them here they’re just going to get lost.

I’ll try to recollect some of my experiences from the last few weeks in my next few postings, but for now I’d like to reflect on a really neat experience last night.

In my 13 years as a drummer, I’ve been in a lot of bands and have done a lot of projects. I’ve ranged from going mainstream rock to alternative to ska to jam/funk to old-funk to heavy metal to hip-hop to covers to ???? All throughout this time I’ve had my steady gig in church choirs to keep my skills from going completely dull, but for the last few months I’ve really been yearning to get back into the groove and jam out with some people. A few weeks back I decided to put up a posting on Craigslist and see if anyone would be interested. I actually got quite a few responses – so many that I got overwhelmed and left it alone for a few weeks, letting things get busy. But after some time I made some follow-ups and got a really good response from this Greeley-based band that was looking for a drummer.

On paper this looked like the perfect situation in many ways. While I really enjoy the song-writing and band-forming experience, I really am not at a place in my like or have the time to sit around and listen to guitarists write songs, play some random covers and watch a band come together. However, this was a well-established band that has already released an album, toured and done all of that cool stuff, simply looking for a replacement drummer. I liked the idea of walking into an established musical structure. So I decided to try it out…

After rescheduling our first rehearsal for over a month, we finally nailed down that I would go over and practice with them on Monday. As I started packing up my drum set on Monday I began having all of these thoughts of doubt in my head, asking myself whether I wanted to deal with the "musician mindset" again, what these guys were going to be weird, what if I didn’t fit their style, what if I just sucked and they’re going to kick my ass, what if I’m the one that’s head and shoulders above them. As I was driving to Greeley these thoughts began accumulating and I was really questioning whether this would be worth it. It didn’t help that I had misinterpreted the directions and showed up there 30 minutes later than I said I was (some guys waiting an hour for me).

I got such an amazing shock when I got there – just crazy coincidences.

First off, my "rock star" personality premonitions couldn’t be more off. Not only were these guys down to earth, but they were also awesome down-to-earth people! It was even crazier to find out that I went to high school with 3 of the 4 of them, although I didn’t know them back when I was in school. It still shows what a small world it is!

What made things even better was that we all came from the same place musically. They are all Christians and actually the band started off as a Worship band, then grew beyond Praise and Worship (which is a good thing because I can’t stand P&W outside of church), into a more mainstream rock band with positive messages. The music is very edgy but yet is pretty inspiring. This was exactly what I was looking for in music, it couldn’t be more on!

The music itself is amazing. It’s very diverse, utilizes a lot of great harmonies and has a lot of energy. They were really pleased with my playing (which was awesome because I didn’t think I did that well). I think there’s a lot of challenging stuff as far as the drums go, and I think there’s a lot I can offer with my style of drumming. I was very happy when they invited me back next week, and am anxious to see where this will go.

Overall I was reminded of the importance of approaching a situation with an open mind, and the pleasant surprises that are in store for you.

Godfather Pics!

Jeromey Balderrama

Ugh, lack of sleep over the last few days has caught up with me. It’s not even midnight and I’m already tired – what’s the deal!

A lot going on in being busy, but not enough energy to write about it. But a picture will say a 1,000 words – just like this picture of my God-daughter Sophia says more than I can ever say about how beautiful and precious she is! This was taken earlier this evening when I got to visit Sophie and her mom, my good friend Sam! I’m a lucky God-parent!

Great President’s Day Weekend

Jeromey Balderrama

This turned out to be a wonderful three-day weekend, filled with a lot of fun activities, a little bit of pain and some change of plans.

First off the change of plans: Originally I was going to learn how to snowboard, rescheduled from our attempt last weekend. However, with our arctic cold temperatures on Friday (-9 in the evening!), we made the call that it would be better to just fall on my butt and not freeze it off, so we’re going to go for strike three next weekend! Saturday turned out to be pretty nice. Sleeping in until noon is never horrible, and I got to go play drums at church and had a nice night!

Sunday brought about a ton of fun – Coldplay Concert! This really snuck up on me. Bethany and I bought tickets with my friend Matt and his girlfriend Amanda back in December and with everything being so busy with the new semester this concert came out of nowhere. It turned out to be exactly what I needed, especially with such a hectic previous week.

I’d like to write more about the show, but time + fatigue is simply allowing me to post some pictures (I’ll do so at the bottom).

Monday was also a blast with a Sledding Experience with my sister, her friend and Bethany. Originally I was really excited about getting up to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, but it doesn’t look like they’re allowing sledding up there this year (we were disappointed to see these big "NO SLEDDING" signs right out there. With the mild winter, maybe the lake isn’t as frozen over as it should be.. So we went over to Hidden Valley, which was definitely over-rated from everything I heard. There were a few small hills, but it was mainly families that were sledding with their little kids. We did manage to find a slope with a jump and had some fun. We all got some air, but I ended up really doing some damage to my tailbone. Maybe it’s a preview of what’s to come next weekend Hopefully not

So without further ado, pictures!

The Pepsi Center before Coldplay took the stage… This shows you how far back we were… My sister was in the 4th row!! Arggh

During "Yellow" all of these giant yellow balloons fell out of the ceiling. They were filled with confetti. This was a pretty cool shot.

I forget which song this was, but this is when I finally figured out how to take decent pictures in the dark Pepsi Center.

During one of the songs (I think it was "In My Place") Chris Martin came across the arena and stood about 20 feet from us! It was funny because I didn’t realize it was happening until he was right there. Bethany tapped my arm and I thought she was pointing to someone that security was going after, then I realize, "Whoa, that’s Chris Martin!"

This is my favorite shot. You can see the band on the big screen, right above where they’re really at. This was at the end of the encore when they bowed.

Bethany and I sledding Monday

Bethany got some air off that last jump!

This is me after taking a spill…