Pointless Bits of Randomness on a Tuesday afternoon…

Jeromey Balderrama

Why last weekend was so cool / Why I love football:  On Sunday I got the chance to do something that I’ve been meaning to do this fall semester – stay home all freakin’ day and watch football on TV.  Watching two back-to-back games – 7 hours of football (followed by another 3 hours of off-and-on watching of the Sunday night game).  When I get excited about football season starting, this is exactly why I look forward to football – not because I want to kill a whole day watching TV, but because this is really an opportunity for me to take a mini-vacation from school, work, and all of my responsibilities, but at the same time be productive as well.  While I was watching football I did actually get my homework done & caught up, did a little bit of work, as well as lower my NCSC mountain of work that I need to do – it was quite productive.  At the same time, I was flipping back & forth between the two morning games (my Philly Eagles vs. the Raidahs, Green Bay & Tampa Bay), then watching an awesome game in the afternoon that came down to the wire.  On top of that, I had my Fantasy Football Stat-Tracker up and running for 7 hours (can you imagine having a web page open for 7 hours) – tracking the progress of my fantasy team and allowing me to keep tabs on all of the games and the impacts of the other teams in my fantasy league.

As the day progressed I realized that my fantasy teams were kickin’ some major butt.  I saw that with a few lucky breaks my football pool picks were coming true (I only missed one game the whole weekend!), and it was turning out to be a great weekend.  At the end of the day these accomplishments are trivial at best and will be forgotten in a week, but for a few moments, in my mind – I was king of the pigskin.

What’s also good is that this probably won’t happen again for some times (I’m talking about watching football all day, hopefully my strain of good luck will continue).  For the next two weekends I have weddings, drum clinics and a Broncos game to go to (I have it rough), but Sunday was exactly what I needed.

 

I made my way over to the DMB Warehouse web site to see what’s new, when I saw one of the coolest things I’ve seen this week:

Dave Matthews Band is interested in polling its fan base to find out what you’d like to see released from the Red Rocks weekend. Please select one choice from the following. Thanks for providing us with your feedback!

Please select below:

  • Red Rocks 9.9.05
  • Red Rocks 9.10.05
  • Red Rocks 9.11.05
  • Red Rocks Benefit for Hurricane Relief 9.12.05
  • Best of Red Rocks (all four nights)
  • Complete Red Rocks Box Set 9.9.05 – 9.12.05

My buddy Matt and I were talking prior to this, and we both have been predicting that they’ll make a Live CD of Red Rocks (okay, to give him proper credit – he predicted and I agreed) – so it’s really sweet to see this come true! What’s really cool is this will be the second Live CD Release of a show that I went to (I went to the Live at Folsem Field in 2001).

So for the record, I voted for Complete Box Set – of course!

 

Finally my friend Michael sent me one of the most annoying things I’ve seen in quite some time.  Watch it at your own risk – don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Random Music List

Jeromey Balderrama

Normally I don’t do things like this, but my good friend Andie did this and it intrigued me enough to do it myself (especially with the music collection I have):

1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the shuffle command.
4. Tell us the title of the next ten songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That’s right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It’s time for total musical honesty.

Jeromey’s List:

1. Rusted Root – Woman Got My Money
2. Beck – Soul Suckin Jerk
3. The Whites – Keep On the Sunny Side (from O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack)
4. Incubus – Megalomaniac
5. Dick Dale – Banzai Washout
6. Glenn Miller – St. Louis Blues March
7. Me First & the Gimme Gimme’s – Rich Girl
8. Tower of Power – A Little Knowledge (Is a Dangerous Thing)
9. Van Halen – Poundcake
10. Janet Jackson – What Have You Done For Me Lately

Your turn – DO IT!

Chicago Relections

Jeromey Balderrama

I thought I probably should reflect on Chicago, before too much time passes by…

Chicago overall was awesome!  We got a lot of good NCSC work done – 26 pages of minutes for our 3-day meeting.  We went through the discernment process and have chosen the next National Chair – Ross Gruebel.  Along with that we went to down-town Chicago to meet with the Conference Host team, which was productive and energizing.  We got a chance to tour the hotel which we’ll be staying at.  It turned out to be really nice!  After watching all of the hard work that the student host team has been putting into Conference, I left Chicago feeling more excited and pumped about what’s planned for December.  I’m really excited to bring this excitement and enthusiasm back to my region as well.

I was pleasantly surprised by the City of Chicago as well.  Chicago seems a lot like New York, but smaller, less busy and cheaper.  Their Millenium Park was really pretty.  One of my favorite things were these big pillars that were 5-7 stories tall, and were actually water fountains.  The pillars themselves faced each other and cast these large images through light.  Some of the images were pretty landscames, but most of them were these large images of faces (like the one pictured right).  I really like this pictures because the shadows of the spectators gives you an idea of just how big these structures are.  The area between the pillars was a concrete pond, that really seemed like water over-flow.  The ground was slightly slanted to allow 2-3" of water between these structures.  It was really pretty!  I’m anxious to go back in the winter to see what that area looks like.

While we did do a lot of work, there was still a lot of time for fun.  Some highlights include:

  • Learning how to play Bean Bag Toss…  I didn’t realize it could be a structured and fun game
  • Dance Dance Revolution – Maureen is amazing at that game. – Josh going "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom"
  • The Youth Group kids at St. Bede’s that hosted us.  It was so refreshing to be around a dynamic, vibrant group of kids that really enjoyed being at church.
  • Playing that funky ice-cream eating game!  It was funny to see everyone chowing down on their sundae’s with no hands (picture below).
  • "Bop It! Pull It! Twist It!"

Some pictures below:

The National Team with the Host Team right after dinner

My good friend Erin & me

Ice Cream!

  • More pictures on my Shutterfly site

Drumming Dispute

Jeromey Balderrama

Not a happy camper right now…

Next Friday night, my choir/group from church will be playing at a Habitat for Humanity Benefit Concert.  There are 8 groups performing throughout the evening, and the groups range from very choral singing, to very contemporary rocky-worship music.  Our group is one of the latter.

Late last week we got an email from the guy coordinating the concert giving us details of how things will go.  I guess that the church we’ll be playing at has a Piano, Organ and drum set already there.  However, being that I use a different drum set configuration that most people (my two small toms are switched around -almost like marching tenors, I have a piccolo snare, along with the fact that my set has a ton of cymbals -9 cymbals total, while their set only has 4).  I emailed the coordinator to see about bringing my own drum set…  My points were:

I understand that Redeemer Lutheran has given us permissions to use their drums, keyboard and piano.  I was wondering if there would still be the possibility in bringing our own equipment, namely the drum set.  Unfortunately my drum set configuration deviates a bit from the standard configuration (namely with the Tom & Cymbal placements), and it would be a tremendous help if I could bring my own equipment.

I realize there are only 10 minutes in between groups for change over, but if I could possibly set up my drums & cymbals in a pre-staging area (or off the stage), I can easily have my equipment on the stage and ready within 10 minutes.  Another alternative could be to have the drums already set up on the stage (I could come in earlier in the day or even earlier in the week), and simply covered with a black sheet (so it will not be a distraction to any other performing groups).  Would you be open to either of these alternatives?

Well I got my reply today, and let’s just say I’m not too pleased with it:

From your message, it sounds like you would feel more comfortable bringing
in your drum set to use because of the placement of the cymbals and toms.
Being a musician myself I certainly understand your concern.  Borrowing
equipment for a performance is never the preferred arrangement!

I have two concerns:

1.  Setting up a second drum set will be difficult because the performance
area is very limited.  Having two drums sets would really stretch the
available performance space.

In addition, because I’m a musician, I’m very sensitive to the sound quality
the audience will hear, and mic’ing a drum set properly is VERY tricky.  I
do recording in my home studio and have done my share of live sound, and
drums are one of the most difficult instruments to mic properly to get a
good sound.  Since the drum set at Redeemer Lutheran has already been set up and mic’ed to optimize the sound, it makes it MUCH easier and simpler to use
the existing set up.

2.  To be fair to all the bands that are performing, I would not want to
open the door to allowing one band to set up their own drum set.  If I did
that, I would have to open up the possibility of having every group that
wants their own drum set to bring it in.  That would make my head explode!!
 

In light of the two concerns, I’m requesting that you use the drum set at
Redeemer Lutheran.

Okay, this is a musician, but he’s obviously not a drummer.  My responses and concerns to his points:

  • It’s not really about borrowing equipment, and it’s easier for a guitar/bass player (which he likely is) to try to be sympathetic to the drummer.  He gets to bring his own guitar and just plug it into the Amp/Sound System – that’s not the same as playing someone else’s drum set.  Drummers always get dissed by other "musicians".
  • I understand he doesn’t want my drum set up there limiting other people’s performance space, but in my original message I offered to move it on and off the stage within the 10 minutes.  I’ve been to enough Jazz festivals and battle of the bands to be able to move my set up drum set from one area to another in 5 minutes – this 10 minute switch-over is cake.
  • Why is he mic’ing the drums?!?  I haven’t been over to the church, but I can’t imagine this performance area being much bigger than our church.  The venue’s still small enough for the drums to project themselves without being lost.  The only other advantage to Mic’ing the drums is that the sound engineer would have full-control of the levels – but at the same time if you have a trained ear that listens to your group then you have no problems finding your balance.
  • About being fair to everyone else – I concede his point, but at the same time have any of the other groups made this request?  It’d be one thing if he turned people down that asked before me, but if I’m the first that asked, and being that we’re a week out from the event – I think it’s safe to say that he’s not going to be approached again. I’d be willing to give up playing my own set if someone else asked about bringing their own set.  Having 3-4 drum sets is out of the question, but 2 sets are manageable.

Why is this a big deal?  To people who may not be musicians – imagine yourself driving in your car – and let’s say you decide to take up drag racing.  You practice for weeks in your car and have raced to the point that you’re comfortable with your car.  You know where all of the controls are by heart, you know how sensitive your clutch is, you can shift gears with easy, and you can corner your turns smoothly. – Then you go to a huge race and right before you’re expected to drive someone else’s car.  Sure you know where the gas, brakes & gear-shift are, but it’s not the same as driving your own car.  And because it’s someone else’s car, you’re not going to take the same risks as you would in your own car, for fear of breaking it.

This will be the 5th time I’ve had to play someone else’s drum set- and in the previous 4 times this has always turned out badly for me – the performance sucked and things don’t work out.  On top of this, this isn’t someone else’s drum set – this is the church’s drum set.  And one of the laws in the drummers handbook states "If the drum set is a church drum set, it’s guaranteed to suck."

I’m not trying to sound selfish here, and I don’t want to forget the fact that all of these efforts are going to a charitable cause.  However, if they’re going to bring in musical groups for a benefit concert, we should have the right to play the best that we can – to make some awesome music for people to enjoy, and to do that I need my own instrument.

Update:  We’ve reached a compromise on the drumming controversy.  I’m going to use their drums, but will be able to bring in my own hardware and cymbals… Still not totally happy about it, but what can you do?

J23 Building Drama

Jeromey Balderrama

<edit> This post was started about a week ago, and has been sitting on my hard drive.  With things being as busy as they have been I haven’t been able to update my Xanga as often as I’d like. </edit>

 

While I was away at my “weekend at Dave’s”, it seemed that the world did, in fact, turn while I was away.  Not just turned, but spun, and I don’t think anything spun as fast as the latest University Ministry Advisory Council (or UMAC) drama that took place.

 

So much has happened, I’m really even really sure where to go begin.  It all surrounds a meeting that took place last Thursday, where a small group of students, faculty & parishioners, raised some questions about a memo written by the “student representative” on our building committee.  I quoted “student representative” because while the author of the memo claims as such, he has not been a student for 2-3 years.  While I personally did not agree with the motive, content, or message in the memo, the group raised some valid concerns about the credibility and legitimacy of the memo.  Specifically, we were concerned because the student claimed in the memo that a survey of 100 students had taken place, in which they stated the reason they are not involved with our student group or attend our church is due to the fact that our worship space is unattractive and needs to be renovated.

 

After a lengthy discussion, the members of the council agreed that we would send the building committee a memo that would highlight some of our concerns addressed, not stating any official stance regarding the issues in question.  Because we did not have all members present (and to be fair, no members of the campus ministry staff present), we decided that this would not be an official position statement, but rather highlight issues by some of the memos.   Additionally, the chairperson and author of the response asked to email his message to all UMAC members for comments before sending it on to the building committee.

 

Our chairperson drafted a very nice, straight forward and detailed response, one which I had felt was fair.  Unfortunately these sentiments were not shared with the University Ministry staff, and resulting in a scathing letter from one of the University Ministry letters.  I want to respect the privacy and opinions of all members of the council and therefore will not post any messages but my own on here, but if you’re interested in reading it, perhaps it will give you a sense of what’s going on with this issue, and where I’m coming from on it.

 

·        Read My Email

 

Since then, numerous emails have gone out, fires have been blazing.  The UMAC Chairperson sent out his own response to the message, one which I thought was fairly well-written.  Some other responses went out, and finally a lengthy and detailed email from the University Minister.

 

Since then the issue has tapered, but it looks like UMAC is starting off on another interesting year.  At this stage it’s pointless to break down the semantics of this specific issue, but I think these are symptoms of bigger problems:

 

Issue #1: A statement from the University Minister’s letter states: “In the meantime, I believe [the chairperson’s] statement about UMAC meetings applies to University Ministry as well: members of the council wishing to participate in the advising of University Ministry are encouraged to participate in its events and trust the decisions and programming made by the University Ministry staff.”

 

I think this is one of the central issues, UMAC in general doesn’t trust the University Ministry staff and the decisions & programming.  Frankly, by going through the issues UMAC had (the debate to bring FOCUS to campus, the University Minister Search Process, Director of Campus Ministry search botched and canceled), we’ve been given good reason not to trust the leadership and the decisions and programming made by which.  That, combined with the staff’s relative inexperienced (when compared to the previous staff), we’re more apt to second-guess decisions that are made.

 

I’m not really sure how to rectify this issue.  I think that trust needs to be earned, but at the same time, I’m personally guilty in not being giving with my trust in this particular situation.  There is blame on both sides, but I think this is an issue that we as a collective council need to work through.

 

Issue #2: One last excerpt from the UM letter: “Thank you for your hard work in the parish throughout the years and your continued patience and support for University Ministry.”

 

Someone who is very wise pointed out this statement and posed the question: Do these words describe a healthy, vibrant, collaborative ministry?

 

I don’t think so.  I think that the potential is there – it exists because we’ve experienced this type of ministry in the past.  I think we’re on the path back to this model, but I’m not sure how fast we’ve moving in this direction.  The passion is there, along with the desire, but I don’t think the experience and wisdom is in place to bring this program back to the prominence that it enjoyed.

 

That being said, I think UMAC is blessed with those two virtues and has the potential to gift the University Ministry staff with what it needs to successfully move forward.  The real issue is – what is the purpose of this council?

 

My personal vision would be that this group could offer the most accurate representation of University/Campus Ministry to our faith community – internally this can be done by gifting the Staff & Leadership with experience and advice to help run an effective University Ministry program.  The staff can take comfort that they are receiving the highest quality advice because the group is made up of students, faculty, and invested parishioners that are well-versed in University Ministry.

 

At the same time, because of the group’s diversity (with the above said, combined with the UM Staff & Leadership) this group would be the definitive source to offer an accurate “pulse” of Campus Ministry in our parish.  Various leadership groups (like the building committee) can come to UMAC and leave knowing they received a well-rounded opinion of how their initiatives will impact all the components of University Ministry.

 

In relation to the staff, UMAC could offer objective, constructively-critical feedback regarding University Ministry programming, as well as offer support and advice on any issues or situations.  The staff should not feel forced to take UMAC’s advice, but rather they feel comfortable in following what is advised, knowing that everyone has the success of University Ministry in their best interests.

 

However, my fear is that the staff looks to UMAC more like a support group, people who are seated around the table to provide assistance in whatever way they can (through affirmation, financial contribution, prayer, and volunteer efforts).  This group’s role is to implement the decisions of the Staff & Leadership have made.  The group offers feedback on current initiatives, but this the group does not have any visionary power, nor do they have the ability to speak for University Ministry without the guidance of the Staff & Leadership.

 

Their vision is not a bad vision.  While I disagree with their intentions (or more accurately my perception of their intentions), I think our greatest issue is the role and purpose of UMAC is not defined, or communicated amongst the various individuals within the group.  My hope is that in the coming meetings we’ll have an opportunity to ask “Why are we here”, and that we’re all on the same page with our answers.  At the same time, if the conclusion of the drawn and (my perception of) their wishes becomes a reality, I think the quality of the minds and hearts of the people sitting around that table will be wasted, and I think many members will leave UMAC, myself included.  This committee offers a treasure trove in wisdom and experience; please don’t toss this overboard simply because it’s too heavy of a weight on the staff.