Yarrr!...And a fine day to all of yous, mateys! Sick. I sound like my brother. Have I too now succumed to the glorious life of a buccaneer?...For any of you who have seen my brother since the release of Pirates of the Caribbean, you will understand. Kevin has banned him from seeing the Last Samurai in fear of having to live with a katana-wielding pirate/ninja. Again, for those of you who know him...You'll know what I mean.
So it's a miserable blizzarding winter outside. It was beautiful until yesterday and then BAM. Apparently we have used up all of our nice day vouchers. I was hoping winter would end early this year because it came before thanksgiving, but we'll see. It still may.
So in other news, I have been laid off. Yup, tis true. I have joined the ranks of the "between-jobs". It's been frustrations, a little scary, humbling and probably one of the best things for me. God has informed me that I am in "Spiritual surgery #2" (the first being in Jesus School).
From February I went through a deep time of breaking, and I had to loose a lot of the emotional defenses and learn to be real, to accept some difficult truths and learn to trust.
NOW...I am suddenly feeling like the ceiling is caving in on me. Through a series of events, I have lost some security that I had found in friends, I have lost the security of a job and a steady income, and am now questioning what I thought I had figured out - my future in regards to the career and the school I had chosen. It is a trying time for me. But gotta have more death, right? God told me specifically that I would experience three different seasons of "surgery" - where he would be taking things away and replacing them with His truths so ya...GOOD TIMES!
He has been very patient with me through my emotional freakouts and stupidity - like when He writes the answer down right in front of me and I still fail the test! (and so have my family and friends for that matter!)
I am also very excited about some of the new stuff coming out on the music scene - both secular and Christian, although I prefer to call it "uplifting" and "not-so-uplifting". I just think that if some of the most powerful worship experiences I've had have been through "secular" music, then it's not about whether it's Christian or not.
So without further ado, the "GRANNY AWARDS ACCORDING TO CHA"

Best New Worship Album:
"Dwell" - the new one from the vineyard. It combines a lot of really cool sounding guitar licks, smoking percussion with really accessible, singable songs. The recording quality is really good, the band is tight and most of the songs are well written. Plus the bonus DVD toolkit really lets you into the hearts of worship leaders and the band and the tutorial lets you play it like them...well, one maybe day! Super cool chords and arrangements.

Best New(er) Worship Songs:
Dwell - Casy Corum (Of the Dwell CD)
Alive in this moment - Starfield
Always Known You - Ten Shekel Shirt (off the album Risk)
You Are My King (Amazing Love) - Newsboys (off the album Adoration)
Grace like Rain - Todd Agnew

Best New(er) Stuff Out:
Unwell - Matchbox 20
So far away - Staind
Deliverance - Bubba Sparxx
What do you believe - Grits feat. Jennifer Knapp
Where is the love - Black Eyed Peas
Will You - P.O.D.
Fallen - Sarah McLaughin
Move - John Reuben
Resurrection - Sevin
Here without you - 3 Doors Down
Ohh Ahh - Grits
Numb - Linkin Park
My Immortal - Evanesce
Perfect - Simple Plan
Life is short - John Reuben
Heaven-Live
Tear - Warren Bainright(?)
More To Life - Stacie Orrico
The first cut is the deepest - Sheryl Crow
You Dance - EastMountainSouth
Someday - Nickelback

New Albums Out (rated out of 5)
John Reuben - Professional Rapper (****)
Adoration - Newsboys (***)
3 Doors Down - Away from the sun(*****)
Vineyard Music - Dwell (*****)
Sarah McLaughlin - Afterglow (*****)
Ten Shekel Shirt - Risk (***)

New Stuff I Haven't Heard Yet (But I Want To)

P.O.D.'s New album - sounds like it'll be really good. They got a new guitarist, so we'll see.

Jobie's New CD Should be coming out soon - apparently he recorded it with the Rock N Roll Worship Circus? (That's what he told my brother). Should be cool.

The Outkast CD! - On their new disc, the 2 members split up and separately each did an album - can you say 2 for one! I don't like some of their stuff for (obvious) moral reasons, but other tracks are great! "Fellas...what's cooler than cool?...ICE COLD"

And thank you for being a part of the first "GRANNY AWARDS"...stay tuned! More to come when I get another job so I can buy some new CD's!