An Evening at Angel Stadium

We were honored to play at the Southern California Harvest Crusade on August 16…what an incredible experience.

Aside from the exhilaration of leading over 45,000 people in worship…or sharing the stage with the multi-platinum band P.O.D. and our friends in Leeland...or catching a brief glimpse from the dugout of a packed-out pro baseball stadium and imagining for an instant how terrifying it would be to be next up to bat in a critical game with a gazillion people depending upon you…aside from all of that, the coolest thing was watching some 4,000 people respond to Pastor Greg Laurie’s invitation at the end of the evening. The entire outfield was packed with people. I’m sure there was much celebration in heaven that night.

This was the first event that Pastor Greg had done since the tragic loss of his eldest son, Christopher, in a car accident just over 3 weeks prior. Please pray for the Laurie family through this toughest of times.

Diced Thumb

Rushing to get ready for our recent gig at Angel Stadium of Anaheim (which was actually an amazing evening...more to come in a separate post), I jammed my thumb across the teeth of a packing tape dispenser, and watched the blood start to flow...much to my chagrin. The saving grace was that the gig that night wasn't going to involve any slapping.

The bummer was that another production retreat for the "Pondering" follow-up (dang...I definitely need to come up with a name for this project) started the day after, and it was going to involve a lot of slap work. Suffice it to say that I ended up having to bail on my original plans and focus on other aspects of the project...because my thumb was expressing its displeasure every time I even entertained the thought of considering the possibility of maybe attempting a potential slap or two. :^)

The pic was taken a few days after the initial slicing debacle (for those of you who are looking at the pic and wondering exactly how much of a wimp this Norm guy really is). :^)

Rig Talk...

In this latest video blog, I got a chance to share a few thoughts about my favorite bass amplification gear. I've been an enthusiastic Gallien-Krueger user for the past 4 years, and continue to LOVE it.

Look for a factory tour in an upcoming feature!

By the way, I'm humbled to be the Featured Artist at the Gallien-Krueger website this month. Drop by www.gallien.com to check it out!

Blessings- Norm

Island Time...

WOW!

My family and I have been on a long-overdue vacation in Hawaii for the past week, and it's been absolutely incredible. As some of you know, I spent five years of my childhood living in Hawaii Kai on southeastern Oahu...so it's always a particular treat for me to be able to make it back here.

Spent 4 days on Maui at our timeshare in Kaanapali (the pic is the view out our window), with long stretches of snorkeling interspersed with short breaks to eat amazing food. Local food in Hawaii is...well, for me, it's kinda my soul food. It's a sublime blend of Asian (mostly Japanese, Korean & Chinese), Hawaiian and little dashes of American & European influences. Also had a great visit with Gina's brother & family who live about 5 minutes up the road from where we stayed.

Yesterday, we flew back to Oahu and visited with my parents and my brother & family. Watched the July 4th fireworks over Magic Island right out the window of my folks' condo. Happy July 4th to all of you of the USA persuasion, by the way!

I did bring along my bass in case I feel inspired one of these evenings to do some more writing and/or shedding...but for right now, I'm just recharging the batteries. I'm heading into a pretty busy stretch of conferences and road dates upon returning to the mainland the middle of next week, so have been taking the opportunity during this trip to get some focused quality time with my wife and daughters. It's been awesome. God is good.

Hope each of you are enjoying the summer, and are finding some downtime as well.

Blessings- Norm

Tour of MTD Facility!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I visited with Michael Tobias a few months ago at his shop in Kingston, New York (yes, it's the same "Kingston" for which "Autumn in Kingston" on my Pondering the Sushi project was named). Michael was kind enough to give us a rare glimpse into the operation where he builds what I (and countless others) consider the finest basses in the world.

Enjoy! And definitely drop by www.mtdbass.com for more info...

Blessings- Norm

Mixing underway for Lincoln Brewster project!

I've been receiving mp3's every day or two from Lincoln as he proceeds with mixing the new project, and have been sending my feedback & comments up his way. The upcoming Lincoln Brewster project ("Today Is The Day") will hit the stores on September 23, but there's a pre-release special being offered now at www.lincolnbrewster.com!

I'll try to get a few audio clips for you to check out in the near future...

Blessings- Norm

Working on the "Pondering" follow-up...

On June 6, I returned from a 4-day writing retreat in San Diego, working on material for the follow-up to my "Pondering the Sushi" CD. It was a really productive time, and I emerged with the basic framework for 9 songs written. There's still quite a bit of preproduction work left to do in terms of actually tracking the tunes, but the time spent was invaluable nonetheless.

I encountered a hiccup to the process when my Pro Tools set-up got a corrupted file and stopped working on Tuesday night. I ended up having to drive an hour north to my home in Orange County to retrieve the program discs and drive back down to San Diego. Then after all that, I still had to deal with tech support on Wednesday morning and download a patch before the application would properly launch again. AUGH.

Anyway, this is all to say to those of you who've been regularly inquiring as to the status of the project...progress is being made, and a bit of momentum has been generated!

My family from Hawaii is now in town for a long-overdue visit, and I'm taking about 10 days off to just chill and hang out (speaking of long overdue!)...then I'm planning to resume work on this project at every spare moment I have.

Thanks for your interest & I'll keep the updates coming as I have them!