STRANGER, new album of mostly new music, to be released in days.

During my visit to the Old Country in May, I was given the opportunity to play for two congregations: Independent Bible Baptist Church in Nuneaton and Kingsmeade Baptist Church in Cannock Chase.  Since that time, I have had several requests for CDs.  So …

… due to popular demand, I have self-produced a new album, STRANGER.

All of the songs, except 6, 7, and 10, are complete works of my own, from writing to recording, the songwriting spanning much of the last eight years.

Track listing:

1.   Blackburn’s Orchard
2.   Jesus Came To My House
3.   In The Way
4.   Living water
5.   On My Way
6.   Amazing Grace*
7.   Door+
8.   You Found Me
9.   Here Am I; Send Me
10. Wayfaring Stranger**
11. Blackburn’s Orchard (Reprise)

* words by John Newton; music Traditional (House Of The Rising Sun)
+ words by Amanda Heindel; music by Roxanne L. Martin
** words and music Traditional

Music pages have been created both on Facebook and MySpace .  If you are interested in getting a copy, you can contact me via those websites or through this blog.

Thanks!

Roxanne

Be Thou My Vision

Yesterday, I was flipping through the guitar music for the hymnal we use at church.  Nearly every time I would grab a stack of pages to turn them over (as you have to do with huge three-ring binder systems), I would open to “Be Thou My Vision”.  My history with this hymn is full of holes. I had heard it hear and there through the years, but can’t remember ever singing it in the church I grew up in, so I was fairly unfamiliar with it.

Until yesterday, that is.

I spent an hour or more before the morning’s church services and a couple more today, following the music and searching for a key with which I was comfortable.  Then, I dug out the actual vocal hymnal and took a look at the lyrics. (The guitar hymnal only has the first verse. Slackers, I know.)

My initial reaction was, “Wow, what an awesome song.”  The music alone is beautiful, taken from an Irish folk melody, but the words are powerful. It moves me deeply, especially with the things currently taking place in my life.

I accepted Christ as my personal Saviour in the fall of 1990; I was six.  Throughout the 19 years since then, there have been many aspects of faith that I have struggled with, some more than once.  If there’s a repeat-offender, it’s a reluctance (sometimes, it feels like an inability) to set my affection on things above (Colossians 3:2).  Not that I don’t desire those things above, but more and more, I am distracted by the things of this world.

Recently (literally, in the last weekend), I’ve begun to pray that peripheral distractions would remain just that – peripheral, that my eye would be singular (Matthew 6:22) and that my delight would be in the Lord (Psalm 37:4).  That verse in Psalm reads, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”  It has often been preached that this refers to receiving that which your heart desires, but I disagree.  To me, that verse teaches that the desires of your heart will shift from things of this world, to things of the Lord when you delight in Him.

If I desire anything right now, it is to be after God’s own heart.

Be Thou My Vision (An ancient Irish hymn, translated from the original tongue by Mary E. Byrne and versified by Eleanor H. Hull.)

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art–
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son.
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

I’ll leave you with this passage of scripture found in Philippians, chapter 3, verses 7 and 8.

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

NERD-ALERT: Supernatural (CW) Theory

I don’t have the energy to make this as detailed as my last NERD-ALERT theory and, as such, will present this one in simplified bullet-points:

- Zachariah is part of Uriel’s douche-troupe.

- Upon discovering this, Castiel kills Zachariah.

- Lilith has to die to break the seal.

- Once Lilith is out of the way, Ruby moves in to take her place as Lucifer’s right-hand … whatever.

- The Winchesters are a means to an end.

- Manipulated to their fleshly limits, Sam and Dean regroup and bring on the Rock-Salt Apocalypse.

I’m feeling like Dean has vowed obedience to the very team for whom he’s trying to keep Sam on the bench.  Maybe there’s a “Who kills her first gets to take her place” contest running in Lucifer’s cell and Zach and Ruby Lithp are neck-and-neck.  I dunno.  I just don’t trust either of them and would have thought both boys would have known better.

NERD-ALERT!! Battlestar Galactica Epiphany/Theory

Before I dive-in, I have to say that, generally speaking, I’m not a theory-troller.  I let fans make their speculations and leave them alone, rarely reading them.  Of course, there are blogs/journals/what-have-you that I follow and they do crop up.  The following was not found on any websites, but instead was an “OMG-What-If?!”-moment I had whilst driving around with my father earlier.

I was explaining to him the little bit that I understand about the upcoming BSG-prequel series, “Caprica”.  (Admittedly, not a whole lot.)  What I interpret from the trailers and what I’ve read online, there is a suicide bombing and amongst the victims are Zoe Graystone (daughter of Daniel Graystone, a computer engineer) and Evelyn and Tamera Adama (wife and daughter, respectively, of Joseph Adama, a civil liberties lawyer).  Political rivals prior to the bombing, the two bond and Graystone, using breakthrough technology in artificial intelligence, downloads the personalities of both his and Adama’s daughters into robotic recreations.  (The details of this are fuzzy from the trailers, but I’ve read a little that they uploaded their personalities into an online social-networking avatar …?).

So, whatever with all that.  That’s what I was telling my father.  I got into a bit of a heated monologue as I started rattling off things like:

“How is this supposed to be possible, since we know that the Final Five were on Kobol 2,000+ years ago?”

“And the thirteenth tribe was all cylon … again, 2,000+ years ago, so how is this stuff that Graystone puts together ‘early Cylon’ technology’?”

Then, I remembered something.   In the last episodes of Season 4 of Battlestar, we were informed by two of the final five that they created eight human models.  This was a big “WTF”-moment for fans seeing as the creators had dangled the “fifth” in front of us for over a year just to reveal her and then drop the bomb that there was another one out there – number seven.

Oh, but wait.  They’re not out there because someone tainted the ooze that they incubate in, or whatever (bear with me and my poor descriptions – it’s been a couple months since I saw the episode), and all of them were ‘killed’.  What did they call him?

Daniel.

So … I suppose my theory is this.  Could Daniel Graystone be a cylon?  Sleeper agent, perhaps, whose mission was to introduce cylon technology to this later generation of the human race?  Furthermore, to, ultimately, bring about the Fall of the Twleve Colonies?  You know all that, “This has all happened before and will happen again” mumbly jumbly.

I don’t know, but there it is.  I kind of whooped and started tapping out text messages to people who probably couldn’t care less.  Just like this blog.

The Know.

Updates, updates, updates:

For those of you who don’t know, my last day with R.R. Donnelley was February 4.   After a lively afternoon of greasy fare, bowling and a couple beers at RetroBowl in Liberty, I took a quick nap and hit the road for Shreveport, Louisiana.  I arrived at Cousin’s around … ten o’clock in the morning.  (I’m sure you can imagine my cheery disposition that morning …)

While I was in Louisiana, I had two job interviews.  Well … one job ‘interview’ and one ’sit-down visit’.  The actual interview was for a commercial printer in Shreveport and I think it went pretty well, considering I’m a poor interviewee.  They had me speak with the GM, the Prep Manager and one of the owners, but by the time the owner got there, I was well loosened up and I think we hit it off better than the first two.  I managed to answer his/her/their questions with mild clarity and got the point across even if it wasn’t in the exact terminology they were looking for.  (I’m thinking this it acceptable, but not preferred.)  They said they’d be in touch.

This past Wednesday, I took a little trip out to Marshall, Texas to talk with a fellow from a design firm there that contacted me in January about my resume.  One look at this place and I could tell I wanted to work there.  The people were super-friendly, the atmosphere was cool, the building was nifty, and the job sounded awesome — exactly what I would want to be doing.  As I said before, we didn’t really ‘interview’.  He talked a little about who they and what they did and gave an overview of what they would be looking for in terms of skills that a new employee would possess and the duties required.  By the time I walked back to my car, I was already praying that this would be an open door for my career.  He said that if I didn’t hear from him in a week and half, it wasn’t because they weren’t interested, but because they’re really busy (another good thing especially with today’s climate in the printing industry) and that I shouldn’t hesitate to call and make a second appointment to meet with him and go over a few more things. Overall, it sounds like this opportunity has the most potential.

Either job, were they to make offers, would -obviously- require me to relocate; a commitment I’m more than willing to make.  Cousin has offered to let me stay with them until I can find something down there that would suit my needs, which is a big relief, but not without second-thoughts as I don’t like living off of people.  Still, I will help out financially where I can to make sure they’re not burdened by my presence. As far as my house in Gladstone is concerned, there has been some guarded interest from a couple I worked with to rent it.  I’m getting all my stuff sorted at the moment to show them what I’ve got.  This is going to take some prayer, too.  Losing the wage that I was making with Donnelley makes it impossible to meet my mortgage payments in the here and now while I wait for a job.  Unemployment benefits (whenever they start to arrive) will barely cover it, leaving my utilities thought about, but unpaid.

Thankfully, I have two separation checks coming to me (one today and another in two weeks) that will help out.  By the time that second check shows up, I just hope I have a job to go into and so that I may begin to actually earn money again.

All in all, I’m confident that I’ll be taken care of one way or another in the days ahead.  I just hope I don’t forget that when things start getting ugly.

Larry Flynt says Americans are ‘too depressed’ for sex.

The adult entertainment industry seeks a $5 billion bail-out.

… industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. “People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in the statement. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

You can read one account of the story here. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me.  I think some of my brain just trickled out of my ear.  Good day.

Christmas Tunes for You from Me

Since I’m not ‘buying’ presents this year, I thought I would ‘grace’ (hem hem) you all with a song or two.  (I only really know two Christmas songs well enough to share them with you …) So … Merry Christmas!  No, you cannot return either of them, I’m sorry. 

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Housing Options

As you may or may not know, I have been in a dither about what I’m going to do with regards to my house now that I’m part of a workforce reduction.  I may not show it, but I’m seriously worried and completely indecisive.  The only thing I know that I have to do is get out from under it, one way or another. Nothing is written in stone about what I’m really going to do, but after some long discussions, I think I have a general plan. … I think.

Since I’m not going anywhere for Christmas this year (I should blog about how I’ve sworn off my extended-family for Holidays ‘08, but probably won’t), I’ll probably spend my five-day weekend packing up my stuff and getting ready to move it to my friend’s house in Independence.  (In case you’re wondering, my parents have offered to let me move back to their house, but I’ve tasted freedom and really just can’t swallow going back there at this time.)  After the first of the year, I’m going to shut off my utilities and have my cable moved to my friend’s house also and probably chill there while I put my house back on the market and finish up my time at work.  (Wonderful.)

After that, I dunno. I still want to go to Louisiana, but if I can stay in Kansas City, I’d like to.  I mean, hell.  I like Missouri a lot, regardless of what anyone else says.

In related news, after discussing all this with my friend today, another possibility for a low-rent situation in my general area opened up through my pastor. 

I hate talking about this stuff.  It wears me out.  While I don’t mind it, I’m already going grey and I’m 24 for flip’s sake.  I just want to chill for a little and let my mind rest.

In conclusion … Here’s to selling my house. …

I have one word to say about the auto bailout:

Socialism.

So much for keeping tabs …

I seem to have already completely broken my resolution to post entries regularly.  Well … here I am to say that I’m not dead, but I do have news.  Said news will be in a post to follow … ’shortly’.