Eye-liner...The New Hairspray for Rock Bands

If any of you caught the VMA's last night, did you wonder as much as I did if a tube of eye-liner came in the goody bags for all bands in attendance? It seems that the new rage in ROCK is to use a stick of eye black to line the lids of your eyes. This has even permeated the Christian industry...as Peter Furler of the Newsboys so showed this weekend at FC. My fellow bald brother has tattooed his eye-liner. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about tats, but on my eyelids...yowzers! And to make it worse, my wife said after the 5:00 service on Saturday, "Well, I guess we need to go home and work on your make-up."

Fellow rockers, leave the eye black to the football and baseball players. The glory days of GLAM have unfortunately come and gone. Let us leave the make up to those who wore it best and remember the 80's greatness of Motley Crue, Poison, The Cure, and KISS. Keep on rockin' in the free world and leave the make-up at home!

Catching Up on TiVO!

Given the events of tonight, my adrenaline has kicked in and I can't sleep. So, I'm catching up on the shows I've missed over the last 2 nights. However, one of them I actually watched when it was on, but it's too good to delete.

Tuesday night's Rockstar: INXS was absolutely fabulous. Dialed down with an acoustic set, it truly showed the singing talent of several of the "rockers." Mig, the Mick Jagger wanna-be, took the cake. He performed Peter Frampton's "Baby I Love Your Way" solo on the piano. WHOA! I think Dave Navarro said it best when he couldn't put his critique into words other than, "That just reminds me of how much I love my wife. (Carmen Electra)"

Mig got the encore performance on tonight's episode, and allowed the other 2 most eligible INXS front-people (politically correct...pishha!) in Jordis and Marty to perform with him. Not quite up to last night, but still very good! Can't wait to see what desperate band jumps on the "band"-wagon of this show for the next season...it will be interesting!

Trauma 911

Well, tonight was a scary night in the Bacus house. It all began when I got a frantic call from my wife, Richelle, at about 8:30PM. I was closing up the apex after the mix when my phone rings and I hear Richelle saying, "Greg, I need help. Kamryn...click." My cell lost signal and I lost my mind.

After a million tries I finally got Richelle back on the phone only to find out that Kamryn had swallowed an icing piping tip and could not get it out. In the background I heard the ambulance siren and Richelle saying to meet her at Denton Regional Hospital.

So, I got to the hospital right as the ambulance was pulling into the emergency room. I made it from Grapevine to Denton in about 12 minutes...yes, I too am surprised that my Camry would do 90!

Anyway, Kamryn is okay. She was discharged tonight with a sore throat and a scared, but thankful mom and dad. Thank you God for the excellent doctors and nurses at DRHC.

The Prayer of a 3 year old

As a parent, I love listening to my little girl pray. You have to know my little princess to really understand how entertaining her prayers can be. Kamryn was born for the stage...she loves to make people laugh and truly enjoy life. Well, she has learned to carry this gift of entertainment into her prayer life.

Last night we were sitting down to eat and I asked Kamryn if she wanted to say "Amen" (how she refers to prayer), and she gladly said yes. So she began...imagine this from a 3 year old...

"Dear Jesus, thank you for our food. Thank you so much for this day and for mommy's hammock, ..." this goes on for a minute or so as she looked around the dinner table thanking God for the things she liked and then the greatest thing came out of her mouth...
"and thank you for the Foo Fighters' song. Amen."

Now at this point, I busted out in gut laughter. She loves the Foo Fighters' "Best of You." She walks around the house singing "Is someone getting the best, the best, the best of you?" at the top of her lungs. Don't get me wrong, she is exposed to a lot of music in our house. She has memorized the FC 2004 Christmas DVD. She knows almost every song on the Hillsong United "Look to You" cd. But the funny thing about the Foo Fighters is that she has only heard that song one time. They performed on Letterman a couple of months ago and she stayed up with me to watch them. As soon as they were done she walked down the hall to her room singing "Is someone getting the best, the best, the best of you?"

Her singing this one line reminds me to think of what/who I'm giving my best to. Who is getting my best? My job? My family? God?

The Music Industry and the NFL

Tonight before The Mix, I was talking to the guys from Foreign Oren about great bands of the past and how they relate to the great football teams in the NFL. The discussion began something like this, "In order to win, you have to great defense. Great defense can make up for a poor offense, but a great offense added to a great defense wins championships." Great teams have a superstar quarterback and a great supporting team of offensive and defensive players. Great bands have a superstar frontman with a great supporting cast of band members. Some bands are greater "defensive" bands, and others are "offensive." So with this thought in mind we began...

Here is a sample of what we came up with, and I welcome your thoughts on other bands who we didn't get to add to the list:

Championship Teams
U2 --> New England Patriots of the last few years
Our reasoning:
Bono=Tom Brady Great lead singer who is active on many fronts...Great quarterback who was on SNL, Regis & Kelly, etc.
The Edge=Corey Dillon Great runner to set up the pass
Larry Mullins=Tedi Bruschi Heavy hitter leading the charge

The Beatles --> The Cowboys
Our reasoning:
Enough said!

I would love to hear any of your suggestions...I mean what's better than great music and great football!!!

To Everything Turn, Turn, Turn

Wow. Things are buzzing around the church these days...and by buzzing I mean changing. One thing that FC is known for is constant change. Nothing is stagnant here! The recent shuffle of staff has shaken things up a bit. The main worship center is getting a new look, sound, and feel. A new series, a new set, a new PA, new screens and projectors, and a renewed hunger to reach the lost of the Metroplex.

The new set is awesome...think Rockstar: INXS on steroids! The new PA (Meyer MILO) will rock your face off! And, the new screens (13.5'x21') and projectors (25k ANSI lumen digital) will be brighter than our house lighting! That is so awesome and to think that God allows us to leverage technology to reach people for him is even cooler!!!

This fall is going to be awesome...I can't wait to see what all God does, especially at Uptown. This also means that we have a dedicated staff now for Uptown. Terry Storch is now the Uptown Campus Pastor and he has an incredible vision for what Uptown can become. He will do a great job in his new role. My role has changed also. I have been the PM for Uptown since it's inception, but also served as the PM for the Apex during the week. Now, I don't have the Apex to think about during the week and am able to focus solely on the production needs of Uptown.
It is truly amazing to see how God answers prayer when you come to him without your own answers.