radiant in new york

For those of you who haven't (or have) heard, Radiant got an AWESOME music opportunity recently. Here's the story from Daniel's own typing hands:

--
hello everyone,
daniel here with possibly the biggest announcement we've had up til now. radiant will be playing on new year's eve in times square in support of kasabian and my chemical romance. "that girl" will be aired live on jimmy kimmel, so set your tivo's!

THE STORY
about a month ago jesse and levi were watching tv and saw an ad for this contest jimmy kimmel was holding called "a countdown to one." the contest is to find the best unsigned band in america. the guys were bored so they decided to enter online but never said anything to the rest of us because the odds were practically impossible.

last week i received a phone call saying that we were finalists, which totally caught me off guard because i didn't even know we were in the contest. thursday night i received a call saying we won the contest!

they will be flying us up to nyc on dec. 26 for 7 days all expenses paid. it's going to be so much fun!

i hope everyone has a merry christmas, and please set your tivo's on new year's eve!

daniel
www.radianttheband.com
www.myspace.com/radiantmusic
--

And here is the article the Observer wrote this week.

AND they were on the CBS morning show at around 8:40 this morning!! I'm so proud of them. Nothing is certain of course, but this could really be the thing that opens the doors for them. Maybe this was the reason they never got signed....so they could win this best UNsigned band in America contest. I'm so so so proud of them.

Here are a few pictures of the last few days:

ABC tv crew from the Jimmy Kimmel show at Dragan & Elissa's house to interview the band and to film them in various places around Dallas:


Dragan standing on the stage where Radiant will play on New Year's Eve with My Chemical Romance:


Dragan & Elissa in NYC:

leeland

I was turned onto this band recently, and I like them. Particularly the song "Tears of the Saints."

They're called "Leeland" and they're also called really good.



Isn't the album artwork cute? That's how I determine what music to like. The cuteness level of the album artwork. Shhh....

filmographie (sic)

Well, the Break of Christmas Past is...well, past. I had a really great Christmas for the most part. Lots of local driving (250 miles in one day.....that might be a record for not leaving the metroplex), but it was worth all the stops.

Anyhoot, whenever I think of "Christmas Break," I think of watching movies. In the theater. During the daylight hours. I guess because I can't usually do that when I'm working. I didn't actually do that during this break, so I feel like I'm kind of missing out.

Here are the movies I have great interest in seeing:
The Pursuit of Happiness
Dream Girls
The Good Shepherd
The Nativity Story
Stranger Than Fiction
The Good German
The Queen

Here are the movies I have no interest in seeing, unless a really good friend wants me to go....then I'd think about it....maybe:
Casino Royale...well, maybe I want to see it...
Night at the Museum....really Ben? Really?
Eragon

And now, I'm done with this post.

recognition at last....

Thank you to one Josh Moody, for bringing the recognition of my prestige to "light," no pun intended, as you'll soon see.

Here it is, in all it's glorious glory. The second line of the second paragraph is of great import.

This is the competition the architect designer won. Check out the awesome pictures!

Here are two cool ones:




All hail France! (or at least this designer for his impeccable choice of building name)

in the spirit of Christmas....

I'm doing a series of posts about Jesus, since I love Him and it's about to be the day that we suppose is his birthday. Not necessarily about the actual event of his birth, but just things about him that are on my mind. I read this today, and thought it was interesting.


Thoughts?

heart vs. sin

Michael posted this today, and I thought I'd comment on it.



If you know me, you know I'm a worrier. I'm also a jump-to-the-worst-case-scenario-er. I tend to carry any guilt I feel for a long time. It's endearing, right? Right?

Well, in any case, it's crazy to me that God looks through our sin and sees the heart over the sinner. It's awesome, and I'm grateful, but it's a crazy concept. God is good. Thank....God. :) I've been reading a lot of the old testament lately, and boy do I wish there was more editorial commentary. I was reading all about Samson in Judges recently, and there's one part where Samson stops in to visit a prostitute on his way somewhere.

"Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. When the Gazites were told, "Samson has come here!" they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city." Judges 16:1-2

HELLO! Are we not going to talk about this? We're just going to skip right to the Gazites' plotting to kill him? Hmm........what did God think about this? What did Samson think about this? Did he feel guilty? Did he cry? A little? And then wipe his tears with his long long hair? Man. The Old Testament is something else, isn't it? I wonder if it's too ridiculous to ask God to tell me how Samson felt about the Gaza harlot.

"God, please tell me if Samson felt bad and if he had a repentant heart. Was he just feeling lonely?"

Ha ha. I'll ask. Maybe He'll tell me.

But seriously...I still struggle with the idea that God knows all my sin and still cares more about my heart towards him. I sure can't forget my mistakes. I want to work on that.

Plus it's Marti's birthday today!! Woop woop!

shades up

Today is a beautiful day. This morning was actually even better than it is now at 11:25am. It's funny because here at work, whenever it's rainy or muggy or cloudy or foggy like it was this morning, everyone always comes to work in a really chipper mood. The cheerfulness was probably even heightened today because it's dang Friday! Woop woop!

I don't know if it's like this at every job, but we LOVE it! We get to open all our shades because the sun won't slowly begin to burn our retinas on cloudy mornings, and today the trees outside are gorgeous! It actually looks like fall (in mid-December)!!

Here is a photo-diary of work this morning. All candid shots. *nervous*

tractorbeam foyer:


from my desk:


my wbf (work best friend), taylor:


unwilling participant in my "glee capturing" escapade, eric:


tractorbeam peacekeeper, kelly:


a picture of cheer himself, craig:


second in command as cheer-monger in the art department, clint:


art director and resident "good times," jeff:


cute julie:


me, spearheader of the "foggy day fun times at tractorbeam" project (do I look like I'm 3 years old or what?!):


boss man, wearing his self-proclaimed "good for visibility in foggy weather shirt," and trying to escape my picture taking tirade. you see, I'd already taken one picture that he posed for, but the flash was too bright, and he's a one-picture a day kind of guy:

Oh, sweet, sweet good times.*



*It should be noted that just because everyone comes in to work in a good mood because of the weather, that doesn't mean they stay that way. YOINK!

under my covers with a flashlight...

I love to read. This is no secret. When I was in junior high and high school (mostly junior high, and maybe not even high school at all) I wouldn't get in trouble for sneaking out of the house, which I didn't ever do. Instead of sneaking out of the house, I would stay IN the house and after I was supposed to be in bed, I would get a flashlight or my bedside lamp, and get underneath my comforter and blanket and read my little heart out.

I would sit there with my flashlight button (it was a slider that slid on and off) precariously close to turning off, so that at the slightest sound of my mom or dad opening my door, I could quickly slide it into the off position and pretend to be asleep. The same went for my bedside lamp. It was one that has the "on/off" switch about halfway down the cord and you spin it on or off. It worked a few times, but most of the other times I would get caught and be in trouble for being up past my bed time. It didn't stop me though, but I guess there are worse things I could have been doing, eh?

All of this brings me to the "point" of my blog, if what I'm writing about can actually be classified as a "point." I don't have near as much time to read these days as I used to, but I really enjoy reading blogs. Usually blogs written by people that I know, but there are a few exceptions. This blog is basically a thank you to all those people who update regularly. I enjoy it.

I like reading my friend's blogs because sometimes they might write about something that wouldn't come up in a normal conversation, or maybe sometimes they will, and I can think, "Yeah, we talked about that the other day!" Then there are the other blogs I read about people that I don't know, but I find the commentary interesting or educational, and we all need to keep a'learnin', don't we? Yes, folks, I know what you're thinking and it IS an exciting life I lead.

Here are the blogs that I enjoy reading. These ONLY consist of people who post regularly, so if you're name didn't make the cut, it doesn't mean I don't enjoy your blog WHEN YOU ACTUALLY WRITE SOMETHING. (Qualifying for this list means that you've posted something within the last 2 weeks and that your post before that one was within at least 1.5 weeks. Ahem. Here they are, in no particular order:

the point, kerri, michael, dooce, teri, and jenni.

Man, this list used to be longer (coughKevincoughRiancoughSaracoughJuliecoughSamuelcoughRachel). It appears that August was a popular month to stop blogging. I love trends.

come-uppance

come·up·pance
n.
A punishment or retribution that one deserves; one's just deserts. (I think we should all use the phrase "just deserts" more often, don't you agree?)

I had to drive to Central Market to take some pictures of their parking lot for a photoshop project at work today, and on the way back to the office, I turned on NPR. They were talking about how media reporters have really gotten their come-uppance with the rise in popularity of the internet. There are just too many news voices out there, and newspaper journalists and media reporters are getting lost in the shuffle of popular bloggers and other news discussing sites.

I see that in my own life. I come to work and I look on cnn.com. Other than the "ARCTIC BLAST" heard 'round the metroplex, I don't remember the last time I actually watched the news on tv. And the last time I read a newspaper regularly was when I worked at MBNA and would pass the mind numbing hours enriching my vocabulary as well as my ability to think "outside" of the box(es) via the crossword puzzle. Of the New York Times persuasion, might I add.

Anybuns, one of the points they made that I found rather interesting - and true - is that the internet has broken down many of the cultural barriers once present between rural and urban areas. Clothing, jargon, knowledge of current pop-culture as well as newsworthy stories now span this once great divide. Kids in towns with no movie theaters are becoming indestinguishable from kids in urban areas.

Interesting. We've come so far. Thanks, Lisa.



Who remembers looking at this?

"the beard," explained

This is Kevin's family when he was but a small boy! He's the one in the green. The one in the green with the cute little hoot owl eyes!


*le sigh*

the business of music

Today. Today was the first day in my life that I actually used - HANDS ON - my degree in my work place. Well, I have been in negotiations with a band from the east coast (REPRESENT!) to use their song in a commercial spot for one of our clients, but that's been so slow going that I'm not going to count it until it's done.

This one. This one was hands on application. Another of our clients wants music for their website, so I got to select some options - they chose one - and today, it was my job to cut that piece of music down into about 30 seconds that will loop continuously on their website. Woohoo! My music in media class was HELPFUL and not just cool! I got to use programs on the computer and skills on (read: in) my brain that I learned while attending - as the Europeans call it - university. It was an exciting day indeed!

I got to fade in, fade out, and cut so that it would loop almost indestinguishably. This isn't really a huge deal, but geez!! I'm using my degree applicably in my work place! Word on the street is....that's big news.

Once it's up, I'll put the link on here so you guys can experience my "genius" at work. Physically manifested, my genius looks like this:

matter

Today at work was going great! Until I found out that I couldn't meet a client deadline. It was a ridiculously unreasonable deadline, allowing 1/7 of the time proposed to do the job, and we never committed fully to that deadline but we said we would try. Anybuns, I just found out that we can't make it.

It's a tough place. This client has demanded ridiculous deadlines before that we managed to meet, but this job is a completely different issue. So, do you break your back and your resources trying to accomodate this only to "teach" the client that they can do this every time you have a project? Or do you tell them no, and risk them trying to find someone else who's more accomodating? Now I'm waiting to hear back from the client.

My stomach is queasy.

Kevin helped remind me that since at this point it's out of my immediate control, I can't be worried about it. I mean, I can, but I can't. I sure do love that guy.

Oh waiting.

an ollie on my deck

At my work we're (and by "we're" I mean my boss and one of our designers) working on designing a skate park here in Dallas, and it's a pretty exciting project. This morning at our status meeting, Boss was telling us about the design rendering that we're getting a cost estimate for and it's really awesome!! I'm not sure if I should post a picture of it on here because I don't want other people trying to get all up in our grill, what what.

Anyway, we were talking about a pre-fab building where we could put restrooms and benches to sit down, and Boss said that Taco (co-owner of La Duni, a client of ours who is well known for their upscale bakery items) wants to have a concession stand there. Jeff, our creative director (with no capital letters), quickly and cleverly replied,

"Ahh yes, because skate boarders really love their Tres Leches Flan."

It's true. They certainly do.

on my sister... OR y'all...

I never say "y'all."

I love my sister. She's going to be 17 NEXT WEEK!!!! Every once in a while I get kind of overwhelmed thinking about how much she's grown up and what an amazing person she is and what a great head she's got on her shoulders. I'm 'bout ta get 'motional, y'all. Seriously. I was checking out her facebook page and I happened upon some pictures of her that I'd never seen before. Had to leave the page before I got all misty at work. Can't get misty AND professional at the same time, y'all.

Here are some of my favorites.

I'm a fermata.....hold me, y'all:


bronze = joy, y'all:


up close and per-so-nal, y'all:


though rachel is not actually IN this picture, her spirit manifests itself in the evident joy of the dogs. that's my mom holding rosie up, y'all:


eating a flower in 8th grade, y'all:


le sigh, y'all:


rachel sandwich....so tasty y'all!:


we match, y'all!:


sassy mcsassifrass, y'all:


my beautiful sister, y'all:


I love you Rachel. I'm so proud of you and all you're doing.