Okay, it’s been long enough. I can go ahead and let out all the wonderful excitement!
If you don’t know I am a big fan of Imogen Heap and her music. I loved her song from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and have been hooked ever since. She has a new album coming out next month (August 25th). Well, if you happen to buy that album (which you surely must!) you will find some of my art in it 
!!!
The picture above (Glimmer from my Genesis Series) was one of eleven chosen in a flickr contest and will be a part of the album artwork for the new album called Ellipse!! I was absolutely, excruciatingly estatic the morning I got the email saying I won!
The Album Front
Here is how the artwork is going down. For images in the album sleeve, Imogen and Jeremy Cowart (one of my favorite photographers) took parts of the winning images and projected them on the wall of Imogen’s house and her to create some cool art. Now don’t ask me how because even I won’t know how they used it until the album comes out.
I got the official announcement close to a month ago and have been wanting to scream it to the world but I wanted to allow her to make the big announcement first. After-all, it was her contest and album. But the finally announce all the winners on here website here a week or so ago and so now I can finally shout it out.
Each winning image correlates with one of her songs off of the new album. She took a line from each song and you could submit one image per song that you thought represented the verse. The verse I submitted Glimmer for was from the song Canvas and the line is the the title of this post (if you were curious about it). I have heard the song and it sounds amazing. Wanna know how I heard it, because she has made an amazing video for it and you can get it for free here. The video is beautiful and I strongly urge you to check it out.
Remember, the new album Ellipse come out in the states August 25th. If you want to, check out her youtube channel here to watch her video blogs (she’s been doing video blogs ever since the beginning stages of the album so you can watch over them all and learn more about it & hear some early musings of most of the songs), a trailer for the new album, and her first single First Train Home.
Filed under: Art, I'm thinking, Summer Missions, faith, movies, music, readings, the word, traveling
Hello, world! I am sorry to have been laking in blogging on this blog over the past month or two. Between starting up another blog for my summer missions work and the work itself things have been absolutely crazy and out of control. I can honestly say that I have missed writing with this blog.
Speaking of summer missions blog, if you have been by here before you might have seen links to my summer blog. Well, if you are looking for it then you will be out of luck, because it is no longer there. I just deleted it. It just got to the point where I started to feel like I really didn’t need that blog and I have a perfectly wonderful blog already here. That and I felt like at that blog I should only talk about my summer missions work and there really isn’t that much to talk about on it so I have my little free-for-all blog here to turn back to.
So far the summer has been good. I’ve been at work for a month now and have come up with some really cool things. I will go ahead and be truthful and say this hasn’t been an easy adventure for me. I’m basically alone working here. I come to work from around 9-5 each day and then the rest of the night is just trying to figure out stuff to do. I am also living alone in a town house that is 20 minutes away that belongs to a family who is working away this summer and have to take care of a cat (it came with the house; my boss didn’t even know about the cat) and I have never taken care of cats before so that has been challenging. It’s just been a lot of loneliness and trying to find purpose in what it is I’m doing here. But thankfully Christ has been with me all the way and things are much better.
I have definitely had some fun trying to find stuff to do in my spare time. I’ve seen a bunch of movies. I basically work beside a cinema that shows independent films and I have just been enjoying it tremendously. I’ve always loved indy films but living in a small town we never got to see them until they came out for cheap-sale at the Hollywood Video. I’ve got to see The Brother’s Bloom & Away We Go, both of which I highly recommend. Last week I went to the bigger, more blockbuster theatre and saw Up…again, and, yes, I did go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night at midnight and it was amazing! Apparently I’ve had high school friends living close by that I didn’t know about and I met up with them and some more who came up from home and we got to hang out and go see the movie.
I’ve also enjoyed going through miles of stores. I grow up in small town, US of A, so the biggest store I’ve ever lived beside is a Wal-Mart (standard, not supercenter). I work in an area that has a bunch of different shops I like. There’s a Best Buy (I’m a tech geek. I also have stranger than mainstream music taste and so BB is good for having some of that. So much better than Wal-Mart and their mainstream Pop/Country stuff that is about to get on my last freakin’ nerve **disclaimer: I truly apologize if this last statement offends anybody. That just not my taste in music and if you enjoy it and it makes you happy, then by all means ignore my rants and call me a fool.**) as well as the biggest Barnes & Noble I’ve ever seen (It’s like heaven).
I think that’s about it for now. There is still plenty more I want to say (I’ve got a couple months of stuff stored up) but I don’t to weigh down this post. I’ll save it for some other time. I hope to get back into the swing of things here.
I hope you have a truly wonderful day,
randall
my soul has been stained by dirt from the streets i walked
my mind has been jaded by the things i call my own
my home has become a foreign land
and foreign land is inside me
their faces haunt my memories; their stories stir my soul
their questions; their concerns; some i dare not discern
we showed up too late to help them all
just in time to watch the spirit fall
The ruins of the palace i built for me
you’re rebuilding, piece by piece, a sanctuary
the cross i bear is not made of plastic but wood
it reminds me of the streets where i once stood
do not forget the ones we love
do not forget our home
do not forget the ones we love
do not forget our homes abroad
Filed under: Art, I'm thinking, Music I Listen To, charity, faith, music, the word, traveling, writing
Sorry I haven’t updated much. I made it back safely in the states on Sunday from my Peru trip and have just been running wild trying to get myself back into my normal American system. The Peru trip went absolutely amazing!! I will be forever grateful for getting the chance to go. I hope to update more this weekend with stories and pictures but I can’t right now because I don’t have the pictures with me and I don’t have much time. I just wanted to say hello and draw your attention to this cool thing I found. It’s called Brite Revolution and it’s a group of artist who have come together to bring awareness to a wide array of different issues and organizations. For $5 a month, you get exclusive music from these artist as well as part of all proceeds go to support the organizations listed on the site (and you get to choose which one specifically you want to support and that can be changed at any time). Check it out here.
Filed under: I'm thinking, charity, faith, music, readings, the word, traveling, writing
If you have read one of my latest blogs, you know that I am heading on a mission trip to Peru soon. Well, we leave in the morning. I am so honored and blessed to be going on this trip with nine other students who I am privileged to called really wonderful friends. God has done so many wonderful things even before we even began the process of starting this endeavor and I just hope that he continues to do many wonderful things. My biggest hope in this journey, as a more personal sojourn, that I can discover God in the streets of Peru. Please pray for all of us as we travel. Will have pictures when I return.
*edit*
I just listened to C.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser and these lyrics really resonated with me in relation to my trip. I have written them down in my journal to remember as well as this statement:
“It’s the feeling of something bigger than me that gives me courage.”
For those of you unfamiliar with the song (shame on you 
) here are the lyrics:
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy I can only conclude that I was not made for here. If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary, then of course I’ll feel nude when to where I’m destined I’m compared.
Am I lost or just less found, on the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way? Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive? ‘Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb and avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become.
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath
So we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live
I was made to love
I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
I just left the theatre to see this movie. All I have to say is…wow!!!!….!!! This is such a beautiful movie. I have heard before a critique calling it a celebration of life and that is what it truly is. The cinematography was amazing (no, it wasn’t done with a cell phone). Between that and the incredible soundtrack, you felt like you were there running through the slums with the children. It’s a riveting feeling. I understand now why the Academy liked it so much. It is a truly wonderful movie and you will not regret seeing it.
Next up, Q&A, the book that inspired the movie.
*edit*
I just found this on Yahoo and it was, for me, one of the highlights of the movie. You can’t have a Bollywood movie without a dance number (yes they seriously ended the movie with this; the dancing part at least with the credits). Check it out here.
