Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

My site is Wonky

Yep, it's been this way since I left for Nashville last week.  Bummer I know.  All that really cool stuff, that you can't see right now.  But content is king, right?  So at least you have that, right?  Well, whatever the reason, my site is just not looking so hot right now.  I apologize to all 5 of you visiting my site.  I'm sure that at least one of you won't be returning as you click away from my site, muttering something to the effect of "damn amateur web designer!"

You know, all I did was put in a little ad from eBay in a discrete location, and change the size of my page layout, so that my sidebar could accommodate my FeedJit Widget.  Next thing I know...BAM! No CSS.  Urgg...Blurg...or whatever Tina Fey is saying these days.

Here's what TypePad told me, via their Support Team (which is excellent btw, seriously!).

   Thanks for checking that for us. It looks like there is a
   misconfiguration with your account. Our engineers are
   working to fix this as quickly as possible. We greatly
   appreciate your patience.

I figured that something was happening on their end...but I'm under an NDA so I can't talk about it right now.

Well, I'll see you soon I'm sure!  Keep an eye out for my CSS if you happen to see it...

I am a Marathon Runner.

I've joined the club.  Yesterday I finished my first marathon.  It was wonderful.  I can't remember the last time I felt that happy.  Well, actually my wedding day felt as wonderful.  And the birth of my kids was an awesome moment too.  It was pure joy running yesterday.  The weather was wonderful.  It was cool, with a slight breeze just when you needed one, the music on the course was awesome, the cheer squads were encouraging and the hills weren't as bad as the ones I had seen and imagined we'd be climbing. 

Highlights included a cheer squad of "ducklings" tucked away on the back side of the MetroCenter with signs that said, "Quack if you are having a good time."  Running alongside the river behind the MetroCenter was absolutely beautiful.  Visiting Starbucks at the top of the hill between mile 17 and 18 was a highlight for sure.  I bought an a Tall "Watered Down" Iced Coffee, that was half coffee and half water.  Washed my face and used the bathroom and then hopped back out onto the course to finish.

More highlights:

1. Slower pace (and not worrying about my time) = More fun
2. Cellphone support was crucial.  I carried a cellphone with me so that I could stay in touch with the folks I was going to see at the various mile markers.  Their support kept me going and distracted so that I could keep plugging away.
3. Listening to the bands and hearing the wonderful musicians.
4. All the volunteers and support people along the way.
5. I think I saw John Bingham ("The Penguin") a standing a few feet before the finish line...I wish I would've asked if that was him.  He's one of the reasons that I enjoy running as much as I do.  His book "The Courage to Start" was one that I read when I began running about 2 years ago.  It's a wonderful and encouraging book for anyone thinking about taking up running.

Here is what I ate and drank:

• One orange flavored gatorade at 5:30am
• 1 Espresso Love Gu @ 7:05am
• 1 Sport Bean Lemon-Lime flavor @ 7:20 right before I stepped over the start line.
• 5 additional Espresso Love GU's
• 3 additional lemon-lime Sport Beans
• 2 Power Gel Carbo Stuff Level 2 (not sure the official name) that was handed out on the course.
• 3 salt packets around mile 19
• Accelerade and Water @ the various water stations located on the course
• Recovery Drink (that I carried with me) that I drank immediately after crossing the finish line.
• Oh, and the small iced coffee that I drank between mile 17 and 18.  I think that may become a tradition for me.

People I talked with on the phone:

• Gary and Amy (left a message)
• Christa
• Toby
• Doug
• John and Heather
• Carole and my kids

People I saw along the course:

• Carole and my kids, at Tiffany's house (thanks Tiffany!) and then again, right before the finish.
• Tiffany
• Doug (once over near Leland street and again at the finish...he took some pics of me)
• John, Heather and Judy over by the First Nazerene Church (mile 20 support was essential!)
• Christa and her kids around mile 11
• Toby.  Toby was awesome because after running the half-marathon, he came back and met me at mile 22-23 and ran the rest of the race with me.  We had a good conversation and I was encouraged by him as we came the final miles together.

I had also asked a few friends to pray for me, or to keep me in their thoughts and I want to believe that their thoughts and prayers kept me going just as much as my family and friends on the course did.

Ultimately, my time was a lot slower than I imagined it was going to be, but I was able to finish strong, and I felt like I ran the second half of the race faster than I did the first half - which was a goal of mine.  I kept my heart rate where I wanted it to be (thanks to my Suunto Watch) and didn't get sick.  My body feels tired and a little sore/ tight, but I feel like my body worked like it was supposed to.  All in all, a great first marathon.   

So that's it, the end of my Marathon wrap up.  Next up, I hope to cross train in the next few weeks until I'm ready to attempt the KC marathon in the Fall.  I've heard the Red Guitar will be playing at that race, and it'd be fun to see them in person.  (plus, I'll get a chance to see my sister and a few other friends in KC as well...).

Today, we drive back to NC and dive back into work and LIFE tomorrow morning!

Marathon: Today is the day

It's 5:13am and I'm waiting for my brother in law to swing by to pick me up. It's raining.  Ugh.  Hopefully it will let up and not be so wet for the entire race.  We'll get to the race site at 5:30 or so, take the shuttle to the start line, grab some food (maybe) and a quick pre-race massage (maybe) at the race "village," and then go find our places in the starting corral. Though the race starts at 7:00, they release the corrals every 2-3 minutes, so I'll probably being stepping across the starting line at 7:30-ish.  And if the songs floating through my head right now are any indication, I'll probably be humming to "Beauty Will Save the World, by Red Guitar most of the morning...which is a wonderful song to run to.  (Lot's better than, say the theme to "Bob the Builder.")

Marathon Update: Yes, it's still 26.2 miles of running.

The family and I drove to Nashville late last night, arriving around 2:00 in the morning.  I unloaded the car and promptly unpacked all my running stuff (clothes, GU, Beans, Water Bottles) and set everything out so I'd be ready come Saturday morning.  I had bought a couple of gallons of spring water at the Bean Pot in Crossville and so filled up all my water bottles with that and put them in the fridge.  One less thing to think about today.

Next, I was all set to log on with my wonderful Mac Book only to find out that there is no no longer Wi-Fi where we are staying!  However, there is a PC, which is fairly clunky to use and a little slow, but at least I have something I can use!  And as I was checking my email last night, I noticed that somehow my site isn't rendering properly...it's just text for now...so I'm not sure if that's an IE bug or if when I was changing a small thing the other night on my site, I "broke" something, and now it's looking all wonky...However...it looked fine the other night after I had made my changes, but of course I was using FireFox, and not IE...so who knows.  When I get done here, I'll be filing a help ticket to get to the bottom of it...(update:  ope..no need...when I published this post, the site popped up immedietely...I think the problem lies in this computer...I think the security settings in IE are messing with things...) Update:  Nope it was a technical problem with the blog company.

Today we're off to the Running Expo to pickup our packet and browse all the cool things they have to look at.  I think the Expo is in the same convention center where they are holding GMA Week, so who knows, I may run into some old friends while I'm down there.  Next up, I need to load our cell phone up with all the phone numbers of the folks I hope to see while we are in town...some of whom I'll be looking for on the race course on Saturday.  I'm hoping we can eat lunch at Bread N' Company while we are in town, I think there is a location real close to the start line, so I may try to grab some of their Cinnamon Toast sticks while I'm waiting form my corral to move forward to the start line.

At some point we'll hit the grocery store to purchase stuff to pack a lunch for my family who will be trying to see me at various points along the race course.

We also have family to see and meet up with...so we'll be doing some of that today, and I hope we are able to also see our list of friends too...and on top of all this, I need to make sure I'm getting as much rest...so I may find that I'm trying to do too much...One more thing I hope to do is to grab some of the boxes I have stored here, which include old demos, videos of my Sixpence and pre-Sixpence years, and basically just fun old stuff that I hope to scan or encode and toss up onto my Flickr and You Tube sites.

I'm excited for this...it's going to be fun, and challenging and I'm sure it'll be real hard towards the end.  I'm looking forward to running with Toby, and starting with Chris and hopefully seeing my friends along the race course, and getting plenty of time to zone out and relax and enjoy the peacefulness that comes with running for longer than an hour.  Someone was telling me yesterday that they don't like running as an exercise option because it was so BORING...well that's precisely what I like about it...because somewhere after about an hour of running, it ceases to be a labor and begins to feel more like meditation and calm relaxation.  Hard to believe huh?  It's a very peaceful sport and non-competitive/ non-confrontational, which I've found to be perfect for me at this point in my life.

Brain Bran

The folks at Corbis have this thing you can subscribe to for free (via RSS) called Brain Bran.   

"Keep your creative mind healthy with the NEW AND IMPROVED BrainBran site by Corbis – a growing resource for creative strategies. Subscribe to the daily RSS feed of brainstorming techniques, create your own or register with Corbis for your free, limited edition deck of BrainBran cards!"

The cool thing is that if you sign up on their site, they will send you a limited edition of Brain Bran cards, which is probably the closest thing I'll get to getting one of those creative decks from Brian Eno.

But wait, that's not all at Corbis!  I just found these cool pinhole cameras! 

Man Room Must Have

The room I use for my studio (aka "The Dorm Room") used to be a full-fledged "man-room," prior to our buying the house.  In it's former life, this was the room in the house that had the giganto screened TV, and a Gun Locker, and even a few animals on the walls, thanks to the fine art of Taxidermy.

I'm not the kind of guy who would enjoy his own "Man-Room," though someday I hope I can fully outfit my studio with some killer gear, just not the kind that requires gun powder.  I love cardboard designs, and when I saw this being offered over at Veer, I immediately thought of my old cardboard lounging chair that I used to love (we had to get rid of it in one of our moves...how I miss that chair!).  And then I thought to look elsewhere on the net, and found this site.  Here the selection improves somewhat over what Veer has, and you can get a Rhino bust, or a Moose head, or even a larger version of the one they are selling at Veer. 

I'm still not sure how to design my studio, but since I've got a nice fireplace that is just begging for something to be hung on it, I may have to purchase a "Bucky" as an ode to my studio's former life.

Virtual Marathon

For all you arm chair runners out there, you can watch a video of the race I'll be running on Saturday.  Go here, and scroll down the page a bit (after the site loads), and you can see a Google Map fly over of the course.  Remember, drink plenty of fluids...

Oh, and who knows Ellen might have something on her show...a live feed possibly?  Don't count on it...

Amplified Cardboard Tube - David Cossin

My friend Rachel went to see a concert performance of the Bang on a Can All-Stars last week, and she sent me a link to their website, sorta.  Looking through the site, I decided to click on the link for David Cossin and through another couple of clicks, found that he is the guy I heard on NPR about a year or so ago.  He was fascinating to listen to on the radio...I think he was getting ready to do a performance with the Dallas Symphony and the NPR host recorded the sound check or something like that. 

Anyway, this A.C.T. sounds like it could be an Asian Flute, or something you'd hear in a Peter Gabriel recording, or maybe something at a Blue Man Group show.  I'm fascinated by the sounds he gets, and would love to make my own version of this thing.  Here is the description of the instrument on his website:

"A.C.T. Amplified Cardboard Tube- This recording of an improvisation was recorded at WNYC radio for John Schaefer’s New Sounds program on September 4th 2002. Through amplifying this found instrument using control feedback I can create a singing drum. I can accompany myself with a real time looping sampler (Echoplex) that records instantaneously what I play."

And then there is a link to the audio as well.  Fun stuff.

Pure Inspiration

I receive daily emails from inward/outward every day (except Sunday) and though I rarely read them when they arrive, I'm archiving them in my Gmail account so that when I need some inspiration or something to meditate on or just am looking for something to get my creative juices flowing, I can just pull up my archive of these emails.  From the website:

"inward/outward is an ongoing, online conversation sponsored by Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC."

I love the variety of quotes and sources they pull from.  For instance, there is this quote from Abraham Heschel that was up on their site recently:

"Creation, we are taught, is not an act that happened once upon a time, once and forever. The act of bringing the world into existence is a continuous process. God called the world into being, and that call goes on. There is this present moment because God is present. Every instant is an act of creation. A moment is not a terminal but a flash, a signal of Beginning."

Source: The Sabbath

Or this other one I thought was pretty cool, attributed to M. Basil Pennington:

"Unfortunately, in seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful and attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self.

It is a harrowing journey, a death to self—the false self—and no one wants to die. But it is the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love. And it begins with silence. We cannot give ourselves in love if we do not know and possess ourselves. This is the great value of silence. It is the pathway to all we truly want."

There is an About Page that gives you more information about inward/outward and the churches that are affiliated with their project.  I've found the emails encouraging and something to look forward to each day and when I get time, I like to start my day by reading their emails and collecting my thoughts.  You can sign up for their daily emails and this is what they have to say about that:

"Our Monday-Saturday email message service offers words of encouragement and challenge from a broad assortment of authors. It’s a collection of thoughts and ideas that speak in some way of living a more authentic and joyfully connected life rooted in the rhythms of the inward/outward journey.

The service is free, and you can cancel at any time."

 

Update on my run

Alright...I had my coke before the run, and I seemed to do okay. I might try it on race day. I'm concerned about getting enough calories on the race course, and front loading my run with 140 calories of sugar and caffeine might be the way to do it. Plus, those GU packets and Sport Beans get old fast and I'll be eating a bunch of that stuff in the 4 plus hours that it will take me to complete my race. However, Able, I might just drink a Guiness after my run. I'm looking forward to the post run burger and (beer?). I'm still nervous about the race though. Today during my run, my right hip was sort of acting up and my left knee was talking to me. But I've heard that this is just pre-race jitters. Phantom pains...we'll see what happens next weekend. With my new watch I can see my heart rate, but am not as aware of my time...so today's run was enjoyable for the fact that I just took it easy and kept my HR under 145 for the majority of it. My goal for the race next weekend is to split the race up into thirds, run 8 miles...walk and eat, maybe chat to some friends via cell phone...then run 8 more miles...walk and eat, maybe stretch and then slog it out for the last 8 -10 miles. I'm hoping that getting my nutrition right (i.e. lots of GU and Beans and Water) will get me through the race without feeling sick at the finish. Plus, I'll be carrying my recovery drink so I can slam it as soon as I cross the finish.

Well...it's off for another evening of carbo loading fun. I hope I can make it through this week without gaining as much as I did last year. (I think my total tally of pounds gained last year was 7).

One week to go:

Today is my last "long run" before next week's big race. I just mapped out an 8 mile route near my neighborhood. I'm avoiding Duke Forest because I'm paranoid of getting injured - twisting a foot, etc. I'm going to try a thing I heard about from my training emails I've been getting: drinking a coke before my run. The thought of a carbonated bevarage before running is too much for me, so I opened the bottle last night to create a "flat" coke. Hopefully it'll taste like syrupy goodness. We'll see how it goes. Drinking a coke before a run seems a little unconventional but if Hal Higdon says he does it (I think that is who is writing these email training tips), than it's good enough for me!

This week will be one of carbo-loading goodness, and hopefully I won't gain back too much of the weigh I've lost in the last 2-3 months. Now if I can keep from catching a cold again, I think I'll be in good shape for the race...

Culture Making by Andy Crouch

My wife recently went to an Arts conference in Austin, TX and brought back this "pre-release" teaser of Andy Crouch's new book, "Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling."  The "our" in the title refers to Christians, and this book is geared towards encouraging Christians in the arts and Artists in the Church. I was immediately drawn into the book via the opening line in the Introduction:

"The essence of childhood is innocence.  The essence of youth is awareness.  The essence of adulthood is responsibility.  This book is for people and a Christian community on the threshold of cultural responsibility."

From the one chapter I read, it was hard to get a feel on whether I'd enjoy this book.  But the Introduction was engaging, and his tone was cordial.  I didn't feel talked down to, or "preached" at.  I look forward to learning more about this book upon its release in August.  Update:  I found this website that has more information about Andy Crouch:

"The collected writing of Andy Crouch, exploring the ways that culture shapes faith, and the ways followers of Christ respond to culture."

...interesting stuff.

New York Times Mention

Sixpence was mentioned in Paper Cuts, which is a blog published by the NY Times Book Review.

"Paper Cuts is a blog about books and other forms of printed matter, written by the editors of The Book Review."

"On Wednesdays, this blog is the delivery vehicle for “Living With Music,” a playlist of songs from a writer or some other kind of book-world personage."

Author Daniel Radosh lists out the 10 best Christian Rock Songs, and puts "Kiss Me" at number 2.  He doesn't mention anything about my "spectacular" drum part but does include a quote from T Bone Burnett.  Here is what he wrote:

"2) Kiss Me, Sixpence None The Richer. O.K., maybe this isn’t a great song, but it’s a pretty good one, and most people actually know it so it will help me explain what Christian rock is and isn’t. This jangly pop tune, lifted somewhat above its station by singer Leigh Nash’s lovely voice, was an inescapable mainstream hit in 1999. The lyrics are unabashedly romantic: “Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance, silver moon sparkling, so kiss me.” And if you’re looking for a covert message about Jesus in them, there isn’t one. “We don’t experience faith as a compartmentalized, religious aspect of life,” Nash has said. “I don’t feel like I’m more of a Christian when I’m saying my prayers than when I’m kissing my husband.” While it should be generally possible to discern a Christian worldview permeating an artist’s oeuvre, their Christianity would arguably be less authentic if they limited their focus to explicit pronouncements of faith. As T-Bone Burnett (who almost made this list) put it, “If Jesus is the light of the world, there are two kinds of songs you can write. You can write songs about the light, or you can write songs about what you can see from the light.” "

Radosh has authored a book about the Christian "sub-culture" entitled, Rapture Ready.  Conveniently, he included a link to mp-3's of the songs on the list which is pretty awesome, considering the list includes obscure bands (compared to, say Miley Cyrus) such as The 77's and Larry Norman, not to mention Over the Rhine.  Personally, I don't think I'd heard the Larry Norman cut before, and the song by Andy Hunter is pretty cool too and apparently it's being used in the promo's for Speed Racer. 

Who was there?

Sorry to keep going on about this T Bone Burnett lecture, but here I go again.  I felt so fortunate to be there on Friday, as the event wasn't well advertised.  As I was sitting in the midst of everyone, I kept wondering who else was in the room.  I imagined that the room consisted of all the up and coming musicians here in the Durham/ Chapel Hill/ Carrboro (okay and Raleigh) scene.  I recognized (I think) the banjo player from the Carolina Chocolate Drops, only because he asked a question that cleverly referred to his band's success over the last few years. 

But as I got home and started to process the event, I wondered who else was there?

People I assumed would've been there:

John Plymale
Wes Lachot
Chris Stamey
Dick Hodgin
Mitch Easter
Will McFarlane
Peter Holsapple

I wished I could've stayed for the whole time, because I imagined that afterwards there would be quite a hang with the local musicians and producers chatting and taking pictures with Mr. Burnett.  I also wondered who came in from out of town for this event, only because I saw someone two rows in front of me that looked like my old friend Jay Swartzendruber from Nashville.  I didn't get a chance to figure out if that was him, but I figured he's enough of a music fan to have made the trip to cover this event for his magazine.  Plus there were some hipster musician types sitting in the same row that looked like they could be from Nashville.

I also wanted to meet that student that talked about Brian Eno.  Who was she?  Is she an artist, an aspiring producer?  I would've enjoyed meeting other people in the room as well...I figured we were all a fairly diverse group and it would've been fun to hear why other folks had shown up to listen to T Bone speak.  Since I came in late, I didn't get to see T Bone introduced, and it would've been nice to know who sponsored this event and to meet some professors from the school as well.

I also emailed a bunch of my musician friends in the area and I didn't get a chance to see if any of them were able to make it as well.

So here is my question(s) to you...were you at the event?  Did you stay to the end?  Who did you see there?  Anyone famous? :-) Leave a comment below with your answers, if you don't mind.  Did anyone get an audio recording of this event?

20 miles: I did it.

Wow.  I ran 20 miles today (give or take a mile). 3.5 hours of running.  I'd been anticipating this run for awhile  but this week has been one of more nervous anticipation about this run.  I'd missed out on my 18 mile training run, and so I wasn't sure what doing 20 miles would do to my system.  So far I'm doing okay.  I'm a little sore, and moving a little slow, but otherwise okay.  I drank a recovery drink immediately after the run, so I'm wondering if that has helped me feel good.  I also just got back from the Q-Shack where I ate my favorite post-run meal:  Burger, no cheese, with Jalapenos.  Side of Onion Rings.  Mustard on the burger, along with the red onions, pickles, and shredded lettuce.  Yum.  Lots of calories I'm sure, but I figure I burned off close to 2000 calories on the run, so I've got some room to splurge. 

I've got to say those last couple of miles were a little tough.  Lots of self-talk and babbling.  Feelings of elation, accomplishment and something close to sadness.  Wondering if I could actually finish or if I was going to get sick.  Crazy stuff.  And to think, when race day comes, I'll have a little over 6 miles to go.  Whew...lots to think about...and I do think it will be more of mental challenge come race day than a physical one.  Tricky stuff. 

So we started our run here near the this place (ask for the Baker's Blend!), and then took this little spur to give us 5 miles (though Google says it's 4.2 miles, oops!) and then took a break here and went all the way back to where we started.  Peter (my running mate) was able to add 4 miles to our run by taking us through some neighborhoods which brought our totals up to 20.

I'm still in awe that I've only been running about 3 years now.  I remember how when I began running all those years ago, the thought of running for 30 minutes solid seemed impossible.  Now, I can't believe I've completed 20 miles.  Crazy.  I've never thought of myself as an athletic sort of guy, but I guess I'm slowly turning into one.

Things that helped me in the run:

Espresso Love
Sport Beans
Fuel Belt
Lots of water
my shoes, clothing (no tights or short shorts for me, thank you) and the company of a good running partner. 

Oh, and of course my lucky hat - it looks like Henry Fonda's hat in this movie...