I've been slacking

Hey. I'd ask if you missed me but noone reads this. It's 7AM and I'm up because I can't sleep. I can't sleep because I'm thinking about band stuff. As you know, we recorded a new E.P. back in January with Jesse Sprinkle. It is currently being mixed, soon it will be being mastered, and then it will get pressed. We're coming up with new T-Shirt/Sticker/Other Merch designs, designing our E.P. cover, designing our new myspace, etc. We've started planning for our E.P. release show, and pretty much every weekend after we release it we're planning to play somewhere. That's the reason I can't sleep. See we have this idea for our E.P. release weekend tours, and if done right it could be really sweet. I'm just kind of scared it might not work out. I guess what I'm feeling now is a mix of anxiety and excitement. All I know is I'm definately not going to Hillsong in July. Right now my priorities lie with the band and The Father's House. Speaking of TFH, there is a new vision for the youth and part of that plan includes splitting up the worship team into two different teams. The college age kids, and the high school. Larry and Andrea have put me in charge of leading the rehearsal for the high school kids which is a huge honor. I'm also fairly nervous about that. RLS has a show this Sunday. It's weird, when we booked it, I didn't really care about the show, because all I have been focusing on is the E.P. Now with only a few days till the show this sunday I feel really nervous, and I never feel nervous about shows. I guess I'm gonna try to fall back asleep.


Mitch

Listening To:

The Highway Beautiful Love Letters, Soap Boxes, and Dirty Laundry
The Fray How To Save A Life
Adelaide Overtired and Ill-Prepared
The Almost Southern Weather
The Ataris So Long, Astoria
Brand New Deja Entendu
Chasing Victory Fiends
Dead Poetic Vices
Emery While Broken Hearts Prevail
The Highway Beautiful The Things That Lights Can Hide
Oh, Sleeper When I Am God
Relient K The Bird and the Bee Sides
The Showdown Temptation Come My Way
Story of The Year The Black Swan
Story of The Year In The Wake of Determination
Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown
Thrice Vheissu
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety
Underoath Define The Great Line
Underoath Survive, Kaleidoscope
Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation
Yellowcard Lights and Sounds
the world inside & seven head division

Dansville

So it's been a couple of days since I last posted. I don't remember much about what I did on Wednesday other than starting to watch Lost. I watched both parts of the pilot episode online. Amy Bartholomew is letting me borrow Lost Season 1 which I am pretty happy about. Yesterday was Thursday, so I went to Roberts in the evening for some Mountain Dew Thursday festivities. I love hanging out with my friends there. Today I had to work 11-3. Work was crappy today. I don't like people. From now on I'm always going to request off of work the day of a show. When I got out of work I came home and got some stuff ready for band practice. When Alex got here, we went and picked up the van from the mechanic. It has heat now which is amazing. When we got back from the mechanic we practiced some songs for worship on sunday, and then we loaded up the van for our show in Dansville. We left at about 6:00PM, we were supposed to be there by 6:30. We got there at about 6:45, so we were about 15 minutes late. I think that was the first time we've ever been late for a show. When we got there we loaded in all of our stuff, and I set up the merch table while Alex, Brian and Sean got some stuff ready. While I was setting up my drums I realized my cymbals were missing. Somehow we ended up leaving my cymbals at home. I was pissed. Luckily I was allowed to use the church's cymbals. The first band that played was called Praxia. We've played with them before under a different name. Then this guy from the band Endeavor played some acoustic songs. Then Jesse Sprinkle played an acoustic set. Jesse is amazing. Me and the rest of the RLS guys decided to sit front and center. Remind me never to sit cross legged for half an hour right before I play ever again. When I went to stand up to go pray with the guys, My feet were completely asleep and I couldn't stand so I fell down which was embarassing. I waited about a minute to get some blood flowing then I stood up and walked to the back hall where we prayed. I almost fell about five times because my feet were still asleep. After a sound check we played. We made a seven song set list, but Sean and I really wanted to play the song "See Past The Transparency" because it is about Uganda, and the show was a benefit show for the ugandan water project. That made it an eight song set list. We unveiled two brand new songs tonight. We opened with "Set The Standard" Next was "It's All For You" Third was "Three Feet Away From Things That Burn" Fourth was "South of Heavy" Fifth was "Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place" sixth was "See Past The Transparency" seventh was "Fight Song" and eighth was "I Can't Wait." Then we decided to play "Surrender" and called Jesse Sprinkle up as a guest vocalist. Nine songs is the most we've played in a while, if not ever. It was a good time. After we played, we packed up our stuff and mingled a bit, then we proceeded to one of our favorite Dansville restaurants, The Buck Horn at The Travel Center. Our other favorite is a Chinese buffet on main street. I think people at restaurants hate us, so I tipped alot because we kind of suck as customers. Susie Reid called us right before our food came so we all talked to her. That was cool. So the best part of the night was that Brian Jackson, our good friend and roadie came along to help us out on his birthday. He is the man. Now I'm home, found my cymbals, and I think I'm going to go to bed.


Mitch

Listening To:

The Highway Beautiful Love Letters, Soap Boxes and Dirty Laundry
blink-182 S/T
Story of The Year The Black Swan, In The Wake of Determination
Yellowcard Lights and Sounds
Thrice Vheissu
Oh, Sleeper When I Am God
Paramore RIOT!
The Showdown Temptation Come My Way

Unreliable Alarm Clocks

This morning, for whatever reason, I decided to naturally wake up at 8:15AM. I set my alarm for 7:00AM and it never went off. I was supposed to be to work at 8:00AM. As soon as I got up, I called my dad (my manager) and told him what happened and that I would be there ASAP. I got to work at about 8:50AM. Needless to say my day started off pretty badly. When I got home from work I relaxed for a bit and showered and stuff. At around 6:30PM I headed out to Bluebrick Recording to see how things were going getting the E.P. ready to send to the important people to mix and master. Seems to be going pretty well. I got to visit with Adam and Jesse, and Chris, and Adam's intern and some other dude. It was a good time. I made a twitter page for red letter statement today. Follow our updates at www.twitter.com/rlsrochester.


Mitch

Listening To:

Underoath "Lost In The Sound Of Separation"
Switchfoot "Learning To Breathe"
The Hoodies "Endings E.P." "Karma Is a Boomerang" "A Place On Solid Ground"
Yellowcard "Lights and Sounds" "Ocean Avenue"
Emery "While Broken Hearts Prevail"
Red Letter Statement "The Lighter E.P. Rough Cut"

Day Off

I had the day off from work today which was nice. I slept in a bit and got up around 10:30 i think. At around noon I went and got lunch for the fam. After Lunch I listened to my copy of the new The Highway Beautiful C.D. which came in the mail today. I am really happy I got it. Also, I found out that blink-182 announced that they are back together!!!! So Stoked! They are recording a new album that is due out this summer. I love blink. I took my mom out to run some errands today, we went to the bank, the social security place, rite aid and another bank. When I came home I started filling out my application for Hillsong International Leadership College. I was about 20 minutes into the application when I accidentally clicked log off on my mom's computer. I'm beginning to think maybe there was a reason I was unable to complete my application today. Maybe I'm supposed to wait. I guess It's just something I need to pray about. I helped teach songs at worship practice today. There were issues with the sound system today, so we got off to kind of a late start. We ended up reviewing the two songs we worked on last week. I'm Not Ashamed and Need You Here. Hopefully next week I will be able to teach Tell The World. After worship practice we had our monthly Big Leaders meeting. Let's just say for all of you c4 kids out there, we've got big plans in store. Get stoked.


Mitch

Listening To:

The Highway Beautiful "Love Letters, Soap Boxes & Dirty Laundry"
Switchfoot "Learning To Breathe" "Oh! Gravity."
The Almost "Southern Weather"
Brooke Fraser "Albertine"
Dead Poetic "Vices" "New Medicines"
Hillsong United "With Hearts As One"
The Hoodies "Endings E.P."
Oh, Sleeper "When I Am God"
Thrice "The Alchemy Index Vol I & II Fire and Water" "Vheissu"

Today I got to sleep in a little bit and woke up at around 9 to pick up Amy Bartholomew, Christine Lange, Beth Zack and Katie Lee for Church... Three of them have first names for last names... weird. Anyhow, we sat with some of the C4 kids because C4 was incorporated with Big Church today. Sean Pritzkau, Alex Regelsberger, Jesse Siegfried, Larry Moore, and Andrea Moore from C4 played with the adult team today. Worship was good. Pierre's message today was on giving. In order to be blessed, we must first give. When we're in a rut, we can't say well when God brings increase, I'll tithe. God asks for just 10% of our income. Something that I got out of this message was that I am wrong about something. For the past couple of months I have been saving up my tithe to purchase a new microphone for C4. See, our mics like to go missing or break all of the time, so each time i make $1000 i had planned on buying a new Sennheiser e835 for C4. I realize now that Tithing is about sacrifice, and we are to give our money to God for Him to decide what to do with it. I went to both services today. I love when Pierre preaches. After church, Adam, Joel, Alex, Sean and I went to Wendy's for lunch before band practice. At practice we had to set all of our stuff back up. We haven't practiced at my house in over a month. It was kind of weird practicing here again. We practiced our set list twice for our show this Friday at Dansville Foursquare Church with Jesse Sprinkle and Praxia. The show is a benefit show for The Ugandan Water Project" After practice, Sean, Alex and I headed over to New Testament Christian Church to lead worship. Sean picked up Kenneth and Krystal Simpson and they sang with us. We played Mighty To Save, Hosana, All For Love and Give Us Clean Hands. I took Krystal and Kenneth home afterwards and now I'm at home relaxing. I don't have to work tomorrow, so I'm pretty stoked about that.


Mitch

Listening To:

Switchfoot "Learning To Breathe"
Yellowcard "Lights and Sounds"
Emery "While Broken Hearts Prevail"
Dead Poetic "Vices"
Paramore "RIOT!"
Vice Grip "If You Show Me Yours"

Totally My Hat

I fell asleep on the couch last night when I got home so I didn't blog yesterday. I also didn't read. I think I need to plan on reading earlier in the day.

My hair is getting really long. When I'm at work I want to cut it, when I'm anywhere else I don't.

I found a hat at fuse yesterday. My hat now. Totally my hat. speaking of fuse, those kids are out of control, haha. I probably was when I was that age too.

My dad bought me new jeans yesterday. I'm pretty excited about that. Mine had a hole in a place there shouldn't be a hole. I thought about learning how to sew.

This morning I went to rGen training. The first half was with rLife and i decided to run the iPod. I'm told I did a good job with that. Apparently it's more important than I thought. The second half of training we moved into the old c4 room with just rGen leaders and apprentices. I have a really hard time being serious. Sam Guenther almost got separated. After rGen training I packed up my drums and grabbed Sam Updike's bass. In other news, my phone decided it likes taking naps randomly and turns off. I think I need to buy a new one when I have money which will be never. I'm working 30+/- hours a week, but I have lots of stuff I have to pay for. $40 a week for phone and car insurance, and then we have recording bills for Red Letter Statement. Both of my crashes are cracked so I need to save up about $600 for two new ones and I'm going to need new drum heads again soon.

Lincoln Brewster is really good.

I worked 4-close today. This was my first time at Camille's that we had customers still sitting in the store after close. They had finished their food but wanted to sit and talk. ugh... I worked an extra half hour though, so that's like $4 before taxes.

Check out The Almost's version of Your Love Is Extravagant.



Mitch


Listening To:

The Almost "Southern Weather" "No Gift To Bring E.P."
Underoath "Define The Great Line" "Lost in the Sound of Separation"
Hillsong United "With Hearts As One" "All The Above"
Hillsong "Saviour King" "This Is Our God"
David Crowder Band "A Collision"
Story of The Year "The Black Swan"
Switchfoot "The Beautiful Letdown"
The Academy Is... "Fast Times At Barrington High"
Delirious "Now Is The Time"
Mae "The Everglow"
Paramore "RIOT!"
Spitalfield "Stop Doing Bad Things"
Thrice "Vheissu"

Post 50

Hey. This is post number 50!



...Anyways, Got up around 11 this morning, snowblowed the driveway. At around 1:30 I decided to get my mom and I some lunch at Taco Bell since it was Mountain Dew Thursday and they have Mountain Dew Baja Blast. On my way their I realized I forgot money, so I turned around. I was kind of frustrated so I was driving too fast and got stuck in a snow bank in my neighborhood. When I say stuck, I mean stuck. I have a shovel in my car and tried shoveling myself out, but there was no way that was going to work because my drivers side front tire wasn't even touching the ground and the grand prix is front wheel drive. I walked home and grabbed a tow chain and the van and then tried to figure out how to tow the car out. I threw the grand prix into neutral and after some finagling (sp) I figured out how to get the car out. Luckily there were very few cars out today. That took up alot of my time. I finally got taco bell about an hour and a half later. At that point i was filthy and freezing so I took a warm shower. At around 5:15 i decided to leave for access. I had to stop for gas on the way and when I got to the gas station realized I left my wallet at home which is weird because I never take my wallet out of my pocket other than to pay for things. Went back home and got my wallet. When I got to church, Dave Scribani, Dillon Lovall and Josh Allyn were there and we started setting up. We soundchecked until 10 to seven then we met and prayed with the other volunteers and then we practiced one more song. Then it was time to mingle. After mingling it was time for us to play. We played 3 songs I have never played before but we are all good musicians so it worked out well. After we played, a guy named Aaron spoke and we formed groups to talk about some questions he asked us. After that we mingled some more. I talked to Dillon for a while because he went to Hillsong International Leadership College for a year and I wanted to know how he liked it because I really feel led to pursue becoming a worship leader. He said he absolutely loved it and learned a ton. I really feel like that is my number one option at this point. Part of me feels like it would be awesome to study there but I also have so much going on here and I don't want to leave. I am reminded of how in the Bible when Jesus found His disciples he asked them to leave their lives and follow him. I guess I just have a lot of praying and seeking to do. After access I went to Roberts for some Mountain Dew Thursday fun. We watched our friends play frisbee for about an hour then we headed over to Magil to hang out. It was another quiet MDT but I'm starting to like it more each time. It's like Thursday's are a time where I get to catch up with my Roberts friends who I really miss for the rest of the week. Everybody was hungry so we decided to go to wendys at around 12:30. We got there to find out that it was closed. Then we went to McDonalds and found out they were closed as well. Then we went to Wegman's but didn't really want anything there so we ended up going to Taco Bell. I dropped Josh of at Dave's house to pick up his truck and then took Sean, Amy and Christine back to Roberts. I miss them all already. I'm going to do some research on Hillsong International Leadership College, then read some more of Psalms and go to bed.

Mitch

Listening To:

On The Go Playlist
Shuffle Mode

Happy Mountain Dew Thursday!!!!

Today I worked 10:30 to 2:30. About 10 minutes after I got there I went to check out the bathroom sitch. I walked in to see that someone had pooped on the floor. It was disgusting. I had to pick it up. I put on rubber gloves and got some to-go cups to pick it up with. Then I had to mop the floor. I thought I was going to throw up. It was terrible. It never ended up getting very busy today. I went home at around 2:30 and spent the afternoon relaxing. I put about 3 gigs of music on to 2 different flash drives, hoping sean will let me put it on his computer so i can have more variety on my ipod... (my iPod is synced to his computer because our home computer is on the fritz and won't recognize my iPod.) After dinner I went out to Brighton for rLife at Sam Guenther and Garrett Argenna's apartment. That was pretty sweet. After rLife I met up with Trevor Hyland, his friend Jordi, and Alex at Jay's diner for some coffee and food, and then we went across the street to see Role Models at Movies 10. That movie was hilarious. After the movie, it was around midnight, so Alex, Trevor and I brushed off our cars, and then at midnight we celebrated Mountain Dew Thursday together and talked in the parking lot for about 15 minutes while watching someone have fun doing donuts in the snow. It was freezing outside. I was really glad to be able to hang out with Trevor again because I haven't seen him in a while. Well, it's time to read some Psalms and go to bed.


Mitchell


Listening To:

Oh, Sleeper When I am God
Thrice Vheissu
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vol II: Water
The Killers Hot Fuss
Underoath Define The Great Line

The Day of Two Breakfasts

So today at around 9:30 Sean Pritzkau, Kyle Sullivan, Chad Pierce and I went to Denny's for Free grand slam breakfasts. There were so many people there so we got rain checks. Sean, Kyle and I went down the road to Greece Ridge Family Restaurant and had there version of the grand slam. It was awesome to hang out with my friends over breakfast. After breakfast I took Kyle home and then I went home and relaxed before work. I worked 1-close. It was pretty slow today so I prepped a bunch of stuff. When I got out of work, Kyle, Amy, Sean and I went to Denny's to redeem our rain checks for free grand slams. I enjoyed spending time with them , and our waitress was awesome. I have the best friends in the world.


Mitch

Listening To:

The Almost No Gift To Bring E.P.
The Almost Southern Weather
Underoath Lost in The Sound of Separation
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vol II: Water
Thrice The Artist in The Ambulance
Thrice Live at the House of Blues Anaheim
A Kiss For Jersey Victims
Story of The Year The Black Swan
Spitalfield Stop Doing Bad Things
Paramore RIOT!

Today I had to get up really early for work. I was prepping today. My work day went by pretty quickly actually. When I got home I had some left over pulled pork. I took a shower and ended up falling asleep in the shower for like an hour. It was probably the best nap ever. Then I got ready to go to worship practice. I picked Mason up. When we got to practice we did some sound checking. I played "acoustic" (aka clean electric through the acoustic D.I.) and sang a little for the first half of practice. I also helped teach the new songs. We had a little meeting and found out that I won't be playing in Big Church this Sunday, pretty bummed about that. Then the second half of musicians went on stage and learned the songs, and I played drums. After practice I took Krystal, Kenneth and Mason home. Now I'm home.

Listening To:

Mae The Everglow
Gatsby's Americam Dream Volcano
The Academy Is... Santi
Spitalfield Stop Doing Bad Things
Story of the Year The Black Swan
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vol II: Water
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety

GO STILLERS!!!!

I slept over in Sean's dorm at Roberts Wesleyan College last night. Got up at around 7:15AM to get ready for Church. When we got to church soundcheck took FOREVER!!!! It was really annoying. We finally practiced all of our songs and then we had our meeting and stuff. Both services went really well, I think first went better than second though. We played Your Name High, My Future Decided, Stronger, You Are Here, Everything, Same Power, In My Life (Came To My Rescue), Your Name High, and I'm Not Ashamed. After second service we went to Wendy's for some lunch. Then we went back to Church for RLS practice. It was cool practicing in the church again, it's been a while. We mapped out a set list for our show February 13th in Dansville with Jesse Sprinkle. We're pulling out two new songs for this show, so I'm pretty stoked. After practice, I drove Sean back to Roberts, and then I came home to take a shower, cause I was soaked after practice. My dad made pulled pork for dinner. It was delicious. After dinner, I drove to Roberts to pick up Nick Moore to go watch the superbowl at Sean's house. Amy, Beth, Megan, Katie, Nick, Adam, Alex, Brian, Josh, Kyle, Kurt and I were all there. The Steelers (Pronounced Stillers) won! After the Superbowl there was a new episode of The Office. It was hilarious. Now I'm home. I'm going to read some Psalms, and go to bed. I have work early in the A.M.

Mitch

Listening To:

The Showdown Temptation Come My Way
Spitalfield Stop Doing Bad Things
Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety
Oh, Sleeper When I Am God
A Kiss For Jersey Victims
Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown

Long Day

Today I woke up at around 8:15 to go to Saturday morning prayer at 9. For some reason, out of the handful of times I have gone to SMP at Church, I have had trouble engaging. Today I ended up just finishing the book of Job. I'm about to start Psalms. After prayer, Luke, Sean, Alex Aiezza, Anthony, Larry, Brian Saville, Omari Morgan and I went across he street to set up the C4 room for service tomorrow. After I set my drums up, I had to leave for work. For some reason today I felt very weak and tired, and sad. I don't know why. I got out of work early at 6:30 so I could go to One Thing at Church. By the end of service, I was feeling so much better. After one thing, Sean, Katie, Amy, Beth, Mark and I went to Starry Nites Coffee shop on University Ave. The coffee was really good. There was a hippie band playing. We played scrabble. Mark and I one. Amy and I beat everybody else back to Roberts, then offered to drive some of our friends to tim hortons. We went to the Cafe area of Roberts and played Scattergories. I think Mark won. Now I'm going to be. 

Mitch

Listening To:

Thrice Vheissu

Thrice The Alchemy Index Vol II: Water

Thrice Live at The House of Blues Anaheim

Spitalfield Stop Doing Bad Things

Paramore RIOT!

Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown

Anberlin Blueprints of the Black Market

The Almost Southern Weather

Mae The Everglow

Whatsie?