Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, November 19, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Still working
I've been very bad at posting what has been happening with the film as of late. But rest assured we're still plugging away. More details to follow.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Going to the Newsboys
I'm going to be shooting the Newsboys Monday so stay tuned for some new entries.
With that said we have actually been busy shooting having recently taken a second trip to Cornerstone. When I get a second I'll post all about it.
Stay tuned!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Right Now
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
What happens next?
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
Like today never happened
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
What happens next?
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
Like today never happened
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Cornerstone
As you can probably tell from some of my earlier posts, the Cornerstone festival in Bushnell, Illinois plays an important role not only in our film but in Christian Rock as we know it.
Steve Tayor said it best when he said “you simply cannot understate the importance of the Cornerstone festival.”
By way of description Cornerstone is a festival that is held every year around the Fourth of July at a farm outside of Bushnell. The annual attendance is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 and there is usually around 300 bands that play the fest. It is run by a group called JPUSA (Jesus People USA) that are basically a commune of punks, hippies and otherwise from Chicago. What’s probably the coolest things about Cornerstone is that it is it’s own thing. There is nothing in the world like Cornerstone Festival. Here’s my summation of Cornerstone: hot, dusty (or muddy), smelly, and home to the most amazing performances and experiences on the planet.
The first time I went to Cornerstone was in 1997, and it was incredible. You simply have to experience it for yourself. The first year, I learned to always carry a flashlight, don’t camp out unless you have to, and that there is a bathroom in the back of the Wal-Mart that most people don’t know about (this won’t make any sense to anyone unless they’ve been to Cornerstone before). The shows that stand out to me from that first year are POD (of course), ZAO, Spoken, Saviour Machine, NIV, Sarah Jahn and the mighty Living Sacrifice. It was a good time. I remember that I took my Bible and just read it and went to shows. I lived on tenderloin sandwiches, elephant ears, and gyros.
Since that time I’ve been back several times and each year was an amazing experience. One year I got to see the Ragamuffin band on mainstage right after Rich Mullins died, as you can imagine it was really, really moving. Another time I got to see Mark Salamon do “Mindbender” with Living Sacrifice. Another time I got to see Danielson, when he played in the “tree suit.” There are so many great moments it would take days to go through them all.
Ash and I went to Cornerstone in 2006, and it was about the fifth time for me and the first time for Ash. It is important to note here that prior to this trip Ash had only been to festivals with Hanson, and he was part of their inner circle so the Krystal and catering flowed freely I’m sure. Cornerstone isn’t like that. We rented a golf cart, which was probably the best move we made but resulted in a battle on our last night at the fest but more on that later.
Lori was there and had set up a ton of interviews for us and they were all really good. It was just a fun time all around. Ash became fascinated with the generator shows that go on throughout the fest. For those who don’t know Cornerstone is a large grounds that has several official stages that are varying in size and distances from each other. What is cool about this is that in addition to the official stages, there are tons of smaller shows set up playing off of generators. While most are just a bare plot of ground with a band plugged into a generator, some are fairly elaborate having actual stage platforms with lights and everything. What is double cool about this is that JPUSA is totally cool with people doing it themselves and even encourages it. Virtually any band out there has the change to play at Cornerstone.
Ash was really into this and was always wanting to stop and check out the generator bands. He quickly learned that most of these bands were heavy, hardcore, screamo, punk or whatever and got into it. Again he was used to being with Hanson so hardcore was a new thing. He’s got this hilarious impression of hardcore guitars that goes something like “Kaw-Kaw, Kaw-Kaw” said in ominous Cookie Monster style voice. Trust me it’s funny when he does it.
There were tons of great interviews. Some of the high points were MXPX, Leigh Nash, POD, ZAO, Jon Davis, Demon Hunter and author John Thompson.
As I said before we had a golf cart so we could pretty much make it wherever we needed to go pretty quickly, it was nice. After we interviewed Underoath, Aaron Gillespie asked if we could give him a ride to the merch tent which is about a mile away. Of course we agreed and took off with Aaron on the back of the cart. It was pretty cool, we actually had some kids running along behind us and people were yelling at Aaron the whole way.
Probably the high point or low point of the fest however was as we were leaving the grounds on the final night. We were going to turn our golf cart in and take off to get rested for our long drive the next day. That morning I had went to the golf cart place, which was basically an RV at the entrance to the fest and made sure what time we needed to turn in our cart. I was assured that there would be someone there until well into the wee hours of the morning. I foolishly believed this and around 8 p.m. we went to the RV to turn in our cart. To our surprise there was no one there but a line of people waiting to turn in carts. People were knocking on the door of the RV and asking all around but no one knew where the guy was. The problem Ash and myself was facing was that we had rented a chain and padlock from the place with a $20 deposit that we needed to get back so that we would have gas money to get home the next day. So we waited and waited and waited. About 2 hours later a woman who had been waiting with us (and said that she was 80 years old) said she couldn’t take it and left. It is important to note that neither Ash nor myself was happy at this point. Then a kid comes running up and tells everyone (by this time there was probably 40 or 50 people waiting) that the cart guy was at the mainstage waiting to get POD’s autograph. The mainstage is at the opposite end of the grounds probably 3 miles away. Ash about blew a gasket. So we kept waiting. Around 11 or 11:30 the guy comes moseying up and totally acts like nothing is wrong. Ash was on him like a rat on a Cheeto. “Where have you been?” he asked at full volume.
And you know what the guy says?
“I’ve been here.”
Yeah, you read that right. He said he had been there all along. It was as if he decided that he could use the jedi mind trick on the line of people that had been waiting for hours. He could just say he’d been there and everyone would go “maybe he was here and we really didn’t wait 3 hours.”
Ash completely freaked out, and went off on the guy. It seems like the guy told him they were going to fight or something which was really funny because Ash is about 6’1, and about 200 or so pounds. We literally laughed as he quickly gave us our $20 back. We complained about it the whole way back to the hotel and then some more the next morning.
As we were driving home I called the golf cart company and griped about the guy and to make sure that he hadn’t “accidentally” lost our cart or something. They told me that our cart was fine and apologized that the guy had been such a jerk. They added that only one cart had come up missing for the whole festival.
I found out later that the cart in question had been rented to one Lori Lenz. What are the odds? So then Lori has a go around with these guys, it was crazy. Lori was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of the missing cart.
In any event we had a great time at the fest.
Steve Tayor said it best when he said “you simply cannot understate the importance of the Cornerstone festival.”
By way of description Cornerstone is a festival that is held every year around the Fourth of July at a farm outside of Bushnell. The annual attendance is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 and there is usually around 300 bands that play the fest. It is run by a group called JPUSA (Jesus People USA) that are basically a commune of punks, hippies and otherwise from Chicago. What’s probably the coolest things about Cornerstone is that it is it’s own thing. There is nothing in the world like Cornerstone Festival. Here’s my summation of Cornerstone: hot, dusty (or muddy), smelly, and home to the most amazing performances and experiences on the planet.
The first time I went to Cornerstone was in 1997, and it was incredible. You simply have to experience it for yourself. The first year, I learned to always carry a flashlight, don’t camp out unless you have to, and that there is a bathroom in the back of the Wal-Mart that most people don’t know about (this won’t make any sense to anyone unless they’ve been to Cornerstone before). The shows that stand out to me from that first year are POD (of course), ZAO, Spoken, Saviour Machine, NIV, Sarah Jahn and the mighty Living Sacrifice. It was a good time. I remember that I took my Bible and just read it and went to shows. I lived on tenderloin sandwiches, elephant ears, and gyros.
Since that time I’ve been back several times and each year was an amazing experience. One year I got to see the Ragamuffin band on mainstage right after Rich Mullins died, as you can imagine it was really, really moving. Another time I got to see Mark Salamon do “Mindbender” with Living Sacrifice. Another time I got to see Danielson, when he played in the “tree suit.” There are so many great moments it would take days to go through them all.
Ash and I went to Cornerstone in 2006, and it was about the fifth time for me and the first time for Ash. It is important to note here that prior to this trip Ash had only been to festivals with Hanson, and he was part of their inner circle so the Krystal and catering flowed freely I’m sure. Cornerstone isn’t like that. We rented a golf cart, which was probably the best move we made but resulted in a battle on our last night at the fest but more on that later.
Lori was there and had set up a ton of interviews for us and they were all really good. It was just a fun time all around. Ash became fascinated with the generator shows that go on throughout the fest. For those who don’t know Cornerstone is a large grounds that has several official stages that are varying in size and distances from each other. What is cool about this is that in addition to the official stages, there are tons of smaller shows set up playing off of generators. While most are just a bare plot of ground with a band plugged into a generator, some are fairly elaborate having actual stage platforms with lights and everything. What is double cool about this is that JPUSA is totally cool with people doing it themselves and even encourages it. Virtually any band out there has the change to play at Cornerstone.
Ash was really into this and was always wanting to stop and check out the generator bands. He quickly learned that most of these bands were heavy, hardcore, screamo, punk or whatever and got into it. Again he was used to being with Hanson so hardcore was a new thing. He’s got this hilarious impression of hardcore guitars that goes something like “Kaw-Kaw, Kaw-Kaw” said in ominous Cookie Monster style voice. Trust me it’s funny when he does it.
There were tons of great interviews. Some of the high points were MXPX, Leigh Nash, POD, ZAO, Jon Davis, Demon Hunter and author John Thompson.
As I said before we had a golf cart so we could pretty much make it wherever we needed to go pretty quickly, it was nice. After we interviewed Underoath, Aaron Gillespie asked if we could give him a ride to the merch tent which is about a mile away. Of course we agreed and took off with Aaron on the back of the cart. It was pretty cool, we actually had some kids running along behind us and people were yelling at Aaron the whole way.
Probably the high point or low point of the fest however was as we were leaving the grounds on the final night. We were going to turn our golf cart in and take off to get rested for our long drive the next day. That morning I had went to the golf cart place, which was basically an RV at the entrance to the fest and made sure what time we needed to turn in our cart. I was assured that there would be someone there until well into the wee hours of the morning. I foolishly believed this and around 8 p.m. we went to the RV to turn in our cart. To our surprise there was no one there but a line of people waiting to turn in carts. People were knocking on the door of the RV and asking all around but no one knew where the guy was. The problem Ash and myself was facing was that we had rented a chain and padlock from the place with a $20 deposit that we needed to get back so that we would have gas money to get home the next day. So we waited and waited and waited. About 2 hours later a woman who had been waiting with us (and said that she was 80 years old) said she couldn’t take it and left. It is important to note that neither Ash nor myself was happy at this point. Then a kid comes running up and tells everyone (by this time there was probably 40 or 50 people waiting) that the cart guy was at the mainstage waiting to get POD’s autograph. The mainstage is at the opposite end of the grounds probably 3 miles away. Ash about blew a gasket. So we kept waiting. Around 11 or 11:30 the guy comes moseying up and totally acts like nothing is wrong. Ash was on him like a rat on a Cheeto. “Where have you been?” he asked at full volume.
And you know what the guy says?
“I’ve been here.”
Yeah, you read that right. He said he had been there all along. It was as if he decided that he could use the jedi mind trick on the line of people that had been waiting for hours. He could just say he’d been there and everyone would go “maybe he was here and we really didn’t wait 3 hours.”
Ash completely freaked out, and went off on the guy. It seems like the guy told him they were going to fight or something which was really funny because Ash is about 6’1, and about 200 or so pounds. We literally laughed as he quickly gave us our $20 back. We complained about it the whole way back to the hotel and then some more the next morning.
As we were driving home I called the golf cart company and griped about the guy and to make sure that he hadn’t “accidentally” lost our cart or something. They told me that our cart was fine and apologized that the guy had been such a jerk. They added that only one cart had come up missing for the whole festival.
I found out later that the cart in question had been rented to one Lori Lenz. What are the odds? So then Lori has a go around with these guys, it was crazy. Lori was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of the missing cart.
In any event we had a great time at the fest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)