Introductions and all that..

UPDATE: Some things have changed since I posted this blog so I’ve made a few changes.
(9/28/07).. Some more things changed so I updated this again on August 14, 2008.

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So here we go.. I’ve attempted this blog thing a few times before and it’s never worked – I think mostly because I never really knew what I wanted to do with the stupid thing.. But after giving this some thought I think I’ve come to a good spot about jumping on the blog-wagon..

A little about me..

I’m 29 30 31 32.. Married for almost 4 5 6 7 years.. I’ve got one two three daughters and one dog. My house is becoming overrun by females. I’m afraid of what that means for me 15 years from now. I’m on staff at a church in Orangeville, Ontario as the worship director. I was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario and love going back there to visit friends – although it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.

I’m a big fan of music and get very excited about discovering a new artist before anyone else does. John Mayer, Jason Mraz and Matt Wertz were in my CD player before any of my friends had heard of them. I have not had any recent discoveries but mostly that’s because I’m old and I don’t listen to the radio.

I don’t think I own a CD player anymore – except for the one in my minivan. Yes, I own a minivan. Cue the laughing now. It’s actually a very masculine minivan. A man-ivan, if you will.

I’m hopeless when it comes to remembering things – especially names, appointments and significant dates. It is for this reason that I have a computer to run my life. If I don’t write something down immediately it is forgotten before I take my next breath. Honestly, I’m hopeless.

Funny thing, though, is that if I meet someone I can tell them when we met, who they were with, sometimes what they were wearing, what we were doing, what we were eating, what we talked about – but there is ZERO chance that I will remember their name. I’ve learned to just confess my ineptitude right up front and the conversation usually goes much better from there!

I play guitar – acoustic almost exclusively. I’ve got a nice little collection which drives my wife more than a little bit crazy. I’m hoping to condense the guitar population in the house this summer and come out the other side with just one guitar that will bring me joy and happiness and lucky charms the rest of my life. Guitars can do that, can’t they?? UPDATE: I managed to pick up a beautiful Taylor GSRS with the new ES and I love it. If that sentence made no sense to you, I apologize.

I also play piano. I did the whole classical training thing growing up and actually spent a year at university in the piano performance program. One year was enough of that. So I switched my major to religion & culture and life was much better after that. University is also where I met my wife, attended my first (and only) Toronto Raptors game and spent some good time honing my Playstation skills.

I am passionately Canadian. I love the Ottawa Senators which means I must loathe and disdain the Toronto Maple Leafs. I drink Tim Horton’s. I own a plaid jacket. I love maple syrup. I enjoy good beer.

So that should be a good chunk of stuff to chew on. I’m actually going to post again right now with the first of what will be the standard type of thing I use this site for – just recapping the past Sunday morning and talking a little about why we did what we did.

9 Responses to “Introductions and all that..”

1. Rich Kirkpatrick says:

   February 14, 2007 at 12:49 am

   LOVE the name of your blog! Great to meet you at re:create. I apologize for the horrid lack of hockey knowledge at our dinner the other night. I do know my hometown’s team name “Sharks” and will certainly be more informed next time we meet. Sorry for us in the US and our lack of hockey spirit…and all that…

   Reply
2. Mark says:

   February 14, 2007 at 4:31 am

   Welcome back to the ‘sphere, Chris. Rich was right: it was great meeting you in TN. I’m looking forward to your ideas on worship design.

   The “man-ivan” comment is hilarious. Clearly you’re not yet old enough to have come to easy terms with your aging. Don’t worry, man. You’re still cool.

   Reply
3. Jason Lepack says:

   March 7, 2007 at 5:30 pm

   Man, I was wondering if I’d ever bump into you again, and here you are…

   I used to follow Esoteric around Eastern Ontario when ever you guys came anywhere close to Ottawa. I actually just listened to a few tracks last night.

   Love the blog, think it’s gonna be one of my new “homes”

   Reply
4. Reg says:

   March 11, 2008 at 9:15 am

   Chris,
   Send me your e-mail address and I’ll send you some more info on lyrical worksheets…the twitter responses are so limited by the number of characters, it would take me a thousand responses to do the concept justice…anyway, I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

   Blessings,

   Reg
   <

   Reply
5. Mud Puppy says:

   April 2, 2008 at 7:51 am

   You won the album!

   Shoot me your mailing address, and I’ll ship this puppy out.

   russellhawkins@yahoo.com

   Reply
6. Stephen Brewster says:

   November 27, 2008 at 10:09 pm

   Chris,

   I trust you are well. I ran across your blog and really enjoy reading. I was wondering if you would be interested in a little test I am running.

   I am looking for pastors and worship leaders who are bloggers. I am putting together a list and going to send out some free worship music, the occasional email, and exclusive blogger content. There are not strings or expectations. If you like some of the music, and it touches you, maybe you will blog about it. If so, great. If not, that is cool too. Would you be up for something like this? Our goal @ Integrity is to equip the church, and what better way than equipping the pastors and worship leaders.

   Looking forward to hearing from you.
   Stephen Brewster
   Sr. Director of Marketing :: Integrity Label Group
   p. 251.633.9000
   e. stephenb@integinc.com
   b. http://www.thebrewster.wordpress.com

   If interested please respond to: stephenb@integinc.com

   Reply
7. Jen Kerr @jendakerr says:

   April 6, 2009 at 1:03 pm

   I most definitely like the Taylor you picked out! I went with a GC7, also with the ES. It’s official, I’m in love…
   It’s currently my only guitar, but I’m thinking of getting another, less expensive guitar.. One I can leave laying around and one that I can let other people play without my current internalized panic attacks…..

   Reply
8. penny brown says:

   August 10, 2009 at 6:44 pm

   Hi Chris!

   I work with a few artists out of Cananda, Downhere and High Valley! Thanks for your blogging, I see you like to discover new music before others, i’d love to send you samples of some of our upcoming releases. Let me know your email and I’ll send them your way!

   Blessings,
   Penny

   Reply
9. Mark Levigne says:

   September 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm

   Hey Twitter/worship pal

   Nice work, good layout and I enjoyed learning what you do and where you’ve been. Am checking out the church web site now as I type (well, when I’m done)

   Am a freelance worship in NE Ohio, USA and just love the chance to visit churches and backfill as a guitarist, vocalist, leader as needed and as He leads me. It’s a blast.

   Enjoying the web site, blog and look forward to that soup!

   Mark

   Reply