Christmas Break Part the First

Hello Blog people. I am finally back and settled in from a fantastic Christmas Break that was full of happenings. I don’t know how many parts will be needed to fill you in on everything that happened, but this is the first one.

Christmas itself was fantastic. It was so good to see my family and friends and just spend time relaxing and enjoying the family. I spent a few days in Atlanta before and after Christmas and it was really good. My family is incredibly dysfunctional, but loving and hilarious.  After Christmas I headed to Snellville/Loganville to see some of the rest of my family of the Look Up sort. I saw some old friends I hadn’t seen in a while and then the usual suspects as well. We didn’t really do much, but just spending time with the Loganville folks was great. They are such a wonderful group of people who are family to me.

After Snellville, Matt Casey and I headed to Look Up to start working on the New Years Eve worship night and just to spend some time being ridiculous with Nate and Jamal. Rachael joined us the next day and we actually started getting some work done for the worship service (and possibly seeing how flammable lemons are, and how they react to golf clubs).   The worship service on New Years Eve was unbelievable. Worshiping with people that I enjoy so much is an amazing experience. It’s not that the people I am worshiping with are what its about, but when the people you are up their with are people you are so closely bonded to there is just something that makes leading worship more fun. Voices failed and notes were missed, but God met us in Gainesville and turned our mistakes and miscues into his glory. Singing “O Praise the One who paid my debt” as the New Year came in is the best way to start the year I can think of.

I spent a ton of time over break at and with the Look Up family, and they are such an amazing group of people. Every time I go by whether its Jamal, Nate, Rachael, Walter, Jane, the Boones, the Keigleys, or anyone else at Look Up somebody always says or does exactly what I need to hear or need done for me to keep me going and lift me up. Special shout out to Jeff and Laura this time around as game night at their house was awesome and Jeff’s food knowledge and cooking abilities were put on display.

Second part will come sometime soon. Thats all for now.

A Christmas Miracle

A large man in a red suit with a fuzzy white beard was spotted near Cary, North Carolina today. Being a responsible citizen I felt it necessary to ask him a few questions to see if he was indeed Santa Claus. The interview went as follows:

Me: “Hello there sir, do you have a moment to speak with the press today?”

Santa (or a likeness of him): “Uh… yeah sure I suppose.”

Me: “What do you want most this Christmas?”

Santa (or his twin): “Well funny that you should ask. Just today I heard about a Christmas album that is sure to be the greatest thing that anyone has ever heard. So I would say the thing I want most this Christmas is The Jingle Twins’ new album.

Me: “The Jingle Twins?”

Santa: “Yes. These young men are Christmas heroes in my opinion. Never before has anyone so precisely captured the spirit of Christmas in one power packed album.”

So there you have it. Santa (or an older gentleman with a beard and a red t-shirt) himself wants the Jingle Twins album above all else. He could have asked for world peace, a new series of Arrested Development, or the ruin of the Jonas Brothers. But no, he wants to hear some Jingle Twins.

In related news, The Jingle Twins album will release tomorrow. Yes, everyone is busy with finals, including half of the Jingle Twins, but there is just nothing better to relieve exam stress than hearing Christmas tales of Blurtus, Falcons, and other wonderful characters. We will have links on this blog or Nathan Heffington’s blog tonight and tomorrow letting you know where you can get your hands on this masterpiece. Also, if you help promote the album, you will be an automatic member of the Jingle Twins’ Army of Champions, and could receive other bonus material as well. So let your friends, enemies, and pets know about this event.

In the spirit of Christmas

Harriet, The Christmas Falcon

The first clue

If the weather outside is frightful
But you want to look delightful
The holidays coming quick
You need to be looking slick
Possibly fashioned by Great Aunt Claire
What is this item that you wear?

Once you have figured this out go here to attempt to enter the password.

The answer is all lowercase letters with a space.

Jingle Contest Rules

Ok, so here’s how this crazy contest is going to go.  In order to win you will need to follow these steps:

1) Solve the riddle on on either Nathan’s or Lanier’s blog.

2) Use the answer to the riddle you solved to access the link named “Jingle Clue” (located on the right hand side of the page) on the other blog. (For example, if you solve the riddle on Nathan’s blog, you would navigate to Lanier’s blog through the provided link, click on “Jingle Clue” located at the top of his page, and input the answer to Nathan’s riddle when prompted for a password.)

3) Solve the riddle you are confronted with within the “Jingle Clue” link. Make sure to save the answer that you get! This one will be easier but it is very important! It will eventually get you into the final prize page!

4) Repeat steps 1-3 with the blog and riddle that you did not start with on step 1. (For example, if you solved Nathan’s riddle first, go back and solve Lanier’s)

5) Once you have unlocked both “Jingle Clue” pages and gotten the answers to the final riddles, combine them (with no spaces), and use that as the password to unlock the “Jingle Twins Prize!!” link on the right side of Nathan’s page.

6) Don’t forget to make a comment as soon as you get there to ensure that your prize is safe!

Have fun! Riddles will be released simultaneously tonight at precisely 12:00 AM!

Breaking News…

OK folks, it’s time to get down to business. These Jingle Twins you keep hearing about are really coming strong with the hits. As you may have heard “Santa in July” won over a crowd that was at least 100 and possibly as many as 6 million people last night. And that was just half of the twins and played acoustic. So in a response to this overwhelmingly positive feedback, the twins have decided to entertain their legions of fans with a game of epic proportions. You can find updates, and later instructions and the game itself on this blog, or this blog. Watch out kids, these Jingle
Twins came to rock, rap, croon, and country squeak your faces off. The first winner of a free album came last night during a gift exchange and it was none other than Natalie Hunt of Raleigh, NC. In a show of kindness from the normally stoic and reserved Jingle Twins, at least one person’s Christmas season will now be perfect.

Media Pressure

Well I can’t say I’m shocked but the recent media attention given to a certain up and coming Christmas sensory explosion is getting to me a little bit. If I go on facebook, I see it, if I read a blog, it’s there. What next CNN? The BBC? I really don’t know if I’m cut out for life as a celebrity. But everyone giving me free stuff should be pretty sweet. Just today I went to Chik Fil A and they gave me free honey mustard and ranch. Things are really picking up around here.

Progress being made…

Santa In July, likely the first single off the debut album by The Jingle Twins (Nathan Heffington and myself) made its live debut tonight. It was only half of the so called “wunderkind duo” and it was played acoustic which doesn’t do justice to the volume or depth of the track. It was played to a crowd of about 100 and received warmly. Some might see this as a small step that means little. I see those people as visionless cowards who need to step off.

Christmas Album

It’s real, and it’s coming to stores (or interwebs) near you. We are working diligently around the clock to complete it and give the people what the want: pure unadulterated Christmas audio nirvana. Thats what this album is. Start calling your local radio stations and requesting some of those new Jingle Twins tracks.

A Christmas to remember

Well, it looks like the press has gotten wind of the project I am secretly involved in. Nestled away in upstate South Carolina I had taken part in creating the most wonderful Christmas album ever to be created. If you are a person who likes musical perfection, vocals that sound like they were taken straight from heaven, beats that pulsate the very fiber of your being, and tales of Christmas lore that you may not be familiar with, then this album is for you. Featuring guest stars from all walks of life each with a different take on Christmas, this album is sure to warm your heart. Myself and one Nathan “Star Status” Heffington form the backbone of the album with friends such as Kevin Oedipus Keigley and Jamal “Gospel Thunder” Quattlebaum. Check back soon to see where you can pick up this holiday adventure for the whole family.

Music Again

So I have been on a big music kick today, just basically nonstop listening to all sorts of things. I have more things that you need to hear.

Great band called The Thermals, especially the song Now We Can See off the album by the same name.

Another sweet new band called Company of Thieves, lead singer sounds Regina Spektor-esque, and they just have a really cool sound. Oscar Wilde is the best song of theirs I have heard so far. The whole album Ordinary Riches seems pretty good at first glance though.

For something a little different and funky and retro I really am digging Electric Feel by MGMT. Its such a 70’s sound and so catchy.

Another kinda different sounding item, listen to Staring at the Sun by TV On The Radio.

I know I mentioned U2 yesterday, but today I listened to Ultra Violet (Light My Way) on repeat for a while. It’s pretty great.

Wake Up by Arcade Fire is the song from the trailer of Where The Wild Things Are. I love it for several reasons. Reason #1 is because it is the song for the trailer of Where The Wild Things Are and it makes me so excited for the movie. Reason #2 is it makes me feel like I am doing something epic and unforgettable even when I am just driving to get gas. Reason#3 is if I am ever in a big time band that gets to come out to some cool song before we play our set, that would be the song I would choose to come out to. Well maybe not, because that song is better than anything I could ever produce.

That’s all the time I have at the moment. I will continue soon.