Grammy winner Jason Crabb, a country boy at ease with Lady Gaga

A Gram­my Award adorns Jason Crabb’s man­tel along with numer­ous Dove Awards, but the Gospel music artist is not slow­ing down, even after gar­ner­ing eight Dove Award nom­i­na­tions this year.

Oh, no, now is not the time,” Crabb said of tak­ing a break. “These things fire me up. We are work­ing on a spe­cial fam­i­ly album, with songs we grew up with – hymns, spe­cial and reg­u­lar church ser­vices. I’m prepar­ing songs for a solo project. And I’m work­ing on anoth­er book – a children’s series. So I’m thrilled about that.”

But wait there’s more on Crabb’s sched­ule.

And what I’m real­ly hyped about is work­ing on a pos­i­tive film. It’s my first act­ing part,” he explained, “and my fam­i­ly has a small part in it, and boy, they are all hyped. The kids are telling their friends they are going to be in a movie.

It’s a great sto­ry with a pos­i­tive mes­sage. I play an artist that encour­ages a young man,” Crabb explained. “And that’s real­ly me and how I live. I like shar­ing and encour­ag­ing peo­ple. God gave you your dreams to work toward. Not to ignore them. God gave them to you to work on. So go after it. Live out your life’s dreams. Go after them. You can make them hap­pen.”

As soon as we were walk­ing down the red car­pet, Lady Gaga pulls up. And she gets out with this huge out­fit. She had a scepter and this big ol’ dress. And this big hat that looked like the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty. And I said to my wife, ‘Baby, I don’t think we stick out near­ly enough.’ It real­ly eased my thoughts.”

Grow­ing up in Beaver Dam, Ky., a town of about 3,000, Crabb can relate to the young man chas­ing his dreams in what can seem like an insur­mount­able chal­lenge.

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New Nuggets JaVale McGee planking, blockititis

http://youtu.be/KnXJdm88qyE

When the Nuggets trad­ed Nene to the Wash­ing­ton Wiz­ards they got JaVale McGee in the deal. Along with a young 7‑footer that can sky, they also got a young fun-lov­ing soul. Check out the vidoe of him plank­ing. And with the con­di­tion known as block­i­ti­tis

He’s a hoot. Here’s his Twit­ter han­dle @JaValeMcGee34 and http://www.facebook.com/javalemcgee

Here’s one of what not to say to a woman in a club. He will def­i­nite­ly bring a smile to his team­mates and fans.

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Alex Ovechkin’s bracket is a hoot

I’m a Wash­ing­ton Cap­i­tals fan from their first sea­son in Lan­dover, Md. And yes, I endured that first sea­son with just 8 wins, still an NHL record.

Any­ways The Wash­ing­ton Post’s Dan Stein­berg had this pic­ture of Alex Ovechk­in’s NCAA brack­et. It’s a bril­liant con­nect-the-dots way of fig­ur­ing out your brack­et. Along with some unusu­al picks. It looks like the pic­ture came from this Joel Ward­s’s twit­ter account.

I’m fill­ing out my brack­et this way next sea­son. It’s great.

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Alex Ovechkin’s bracket is brilliant

I’m a Wash­ing­ton Cap­i­tals fan from their first sea­son in Lan­dover, Md. And yes, I endured that first sea­son with just eight wins, still an NHL record.

Any­ways The Wash­ing­ton Post’s Dan Stein­berg had this pic­ture of Alex Ovechk­in’s NCAA brack­et. It’s a bril­liant con­nect-the-dots way of fig­ur­ing out your brack­et. Along with some unusu­al picks. It looks like the pic­ture came from this Joel Ward­s’s twit­ter account.

I’m fill­ing out my brack­et this way next sea­son. It’s great.

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Venus, Jupiter in conjuction after sunset

Venus and Jupiter will be at their clos­est — or in con­juc­tion of 3 degrees — Thurs­day. Look to the West­ern skies near sun­set and up to four hours after sun­set.

Venus will be brighter because it is clos­er to earth. After Thurs­day they will start to drift apart. But don’t wait till Thurs­day to view the sky.

Here is a cool illus­trat­ed guide to the con­juc­tion from Earth Sky.

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Earth, northern lights at night from space station

Just for fun. Take two min­utes to enjoy and relieve stress with this video cap­tured from the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion trav­el­ing over the Earth at night. The ISS trav­els through danc­ing auro­ras. Solar pan­els are on the edges of the frame.

My favorite web­site. Astron­o­my Pho­to of the Day.

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Heaven Fest 2012 artists: Switchfoot, Jeremy Camp more

The first round of artists for Heav­en Fest 2012 July 28 at The Ranch in Love­land, Col­orado, were released today: (Click on artists to find out what they are up to.)
* Switch­foot
* Jere­my Camp
* Thou­sand Foot Krutch
* Super­chick
* The Almost
* Flame
* Des­per­a­tion Band
* Love & Death
* The Afters
* Sev­enth Day Slum­ber
* This’L
* Aaron Shust
* The City Har­mon­ic
* Jamie Grace
* White Col­lar Sideshow
* Braille
* Icon for Hire
* Sho Bara­ka
* Aaron Gille­spi
* Ran­dom Hero
* The Nev­er­claim

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Make a Leap of Love Feb. 29

What are you going to do with this extra day in 2012? It’s a leap year, and Feb. 29 is tomor­row, so I’m ask­ing all of you out there to take a Leap of Love on Feb. 29.

Make a leap to buy the per­son behind you their cof­fee. Make a leap to let that car in while you are sit­ting in traf­fic. Make a leap by just smil­ing at a stranger.

Let’s make this extra day in 2012 count.

Me, I’m going to start a food dri­ve at work. Let me know what you plan to do.

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Newsboys Phillips talks about Denver, new video

News­boys drum­mer Dun­can Phillips talks about the band’s newest video “God’s Not Dead” and about the role Den­ver played in the video. It was filmed in Novem­ber at a Den­ver cof­fee shop and dur­ing the band’s per­for­mance at Mag­ness Are­na at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Den­ver with the Win­ter Jam Tour.

Here’s the link … scroll down below the video play­er and its label is Dun­can’s com­men­tary ver­sion God’s Not Dead.

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CD review: “Believer” best effort from Kutless

Jon Mic­ah Sumer­all, leader singer of Kut­less, dis­plays a wide vocal range with the band’s new release Believ­er | Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Growth suits Kut­less well. It’s been a plea­sure to watch the guys from Ore­gon expand musi­cal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly in the last five years or so. I first saw them at Music in the Rock­ies when the band was liv­ing out of their vehi­cles tour­ing the West.

Jon Mic­ah Sum­ral­l’s voice is stronger and much more refined from the raw tal­ent of just a few years ago. This was evi­dent on the last CD, “What Faith Can Do,” and car­ries over to “Believ­er,” which will be released Feb. 28.
* True sto­ry, while lis­ten­ing to Kut­less’ last CD “What Faith Can Do,” there were numer­ous times that I stopped what I was doing to see who was play­ing on my CD play­er. (Yea, I still like the hard copies.) I did­n’t rec­og­nized the band because of its devel­op­ment.

The lyrics on “Believ­er” are thought-pro­vok­ing, mov­ing, and request­ing change — some­thing we need in this day and age of sense­less school shoot­ings and such. And the music is a les­son in diver­si­ty from bal­lads to the band’s hard-rock rhythm to a song that has tinges of Lady Ante­bel­lum.

With the first release from “Believ­er” — “Car­ry Me to the Cross” — Sum­rall car­ries his notes well while prais­ing the Lord for car­ry­ing him through life’s ups and downs. The wor­ship bal­lad starts with a few piano notes and Sum­rall singing:
When the path is daunt­ing
and every step is exhaust­ing,
I’m not alone. I’m not alone.

Words that dis­play the band’s growth spir­i­tu­al­ly. Each instru­ment is added indi­vid­u­al­ly to reach a cre­san­do.

Con­tin­ue read­ing

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Newsboys talk about filming “God’s Not Dead” in Denver

News­boys drum­mer Dun­can Phillips talks about the band’s newest video “God’s Not Dead” and about the role Den­ver played in the video. It was filmed in Novem­ber at a Den­ver cof­fee shop and dur­ing the band’s per­for­mance at Mag­ness Are­na at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Den­ver with the Win­ter Jam Tour.

Here’s the link … scroll down below the video play­er and its label is Dun­can’s com­men­tary ver­sion God’s Not Dead.

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New release: Kutless, “Believer”

Growth suits Kut­less well. It’s been a plea­sure to watch the guys from Ore­gon expand musi­cal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly in the last five years or so. I first saw them at Music in the Rock­ies when the band was liv­ing out of their vehi­cles tour­ing the West.

Jon Mic­ah Sum­ral­l’s voice is stronger and much more refined from the raw tal­ent of just a few years ago. This was evi­dent on the last CD, “What Faith Can Do,” and car­ries over to “Believ­er,” which will be released Feb. 28.
* True sto­ry, while lis­ten­ing to Kut­less’ last CD “It is Well,” there were numer­ous times that I stopped what I was doing to see who was play­ing on my CD play­er. (Yea, I still like the hard copies.) I did­n’t rec­og­nized the band because of its devel­op­ment.

The lyrics on “Believ­er” are thought-pro­vok­ing, mov­ing, and request­ing change — some­thing we need in this day and age of sense­less school shoot­ings and such. And the music is a les­son in diver­si­ty from bal­lads to the band’s hard-rock rhythm to a song that has tinges of Lady Ante­bel­lum.

With the first release from “Believ­er” — “Car­ry Me to the Cross” — Sum­rall car­ries his notes well while prais­ing the Lord for car­ry­ing him through life’s ups and downs. The wor­ship bal­lad starts with a few piano notes and Sum­rall singing:
When the path is daunt­ing
and every step is exhaust­ing,
I’m not alone. I’m not alone.

Words that dis­play the band’s growth spir­i­tu­al­ly. Each instru­ment is added indi­vid­u­al­ly to reach a cre­san­do.

Con­tin­ue read­ing

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Heaven Fest 2012: Saturday, July 28

Heav­en­Fest 2012 Pro­mo from Heav­en­Fest on Vimeo.

It’s set. Heav­en Fest, the one-day Chris­t­ian music fes­ti­val, will be Sat­ur­day, July 28 in a return appear­ance at The Ranch in Love­land. The first “round” of musi­cians to per­form will be announced this week. So keep an eye out in this space.

Don’t know about Heav­en Fest? The fes­ti­val has grown from a few thou­sand to 30-plus thou­sand in just four years because of the vari­ety of tal­ent and fea­tures — a skate park with demon­stra­tions, kids’ zones, and MUSIC, MUSIC and more MUSIC from pop, alter­na­tive rock, heavy met­al to hip-hop/rap.

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Newsboys reinforces faith with “God’s not Dead ”

[media-cred­it name=“Eliza Marie Somers” align=“aligncenter” width=“460”]Newsboy's God's Not Dead Tour[/me­dia-cred­it]

Michael Tait and the News­boys are back in Col­orado on March 1 when the band plays Rocky Moun­tain Cal­vary Church in Col­orado Springs.

God’s not dead,” blares a head­line on the black-and-white cov­er of the News­boys’ lat­est album, which depicts a late 19th cen­tu­ry news­boy hawk­ing papers on a city street.

And many would say that the procla­ma­tion is just not news in the 21st cen­tu­ry, but not Michael Tait, the band’s newest mem­ber and front­man.

In today’s age we see more and more young peo­ple and adults who say they are in the athe­ist cat­e­go­ry that there is no God,” Tait said. “And we are here to say that God is alive and well. He is the foun­da­tion of our faith, and it’s a reaf­fir­ma­tion of that belief. And we are roar­ing like a lion.”

Tait and the News­boys, which are known for their high ener­gy live shows that fea­ture drum­mer Dun­can Phillips and his ele­vat­ed rotat­ing drumk­it, will play at Rocky Moun­tain Cal­vary Church in Col­orado Springs on Thurs­day, March 1. Also play­ing on the God’s Not Dead Tour is The City Har­mon­ic, which just gar­nered a Dove Award nom­i­na­tion for New Artist of the Year, hard-rock­ers Aban­don and alter­na­tive rock band Anthem Lights.

God’s Not Dead” is also the name of the band’s album that released Nov. 15 and is the first true wor­ship CD by the 18-year-old group. But don’t for­get this is the hard-rock­ing News­boys and the band puts its mark on such stan­dards as “Mighty to Save,” ”For­ev­er Reign” and “Your Love Nev­er Fails.”

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Dove Awards nominations 2012 complete list — easy to read format

The Gospel Music Asso­ci­a­tion announced the 2012 nom­i­na­tions for the Dove Awards today. The Dove Awards will be April 19 at the Fox The­atre in Atlanta, and will be shown on the Gospel Music Chan­nel.


Song of the Year:

* Alive, Natal­ie Grant
* Bless­ings, Lau­ra Sto­ry
* Cel­e­brate Me Home, Per­rys
* Glo­ri­ous Day, Cast­ing Crowns
* Hold Me, Jamie Grace
* I Smile, Kirk Franklin
* I’ve Been Here Before, Ernie Haase & Sig­na­ture Sound
* Please For­give Me, Gaither Vocal Band
* Who Am I, Jason Crabb
* Your Great Name, Natal­ie Grant

Male Vocal­ist of the Year

* Chris August
* Chris Tom­lin
* Jason Crabb
* Kirk Franklin
* Steven Cur­tis Chap­man

Female Vocal­ist of the Year

* Francesca Bat­tis­tel­li
* Kari Jobe
* Lau­ra Sto­ry
* Man­disa
* Natal­ie Grant

Group of the Year

* Cast­ing Crowns
* David Crow­der Band
* Gaither Vocal Band
* NEEDTOBREATHE
* The Issacs

Artist of the Year

* Cast­ing Crowns
* Jason Crabb
* Lau­ra Sto­ry
* LeCrae
* The Issacs

New Artist of the Year

* Beyond the Ash­es
* Dara Maclean
* Jamie Grace
* Roy­al Tai­lor
* The City Har­mon­ic

Con­tin­ue read­ing

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