Becoming Better (Day 11): Pimp My Keytar.
This is Selena. She’s the best of both worlds—part keyboard, part guitar. My friend Eric suggested that I give Selena a make over. I accepted. So, my friends and I stayed up till 2AM giving my keytar some flare—gold and white keys, and drawing all kinds of random things on the face. Now to make sure I can make her sound as good as she looks. CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO VIEW THE PHOTOS OF TRANSFORMING MY KEYTAR :-)
Friday. March 9. Sugar Bar. 8PM. $10
Has “The Dream” been realized?
#BestDayEver: Sloppy Joes & Pinatas
I said I would do this everyday; but, wouldn’t that be annoying? So, here’s the culmination of what I’m thankful for—from the weekend to today…6 Things I’m thankful for.
1) I am thankful that Jack Daniels decided to drop off pre-packaged, pulled chicken in my grocery store in Harlem. I will be eating Pulled Chicken till New Years…then I promise I will got to rehab.
2) No, this doesn’t mean I’m grateful that there are so many of me in this picture. I’m really grateful that in the past week, my new EP Insomnia has gotten 2 great reviews on some important soul music blogs (SoulCuts and SoulBounce), played on the radio in the UK, I’ve gotten a couple of shows lined up and podcasting interviews, sold more records to new fans, and won new fans in the Phillipines, Sweden, Denmark, and other places in the world. Thanks to the Internet, Andre Henry is going global :-). Oh! You haven’t heard it yet? Check it: The Insomnia EP.
3) Although—in my humble opinion—the first episode of this season was lackluster, I am grateful that I have something to watch when I get home on Tuesdays. 
4) I’m thankful for this picture of my friend Illise with her mouth wide open, as we celebrated her birthday at PROHIBITION last Friday—this 1920’s themed bar on the Upper West Side. The Karl Browne Experience was the entertainment and they were incredible, so were the bacon cheeseburger sliders! I’m thankful for all of getting to dance and sing old school R&B songs with my friends until 2 in the morning :-)
5) I’m thankful that I serve at a church where we can do the cha-cha slide after the end of Sunday Service, where people are given the opportunity to share their stories as a part of the sermon, where we can celebrate Spanish culture with salsa lessons and pinatas on Saturday night-in the sanctuary-even though we’re not a “Spanish church”, where I can sing Stevie Wonder songs in soundcheck, and where people feel comfortable to be their true selves—no matter how imperfect they may be. I’m thankful that I serve at a church that’s willing to re-arrange all of the furniture, sing songs that may not give people goosebumps this time, and change the days we meet or the way we take up our offerings. OMG! I could go on for days. I can’t talk about the weekend without talking about Glad Tidings.
6) There’s this girl… ;-).
What are you thankful for?
#BestDayEver: Sunday Walk-A-Bout…
It’s 6PM, and I’m thankful for the walk-a-bout I got to take with my beeeest friends Eric and Ashley from TriBeCa to SoHo after church this passed Sunday. We ran into an art show on the streets. Enjoy.
#BestDayEver: Church Friends & Nightclubs
I should have taken pictures, but I wasn’t thinking. It’s 6PM and I’m thankful for the incredible time I had yesterday with a couple of my childhood friends. We used to sing in a gospel choir when we were in highschool, and now we’re all grown-up in NYC, pursuing different careers. I must admit that I was a little hesitant about club hopping as a licensed minister, because it’s something I’ve never really done; and, there is a certain stigma and bundle of assumptions that certain Christian-folk have about other Christian-folk frequenting certain places. I don’t really drink, so I was gonna’ peace out, but my friends encouraged me to come for the company.
We had a blast—laughing, joking, playing foosball, attempting ping-pong—at a really chic spot called Slate. After a little time there, we went next door to Taj and caught up on life. I was really glad I decided to go out, because it was so much fun hearing the music we grew up on. So, I’m thankful for my friends and for the time we had this weekend at the clubs.
As I got on the train, I began to finish up some thoughts and worship plans for the Sunday services at my church, and all of these thoughts came to mind: about Jesus, the places He would go, the people He would mingle with. About how religious people often felt about the places He would go, and the people He would mingle with. About what it truly means to be “holy”: to be in the same world as everyone else, and to be different—not hiding out in our special buildings talking about how horrible the world outside is. I think that, by and large, many church people don’t know how to live integrated lives. We know how be religious, but don’t naturally flow with God in the everyday moments of our lives, because we don’t have an ongoing awareness of His presence in everything we do. Well, the 4 of us were gathered as we experienced the nightlife, and I am sure He was there too. Best Day Ever.
Pancakes and “The One That Got Away”
I needed inspiration. No. I actually had a ton of ideas; I just hadn’t taken the time to actually write them out. That afternoon was the final straw though.
I mean, we hadn’t spoken in years. I know I’d been a jerk, a pig, a creep back then, but I knew I had changed. I had learned so much. I could be a gentleman now. I just knew it. Moreover, I’d went through the trouble of tracking her down. I’d made the awkward gesture of making the call…You mean to tell me that “nothing’s really” happened since highschool?
I don’t know what I expected: probably just for her to act like she’d won the lottery and tell me all about what was happening in her life. I didn’t deserve her at 16; and I certainly didn’t deserve her at 21—I didn’t know that though. So, we just sat on the phone: me and “the one that got away” in unbearably awkward silence. I had no idea how to enter her world again, and I’m pretty sure she was ambivalent about being a part of mine.
So that night, unable to sleep, I got in my car and went to the only logical place for the artistic insomniac: the International House of Pancakes—ordering short stack after short stack, soaking them in maple syrup, topped with different caramelized fruit. Then, I took out my journal and wrote 3 three songs-two about my failures as a Christian man, and one about “the one that got away”. It began like this:
“When we get on the phone, don’t worry about entertainin’ me…” It goes a little something like this: http://bit.ly/nE7Mpp
The Other Side of Listening…
The difference between what I said and what was heard is down right fascinating at times. And therein is the difficulty of understanding: entering someone’s world from their own perspective, instead of judging things from our own point of view.
If we could manage to do that—to always try to humbly understand the other—there would be much more peace and success in our relationships. But this is the most difficult thing to do in life, to always assume that we have NOT fully perceived and understood.
With the humility to do the work of understanding and the grace to accept everyone as they are, love is not a long way off.
(Inspired by my song: Tell Me About Your Day)
One of the Greatest Opportunities in Life…
is to actually be heard. This is something we can take for granted if we’re not careful. To have someone in your life whose basic attitude is “tell me something, anything…I care” is so rare that, when such a person enters our lives, it can be frightening. We want to examine their motives. We want to find their angle. What are they really after? Because we all want to be heard, but we all know that no one just genuinely listens. But, I dream of a world where more people are filled with genuine concern for one another.
(Inspired by my song “Tell Me About Your Day”)
Can I Finish…
please? I mean, dag! I haven’t even gotten the words out of my mouth before someone starts giving their opinion or doling out advice. I understand that most times we’re trying to help. However, sometimes people just need to FEEL understood. I emphasize FEEL, because the reason we cut in on people is because we feel that we’ve already got the point—we already see where they’re going with their thoughts (we think). But, if you’re anything like me, it’s just discouraging when you don’t feel like what you were trying to say was fully expressed. I think to myself, “you couldn’t possibly understand what I saying; I didn’t even get to say it!”
(inspired by my song “Tell Me About Your Day”)
