The nonsensical ponderings of Eric Frisch...

Well, everybody, here's the deal.  After much pondering (some of which I alluded to in my last post), I made a difficult decision tonight.  I've decided to start blogging... somewhere else.  Yes it's true.  After 4 years and change on Mindsay, it's time to move on.  I've set up a new blog at http://www.themusiciansmind.com.  I did this for a couple of reasons:

1.  I wanted a new name.  The "04" in my blog name here no longer holds any significance.
2.  Some of my older posts on this blog no longer reflect the direction that I've taken my content.  I'm not deleting anything, but a fresh start seemed like a good idea.
3.  Blogger (i.e. Google) has a couple features that Mindsay lacks - the ability for folks to comment without logging in (which is huge for me since most of my blog-savvy friends aren't on Mindsay), and the trendy mobile blogging option that I mentioned in my last post.

Having said all this, let me make a couple of things clear: RSS has made it absolutely silly for people to confine themselves to blogs written only in one community, therefore: 1.) I will still be reading and commenting on all of your blogs daily, and 2.) I surely hope that you'll continue to read mine, though it be located elsewhere.  As I mentioned earlier, you don't have to have an account to comment.  I'll actually make it even easier for you... here's my new blog, embedded in this one for all to read:

Now you have no excuse :-)

It's been a wild ride, Mindsay... and though this chapter closes, the blog adventure continues.

I am listening to Imogen Heap... yay for Garden State reminding me about her!

We're pretty much snowed in here in Columbus, OH.  Otterbein actually closed this afternoon (something that simply doesn't happen), and pretty much everything around town is canceled.  Unfortunately, that included the classis meeting that we were supposed to host at Centerpoint tomorrow morning.  The plan had been to have all of the leaders from the RCA throughout Ohio and Michigan and few folks from Kentucky here for the weekend - we would have been formally organizing our congregation as a member church of the RCA (up until this point, we've just been an "affiliated" church plant - it's really just a technicality, but it's substantial to be able to say that we've grown to the point where we can contribute as an equal).  Alas, weather intervened, and we had to push the event back a month.  I suppose after 4 years, 1 more month won't be that big a deal.  Plus there's little chance of getting snowed out on April 5 :-P

Another side-effect of the inches of snow on the ground was that I ended up just hanging around the house tonight.  Didn't really have plans anyways, but there's a difference between just staying in and knowing that you couldn't really go out if you wanted to.  Dave and I ended up watching "Garden State" - which is a great movie.  It's a thinking movie.  I love thinking movies, but I typically end up thinking about a lot more than the movie itself.  Such is the case tonight.  It's easy to get to thinking about your life and your direction when you've just watched a movie about someone who was trying to figure out those things, as well.  I guess I'm not really going anywhere specific with that.  Just some thoughts swirling around as they tend to do.  As I recall that was the initial reason for this blog anyways!

Speaking of this blog - I've been pondering about it lately as well.  I'm going to be on the road a lot in the coming months (starting with a trip home, followed directly by band tour to NY), and I'm probably not going to have my computer with me for a lot of that time.  I tend to find it kind of liberating to now have that particular piece of technology along for the ride - especially since cell phones have become so advanced.  I can check my email, weather, news, and even read all of your blogs from my little phone - but it won't let me post here, and that's something I'd like to do, especially when I'm traveling to different places and having new experiences.  Most of the big blog services have ways to "moblog", as the hip techies are calling it (by sending a text message or email to a specific address, for example), but Mindsay doesn't seem to have caught that bug yet.  Does anybody know of a way that I'm not aware of?

Well, I suppose that will be enough for tonight... more tomorrow, I'd imagine - with several more inches of the white stuff in the forecast, I'm probably not going anywhere, after all.

I am thinking that I like the new look of my blog, but shouldn't have stayed up so late working on it!

This is a busy, stressful week, but we had some unseasonably warm weather earlier in the week, and I have Girl Scout cookies now, so it's ok.  I've also got some incredible new music that I've been listening to.  I've had these for nearly two weeks now, so I feel confident in my view.

Let me get one thing straight right up front: I'm not a big Switchfoot fan.  At least not anymore.  I really liked (and still do like) their old stuff, but they've gotten way too "mainstream" for my tastes... their sound has changed considerably on the last couple of albums, and it just doesn't do it for me anymore, so when I found out that their lead singer, Jon Foreman, was going to be releasing some solo stuff, I wasn't immediately excited.  Until I heard it.  Jon is doing four 6 track EPs titled "Fall", "Winter", "Spring" and "Summer".  "Fall" and "Winter" have already been released, the other two seasons come later this year.  My roommate lent it to me, and I was pretty much blown away.  Purchased my own copies before I had even finished listening to all of it.  This is NOT Switchfoot.  This music is acoustic, pensive, spiritual, searching, haunting... all of the things that draw me to a new artist.  I feel like I should write more about it, but I think the easiest thing would be to let you hear it yourself (I know that a couple of you are going to love this), so I put together my favorite "musical moments" from each EP:



I can't wait for "Spring" and "Summer"!