I find myself today at a crossroads in my life. The path I had preferred for my life has, like so many other times in my life, been violently shut off.  As always, the plus side is I have an entire world full of new opportunities before me… I could literally grab my passport, up and go anywhere I wanted (people need live music everywhere).  I sit here, with a broken heart, a blank slate, and so many feelings built up inside me that I haven’t spoken about with anyone that they have begun to physically show themselves against my will… twitching, tapping, chewing, smoking, eating, watching tv, listening to music, drinking beer, scheming ways to make more money, and all the other things I use to try to convince myself I have something to do. I don’t however. I have time. A full schedule of concerts for three months, and I live below my means, so I have time. Loads of it. I’ve made hundreds of friends in the last two weeks, literally, traveled thousands of miles alone in my car, met thousands of strangers along the way, and I still have so much time. Right now I want to go drink beer at The Colony and watch Wink Burcham play and talk with all my new musician friends from NM3 about the music we’re going to make. Maybe I’d meet another guitarist or drummer or songwriter… another friend who shares a passion with me.  They are there as I write this. Tonight however, I have too many feelings to drink beer. Tonight I will write. Melodies and rhythms and words that tell stories… stories of feelings so deep that they have physically manifested themselves in my body, and I will create music. I won’t dull the feelings tonight… I won’t watch TV or listen to music. I will sit here, with nothing to do, and I will write until I don’t have any more feelings to write about.

Then I will go drink beer.

Four songs down, my favorite at the end of the night might make it’s way to an MP3 on this blog.

Turning my Expedition into an apartment, stocking up with food, a bed in the back, and the open road with some beautiful weather… the next 5 days I’m learning to be alone in the wilderness with my trek to the biggest milestone of my career… thus far.

But, I won’t be too off because I have a Blackberry so I’ll post pictures along the way, for those who actually are interested in the treks of a musician living out of his car, chasing the big dream.

Here is the link to my personal Facebook page, where I documented the tour.

http://m.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150432&id=503087923&v&r9cbddd05&refid=29

Lindsey singing into the Blue Mikey on an iPhone

If It’s Rainin.mp3by L. Sandella, R. Ripperger
Written/Recorded 02.04.2010

When I discovered the iPhone/iPod Touch has an app that does 16 track recording, I immediately set out to find a good microphone for the iPhone.  Blue came through with the Mikey, which I picked up at Guitar Center for $75.  Blue is one of my all-time favorite microphone companies and has made multiple microphones I’ve used, including the Baby Bottle, Blueberry, and Blue Ball.  The Mikey is a stereo microphone designed for the iPhone/iPod.  A stereo microphone/16 track recorder in my pocket?  Yes.  It sounds incredible too.  Here is the result of Lindsey and I giving the new Blue Mikey a shot on the Multitrack app made by Harmonicdog (available in the App Store for $14.99, and well worth it).  I must say, anyone with an iPhone, a beautiful sounding Taylor guitar, and a girlfriend with some pipes and songwriting skills, has no excuse not to record anymore.

Lindsey Mixing Vocals On the Multitrack App

For a few months now I’ve been pondering the phrase, “People only evolve at the precipice”. It gives me a positive approach to life’s challenges… almost makes me look forward to them.

Part of me wishes I didn’t have to stretch myself… wishes I had some powerful overlord who simply took care of me and paid my bills and I would just maintain life as it always was known to me. I wouldn’t have to see pain outside my world, or ever force myself to learn anything new. The difficult lessons of responsibility, trust, forgiveness, and all those things that are no fun, I could simply surpass because my powerful overlord would protect me from them.

However, every task I have taken on and failed, but tried over and over until I got it right, has evolved me… into something better, stronger, wiser, and ultimately more capable of living life to the full. So I don’t want a powerful overlord… I don’t want to be sheltered from pain, or love, or all the difficult issues I could so easily avoid in the comfort of peaceful middle America. I want to evolve… so bring me to the precipice, and show me something I can’t do… yet.

I found this via a Stephen Speaks RSS feed (Google’s amazing service that sends me news about myself) – happy to be on this list, especially sandwiched in between Alecia Keys and Taylor Swift, with Out Of My League at #87.

http://jecoup9587.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-hot-100-of-decade.html

Waiting in line for the big event. I’ll write a review to let you know if its as impressive as the line to get in.

Review (post blog followup)

When I went to see Avatar, it was actually the second night of it’s showing, and I expected a line.  I didn’t expect the line to rival the opening night of Star Wars Episode 1.  The line was so long that it had to wrap around the building, a couple times, and given the lack of distinction of where it began and ended, I’m pretty sure a few fistfights almost broke out.  Waiting in the same mass of human bodies to get out of the theatre, no one complained at all, for I’m pretty sure we would have gladly waited again to see the movie again, immediately.  All showings were sold out however.

It’s hard to just call it a movie.  It was more like a 3D journey through a world beyond anything I could have imagined… or if I did imagine it, it would have taken me fifteen years and a team of the most cutting edge designers our world has ever known.  The problem with animated films is simple: designers can make fancy looking creatures, but the complexity of the human face, namely the emotional responses it portrays, are impossible to re-create digitally.  That was until the makers of Avatar figured out how.  (I won’t go into the technical aspect, but face recognition software combined with fancy cameras enabled James Cameron to capture actual actors movements, and see the Avatar equivalent on his fancy little cutting-edge camera)

The story is a simple one – civilization seeking money vs. a native civilization who has learned to co-exist with the planet, rather than re-arranging it.  There is never much detail about the specifics, although Cameron did write a language for the native people, but the story is solid, universal and the imagry in 3D at a good theatre is one that will absolutely pique your senses.  Basically, if you’re the kind of person that enjoys stimulating the senses, you must see Avatar in 3D, in a good theatre with a booming surround system.