#blackoutSOPA

Well the #blackoutSOPA campaign appears as though it was quite a success. The image below is a screenshot of my humble contribution to the blackout. If you tried to visit my site at any time yesterday, you would have seen this (This is just a screenshot, so don't try to click the links. You'll be there all day):

You might be thinking to yourself, "What the hector is all of this blackout stuff about?" Well... I'll leave you with a few links for some information.

Here are some details from Google, Wikipedia, and others (you may or may not trust these sources since they are partial to the blackout)

...So here is the actual text of the bill from Library of Congress THOMAS.

...And news about some of the supporters of the bill pulling out.

...But its not over 'til its over. You can still sign the petition here.

-charlestonpatrick

I'm Engaged!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Today we celebrate the day that the Great Creator God, Lord of all, that commands the galaxies and stars as to how they should go, humbled Himself to the stature of a lowly babe, born in a feeding trough, recognized by angels and shepherds, kings and creatures, that we might have a chance to be reconciled to Him in the greatest display of Love ever, a love that spans the gap between heaven and earth. And what a beautiful day to celebrate this! I pray you are having a lovely day with friends or family or even with strangers, exchanging gifts and spreading love amongst one another.

Two years ago I recorded two Christmas singles. I definitely had a little bit of a different musical taste back then. Haha, but to get to my point... When I released them, I had said that all of the proceeds would go to Gospel for Asia's Christmas gift program. All of the money has been saved over the last two years, and this year that promise comes into fruition. A community in South Asia will be able to build a BioSand Water Filter. This is a filter that uses concrete and sand to remove impurities, providing water for drinking and cooking that is 98% pure. Many poor regions of Asia have no source of pure drinking water and a filter like this can make a huge difference. There is a short video of one of these filters in action at the bottom of the post.

With this news is also the news that the Christmas singles will no longer be available through most major digital distributors, but they can still always be found here.

Thank you all so much for supporting a great cause over the last two years in your purchasing of these singles. There are people in South Asia that will be drinking pure water for the first time, and I'm sure they are incredibly grateful.

Merry Christmas,
-charleston patrick

A Cover: Jónsi - Hengilás

One of my biggest artistic/musical influences is Jónsi. He has a remarkable gift. I tend draw a lot of inspiration from his work, and also love to play his songs.

Hengilás has always been strikingly beautiful to me. Recently, life has really been kicking me in the face. Something told me to sit down and listen to this song (for the first time in quite a while). I felt flooded with emotion, and overcome with a sense of positivity and hope. My focus was drawn to the Lord and His goodness, and my hope in Him and His salvation.

I believe that the Lord's glory is evident in ALL of His creation regardless of whether they are aware of their glorifying of Him, and Jónsi and Sigur Rós' tends to scream the glory of the Lord for me.

After being sparked to a place of hope from a place of near despair, I was inspired to cover this song. The video below is the result. I hope it takes you to a similar place.

CHARLESTONVLOG018 - Jónsi - Hengilás


-charlestonpatrick

Tune My Heart

Earlier I was listening to the hymn "Come Thou Fount." The words "tune my heart to sing Thy praise" stood out to me differently than they've had before. I've always thought these words to mean "tune me Lord, so that I can make beautiful worship unto you," and I definitely still do, but I had a whole new picture come to mind today to add to the thought.

As some of you may know, I've been taking college classes again after being out of academia for 4 years, and boy has it been quite a shift, to go from touring the nation back to school haha, but its been good. One of the classes I'm taking is Physics 241, and we've recently been covering waves, experimenting primarily with sound waves. One of our more fun/simple demonstrations involved tuning forks. It was a concept that had fallen to the back of my brain over the years, so it was fun to do again. If you take two tuning forks of the same pitch and strike only one, the sound waves will excite the other. If you silence the original fork, you will still hear the second fork ringing at same frequency (or pitch).

All of that to say... when I heard "tune my heart" today, I thought about the tuning forks. If we are tuned to the Lord's frequency, we'll feel his "waves" and react to it, and spread His same "waves." Think of the waves as His fame, His reputation, His glory. When we are tuned to Him, we see His glory, we tremble, and in turn re-broadcast His Glory.

Just thought that was a pretty cool thought. Drop a comment and let me know what you think!

-charlestonpatrick

COMPETITION UPDATE: Voting Has Ended!

hey everyone! thank you sooooo much for all of your help! voting has ended (finally... haha), and we squeezed back into 5th place! how awesome!

now we just sit and wait for the judges to choose the winner and 5 honorable mentions (out of the top 10). this will be announced on the 19th. now you won't have to hear about this competition anymore! (i'm sure its gotten old to some of you). the only other time i'll say anything about it is when the results are announced.

its been a lot of fun. and i am so grateful for all of your support. now if time would just will avail itself, its time for me to keep working on those hymns!

thanks again! blessings on you all.

-charlestonpatrick

ps - if you want to see the main page of the contest...

http://bit.ly/uMNfDW
(the winners will be declared Dec. 19th at 5p EST)

COMPETITION UPDATE: Voting Begins!

VOTING HAS BEGUN!

(if you are wondering what for... click on the event just below this post)

voting is done here:
http://bit.ly/vOVuux

these are the steps:

1. there is a large button to the right entitled "VOTE" haha...click that
2. provide your email address
3. check your email, there should be a message from "auto@indabamusic.com" (it could possible get caught in your spam filter)
4. click the link they sent you
5. BAM! your vote has been cast

IMPORTANT - DO NOT VOTE WITH MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS!
I know some of you may want to really really help out and vote with multiple accounts (I know b/c I just stopped my mom from doing that, haha). DO NOT do this. If they suspect anything of the sort I will be DISQUALIFIED. Thats not fun. :-/ haha.

thanks again guys. share this with your friends if you feel like it. i saw that some of you already have... thank you so much!

-charlestonpatrick

(REMINDER: VOTING ENDS DEC 5)

P.S. apparently the judges (for the round after this voting round) like to see the popularity of a track in "likes" too... so if you haven't done so, click the "like" button on the submission page too!