A Day In San Francisco from Daniel Myers on Vimeo.

After a Revolve show in Sacramento, I spent an extra day with my friend Sean doing some sight-seeing in & around San Francisco. We only had one day but we got to see a lot of fun stuff around the city including Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge!

PS - During the short trip the flight crew acknowledged the presence of the soldiers and told us that they are all headed to Iraq. I pray God keeps them safe and they can return soon.

After both plays I spent some time thinking that I might enjoy working Broadway productions at some point in my career. I did find it interesting that the quality of the audio at both theaters was below my expectations. Note that I didn't say it was "bad," just not as good as I would expect it to be for such a large production. I frequently had trouble hearing and understanding the dialogue at both productions, although at the Jersey Boys production I was also alternately blown out of my seat by a few solos from the lead singer. I have to take into account that the challenges in reinforcing theatrical productions vary from those involved with concert productions, but that is part of the reason why I am interested in trying it. Another complication is that unfortunately most Broadway Productions are locked in to some extremely strict union contracts. I'm not a union worker, nor do I plan to be, so I guess I will just have to find some other way in. So who knows, maybe one day I'll find a fun job working with a Broadway production, I think that would be cool.

I'm going to upload some pictures when I have a chance. I've taken some really fun shots of the city during my walks around downtown.

Sometimes we audio people can become a little too discriminating towards worship bands that don't live up to our "professional" standards. But really, I think that's usually a load of crap. I mean, that doesn't mean that having a solid band isn't important, but we often will be overly critical (among ourselves) of bands that really are doing a fine job, but just lack that cohesiveness that distinguishes a "professional" act. This of course brings up the whole discussion on how important a good production is to a church service. 

There are two valid but opposing arguments. Some will point to Scripture and say that we are to do everything we do with "excellence," and therefore we should make our services as polished and professional as possible. On the opposite side there is the argument that since a Church service is not there for entertainment and the focus should not be the production, if the production quality lags, it is not a big deal as long as everyone is doing there best and "doing all for the glory of God." 

About a year and a half ago when I was visiting churches in search of a new home I thought about this a lot as I visited a variety of different churches. The conclusion I came to is that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I reject the idea that churches who lack the resources to put on a large scale production are some how sub-standard. I also reject the idea that growing the churches production capabilities should be the highest priority. Music is important, and it is certainly true that a terrible band and a service that is disorganized can turn off a lot of new comers, but we must do all in God's timing and with his leading. I appreciate a well thought out service and a well rehearsed band, but it should not make or break my worship experience.

When I started writing this I didn't intend to talk about that, I guess it's just been in my head some today.

Here are some pics of the hotel I'm at this week: