Nifty Noodles/ Ohh mY My

7/24/04 Saturday night… Riverside CA, Pathway Christian Church
I had nothing to do in July so I decided to promote my own concert. Then it dawned on my I could raise awareness for radio rehab at the same time and invite the recovery programs from around the area. …. O.K. promoting is a full time job, I don’t recommend it to a novice.

It is a bi polar roller coaster ride… My expectations were low and I played in a small venue to insure intimacy even if it wasn’t full…. And it wasn’t … but it was a decent turnout for a novice promoter I suppose…

My hope was that we could raise enough money to pay for the 1000 CD’s we are giving away to promote the RR website.

I anticipated maybe a few hundred dollars at best and when I saw the size of the crowd I figured that was not likely to be the case either.

I opened the show alone with a guitar and a new song and then did a few songs with the “Econo Band” as we didn’t have the Keyboard player from my live band. Then we played an unfinished video clip where I’m explaining why I do Radio Rehab… it was very entertaining… thanks to the quick edits by Pete Muir who is building this piece to add to a new DVD we’re working on.

I had lots of volunteer help in putting this gig on including the guys in the band, The church who donated their building, and their recovery volunteers to help with the BBQ before the show. They also provided additional P.A. system and their video screen…. We had most of my “Recovery Friends” from Bethel Christian Center’s program there dressed in Radio Rehab… black and White shirts and hats. We looked professional at least.

I played the last hour of the show with the live band and limped through what I could play on the piano…. I’d rehearsed most of the day to come up jwith a set list that would work with what we had instrumentally … even brought back an oldie from Whistlin’ in The Dark…”you can rely on me”…. Great recovery tune too….

At the end of the show I walked to the back to talk to friends… there was probably 250 Very enthusiastic folks,

Including my youngest son who surprised me by his attendance. The biggest surprise of the night though was Coming to find out that we raised over 5 thousand dollars for Radio Rehab!!!

I was stunned… one man wrote a single check for four thousand dollars… he’d been listenin to the show on the radio for a while and said “you have no idea the impact this program is having”…. “Keep doing it”….

Well I’ll be working with my step brothers on how to be good stewards over this much donation… frankly it scares me to manage that much money when It’s not mine to spend…. We plan to order some more give away CD’s for the recovery summit and the other five recovery programs I’m singing at in Aug. and we will pay the band something as they donated their time at some sacrifice.

I’m looking into how to set up Radio Rehab as a separate operation now as this was more than I expected to happen…. This is surely one way in which God is “redefining” who I am these days and what I will be doing in the future…. I remember working Step 11 about a year ago… and God showing me how I was leaning on my past to define who I was now ( just an older version) and where God might be leading me as I surrender to his will…. And feeling that overwhelming sense that this was a new time for me and a new plan that comes from a completely different attitude about everything frankly.

“don’t define yourself by who you used to be” someone told me once…. Now there’s some good advise …

Keep Coming back…. Bryan D.

Nifty Noodles/ Nifty Timing

Home 7/22/04
I’ve been working on extra video footage for a live DVD we’re comin out with… I wanted to talk about radio rehab for the most part.

There’s NO BUDGET for any of this… so… me and my friend James decided we’d just shoot home movies of the recording of the show…

And tour the studio in L.A. “ Sound Foundations” … (we call it the BAT Cave)… but it’s a small place and didn’t take long to run out of stuff to shoot. So we added a tour of my studio where I write the scripts and pick the music for the show…. Duncans Bunker is what I call it.

And we added footage of me writing songs on my front porch just for interest. It just so happens that I have written only recently a number of little songs on the guitar that I figured I’d never record… and here’s an opportunity to share those songs…

The timing for shooting one of the shows was not planned either but the show was on “sobriety and sanity” … the perfect show to give an overview of Radio Rehab… Coincidence? Maybe!

O.K. here’s where it gets interesting… James and I tried to put this footage together with a computer program that we’d never seen before.

It didn’t take long to figure out that we were “way…over our heads”… and I thought well that’s it… I can’t do this without money… and I went home…thinking maybe radio rehab isn’t something I should be pushing…. Even if it’s something I believe in.

I’m home for less than five minutes before I read an e mail from a long time fan and co founder of my own website with Rich Davis and “online fellowship”…(club 440) … enter Pete Muir…now teaching Digital Audio & Video production at Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan http://www.gbcol.edu/index.php he’s volunteering his talents to put the stuff together… I had never even thought to ask.

O.k. so I get the “line footage” and his edits back today… and it’s just great. Only “we need an ending” he said…

Well imagine the timing here again… I’m doing a live concert right down the street with a full band in two days to promote Radio Rehab.

All the volunteers locally will be there with radio rehab shirts on and hats too…and banners… and there should be an overflow crowd just on word of mouth for this concert.

So we’re gonna film some conversation and banter among my friends and band members … it’s like the perfect wrap up… because radio rehab is about step twelve in recovery… the idea of giving back. I gotta say it again… God is doing for me what I could not do for myself.

I’d only decided to do the show down the street cause that church has a Celebrate Recovery program just starting and I didn’t have anything to do really as summer gets pretty slow. I never asked anyone to be on this and suddenly out of blue my band members asked about coming down just to sit in for the fun of it.

And when I mentioned the gig to my friends in recovery that it would be a good way to introduce new people to the radio show in support of their own recovery… I had nearly 20 volunteers to do a BBQ, help promote, help set up, present the show, The church offered their sanctuary the next night after their recovery program for a full concert and they are providing sound and lights… and the cafeteria and the team to cook every thing and do set up…

Wow what’s going on here… this is not my doing… it’s people wanting to give back to recovery!

Part of a bigger picture…. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ In The Fires of Sorrow

7/16/04 Escondido, CA
I was tired and in a rank mood upon arriving in Escondido… it’s a bedroom community north of San Diego.

One of the great things about lending my efforts to recovery programs just getting started like this one is, is that my returns are always a great surprise.

Everything just clicked from the beginning.. I opened with Everything in the Garden… “ if there’s only one thing you’re not supposed to do… isn’t it interesting how your curiosity is picked to find out why”…

Enter the original sin! … from there I played “Yes I Will” and then on to a couple of guitar tunes… “used again” and “I probably Love You Delilah”… and I was understood.

“ I expected this recovery thing to be boring” said one eighteen year old. But I really enjoyed the humor."

Oswald Chambers has been really feeding me lately… on June 27th from his devotional he talks about receiving yourself in the fires of sorrow. It’s been running through my mind a lot lately…. He writes “We say there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow…. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life…. Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness…..

You always know the man who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, you are certain you can go to him in trouble and find that he has ample time for you!

If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people!

This is what recovery is doing for me! It is painful to address the sadness in my own life but it has brought about

A willingness to make time for others in trouble… I became nourishment for other people last night… and I received some healing for my own sorrows in the process… it’s not a career move really that God is looking for… (the way I do)

He shows me how I can be broken bread and poured out wine in his name with no righteousness of my own to stand upon.

And for that I am most grateful…. BryanD

Nifty Noodles/ Recovery Fair

7/11/04 Santa Cruz, CA
I donated my time to a “Recovery Fair” in Santa Cruz. The hippest hippy town left in America. Celebrate Recovery was there as well as some AA and NA groups. Lots of local bands…The Hungry, Brother Down, Kendall Lane and some friends in a group called Sunday Shoes… I came on just before sundown.

Later I heard from a lot of folks that are listening to my radio rehab shows on line on a regular basis. I was encouraged that the show is having some impact. I gave away copies of two of the shows from Radio Rehab and had some contributions to the show from folks who really can barely afford to give money. It’s really a bigger honor that folks would give to the production because they believe in it rather than being something I talked people into.

I’m back home today preparing to edit footage for the new DVD we’re working on… “Music City Live” I’ve heard it called so maybe that’s gonna stick. We’ll have off the cuff conversations and show folks the studios at my house where I write songs and also where we record The Road To Redemption is Los Angeles.. hope it’s interesting enough.

O.K. So there’s That. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ RTR DVD

7/8/04 Thursday L.A.
Today was productive… James Bowles (Web master for radiorehab.com) and I drove to L.A. to record show number 39 for the Road To Redemption at Sound Foundations. Only this time we did some video footage that we plan to use on the live DVD that we’re working on.

The show was one of the best ever I think and the first time I’ve not used any of my own music on the show. We also did interviews on camera about why we do this show on recovery. That went perfect in one take. It was a perfect show to video too because this weeks show was “sobriety and sanity” which offers a good overall look at radio rehab in one fell swoop.

Of course now we’re trying to learn computer software to edit the pictures ourselves on accounta … there’s no budget!

Wow I’m writing songs and scripts, doing my own interviews, producing video footage, hosting a radio show, doing concerts,

Selling records on my own little label, promoting a concert myself, and booking some of my own “mini gigs”… not exactly where I imagined I would be at this point but man things have gotten pretty interesting having to learn the ins and outs of all aspects of promotion, production, marketing, and imagining….

One things for sure I’m learning to appreciate the jobs of the people around me these days…

O.K. so there’s that ….. Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Pre Fireworks

7/2/04 Lake Forrest, CA Saddleback Church
I filled in for the entire staff of singers on vacation this week. Sang the opening numbers at Celebrate Recovery, did the music for the offering, and played a full concert. Like always there were a lot of new faces. I gave away CD copies of a couple of my radio shows… “Relapse’ and “the Trouble With Temptation”. They went like hotcakes. It might have been the best promo for the on line Radio program that I’ve ever done. I went through 100 CDs in about 5 minutes.

All the songs I sang felt really old as I have written so many new songs recently. I closed with Ray Charles’ rendition of America The Beautiful as was requested for this forth of July weekend. I promoted my own concert benefit for radiorehab.com coming up on the TWENTY fourth of July too.

It was good to see old friends again. I’m haunted by some advice from a friend who said “maybe the best thing in life is to know a few people well”…. I have some long term friends these days… man I’m grateful to be greeted with a hug and a slap on the back. It’s amazing what that little gesture will do for your emotional stability.

I’ve been so busy lately that I just feel unraveled. My presence of mind seems completely lost and still the show came off as smooth as anything I’ve done.

O.K. so there’s That Bryan d

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