[bobthecockroach]

Welcome home, Steph!

[PKfanSteph]

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

Welcome home, Steph!

Why thank you, Daniel! And look, I'm getting closer to those five pages you asked for!!!!

Phil and I had a good (but all too short) chat before the show and, as usual, he was a big encouragement (which I needed). I took my 12 year old cousin Colin who is just starting to play the guitar and he loved watching Phil play. He got a kick out of the fact that both he and Phil have five brothers! Colin also is a Danny Oertli fan, so he liked the show a few days later and was also really thrilled with Dave Beegle (as he should be...).

I ended up getting a new cell phone while I was out there, a Motorola T730. It was free with my "new every two" plan, so I figured why not. It is a HUGE upgrade to my old phone, but I'm anxious to see if it's as durable and has the same "reception" as my old one. Unfortunately, now I need to get a new car charger and extra battery because, of course, the old ones aren't compatable . The salesman got a kick out of the fact that I knew they wouldn't be right from the start. Are buyers really that uninformed (I'm being nice here) to not expect it?

Anyway, I didn't like the pre-installed ring tones so I ended up downloading one...the theme song to Knight Rider! It was that, the Inspector Gadget theme, "Deuling Banjos" or "Linus and Lucy" (Peanuts theme). It was a really hard choice. I want more, but they cost money unless you know how to create your own. You need the octave, note and length (half, whole, etc). Anyone want to work out the solo to "Chalice" (live version) for me????

[Art]

Ohhhh, I LOVE Linus and Lucy. It is a great song. I want to find it for my phone.

[PKfanSteph]

Originally Posted by Art

Ohhhh, I LOVE Linus and Lucy. It is a great song. I want to find it for my phone.

I found it "surfing" the Get It Now feature on my phone. I have a Motorola T730c with Verizon. I can tell you how to get there if that's what you use, otherwise I haven't a clue.

I also got another cool little toy while I was out in Colorado. Two flashlights made by Coast Cutlery that use a blue LED / reflector combination. It's pretty neat. I have the Moon turbo that uses one AA battery and the moom keychain light, both blue. These are so cool! The bean is solid so there's no light/dark areas like a normal bulb. Really cool.

I've been listening to Jars' new CD today and I have mixed reactions. With only a few exceptions, it's very stripped down acoustic folk rock, blues type stuff. Very different from anything they've done before. It has sort of an in-your-living-room personal feel. I haven't really dug into the lyrics much, but glancing at the insert, it looks like most of the songs are short. Good stuff, just different I guess.

Registered bargenquast.com today. A few family members showed interest right before I left so I figured since it was only $8, I might as well register it.

Bedtime, more later.

[Art]

I appreciate it, but I can not get on the net with my phone. I'm a bit disappointed with that fact. I would have some awesome ring tones if I could.

[PKfanSteph]

Here's my Phil Keaggy concert review from Feb 6th

Phil Keaggy - Feb 06, 2004
Sunset Event Center
Fort Collins, CO

Photos: www.pkfans.com/motc/photos/index.php?album=concerts/2004-02-06

I was fortunate enough to see Phil in concert recently. The venue was a small club style atmosphere with tables and chairs for about 400. The show started at 7:30 and I made my through the audience only a few minutes before showtime and the place was packed! Not bad for a show that wasn't advertised except via email!

Local artist Brenda Harp was the opener for the evening and she performed beautifully on vocals and keyboard. Her 24 minute set included three original tunes, "Who You Are", "Change" and "The Heart Wants To Love". The final song, a cover of Ashley Cleveland's "Walk To The Well" was followed by a presentation by Living Well, an organization which helps provide safe drinking water to third world countries through local churches at a cost anyone can afford. The only intermission of the evening was brief! I had more of a chance to chat with Dave & Michelle Wolfe who were sitting at my table.

Phil came out at 8, Langejans in hand, raised his mic ("somebody was thinking of me") and got right into an extended instrumental jam that sounded very Acoustic Sketches-ish, including bits from Freehand. Realizing he didn't have a pick on stage with him, he asked the audience. Dave Wolfe quickly beat me to it and Phil recognized him from the year before. Phil continued with a wonderful extended version of "Sign Came Through A Window", however near the end one of his cables malfunctioned and he couldn't get the footswitch to turn off the loop. Brian to the rescue! With much applause, Phil's road manager and sound tech, Brian, quickly replaced the cable and Phil cheerfully continued with an even more extended version of the song. Mentioning he'd seen a few friends here he hadn't seen in a while, Phil did a fantastic version of "Reunion Of Friends" and "Celebrate". He next wowed the crowd with "Shades Of Green" (noting the first bit was his favorite part) and made George Harrison fans happy with "Here Comes The Sun". (The 12 year old sitting next to me couldn't understand why everyone was so happy!). A very praise-worship oriented song, "Let It Be My Praise" (?) was up next, followed by a surprise "We Are Siamese" jam (which got the audience laughing). You just never know where that thing is gonna show up! That led to "I Feel The Winds Of God Today". An anniversary announcement evoked "I Will Be There" and that led to "Motor Bike" from It's Personal. "Fare Thee Well" had the audience laughing again and singing "Yellow Submarine". The 12 year old that went to the show with me had never heard the song but was singing it all week!

At 9pm, without taking a break, he invited friend and local guitarist Dave Beegle to perform a duet they did on Dave's latest CD, Beyond The Desert. Dave didn't arrive until after 7 so they didn't get much chance to practice, even so, watching them play "Something Shared" together was a real treat. The only thing missing was Phil's Olson! Percussionist Brad came on and jammed with the two of them for nearly 15 minutes! What fun!!! Anyone who has never seen Phil and Dave perform together cannot imagine how incredibly awesome they are together!

Dave and Brad leave Phil on his own again around 9:20 and he pulls out "Let Everything Else Go", "The Reunion", and a new tune, "Your Light". But Phil is just getting warmed up! The most bluesey version of "Time" I've ever heard him do came next (with "Blue Moon" thrown in for good measure) and "John The Revelator" was even more incredible leading in to "Happy" and "David and Goliath". Something from the new Glass Harp CD, Hourglass, came next. He wrote it but almost never plays it live. Of course, it was "Image", done especially for yours truely . He did very well, though, playing it a bit lower than usual and, if I request it enough, he should be able to nail it without a pre-show practice. Without missing a beat, he went straight into a very different version of "True Believers". It was slower and more soulful than ever before and included a Rolling Stones ("Jumpin' Jack Flash"?) jam to close the show.

Well, almost. A roar from the crowd brought him back for "Under the Grace" and "Love Divine". He said good night to a few friends by name from the stage (which made my family very thrilled!) and that was that.

Phil was in a great mood all night and looked like he was having some serious fun, too! He used plenty of electric guitar-ish distortion and his performance was "on" all night. He was having a great time on stage, and it showed! It was another very special evening and well worth the trip.

When can I do it again?

[PKfanSteph]

Well, not much going on.

I've spent a lot of time this week working on the PhilKeaggy.com guestbook. I haven't the foggiest idea what's going on, but now that they moved it from the .net to the .com, it won't write new database files. It's really wierd! If I create an empty file with the correct name, it works fine. It will write, just not create. Kinda frustrating!

I sent some stuff I put on disk recently to my "recording engineer". He's going to do some MAJOR cut-n-paste editing and add a lead part. I'm really excited; he's a great guitarist and it should be great stuff (his part more than mine...).

I updated the monthly poll and wallpaper at PKfans.com and added some reviews. I get more done when I'm not surfing message boards all day! Now I need to get back to work on the LivingStoneWorship.com website. Getting the members to send me info is hard!!!

Oh well, back to work....

[PKfanSteph]

Guess what!

I'm working on Bargenquast.com!!!!

Whaddaya think?

[PKfanSteph]

2nd Annual Live For Heaven Concert - Feb 8th, 2004
Andrew Peterson, Fernando Ortega, Danny Oertli and Dave Beegle
Crossroads Church, Wheat Ridge (Denver), CO

I discovered this show the day before I left Iowa for Colorado to see Phil Keaggy. It was supposed to be a free concert but each artist's website had differing information. Undaunted, I confirmed with Dave Beegle before the Phil concert that it really was happening, and set about making plans to attend such a great lineup of artists. You may not be familiar with Danny
(www.DannyOertli.com) or Dave (www.DaveBeegle.com), but I assure you, both are worthy of your attention! I was introduced to Danny's music by a relative in late 2002 and had known of Dave since I first saw him perform with Phil in 1999. I met them both briefly in March 2003 while seeing Phil again. Danny's music has a very Mullins-ish style to it and he is a worship leader with Dare2Share ministries. Dave is a guitar virtuoso almost on par with Phil Keaggy. Dave rarely sings but his instrumental skills have made him something of a local legend on electric, acoustic and classical guitar. I've been enjoying AP since early 1998 and Fernando was the only artist I wasn't
familiar with.

This was a free concert and I was expecting it to be overflowing. We got there around 6:15 and, to my surprise, there was not a line but the place was about 3/4 full. Since I don't see well, my cousin helped me find a place down near the front, but with 8 others in our group, I had to sit alone. A few minutes after the show started at 7, there was still one seat open in the front row and my cousin tried very hard to find out if the person was going to show up so I could sit even closer. The woman in the seat next to it assured her it's occupant definitely would be showing up, and my cousin, flustered, asked why. Because, the woman told her, it belonged to the guitar player! After the show, we found out she was talking with Dave Beegle's wife! And, had the connection been made, Dave would've gladly relinquished his seat for me.

But no matter, I was still closer than I had been with the group and was already starting to enjoy the praise and worship that began the concert. Danny Oertli and Dave Beegle, along with the "house band" (I assume) led us in several praise songs, including "Better Is One Day" and others from Danny's new CD, Live For Heaven. I had never seen Dave play more of a "supplimental" role such as this and it was great to see that such a talented guitarist was humble enough to relinquish the "limelight". You don't see electric lead guitarists do that very often! The band was tight and it was a pleasure (I love to watch people worship!).

Andrew hobbled out next, and, having forgotten a stool, told of his knee surgury. To keep with the flow of worship, he started his set with "Nothing To Say" with some audience participation. Now, he said, he could "ruin the mood with a song about how big of a jerk I can be" with his inteded starter, "The Chasing Song". He then realized he'd forgotten his capo. Seeing one on one of the "rock guys" guitars, he recalled how he started playing piano, but soon realized how difficult it was to pick up chicks that way so he started playing the guitar. His insecurities inspired "Loose Change" (probably one of my favorite AP songs!) and "Family Man" was written after his family stopped touring with him. Two more of my favorites from Love And Thunder closed his solo set and both were beathtaking. "Silence Of God" and, in keeping with the Live For Heaven theme of the concert and conference, "After the Last Tear Falls". Absolutely beautiful!

Danny Oertli was up next with Dave Beegle on the 2nd acoustic guitar. Danny has done several praise and worship CDs but he is also a very capable songwriter. Like Rich Mullins and Andrew Peterson, his songs are very personal and poignient. His set was short and included "God Wrote A Song" and "Mommy Paint The Sky", written after his wife passed away and inspired by something his daughter had said. He mentioned how he'd met and become friends with Andrew Peterson on a Compassion trip and then closed his first set with "Dancing With Orphans", a song dedicated to Compassion nternational and with a video playing in the background.

An intermission was given and I stretched and said a brief hello to Dave Beegle before we were told to take our seats for Fernando Ortega. I'd never seen Fernando perform and had only heard one song, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. I was surprised to see him play a keyboard instead of a guitar like Danny, Dave and Andrew, but it was a nice change and he did it very well. He is very fun to watch and is almost as funny as Andrew. He began with "I Will Praise Him Still" and continued with the only song of his I knew, "This Good Day". It was very different on the keyboard than the acoustic guitar version I'm used to, but well done nonetheless. Next up was "We Will Ride Through The Breaking Of The Dawn". We were then treated to a new song, "Mildred Madeline Johnson" about a strong older woman Fernando once rented a room from. "In The Morning When I Rise" and "Give Me Jesus" paved the way for a wonderful "Amazing Grace" with more audience participation (this was a wonderful audience!). Two new songs "Sleepless Nights", performed for the first time, and "Take Heart My Friend" closed out a wonderful performance. I will definitely be checking out more of Fernando's music when I get a chance!

Fernando reliquished the stage to Danny and Dave once again for an amazing performance of Dave's acoustic version of Bach's "Joy". This was the only song of Dave's to be performed during the show, which was understandable, but a bit disappointing. Dave is such an incredible guitarist that I would've loved to see him get more of the spotlight. I've seen Dave play this live several times and he has recorded both an acoustic version and an electric progressive rock version with his trio, Fourth Estate. In fact, the latter is usually what I use as an alarm clock! Dave and Danny nailed this version and even showed off a bit when, at the end of the song, they tossed their picks to each other and continued with the song, without missing a beat! Andrew and Fernando joined Dave and Danny for an encore performance of "Soon and Very Soon", a very appropriate way to end the evening, living for heaven.

I caught up with Dave and his wife Sandy after the show and we chatted for nearly an hour between autographs and fan photo-ops. It was a pleasure to get to know them a bit better!

What an incredible evening!!! I am so very pleased I found out about this in time. What a blessing! The only thing missing was Phil Keaggy, who was *supposed* to be there if not for a booking mixup. Oh well, I saw him at the start of the weekend.

Pictures: http://www.pkfans.com/steph/scrapbook/index.php under
"Concerts".

[PKfanSteph]

Well, it was an interesting weekend.

Saturday morning my folks and I left for Aimes, IA and my cousin Steve's wedding. He and Andrea have been living together for several years (at least) and I think Andrea must've given him an ultimatum! Before the wedding, we went to my other cousin (different side of the family) Heidi's house to change clothes. I had already decided to stay with Heidi and her family rather than in a motel, because I hardly see her, her husband Paul and their two kids, Taylor (2) and Gage (1).

The wedding and reception was held at a hall owned by my favorite Aimes resturaunt, Hickery Park, and it was kinda wierd not being at a church for the event. The ceremony was performed by a judge instead of a pastor and there were no religious references whatsoever. It lasted like ten or fifteen minutes--the shortest I'd ever seen!

OK, I can't take this anymore...I'm dead tired and will have to write more later, but it's worth it!

[PKfanSteph]

Well, I'm still tired, but oh well.... Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, the reception...mmmm, yummmmy food! Hickery Park in Aimes, IA has incredible food! They had turkey, beef and pork sandwiches and, if you wanted, a few kinds of barbeque sauce. I had the turkey and it was EXCELLENT! I have never enjoyed a cold sandwich so much in my life! They had mashed potatoes and gravy that were REALLY good too! The only thing I wasn't fond of was the chocolate cake. It had some sort of filling inside that really just didn't do it for me. I don't know what flavor it was; some people said it was cherry, or coconut, or minty, but it just didn't taste "right" to me. Oh well. Otherwise it was great!

Some of the music they played was a bit "questionable" (but then, they aren't Christians...) and the Guns 'N' Roses, Def Leppard, ACDC and Brian Adams reminded me of high school!

I left around 9 and had fun with Heidi and her family. We played Phase 10 until 1am. I won!

Sunday morning, we went to church, which was good. As a first time guest, I got a free CD from their college ministry called The Salt Company. Nothing struck me as particularly great on first listen, but I'll give it a few more spins before I come to too many conclusions.

My parents' best friends' sister died early this morning. Yet another funeral to go to....

[PKfanSteph]

Mom and I went over to Grandma's today to help my uncle and aunt keep cleaning things out. That was harder than I expected. They decided I should have Gram's recliner that she spent most of her time in, which is cool because I really like that chair and it's not even a few years old.

We still don't know if we're going to be able to buy the house or not. My folks are going to talk to a lawyer on Thursday to check all the legalities. The bank here has given us 20 days to come up with $1400 if we want to keep this place, but we really can't afford the monthly payments now that the bank has raised them again, so who knows!

Not much else is happening here. I'm still working on www.livingstoneworship.com. I'm trying to find an easy way for them to enter their own tour dates without me creating an HTML page and uploading it every time.

I think it's bedtime. G'night all....

[PKfanSteph]

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've written anything here!!!

Last week I wanted to puke most of the time...but I'm feeling a bit better now .

I got Phil's new CD last week, too. Very different. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it's growing on me a lot, and there are a few songs that have already become concert favorites. It's pretty much just vocals and a guitar, very simple playing and the vocals are up front and center. Phil's friend Keith wrote all the lyrics as poems and Phil put them to music. He likes doing that, I think.

We're still trying to go through stuff at Gramma's. We're getting together again this coming weekend to get stuff together for the estate sale the following weekend. We can't keep everything so it's hard deciding what to keep and what needs to be sold to help pay the bills. I decided I'm keeping Gramma's recliner. It's a Lay-Z-Boy, about a year old. One of the cheaper ones, but hey, who cares! She did just about everything in that chair, ate, slept, watched TV, talked on the phone...probably 99% of her day was in that chair near the end.

My uncle Gene from Colorado told us yesterday he wasn't coming back to help. My mom and her other brother Mert were *REALLY* upset because there's a lot of stuff that only the kids can do, ya know? And with only Saturday and Sunday to do it, they'll need all the help they can get.

I recently made a DVD of some home movies and photos for some friends of mine and it looks great. I have a song I participated in (with my Taylor, of course) as background music for the slideshow. Kinda cool and wierd at the same time!

I have a new second cousin...on April 3rd, my cousin Jason and his wife Brenda had a baby girl, Izabell Bargenquast. Out of four kids, only one has a common name...Jonathan! Oh well, I don't have to watch them get beat up in school....

More later .

[PKfanSteph]

Two major holidays have come and gone. Easter and my birthday. I didn't do much of anything for either, which is fine.

On Easter, my mom didn't set the turkey out in time, so we had it for supper instead of the usual dinner (i.e. "lunch"). All day mom was comparing herself to Grandma, thinking she should be as good of a cool as Grams was. I'm not sure where she got that idea! If everybody (or anybody!) else could cook the way Gramma did, then what made her special would be lost, IMO. None of the rest of the family was around. My uncle Gene didn't come back from Colorado and my unlce Mert went to be with his daughter for the holidays, so it was just the three of us. We're used to getting together and having a huge meal, but I expect that's long gone now.

My folks invited their friends, Stick & Annette, over for Thanksgiving, but they were busy. At first they said they wanted to come and told my stepdad to come pick them up when dinner was ready! Well, that made my folks mad. They called us about ten minutes before dinner and my stepdad *(having had a few hours to mull over their previous response) asked in a not-so-nice manner if they still wanted to come eat with us and they said they were really busy and didn't have time. Of course, mom was already expecting them so we had a huge amount of food left over! I think my parents need new friends.

Yesterday was my birthday. Number 28. On Saturday, we went out to eat at my favorite resturaunt, Speghetti Works, in Omaha. It wasn't too busy, but finding a parking space is always a pain. The food is worth it, though! I didn't do much yesterday, just the usual stuff. Computer, TV, Computer, TV.... . Doesn't bother me, I like it! I got $50, which will be helpful on my next trip to see Phil.

I'm not much for big parties and going out and stuff. Can you tell? I'm pretty boring! My folks get mad at me when I don't want to go somewhere with them, saying I need to get out of the house more. But when I get out of the house, I get out of the state--by myself! I'd rather do that a few times a year than go out with my folks all the time. They hate staying home and I like it. We're very different!!!

More later,

[PKfanSteph]

Well, I'm back...again! Stay tuned for the full account of my most recent adventure, brought to you a day at a time .

Thursday, April 22nd, 2004:

My stepdad and I started out at 8:30am for the Omaha, NE airport. I was a bit apprehensive since I had never flown by myself before, but there was no need to be. We arrived at the airport at 10:20 and by 10:30, I was checked in and waiting to pre-board my plane. Southwest was really great and they went so far as to put me in a wheelchair and take me right to where I needed to be.

Around 10:40, I decided that since I still had a while to wait before boarding, I'd call a friend on my cell phone. Since I'd never get past security with it on, I put it in my backpack to save time, but when I went to look for it, it wasn't there! I paniced! I'd taken the phone out to write down some phone numbers for my mother on the ride in and had left it on the seat in our car!!! Every phone number I had was on that phone, and in most cases, ONLY on that phone! And I'd need the phone and the numbers to contact my driver at my destination!!!

I freaked out for about five minutes before deciding to do something about it. I went up to the Southwest gate-keeper (or whatever they're called) and told her my problem. She asked if there was any way to get in touch with my stepdad for him to bring it back. I told her he might be at his dad's and she looked up thw phone number, dialed and handed me the phone. Grandpa answered and said that my stepdad wasn't there but should be within a few minutes and he'd pass along the message. After hanging up, I realized that my folks now had a cell phone but I didn't have the number. The employee let me call my mom LONG DISTANCE at work to get the number. I wrote down the number and again, the employee dialed LONG DISTANCE and I started to feel relief when my stepdad answered. But would he bet back in time? Should I not go? Ugh! By this point, It was 11am and I'd have to pre-board soon. I decided to go ahead and go. The employee promised to meet my stepdad at the curb and bring the phone to me on the plane. I boarded, but it was a long wait. Just before the flight attendent closed the doors, another Southwest employee came running up to me with my phone!!! He had seen the whole thing unfold and we were both relieved!

We left the gate right on schedule at 11:40am. Having not flown much, take off was a bit unnerving and I was glad when we were in the air and land was out of sight. Most of the flight was done inside cloud cover and the sun was out above. Looking out the window, all you could see was a pure brilliant white all around. At cruising altidude, we were just above the clouds and the view out the window was awesome. The sky was a bright blue and the "horizon" where it met the clouds was well defined. It reminded me of a crisp winter day after a fresh snowstorm, when the sky is blue, the sun is out and the snow glimmers. But, that only lasted for 20 minutes before it was time to start decending again. About ten minutes from landing, the clouds turned gray and dreary and a light rain fell as we landed in St. Louis, MO at 12:50pm.

Again, the Southwest crew was great. I had several hours to wait before my ride would be able to pick me up so I'd brought a sandwhich (now smashed), some mini-Chips Ahoy cookies and a Dew. I settled in to wait for my friend's call on my cell phone (with a new appreciation for it, I might add!). I felt like taking a nap, but the chairs weren't all that comfortable and I decided a public airport wasn't the best place. I ate my lunch, wrote down many of my important phone numbers from my phone (just in case...), listened to the people around me and thought about the upcoming weekend.

At 5:30, my friend Mark Fisher called to let me know that he was a half hour away and needed to know where I was in the airport. Fortunately, Southwest has it's own bulding at the St. Louis airport and finding me was no problem. A bit after 6pm, Mark and I headed back to Marion, IL. We had a great two hour ride and it was fun getting to know each other better. We met Mark's wife Sheila, son Ryan and daughter Sara as well as another faimily whom they always eat supper with on Thursdays. We ate at Appleby's and continued to get to know each other. I got back to my hotel around 10pm and watched some TV. I was too excited to sleep much.

Stay tuned for more....