Music News

Today I am going to record with Tom Wehrle. I'm excited to go into a studio and lay down some tracks. It's been a while and I'm ready to be creative. Right now I'm giving his demos a listen and I'm hearing some potential for fun for sure. I will definitely give you an update when he posts the final product in the distant future. You can hear what came of it. If you haven't listened to Tom before, you should give it a try. He's a very talented song writer in my opinion.

In other music news, Brooke is playing a show this Friday at the new Faith Church in Earth City (what used to be Incahoots and a go-cart place). She's on tour with Barlow Girl right now. I won't be playing with her, as she wasn't allowed to take us with her on the tour, but I'm really excited to see her again. This past weekend she was in town with Billy for some business stuff. It looks as if we most likely will be on the Revolve Tour a year from now and that's a really good deal. Say a prayer for a good Spring tour! The biz is in a funny place right now and it's a little un-nerving...mostly for Brooke. I have very little doubt in her so I'm not too worried about it, but prayer would be very appreciated.

Brooke and Billy in my apartment this weekend

Christians in Iraq

Iraq's Christians Ask For Protection
by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

listen to the story on NPR.org

Morning Edition, October 13, 2008 · Christians are a minority in Iraq, and there has been a rapid increase of attacks against them this year. The assaults raise fear about the future of Christians in Iraq. One church leader has asked the Iraqi government and the U.S. military for help.



There are so many disheartening facts in this news story. I won't try to list them all, but this is a realization I came to about the war in Iraq that really blew my mind (first brought to my attention by Shane Claiborne in his book Jesus for President--highly recommend). We have Iraqi Christian brothers and sisters dying every day....as well as Muslims whom God wants to draw to Him. No matter how you feel about the war, you must not only pray for our soldiers in Iraq, but also our Christian brothers. And you must not only pray for our Christian brothers, but also for our Muslim "enemies".

Worship songs...

I spent the day recording and finishing up writing a worship song. I've been meaning to do this for years now, and I finally got around to finishing one. This demo is pretty darn crappy, but give it a listen. I'm very open to criticism, especially on the lyrics. They're very important to get right...

Listen to the song here

At least it was relaxing...

Today I got to go to the Mizzou game with the Atkinson family. We went nice and early to tail gate and it was more than delicious. My favorite part was catching up with Ben. I've really really missed him and am very thankful I got to see him.

So...we lost the game, but there's still hope in the Texas game. All in all it's been a really great day.

In other parts of life, decisions must be made. Here's hoping for the best...

Jenson's first cone

Kyle, heidi, beau, Ashley, lil Jenson and I drove down to sw Missouri to scout out a youth camp for this summer. At a stop for lunch we got ice cream and Jenson got to experience his first ice cream cone. It was funny to watch because he couldn't figure out how to lick it.

Man on the Street video

We went to the loop to interview people to go with a series called Resident Aliens at Calvary Church. This was a fun one to shoot and edit.


Aliens -- Man on the Street video from Phill Grooms on Vimeo.

Serve Day Highlight/The Zone

This video highlights my church's participation in a world-wide serve day. We have some of the best footage we've collected at an event in my opinion. 3 of us went out shooting which gave us a large abundance of footage. It made this video take a looong time, but allowed for better quality in my opinion. I hope you enjoy.


Serve Day Highlights from Phill Grooms on Vimeo.

This is a promo for a weekly kid's program at Calvary Church.

Embrace the cheese people...


The Zone Promo from Phill Grooms on Vimeo.

First Video Post

I intend to post all of my video work on this blog for everyone to see what I've been up to. Some will be good and some won't. Anyway, here's the first one. It's not my best work by far, but if you keep in mind what happened, it's good to see what I can pull out even under a time crunch. I shot and edited this from scratch in 9 hours, split only by 6 hours of sleep. Our first interview went totally wrong. The interview subjects were absolutely wonderful, but one camera stopped and the other had terrible terrible audio. It was unusable. So, we happened to have a second couple lined up anyway and decided to go with that.

OK, I could go on more about what I don't like about this video, but why waste your time. You will see. You will also see SOME good, so do your best to be positive :). Enjoy.



Beauperlant Interview from Phill Grooms on Vimeo.

Super Scooter!!!

So, I've made a brash decision.  It's dangerous...I very well might regret it with all of my inner being...but it will save me soooo much money.  Plus, it's pretty hardcore and, being a man, that makes me feel good.  

I've decided to buy a scooter instead of a car.  I've read up extensively on winter riding and it's totally doable.  It may be very harsh and crazy at times, but doable.  I've agreed to buy an Aprilia Atlantic 500.  It's in a relatively new category of scooters called "super scooters".  This is because they are highway safe and made for commuting.  Many of you will think it's not the prettiest thing in the world.  I would have preferred to have a sweet vespa or sport bike, but this is more practical.  Besides, after my visit to France, these things are rampant.  They actually grew on me quite a bit.  

So, soon I will have the bike and as the weather gets colder, I will have to stock up on things like a heated vest and gloves, wind/water proof coat and pants, and a good full face helmet.  

Here are the pics of my actual bike: