Yo Juicy! I'm not near as cool as I once was (why are you laughing?)

I was at a church somewhere on the road and I was sitting beside this 60-something year old Chinese lady who had a Bible in Chinese and everything. She was very nice. When she got up to walk out, I noticed that she was wearing a black T-shirt with the words, written in about 6-inch letters, "YO JUICY!" I just thought that was pretty darn funny.

I know, I know...it's been a very long time since I've written a blog (or "blogged" for those of you who are too tech-savvy for your own good). There is a reason. A very legitimate reason. A very sad reason.

There is something that has happened in my life that I fear will change your entire opinion of me. I am scared to death to even send it out over the internet "waves (is it waves that the internet elves use to get me to you across the world?...yes, I've decided that it's waves, just like the radio [I'm wrong, of course, but that's what I've decided, regardless of the truth])."

Something has ended in my life. Something/someone that defined me...that was a huge part of my public persona (for all 3 of you who read this--mom, dad, and that other guy). A long-term relationship has ended in my life and I don't know who I am without her. Who will I become now that she is out of my life? The question frightens me.

What could be so traumatic? What could change the very fabric of my being? Who could have been this important to me that my life feels like it has been ripped apart without her?

Let me just come right out and say it (brace yourselves).

I no longer drive a Dodge Stratus.

Now you understand why it's been so long. How do I put that down in black and white? I've been grieving, my friends. So long, cool, boss Charlie (why are you snickering?....obviously you knew me apart from her). Hello, lame, Stratus-less guy.

What happened, you ask? Well, it's complicated, like any relationship. We started heading in different directions. She wanted to stop and talk when I'd pull up to a red light and I wanted to keep going. She started to become high-maintenance, requiring....well....maintenance. It just became too much for me. It was clear that we had to part ways---Me go my way and she go (or sit there and refuse to start) hers.

I'm afraid of what you must think of me---dropping Dees off to be picked up by a complete stranger? But I feel like she forced me to do it. Her sputtering brakes giving me whiplash every time I pressed them or her squeals when I turned the wheel were cries for help. One of us needed to make the move, so I did it. I'm not proud of it, but it had to happen.

There.....I said it.

I am now Charlie Dodrill, former owner of a Dodge Stratus (I realize not nearly as cool as what I used to be, but I guess it is better to have loved a Stratus and lost a Stratus, than never to have loved a Stratus at all---I think Aristotle said that).

So that's the big news. I'll understand if you drop me like a bad habit (get it?...I used to be a monk), remove me from your top 8 myspace friends...or your friends altogether, burn my CD's. It's understandable. Just remember. I'm the same inside, and I still need love. Is that so wrong?

Enough of that. I will speak no further of Dees, the Dodge Stratus.

I have no idea who this is, but the jean shorts say it all...even he looks cool next to that baby.



Just got back from KC again and am off to Colorado in a couple days. Those are two great places.
I've been on the road a bit and lately, it's become some of my best down time. Lots of people all the time these days, which it great...but can wear a guy like me out.

It has been so nice just to be able to relax when I sit down. I used to think that I had to spend every still moment straining to learn something about Him or fervently pray for someone or something...do something to make God like me or to take advantage of that moment to become more spiritually more mature than everyone else. Funny how much of a job I made it....and how much I wanted to be promoted based on my own merits/efforts.

Wow, what a waste of time and energy!!! I'm so thankful that the work has been done for me!!! I'm thankful that the same Jesus that took time away to be with His Father while He was here still does so while he lives in me!!! No pressure...nowhere to get to....no task to accomplish every time...no act to perform. The Son just loves to sit with His Father....the Spirit just loves to sit with and point to the Son....The Father loves to sit with His Son...and I get to somehow sit right there in HIM!!!! How unbelievable is that?!?!? How could I not be transformed in to His image when that is my place?!?!! It rubs off!

Lord, I ask that I keep this perspective in the midst of a crazy, busy life and take advantage of those times just to sit and be and bask in the relationship that You have with each other. Thank you for making me a partaker of the Divine Nature. How cool are You?!?!?!

Currently reading : A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship By Ron Paul Release date: 15 June, 2007

Website, sadistic fashionistas, blind drunk guy driving, brambles and lessons

Thing #1. The new website is more fully operational (like the Death Star), so the music is now playing and it says something cool on the tab on your browser and stuff like that...so....new and improved. Way to go Jeremymitchell.com!

Thing #2. I have a question for you ladies out there. Do you use fashion to punish/humiliate the men in your life? I know there are a few men out there that have a clue what to wear and are all stylish, but most of us just put stuff on and if it doesn't smell or itch, we're down with it. The reason I ask this question involves a lunch I had the other day.

Come with me to Sitar Indian restaurant in Nashville on a hot Saturday afternoon. I'm with two friends of mine and we witnessed two fashion faux pas (it's French...look it up [Lord knows I had to]) that even a fashion moron like myself could spot immediately.

The first was a man who came in---WITH HIS WIFE!!!--who was wearing bright red sports shorts (old sweatpants material) that came just above the knee and were a little tight (but not like biker short or dwight yoakam tight) and a tank top of the exact same hue as the shorts. I wish I could show you the several pictures I discreetly took of this ensemble with my phone, but I don't know how to do that. I don't know much, but I know that this was wrong.

The second was a man who walked up to pay and, as he passed by our table, all three of us just looked at each other...spellbound. Keep in mind that not one of the 3 of us would consider ourselves fashion gurus (only probably one of us even knows what's up in that world...and she's too cool to care), but these things were bordering on offensive! This guy had on jeans and a denim shirt un-tucked, which is fine if it doesn't almost touch the tops of your knees. Again, that wouldn't have drawn our attention either, but the dude was wearing one of those braided leather belts (each strip of leather was a different color) ON THE OUTSIDE OF HIS SHIRT! He also, was with his wife/girlfriend.

We came to the conclusion that these men must have recently done something horrible to these women...something that deserved harsh retribution and swift reprisal. The only thing is, that they weren't aware of the ridicule they were being subjected to. I think these women knew exactly what they were doing when they either:
1. Told their husband/boyfriend he looked fine, or even good, when asked "Does this look OK?"
or, far more sinister,
2. Actually constructed the incongruity themselves...laying out the road to social demise on the freshly made bed, snickering on the inside at the scorn that would silently be heaped upon such a costume's wearer. And trust me, if I noticed, EVERYBODY noticed.

So, ladies, is this something that you do to us? Are you reading this with a knowing smile and a malicious memory of doing just such a thing to a previous (or current) boyfriend or spouse?

Just wondering.

Thing #3. Have had some great shows at some great places recently and, as always, I've met some really super people and made good friends. For all the pain traveling can sometimes be, it's well worth it. You start to realize that this world of ours if filled with a lot of awesome people. Thanks for that.

Thing #4 NEWS STORY OF THE DAY
TALLINN (Reuters) - An Estonian man who was caught driving a car even though he is blind has been at it again, police said on Monday, and this time he faces jail.
Police first arrested the man, 20, a week ago.
"We arrested the same blind man driving his car again on Saturday in the town of Torvandi, near Tartu (in southern Estonia)," said Marge Kohtla, a spokeswoman for Tartu police district.
"He was drunk. There were three people in the car with him giving him instructions."
She said police wanted the court to jail the man for 30 days and confiscate his car.

Honestly, what does it matter if you're drunk if you're blind and driving a car. I hope that's not what he went down for. The funny thing is, did you notice it says he was driving HIS car?!?! He actually OWNS the car. That's pretty funny. Talk about the blind leading the bl...no...wait....what?

Thing #5 I was reading/praying the parable of the Sower the other day and I began to look at myself in it. I saw myself getting caught up in the business of life and it starting to choke my life some. I watched as the vines started to lift me off the ground, leaving my helpless to fight against it. So, there I was....suspended in the air, being held up by pointless things that seem important at the time, but have no real eternal value. My immediate reaction was to begin praying that He would untangle me from this mess of vain distraction and allow me to run to the place of good soil or to do something to cultivate that soil myself, but then I felt a change of direction and the verse came to mind, "I have been crucified with Christ, and now I no longer live, but He lives in/through me." I changed my prayer from, "Untangle me" to "You know what, God?...just leave me there to die, so that You can live through me." So many times I want to get my "Old Man" out of situations when God has no interest in helping out the Old Man. He made it so that Old Man will die and be replaced by the One New Man, which is His Son, Jesus Christ. It's funny, there's a song called "New Creation" on the Prologue album that talks about this very thing, and even though I wrote the song, here I find myself needing to be reminded of the message a couple years later!

Thing #6 I've got another house show in Kansas City coming up. Just someone who contacted me and wanted me to come, so here I come! If you want me in your town, just let me know! Those shows are really fun!

Root on the Mountaineers tonight.

charlie dodrill
dodge stratus

Tell ’em I said Hi (doh!), sweaty, NEW WEBSITE, FREE CD’s, yelling at cats

"Tell Everybody I said hi!"

I just said that to someone who(m) (I just use the parenthesis[ese] because I don't know when to use who or whom, or parenthesis or parenthesese...if you have any advice, let me know) I used to work with when I saw her in the Arcade here in Nashville (cool place). Anyway, though we used to work together, I know absolutely know one who(m?) she knows outside of the said place of employment. I don't know one person she knows outside of the office.

So why did I just say, "Tell everybody I said Hi"? Who is she going to tell that? A bunch of people I don't know? IDIOT!!!

Do you ever do that? Just say some moronic cliché that doesn't make any sense in an awkward moment when you really don't have anything to say to someone because you know certain things about that person's life that you probably shouldn't and so you avoid asking any questions for fear it all comes out and that person gets uncomfortable? And so you say something stupid and you end up looking like the moron and everyone involved is uncomfortable.

Yeah...I just did that.

O.K. It's been about a month since I've written and it's high time I got on the ball...or the horse...or the stick....or get my head in the game (for all you High School Musical fans out there). But first, we need to establish the "name that tune" portion of the blog:

"The camera pans the cocktail glass,
Behind a blind of plastic plants;
I found the lady with the fat diamond ring.
Then you know I cant remember a darn (but he didn't say darn) thing."

I saw one of the funniest headlines I've ever seen (although it is also very sad) the other day. It's right up there with the man who greased his entire naked body to make it difficult for the police to grab him while he wailed on them with nun-chucks (see previous blog). Now, just so you don't think I'm some sicko, I take no pleasure in others' suffering, but the wording just hit me as...odd. I didn't read the article, so lets pretend the guy is still alive. But the headline read:

Sweaty Chinese Man Electrocuted by Computer

You have to admit.....
That was the actual headline in a reputable newspaper!!! There has to be a better way to put that.

"I think its one of those de ja vu things,
Or a dream thats tryin to tell me something.
Or will I ever stop thinkin about it.
I dont know, I doubt it."

As you may have seen, "Eyes of the Exception" is up and running on i-tunes and several other download spots, so knock yourselves out there.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY COOL NEW WEBSITE!!! Jeremy Mitchell does it again! It's so cool! You can turn the pages by clicking and dragging them around. How cool is that?!?!?!

Those of you who have been listening to the new album, have any of you found the part where we left in me drinking out of a water bottle? It's in there and it's pretty loud. I thought it would be funny to leave it in there. First person to tell me where it is on the comments gets a button!

"Subterranean by design,
I wonder what I would find if I met you,
Let my eyes caress you,
Until I meet the thought of missess princess who? "

3 ringtones from "Prologue" are also available HERE.

Since the last blog, I don't remember where I've been. I know I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I had possibly the best vacation I've ever had in my life for that weekend. Great show, great people, great rest....just great all around.

I just got back from Indianapolis, where we had another fantastic show....and then I started my journey home. Let's just say it took me 26 hours to get from Indianapolis to Nashville....3 hours on a tarmak before the flight gets cancelled in Chicago...next morning to Atlanta and finally home after standing in lines and getting the run around for like 20 hours. I did make a friend and it became kind of like "The Amazing Race" after American Airlines just left us on our own to somehow make it home. I'm claiming that we were first and thus far, no one has disputed me. They claim it was due to weather, but I don't think it was even raining in either place. Anyway...no bitterness. That's the way it goes sometimes.

"Often wonder what makes her work.
I guess Ill leave that question to the experts,
Assuming that there are some out there.
Theyre probably alone, solitaire."

I have a neighbor who is a little over 50 and a little overweight and a little different than your average bear. I often am awakened at around 2am by this:...... "You git in therrrr! Git in the house!!! GIT!!!" This would be my neighbor yelling at a cat to return to his apartment, where he's not allowed to be in the first place. This is kind of interesting in itself, because cats don't really respond to yelling in the first place. But when I look out my window, things take a turn for the worse when I feast my eyes on the sight of this man in the parking lot wearing nothing but what most would call "tightie whities," but what do not match that description at all....in either category. 'nuf said. You get the picture. It can be a pretty colorful place sometimes.

I had a record label take the new CD to one of the big radio stations (one of the big giants who owns all the other stations) to see if they would play it. I think they played them "Expression" and "What if I Would Say?" and the guy said that they love the music, but that my "lyrics are too advanced for their listeners." So...if you like this music, then you are some kind of genius prodigy according to radio people!!!

So, if we want the music on the radio, we're going to have to do it ourselves. Here's the plan. If you have an independent radio station in your town or near that you think would be a good fit for the music I do (can be Christian or Secular), then if you message me with your address, I'll send you a FREE CD to give to them. They can't play it if they don't have it, and without a label, they won't have it. If enough people tell them to play it and they have it there, then we've got a chance to get the message that I believe the Lord has given me out there on the airwaves. So just write me and tell me how many stations you've got to give it to and I'll send them to you. You're on the honor code, so no funny stuff!!! Let's see what can happen? Why not?

"I can remember when I caught up
With a pastime intimate friend.
She said, bet youre probably gonna say I look lovely,
But you probably dont think nothin of me.
She was right, though, I cant lie.
Shes just one of those corners in my mind,
And I just put her right back with the rest.
Thats the way it goes, I guess."

Do you ever wander if your life is significant at all? Do you feel like you need to do something great that is recognized by tons of people before it really "counts" in the kingdom? Do you feel like if you're not in Africa on the mission field, than you're wasting your life on selfish pursuits? I think so many of us fall into that trap and it ends up being this kind of self-fulfilling prophecy and we end up giving up on the everyday things because we have already somehow lost the race. We might as well just go for comfort if we've turned our back on the really important things. Can you identify with that? I think that is so common, especially among those who have had the "radical" times in life, and compared to that epoch of life, what is happening now appears mundane and luke-warm.

Others have no grid at all for a more radical lifestyle...have never met someone who is completely sold out and in love with Jesus. I know from experience that this world is full of people who have never been around a "pursuer" of the Lord.....even Christians!

It doesn't always take the big deeds to be fervent. It doesn't always take the great sacrifices to be the real deal. Sometimes it does, but not always. Most of the time it's just loving Him in the moment we have right now. I can get so caught up in what I'm not doing that I forget that right now, in eternity, I'm seated on a throne...I'm amongst a cloud of witnesses, worshipping and loving Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. By faith, I can enter into that reality right now, even as I type...as I work...as I talk to a friend...as I read....as I pray....as I listen to a man in his underwear yell at a cat. That's on my heart right now....to live in the reality of eternity even in the mundane times down here. Just because the outside of my life may look normal doesn't mean the life on the inside has to be anything less than 100% sold out, in love, radical worshipper....and I can do that RIGHT NOW.

Let me hear from you. You know that blog comments are my love language!

sad, elderly, attention seeking cat-woman, virb page, i-tunes, website coming soon

Lots to cover...LOTS to cover.

Do you want to start with the ridiculous story or with newsy bits? Newsy bits? O.K., but I make no claim on what bits of the news they are.....just so we're clear.

1. Eyes of the Exception is up on i-tunes!!!! So for those of you who rarely buy actual CD's and don't care about all the love and affection Jeremy Mitchell put into this project, you can just go to charlie's i-tunes page and download yourself out (or in). Make sure to write an i-tunes review if you like it (you can do that even if you didn't buy it there!) If my attempt at a link didn't work, just go to i-tunes and type my name in the upper right search place.

2. I now hava a virb page, which is like myspace, but I can put lots more songs and pictures on it and you don't get spammed with anatomy enlargement ads or skanky people. www.virb.com/charliedodrill I'll be the guy with the penguin body (check it out...pretty funny...Amy Stroup did that). Again, if my link didn't work, it's www.virb.com/charliedodrill.

3. There will be a new charliedodrill.com coming soon. I'll let you know but it is awesome! Again, Jeremy Mitchell. That guy does it all!

4. Ringtones will be available soon. I'll let you know on that one as well.

OK, now for the story.

I really hope this isn't one of those stories when someone thinks it's the funniest thing the history of New Guinea, laughing the whole time so you can barely understand them, and you're just standing there like, "What? Doesn't sound that funny at all." And of course, then you begin giving them the Amish/Dwight shun for the next week for wasting your time.

Well, here goes. We'll see, but just know I'm laughing as I type this.

I ran in a 5K this weekend in Nashville. Now I don't know how many of you have run or been around races like this, but it's really fun and the other participants and specators are really encouraging to the other racers. There are only like 10 people at each race who are actually trying to win, so it's just a fun jog for the other people.

At the finish line of the race, there are always a bunch of people cheering the finishers on to give them that last bundle of energy they need to cross that line. It really is nice and usually, the people who have recovered from their own run help to cheer the ones following them. It's a nice, Woodstocky feel, minus the drugs and nakedness (unless you're in one in San Francisco or Ann Arbor, Michigan [from what I hear]).

Anyway, the cheers really go up for those people who are older or have special struggles when they approach the finish line. Everybody really gets behind them to help them achieve their goal.

Well, as my friends and I were walking towards our car, we noticed a woman somewhere between her 50's and her 60's walking beside us. That wouldn't have drawn any attention had her face not been painted like a cat (a weird cat, like in the musical "Cats" (it was much better than cats...I'll see it again and again). As we veered off towards our car, I watched her to see what she was going to do (because you and I both know that a person painted like a cat is liable to do ANYTHING).

This woman pinned a number on her shirt (identifying her as a participant), turned around, and started running toward the finish line! People began cheering for her and she was eating it up....waving and smiling as she ran toward that ever-elusive finish line! She had not run a bit of the race, but she was going to soak up all the glory that would be given to a 60-year old cat-woman who had exerted herself in the hot sun through 3.2 miles of hills and sweat and pain! I could not believe the audacity of this woman, but I had to give it to her. If that's what you're in it for, that was a brilliant plan to achieve the goal as efficiently (and sneakily) as possible! You go, cat-girl.....you go.

It did kind of got me thinking about the day we stand before the Lord. It's pretty similar to this. Say we get paraded in front of the cloud of witnesses and get cheered for for making it. It won't be because of anything we've done. He did all the work. We just reap the benefits. We're just the old lady painted like a cat who gets to soak up some glory that all gets directed to Him on our way to the finish line.....which IS Him. What a deal, huh?

So maybe I'm a little more like an aging woman pretending to be a distance running feline than I thought.....hmmmm. No wait, that doesn't sound good! Don't post, no..................

Pole!!!! Icy 8 Special K, Cedar Chips and vomit, mixing, past perfect conditional tense

O.K. so I think my front teeth are loose....Am I talking funny? (Baby talk, baby talk, It's a wonder you can walk [Brady Bunch with the bully teasing poor Cindy....but don't worry....Peter took care of some business!])

I'm walking across a bridge today in downtown and it's a real busy thoroughfare---cars passing left and right. I'm walking and trying to read this printout at the same time. I'm getting pretty into what I'm reading and I am on auto-pilot walking-wise. Next thing I know, BAM! my face gets smacked HARD with an inconsiderately placed lamp post (I mean, come on...who puts a lamp post on a sidewalk?!!?!?! I think I've got a lawsuit!). I swear my front teeth almost fell out. Is my mouth swollen? (BUT MY LIPS HURT REAL BAD!) So, obviously I look around to make sure everybody else is alright (not that I was worried if anyone saw me make a complete buffoon of myself [this wasn't like one of those trips that you can start jogging and pretend everybody's fooled and has no idea that you didn't just start jogging for three steps for no apparent reason]), and--sure enough--no one else was injured...just my teeth, my cheek, my nose, my fragile ego. The good news was (apart from the safety of all others) was that no one saw me. Tragedy averted, right?

I get to my computer to find a message from a friend of mine (porch club member), saying, "Hey Charlie. Saw you walking to work today." I'm beginning to see that pulling off any appearance of being cool is just not in the cards for me (not that I believe in "the cards" per se [it's French...impressed?]).

Could be worse. This birth announcement could be about me:

Announcing the arrival of a beautiful new baby boy at
St. Francis Health Center . . .

Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K

born to (I'm gonna go ahead and protect the offender's names here)

at 9:10 p.m.
Saturday, February XX 2003
measuring 21 inches
and weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces

No,no, my friends. That is 100% real. No urban legend here. fact.
Two words--sick, wrong

I'm in a random mood today, so try to stay with me.

Cedar chips and cedar mulch. Is it just me or do all things crushed and cedar smell like vomit? The really strange thing is that once I realize that it is not, in fact, someones partially digested meal, I really like the smell. This greatly confuses me. Were I to find out it actuallly was puke, then I would continue in my repulsion (is that a word?), but if it's cedar chips, I like it again.

I guess it's kind of like that when the Lord asks something of us that we normally wouldn't like to do. When the thought first comes in my head to do something that is out of my comfort zone, my first reaction is to repel it like a mosquito with a can of OFF (or Skin-so-Soft if you're girly). Then if it comes back and you start to realize that this may be the Lord, then all of a sudden it becomes a joy to obey. I've noticed this in my own life. When I'm in times of refreshing, hearing the Lord's voice a lot and feeling some things that are from Him, it is easier to not appreciate the little things that He may ask of me that are on His heart. I do them with not as much zeal----however, when I am in a dry time when I'm not hearing or experiencing much spiritually, I get really excited just to be given any assignment at all! It brings such joy to carry it out because it's one of those rare times in that season when I get a clear direction on what to do. I know that He's a lot more interested in who I am than what I do, but it's also nice every once in a while when He says, "this would really please me," and I can do that thing.
Like those dudes that heard David say he'd really like a drink from that well near the gate of Bethlehem. They lived to please David, so they went and risked their lives to get him some of that water. They brought it back and he poured it out (had to be confusing to those guys), but their reward was bringing him something they knew He wanted. What he did with it wasn't that important. They had their reward when they gave it to him. I want a heart like that all the time---in the wet and dry times (wet may not work but you know what I mean).

Anywho, it's 74 degrees here and it stays light longer. Yahoooooooooo!!!!!!!

We are officially (kind of official, I guess) done with the nuts and bolts of the record and are entering into "polishing mode" on Monday (Lord-willing). It is going well and I'm still really excited. Ben Fowler is mixing again (I was going to drop a ton of famous names of people he's worked wtih to impress you like everyone does in this business, but I'm going to spare you that....Ben is a really nice guy!). I'm praying for a May release date and will hopefully start pre-orders in less than one month.


I was listening to an interview with a political figure (you know him, but I'm not saying his name) and he was being interviewed about his own faith. He is a Christian. The interviewer asked him about what Jesus would think of America and he began answering----it's not important for this conversation what he said, but how he said it---that Jesus would be appalled at this and He would think this about that and He would be happy about the other thing. Immediately my heart just got sad for this man and the millions like him out there who see Him in these terms.

Would be....would think....would feel. This is the way you talk about someone who is no longer around. It tells me that this is a person you know something about, but you have no access to him right now.

If I ask you about your best friend, and what she thinks of a particular song, you might start telling me that s/he likes this or that....or you might just call her/him up and ask him for yourself. you wouldn't talk like she would have really liked this. It wouldn't be right, because she presently has an opinion.

He is alive and is in us! We don't have to talk like that---what He would have thought...what He would have done....what He would have liked (past perfect conditional tense...good guage of your spiritual outlook!!! ha). HE THINKS! HE FEELS! HE LIKES!!! RIGHT NOW!!!! AND HE DOES IT IN YOU!!! How cool is that?!?!?

Anyway, I was just thinking about that and thought I'd share.

Cedar chips...fragrance of life or fragrance of vomit?

charlie dodrill....in full effect (for those of you long time blog readers!!!