Sparks from the Fire

I’ve just spent the last two and a half weeks working on Julia Wade’s new Inspirational music CD, Every Day. (Read more about Julia’s new CD at her Inspiratus blog.)

She took a “vacation” from her job in Boston where she is the soloist at the world headquarters of the Christian Science Church.

It’s one of those jobs where people think she shows up on Sunday and sings a couple of services and that’s about it, but, in reality, it’s pretty much a full-time job considering all the preparation, research, rehearsal and administrative work she puts into it.

So the perception in Boston is that Julia is on vacation, but the reality is that she moves from one difficult, totally time consuming job to one that is probably at least twice as intense.  That’s the job of recording an album.

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Yes, I’m alive!  I woke up this morning, heart still pounding, breath still coming.  Lay there thinking.  Wondering at the miracle of life.

I’m alive.  The black pixilated letters appearing before me, one by one, on this screen prove it.  I move one moment to the next, recording thoughts, correcting mistakes, typing on, wondering where it’s all going.  Having no idea why it continues, a little nervous that if I think about it too deeply, I might discover something, a fallacy, perhaps, and then it just could stop.

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Recently I was asked how I was able to get so much done in life.  I’ll have to admit to being a bit of a workaholic – perhaps even that is a bit of an understatement.  The question made me stop for a moment and think about my life.

Basically I eat little, make sure I get 7 good hours of sleep at night and occasionally 8.  Other than that, I work.  It also helps that I love my work.  The Missus leaves every weekend for her gig in Boston and that’s when I really get to work.

I admit to occasionally watching a movie, but that’s about it for recreation.

Still with all the hours spent, I would not get nearly as much done if I weren’t well organized.  It’s organization that gets me through and if I’m anything, I’m organized.

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• You are the light of the world.  Live your life as if this were true because it is true.
• But can you build something so grand, people will be drawn to you?
• God, use me as an instrument of thy peace.
• It’s much easier to be done than satisfied.
• Be not slothful in business, but fervent in Spirit – serving the Lord.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link, please visit
Watchfire Music.

My son, Dustin and his lady friend, Lauren, took me to see Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland for Easter last night and I had a bit of a resurrection.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.  I literally did not want to blink for fear of missing something.

Hats off to Mr. Burton and his fabulous international crew for making this picture.  It could be the perfect story told in 3D.  I fell right down the rabbit hole with that little girl and spent 2 delighted hours in Tim’s surrealistic dream.

The experience made me so grateful for my eyes, so grateful for this magical God-endowed gift called sight.  What a trip – to be able to see!  What a concept!  When you really think about it, it’s our most precious gift besides simply being.

To be born blind must be one of life’s saddest tragedies, but to go blind must be even worse because then you know what you’re missing.

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In the long run, what does it matter?  Christianity’s biggest split seems to me to be was he or wasn’t he.  Was Jesus God?  Just doesn’t make sense.  To me it seems like he was not.

Don’t mean to stir up a hornet’s nest here (or maybe I do), but I think a ton of people here got it wrong.

For my money, Jesus was the way-shower, the exemplar.  He was sent here to be an example for us on the subject of how to live our lives.  He was a human being just like us and that was the point.  He showed us our potential – what we could be if we knew what he knew and practiced what he practiced.

He taught us how to think, how to treat our fellow man, how to heal, how to live.

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Well, it’s truly just around the corner.  I know we’ve been promising this for a long time now, but finally I can say for certain the immortal words, “Coming Soon!”

We’ve been talking about this widget/gadget/app for over a year now and I’m more than happy to report that we’re in the last stages of production.  It’s so “done” that I’m finishing up the programming for each genre this coming week and you should see the first beta tests this April.

We’re excited here at WFM because you’ve been asking for this for some time now.  People I speak to every day have said repeatedly, “I go to Watchfire Music every day just to listen to the samples.”  This has actually been somewhat frustrating to me because as a composer/producer I want our customers and fans to hear the whole song – not just a 1:00 sample.

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Stephen Schwartz - Composer/Lyricist

Many years ago when I was in my mid 20s, I served as composer-in-residence at the New York Shakespeare Festival for around five years.  It was an unbelievable opportunity to learn on the job, get major experience writing for the theater and work with the best people in the business.

Most composers for the theater are happy if they can get a show on and out there in the public eye once every three to five years.  In my five years at the Festival I did music for over 40 productions.

In the course of doing all that work I had the opportunity to meet and work with the best talent in the world in the theater.  At the time, though I often wrote lyrics stumbling blindly along, I always collaborated with a lyricist when it came to anything important.  My abilities as a composer were far ahead of my lyric writing chops.

I remember one evening while there at NYSF running into Stephen Schwartz who was a contemporary.  Steven had written the music and lyrics for Godspell and Pippin and later for Wicked and a host of animated Disney films.  I was looking for a lyricist for a project at the NYSF and asked him if he might be interested in collaborating.

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