Sonlight Pictures Blog

As we ramp up for the Club God shoot on May 3rd, I've created a Sonlight Pictures Blog to document our projects.

You can see it HERE. Please make it one of your favorites and visit often.

Empty & Beautiful

Well, I've been emersed in listening to Matt Maher's new CD called Empty & Beautiful. I'm not going to officially review it... I love the guy and his music too much to be objective.

The CD is interesting in that it's a collection of new songs and new recordings of songs previously released on older CDs. I have no inside info, but I'm guessing that his new label, Essential Records, wanted to reach the widest possible audience with his most proven work.

The end result is a wonderful CD. His title track, Empty & Beautiful, is inspiring and beautiful. His catchy tracks Looks Like a Fool, Great Things and Shine Like The Son will stay in your head for days. And his remake of As It Is in Heaven is amazing.

There's just not a single track I don't like. I sound like such a groupie, it's embarrassing!

Below are the tracks:

1. Your Grace Is Enough *
2. Look Like A Fool
3. For Your Glory *
4. As It Is In Heaven *
5. I Rejoice
6. Maranatha (Come Again)
7. Great Things
8. Leave A Light On
9. Shine Like The Son
10. Unwavering *
11. Lay It Down
12. Empty & Beautiful

* = new recordings of previously released songs.

I understand Essential Records trying to establish Matt as a Christian artist first and foremost, but I hope the record label doesn't dissuade his expression of his Catholicism in his future works. There is nothing nearly overt about Catholicism in this release, as it is so well and movingly displayed in his other CDs, like Behold the Lamb of God and The End and the Beginning. That's what I love about his talent more than others... he brings the faith alive through music like no one I've ever heard before.

Simply put, the man is off-the-charts talented... he could write a song about a colonoscopy and I'd be singing it out loud in my car with the windows down. I've listen to this CD about fifty times already and will keep on listening until my CD player wears out.

Congrats, Matt!

God is smiling! Touch as many souls as you can!

Nice Pic

I was looking through some pics and found this one of my family, sans my Dad, Joe and Leo, at my Father's wake. I am so blessed to be in a family that loves each other so much and truly enjoys each other's friendship.

Mary, Loretta, Charles, Paul
Steve, Mom, Me and John

A Different Focus

Pope Benedict XVI arrived today, his birthday, and was greeted by the most powerful man in the free world, the U.S. President. This happened to occur on the sad first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. As I scanned my bookmarked news sites, I was interested to see two very different approaches.

On Fox News, the arrival of the Pope took up half the page.

As a matter of fact, every news website I visited (MSNBC, USAToday, ABCNews) highlighted the Pope... except one. On CNN, the arrival of the Pope is listed only as a link above the main page (I highlighted in Yellow).


A different focus... neither of which is more valid than the other. But such subtleties can guide you on which news organization will give exposure to areas that interest you the most.

Little League - Gabe strikes out a bunch as Cards win 3-2

Gabe pitched the best game of his young life last night.

The Countryside little league has always been our biggest rival. They have better facilities, are usually better coached overall and have fared better in competitions than our league. As a matter of fact, we lost to them in the District 12 title game last year for the 10-11 division.

Even in the regular season, Gabe had never been on a team that beat a Countryside team. Usually they were more talented than our teams, but we lost even when we had the greater skills.

So, last night was a real treat.

Gabe pitched an exceptional game against the Countryside Giants. The Cards won 3-2... a game very well played by both teams, a game in which the two runs scored against us were unearned and a game in which we were twice tagged out at home plate on great throws by the Giants from the outfield.

But most importantly, it was a game in which Gabe threw 15 strike-outs!

To put it into perspective, Gabe's strike out total for the first-half of the season was 11. He has always been very good at getting batters to two strikes, but had trouble finishing them off. Last night, facing an umpire we had used before that liked low and outside pitches, when up two strikes, Gabe would hit the low/outside corner and ring up the batters.

I think there were only six batters that hit the ball at all and less than that actually got on base.

He was so proud! And, I'll admit, I was a bit giddy myself.

Unfortunately, I usually only video tape Gabe's hitting, so I don't have a video to show you of his pitching success. Who would have thought, of all nights, he'd do so well in the cold, windy Countryside field. Fifteen strike-outs and a 0.00 ERA... it rarely gets better than that.

On a day where my father was heavily on my mind... to have such a great night as a father with my son... well, it was very special.

This was a nice start to the second half of the season. We have another game tonight against the Countryside Phillies... let's see if we can make it two-in-a-row.

I Miss My Father Today...

The emotional effect of my Father's death has been relatively in check... but today I miss him a lot. I so want to talk to him about my family and my faith. I want to hear his laugh, his wise, loving advice and hear him say, just one more time, how much he loves my mother.

And I so long to hear him say "I love you" one more time.

I miss him today... so much it hurts.

Little League - Cards Struggle in Tourney

The Cardinals suffered losses in three close games in a prep-tourney between Safety Harbor and Oldsmar. The Cards lost all of their games, two by one run each. We have a lot of young players and the bottom part of the batting order is dying on the vine.

There's a District 12 tourney in a few weeks and we always put together a preparation tourney like this one with Oldsmar and Countryside... and Countryside always pulls out of it at the last minute, as they did this year.

Gabe had a good defensive series, but struggled at the plate as he's been trying to incorporate his hips into his swing. Since the tourney is just for fun, we decided to use these games to try and take this new technique from the batting cage to the game situation.

Unfortunately, it will take more games to get this new technique to where he doesn't have to think about it. Gabe slapped at outside pitches and made some bad choices in the batters box because he was thinking too much at the plate. He only incorporated his hips effectively on a couple of pitches. But, when he finally gets this down, he'll really start smacking the ball far. Defensively as a pitcher, shortstop and first baseman, he did very well.

You can watch Gabe's Highlights (offensive and defensive, look for #9) HERE. (Again, big file, Internet Explorer preferred).

NYC Trip - Day 5

We got up this day with one goal in mind... go to the Yankees game vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. We were all pretty wiped out by this time and struggled to get ready to go, but go we did.


We took the subway to the 161st St-River exit, where the Bronx Bombers (aka, Yankees) have called home for decades.

As we exited the subway you
can see the new Yankee
Stadium being built.

Under the subway tracks, the streets
abuzz with Yankee fans

On the tracks were signs anticipating
and welcoming Pope Benedict XVI
who will be there in about a week.

A beautiful mural on a parking
lot wall next to the stadium.
Except for the graffiti, it's
pretty nice work.

Tix in hand, we head in.

Enjoying a snack before the game.

The hall of famers on the wall,
both Yankee HOFs and
Baseball HOFs.

Chilling out as the teams warm up.

A Tampa Bay Ray heads
into the dugout.

Future HOFer Alex Rodriguez
warms up from behind home plate,
throwing bullets to a guy in mid-right
field... that guy's got an arm!

Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and
Robinson Cano during the
National Anthem.

Andy Pettitte started for the Yanks.

Our view of the field. Gabe
looked over to me and joked,
"My nose isn't bleeding."

Final score. Rays 6, Yankees 3. Yeah!

Gabe reminds us to quietly
celebrate the Rays victory.

One last look at Yankee stadium
before heading back to the hotel.

We arrived back to the hotel pretty darn worn out from an exhausting week. We thought about hitting the Top of the Roc, but Dea just wanted to rest, as did the rest of us. So we lazed around the hotel, ate room service, watched television... anything, but walk.

NYC Trip - Day 4, Part 2

Let me start this entry by saying this... the following sign is the most ignored sign in NYC, period.


Okay, back to the vacation. About 20 years ago, one of my best friends in college was Chris. He and I loved film and we would talk for hours and hours about how we were going to make our mark in the world. Well, Chris has done that far better than I have.

About 15 years ago, Chris got me my first job at Nickelodeon Studios. We worked together on a variety of shows, such as Clarissa Explains It All, Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple and My Brother and Me.

For a lot of reasons, mainly my responsibilities to my family, I left Nickelodeon, but Chris continued. He followed the Viacom food chain to MTV and moved to New York. He is now a big wig at MTV, VP in charge of the universe or something like that. We have consistently been in touch, but hadn't seen each other in person for decades.

We had been trying to get together for years, but things just hadn't worked out. I emailed Chris about two months ago letting him know we were coming into town. We were looking forward to finally seeing each other again.

A week before our trip, Chris mentioned he had to go to Los Angeles the week were were in town. Talk about timing! However, he arranged for a co-worker, Brittany, to give us a tour. If all went well in L.A. he would be flying into NY Friday night, so we planned to have dinner that night.

So, when Friday came around and we got finished up at the Museum of Natural History, we headed back to Times Square for the MTV tour.

The vibrant and very sweet Brittany cheerfully greeted us and gave us an informative and excellent tour of their facilities. The entire time I was having flashbacks to my Nickelodeon days. The MTV vibe is very similar to the Nick vibe back then.

DC was very excited to see all of the facilities and how they put everything together.

Gabe could not have been more bored than if we had asked him to watch a snail race.

TRL Studios.

Backstage.

Heading to another sound stage.

Brittany points at a tape of all of my
accomplishments. Or course,
it's blank.

Dea vamping it up in the sound booth.

Following my father's example,
in a picture, when in doubt,
point. Makes you look like
something important is happening.

Yo, I am certain I won't recognize
a single signature on this wall.

This sign was true until
I showed up.

A cool mirror near one of the
dressing rooms.

Whenever they have a special guest on TRL (Total Request Live), they would have them go into this photo booth and have their picture taken. They then post them on a wall. The amount of really famous people that has sat in that booth is pretty amazing.

We each got a turn in the photo booth. I'll scan and post those pics later.

The photo booth.

DC and Gabe next to the photo
wall of famous people.

DC being exceedingly hip.

Gabe faking being hip... or interested.

Dea standing next to one of the
funny signs they have backstage.

Yup, I'm cool, I'm hip, I'm with it...
and seriously outside the
target demographic.

The tour was a lot of fun and very satisfying to my daughter. It's great when you can do something special... or make available something special and memorable for your children.

After the tour we had a couple of hours to kill until our dinner engagement with Chris and his best friend and partner David. DC stumbled across what she considers heaven... a Reese's store.


In the meantime, Gabe and I hung out in the ESPN Zone. On the fourth floor they have an arcade up there. I rested my still pained feet (yes, both feet were killing me now) while Gabe played video games.

Art, ESPN Style.

We finally hooked up with Chris and David and had a great time. We ate at this very nice Italian restaurant and caught up on old times. Chris said something very accurate and funny... he said "after all these years I realized that working at MTV is "what I do"... like when we looked at our parents and said "they do this job or that job"... well, this is what I do." And he's right. My dad worked at American Heart Association. Chris works at MTV. I work at a electronic manufacturer. That's what "we do."

None of it is what we planned to do or even what we'd really want to do, but it is what we've been doing for over a decade. So, it's "what we do," like it or not.

The conversation was interrupted by DC's exploding pasta. Seriously. At one point her pasta just sprayed everywhere. All over her ESPN shirt, all over the floor, on both sides of her chair. It was hilarious. Fortunately, DC had purchased an inexpensive I HEART NY shirt, so she changed into that.

After dinner we had our picture taken together. Chris hadn't changed at all. I, on the other hand, had become fatter, grayer and older.

David, Pete, Dea and Chris.

On the way back to the subway, we stopped outside the Ed Sullivan Theater where the David Letterman show is recorded. A great, historic theater.

Now, with our tanks running on empty, we headed back to the hotel and crashed yet again.

NYC Trip - Day 4, Part 1

By Friday, our fourth day on the trip, the vacation was starting to wear on all of us. But, we had a big day ahead. First, we were heading over to the Museum of Natural History. The place is massive. You could spend a week straight there and still not see everything.

Dea in her morning glory.

The museum exterior.

Teddy and a travel companion.

The planetarium.

In the space section,
DC in her new ESPN jersey.

A real meteor. Cool.

A fully exposed moon.

An enlarged version of a mosquito. Gross.

Dea and DC in front of a redwood stump. Impressive.

Dino bones.

More dino bones.

Gabe and friend.

Gabe and pet.

Scarey dead things.

Midway, through the our visit to the museum, my right foot started hurting... a lot! I mean, searing pain injected into through my foot and into my leg with each step. It was brutal.

Of course, my family sympathized by walking faster and pointing me out to strangers.

My dogs were barking.

Dea trying to feed a T-Rex.

My girls.

Me and the kiddos.

We followed up the dino part of the exhibit and went through the forest section, the early human section and ended with the early American section, where Gabe marveled at the totem poles.

Yup, that's high.

After this we headed downtown for something DC had been waiting for the entire trip... a personal tour of the MTV studios in Times Square.