The writings of Sean Pritzkau.

PEACE out!

2010-08-03T14:19:00.003-04:00

Guess who's back! Except.. not here. I moved my blog over hereeeee. So scoot over there and hang out instead of here. Because no one will be here. Got it? Cool!

(p.s. That means if you followed this blog with an RSS link.. change it to my new one on wordpress. Or if you link to me on your blog.. please change the link the new blog! Thanks!)

Aloha Kauai (Aloha means goodbye)

2009-07-28T02:05:00.009-04:00

Here I sit. In the airport. Not on the beach. Not in the sun. Not with my feet in the sand. Just here. Exhausted. Aloha means goodbye.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been on vacation. First stop: Los Angeles to see my Dad and where he lives. LA is sweet and I definitely want to go back and spend some more time there. I didn’t even hit the beach while we were there! I’m going back.

Kauai was freaking awesome. Probably the coolest place I’ve ever been. Or hottest. You get it. It’s the perfect temperature. All the time! A ton of humidity, but that cool breeze that feels like you’re in a convertible makes it all better. We spent most of the time on the beach. Or on a beach, because we went to plenty. Fish were really cool. Surfing was really cool.

And family was really cool. I got to see family that I haven’t seen in 3, 4, 5, 6 years. We had about 15 people staying in the pretty average size beach house for a good portion of the week. It was pretty cramped and chaotic, but we handled it.

My Dad and I took a hike towards the end of the trip which was so sweet. It wasn’t that long, but the terrain was real tough. We spent about 6 hours on it. It led us to a sweet secret beach. If we took it out further we would have found a sweet waterfall. I wish we went more.

So now it’s time to head home. I’m actually on the airplane right now heading back to Rochester. If my calculations are correct (I’ve been in 6 different time zones in the last day), I’ve been awake for 28 hours so far. Hm. I should get some sleep sometime. Doubt it. I miss my friends and we want plates tonight! So one more hour (iawfwowrhg my ears just popped. OUCH) and I’ll be home. Home sweet home.

p.s check my facebook album for more pictures I took on the trip!

p.s. Some United airlines guy is sitting next to me. And practically sleeping on me. Anyone have a shovel?

Do you like your privacy?

2009-05-01T10:45:00.005-04:00

This is so sweet. Supposedly this is a real toilet located in Houston.

No one can see you from the outside..

but it looks like everyone can from the inside!

These need to be everywhere.

Just do your best to hear me. It’s all you can do.

2009-04-19T01:19:00.002-04:00

If you know me at all, you probably wouldn’t imagine me doing homework on a saturday night.

..but imagine. That’s what I’m doing. Actually, Amy is sitting next to me blogging. So because I’m not jumping in excitement to right this 8 or 9 page research paper.. I thought I’d do the same. First of all were at leaf & bean listening to a pretty decent jazz combo. I miss Jazz a lot. Between playing in jazz band last year and taking jazz guitar lessons for a year or so and not doing either anymore, I’m starved. I need to play music that's not four chords over an over again. Or in a group where every song isn’t in the same key. (Sorry TFH, sorry RLS) Now to the real content of this post.

Copeland.

I’ve known them for a long time and really liked their flavor, but have never got in to them to the point where I know their music. Last night some friends and I went to go see them play along with This Providence and Brooke Waggoner. First of all, all three of these bands are extremely different. But their sets flowed really well together.

Brooke Waggoner is a really talented singer/songwriter and had some great musicians with her on stage. She was accompanied by violin, cello, guitar, and synth along with another female vocal. (who @kylesullivan had a HUGE crush on. should of went at it man!) In my opinion, they could of used some light percussion, but that's just me. I love listening to bands with girl singers. Girl singers that sound amazing. I blast them in my car. I don’t care what you think.

I love The Academy Is. This Providence was pretty much a carbon copy of them. Actually, I don’t mean to discredit them.. but they had a very similar sound and they’re on the same label. But I dug these guys a lot. They were also pretty young. How lucky they are to be able to tour with an awesome band like COPELAND at that age.

WHY DIDN’T I START LISTENING TO COPELAND A LONG TIME AGO?!

ok. sorry. but really.

These guys were so great. Amazing musicians. Each of them have practically mastered one of the most fundamental things about music: knowing when to play out, when to play, and when to not play at all. I was incredibly impressed. The drummer and bass player were SO TIGHT. They interacted during the set by making eye contact almost every few seconds. The bass player locked in to every groove with precision and they pulled off the most fluid time signature changes I’ve ever heard. ..and I’m not even going to get started on their BEAUTIFUL MELODIES AND LYRICAL AMAZINGNESS.

I think I found a new favorite band.

EDIT: homework did not get done tonight. Go watch Yes Man. and laugh.

How Far Are We Willing to Go?

2009-03-30T01:04:00.001-04:00

Finally, when we could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy to visit you. He is our brother and God's co-worker in proclaiming the Good News of Christ. We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles. -1 Thessalonians 3.1-3

This blew me away. This is from one of Paul’s letters to the church of Thessalonica. He is describing his longing for these people that he has visited, told them the gospel and ways of living, and has had to leave. What amazes me is how much he cares about these people. He says that he prays for them everyday. He says that it hurts him to not be able to know how they are doing with their walk with Christ. Paul wants to visit them so bad, but he can’t. So he sends Timothy, a close friend, to go on his behalf. Paul loves these people so much that he will literally do anything to get in touch with them. He wants to be able to encourage them and push them forward in their faith.

I wish I had these kind of relationships. There are a ton people who I care about deeply and want to see them live a fulfilling and exciting life with God. Some of them aren’t doing good, and I know it. I want to help them.. but how far am I willing to go? Paul sent Timothy probably a hundred miles away to visit the people he wanted to reach and help. I have a hard time driving 20 minutes to reach these people. Paul prayed for these people everyday. I used to pray for those I wanted to meet Jesus consistently, everyday. But somewhere down the line I stopped. Is it because I don’t care anymore? Is it because I’m lazy?

If I care for people this much, I need to take action. I need to do whatever it takes in order to encourage and lift up those that need encouragement and lifting up. I don’t want them to miss out on what could be. I’m going to take after Paul in this aspect, and do whatever I can to heal the brokenhearted and to push forward the faith of my friends.

He calls

2009-03-16T13:20:00.005-04:00

Aside from this blog, I also administrate and write for our Youth Ministry's website c4revolution.org. It's directed to a Jr High/Sr High audience. Feel free to hop on over there too!

Jesus wants you to talk to other people about Jesus.

Your friends from school. The one at the lunch table. The one you sit next to in class. The one you hang out with in school, but never outside of school. Even your best friend who’s never been to church, and he doesn’t fit in with your “church friends”.

Jesus wants you to talk to them about Him.

..but but but.. it’s hard. I don’t wanna be known as the weird churchy kid. Believe me, it’s not churchy. It’s being real. God puts you in other peoples lives for that exact purpose. That small voice you hear in the back of your mind whenever you pass a quiet lonely kid, or see someone being picked on, that's Him. Or maybe you can just tell in their eyes that they need some. That’s Jesus. It’s no mistake, it’s not something you can ignore. It’s a calling. You’re called to reach people.

Jesus wants to be involved in every decision of your life. You know what you believe in. But when you have a few short seconds to make a decision in front of people that may not understand why, it gets hard. Let God intervene in your decisions. Let God strengthen your character. Let Him put it in to practice. You can do it, if He calls.

Phil Keaggy: Humility and Servanthood

2009-03-11T13:38:00.007-04:00

In my last post I mentioned that I saw Phil Keaggy live at The Father’s House. Now I realized that just menti

oning him was huge insult.

If you don’t know who Keaggy is, he is notably one of the most skilled guitarists in the world. I’m no expert, but I’d call him the best. You may have heard the rumor that Jimi Hendrix was on a late night talk show and was asked the question:

“How’s it feel to be the best guitarist in the world?”

Jimi Hendrix responded “I don’t know, ask Phil Keaggy.”

The rumor may not be true, but even so, that's sweet. He’s recorded over 50 albums in his lifetime, spanning records with bands, guest tracks, and compilations. It’s usually a stretch for a band to put out one album a year. He put out around 50 while starting in his 20s. You know what else is sweet? He has 4 fingers on his right hand. Wow.

I didn’t know much of Keaggys music before the show, but man was I impressed. Every song made me incredibly happy inside. I don’t know why, but music has that effect on me. Especially his. I was filled with joy when listening to his excellence in music. Some of the stuff he was doing was incredible. For instance in one song he put a piece of plastic in between the strings of his guitar to create a percussion sound which he looped behind him. Another time he would sing into the sound hole of his acoustic song and would over lay harmonies. In interview he says this sounds horrible, but it’s fun and different.

I was amazed by how humble of a musician he is. Honestly, his interview with Pierre was pretty boring. But that’s probably because he doesn’t feel like he’s better than anyone else. He is just doing what he loves and doing what he feels called to. That’s cool. I hope to resemble Keaggy sometime in humility.

Umm, sorry blogosphere.

2009-03-01T15:31:00.003-05:00

Ok, so where the heck did February go? Today's March 1st. Holy smokes. Well here's a quick update on my life.

Red Letter Statement

We spent a week at Bluebrick recordings in Avon with Jesse Sprinkle recording our new E.P, the Lighter. It was an incredible week. We spent a whole lot of time together, which was awesome for the most part. Of course we got on each others nerves, but for the most part, we got to relax and hang. It was sweet hanging with Jesse for the week.. we really are big fans of him. The recordings turned out really well and I'm really proud of them. We have a lot of exciting news, and can't wait to get it out.

I'm actually typing this at the California Brew Haus in Greece right now before sound check. You should totally come. It's a battle of the bands.

College

It's nuts. I'm really freaking busy. But, besides that, it's cool.

Phil Freaking Keaggy

This is guy is so nuts. Best guitar player, period. He played at my church this weekend. He did a concert last night.. just him. He stands there, and makes wonderful music that makes me happy inside and out. Check him out below.

Girl

I met this girl a while ago. Now we date. She's really really really cool.

..I'll blog more. I promise. Good thing I twitter, or you would think I died!

hey andy,

2009-02-07T23:45:00.006-05:00

I got to know Andy Warhol pretty well tonight.

I have this one class which really bugs me. I have it 12 times. That’s it. Sounds sweet right? Not so much. I just found out a couple days ago that we had a big paper due at MIDNIGHT on a SATURDAY NIGHT. First of all, what a ridiculous due date.

So I had a busy morning, had rgen training, a meeting at leaf and bean, and my voice lesson. Then I went and practiced a bit in Cox, thinking I’d have the rest of the day to work on this paper. I get everything together and go to the library and whaaaaaat? It’s closed! I had no idea it closed at 2pm on Saturdays. So lame.

So I ended up going to the library at RIT, which is open till like 12. There were so many asians there. And there was a three floors and it was big and intimidating.

Luckily they had no internet there. No internet = no distractions! Whipped a 5 page paper off in like two hours. BAM.

I had to write about an artist. So I texted an artsy person named Amy. She gave a me a million artsy people to write about.

I got this book. It’s about Andy Warhol. What’s he do again?

oh yeah. he likes soup.

then I felt like this. But I got it done and over with.

end rant.

Trusting God takes Action

2009-01-30T16:03:00.001-05:00

This is an idea that I have been struggling a lot with over the past few weeks. It’s called trusting God.

A few weeks ago I made a decision that I wasn’t going to “push” anything in a few areas of my life. I said to God that I was going to leave it in his hands, and just live out my daily life hoping He would make things come into play. I don’t necessarily think this is wrong, but I may be missing something. I came across this quote on Steven Furticks blog and it really impacted me. I even tweeted about it.

“Truly trusting God involves pursuit. Action. Obedience. Involvement. Initiative. Follow through.”

That means that if we were looking for God’s blessing, we must actively be pursuing Him. As we seek Him we must look to Him for guidance. We must do our part in order for Him to do His. I guess there is a big difference between these two idea. I’m going to take this advice and actively seek God for the blessings I’m praying for.

RLS Podcast #6

2009-01-27T14:51:00.001-05:00

From the studio, made courtesey of Amy Bartholomew.

hey, that kinda rhymed. enjoy.

Red Letter Statement #6 from Sean Pritzkau on Vimeo.

Worship Roadtrip Day 3

2009-01-26T02:48:00.001-05:00

Today was the third and final day of our stay in pennsylvania. First off this trip was a blast, and I’m so glad I could be apart of it. ok..

I was very happy to be woken up by Larry this time and not Krystal. What a better way to start your day! We arose and got all our stuff together and headed out. We got to church and had some bagels and doughnuts. I haven’t mentioned in the past few blogs how weird it was being in a small church. I’m not used to it, I never really have been in a small church like TFHF. But I didn’t not like it, it was just uncomfortable a bit. But I got used to it and really enjoyed the people we were with and the relationships we formed.

For worship we did several of songs we did the previous night, mostly our songs plus “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Tomlin. We also added in “How He Loves”, which is my favorite worship song. I really loved hearing the congregation sing out that song. After we did our praise set, we sat down and Larry’s Dad, or “Big pimpin” got up to speak. He gave everyone a look back at how their church was formed and the hardship they’ve overcome over the past year. It was sad to hear about everything that has went on in that church. A split between the church, sicknesses, broken marriages, and people losing their jobs has been very burdensome. But through all this, Larry spoke on how they’ve been praying for God to refresh them and renew their passion. Larry and the church leadership team was convinced that us coming down were the answer to their prayer. I wasn’t expecting that. Did God really send us to “refresh” this team? It sounds pretty wild, but I believe it as much as Larry does. They expresses so much thanks to us, and I am honored and humbled by their generosity that they shown us. After his message we did a worship set and their were some more spontaneous speaking. I really enjoyed it. After this we hung out with our friends and ate some dinner. We formed some awesome relationships with these guys and I am incredibly thankful for them. Like Mitch said in his blog, I really do believe we came for a purpose. Not only do our churchs have basically the same name, but our message is the same, and our hearts are aligned with Gods. Much that has been laying on our hearts were laying on theirs. It was God. Period. After we said our goodbyes we headed back for a long 6 hour drive back home.

One of my favorite parts about the trip was I got to spend a lot of time with Mitch. If you don’t know him, head over to his blog. He’s my drummer and best friend. He’s been blogging about this trip along with me.. so go on over to his blog and encourage him to keep it up ;)

Worship Roadtrip Day 2

2009-01-25T01:50:00.002-05:00

So this it what went down day numero dos of our roadtrip to pennsylvania. I guess we were supposed to wake up around 7:30 or so, but we woke up to the annoying sound of krystals voice around 8:30. Once we got up and around we headed to the church. When we got there we worshipped God with a few songs while I played acoustic, and then I led a devotional. I talked about how we ultimately choose how our days go simply by turning to God in the morning. If we seek Him above all, everything will fall into place how he wants it to. I gave some examples from the past two Thursdays I’ve had that sucked majorly, but turning to God made everything work out somehow. I didn't talk about most of what I wanted to talk about, because I left my notes back at home. I wanted to talk about how as christians we’ve almost forgotten about God’s model for repentance and righteousness. Seriously. We don’t understand that God knows that we’re going to fall short. He knows that we aren’t perfect, even though he demands perfection. Really, it’s hard to go one day without screwing up somehow. Thats why at night before we go to bed it is a good idea to reflect on the day before you and repent for the things you’ve fallen short from. When the sun arises, breathe in God’s breath of righteousness. Seek Him and enjoy being completely blameless before God. It’s the most amazing feeling in the world.

After I spoke we ate an amazing breakfast. Ski eggs are AMAZING. And french toast with apples somehow in them. After breakfast we started rehearsing our songs and it somehow turned into a worship session. Sound was still kind of poor, but I was more focused on thinking about the words we were singing and asking God to consume me. Scott did a teaching after we did worship. It was about worship and it was really good. And honestly, really long. I lost him about half way through and then got back on track somehow. Following his teaching we went to DINO’s and had lunch. I had twenty of the best wings I’ve ever had. yum. Then we went back to the house and Mitch and I took a nap. I slept for about an hour, but it felt like at least 4. Then I heard that sound again that made me wake up.

Time for church again. We went and did some more rehearsing and sound checking, then Larry did a teaching. I love hearing Larry teach. He talked about how we as christians struggle with identity. He showed us today that we should not claim to be sinners saved by grace. We should not be defined by sin. We should be defined by the grace that saves us. That sound so similar but if you think about it they are completely different. Again, God knows we aren’t perfect. Only He is. But we are redeemed by His grace. That is who we are.

Then we started our worship set. We played 15 songs, which took about two hours. It was one of the longest sets I’ve ever played. We played a lot of the songs we usually play, but also did a lot of Scotts (TFHF’s worship leader.) It was a lot easier to engage in our songs, but we enjoyed playing a variety of music. I’ve never played so much Chris Tomlin songs in my life.. nor do I want to. Worship went really great and I was happy with it. It did take a lot out of me though. Following the worship night we went to Larrys familys house for a bit and then came back to the house. Time to crash!

Worship Roadtrip day 1

2009-01-24T00:53:00.002-05:00

So we’re just about to crash after our first day in P.A. It’s been a lot of fun so far. First of all, we’re going down to Derry, PA to lead worship at our worship leader Larry’s church back home. Ironically, it’s called “The Fathers’ House Fellowship”.. and our church we serve at is called The Fathers’ House.

We all met at Larry and Andrea’s this afternoon around 12 and loaded up our vehicles. I drove with Mitch. We had a blast on the ride there. Lots of rocking out to the ipod. Lots of dancing. Lots of twittering. Some points got scary, but they were funny. I took about a 45 minute nap.. I hope Mitch wasn’t too bored. We got there in pretty much record time.

We arrived around 5 oclock to TFH Fellowship. This building is a lo

t different to what we are used to. It’s a lot smaller of a room with very different acoustics. I already could tell that we would have to adapt to what we have and do our best to not be selfish. We’ll have to remind ourself a lot this weekend that we are here to serve. We spent some time getting to know the worship leader and pastor of the church and started sound checking. We still have a lot to do with working on songs and sound tomorrow. Mitch is in his own little separate room to the side of the stage. It kind of sucks, but it is really funny looking to my immediate right and seeing him in there. Sorry Mitch.

The church ordered us some pizza tonight and we all ate together. Then after some more sound/song stuff. Now we are at a man named Jim’s house to spend the night. He has a pretty awesome house. I should probably go to sleep not though, since its 1 and we have to be up around 7. And it’s dark and Mitch is sleeping. And Adam, even though he’s blasting United on his ipod. Crazy kids. More later. Much love!

The Pedalboard

2009-01-21T15:11:00.002-05:00

This has been my latest project. I’ve been working over the last couple months on putting together a pedalboard. For those who are clueless, this a rig that includes all my effects pedals and stompboxs to have in front of me while I play guitar. I used to have a Boss ME-50 guitar processor (which I’m selling btw) which was pretty nice, but you can get such better tones and customization out of individual pedals. Some of this stuff was courtesy of Brian Jackson, and the rest I invested in. Here’s what I got so far:

Boss DD-7 Digital Delay

Boss DS-1 Distortion

Boss FS-5U Footswitch (tap temp for delay)

Ibanez TS-9 Tubescreamer

Boss Chromatic Tuner

Ernie Ball Sr. Volume Pedal

VOX Wah Pedal

as you can see, their’s room for one new stompbox.. any suggestions?

2009-01-12T23:29:00.002-05:00

A couple weekends ago Tim made this sweet video. Well, it was sweet until the end where he mocks me! Just kidding. But really, he's got skills. Check this out.

I did it

2009-01-08T18:48:00.003-05:00

You can see all that bushiness again in June.

See you in a few hours

2009-01-08T12:51:00.002-05:00

Well, without the hair.

Going digital with Journaling

2009-01-06T01:50:00.002-05:00

If you know anything about me, you probably know that I love to journal. Everyday for the past 2 years or so I’ve written down my thoughts, feelings, songs, prayers, and emotions onto paper. Sometimes they find their way onto this blog. For some reason doing this clears my brain from all the mess of things that are in there. Simply put: journaling organizes my unorganized mind. If you haven’t journaled before, or don’t do it much, I’d highly recommend it. I’m not sure how things would be if I didn’t have a stack of journals with all my thoughts in them.

I never thought I’d be able to put the pen down. But for 2009 I am going to try something new. I’m putting down my pen and paper and moving my journaling onto the computer. Lately my love for journaling has went down hill. It’s seemed a lot more like a task then a way to get my emotions out. I hope that somehow this will fix it. It’s something new, and maybe it will freshen up my perspective on things. I think I even type faster than I write anyways. Also this will go quite well while I do YouVersion’s bible reading plan. Since I bring chico around with me most of the day anyway, this will be a lot more convenient. We’re going to be best friends.

So I’m curious. Do you journal? Have you tried using technology to journal instead of using pen and paper?

Reading the bible in 2009

2008-12-31T13:33:00.002-05:00

I use YouVersion a lot. YouVersion is a revolutionary online bible. With this you can not only read the bible but you can share your thoughts on scripture with others, connect with content through youtube, and journal. They have this feature where you can read the bible in one year. Last year I wanted to do it, but I was intimidated. It's a chapter a day in three different books in the bible. But this year I am committing myself to reading the entire bible, and I invite you to do this with me. The challenging part is you won't be able to whip this off before you go to bed. You actually have to make it a priority in your day to read a few chapter of the bible. And doing this on the computer helps a lot, because if you're like me you're on your computer for half the day anyway. So, try bringing in the new year in a positive way.

Trans Siberian Orchestra 08

2008-12-29T18:36:00.003-05:00

Every year it’s a tradition to go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert with my Mom around Christmas. This was the fifth year we’ve gone and I was blown away by the difference from the last year to this year. They usually do a similar song order and stories every year, but this year they made a lot of changes. First off their new lighting system is AMAZING. They have LED lights behind the entire stage as well as to the left and to the right. Then they have huge lights in the air with long florescent lights that they can use to make them look like boxes. The new lights made the show incredible. They also had several new musicians. The two new violinists rocked hard. My favorite part of the show was in the beginning two of the guitarist and one violinist came down to the stage on platforms from the ceiling. I can’t wait for next year. An our church to get lights like these. ..cough cough..

Merry Mountain Dew Christmas!

2008-12-25T15:04:00.000-05:00

Mountain Dew Christmas from Sean Pritzkau on Vimeo.

Imagine Christmas

2008-12-20T22:22:00.004-05:00

so excited.

Tomorrow-

Imagine Christmas

The Father's House

10am and 12pm.

be there.

hey college kids

2008-12-19T14:42:00.002-05:00

buy my books. Here's what I have.

Encountering the Old Testament (Hunt)

Norton Field Guide to Writing (Henderson)

Todays Moral Issues (Koehl)

get them while they're hot!

Finals week

2008-12-18T13:51:00.006-05:00

OH MY GOSH. I’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t had to chance to blog too much. Or do much

of anything but study and do homework and stuff.

So I’m sorry.

Not really for you.... but for me… because bloggings is one of my favorite things to do. Ok, now that that’s settled with…

Finals week. Most schools are out already, and here were are still at school finishing up the semester. But I’m officially done now! I had a portfolio for my writing class due Tuesday, a final in Old Testament on Wednesday, and an oral presentation for writing just a few minutes ago. I’m glad it’s all over and it’s time to celebrate CHRISTMAS!

This is what’s been going on lately..