We both went to Spirit West Coast. Here is a brief look at wha' happind:

• GETTING THERE
• THE BOOTH
• MUSIK PEOPLES
• AWARDS
• WEIRD THINGS
• GETTING HOME
• SPIRIT WEST COAST 1999

gETTING tHERE
Can a trip through California be any more exciting than a 5-hour journey of discovery up the 5 Freeway?
We saw more than 4 trillion produce plants - enough Vitamin A to put a small state like Delaware into a coma. Oh yeah... and there was a hill. And our excursion took us through the most lovely bouquet that 12000 head of cattle can offer on a 100 degree day. If you plan on traveling through California, make sure it includes a Fun-On-The-Five trip!

tHE bOOTH
Here's Dan sitting at our booth at Spirit West Coast. It's actually a really wide distorted shot which we made into a virtual reality movie. YES IT'S TRUE!!! You can experience being there at the booth with us!!! If you have Quicktime (from Apple) all you have to do is click on Dan and the virtual reality pic will automatically download.

• YOU can experience the pure energy of being in the loneliest place in the Exhibitor's Tent!
• YOU can see for yourself the people streaming towards the Berean Music MegaBooth like moths to the flame!
• YOU can see the booth to the left, Christianity.com, left unattended and unstocked for 99% of the whole festival!
• YOU can see the bag with shirts for Mark's kids which someone later... let's say, "permanently borrowed"!!!
• YOU can see the candy jar that was marauded by tiny urchins with acute candy addiction. YOU'RE WELCOME, YOU VULTURES!

Download the VR image of "Dan at the Booth" now!!!

mUSIC pEOPLES
We didn't see many concerts but we saw some, and took pictures!!! If you want to see a big picture of the little ones, just click on it! If you wanna keep it, just download it!!! If you want to avoid cavaties, brush AND floss!!!

Ashley "No I'm not from" Cleveland
Box Haul 7 (huh?)
Caedmon's Call
Delirious
Jennifer "I could whoop you if I wanted to" Knapp
Mark Townsend (guitarist for dc talk and great Bohemian Rhapsody song leader)
Newsboys (some brand new indie band; not from America!)
Phil "I only sing with my eyes closed" Joel
Skillet
Switchfoot

sWC2000 aWARDS

MOST TASTELESS RIDE Award gets even tasteless-er The sinking Titanic ride for kids added insult to injury this year not only by coming back but by actually adding an ICEBERG to make the horror of that fateful night even more fun!

WE GOT OUR ACTS TOGETHER Award goes to the organizers of SWC. Again, they showed that a whole lot of stuff can get done, and done well. Every year we're amazed at how MUCH there is going on and how seemingly smoothly it all goes.

DEN OF THIEVES Award goes to Mammon Mountain (officially The Exhibitor's Tent). B-zillions of dollars came in. Tons of Jesus Junk left. (Yes, there were some good vendors in here with ORIGINAL(!) art and some good Bible deals, but the majority... well...) In Second Place was The Valley of the Shadow of Debt (aka Vendor Island)

IGNORANCE IS BLISS Award goes to the man who, when walking by our booth and offered a bookmark, said (seriously), "No, I don't read." It was a shining moment in Christendumb.

COOLEST THING TO DO WHEN ON STAGE Award goes to Caedmon's Call who, for their final song asked who in the crowd could play guitar. Then they let that lucky minkey go up and play with them for the whole song!!! And the sound guy didn't even mute his guitar!!! (Mark was very envious.)

the WE'RE TOO OLD FOR THIS Award goes to... US! A former student from Mark's school actually had to interpret - word for word - the vocals of a thrash rock single he played for us at the booth. We didn't understand A WORD of it. Really. :(

The Special CASH IN ON GOD Award

These were the runners-up in this year's award. All of them did well in 1) being unimaginative, 2) being derivative, and 3) marketing to Christians by putting a religious spin on some corporate logo or fad no matter how inappropriate or borderline blasphemous.
The Number One runner up, and soooo close to winning the award is this Pokemon ball necklace with a cross taped to it. Amazing, but true!

This year's winner managed to take the only name in the Bible that God gives Himself, the Sacred Tetragrammaton, the Name orthodox Jews won't even speak, and turn it into a corporate name... Place your mouse over the green writing here to reveal this year's winner. (Note: You might want to play a drumroll in the back to heighten the suspense!)

wEIRD tHINGS

Dan was asked to guard the Big Yellow Spider Ride. He obliged in an Incredible Hulk sort of way. We agreed not to show the pictures of Dan stepping on the 2 smart-alecky teenagers trying to get through his legs. They later pressed charges.

The most dissapointing experience we had was this incident. Coming back from going to the restroom, as Dan was buying things for his family, Mark snapped this picture of Phil Joel taking Dan's guitar. (Notice the goofy "Uhh, what are YOU doing here" look.) Apparently, Phil's guitar was lost in transit and he needed one for his gig. (Notice in the above photos of Phil Joel's concert, he has no guitar.) Sorry, buddy, you have not because you asked not. Dan filed charges later. Jaso Bendicksen was suppose to help us out at SWC but AT THE LAST MOMENT said he "had to do something" for Student Venture. Eeee-yeah. That's why Phil was able to steal. Phil pressed charges against Jaso when they returned.

Security cameras captured Switchfoot lead singer, Jon Foreman, stealing a tract from our booth (Notice the snotty "The fools will never even suspect" look.) Apparently, he didn't realize the tracts were free or that we were watching through a hole in the tent. Mark & Dan filed charges.

Just like last year, we asked someone to watch the booth while we went and got lunch or saw a mini-concert. (Recall that Jaso was SUPPOSED to help us out here.) Here is the lead singer for delirious, Martin Smith, scarfing down some big ol' fries that Dan left behind. It was nice of him to watch the booth, but we didn't say he could eat anything. Dan pressed charges.

gETTING hOME

Then we went back home...

HQ - swordandspirit.com southern california