Askland to Conduct AIDA

Conrad Askland will be conducting AIDA at McIntyre Hall March 24 – April 8, 2006, Mount Vernon, WA.

Aida 2AIDA is the adaptation of Verdi’s original 1871 opera by Sir Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice. Conrad will be in production with the crew starting mid-January 2006. Rumor has it he will also be performing keyboard parts along with the show.

OVERVIEW
Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA is a contemporary musical take on the grand classic tale of the love between a soldier and an enslaved princess – a love that condemns them to death, but ultimately transcends the vast cultural differences between the two warring nations, heralding an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity.

AidaWith a pop-rock score that features stirring ballads and rousing choral numbers, Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA is a modern crowd pleaser that embraces multi-cultural casting and exuberant dancing, staging and singing.

Etheridge and Askland Perform VVC MLK Tribute

Karen EthereidgeKaren Etheridge and Conrad Askland will be performing at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at Victor Valley College Performing Arts Center, Victorville, CA on Monday, January 16th 2006. They will be performing “Stand Up For Love”, the new release by Beyonce and Destiny’s Child. This song was the anthem for the 2005 World Children’s Day.

This is the fourth year in a row that Karen and Conrad have performed at the VVC MLK tribute. This year they are joined by a rhythm section and Karen’s son will make his singing debut on harmony parts.

Karen and Conrad will also be performing for the local chapter NAACP on Saturday, January 14th 2006.

Forum Network Down for Server Work

Our forum network has been down for a few days and will be back up and running early next week. We were doing pretty good with updates but missed one, and with the size of our network we’re an easy target for security holes in the PHPBB system.

We already have transferred a test forum over to an Invision software platform, which has a better history of security.

When the network comes back up many of you will also notice that we have new features installed for members. We will continue to stay committed to providing our free discussion network as a public service. We feel strongly that when people discuss openly; good things happen.

Ask Tech Web Servers Back Online

Our web servers are back online and have finally been stabilized. We may have periodic outages but those will be mainly for upkeep and should be fairly short.

The former tech crew left our servers in a real mess and poor security. This led to a number of vulnerabilities being exploited and our servers being compromised. In addition one of our former techs put servers and certificates in their own name so we actually had to hack in to retrieve our own information. Ironically, the security holes left open allowed us to do this.

A heartfelt thank to our new techs that got everything back in order. It will still take quite a while to get everything in order. Most of our software applications were never finished in 2004 as intended, so that’s the work we begin now. Finishing what we started.

Conrad would also like to thank Nobby and Laura from our Christian forum network. You two have been so helpful through all this. 🙂