I admit that I am one of the "iCult" with the white wires dangling from my ears. I enjoy it, a LOT. But I too have noticed how people are getting more and more insular and specific about what they do, experience, and who they spend time with. Which has me worried.

I sure do love my iPod, though.

The band is scheduled to go in and record soon, which will be stuff for the new album. I have a bunch of stuff to do on the demo tunes that we started last year(!) and then those are largely finished as well. I just got the first batch of Half Zaftig wearable merchandise from the printer, and I'm working on getting the Wonky Records store back up so that those that wish to can buy Wonky Records stuff. The store uses Paypal, though they've improved their shopping cart now so that you don't have to sign up for a PP account to buy things with it - I think credit cards will work just fine and dandy-like.

Work has been maddening, but they keep giving me money which is what I need to make albums, so I keep showing up (even though I'm starting to believe that this job is probably the biggest cause of my recent struggles with anxiety). This contract allegedly ends on April 28, though I think it will end up extending into May a little. After it's over, I plan on taking myself at least a month's vacation before starting up another contract - give me some time to chill, climb some medium difficulty mountain trails, work on the album, and attend a bunch of SIFF screenings.

I go to Darin's studio today, but not to record anything new - Darin is cleaning out his studio of a bunch of old gear he is no longer using, and among the things he's getting rid of are his old ADAT recorders (4 of them plus a BRC controller). When he told me he was doing that, I realized that now was the time to dump all of my old ADAT masters into Pro Tools, so that I can have access to them should I ever need them. All of Any Raw Flesh? was done on those ADATs, and so today we will be treading down memory lane listening to those tracks. Hard to believe that album has been out now for four years. I still sell a few copies of it a month without lifting a pinky to promote it, so it seems to me some of you out there who have it are telling others you know about it, and they tell their friends, and they tell their friends, and so on, and so on. Well, I thank ya for that.

Ooh! And it's a 3-day weekend for me! I don't get paid for Monday, but that's OK. Time off is time off is time off.

Oh, and I saw Happy Man again the other day. He was dressed exactly the same as the last time I saw him, he was rocking just as hard, and he had the very same CD's in his left hand. I think it's a sign.

The Stranger's caption is:

"Whoa! No more chili on bath night for YOU!"

Oh man, they kill me.

I like the idea behind Weed files. They are tied to the Windows Media format, so I guess your acceptance of them depends on how you view Microsoft. If you're an iPod owner, like me, the files can't be loaded as is onto your player - I guess you could burn them onto a CD and import them that way, but you'd have to adjust the meta data yourself when you import. To some, that might not be a big deal.

As a means to help indie artists get exposure and paid a little for downloads, Weed is great. You can listen to files you download three times for free, then if you want to unlock them and listen further you pay like a buck per song. Once unlocked, you can burn the files to CD if you want. The artist gets 50% of the money collected, which beats the royalty rate of most major label contracts. Unfortunately we currently live in the digital format Wild West, so there's no way to know which way the Public Groupmind will turn.

Anyway. Thanks for featuring me, Christopher.

They came from... behind...

Ugh. Mostly over the latest bout with the head cold, passed it on to at least two people I'm sure of, an accomplishment I'm not overly proud of. To those affected (afflicted?), my sincerest apologies.

Long weekend with family members scheduled for tomorrow through Monday. I need it. We're approaching another release here at work, and it's been stressful. I'm still medibacated, so there's been no meltdowns to speak of, but the undercurrent "buzz" has been very present. That sucks.

Music stuff on the horizons - and there's some budget to subsidize it. It's much harder to coordinate recording projects that have a "band" involved, I'm finding. When you're on your own, you can keep the schedule fluid, tailored to whatever whim or detour that the Playful Cosmos sees fit to jostle you with. Budgetary constraints, which inevitably crop up, can be more easily weathered since there is no schedule implied, no "visible forward progress arc" to maintain. When you have a band, you want to always keep their feelings about what's happening in mind. You want to make them feel like participation is worthwhile. You want to keep up the feeling of momentum, and something like that requires hard dates, hard times.

The former paradigm is less stressful, but can result in albums that take three years to make. The latter has the promise of sounding more cohesive, more like a snapshot of a moment in time; it also has the benefit of the players involved being able to be more involved in the music itself - it allows for more rehearsal time on the songs as played by a group. The tough part is making the budget happen. This moment in time, for better or for worse, has me in the best possible financial position I have yet managed when it came time to start a new work. My hope is that it will enable us to make a record in, uh, record time.

We don't have enough new songs yet. Which is my fault. About half of this new album I keep talking about making is yet to be imagined in any way, shape or form. Hope I'm up to it.