i was just reading through my diary entries and reliving the sadness and emptiness i feel after reading about the tour we took last summer, and all the shows we had with Amanda and Brian. They were definitely an important part of my life - and it makes me sad that we cannot share more of the beautiful chemistry that we all had together.

if we could have all moved to west bend together, that really would have been wonderful. unfortunately, while west bend is good for us, we can't expect that it is good for amanda and brian as well. it's too bad. it's sad. in fact, i have never ever been able to sing with another female vocalist in a band. there was talk of doing that with state4, but i just could not picture it. until i met amanda. we actually met amanda because she was working with andrew of autonomous - who i had also previously been doing some side-singing with his project. i thought she was a cool girl, and she worked (at that time) at the speakeasy. she was the cool girl bartender - who wore cool clothes, had a low, sultry voice - and didn't put up with anyone's shit! i decided that i wanted to be friends with her and dammit, that she should definitely be friends with me.

we invited her to come out to one of our endless blue shows - - that was when nicho9las was session performing with us. she came out the winery and it was a blast. (what happens in the van stays in the van) :)

from there - i knew she had an awesome voice - and on a whim, nick and i were both thinking: what the hell - ask her if she would ever consider joining our band - she's a super cool gal, she's got an awesome, contrasting voice, and she makes good drinks. let's get her on-board! so that was the beginning. the beginning of a beautiful era, that we will never have again, but are all better off because of!

she came on-board with a bang. having to learn our whole set list in a month - and recording shortly thereafter, she was a busy girl. we expected a LOT out of her, and i still think of how impressive and huge that really is. we pounded out the first cd - we played all kinds of shows - we became close, dear friends. we hung out all the time. we had tons of fun - and i finally had found someone who could seriously listen to the song once, have a harmony picked out, and could easily sing the harmony (perfectly) on the second round!

it was bliss. amanda met brian - we loved hanging out - the four of us (5 with brent:)) and we made music. brian was not yet part of the band. he came with us, though, on tour. helped us out with everything - and we had the best tour ever! i have never felt so close with anyone musically before while simultaneously getting along as well as we did. it was fun - the chemistry was there - the music was right on - amanda and i were in sync - and we all had a blast doing it!

after coming back - we realized what a rockstar bass player brian was. we invited him to come in too! we all pitched in a bought him a bass for his birthday, so he could join sooner - - he jumped on-board immediately and easily played the next show (with just a few practices - yeah, we had it good).

then, it came the time in life to move on with life in general - nick and i had a tough choice to make. if we could have had amanda and brian move with us, believe me, we would have. but, alas, their life was in minneapolis - and it was time for nick and me to make the journey back to the bend.

we had a few last 2005 4-piece shows in minneapolis (kitty cat & the quest) and then we parted ways. amanda and brian even debuted their new punk project "puss-puss" at the end of our eb set - it was quite a contrast from our moody, dark music - and everyone loved it! :)
make sure to keep an eye out for puss-puss in mpls, i can guarantee they'll be rocking out in the cities real soon!

endless blue is still happening - nick and i are back at square one, with just the two founding members, again. but not without the invaluable memories, experiences and life-long friendships. we are indebted to amanda and brian for giving us what they did when they could - and for not giving up on their dream with their new project.

parting is such sweet sorrow - - kisses to minneapolis and all the great memories that are flooding through today

i think we are going to put an offer down on a house today. tres exciting. first time home buyers, but it's great - not having any continencies definitely makes you popular with the seller.

we found a house that is sort of on a pie shaped lot. it looks smaller from the front, but it actually opens up towards the back. the home has three bedrooms 2 bathrooms and a huge ass basement. the thing i like best about it, is that we would have the biggest backyard in the neighborhood. because it is triangular, there is plenty of area to fence in (which we will want to do for the dogs to be able to run outside). it is in a court, so that's kind of nice. all the people around seem to be about our age, so i'm looking forward to decorating and re-doing my first house. hopefully they accept the offer, as we are offering a bit lower than the asking price. but we have done our homework - and found out both what they bought it for, what the houses around sold for and what the assessed rate of the home is. with that in mind, they were asking a bit high. fingers are crossed. hopefully we can pretty much take care of this before heading off to florida.

we are leaving on thursday am for florida and will be visiting my sister katie and husband tim. it'll be super fun. nick, my parents and i are driving down and jess & madison will fly down and meet us there. nice relaxing week in sunny florida. yeah, it's 80 degrees today. i found a boxer lab on-line who needs a home from florida - we'll see what he's like, but we may be scooping him up and taking him to the arctic tundra of wi. i think he lost his home and family in the hurricane scheisse.

last night was a great recording night. we had had a couple of beers - which always makes me want to do recording. it's nice to sort of loosen up and close your eyes, really get into it. we came out with a sweet version of "stranger". of course, there's still a lot of tweaking that needs to be done. i think the chorus is still a little weak - something more is needed. we also have not even started to record harmonies and voice doubles. i am getting excited about getting this cd done, but it looks as if it will not be done until end of summer (at the earliest). it will definitely be done by the synthpop festival in SLC.

Turns out Welcome to the Scene (the on-line series, which our music was featured in episode 3) has been one of the coolest things that has happened to us. They have been featured in USA Today, the Associated Press, Slash Dot among other publications. From this, we have been getting crazy hits on our site (10,000 hits the day after they were on slashdot). Rumor has it that Welcome to the Scene (owned by JunGroup) is actually owned by Sony. I have heard that from a number of places, but why they are taking this approach, I am not sure. Oh well - it's awesome. I am so honored to have been a part of their series. It's way cool - check it out: www.welcometothescene.com

so much work to do. i got nothing done at all yesterday. my sister's babysitter (for madison) was sick with the flu, so i took care of madi all day. i absolutely love madison, she's to die for - but she didn't so much allow me 5 minutes to do anything. instead of taking a 45 min nap, she took about 4 15 minute naps - ack. oh well - - it happens. i am really getting into the sales/marketing mode of grandcare. i have been researching competition, working on the grandcare website and coming up with some new ideas for the product. should be ready to go out soon - but for now, it's crunch time before we all leave for FLA. At least we will all be bringing our laptops with - and one of Katie's neighbors has an unsecured wireless connection(SCORE!). So, we can use that when we get there to get some work done. i always feel so much more productive in a warmer climate. it makes me want to get out of bed in the morning earlier and be more active. well - guess i best be getting some work done now.

signing off for now - more to report from florida.

bis dann,

dein laurinchen!!!

Wilkommen zu allen den neuen Deutsche Fans!! Wir haben so viele CDs im Deutschland verkauft (durch cdbaby.com) - und wir lieben es. hoeffentlich reisen wir nach deutschland in der zukuenft um ein show zu spielen!! dankedankedanke!! :)

you google random things. i have googled my friend's names, my name, our band's name to find reviews, my friend's band's names, etc. sometimes you find some pretty funny stuff. today, i googled amanda and me to see if there was a new review out from the album that we had not seen. here is what i found:



Laura Mitchell

I just joined Amanda’s small group as a leader. She joined our small group shortly after I became a leader with Krissy Bashor. I remember her love for the Lord. Although she was new she wasn’t shy. I remember her telling all kinds of fun stories. She would always talk about the hilarious things her youngest brother would do and say. She was going to be in my small group next year and I was going to take her out for dinner to get to know her better. She loved movies and always had a smile on her face. I am blessed to have known her and had her in my small group. Through our small group discussions and what she told me, I knew she loved the Lord with all her heart. I am encouraged that at her age, she had that blessing. I guess the one thing that stood out about Amanda was her love for her family and God. I take comfort in knowing she is with God. Amanda had a huge heart for the Lord and her family.

God Bless,

Laura Mitchell

Laura Mitchell

I forgot something!

The way I remembered Amanda's name at first was because of her jacket. Her hood had fur all around it. It reminded me of an Alaskan Eskimo. Your last name, Barribeau, for some reason connected with that for me. :)

God Bless Your Family,

Laura Mitchell


Pretty right on target -that sounds like amanda and me. :)

I am writing an entry, because I don't feel like doing my work right now. Ahh...procrastination, how i love thee... I am back in Wisconsin now - it's cold. I was in Florida a week ago, which was lovely. All I did was hang out in my sister's screened in back porch, by the outdoor pool with her dog, Lofert and my laptop. It was heavenly. And the beautiful thing was, that I did get a lot of work done.

I have been working from home which is awesome. This means I set my own hours, which I am a big fan of doing. I am doing contract market research for a big company here in West Bend. The last one I did was on the Glucose Meter Market. Tres exciting, I know. But, this time it's on the hot tub market. WHich is hard - because I have to sit in the scheiss cold weather and look at pictures of hot tubs all day!! I mean, really, do I have to pay that credit card bill - - the hot tubs are only $2,000 - really, small potatas in the grand scheme of things. I think CC bills are pretty overrated and in the words of Peter Gibbons (Office Space), "I never really liked paying those either, so I'm just not going to do that anymore"

Wouldn't it be nice.

My other job is sales/marketing for a new start-up called GrandCare. It's actually a pretty awesome cutting-edge project for the aging. Using computers and technology, it offers a way for caregivers (generally the baby boomers at this point) to monitor THEIR parents via the internet, using motion detection, audio detection and temperature detection. This will allow the elderly to stay at home or in assisted living, instead of having to go to a nursing home, which we all know can be up to $4,000 per month. So - this is a way to keep the aging more comfortable and safe, and for the caregiver to feel much more relaxed for at least a few more years...

Anyhow - enough shameless promotion (www.grandcare.com) :) *ahem*

Well - things have been going great. So much new music is pouring out - not sure where then inspiration is coming from, but hey - we'll take it. we have written 3 new songs in the last week, and who knows what next week will bring. a lot of these songs are different from the last album and even different from each other. one of them, darker, seems like it may be the most promising with almost a jazzy, gospel-like feel. very fun. i think it will be a blast to perform it.

i have been finally working out consistently which just makes me feel so much better - not like i'm actually SEEING any real results yet, but i'll keep pushing. i have also gotten back into tennis, which is so much fun. makes me realize how much i missed it for those years since high school when i have barely picked up a racket.

we have been watching loads of movies lately - nice to finally catch up on everything. one movie that was surprisingly good was the butterfly effect - why did i hear that it was so bad before-hand? not sure, but it was actually pretty good. very shocking - especially with ashton kutcher as the lead. constantine, on the other hand, was absolutely dreadful. keanu reeves has got to be the worse actor i have ever seen. he overacts everything - he even overacted sitting down on the bed. it was bad. the last scene where he sticks a piece of gum in his mouth is laughable. i shudder to think that i will never get those 2 hours back again. :)

well - enough procrastination now - time to get back to work!

keep checking the site and hopefully we'll have some new scratch music up to listen to -
laters!

[np : Voice Historie - Voice Industrie]

It's been a very productive week. After whining about not getting any inspiration in my last entry, I promptly sat down the next day and pounded out two brand new tracks. I don't know what to think of them -- they're both quite good, they're both quite different from one another, and they're both in a different direction than I expected to be going. Those two, with the track I sketched out yesterday, are bizzarely very "Endless Bue", even moreso than our last album. It's a weird thing to say, I know, but here I was, thinking we were headed in some other direction -- more rock, more uptempo, more synthpop. The reality is that although I'm picking up a considerable amount of influence from a wide array of sources, we're ultimately just integrating it into what we do, rather than letting it affect our ultimate direction. This time around, though, I feel I have the tools, the environment, and the experience to make a "real" Endless Blue album. The end result didn't match the vision last time around, and I think this time it will.

Speaking of the environment, it is absolutely perfect for writing, and hence our productivity. Flexible work hours, a lack of distractions, and a more positive vibe in general all play a part. For me, though, the best part is being able to be surrounded by music all day. I pop five CDs into the player, spin them all twice, and that's my workday. It's just amazing to hear that much music -- especially when I start digging into the archives and listening to discs I haven't heard in years. You hear them with a different set of ears. Anyway, just having that much immersion is so incredibly inspiring, I can't even begin to explain.

I haven't been this creative in many years, and I have the freedom to range all over the place. I've also learned the art of working with another musician, namely Laura. The key is to not spend too much time on a track before you present the idea... I've bounced a lot of very fresh ideas off her, and get a vibe of where I should go next, or if I should just trash the idea. Not many get trashed, though -- we work out how it should progress. I'm relying on her to carry songs a lot more -- I've stopped thinking about writing songs with strong melodies, and leave it to Laura to write that kickass vocal melody that will carry everything. A little more pressure for her, but ultimately the best songs are like that.

Anyway, back to work.