what a weekend! we had a blast in rochester - thanks to everyone who came. special thanks to stephanie, trace, michael and aaron for making the night truly kick ass. trace and stephanie - thanks for the lodging, the late taco bell run (sorry we couldn't find any wings, trace) and the excellent wholesome breakfast! :)

rochester was crazy indeed. the place was pack-ed and we even got called up for an encore. i was thinking that it was one of those set-ups where they pick a local band and get tons of people to show up and cheer. remember that thing - can't remember what it was called. damn. anyways - it was way cool. we sold some cds, and it looks like we are going to make a stop in rochester at the start of our tour at the end of august. this time with a new cd to sell!!

well things at work have been very consuming lately. we have started our marketing blitz of grandcare and we are promoting our pilot project where families get a big discount to try out the product first. it's really exciting, but at the same time, the work seems to be endlessly piling up with no real end in sight, at this point at least. but this a good thing. yep. definitely a good thing.

7-bit sound is doing very well too - we are getting tons of people coming in and bringing their old 8 mm tapes that they haven't seen in 40-50 years. it's quite an experience to witness someone listening or seeing something they have not seen for so long and to share that emotional memory with them. generally, they tell some pretty interesting story or memory from that little patch of nostalgia they are feeling. just a great thing to be a part of.

i finally got rid of the damn sinus infection that i had, but i still am having some problems with my voice. well, i can still sing, but i am having problems with my upper registry. it feels like i am straining it when i sing high notes (and we're not talking really high even, above C kind of notes) so, that's an issue that i'm a bit nervous about, hoping it goes away soon.

i am drinking hot honey and lemon right now. a shot of bourbon in the drink puts you right to bed. mmm....bed.

i hurt my shoulder today. it's a weird spot to feel pain, actually because it's in my upper arm. i think i strained a muscle. i went to this fitness class and i guess i overdid it. i am going to be taking over a "fit for life" class on wednesday nights - - it's sort of a station set-up which is has a boot camp-esque feel to it. an excellent workout. i even got jess to go wtih me today. she loved it. even though she thought it was too hard for someone just coming in for the first time. the problem with it was that the stations were very difficult for someone who has not been consistently working out and building muscle. I work out a lot, but i don't weight lift as much as i should, so some of the arm stations and push-up to pike stations were really difficult. i think jess is going to start coming with me to the y more often. it's so much more fun when you have someone to go with, and i just love playing the personal trainer role. she just wants me to tell her what to do and try to entertain her and make her forget what she's doing while she's doing it.

afterwords, we'll probably sit on her back porch with a glass of wine and a cigarette - oops, does that defeat the whole purpose??

well, schade - it's late and i need to change my laundry and then go to bed. well, maybe read a book in bed and then sleepy time..me so tired...
what's up with this getting up at 8am thing, it's totally overrated, and i find it to suck a lot more than i thought it would! :)

sorry i've been very delinquent with this diary entry, i'll try to be more on par with that. but bed first, okay?

bis bald - hoeffentlich.

gute nacht!!! schoene traueme!

[np: The Herbalizer - Blow Your Headphones]

Blah.

I'm having trouble getting motivated to do anything right now. Well, actually, that's not true -- I would *love* to be working on the CD right now, but the recording PC in tied up rendering someone's wedding video for 7bitsound right now... Jesus, I never realized DVD creation took so damn long -- we're looking at 8+ hours to render a 2 hour AVI. Granted, doing *anything* with a 24GB file is gonna take a while... It's almost like the old days of ye olde 486. Guess I'm just spoiled now...

At any rate, it was a weekend of shows again, after a long respite. Starting to get back in the groove of it all, but still a little shakey. Overall it was a great pair of shows. The Ultra Lounge in Rochester (now known by us as Ra-cha-cha-chester) was a really cool show... We were a little worried at first as it seemed to be a potential Reed Street Station, The Sequel, but when we hit the stage, there were tons of buns in the seats. Everyone really dug the set, technical problems and all, and it was seriously the best reception we've received in a really long time. Mad props to Michael and Aaron for bringing out their peeps, and to Trace and Stephanie for driving up from Trimont and giving us a place to crash. And for a fun, wholesome breakfast on the farm in the morning... Mmmmmm... Butter.... :)

Pride was a little on the stressful side, with the sound guy bitching at me while I set up... It was also strangely on the subdued side. Aren't "you people" supposed to be fun-loving and wild? :) I jest. Sadly, I hit my stride performing-wise, and really ripped it up for most of our set, but there weren't many people cheering us on... Ah, well, can't win 'em all. Plus, we got some great video of the show, so it was all cool. As always, Patrick, Ryan, and Brent were there to have some drinks with after the show, as was the extra special yearly cameo by Nikki. Good times had at the Country Bar, with the MPD showing up and everything.

I have a little nostalgia in me right now, thinking that last year at this time we were on the road to LA for our very first extended tour. Good times, that. I'm looking forward to our next tour, which will be going on come September. I'm sure it'll be a different kind of experience -- we have a bit more of a feel for it this time.

Mmmm... Cold coffee... Just thought I'd throw that in there...

I think some guitar recording is in order tonight, as the amp/guitars are just sitting in the practice space being decidedly not set up. The "Sheet of Death" on the wall mocks me once again, with only one single X in the whole "Guitar" column. Ugh. I've got my work cut out for me. On the other hand, I'm only 3 Xs away from finishing the "Track" column. At any rate, it's gonna be some real crunching to get the album out by the tour, but it can be done... It will be done... It will be mine...

Okay, gotta go set up the practice room... Peaceout.

[np - My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife]

Ask and ye shall receive... Well, a little bit. We are now in EB crunch time, so I don't really have the luxury of such non-essentials like writing journal entries, showering, and sleeping. I've got covers to cover, recordings to record, and music to, uhhh, music.

Today marks day two as a non-smoker. Yep, I'm chewin' the gum, so to speak. Generic Walgreens Nicorette, to be exact. No worries thus far. But how does such an ardent smoker stray so far from the flock you ask? There was just a turning point last week. I got a really nasty cold after my Madison experience. Yeah, getting a cold from sharing a boot, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!?! Anyway, this cold has been quite the Japanese tourist in my body -- here's the family at Nick's Head! Here's our visit to the Throat! And here's where we stayed for TWO WHOLE WEEKS, the Lungs! Yeah, so there was a lot of coughing involved. And while I nearly coughed out a lung puffing on a cig and feeding the monkey on my back, I came to the epiphany: This is fucking stupid. There is just no reason to be doing this to this extent. Sure, having a smoke at a bar over a beer, that's fine and dandy. But smoking out on our porch in my pajamas at 11am? Stupid. So I gotta quit fully for a while, at least to get rid of the addiction aspect. Then I can return to the simple elegance of a pipe or cigar -- I still like smoking as a social thing, just not an everyday kind of thing. I'm not gonna turn my back on all my buddies in the smoking cultrure like so many quitters that get freakishly evangelical. Like the 11th commandment is "Thou shalt not smoke, bitch!"

Pffffft. Not I.

Aaaaaaanyway, the other thing I've had to deal with the last week was my poor nomadic studio, which had to move yet again. Yeah, it's been like 20 times in the last two years, so I've actually become quite adept at it (I've put in for my membership at Studio Movers and Fluffers Local 756). I think I'm sitting tight, though -- the new space is really nice -- probably the best I've ever had. Cool and comfortable, pretty decent sized, a closable vocal isolation booth in the back... Here be where the lion's share of "smoke through it" is gonna be recorded. I've even got the "complete sheet" on the wall, listing all the tracks and what portion of them have been completed. Loooking a little grim now, but like I said, sleep is optional. I've also done the rehearsal / studio split again, which is nice and painful at the same time. Nice in that it frees up an incredible amout of space for the studio and that I can just back around Le Cobra and load almost directly. The drag is that I have to move gear around if I want to record...

And speaking of which, I need to get the bass and the VAMP in here and do some bass for the cover I was working on until 2am last night. Blah.

Peaceout.