In my ears: Goldfrapp: Black Cherry

I've got about 10 minutes to chill out before I leave to pick up Madison. We're taking her to McDonalds today! She's so cute at McDonalds and we cannot even say the name without her physically shaking in excitement! My parents and I are babysitting for her while Jess has school conferences and Ryan has a basketball game. We do things that she loves, so it's easy to take care of her. Grocery shopping, for example, an easy way to take about an hour. She remains very entertained, as long as I put her in one of those little car carts (with the steering wheels). She got a huge kick out of that last week!

Well, things are moving along nicely. Got some more songs started for Some Girl, and Nick and I got a chance to work on a very swell tune for EB. I think you'll like it. Much in the goldfrapp vein, but with a little eb touch.

It will be so exciting to start getting some vocals down and seeing the direction this next album is going. It's going to be an exciting journey.

Well, gots to go.

shortly sweet -

L

[np: Eric Johnson - Venus Isle]

So yeah. This is me. Not a whole lot new in the world right now, just slowly cranking away at things. Oddly enough, I've got a ton of irons in the fire, and I split up my nights working on a different one. The big one that's reared it's ugly head is the film score I'm working on for Six Bullets. I'm under a bit of a crunch. But it's fun work and very, very different from normal songwriting. In normal music, the song is the entire story. For film, the music is only part of the story, and it needs to dovetail with everything else in order to make it a whole experience. A lot of times this means putting aside one's songwriting sensibilities and just kind of noodling during a scene. Cool beans.

I'm working on a few new tracks, maybe for a new album. I'm still trying to define the style of these tracks and where I want them to go. It's one of those difficult situations, kind of groping around in the dark for a sound that will be ours. Smoke Through It had a little bit of the split personality that Goldfrapp's Black Cherry had -- you could tell it was a stylistic shift, and it became very apparent the shift was complete on Supernature. The last album gave me a lot of room to experiment, now it's time to refine. But which aspect to refine? That's the tough part.

One thing I have been doing a lot of lately is dumping ideas to my little 4-track recorder instead of doing it digitally. There's just something nice about that instant gratification that tape gives you -- no long set up times, disk space worries, and all that jazz. Just hit record and go. One of the most promising tracks so far, currently nicknamed "Rever", was just something I dialed up and fired into the 4-track. Looped a beat, did a bassline on the Poly-Ensamble, and a reverse string patch on the Triton, and viola! All good. It had a very Goldfrapp tone to it, but in the last few days I reworked it and toned it down a bit -- I just don't picture EB doing Nu-Disco. Didn't feel right. The song retains it's cool melody, but has a hip-hop, Dr. Dre kind of feel as opposed to the disco feel. I'll have to work on it more tonight...

Anyway, that's it. nickm out.

I will follow him...follow him wherever he may go....

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! What a fun holiday! A reason for everyone to wear red and pink, both colors which I do like. But, also a reason to drink wine, eat chocolate and be in love. Or for the single folk, a good reason to either order pizza and stay in watching chick flicks and eat cookie dough. Or to get all SASSY and go out on the town with the ladyz! I miss the days of not having to buy any of my own drinks at the bar. Ahh...college days!

Then, again, I was never available on V Day, I was always waitressing that night. It's a great tips night. How many people will follow the cliche and get engaged today??

I'm sure, plenty!

This morning while I was taking a shower, my man woke up early to spread roses all around the house. Whatta hunk! It was so lovely to walk into each room and see roses in individual vases all around. Then, downstairs, there was a big vase of roses with chocolate! YUM! This dude, knows the way to my heart! :)

Well, nothing really going on here. I'm back in coldy mccolderson wisconsin. Today it's actually 43 degrees - - this is warm for us northern folk. Tonight, I plan on doing pizza and a movie. I really don't like going out to eat on V-day, it's too crazy and crowded, plus I have to work tomorrow. It's better to just have a night in! Maybe we'll listen to some endless blue.....ahem. Or not - that would actually be kinda weird.

Well, back to work. We have a client coming in 20 mins. and I have to get ready for her!

L-HEART signing out

It is storming outside! It started with a light drizzle for about 5 minutes and then just escalated to an outright downpour of rain. Very tropical rain storm. The wind is gusting and the raindrops are enormous!

I am still in Florida. We came on Tuesday night to do our GrandCare PIlot install on Wednesday and Thursday. The project went well. There were a few install hurdles we needed to overcome, but in the end, the install was a success!!! Nick went back home on Thursday night, and I have been at my sister's house in Winterhaven since. I leave tomorrow. It's been a nice relaxing little jaunt, but I'm ready to get back home. I miss Sydney!! Her little puppy ways are so missable!

The weather in FLA has been cold, though, for Florida. Tomorrow, 50 degrees is the high and 39 is the low. Yikes! I think I bring the weather with me. I was kind of bummed that I could not go swimming at Katie's either. I wanted to do that while she was at work on Friday, but it was just too cold. It barely hit 70, and mostly stayed in the 60s. Don't get me wrong, that's way better than the 1 degree temp. we left behind in Wisconsin, but I was expecting tanning weather. Oh well.

I do love a good storm. And NOT a snow storm! Ok, well, snow storms can be alright while they're happening. As long as I'm warm and inside - they are pretty to watch outside. But the after effects are annoying. Shovelling, driving, mucky slush- - blech. But a nice rain storm smells good and feels so refreshing. Especially a tropical rain storm. It's so green and lush outside.

The wet grass, oak trees and moss have a distinct smell. Not to mention, all of the blooming flowers are really potent right now. Tim is outside barbecueing chicken, charcoal and barbecue sauce heating up are wafting through the air.

It's the perfect moment.

Everytime I feel sad, I wish I could recreate thist storm and the exact combination of refreshing scents - it's really quite rejuvenating. I'll need to savor this before I get back to Wisconsin. It's snowing there now and I hear it's been very cold and dry for the last few days. That kind of weather just kind of sucks the life from you temporarily. Then spring comes and everyone "wakes up".

Can we just fast-forward to spring??!!

What a day this has been, and it's barely 9am. The day started out nicely enough. Waking up with my alarm at 6am, sunrise rotary at 715am and then I got home to all hell breaking lose. See, Nick and I are headed to FLA today to install a pilot project for our business GrandCare. We have two computer programmers for GrandCare, who cannot seem to communicate efficiently with each other. Boyz! Anyhoo- - Gaytha and I are pretty much in charge of communicating FOR them! We always have to ask the questions that need to be asked before we head off. Well, today, for example a very important component of the system was left undone. Of course, we have both programmer A and programmer B pointing fingers about whose "fault" it is...uggh.

Anyhoo - everyone is scrambling now to get it all done before our flight leaves. We take off at 235pm, meaning we have to leave here around 1245pm. Ack - that leaves us 3 hours and counting...

Rubbish.

Well - my part is done, and I cannot really help with this programming scheisse, so I'm pretty much relaxing, writing to you!

The rumors are all true...I have decided to collaborate with Steve from the synth pop band, SOMEGIRL . I will be the lead singer for the upcoming album, we expect to release early 2007. SomeGirl is a lot more uptempo, dancier, synthier music. It'll be an interesting contrast for me to write to. I'll still be writing all of my own lyrics and melodies as well as editing my own vocals. SomeGirl is signed to A Different Drum Record Label - the big synthpop label out of Utah. Please check www.somegirlmusic.com for some new "in the works" trax. There are also some great tracks from the two previous vocalists that can give you an idea of the style I'll be stepping into!!! It's truly an honor to be chosen by Steve, he's not only an excellent songwriter, but also a great friend!

I will still be continuing in endless blue as well, of course! Nick and I are working on our next album right now, it's going very slowly, but I feel the pace is right for this one. This one just has a different feel to me, it'll be interesting to see the outcome.

Well - I guess I better get the laptop packed up. Bags into the car and then I can just watch TIVO until we go!! :) teehee.

Talk to you later!!