February 9, 2002: I was just reading last year's February report, and I don't seem to have the same excitement as I did one year ago. No matter. It could just be today's mood. It could be the accumulation of a tough year's events. Or I may just not have a bunch of "great" songs recorded yet. But moron and the rest of me belong to Jesus, and He'll provide if and when He sees fit. There is one really good song that I wrote and recorded six days ago: "don't want that anymore." Right now, I'm planning to make that track #2, after an opening song....Okay, track #3, whenever you're ready....Oh, and playing live. I have decided on a live set and am looking for places to play.
May 9, 2002: I had originally planned to be in the studio two weekends ago for the mixing and mastering of the new CD. I was actually sitting in the studio with Doug, ready to go. We talked about the background noise on the tracks with an open mic (mainly, on the vocal tracks), and we decided (I decided with his gentle urging) to rerecord all the vocal tracks. The noise was due to the ADAT (the 8-track digital recording machine) recording (via the open microphone) its own lousy whirring self. Doug came down to my apartment and rearranged my studio so that the ADAT was in the studio near the door, and so that I could extend the microphone into another room to record. The wires go under the doors, and I shut the doors. So as long as there is quiet in the apartment building, I can record with very little background noise. Of course, as befits a moron, that other room is the bathroom: I sing while standing in the tub, and I always have to remember to turn off the toilet before recording, lest the sound of the water refilling the tank every 30 minutes or so (due to some less-than-perfect seal) be heard.
My Savior, the King of the Universe, was born in a feed trough, so I can make no legitimate complaint.
Lord willing, I'll be back at Cyberella next weekend with some improved vocal tracks. I still have many to go.
May 24, 2002: The toilet became less and less cooperative, dripping even after I had shut the valve off. It was like a Hitchcock movie: the tiniest noises were driving me crazy. So, I moved the microphone into a closet; I even unplugged the refrigerator to eliminate its background hum.
We (Doug and I) did mix the songs at Cyberella last weekend, and this week, on and off, Doug has been mastering the CD. He is proceeding very carefully, compressing and EQ-ing the tunes. Tomorrow, Saturday, we'll top and tail each song and produce the master. Then after a couple of weeks' turnaround, copies will be ready for general consumption by the listening public.
After much contemplation, the title of the new CD is "Beyond the Green Planet." The two other principal candidates were "Unfinished Sin Phony" and "Famine, Prayer, and Hunger." (Two more titles that were considered briefly were "Days of Famine" and "Poster Boy.")
"USP" is mildly clever, but I couldn't finish a song which contained this phrase as its title or as a lyric in it. Every other moron CD title was connected to a song title and/or lyrical phrase.
"Famine, Prayer, and Hunger" is the name of the third trilogy towards the very end of the CD.