'down to sleep' here we come

checked off the first thing on the to-do list for the new record. since i got the day off at chase because of mlk when i got home from beans and bagels i got to work on recording some good drum sounds with the new tom, which is actually really easy to get a great sound out of. this is, naturally because it sounds so great. once she got home stefanie actually was game to redo the drum part for 'crawl to you' which is one of a few drum parts that we need to redo with the tom to make them a bit more dynamic and more lucid since the table works well as a really deep, resonant sound, but there is a starkness with it that it's difficult to rise above without sacrificing all of the clarity of a beat. 'the sun is so bright' is another track we're going to fix- the first half is fine, but the second half could definitely be better with the new drum. there are more, but i'd rather not bore you with it, dearest readers.
i left beans and bagels at my normal time since i figured i'd earned the right to leave at the same time after coming in on thursday, having a panic attack and then getting a cold over the weekend, which i'm pretty sure had to do with the lack of sleep and stress during last week. i had a beer on saturday during practise even though i had the beginnings of a decent cold going and it made the cough much worse and sent it to my chest. i've been taking a lot of stuff for it now- a lot of herbal shit, drinking tons of ginger tea, taking cough medicine, emergen-c and theraflu as well and so far that has done a decent job of knocking the cough out of my chest and filling my head and sinuses with tons of snot (which i'd personally prefer- that's not a complaint). i'm on the road to recovery i think. if my cough persists after a week and a half or so i'm going to go see a doctor since i have insurance now. i have a $35 copay with it and i would like to avoid another late night and costly emergency room visit.
i've worked about the equivalent of two full weeks at beans and bagels now and i'm liking it so far. the hours can sometimes go by fairly slowly, but once it's noon going home time comes very quickly. the weekend shifts are pretty long most of the time because they aren't as busy. there was actually a long line at one point today but we got it taken care of pretty quickly. it's an interesting job- everyone is pretty mellow and laid back, but when shit needs to get done it gets done quickly and well. i like that. i also don't really have problems finding things to keep myself occupied with there. if i don't someone usually asks me to do something and i'm happy to do it.
so as soon as this paycheck comes i will probably send off for my precious amp. i'm pretty sure that the chase assignment will go through next week as well as this week, which is about a week longer than i expected. how long do they expect me to stay on? i'm not entirely sure. once we get to february i was going to start asking questions and figure out if i should quit or not. there are a bunch of concerts i'm planning on going to during the second week of february and one during the third week. my weekend hours at beans and bagels are very good too, i must say. i don't have to be in until 8am on saturdays and 9:30 am on sundays- you can't ask for better coffeeshop hours than that. i have enough flexibility to still go do something on friday and saturday night if i want to. one show i'm planning on going to is nina nastasia at the hideout and then shannon wright at schubas. it's kind of funny because nina played at schubas a week before shannon played at the hideout back in july and now they're playing at about the same interval but they've switched. most curious.
so i'm going to get to ordering the vox next week i think- getting the credit card and such and then i would like to get to work with it immediately. ditto for the drum parts. my project for tomorrow i think will be going to the bank to deposit my tip money to order some microphone stands. extra money will be used to buy a proco rat and some more blank tapes. i'm going to also try and sell the electric piano during this time and use the money from that to hopefully at least pay for the pressing cost. i'm really hoping that i can get enough to pay for the mastering charges as well. then bang, zoom there it is! i'd love to have the record with us when we go to sxsw but it will take a lot of things falling into place. i'm optimistic it can be done, but i have to really start laying the ground work right now.
i also bought a mirah cd today and it's really awesome. i'm very happy with it. i just went to laurie's planet of sound after work and treated myself. i think i've earned it and then some.
my plan for this year is to get some other things released so that i can take next year off from releasing records. i wanted to release another fake ep/secret record which i have the songs for (including a few leftovers from 'down to sleep' that stand apart more) on the cheap and silk-screen the covers myself and whatnot. i wanted to have stefanie draw the cover art and write the tracklist and such out in her handwriting. that would be number six. number seven i have 18 songs for and plan on using 12 of those for the record. i would like to release it on vinyl only. this will be quite the challenge. number eight would probably be another secret record/ep but i'm not sure as the idea for it will probably come later. number nine i just got another idea for how to approach it, but i probably don't have the songs for it- i have a bunch of older songs that i was going to use as the basis for it but i decided that since i wasn't sure i wanted to try and not plan it at all and just let it come together on its own- possibly even have stefanie help me put it together. number ten is the proposed double cd (which sounds less and less good to me the more i think about it). realistically it will be quite the challenge to get all of this actually released, but i figured it wouldn't hurt us to take a year off and not release anything. if the other things don't make it out then they can wait until the end of next year. there would be nothing wrong with that. this shit's coming so quickly i feel like my head is exploding.
i should probably end this as it's obscenely long.
i finished 'love is a mixtape' as well. i'm having trouble getting another book started, though.