*insert clever arcane quote here*

i'm at the coffee shop again. i can't stop listening to the new neko case album- it's just awersome. i've had it for a few weeks now and i listen to it constantly (not much of a surprise)- pretty excited to buy it on vinyl (whenever it comes out on vinyl). i have some recording coming up tonight- a few drum parts that i need to have stefanie do. this record is turning into a really, beautiful and organic affair. the most full-band effort kind of thing that we've probably ever done (or ever will do). i've been very aware of how ridiculously lazy i've been on the recording front lately, but it's really just because i'm not the one who has to do all of the parts- very nice feeling indeed. kind of odd because it slows the pace in a lot of ways- but really in other ways it isn't subject to the vagaries of me getting burnout periodically. i'm not real sure what all we're going to do tonight. it kind of depends on how quickly everything goes and how stefanie feels. the drum parts we're laying down are all songs we've been playing in practise for a few weeks. if all goes well i might attempt the first of the live tracks- it'll be 'narcoleptic' probably because i feel like that song is meant to be the centerpiece of the record and it's been torture to have to wait for so long to record it properly- it's been in existence for nearly three years and we've been playing it live for two years. it's been an elusive animal to capture. there is an earlier attempt that didn't get too far because i had to do it along with a click track- i did it a few times because i wasn't real happy with how it went. i wasn't happy with how i played or the tones i was getting. stefanie had a lot of trouble playing along with the click track. it just sounds incredibly tense- which is not a virtue because there's a lot of open space in the song and hearing our overdubbed distracted playing doesn't make for the a good backdrop for the mood we're after here...
we need to schedule some time to do vocals as well. i'll broach that subject once we're done with the drums tonight and see what's left to tick off on the pages.
yesterday was a really fun day- we did the focus group. it was really just us plugged into a computer listening and watching tv, radio and web ads and reacting to them. it was actually kind of fun. we were both the first two people done. i tried to dumb myself down to the absolute lowest i could and just react to things on the basest level and tried not to focus too much on what was being sold and rather on the ads because i think that that's probably what they're most concerned with. it made for some entertaining times- i actually find tv ads quite entertaining most of the time. they make me laugh. they actually can be clever. i have found that those damned target ads work like a charm on me. it was kind of disturbing, really... but worth $50. i hope that i get to do it again. and again. and again.
back to the working week tomorrow. i am always enjoying myself on the weekends- but really i don't have much trouble enjoying myself during the week. once we get some new tracks going i am really looking forward to getting chris and katelyn together for some more tracks. i think the ideal number for them at night is about three. katelyn did four the other night, but one was a bit of a struggle. 'your pictures' didn't turn out too nicely- a bit vanilla as a string arrangement. it just kind of doubles what's already there. i don't know if i need to rewrite it or what. i also realised that i might have fucked the arrangement up a bit and played the break a little too long when i did the 6-string bass. but maybe not... hopefully not. i am getting more and more lukewarm on that song the more i work on it. i think i might just finish it and it's possible it will be the first on the chopping block. there are going to be casualties.
i think this is probably long enough now.