Crashing California

I think I've invented a new word -- myselfish. I thought of it this morning as I was sort of digesting a conversation that Jay and I had on our way to works. We were talking about life situations, how he's been a bit frustrated the last day about some situations, in particular, certain individuals who he meets at work who are focusing their attentions on "making their careers" in music, and not just music (which, by any standards, is a hard enough place to break into) but music in church. Now don't get me wrong, there is NOTHING wrong with doing this I suppose. But the catch is, your very heart needs, NEEDS to be in the right place. You cannot be doing it for money, you can't be doing it for musical gain and you can't be doing it because you want people to notice you. And keep in mind I say all these things now as someone who is receiving money from our church to keep the music going every Sunday. It's kind of a dicey road to be on. I think we need ...

(first is a shot of the designed bags in illustrator, this is the file I sent to the production co.) So, for those who may wonder what the heck I do all day (sometimes I wonder that too) here is a sneak peak at some lunch tote designs I completed for our Product Innovation Dept. These will be a lunch bag prob. coming out now in Fall (so we're already tweaking the color) but the designs on the bags are from moi! The first samples just came in this afternoon from our Manufacturer =) So weird to see something in real life that I've only seen on my computer screen =) Till next Blog ~ love a. and THESE are the first samples ... so cute!!! They're like my little graphic babies =)

There is a movie, an independant film from 2006 called "Once" which was a small, low budget movie about two musicians in Dublin, poor but finding some small fulfillment in making music together. The movie ended up winning an Oscar for the song featured (and written) in the film called "Falling Slowly", and during the acceptance speech, the star of the film (and songwriter) who was awash with gratitude and joy exclaimed into the mic "Make Art, just make Art". Even being years ago now, his words inspire me, because I feel like that's what Jay and I are doing right now with our music. Making Art It occurred to me as I was thinking of the album and starting to think of doing vocals, listening to Jay playing, recording and editing all our guitar parts, through this whole process, making and bringing to some sort of completion the gift we've been given, that there is another aspect of this album that I almost forgot about. Which is amusing because it...

Yesterday was our last day for tracking the drums in the studio before burning everything to disk and taking the "gold" home for Jay to begin playing guitar. Mike arrived early and tracked in the a.m. and then we all came by in the eve. listened to the tracks and made sure that the bass was going to come through the recording o.k. (no buzzing) since that will be the next studio session after Jay gets his Guitars done. There seems to be so much work ahead on the project but it will be good work. and now that we've started, we can't stop =) (here is a partial band picture in the studio, listening to the drums, Mike is at the far left, displaying what displays best -- his attitude, John and myself) This weekend I will be trekking up to Riverside County w/ our worship team to do some training at a Southern California Worship Music Workshop (reminds me of a small Break Forth, tho, no one knows what that is down here) It's so neat to see the guys that we've been w...

So this weekend we went into the studio, Ground Level Sound, in Vista, CA to track drums for our album ... we did four songs yesterday and began one today (Unwanted Man, shown above), but then our producers computer crashed (!!!), so we had to leave early (only one hour after we got there) and he is now in the process as I type of retrieving the files that were lost when his drive became corrupt =(, I feel mostly bad for him, as he literally had a whole month of projects in jeopardy. I've racked my brain a bit today as to why this would have happened, and I have no answers, we're a bit deflated but all the more excited about getting these tracks done. We don't know if our songs from yesterday are o.k. or not yet, but we'll keep you posted, if all goes well, we'll be back at the studio to finish up. Please keep us in your prayers, for the completion of the tracks and album, and our producer too, Alan, his father in law is in the hospital right now with a broken neck...

It's been a ridiculously long time (in my eyes) since my last post, but i do have an amazingly good excuse for this lack of blogging on my part: I have been INSANELY busy. OK, not just busy, but the "stressed" kind of busy where you start to feel the effects on your body and at first you're trying to figure out what's going on, till you realize that your taking on your stress and it's starting to manifest itself with weird unexplainable pains and aches through your system. All these things manifested themselves over the last two weeks as such: Two BIG freelance deadlines on the same day, PLUS a crazy schedule @ JC. We had THE CEO of Nestle (who is most technically, my bosses, boss) come visit our head office (from Switzerland) on Monday past. So, the whole week before, all the VP's were scrambling to make things "pretty", prepare presentations and such, all while last minute like, enlisting Creative Services help. Which needless to say, made ...

This last week has carried with it a Chain of Pacific Storms through Southern California. Because of "El Nino" (warmer Ocean temps this past year) the jet stream has centered itself directly over San Diego and we've been dealt MUCH heavy rain, thunderstorms and TONS of wind ... we even had a TORNADO/WaterSpout warning on Tues and Wed.! We've lost power in our house twice and there is flooding in some older areas of the city and esp. near the coast. We are a bit higher than most, and thank goodness we live on the second floor. The storm surge and swell is making for a VERY angry Ocean. Who says Californian's don't experience winter, has well, another thing coming! Here is some video we shot this morning ... Jay's grumpy! ;) (you can tell, I think he may be one of those people who is completely affected by the sun, and lack thereof) lol Till Next Blog! love, a.