New Sponsor--free stuff!

Yippie, we just got the word that we will be sponsored, not only by Daisy Rock Guitars, but also Sam Ash, a music superstore. Finally I can get that guitar tuner I've always wanted. And maybe a new guitar strap for my Daisy Rock, and a new keyboard stand, and a new case for the xylophone, and longer speaker cables , cello strings, and...wow, i could go on for a while. Looking forward to this.

more christmas songs

i just learned a new christmas song last night--my favorite, "merry christmas, darling" by the carpenters. we should have a fun set for christmas. it seems like the holidays are here already. i've been singing christmas songs for a month already. the chilly weather makes it seem more real.

My life is a continuous brush with fame...

So, I stopped in to QCA, the disc manufacturer to get all the paperwork in order and hand them my master yesterday. Dale Johnson stopped by to hand off the Saving Jane disc for my phone interview with Marti tomorrow. On the way out, we ran into fellow singer/songwriter, Eric Falstrom. We played a gig with his band last December, but I hadn't seen him since. He's got some live music that he put on CD which Dale is reviewing for www.i-see-sound.com. Hoping we can do another show with Eric in the near future so I can hear more.

After that, I stopped by Mommy & Daddy. That was pretty alright. I so want this Roland thingy they had that played all their loops and what not. I must go research to see what that is all about. It was pretty big so it probably doesn't exist anymore. What's wierd is that I was telling my friend Liz from NY this morning that I got to see this band and she, of course knows them and worked their first record.

The music business is a very, very, very small world.

It is finished.

Oh, my gosh. The only thing that we writers love more than writing, and recording, is finishing a project. That way we feel like we can relax for a minute and a half before we have to start writing again to start the next project. It never ends.

Anyway, sent the artwork to the CD replication house today. Hoping to head down there tomorrow to approve the proof and take the CD Master. I'm really excited about this one...looking forward to see what the rest of you think about it.

Great Weekend

Friday night things started off with a bang at the Katie Trotta stunned and amazed with her amazing voice and piano. Then our favorite Goddess, Persephone. and her guitar toting George, wowed us with some interesting songs and very pleasant guitar tangos. Pike brought everyone down to the floor and got folks on their feet dancing--they totally rocked. It was shock and awe from Visceral Elixir--at one point their background singer was playing a chain! For those of you who stuck around to catch our set, thank you and know that you saw something that you may never see again.

A great time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came out and to Scott Preston from www.i-see-sound.com for taking pictures. We raised some cash for a very worthy cause.

Saturday was spent in the studio finishing the mixes. I'm pretty pleased but wish I had more time and knew a clarinet player. And I had this really cool idea for something else, but didn't have the right sound effect. We spent way too much time on triangle. Oh well. The Christmas EP is finished and will hopefully be going to the replicator tomorrow to have copies made. Look for a November 22 release.

New Article at I-See-Sound

Dale Johnson and I review the Q102 Bosom Ball, with Saving Jane, Ra, Natasha Bedingfield, and Josh Kelley. Read what we have to say here, no here, no here...

Back to the studio

Well, I think we got the Christmas stuff done. There's still some fine tuning and mixing to finish on Saturday, but we have six songs--3 original and 3 covers for the holiday EP. A big thanks to Ryan Child, Jeanine Boutiere, for coming out and doing their parts. And a bigger thanks to assitant Adam, for jumping in on the bass because, well, we decided we wanted a bass part on Favorite Things. Should be interesting. Look forward to listening to it tomorrow once I've gotten some sleep.

Now, if we could just get the artwork done...

When all else fails...

I was having a very frustrating day today--nothing was going right, I couldn't get a hold of folks I needed to talk to, web stuff wasn't working--I felt like the whole world was against me. Finally, I called my friend, Beau Alquizola, and asked if he wanted to meet me at Planet Smoothie.

He let me vent and we chatted with our rock star friend, Chris Dunaway, and basically I just tried to not worry about all the stuff that was falling down around me. Maybe it was the Amazon fruit in my smoothie, but when I got to WalMart, it was like a weight lifted. I ended up finding something I'd been searching everywhere for. It kinda appeared out of no where. Then my friend Jenny, whom I'd been worried about all day, called while I was still in the store. I'm not even a fan of that store, I'm a Target girl. But you can bet from now on, when my day isn't going well, I'm heading to WalMart.

Rhonda's Movie Madness

You guys know how it works. My reviews are up on the message boards of www.palebeneaththeblue.com

Read my thoughts on The Longest Yard, Wedding Date, Hitch hiker's Guide and more.

Confessions of a "Homeless" Guy

We played a show at the Viper Room a few nights ago, no not that really cool one in LA, the only clean club in Cincinnati. Now, part of the charm of Cincinnati, as we have discussed before is that there isn't a lot of parking. Well, because there aren't any other clubs around, and there's a huge parking lot across the street, you would think this would be the ideal place to go. I've been told though, the folks at the parking lot love giving tickets. I'm not sure of their system, but my friends have all blacklisted anything related to Central Parking.

So, there's this dude who has figured out that he can help folks find a parking space on the street and have them completely avoid said parking lot. Instead of paying the $5 to the parking lot, or the $20 fine, throw him a couple of bucks for his help. That is very enterprising and since there's no one else doing it, he's cornered the market. Now, the guy could be completely crazy, that would make perfect sense, but I try to treat folks the way I would want to be treated, so I listened to his story. He said that he works on cars during the day and that he plays jazz trombone. For some reason, he can't play trombone on the street, but I didn't really understand that part. He also said that he makes $100-150 per night helping folks park and giving directions. He's there every single night, so at minimum, he's taking home $700 in cash every week. 700 x 4 = 2800 and that's a slow week. There's no way this guy is homeless, he's making $36k per year in cash, just at his night job. He seems like a nice guy, but it's really frustrating. As I saw on Oprah yesterday, I think that the folks who really need the money are too proud to ask for it.

Thanks, Joe

Just wanted to thank Joe Taylor at spinme.com for sharing our story with the world. I like being an example, unless it's because I did something really stupid. Like today, I forgot to remove the clear sticker from the jeans I just bought that explains the already "broken-in" finish. Yep, I had it on the back of pants until dinner time. Oops!

PBTB on fire

No, we weren't really burning or anything, but I went in the studio in hopes of finishing the Christmas EP and re-recording a few tracks for the full-length as well as track a couple of new songs. Jimmy King sat in on the drums and I coerced him to sing backgrounds with a cold. Patrice showed up later to sing some backgrounds and play some cello. Here's what we worked on:

1. 2000 Miles
2. Favorite Things
3. (Surprise Track)
4. Snow is Falling
5. Last Night it Snowed
6. Evidence
7. Witches
8. Delegate
9. Stethoscope

Those were all songs that we tracked. We did vocals or added things to these already recorded tracks:
10. Xmas Break
11. Avery
12. She Dangled it...
13. Wishing

All in all, a very productive day. Thanks to Jimmy, and Patrice, as well as, Erwin and Adam at The Bamboo Room for all their hard work

My Birthday

So, we played Chicks on the Road and most of you missed it. A fun night for sure. Patrice joined me in a birthday drink, something that either of us rarely do, but it was a special occasssion. Jeffrey Smith, bought us each a Cosmopolitan and that was all it took. Neither of us could leave because we wouldn't have been safe to drive (they were extremely potent--I'm not that much of a lightweight). I had to go next door and buy chips to help absorb some of the alcohol, it didn't help that much. We enjoyed chatting since we haven't been on a road-trip in a while. She's so funny. And she bought me the coolest birthday gift. It's this whole Elvis coffee table book. There's a CD of interviews and press conferences, and all these 3-D items that you can take out--like a wedding invitation, tickets and a copy of his social security card. It's really cool.

Shirock, Pike, The Outside, and the Newbees were all very good. You should have been there and I should have been home sleeping and preparing for the studio. Oh, well, it's a good memory to have. Thanks, Jenny.

Hybrid Cars again

The folks on the news won't shut-up about this, so I figured, I might as well hit it again too. Is it a good deal to buy a hybrid? They cost more and no one knows how long the battery will last, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, well we don't know how long our oil supply is going to last either, but no one seems to care about that.

So, James and I got into an argument the other day about the whole hybrid thing. The guy on the news and the folks at the dealership say that gas has to rise to $9/gal. before the hybrid pays off so just buy a cheaper car. I say that the folks who buy a Prius are not going to settle for a Corolla. The next day, my dad sent me this article. I don't think he read it all the way through before he sent it, but I was glad because it made my point.

Another Christmas Song

As promised, I've been reading the poems you guys sent and when the mood hits--BAM! A song is born. More inspiration from Ray Bigelow. Hoping to get all the words worked out before Sunday when we go into the studio. I think I'll read his poem tomorrow for the podcast. Stay tuned...

Michael Vartan is gone

I'm still trying to recover...hopefully, Sydney will fall in love with some other hot guy who can help her raise her baby. Yes, I'm talking Alias. Curious to see what happens since they didn't have an open casket at Vaughn's funeral--will he show up again? Was his death a cover-up so he can be a stay-at-home dad? Could be. I'm personally figuring that Jennifer Garner decided to drop Varten from the show after he went and made "Monster-in-Law" with her new husbands ex, JLo. But, it's not really any of my business, is it?