Organization Man

Hey Soul Mates,
I've spent the past week deconstructing and reconstructing my office space. It's actually an office and there's actually space. Amazing. I'm becoming addicted to a place called the Container Store. Thanks to the help of Star Hansen (see Simplified Spaces), I'm getting hecka organized. Years of paperwork and lyrics filed into archives. The music collection actually looks like one, rather than a bunch of moving boxes filled with CDs. My basses are going to have a real home. It's like clearing clutter from your brain. You don't realize how much junk you own until a third party says, "Hey, what are you keeping that for?" I'm quite excited about it, because I'll be able to get back to writing music after this project is done.

While doing all of this cleaning however, I've been listening to two more very good new LPs that are out. The White Stripes doing more of their dirty blues on Icky Thump and Paul McCartney giving the people what they want on Memory Almost Full. I'm not as enamored of Icky Thump as I was of the Stripes previous barnburner Get Behind Me Satan, but it's compelling. Especially the last 5 numbers. On the other hand, Macca's MAF is superior to his previous disc Chaos and Creation. But both of these new CDs are highly recommended. This is shaping up to be the best year for new music of the decade. The Arctic Monkeys and Amy Winehouse are still in heavy rotation on my iPod. There are a lot of really good singles out there, too. I'm truly grooving to Justice's D.A.N.C.E. Dig that video.

Back to work!
Love, Power, Peace

Where U Been?

Well, you might ask.

Hey Soul Mates,

I took a week off. Went to see friends from high school in Jacksonville last weekend. Which was great. Hung out with the best of the lot. Fantastic to see all of you. Especially my old band mates from my first group (well, I see Mike and Mark all the time, but drummer Sherman - not so much).


Fellow Duranie, Deb, an avid reader of this blog (HI, DEB!) with whom I discussed the few half-decent concerts that rolled through town back in the day. Not like L.A., if a decent act came within the county everyone went. But hey, I saw Duran Duran (!), The Jacksons, Teena Marie and Tom Petty back when. She also reminded me of our first dance in Middle School. Ha ha. Love ya, Deb.


My buddy Jeff, whose wife brought a recipe for hoecakes. Yes, hoecakes. It's a long story and it involves a bus ride to Tallahassee. 'Nuff said. Jeff now designs golfcourses, and you thought I was living the dream!


And of course, this is the crew at the microbrew. Including my old comic book raider, Jim and his wife Laura (far right) and Mike's fiancee Amanda (center). And let me tell you, it is hot in Jacksonville. Thank the Lord, Ragtime had A/C.


On the music front, RHS has been making some executive decisions about the mixes we received last week. Getting used to hearing the recorded versions of our songs is exhilarating, but can take a little time. We've narrowed down our choices for the album, though. We'll start sending advance copies to our industry peeps this week and see who's for real!

Love, Power, Peace