i just ate a whole plateload of raw broccoli. guess i was craving green vegetables?

started loading in drum tracks today and man they're good. i couldn't believe my ears how much the songs come alive with the new live drums and bass... brought tears to my eyes (literally) at one point. i'm a happy girl. editing will begin tomorrow...

in other news, my pinky finger may be fractured... the doctor wrote me a slip to get an xray but it's merely for "fun" cuz basically they can't do anything about it, it will get better over time. so i'm off the piano for another few weeks. that's ok, cuz i've got singing to prepare for... vocals will happen soon.

mike has time to redesign the website on his march break, but i have no headspace to think about it today. i think a new interim website would be exciting and cool... i will have to set aside some time to consult with him. it's so great to have help with stuff like that... i used to do the website myself until mike came along a couple years ago... (has it been that long already??)...

anyways, no change on the funding front... still waiting for updates on the website of $$ (i'm trying NOT to check it 10x a day). luckily the studio is willing to try and help out if we don't get funding... so this record will get finished come hell or high water... my credit card is starting to hurt tho!

by the way, to those who have subscribed to the newsletter in the recent past... i got the emails, and you are subscribed... there have been no newsletters this year so far as i'm trying to stay focussed on making the record for the time being.

till next time...

karen

ps: thank god my sessions are NOT like this

yesterday and today have been a couple refreshing days off. actually, yesterday we were pretty bummed that the session was over and that we weren't going into the studio again... it was such a fun, enjoyable session. hopefully we'll be back doing strings and vocals very soon... it all depends on whether we get approved for the funding we've applied for. (ie: if not, it will take longer to be able to afford to get everything done). so fingers crossed.... i've applied to two different foundations and one of them is supposed to announce their approved projects any time now... i'm checking the website of the foundation every few hours in the hopes of seeing something good. checking the mailbox too.

i'm off to pick up the drum/bass tracks from the studio now (any audio files that didn't start from the beginning of the song needed to be bounced out of Pro Tools so I could edit them in Logic, which is the program i use.) That's done, so once i have the files we can begin editing!

more later,
k

drum/bass session wrapped up today! incredibly satisfied... it went wonderfully well and we braved a freak blizzard home to drink vodka and eat pizza... denton and marc are geeking out on fusion YouYTube videos and i'm drifting in between catching peeks of that and the academy awards. we got 11 songs done this weekend ... one which we never even planned on doing but we had extra time and denton was dying to play it. .... extra time in a 2 day-10 song session....how good is that?

in other news, i have taken to securing my left pinky finger with sports tape... it's been 2 weeks and it's still hurting (since it met with a door handle and a stone wall...) so i think tomorrow i'm going to a doctor. mike was video-taping/photographing during the session so if the right footage eventually gets out you'll probably see the makeshift bandage-work. i cut off the sports tape to do some recording where they needed vocals and some keyboards... and it hurt like hell.

more later... relaxing now!!!

-k

tonight i'm preparing guide tracks and getting everything ready for the drum/bass session this weekend. i'm very excited to have denton whited of the philosopher kings playing on the tracks... tomorrow we pick him up at the train station and have an evening rehearsal. this past week was intense but good... things have shaped up nicely and i feel ready to go in and get started!

in other news, i squashed my finger in a door last week... which caused some complications when recording some guide piano tracks this week... i wasn't able to rest it and it was not really getting better... but thankfully today it's feeling like it's on the mend. *phew* it was actually quite scarey, as it was a very painful accident and i came very close to breaking it. yikes!

k

we're in the midst of getting everything ready to do bedtracks at the end of the week. this involves a lot of decision making, for when we go in, we want to have a more than just good idea of what we want to have happen... so after many different generations of demos over the past year, the sketches for the songs are really starting to come together as we test tempos, rework arrangements, and even draw up prospective song sequences. it's exciting to see the shape of the album forming as we go.

however...when we're in a period of working like this it's easy to let other things slide... groceries, laundry, bills... in fact as of yesterday half the ceiling lights here had burnt out and we made a midnight run to buy new lightbulbs.... and it's amazing how bright it is now. plus, working/sleeping hours are getting messed up... didn't fall asleep till 6am this morning. of course, the tea pot is always being refilled and probably doesn't help.

i'm starting to get antsy to get out and play again too. i might book some stuff in the coming months... it's just gonna depend on how things go here. i'll keep you posted...

k

drum session is booked for later this month! very excited about getting going on tracking the record. i also realized the other day that i have over 12 songs on the go that are new and not in consideration for the record due to being slightly a different style or just not the right vibe for this particular record... makes me really wish i had one of those publishing arrangements where i could see if there was another artist who could use them... but there's only so many hours in the day to be pursuing stuff like that...

other news... today i found my wedding dress! it only took half an hour... i just happened to go to the right store first, thank god... and it's so right that i don't feel any misgivings about not looking anywhere else, because i already know nothing will measure up. yay!

k

i've earmarked today as a writing day - not string parts, but new songs. i have a few that have been sitting on the backburner and this past month i've just been too busy writing string arrangements and rehearsing to have time to work on them. there's only so much energy in one day. they are actually fully written musically, so are just in need of lyrics... it will be nice to sit with the laptop over a cup of tea and watch people.

i signed up for a YouTube account... (always late to the party, i know) but we only just got the mini-dv cam back from repair a few days ago. i've been going through tapes that were taken during the one month that i had the camera before it broke... some footage from the last few shows of the 2006 tour, and footage from a photo shoot in November. I'll probably piece some stuff together soon and post something... you can subscribe to my channel at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=karenkosowski - i haven't uploaded anything yet, but i did find a few classic sesame street videos on YouTube that i marked as "Favorites". yep yep yep yep yep.

k