October 24, 2003 - 5:48 AM

Working for Free Does NOT Pay the Bills

Today is Philip's 28th Birthday. According to our sister, he'll be celebrating this weekend by doing a bunch of things that Jen wants to do, like go out to Northampton for dinner and go hiking in the Berkshires. Good luck, Phil! ;)

Oh, and, hey, Soph called me earlier this week and told me that she actually did stop by this website and read a few of my entries. So she's not a total deadbeat sister!

More rumblings and grumblings going on at work...I've heard on one hand that the only way for the studio to survive is for the owner to file for Chapter 11; I've also heard that, with all the cutbacks, layoffs, and selloffs that have already occurred, we should be able to manage through the end of the year. Both are not so good prospects, and I've been encouraged by some of those above me to start sending out my resume. I'm not sure if I want to try to work at another studio since it seems like more and more are closing down every week, and I could be out of another job just as soon as I got it. What options do I have? I need to give that some serious thought.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines."

-Airplane

All this, just when I was finally getting things together in terms of working on my own stuff at the studio. I had a meeting with Sandy, the guy I met last week at the Berklee show. He was very enthusiastic about working with me, and even talked about a couple of singer-songwriters who are itching to record songs, one of whom he compared to Sarah McLachlan. We'll see about setting something up for next week.

Also today, I spent close to 14 hours in the studio doing something of my own. I've talked about my friend Victoria's album Still in this diary before. The title track (which I love) features just vocals, guitar, and synth strings; I've been hearing drum parts and cello parts for it since the song first fell upon my ears, so lately I've been working on programming drum loops to fit the groove. I was able to import the drum loops into the mix of the song, did some editing, then laid down 4 and 5 part cello arrangements. Time just flew by as I was doing all this at the studio, I even forgot to eat dinner. This kind of creative stuff, I can't believe that I'd forgotten how exhilarating and intoxicating it can be. And I didn't even get to finish! Too many ideas, but I became too tired to extract them by the end. I hope that I'll be able to flesh it out and do a final mix this weekend.

Grr...lots of good music happening within the next week, and I don't know if I should be spending my dwindling supply of money on any of it. Tonight is Melissa Ferrick (former Berklee student) at the Knitting Factory; tomorrow is Sam Bird's (old school chum) band at the Knitting Factory; Sunday is Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo at the Hotel Cafe; Monday is Carla Werner at the Hotel Cafe; and Tuesday is Michael Penn at Largo.

I've seen Melissa enough times that I don't think I need to plunk down close to 20 bucks for another show (although she is always high energy and good fun); I haven't seen Sam in close to a year, so it would be good to hang with him; I'm actually pretty stoked to catch Kay; I've been hearing bang-up reviews of Carla, but she seems to play around here a lot; and Michael seems to play at least once a month at Largo, so he can wait, too. Anyone want to come with?

While I'm asking questions, do you think I should dishonor the grocery workers' union's strike and go past the picketers to buy foodstuffs? I'm really dying for juice. Nick, I need a CostCo run RIGHT NOW!

Now Listening To : Maria McKee-High Dive
Random Thought : Raspberry Zinger Herbal Tea is sooooooo good. Thank you Celestial Seasonings.

What I Just Wrote Before - What I'm About to Write

The Five Most Recent Entries

Here's a hand-picked playlist of 40-plus songs for you to listen to: