Journal Entry 1/11/06

I am wide awake at 3:30 in the morning. It�s been a hectic couple of weeks preparing for our show in State College. I think I might have bit off more than I can chew trying to take 11 people out for a road trip. It�s been a mess trying to nail down a horn section and getting the female vocals together. Scheduling that many people is a nightmare and the cost of this is bankrupting me.

Last night though we had a really hot rehearsal. It started with some crossed wires as I was trying to pick up the singers at the subway and Erica ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Erin was very sick with the flu. But everything sounded amazing. It�s so great to work with talented people. Sometimes I think I am the weakest link in the whole mess.

If we can pull it all together, the music we�re going to present will blow people�s minds. Between the complex vocal harmonies, and the horn arrangements, and some of the adventurous musical ideas, it�s really something above what you hear from a club band. We practiced a bit last night where we go into a Latin groove and all the musicians plays drums in a drum line. I play timbales and we do a call and response. It sounds really great. It makes you feel happy.

On top of all this I�ve been trying to pull together staging, costumes, and video projection. Last weekend I went to Coney Island to film some video. It was freezing cold and I went down to the beach and put a cylinder of black cardboard over my head with some eyes and lips cut out of a magazine pasted on the front and then ran around the beach. The video came out really funny. It is for the song In Praise Of Shadows.

I�ve been trying to get some press coverage to promote the show, but it hasn�t went to well. It�s funny, I spend all this effort and money to bring something special back to my hometown, and all the press can think about is that the word �orgy� is in the name. Too controversial to touch. It�s crazy.