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2:02 PM ::
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Wednesday, January 11, 2006
DEMO CD IS WELL ON IT'S WAY
The Cd is called "It's Tomorrow"
B and Jimi worked their butts off for the last four days with great results. There is still a lot to do and things to change but I think the cd so far gives a good idea of the sound they are shooting for.
The lyrics are so well done. Most of the songs have great melodies. There is so much meaning in each one. I think these songs mean to much to not give them their fullest potential. So things will be on hold until B can get voice lessons and they can have more time perfecting things. They did all this in a matter of days. I can't imagine what they'd do if they have weeks or even months to give each song it's due time.
And one other thing to attend to... they need a drummer. We have figured out a problem. B and Jimi have been playing together for some time without a drummer. They really haven't had any experience having another person in the mix so they need time with a patient drummer to get them used to following the drummer and not each other. All the songs recorded so far do not have drums in them.
Jimi did a great job on a song about his mom forcing him to live in New Zealand called Beautiful Black Roses. It's pretty straight forward and the instrumentals on it are awesome.
B did the rest songs while Jimi added bass to them. B had all the lyrics and ideas for the songs ready when he came home.
I'll give a rundown of the songs that are done so far...
"Without me" is about a girl from home who tries to be close with him while he's gone even though he doesn't know her very well. With him feeling like she is only interested for superficial reasons. A few lyrics are "girl you've got nothing to do.. with me... why do you follow through. I'm locked inside a room. Coming out to play real soon."
"Animal" This is about a girl being on drugs and thinking like a animal yet she thinks she's being intellectual and B being able to relate it. The guitar solo in this rocks.
"Wondering" This song is really pretty. It's about being close to someone yet being so emotionally far away from them. And how he can't be honest because it will hurt the person. He's in a strange world but he still feels you and his fear of people getting in the way of things. Part of it is his perception of his relationships when he wasn't "feeling like himself".
"Distorted" A very cool sounding song but I feel he needs to change a part because it sounds too much like a Vines song that is already out.
"Beautiful Like Black Roses" As I said this is Jimi's song about his mother making a huge decision for him and him feeling like she took his life away as a result. I have to share the lyrics. I had the instrumentals to this song a few months ago and I knew he was going to do lyrics regarding his mother for him and I was quite anxious to see what he'd come up with... here it is.
BEAUTIFUL LIKE BLACK ROSES
Lost with time
I can't see any love
that I knew was there
Between us loving and hating
Everything I thought you were
is now a death in my heart
It's NOT ALRIGHT
It's NOT OKAY
To take me back
when I've got
something else to say
Beautiful like black roses
is the feeling of the love we share
You never thought to hear me
You never thought to believe me
You ripped the petals off my beautiful rose
Dead inside
My life's a lie
I hope you'll see me
I showed my scars
I showed everything...
yet you deny
it was you
that ripped me apart
Well take a look around
Who's to say I don't have feelings
Beautiful like black roses
is the feeling of the hate we share
You never thought it hear me
YOu never thought to believe
You ripped the petals of my beautiful rose
~
"Canvas" is B's most personal song, he wouldn't let Jimi do anything with it. It starts out pretty and slow on acoustic. It's about him going to treatment, being left with a blank canvas where he's the artist to re create who he is. And not knowing who that is. Being free from all design and point of views.
"Black Balled" isn't finished with lyrics.
"Akathesia" Is a song B did that the lyrics are drugs talking of what they will do to you. It has a more hard rock, light punk sound to it
"It's Tomorrow" I would need his lyric sheet to explain this one. It's a very catchy song with great instrumentals but I can't understand what he's singing and I don't have his lyric book. Something about it being tomorrow and dreaming and having no feeling. And it obviously has an important meaning because it's what he wanted the title to the cd be.
Jimi is supposed to be on a flight back to New Zealand on the 21st and his father who lives here is saying he's not going to have them go back. I guess he signed Jimi up for school today here but who knows how all that will turn out. I have a feeling it's going to be a legal nightmare and he doesn't have a lawyer. Pretty boldsy move for not being represented. Yeeks.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
7:02 PM ::
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Monday, January 09, 2006
"Tap Tap, no it still doesn't work!" 
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
7:18 PM ::
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The last three hours were pretty cool for me. I don't know what got into B but he spent the last three hours going over all his songs he's recorded and explained them to me lyric by lyric. Then having me listen to each song in full and wanting me to tell him what I thought about each one. Now that last part is amazing because he's pretty funny about me throwing my opinion in things.
I am so proud of him. All his songs have personal meaning. Each lyric represents a person, a feeling or an moment he has experienced. You can tell he's put a great amount of time into these lyrics.
I found out the song I thought was about me is about me, the ex-girlfriend and a girl he knows at the clinic. Sorta weird but he said he started writing it about one then experienced something with the others and it all tied into one song. ( Sounds like my mind, I'll have one topic and that brings me to all these others things and I tie them all together) He wrote the chorus after we left on Christmas Day. It is a bit unnerving sometimes to have someone write songs about you. Makes you want to make sure not to get on their bad side. LOL
All in all, I really appreciated that time with him. I was feeling pretty useless since he's only come up for air a few minutes a day from the basement. Today we spent a lot of time together. We both spoke to David today and got a few "rule" issues cleared up.
Matt, a drummer we know from a local band came over today and helped the boys with a few ways to record. He was here for a drum lesson but when he heard a few of the songs he ditched the lesson and helped wire a few things up to make the instruments sound better.
A new addition to the studio today, a recording vocal mic. It's mighty fine. I'm looking forward to hearing how it sounds. Maybe if I bring that mic out with me I can use that to power up courage to sing karaoke. We had some problems hooking it up to the mixing board. A few funny pictures of B trying to mic, calling the music store, trying something else... he went back and forth for quite awhile before realizing there's a little button on the back of the mixer to power up a mic of this fine quality. hehehe
I'm tired as can be. I got two hours of sleep last night. I'm going to go lay on the couch, relax and watch some tv.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
7:17 PM ::
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Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
3:40 AM ::
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Don't Fade Away.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
3:31 AM ::
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Saturday, January 07, 2006
Creativity Is A State Of Mind
Not Necessarily A Positive One
I'm getting a first hand look at this right now. I know B is excited and is trying to get a lot of work done right now in a short amount of time. But you still have to eat, go to bed at a reasonable time and take care of yourself.
His demise last visit is starting to make sense to me now that I see it unfold again in right in front of me. It really circles around his music creating. He gets SO focused on what he's doing he forgets everything else. And, god forbid you interupt him while an idea is forming in his head, or he's about to record something he just thought of. He will snap on you for disrupting the idea that will make this song perfect in his mind and he doesn't know if he'll get to that place again where the idea sits.
Last time he was home it was talking to Jimi on the phone. He forgot to take his meds because he was so preoccupied. Then he didn't sleep all night and on and on.
I had this idea of how things should go. Ways to keep him on a schedule and bring him back to the things he needs to keep close in mind. Exactly like last time, minus that last night here was here. Breakfast, lunch and dinner relatively at the same time every day. Meds, same time every day. I pictured him and Jimi getting up, eating a good breakfast, working until lunch, eating lunch, working until dinner.... and so on.
It's not going as planned. Dinner last night was fine. But then when it came time for B to put his instrument down and get some rest he got pretty ticked off about it. And, this was after 5 hours of straight playing already. I knew if I wouldn't have said anything he would have worked all night on his songs.
We had an agruement last night about not following through with our earlier agreed 11:30 bedtime. I understand his frustration but I have a more important mission in mind. His health. He's been denied the ability to record for over 4 months, he's been denied the ability to jam with his musical twin for 6 months, he's been denied to have time to just flow with a creative moment due to the tight scheduling of the clinic. I understand all this, I really do, but I also know obsessing is going to cause him problems. Which could lead to more problems.
I have to remember that he might not always be this wound up about having to take a break. Sometimes I think, gawd is this how he just will be now. But, he's under a time bomb in his mind which he won't be when he's home for good.
This morning he walked straight from his bedroom to the basement. I called him back up and said, "B you need to eat breakfast first. He grabbed a handful of doughnut holes and went downstairs. I wasn't happy about that. I planned on making a breakfast. He said, we'll eat breakfast later. Well, duh, that would be lunch then and you just skipped a meal.
Then I find out the rest of the band is coming over at 12:30. Aurg, this is messing up my whole timing for meals.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
11:24 AM ::
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Friday, January 06, 2006
Today I pick Brandon up at the airport at 5:30. Jimi is coming with me. So today I'm grocery shopping, cooking, doing laundry and getting my car cleaned.
If Mr.Big is reading this the plastic candycane peeking out of my garage has been disposed of. :-)
I just thought of something. If Jackalope appeals I will probably be served papers while B is here. That isn't very cool. Well, I'll just hope if and when it happens B is downstairs playing his guitar.
Jackalope has T on the day she has dance class. I just found out last night he hasn't brought her in over a month. Go figure. I really don't know what he's thinking because not only will the courts deny his request of full custody, he's drawing attention to all the things he is supposed to be doing for her and isn't. She's been late for school quite a few times. I'm sure he hasn't brought her to gymnastics either. I haven't gotten her absent record for school yet so who knows what is on there. And we already know he's made no effort to participate in her counseling. I may have to change his name on here from Jackalope to Dumbazz.
Well, it's a busy day I'm off.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
9:07 AM ::
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Thursday, January 05, 2006
NO BRAVERY
I know I've been posting like crazy about this guy but I can't help myself. Yes, I'm talking about James Blunt again! I've been listening to this CD non stop for 2 days now. His strength of passion is what has me so excited. I see his songs as both uplifting and powerfully tragic. This guy feels his music. And, he's like the boy next door. And, a little swearing in a British accent is, well as I've described him... Hot. Gawd, I'm so revved about this!
If this is a taster I can't wait to see what's next. I just hope his contract doesn't put a ridiculous deadline on his next CD. You just can't force creativity. This is where you wish the great artists didn't get famous and you could secretly enjoy years of their music in the best form.
I personally think his best song on this CD is "No Bravery" it is absolutely fantastic and haunting. The lyrics are intense. His singing has an honest rawness to it, it's beautiful. The song carries the harsh reality of the evils of war He wrote this song while stationed in Kosovo. If people weren't scared to face what is really going on right now by our own government's hand you'd probably hear this song played on the radio as much as "Beautiful" is.
James tour in America, like now!
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
2:19 AM ::
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Wednesday, January 04, 2006
It worked!!! Okay, one more link... James Blunt stripping! In his MTV video. The video itself I think it quite lame, but... he's still stripping! His hair looks sorta wet too. Guys with wet hair look so hot. :-P James Blunt :Back to Bedlam :'You're Beautiful'
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
9:48 PM ::
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I'm experimenting right now. I'm trying to figure out how to add links to my blog. I wanted to add a link to a James Blunt song on my last post but it didn't work. http://www.myspace.com/jamesblunt
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
9:39 PM ::
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Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Today I went to court. We were in front of the court commissioner to see if Jackalope had any basis for trying to go for full custody of T. He was denied a trial. But, that doesn't mean troubles are over because he has 10 days to appeal.
Court was interesting. In Jackalope's motion he put exaggerated statements and one straight up lie where he grossly misquoted what T's counselor said. That was the only real basis he was going on to get full custody. So before this court date I gave the counselor a copy of what Jackalope stated she said in his motion. She wasn't happy at all about it.
T's counselor faxed an accurate statement to the court commissioner stating the truth and that she didn't feel it would be in T's best interest for there to be a change in her living arrangement. Jackalope was unaware of this fax and began his opening statement with, "T's counselor said blah blah blah..." he was then cut off by the commissioner while she waved a paper in the air saying, "She did not say that and I have a paper right here stating what she did say" That was his only realistic complaint for having custody changed. So that basically ended our court session.
The only part that came up regarding B was Jackalope ranting about how he heard that B was on drugs. He said B overdosed. He also said I was a known drug user. OMG! Thankfully the court commissioner said, she would like to hear what I had to say about that. I said, "Your honor, I haven't used drugs since I was 16 years old. I went to treatment myself at that time. I am not an active drug user. As for B, yes, he was placed in a treatment facility by my wishes but he did not overdose. I caught him in the act and I take that very seriously and within 3 days he was in Houston because it's the 3rd best facility in the nation. I wish for me taking an active responsible role in keeping my family healthy not to used against me." And that was about it.
Another good part was him trying to explain why he lost his job and his inability to fulfill his responsibility for her health insurance. He blamed our past court case saying he needed to defend himself so his sales went down. My attorney said, "Mr. Jackalope ( ha! I can't use his real name!) you said in court before you only work 14 hours a week. Do you think maybe they didn't want you anymore because you aren't productive for them" LOL Gee, I wonder.
Then the issue came up about him not sharing responsibility with taking T to counseling. He again tried to blame me and he got a raised eyebrow from the commissioner because what he was saying didn't even explain why I've been taking her and he hasn't.
Unfortunately, these blows are his fuel to really obsess about winning so I fully expect an appeal.
Since he is representing himself through all this I don't think he realizes that there is a 2 year grace period when you have a final custody agreement and him flying back into court only 5 months later isn't wise. If he appeals we are seeking full court costs to be re-embursed. Because any lawyer would tell him he doesn't have grounds to drag me to court again.
The judge made it very clear that if he sees us again someone will severely lose. Meaning he will award full custody of T to one parent. The judge felt we couldn't co-parent well and wasn't thrilled about us splitting custody. Jackalope is forcing us to enter very dangerous ground.
I'd like to start spending my energies on actually living instead of my time and money being used up to defend my living.
On a good note. The confetti is cleaned up! LOL I think.
My new favorite Cd is "Back to Bedlam" by James Blunt. I never heard of this guy and I stumbled on his song, "You're Beautiful" and I found I loved the whole cd. His Voice....omg!! and of course he plays acoustic. I'm melting. He's quite fine looking too, ladies! Oh dear, I think I've acquired a fan based crush. -blushing- LOL :-P Lets see if this works...
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
2:01 PM ::
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Sunday, January 01, 2006
Had to post my only picture of M because you can't see her in the group picture. She's buried behind other guests.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
11:22 PM ::
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T gathering as much confetti as she can to claim as her own.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
11:21 PM ::
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T in absolute glory from the discovery of confetti. She discovered we had so much confetti on the floor that she could make "confetti angels".
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11:19 PM ::
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Party winding down. Note the mess and trust me the living room was worse... but oh so fun. lol
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
11:17 PM ::
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The party was a great success. M and I decided to make it as elegant and grown up as possible. I made punch which was in a big fancy glass punch bowl, fancy glasses to drink out of. I also made a rum cake which went over well. We had champagne glasses with 2006 on them for the non alcoholic champagne to be passed around at midnight. A huge bag holding 30 red, silver and black balloons and a ton of confetti was thrown over the guests by myself and Jimi at midnight. That part was really cool because they weren't expecting it and didn't see us waiting at the top of the stairs. When they got to 1 at the countdown they were covered in confetti. The confetti was absolutely insane because it was ALL over the house. Luckily the sleepover girls are sweet and helped clean it up throughout the rest of the night and the morning. I still think we will find bits of confetti over the next few months. They watched movies, listened to music, listened to Jimi and Kendal play some live music. T had a blast. She thought the girls were so cool. T woke up the next day and said, "Last night was wonderful" it was so cute. It's adorable to hear a little person say such big words. Twister bust out and called for many laughs. Everyone invited had to wear black, silver or red with some sort of glitter in their outfit. ( The girls changed clothes before this picture so you can't see how cute everyone looked)
Jimi called a few hours before the party and he cancelled his plans to come over saying he'd rather see us over New Years. I thought that was awesome. He was so excited to be here. I think because he spent so much time here in the past it feels like home to him. When he walked in he said, "Your house smells different than before" I don't know what it smelled like before but that was strange. LOL The girls sleeping over said they love the way our house smells and they can smell it on M sometimes at school. Just having someone comment on a scent that relates to you is weird. I don't know what is up with this scent at our house but I wish I knew because it causes quite a bit of conversation. I have a feeling it's just the candles they smell but the bit of smelling it on M at school doesn't make sense.
Anyway, Jimi's Dad and brother stopped by unexpectedly. It was nice to see his Dad doing so well. He had a pretty rough year himself. He's made quite a few positive changes in his life in the last year which reflected well in his conversation. To see someone making so many positive changes in their life is inspiring.
Jimi played some songs for everyone and every once in awhile he'd do something that B always played. That started bumming me out. Like when B would get bored in practice or was waiting for everyone else to tune their instruments he'd start playing this little circus type riff he made up, quite funny. Jimi did that. And Jimi did a few songs B made up. During those times I had to really shut myself out from listening. It was also amazing to me how many of Jimi's mannerisms are like B's. Just seeing Jimi really made me miss B. We listened to a few things B made on his computer after the party died down and some of them were so funny. This particular one was where B sang the SpongeBob song. OMG, what a dorkus, it was so funny how he twisted his voice and just picturing him sitting by himself recording this made me laugh and think what a ham. I'm really looking forward to next week when B comes home. I'm excited to see them feed off each other in humor and music. I'm really just excited to see them both be so happy for 5 days.
I hope everyone had a great safe New Year.
Posted by FieldsOfJoy ::
10:56 PM ::
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