Immaculate Misconceptions Archive

6/17/06 – 1:08 AM – We’re having our after-show wind down now with friends and family and reflecting on tonight’s debut performance. Steve says, “One down, one to go.”

My Taylor guitar, an instrument I enjoy very much otherwise, seems to have ED (Electronic Dysfunction), or performance anxiety at gigs. Seems like every other gig, I have issues with the pickups. But when I troubleshoot them before or after a gig, they are fine. This time, they worked fine for the first act, but the second act they were completely off (or so it seemed – see addendum below). Luckily I was able to use my vocal microphone for both my voice and the guitar and the second act didn’t have much to do with the Taylor.

We’ll see how things go tomorrow night. A jack replacement may be in order. Aside from that, and a couple lyric flubs, I was fairly pleased with my performance. We had some last minute changes just prior to the show during warm ups, and pulled some things together to the point where the show seemed to go quciker than expected. I suppose I’ll have some more comments later. We taped the performance from two angles, so I expect we’ll have some web video sometime later this summer.

Addendum: The guitar problem didn’t occur the second night of the show. After further troubleshooting, I think it was a matter of perception. The monitors Friday night were not turned on, so it was hard to hear anything, but sound appeared to come through the mains. Saturday night, the monitors were up, and it was much easier to hear from the stage. I’m still keeping close tabs on the Taylor’s output jack though. Might need a replacement.

6/11/06 – CD Tracking Weekend – So far so good. I was blessed with awesome weather, which is a bummer because I am not out in it, but it means that I have not had to use the air conditioner and have had a reasonable temperature all weekend. Two or three songs left to record from the ground up and a few other touchups, but otherwise done with tracking. Should finish that tonight. Tomorrow is mastering/sequencing the tracks and (hopefully) starting to burn disks. Audra’s sister Molly is visiting, so maybe we’ll set up an assembly line. So Tuesday will be final packaging and packing for the trip.

6/4/06 – It’s been another productive weekend of writing and recording, some of it beyond what is needed for Steve’s play. This week will be dedicated to the final versions for the CD, printing labels and rehearsing my parts for the stage. Steve and I had a brief call today to go over last-minute changes, and it looks like there wont be many.

5/31/06 – Over the weekend I was able to complete the rehearsal CD for Steve and got that in the mail yesterday. Now it’s on to final production for the saleable CD which should happen this weekend. I’ve done some planning and ground work, but it has just been too blazing hot in the studio to get much else done. The air conditioner is nice, but of course the noise doesn’t allow recording to happen.
So tonight I decided to update the web site and see if I could tie up some other loose ends to free up time later when things cool off this weekend. Visitors can now access the audio preview page which contains some, though not all, of the music that was either written for the play or ended up on the cutting room floor. I think it’s neat for people to see the process.

5/27/06 – Bengali New Year and a very wet trip to Ellis Island left me with a sinus infection, so I spent most of this past week recovering and trying to stay healthy for the next few weeks. Memorial Day weekend has afforded me a perfect opportunity to make final preparations for Steve’s play. I’m currently working on the rehearsal CD that Steve will use for his final adjustments to his performance. While the web has worked until now, Steve needs something he can take to the venue with him, and something that will more or less reporduce my presence on stage until we can get together for a real rehearsal. I’m also using this time to construct my own final cue sheet and determine what my stage setup will be. Most of the stuff is acoustic guitar and voice, but we’re going to use an electric guitar for some variety, and my delay pedal will probably get dusted off.
Administratively, we’re still tossing around the idea of bringing the play to Bloomsburg, and we may write a grant for some funding, but nothing is set in stone yet.

5/7/06 – The past few weeks have demonstrated the true meaning of the word triage. Squaring away my final paper for school and preparing for Bengali New Year have taken most of my time. In addition I’ve been preparing for another one of my workshop offerings for Greenwood Friends. So there hasn’t been much time for the play.

Fortunately Steve and I have both been very busy, so it’s not like we’ve lost ground or anything. Today we had a call to go over his final script revision and discussed sound cues. We’re in good shape. We’re both fairly tied up until after May 21st, so at that point I’ll be recording the final tracks for the soon-to-be released limited edition Immaculate Misconceptions CD. It’s going to be a short-run, homebrew project, though some of the songs may reappear in a different form on a subsequent work.

4/15/06 2:04 AM
I think I’m at the point where I can envision how things will look on the stage, at least somewhat. But I did have a strange dream the other night. I dreamt that for some reason we had to go on with our first performance without any rehearsals. Somehow I think that we’re just crazy enough to pull something like that off, but I don’t think I’d want to be put on the spot like that with all the technical aspects of the play.

Had some discussion with a local venue about bringing the play to Bloomsburg. For now trying to gauge interest and where to place this on our schedules. It’s not likely for the Spring, but perhaps later in the year.

4/8/06 10:27 AM
Last night was mostly house keeping, going through some drafts of songs and fragments to see what I may have missed. One of the things I deal with constantly is the changing atmosphere in the studio, and my preference for recording methods. Most of the time, I just like to put up a couple microphones and go, but other times I like to have a more structured multi-track environment. I guess the best pieces come about by combining both approaches, but since this project has demanded that the pieces can be performed solo, I’ve tried to stay aware from too much multitracking, unless Steve requested it.

Based on my schedule, it doesn’t look like there will be too much ground breaking news here for the next couple weeks, as my school project is taking over my life, but I still feel there is a little more to pull out of my brain for this show before we hit the critical “it must be done” point.

4/1/06 1:14 AM

Well, the writing process is nearing an end for this project. It’s time to figure out which pieces will be in the play, which will be pre-recorded or performed live, and which songs might end up on the Immaculate Misconceptions CD (merchandising!). For now I’m trying not to allow all of the work ahead to get to my head.

My rehearsal with Steve last weekend was a relief because it was nice to see how things were going to work together. Collaborating four hours away has its benefits, but there’s nothing like doing a run-through in person to tweak things. I was also relieved to see that Steve was getting nervous about getting things together. We both had the wake up call that, yes, we are going to be on stage in 2.5 months!

I’m pleased with the writing I’ve done for this production, and I only wish we could take the show on the road so more people could participate. Alas, both of our schedules are quite crazy, so we’ll have to put off the idea of a touring act for a little while (though not entirely).
For those who can join us, there will be a few surprises. I will have one particularly unusual costume change, and there will be times when I am on stage and not singing, but perhaps doing something else to assist with the storytelling.

Anyway, I am hoping to keep this little journal of thoughts until after the play closes in Greensburg. If you are curious about how this process works, or just want to see it sometime, drop me a line. One thing that Steve and I agree on is that folks just don’t understand us artists sometimes, and our wascally ways. Besides, what kind of nutjob would be up at 1:24 AM typing this stuff??

3/5/06 12:54 AM
I may be repeating myself, but there are a few ideas in relation to the play that I may not have fleshed out, and I wanted to get them down now. The process of writing for Immaculate Misconceptions has been very rewarding. The writing and recording process has been very organic, and has allowed me to explore areas that I always knew I could work in, but had just never tried. I am pleasantly surprised by some of the subject matter I was able to touch on in these songs, and how they fit together as a “set”. The pantheon for this play has not been nailed down completely yet, but the majority of the songs that I came up with during the writing period do go together.

Despite my initial interest in moving away from political-topical songs, I seemed to go headlong into such material. This was, thankfully, balanced by the amount of more ambiguous material inspired by my poetic interests (Sufi, Hafiz, Rumi, Yeats). Had my time been spent solely on political material, I think I would have grown discontent with this project…

I’m grateful to Steve for asking me to be involved in this project. I still consider my music to be only a small part of the overall play, and while I am pleased with how it turned out, the experience up to the play is what I will treasure the most.

The general approach was one of throwing stuff at the wall to see if it would stick. In some cases it didn’t. But in many cases it did.
I could see my topical writing informed by my rhetorical studies and much more grounded than it used to be. I could also see more room for literary references where perhaps in the past they would seem forced.