10/24/14 Pharaoh is traveling back to town after some religious activities at the temple. He's in the sacred car. He rides sideways inside the car, which has no windows. At a specific distance from the city, he will return to his mortal body, and once again become a man. He's thinking that he would like to remain a god. The priests have seen this coming. They bathe his feet, as always. "why must I return to my body?" he demands. The priests keep thier heads down. Is there a protocol for this? "why must I return to my body?" Again, he asks? They glance toward the head priest, who is overseeing operations from a dark corner of the car. He stands there, arms crossed, for the entire journey- within earshot of a ventilation grill through which he communicates with the outside crew. The head priest glides forward, head lowered, until he kneels before Pharoah. "Pharoah, we are entering the city. In the city you are as man." "yes," says Pharaoh, "but why?" "Because your radiance would destroy us otherwise," responds the priest. "Only in the holy place may you be seen to shine forth." "then let's go back," says Pharaoh. "let us return to the holy place." "You shall return," says the priest, "as the sun returns, in the time prescribed, as the sun returns in his time." "I hate when the season ends," says Pharaoh. "Well, bring me something to eat, at least. I'm hungry as a jackel!"

Oct 05, 2014 Now it can be told. The Steam Powered project for the past year has been covering the songs on Bill Nork's Crazy Music CD. The working title? Send Me the Bill. I wanted to do some rock&roll, with drums and electric guitars. I love the songs on this record and haven't been inspired by my own writing much lately. To raise the bar I decided to do all 16 songs on the CD, and in the same sequence. It's been a blast learning how to sing these songs and coming up with arrangements to suit my vocals. For the most part I've been guided by the lyrics "Crazy music will make it all work out." I think that's been the case. I have some licensing things to square away with Bill before I start releasing my versions. I'll be making them available in digital form online in the usual places. Meanwhile, why not dust off your copy of Crazy Music and give it a spin?

Oct 01, 2014 I'm deep into mixing. Most of the tracking is done for the CD project I've been working on- it's been about a year now. I get occasional urges to drop horns or blues harmonica in here and there, but none of the loosely-planned sessions have happened so far, and I think this may just be a sign.

Sept 04, 2014 Lookit that! Entire months go by here when we are having fun! New guitar, and tonight, an old friend...

July 21, 2014 Oh boy. The lynch-pin, the keystone, the side-two opener (if this was an LP record) is coming together for this project I've been working on all year. I got to play big quarter note figures on high-hat and ride...

July 15, 2014 Just listened to a live performance of Pink Floyd's The Great Gig in the Sky. It's the song with the wailing chick singer. The live performance was terrific. It made me think of opera. This "aria" is a challenge for rock era singers the same way that opera is for other singers. The idea of recreating something from rock's repertoire kind of got me thinking. We listeners can be very critical when it comes to this stuff. If the wailing chick part had wandered very far from the recorded version (even if it had been technically superior) we would have been let down. It's a difficult thing to do, to keep it fresh AND repeat the past. The project I'm working on now is a little different. I'm attempting to create rock songs that might have been but never were- referencing guitar sounds and drum patterns and vocals from earlier times, but putting them together in new ways. Which, when you think of it, is all that's been going on with rock music for the past 20 years or so. It's kind of nice to have been there when the whole thing happened the first time. It's led me to believe that it can still happen. Rather than just go over and over the rock (or blues! or folk!) repertoire, I think it's possible to throw this stuff together in new ways. Damn, I love rock music!

June 22, 2014 Fresh paint in the workshop. In addition to that, there's a new arrangement. I've got the mixing desk against a wall now, you can see it on the right side of the photo up top there. This has helped me to get a better bass balance in my mixes. I am vaguely aware of the reason for this- something to do with audio- but it's worth the sacrifice of not facing the performers when tracking.