Des Pas Sur La Neige Canadienne!

Anthony and I spent all day yesterday working on the Parks and Recreation album sleeve design. It's almost finished. Pictured here is the front cover. Anthony took the photograph. One of the reasons I like making music is that I get to do all of the things I like to do in one fell swoop. I get to write the songs, the lyrics, perform them, and then I get to design the sleeves and album artwork. It's hard to decide which of those components is my favorite part. Watching a design take shape is certainly thrilling. The very best part of the whole thing is holding the finished album in your hands. Then you toss it on your shelf, forget about it and move on to the next thing. I just found out that the Parks & Recreation tour is coming together nicely. We even have a date in Vancouver, B.C., which is one of my favorite cities on earth. Last time I was there was in '96. Our old band played at a place called The Pit on the UBC campus. Some kids there let us crash in their dorm. We took in beautiful views from the top of the dorm building looking out over Victoria island and all the grayish water. It was a very overcast day when we were there. The Pit was cool because the stage was oval shaped, and raked, so that the kids watching us were above, in front, and around us. They had these glittery silver curtains back behind the bands, which looked fabulous when struck by the red and green lights. That was one of the best shows I've done. Ah, Canada. I can't help but think maybe when God dropped me onto this green earth, he was aiming for Canada, but then he stumbled and I landed in California instead. C'est la vie! Dude.

Headway on the IHML Vol. 2 has taken a back seat to schoolwork. But it's alright, since my schoolwork involves music. I'm learning some great stuff this term. In my lessons I'm working on a short piece by Debussey called Des Pas Sur La Neige (I think), and since I've started learning French in earnest, I think I know what that means. I'm also working on my own arrangements of But Not For Me, and My Romance. The former involves a rather tricky technique of walking a bassline while improvising in my right hand. I'm finding it near impossible to keep both hands separate. The latter requires that I do a tricky stride pattern in the left hand while improvising. Another near impossible feat.

We do have a piano player for Up On The Orange Moon, and as soon as we carve out some time, we're going to do a rough recording of the song. Probably next week. In the meantime, more later.