Brief Update!

The last couple of entries have been super-long, in part to make up for me having neglected the diary quite a bit lately. So this one will be short.

I spent Monday evening in producer Mike Nunan's basement studio, finalizing Carpenter's Gothic, which will be released in early fall, and giving Mighty Grace a first listen. I'm really pleased. Carpenter's Gothic is honest, tough and a little bit mean, quite a departure from Evergreen but not out of step, in my opinion. Mike calls it ballsy. Mighty Grace, on the other hand, is the widest musical range I've covered, yet it also seems to stay within theme really well. And because this is the first project where Mike has been involved from day one, the sound is truly extraordinary. I feel that I'm finally getting this live CD thing right, and working with Mike the producer and Scott the drummer has made it possible.

In other news, I put a good 12 hours work into my deck and shed over the weekend. I'm going to add digital photos at some point soon; people must be thinking I'm constructing the Taj Mahal. But the truth is, the more you get into the little details, the longer stuff takes. So the revamping I've done this spring to get the shed built and the benches re-configured and the front of the deck finished and the fence re-boarded and my picnic table turned into wainscotting and then re-built has all taken almost as much time as building the deck did in the first place.

I'd say something philosophical about that, but can't think of a phrase right now. The best addition I made this weekend was a 14-inch by 2-inch by 8 foot barnboard plank, which is now sitting across two of my grandfather's old nail kegs and supporting a bunch of potted plants at the edge of the deck. My theme of gradual and beautiful organic decay has crept out of my artwork and into my yard.