I think about writing about practices right after they're over, but then I usually grab some food or head to bed and it slips my mind until the next week.  I was thinking earlier that I hadn't written in a while.  I didn't realize it was 5 f'n weeks!  Oh well!

We didn't practice this week since Jenn wasn't feeling too well.  Haven't heard from her directly, but I assume she's better (since she's posting live journals!).  In our last few practices we've been discussing the issue of time management and how it affects us as individuals, not to mention us as a band.  We both face the dilemma wanting to do too much stuff and not wanting to ever say "no" to people.  This works its way into our creative lives as well.  We'd both like to practice more and write more, but the time eludes us.  A few weeks ago I was speaking with a local Economics professor about this issue and he mentioned the concept of "stealing time".  He said you have to steal time for what's important whenever you're able.  Even if you have only 2 minutes to spare, do what you can do.  In my case, that's picking up a guitar or bass and playing what I can.

I still marvel at how much crap I was able to squeeze in while I was in college.  Let's take my junior year - full time in school, homework/studying, volunteering at the campus radio station and having a weekly radio show, playing in my band with around 1 gig a week & 1-2 practices a week, practicing my bass & writing a bunch of music, going out and seeing a ton of live bands, I had a new girlfriend that year, part-time job, hanging out with my non-band friends, watching the TV shows I was interested in, heading back to my hometown to see friends and parents on some weekends...

In doing all of that, at the time I didn't feel like I was too overwhelmed.  Somehow, I did it all, everything I wanted to do.  Then again, I was a night owl and I didn't sleep that much.  I guess that's how you do it!

So, Jenn & I are working on more organization for ourselves, not only individually, but also in the context of PM.

In our practices the past few weeks, we've been working a lot more on August and it's sounding pretty good.  I think I mentioned before that Cryptic is done and that just requires some song arranging before we start rehearsing it.  Krythe is in the room, waiting for us to re-learn it.  Lyrical ideas are nearing completion for Niagara on the Pacific.  We've agreed to do another old 3 Penny Opera song, Mr. Raleigh's Dilemma and that's ready for rehearsal.  So yeah, lots of new material on the horizon.  The other (old) songs are always getting more and more comfortable.

Our search for a drummer has yielded 3 responses so far, but nothing has gone beyond 1 email.  I know there HAS to be a drummer out there for us.  It's frustrating going through this whole process, but we don't exactly make music that's easy to categorize.  We're not a punk or metal band, we're not a church, we're definitely not a cover band.  Well, something's gotta happen soon, but until then we'll just keep plugging away as we are.

I'll be sending off our yearly application for SXSW in a week or so.  As usual, I'm not pinning any hopes on this.  It'll be a nice surprise if it happens.

So, that's the easy run-down of the Life of the Band.  Hopefully I'll have more to write about after next week's practice.