Why 6 panels? Well, 4 just wouldn’t be enough to include all the THANK YOUS!

I also want to include some of Ali’s photos from the session.

Total cost to manufacture 1000 copies of the CD with the 6 panel digipak: $2757.20

I guess prices have gone down. I remember paying roughly the same price to manufacture 1000 copies in a 4 panel digipak in 2007.

where I am in the process

• recording
• mixing
• mastering
• finalizing artwork
• manufacturing

I’m working on liner notes and artwork this week. Angela has been sending me so many amazing options for the cover art, and I’m pretty settled on one…I can’t reveal it all to you, but here’s a tiny glimpse from the original doodle:

fundraising

Only 18 days of fundraising left.Though my original target was $7500, I’m just hoping to hit $5000!

Today it’s at $4335…

weekly thanks

I want to thank everyone who contributed in the past week:

Brad Holden
Mariko Tamaki
Nancy Dutra
David Gillis
Sarah Harmer
Lisa Ayuso

xoxo

~Christine

Previous “Making Of” blog posts:

• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Dean Drouillard, Producer
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Hammy’s Revenge
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Take This, Leave That
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Chet & Chomsky
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Me Her
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Bobcat
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Blanche & Rose
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Aloha Supreme!
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: PHOTOS
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Mixing

Thank you so much for all the support.  18 days to go…

“It’s a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it – makes it repeatable, easy to do. It reduces the chance that I would skip it or do it differently.  It is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about”

-Twyla Tharp

the morning

Every morning, Twyla Tharp wakes up at 5:30am, goes outside and hails a cab to the gym.  “The ritual is the cab,” she says.  “My morning ritual is the most basic form of self-reliance; it reminds me that, when all else fails, I can at least depend on myself.”

I’ve had many different morning rituals and routines over the years.  Being a musician means having to make up your own daily routines. You have to decide what to do each day.  The only time you get a break from this is when you’re on tour, when your day is laid out for you and printed out on an itinerary that you can keep folded up in your pocket.

Igor Stravinsky played a Bach fugue every morning before beginning his work.

Beethoven would walk every morning with a pocket sketchbook, scribbling down the first melodies that popped into his head.

Tharp’s morning ritual of getting to the gym is all about heat.  “I am in perpetual pursuit of body warmth.” Dancers need to have warm bodies.

I’m a seasonal person, and I do best when I allow my rituals to follow the seasons.  My current morning ritual is to write 750 words before my brain has time to settle into it’s normal patterns.  Then, immediately after this brain dump, I do something to focus my brain for the day.  I use this notebook…

…and I go through the following steps:

1. In one column, I write my 3 big current projects. (Projects that will take at least a few weeks to finish.)

2.Under each project, I write out the next 5 things that need to get done to move that project forward. They don’t have to be in perfect sequence or anything. You end up writing the same steps day after day, which is great because after a while you have them memorized.

3. In the blank square at the bottom of the page, I write out my “Top 3″ for the day. These are the 3 most important things I want to focus on and get done before the day is over. (Things that don’t belong in this box: gigs, commitments, anything that will get done no matter what. The point is to get stuff done during the “free time” of the day.)

The other column and box on the page I use to write down random ideas and “to-do’s” during the day.

My morning ritual in the summer was to get up, put on my running shoes and get out the door for a 30 minute run.  Now I’m in the habit of doing this mental ritual. But the purpose is the same; running and writing are both activities to focus the mind.

How do you start each day?

Previous post: Notes on The Creative Habit (Part 1: Hard Work and the Blank Page)

This is a beautiful new record with really, really catchy tunes.

I’ve already written about how much I love Paul’s music before, and I love his project with Colleen just as much.

I loved making this record.

I rode my bike over to Paul’s house to record the drums in two short afternoon sessions.

Whenever I get to play drums with Darcy Yates on bass, I’m happy. We’ve worked together for so many years now, it’s just so easy.

And I love that it’s just the four of us on the album. Nothing fancy!

Album credits:

Colleen Hixenbaugh…vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul Linklater…vocals, lead guitar
Christine Bougie…drums, lap steel
Darcy Yates…hofner bass

Listen…(click on “buy” to download the track for free)

You can get the album HERE.

myspace.com/colleenandpaul

So now it’s been a year, and I’m deciding to stick with this blogging schedule.

For the next 6 months (at least) you can still expect a blog post every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

I just like the rhythm of this routine, so I’m sticking with it.

Top 10 Blog Posts Of The Year

Google Analytics tells me these are my most popular posts since I started:

• Musicians: 3 Steps To Setting Up Your Tax Stuff – In which I share my system for keeping track of income and expenses.

• How To Survive/Thrive In The Music Business - I was asked to participate in a panel of this same title, but I couldn’t make it.  So I wrote this instead.

• 3 Days Off in LA – Ali’s photos + my Flash costume = awesome.

• 5 Things That Make a Practice Routine Work - People like lists!

• Best of ’09: Albums - In December ’09 I participated in Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. Daily prompts. For the “album” prompt I decided to write about the albums I worked on in 2009.

• How Do You Define Practice? – My take on the 10,000 theory and deliberate practice.

• Best of ’09: my dad’s “On The Marc Pizza” – Hmmm. I think 80% of the hits on this one come from my mom. This one’s about my dad.

• Masters Of The Burial - Amy is popular. I think some of her fans stumble onto my site.

• Checklist: 31 Things To Bring On Tour – Again with the lists.

• Best of ’09: Awesome Web Tool for Time Tracking – And here I expose my geekness.

thank you!

The best thing about this blog is how keeps me connected to so many awesome people.  Phil Rushworth, Barry & Gretchen, Suzie Vinnick, Chris Lesso, Elena Potter, Josh Van Tassel, Dean Wolfe, Kylie Springman, Tara Laing, John Harris, Stacy Ricker, Mariko Tamaki…I should stop now because I’ll forget somebody. There are too many people to mention! I just want to say thank you and I really respect and appreciate you all. (Lurker’s too )

Also, I must thank Robin Senior, my web dude. He’s saved my ass more than once!

And last but not least, my secret weapon: Ali Eisner, for her brilliant photos. And for her unending support and enthusiasm for everything I do.

OK. It’s like I just gave myself an Oscar.

Seriously though, thank you.

subscribe

If you want these thrice weekly emails delivered to your inbox, click HERE (or do the RSS thing)

I also send out a once-a-month email (newsletter) that you can sign up for HERE.

Luckily, I was able to spend the entire day on the couch, hanging out with the cats, sweating through my fever, watching bad TV and sleeping a lot.  I can’t believe how many episodes of Intervention, Obsessed, and Hoarders are played back-to-back on A&E! Wow. My poor brain.

Well, I was so out of it that I missed yesterday’s blog post.  I just didn’t have the energy to write! And now it’s Tuesday.  Time for an update about the album.

where I am in the process

• recording
• mixing
• mastering
• finalizing artwork
• manufacturing

It’s mastered! JJ Golden did a fantastic job. Mastering is like magic to me.  If I can’t explain the process to my mom, then I don’t really know what it’s about.  But I know when it’s done well. I know that it can bring an album to life, or it can squash it to death. I’m really happy with the final product.

And now it’s artwork time.  Angela gave me a couple options for the cover art, and I’m torn between the two. They’re both amazing! So I need to make a decision about that really soon.

fundraising

I’ve spent approximately $6200 on the album so far, and raised $4090.  I’m really grateful for all the help.  It would’ve been impossible to make this record without all of these pre-sales and donations. While I do okay for a musician, I certainly don’t have an extra $6000 kicking around!

Manufacturing is the next expense.  I’m looking at a 6 panel digipak. I need that extra space to include all the Thank You’s.

Click HERE to make a donation/pre-order.

Previous “Making Of” blog posts:

• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Dean Drouillard, Producer
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Hammy’s Revenge
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Take This, Leave That
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Chet & Chomsky
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Me Her
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Bobcat
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Blanche & Rose
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Aloha Supreme!
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: PHOTOS
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Mixing

Thank you so much for all the support.  25 days to go…

(photo of Wonder by Ali Eisner)

“There’s a paradox in the notion that creativity should be a habit.  We think of creativity as a way of keeping everything fresh and new, while habit implies routine and repetition.  That paradox intrigues me because it occupies the place where creativity and skill rub up against each other.”

~Twyla Tharp

There is one book that I take with me on every trip: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.  It’s been my bible for a few years now.

I’ll admit that I’m a junkie for books on the creative process, but this one is by far the best of the genre.   It is the most underlined book I own…

…

I’m mining the pages of this book once again, as I’m about to get into another season of writing and practicing.  Fall and Winter are my best seasons for solitary creative work.

hard work and the blank page

“It is the perennial debate, born in the Romantic era, between the beliefs that all creative acts are born of a) some transcendent, inexplicable Dionysian act of inspiration, a kiss from God on your brow that allows you to give the world The Magic Flute, or b) hard work.”

~Twyla Tharp

For Twyla, as a choreographer, it’s an empty room.  But whatever form it takes, the challenge is the same: to make something out of nothing. And making something out of nothing is just plain hard work.  It’s nearly impossible to create anything on a consistent basis without establishing some sort of routine (aka habit).

I love that in the first chapter, she criticizes Amadeus, a film she worked on as choreographer, for it’s portrayal of Mozart as a “naive prodigy who sat down at the keyboard with God whispering in his ears…”

Reality: Mozart was pushed into music from birth by his musician father, and he worked at it like a nut!  By 28, his hands were deformed from all the playing he’d done.  He was well educated in philosophy and religion, as well as music, and he was extremely disciplined.  He worked hard and often, and he worked to make money to feed his family. Twyla:

“It’s a great image for selling tickets to movies, but whether or not God has kissed your brow, you still have to work.  Without learning and preparation, you won’t know how to harness the power of that kiss.”

I’m preparing for the blank page….and for some hard work…and the empty practice room.

Preparing to be creative might seem like a strange idea, but some of the most successful songwriters I know will tell you otherwise. The really successful ones have it down. They rent a place for 2 weeks to write.  They have a goal.  That takes some prep work.

That’s partly what I’ve been doing here at the cottage.

Being away from the city for a few days has helped to clear my brain and focus on what I want to work on in the months ahead. And Twyla’s book is always my first go-to trusted resource when I’m on the cusp of a new creative season.

OK. Tea time!

(photos by Ali Eisner)

]]> http://www.christinebougie.com/notes-on-the-creative-habit-hard-work-and-the-blank-page/feed/ 11 http://www.christinebougie.com/weekly-aloha-update-32-days-left/ http://www.christinebougie.com/weekly-aloha-update-32-days-left/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:03:08 +0000 Christine Bougie http://www.christinebougie.com/?p=2481 Aloha from the cottage!

Taking a tiny sort-of-vacation before the album gets mastered on Friday.  Fresh air, silence, hammock, tea, delicious food, beer, canoe, …and internet.  That’s what makes it only “sort of” a vacation – we haven’t completely unplugged!  Ali and I both have so much going on right now that we need to stay connected to the world.

So, I’m here relaxing by the water, but I’m also keeping up with commitments.  Like the one I started last week: every Tuesday on the blog will be a weekly update to let you know where I am in the process of making this album (Aloha Supreme).

fundraising

32 days left of pre-sales and donations, and I’m $20 shy of $4000!

where I am in the process:

• recording
• mixing
• mastering – happening on Friday (August 27th)
• finalizing artwork – I’ve seen an amazing first draft.
• manufacturing - very last step (but the most expensive one!)

Previous “Making Of” blog posts:

• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Dean Drouillard, Producer
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Hammy’s Revenge
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Take This, Leave That
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Chet & Chomsky
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Me Her
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Bobcat
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Blanche & Rose
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Aloha Supreme!
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: PHOTOS
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Mixing

If you want to pre-order a copy,  you can do that here.

Thank you so much for all the support.  32 days to go…

(photo by Ali Eisner)

Our relationship as producer and artist is a collaboration, and a lot of Dean’s musical vision comes out in the mixing process.  He mixes alone, and we both prefer it that way.  When it’s your own music, it’s hard to be objective.

Here’s an example of the kinds of choices Dean will make during the mixing process:

“Bobcat” ending before…

bobcat end (unmixed)

and after…

bobcat end (mixed)

Space is almost always more interesting, isn’t it?

If you like this little sample and want to pre-order a copy of the album, click on the button below.  You’ll also be helping me to fund this endeavor!

Thanks so much for all the support so far.

….

What is the key to a great relationship?

My friend Jenny says the key to a successful marriage is to “be easy.”

My two cents:

I think you have to have enough in common to connect and stay together, and enough differences to create a spark…and to keep that spark all sparky.

And when you disagree, in the words of Stephen Covey:

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

That’s huge.  If I have any advice at all, that’s it.

I knew she was the one right from the start. It’s been a wonderful 4 years, still madly in love.   Here’s to many more!

…the first Ali email I have saved. We both freaked out about the new Superman movie (Superman Returns).  Superman – the way to my heart.

(photo by Tanja Tiziana? We’re not quite sure)

If you don’t already know, I’m raising money to make a new record, Aloha Supreme.

Where I am in the process:

• recording
• mixing – Dean is going to be sending me some mixes this week!
• mastering deadline is August 27th.
• finalizing artwork – I’ve seen an amazing first draft.
• manufacturing - very last step (but the most expensive one!)

Previous “Making Of” blog posts:

• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Dean Drouillard, Producer
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Hammy’s Revenge
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Take This, Leave That
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Chet & Chomsky
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Me Her
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Bobcat
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Blanche & Rose
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: Aloha Supreme!
• The Making Of Aloha Supreme: PHOTOS

If you want to pre-order a copy,  you can do that here.

Thank you so much for all the support.  39 days to go…