My Grandma Lilian has decided that now is the time to go, and my mom and her sisters are in Port Townsend now easing her out. I can't sleep, though that's not terribly unusual. Grandpa Max died before I was born, and his wife Mary and Lilian's husband Ben went when I was very young. My only vivid memory of Ben is of him unconcious in bed, dying of cancer. Lilian's been the center of familial affairs for as long as I can remember. When she lived with us, we were the Christmastime mecca for the Bennetts, and it transferred to Washington when she moved. She's been run over (by a car), knocked down (by dogs), and kept going in spite of it all, and lived to see two great-grandchildren, and she's ninety-six and has earned her peace.

The Fiery Furnaces' grandma has a voice that's so soothing in its properness, even if it is a bit idiosyncratic. There are traces of Greek that make her pronounce words like "when," "whu-en." Eleanor acts as Ms. Sarantos' foil, and as young Olga. Matt has organs and tack pianos all over the place, not skimping on the brash arpeggiated keyboards and off-putting noises. They lost me around the part at the donut factory, and "as if I had been awakened from a bad dream," they got me back again.

There's a really sad piano part that's referenced throughout the album, and in keeping with Furnaces tradition, recast and revoiced for a variety of sounds. It's this kind of trick, the kind that has been employed by every single composer, that is difficult to master. It's such a simple theme, used maybe three or four times, but it binds the album together, and even without the (mostly) clear narrative, makes the music identifiable as a "piece," a unit. It's "good music." I guess I'd like to make "good music" more than pop music, but who will listen to me if I don't do pop music?

Beach Party Blockade is just about done with our hit single "Thunder in the Valley." The idea is that some film students will shoot a video for it, but we'll have to make sure it's good. It'll be good.

-Max "Gimme the Real Stuff" B-P

Shangri-La, the closer of A New World Record by ELO opens with a swoony slide guitar borrowed from some surf rock ballad, trading off with the ever-present epic string section and Jeff Lynne choir. Just when you think yeah, these guys do sound like the Beatles, here comes the chorus; "My Shangri-La has gone away/ Fading like the Beatles on Hey, Jude..." They even do a coda, but with no shoutalong vocals, and it's about a quarter of the length of Hey, Jude's.

This isn't even the best song on the album!

-Max

Something's Coming

Until I start work next week, I'm just biding my time. Against my better judgment, I'm devoting alot of time to video games.

This feeling of uselessness is beginning to set in again. If I'm not doing three projects at once I get real antsy, but I've got some mental block that keeps me from remedying it. I have very little personal drive to get things done. If someone else needs me however, I'm all over it. Sometimes. Well, Roosevelt High School will need me starting sometime next week, after my TB test comes back negative and Fresno Unified gets my prints on file. Don't worry, folks. I'm on the way.

-Max

So Sideshow finished its run on Saturday, and all in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how everything went off. The band was pretty kicking and the performers were clicking by the last couple of days. My vantage point in the pit didn't allow for much actual enjoyment of the show, but watching the DVD helps fill in the blanks.

I guess just from the point of view of vocal coach and co-music director, or whatever, there was plenty to improve upon. It's a perspective I've never had in a production, and it's hard to feel really great about what I did for the show because there was so much more I wanted to do. We issued an ultimatum to band members who didn't pull their weight, and we didn't really follow through with it. Even I chowed during sections of the show when I really shouldn't have. While I feel the production as a whole accomplished what I hoped it would, the aspects I had direct influence over just didn't come together as they should have.

It was still one of the best shows in town, and next time we're really going to knock them to the floor.

James Rabbit played a party a couple of weeks ago, but we got shut down early as a result of volume. Beach Party played clean-up with Conner playing very effective keyboard drums. James Rabbit just needs to find its ideal audience. Preferably one that enjoys music.

Boondock Saints desparately reaches for cool-criminal movie greatness, but falls short. So these guys kill mobsters... because it's their religious calling? Willem DaFoe is a criminological genius, but totally out of his mind? Oh, he's just gay. And then he dresses in drag to kill some guys? Was Bugs Bunny originally intended for the part? The script tries to be gritty and harsh, but the only good guy they have the cojones to kill is the dumb tacked-on comic relief. They were just setting it up for the sequel.

-Max

"Slaving" over string parts for Sideshow at the moment. A cellist and violinist hopped on board today, and I'm very excited, because the cellist played in tune, and I didn't hear the violinist, but I'm banishing negative thoughts from my head, so she'll be great. Also Laurie's stepdad is playing trumpet, and he'll whip that horn section into shape. The rhythm section sounds great (except when I play in A and the song's in Db). Now if we could only track down some tympani...

Also I practiced guitar while watching Roseanne for a couple of hours.

-Max

Beach Party recorded a few rhythm tracks for the upcoming Olympian Menace EP. It's gonna be a good'n.

We played Alexa's birthday party tonight, double-heading it with James Rabbit. It was a first time I've played live with them, and I believe James Rabbit's second live show at all. We gave out copies of the first single for Continental, and at least one guy in the second row thought we were loud enough. Also Beach Party learned that even the young kids dig the old school joints, so I'd like to do more of those. Contemporary hits though are good too.

Sideshow will be awesome. Hopefully we'll finally convince Fresno that "yes, CMT is extremely capable, and yes, we are made up of youth performers, and yes, a FUCKING LIVE ORCHESTRA helps a lot." There just has to be an audience for this somewhere in the central valley. Right? A cult favorite that will be exceedingly well done? Right?

Admittedly, it's not a great show, though CMT's production of it will be great. Most of the recitative is really clunky, and in general the songs have too many words. Plus the characters talk about things like "bottomless well[s] of love."

Okay, later.

-Max