Well folks, it's been a long time. Which is not to say that I haven't been working. Oh, I have. Instrumental parts, vocals, harmonies, lyrics. The usual struggles. Just behind the scenes.

Incognito.

But I'm coming out to show my face. Maybe it's the showy spirit of Sexyween. Or maybe it's because I miss performing, and I need some sort of audience to listen to me ramble. But most likely, it's the seminar I listened to yesterday on "How To Make Yourself Do Just About Anything," and the new Statement of Purpose I've drafted as a result.

You see, all this time I'd been working on this album, and claiming it was my number one priority, but I was fooling myself, because I wasn't following the most important rule for getting what you want:

"Take what you want, as long as you pay first."

Sure, I knew I'd have to make sacrifices, both creative internal ones and external ones, but I didn't have a handle on what those were. Every time one came up, I had to decide - is this more important than the album? And each one of those decisions cost me a little bit of willpower and eroded a little bit of the importance I'd assigned to this project.

But that changes starting today. I've thought long and hard about what sacrifices I'll need to make to get this project finished, and I've accepted them. I've made a list, signed it, and put it up on my wall, a few feet away from my newly signed Statement of Purpose, my new daily schedule, and my new timeline.

This is not to say that I have nothing to show for the past few months. La Da Da Dee is done, and if I do say so myself, it is awesome. Silly Pop Song has a new breakdown section, inspired in part by all the Aretha I've been listening to. (Actually, it's been mostly You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman over and over again. That song is a triumph of arrangement, performance, and composition. The piano intro is sheer magic) If We Were is so close; I just can't get my falsetto to operate the way it used to.

More to come, more to come. And if anyone's interested in the science behind these changes, check out Phillip J. Eby at dirtsimple.org. Brilliant stuff.