I go through phases where I'm really not interested in listening to any music I've created. Then sometimes a song will come up on my iPod and I find myself not immediately heading for the skip button.

Today "Time" from Asphodel came on when I was driving in my car and I didn't skip it. I listened to it and began to reflect on Asphodel. I think of all the tMitG albums, Roger and I have the most mixed feelings and regrets about that album.

It's not that I don't think it's good. I think the songwriting is really good, but the album suffers from other issues. First, the whole thing is just really really dark. We both seemed to be in a weird mood during that album and it just came out in the music. The second issue with the album is that we had a lot of conflicts with the label regarding various aspects. It went through a bazillion titles and we argued about some of the songs on a compositional level and then mastering was a fiasco. Looking back on that album, I think we both feel bitter and frustrated with the process. In the end, I'm not entirely happy with the title or the art or the way it sounds.

It's also the only album Roger doesn't sing on, which I think is a mistake. He had a song (which now, happily, has a place on XV) but it was cut. At the time, we were sick of arguing and just started giving in. Don't get me wrong, Middle Pillar was very good for us and on a personal level, we've always had good relationships with them. But regrettably, from a professional and artistic standpoint, we haven't always seen eye to eye and this often resulted in some unfortunate conflict that put a lot of strain on the process of releasing CDs.

But what really gets to me about Asphodel is the mastering. I'm sorry, but it just sounds awful. We both really want to go back and remaster it with our current mastering guy, John Stinson, who has done a fabulous job with both of the Mirabilis albums and also Shadow Puppets. Some of the songs for Asphodel sound nothing like they originally did before they were mastered. "Echo" used to be an awesome song. On the album, it's a muddy, jumbled mess. It sort of breaks my heart and Roger has expressed similar sentiments.

I don't know why I'm bitching about this now. I wish we could go back and redo the mastering at the least. The thing is, we sort of might be able to. When we pressed Asphodel we printed an extra set of art, but not discs. We could, in theory, remaster it and then repress with the new master with the art we currently have. John Stinson wouldn't be credited in the notes, but we've brought this up with him and he didn't seem to care. On the down side, the album doesn't sell well enough to warrant a second pressing at this point (damn). The only album we've ever had a second pressing of was One Winter's Night... I think that album may still be our best seller over the years.

A little meme from mraustin

What are your top 5 records from your formative years in high school and junior high that were the most important / influential to you?

I'm going to focus on junior high because that was really when my musical tastes shifted and I really got into the music that really, I'm still into today. I didn't really fall into one crowd of people that shaped my musical tastes, I sort of hit on things randomly from various friends. These aren't in any particular order.

1. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peepshow
My "gateway drug" into the goth scene. I was immediately blown away when I heard this album for the first time (around 7th grade, I think). This album, aside from the big "Peek A Boo" single was really pretty dark and I had never heard anything like it before. The girl who played it for me was about as normal as they come, which is pretty funny when I realize that this album sort of opened me up to the goth scene.

2. New Order - Substance
I got into New Order before I became a Depeche Mode fan. Actually, I wasn't particularly into Depeche Mode when I heard them in junior high, but I was instantly a New Order fan. This girl I knew who was old enough to drive (in junior high - I'm not sure how that worked) had this blasting in her car one day. I rushed right out to my local shop (Rocky Mountain Records and Tapes - are they even still around?) and bought it.

3. The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
I was a huge huge huge Chili Peppers fan in junior high (and a little into high school) and this album came out at just right time to fuel my obsession. I was also learning to play the guitar at the time and I picked up the tab book for the album and fiddled around with a bunch of the songs.

4. The Cure - Disintegration
Of course "Lovesong" became a huge hit, but it was my least favorite song on the album. This album was just great for listening to when I was depressed and in my junior high and high school years, I seemed to be annoyed, angsty and bummed out a lot. It was good mood music. (My spell-checker doesn't think "angsty" is a word. Shame on it.) I had a hammock in my bedroom and I was listen to Disintegration and feel sorry for myself, swinging back and forth on my hammock. Woe is me.

5. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Once again, this album seemed to be perfect mood music for me dealing with the ups and downs of junior high and high school. I was actually going through the listening rack at Rocky Mountain Records and Tapes and heard it, couldn't afford the whole album so I bought the cassette single of "Silent All These Years" with "Upside Down" on the b-side and listened to it repeatedly until I bought the whole album.

I have to say, I'm very happy about the current pomegranate fad going on right now because I just love pomegranate. They're a big pain to eat, but I love the juice and just about anything made from them.

When Dru was here in March, she told me about a new ice cream that Haagan-Dasz is making that is pomegranate with chocolate chips. I fruitlessly searched the ice cream case at the grocery store for awhile, but it was never there. I was starting to wonder if she made it up just to taunt me! ;)

The other day, I spotted it and grabbed a carton as well as some ice cream bars of the same flavor.

Wow.

The next time we were at the store, I picked up two more containers. Part of me is bummed that it's a "Reserve" edition flavor and is only going to be around for a limited time, but perhaps that's a good thing because it's expensive (more so than their regular flavors) and, let's be honest, ice cream isn't exactly the healthiest food. But, OMG YUM!

Sub Rosa received a wonderful review at the Gothic Paradise website!

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Ahhh... it's great to finally have the follow-up full-length album from these angelic muses. This album is everything that we could have hoped for from these two and more. The music is accompanied by a beautiful package of lyrics and info, photos and artwork. On the disc we get no less than 16 stunningly beautiful tracks hearkening back to old-world medieval and folk songs of ages past, though many are original pieces written by this duo and a couple of guests.

From beginning to end the music is haunting and captivating as they spin their web of subtle synths, old-world instruments and lush vocals. Starting with "World Indifferent" the percussion is moving and the music is stunning on this piece as it immediately sets the stage and gives way to the haunting piece "The Journey". Mesmerizing vocals become the solid foundation for the album, especially on mostly accapella tracks like "Nature Boy" and "The Flowers Pressed Down" amongst others. Though this foundation remains true and an anchor on others when the percussion and instruments kick in.

The album has a nice range and depth to it as we drift through these pieces and musical styles. I think it's apparent they had fun on several songs like the accapella track "il est bel et bon" which is a fun little play on the vocals, or "odyle" which is more of an ancient treasure and then the piece "angels eyes" sounds like an old record playing on an old phonograph player from the 40's. So it's not only a beautiful work, but fun and enjoyable in many ways.

As the album winds down we're featured with a cover of "Because" from The Beatles which isn't exactly something you would expect to hear on an album of this style. With that we're left in much the same way we began the album with subtle percussion and synths accenting the lamenting vocals on the title track "Sub Rosa". This provides a nice finale in and of itself, but it's not over yet as we get a great dance-friendly remix of "World Indifferent" to wrap up the album in style. I love medieval ethereal music like this duo does, but I have to admit that when you throw it together with some modern electronics and a dance-friendly beat, it's really hard to do better than a remix like this, or the previous remix from this band "In The Dark". I hope it's not ironic that my favorite tracks from this duo are their two remixed pieces. But when you start with something excellent and add a nice mix to it, it can really be something unforgettable.

With that we wrap up the album and the listener is left breathless from the stunning beauty on this album. I think this will go down as yet another classic from this group to be remember for many years to come.

Rating: 5/5

Both the Machine in the Garden XV and Mirabilis Sub Rosa are in the Projekt.com Top 10 right now. XV is at number 10 (this marks the first time tMitG has been on the Projekt.com Top 10) and Sub Rosa is at number 5 (down from 4 recently and 3 at it's peak in February).

Yay!

EDIT: The Projekt Top 10 is live updating on a daily basis and tMitG is out. I guess it was a one-day thing. Foo.

Check out a recent interview over at ReGen magazine. It is perhaps one of our most candid reviews ever. Enjoy!

The Machine in the Garden - Treading the Mental Wasteland

Both the Machine in the Garden and Mirabilis will be performing special acoustic sets at Secret Oktober on Saturday March 1. (Tomorrow!) 1905-B South 1st Street Austin, TX. This is a free event and is open to all ages.

Arrive at 4 PM for the party (performance at 5 PM sharp)! This is a very special rare performance from Dru and Summer of Mirabilis and a special intimate acoustic set with Roger and Summer of tMitG to celebrate new releases from both bands.

Hope to see you all there for a special evening of music!

CD release party for The Machine in the Garden XV and Mirabilis Sub Rosa

Both tMitG and Mirabilis will be performing special acoustic sets at Secret Oktober on Saturday March 1. Arrive at 4 PM for the party (performance at 5 PM sharp)! This is a very special rare performance from Dru and Summer and a special intimate acoustic set with Roger and Summer.

Hope to see you all there for a special evening of music. :)

One of the things I wanted to do after my half-Ironman was tackle reorganizing and cleaning out various parts of the house. Recently, we've spent a number of evenings doing just that. In the process of doing this, we've made multiple trips to sell books at Half Price Books, taken clothing to consign at Secret Oktober, carted miscellaneous clothing and other items to the Goodwill, and dumped off several bins of paper and cardboard at the recycling center. Whew! It's been a lot of work, but it feels good to get rid of things, consolidate and organize. We've been in this house for nearly five years now and our last major reorganization was when we moved. It's amazing how much stuff accumulates!

So far we've:
- Cleaned out bits of our bedroom closets. We need to continue on this front and work more to get things cleared out.
- Gone through all the filing cabinets in the office, purging old files and reorganizing those we need to keep.
- Gone through all the bookshelves and consolidated and reorganized our book collection, taking books we no longer want to Half Price Books.
- Reorganized all our note cards, greeting cards, stationary, etc. and put them in a plastic tub in my closet.
- Cleaned out the desk drawers in the desk in the guest bedroom.
- Reorganized the book shelf in the studio, removing old software boxes for outdated software and removed old boxes from the studio "vocal booth" (closet).
- Cleaned out and reorganized the freezer in the garage.
- A bit of clearing out in the guest room closet.

Still do to:
- Sell some items we need to get rid of on Craig's List
- Clean out some old paint cans and some other miscellaneous items from the garage.
- Finish clearing out the guest room closet.
- Clean out and reorganize the cabinets under the guest room sinks.
- Reorganize the linen closet, donating any linens we no longer need.
- Finish clearing out and reorganizing master bedroom closets.

We're also in planning some flooring projects upstairs. We replaced all the downstairs carpet with hardwood so now we have all tile, hardwood and linoleum down there. Now the upstairs re-flooring begins. The carpet is going to stay on the stairs, hallway, office and studio (well, sort of, we are going to get fresh carpet installed on the stairs, hallway and office). We're planning to put hardwood (bamboo in this case) in the upstairs bedrooms and we'd like to tile the master bathroom (which is currently carpet and ucky linoleum). Roger wants tile in the guest bath as well, but I'm perfectly happy with the linoleum that's in there. We'll have to see what our budget allows. We both agree that wood in the bedrooms and tile in the master bath is a bigger priority. We've gotten the estimate for the guest room and that bamboo installation should begin in the next couple of weeks, then we'll probably go for the bathroom tile next.

Whew!

Mick Mercer posted some nice reviews of XV and Sub Rosa.

Both the Machine in the Garden XV and Mirabilis Sub Rosa are available for purchase from amazon.com. If you already own them, you can also add a review to amazon.com if you so desire. :)

Click here to visit the special the Machine in the Garden/Mirabilis store on amazon.com.

ReGen magazine has posted a really fabulous review of XV. I really love ReGen magazine. Besides being really great supporters of tMitG and Mirabilis, their reviews and interviews are always well-written and thoughtful.

Check out the review here.

You can now purchase the Machine in the Garden XV on iTunes.

Yay! Click the icon to be taken to the XV page on the iTunes Store.

This is interesting. I don't normally post these quizzes, but this seems like a good exception. I've been feeling pretty uncertain about who I like this year. (Not that it really makes any difference until the actual election.) I wasn't really familiar with Richardson, but after visiting his website, I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. (I know, of course, that his website will always paint him in a favorable light, but it's a good place to get an idea of a candidates plan and general viewpoints.) I actually though Hillary would be lower. I'm not really impressed with her plan (particularly with regards to health care). I don't think Richardson has a high enough profile to win, but I'm going to be looking at him with renewed interest from now on.

83% Bill Richardson
78% Barack Obama
78% John Edwards
76% Hillary Clinton
75% Mike Gravel
71% Chris Dodd
70% Dennis Kucinich
66% Joe Biden
43% John McCain
42% Rudy Giuliani
38% Mike Huckabee
36% Mitt Romney
29% Tom Tancredo
25% Ron Paul
25% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I have some paper I'm not going to use and I hate to just throw it in the recycle bin.

First I have a bunch of multi-colored paper (very bright colors). Perhaps someone with kiddos could use the paper for coloring/art projects? We used to use them for flyers for shows, but now that we have a color laser printer, we generally print color on white paper.

I also have a bunch of white cotton archival paper if anyone wants that. It's the kind of paper you need to use to print up your thesis or dissertation for archiving. I probably have 100 or so sheets left. It's generally sort of pricey (I think I remember paying around $20 for a ream) so if you're a grad student and you're going to print a thesis at some point, you'll have to get this paper. (I know several of you on my f-list that fit the bill.)

I'm going to be running errands in central Austin tomorrow, I can meet up with you. I'm also popping by Secret Oktober at some point tomorrow, if you want to meet there for any folks south that might want the paper.

What a Christmas! The Sub Rosa CDs (as well as the Pleiades reissue) came today from Projekt.

Yay!!

If you haven't already ordered one, you can get them from the Machine in the Garden merch page, Projekt, or Middle Pillar.

For the Austin people, I think we're going to do some kind of special party at Secret Oktober sometime after the new year to celebrate both these releases! :)

I'm so pleased with Sub Rosa - I think there is a really nice progression from the previous release to this one. I would like to acknowledge the incredibly talented adzukientropy, who contributed to this album in multiple ways. She wrote and performed some incredible flute and vocal tracks for two songs including one of my favorites on the album, "The Journey," which is a moving tribute to her late father. She also took some lovely photos of Dru and I. Photos made even lovelier by the amazing gowns that kambriel made for us!

Here are some MP3 samples from Sub Rosa:

World Indifferent
The Journey
The Vastness
Il Est Bel Et Bon
Odyle
Aubade

mythworker already got his copy of XV and did a really nice write-up about it here: Fifteen Years in the Garden.

Yay! :)

It's been 15 years...

After some delays, we are very excited to announce that our new CD, XV is now available! Buy Now from CCNow.

The XV CDs arrived today and they look and sound great. Yay!

I also got word from Sam at Projekt that the Mirabilis CDs (both Sub Rosa and Pleiades reissue) arrived at the Projekt offices today so those should be on their way to us soon too! Exciting!

Ordering information will come shortly. :)

Middle Pillar and Projekt Records are proud to present the long awaited brand new album from Mirabilis, Sub Rosa, plus the re-issue of their debut album Pleiades. While these won't officially be released until February 2008, pre-orders are being taken now exclusively through the Middle Pillar and Projekt webstores and are expected to ship by the end of the 2007.

Pre-order from Middle Pillar here. If you order the Pleiades/Sub Rosa package by December 20, you get free shipping from Middle Pillar.

Pre-order from Sub Rosa from Projekt here and the re-issue of Pleiades here.

Lillia used to love this cat bed, then she lost interest so we stuffed in a closet and forgot about it. We were going to get rid of it so we got it out, but she indicated that she would like to have another go at it. We washed the covering and she's officially in love with it again, but only if it's on the kitchen table. Go figure.



I found a photo of her in it when she was a tiny itty bitty kitteh. Much cuteness! Look how much bigger she is now in relation to the bed.

Technically I don't have to work this week. I say technically because I went in yesterday and I'm going to log in today and tomorrow (from home) just to stay on top of a few things. I don't want to come back to a zillion escalations when I return to work on Tuesday. (We don't have Monday off, but I'm taking it off because it made the flights cheaper.)

On Thursday we're going to California to have Thanksgiving with my dad, his wife and my grandmother ("Mimi"). I guess in a way I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not looking forward to the holiday travel and being in a different bed away from home, missing the kitties. At least I can rest easy knowing we have super kitteh sitters montanaisaleg and adzukientropy!

In other news, the tMitG CD is taking far too long at the pressing plant. First there was some problem with our fonts, then some kind of ink problem. Blah blah blah. I just wish they were here already. We're running out of 2007 (and that's the deal - they have to come out in 2007 for the 15th anniversary). It really wasn't supposed to be this late, but we were waiting for Mirabilis stuff to pan out and that all took longer than it should have. Mirabilis should be at the pressing plant too, but since that's being handled by the labels, I don't really have much insight into that.

The weather has been overcast the last couple of days and it seems to match my mood. I've been feeling rather blah. I think we'll have sun on California, but my grandmother lives in the high desert, so it's going to be cold. I'm not big on cold. (I live in Texas, duh.)

We've added a discography page for XV including the track-listing, lyrics and sound samples. Check out samples for one of the new songs, Mental Wasteland, as well as a super awesome remix of Mantra by Ego Likeness, previously unreleased tracks Six Days and Voice, as well as a cool trip-hop remix of Dawn.

Visit the XV page here.

I was laughing so hard at this, I was in tears.

This woman made up a knitting pattern for a cat sweater. I haven't knitted in awhile, but this seriously makes me want to pick up the needles again.

Here's my favorite picture:



I love that the kitty on the right seems to be totally digging her sweater (both kitties are girls). You can just hear her saying, "Check me out! I'm a total badass in my sweater!" The kitty on the left looks a little less than excited about the situation. I actually think this might be nice for outdoor kittehs in cold climates. What kitteh doesn't like to be warm and cozy?

More photos here.

It cracks me up that the kitty in the pink one is digging the sweater in every single picture. It reminds me of the kitty we had when I was in high school (that my step mom still has, but who I, regrettably, will probably never see again) named Charlie. One year at Christmastime, someone sent along a big red festive collar-type thing with big bells on it. It sort of looked like a jesters collar or something. He wasn't an outdoor kitty so he never wore a collar, but we stuck it on him and told him what a handsome cat he was. He LOVED it. In fact, he got peeved when we took it off. I remember years later I was home for Christmas and my step-mom pulled it out of the Christmas box and he heard it jingling and came running. When he got to where she was holding it, he sat very still and patiently waited while she put it on, then he pranced around like he was the hottest thing ever. So cute!

Wow. These fires are scary. I hope everyone is okay. My mother is standing by to evacuate (she's in San Diego county).

Update: My mom's sister in law has been evacuated and is at my mom's house. Everything south of 78 has been evacuated. My mom lives a couple blocks north of 78. She said they are going to try to get to my step-dad's office in downtown San Diego, but all the freeways are completely backed up. My friend Pete is also standing by to evacuate.

It's been two weeks since the race and I haven't run at all. Honestly, I haven't done a whole lot in terms of working out. I've done a bit of swimming, I've taught my spin class and gone for a couple of very short and fairly slow rides with Roger, but that's it. And that's okay. I mean, that's what I'm supposed to do after a big race, right?

I haven't been motivated to run at all and I knew my feet needed the break. I figure two weeks is a pretty good recovery period and I was planning to run tomorrow. So why not a 10k? Perhaps not the best way to jump back into running. :P I'm just going to see how I feel - listen to my body. If I don't run my fastest 10k, I'm really not going to be super concerned.

I know a lot of my LJ tri/running friends also racing tomorrow. See you in the morning and good luck! :)

A few weeks ago, adzukientropy took some fabulous new photos of Roger and me for our upcoming release, XV. We've posted some of our favorites on the images page on our website and our myspace page.

Head to one of those places to check them out. Here are a couple:



The photos were taken at this weird (somewhat scary looking) abandoned shack and also in a parking lot where we found a broken and gutted nose cone from a jet. Roger and I found the weird airplane parts in the parking lot of a warehouse type area when riding our bikes. Roger is wearing a Kambriel jacket. I'm wearing whatever I ended up with after changing my clothes 87 times.

In terms of the status of XV, we're heading back tonight for the second round of mastering. After that, we need to make some final artwork tweaks, then it should all be ready to head off to the pressing plant. Yay!

There's a triathlon in my kitchen.


Items in this photo: Transition bag, running shoes, bike shoes, pre-race sandals, gym bag, 2 swim bags, kick board, my special needs bag from the race (and it's contents), the hat we got from the race, race number belt, finishers medal, Body Glide, sunglasses (in their case), swim cap, chip strap, 2 helmets, saddle bag, aero drink bottle, Gatorade Endurance Formula concentrate, my favorite swim towel (which I used as a transition towel), and last but not least, in the far upper right corner, you can see my bike.

Here's a close up shot of my finishers medal.

Beginning the run. I'm all smiley!



Kirsten says, "You're doing great! You're looking so good!" I say "Glug, glug, glug."



Finishing!



At home in the ice bath.



Tired blistery feet. (That blister on my pinky toe almost doesn't look real it's so red.)

I'm at home now and I've had an ice bath and a shower. Roger went to go grab us some take out. (Because despite how my tummy feels right now, which isn't good, I really do need to eat.)

I will be typing up a race report in the next day or so, but for now, I'll say that the race was HARD (okay, the whole race wasn't hard - the run was seriously brutal). It was a bit harder even than I anticipated, but I'm so glad that I did it. I'm not sure I'll be needing to do that again (despite what some people have said) and I definitely don't feel any kind of urge to do a full Ironman.

It seems like everything hurts (I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow) and I'm completely exhausted but I feel really proud of my accomplishment. I was overcome with emotion at the finish and began crying.

I hope you enjoyed the voice post updates from Roger. I gave him the phone number and told him how to do it so you guys could get a sense of how things were going. He took some photos and I'll get those uploaded soon.

All in all, a difficult day, but a triumphant one (blisters and all).

I'm taking the day off from work tomorrow (I already arranged for a vacation day) and I'm going to rest and recover. Oh yah, and master the new Mirabilis and tMitG albums. Luckily that just involves sitting around in a studio on a couch.