Pre-Production – “William Shatner, Eat Your Heart Out” – January 17, 2000

Waking up in a freezing cold house only increased my feelings of paranoia and excitement. It was Monday— 66 degrees inside, blank sky, jackets on people passing by, clenched white knuckles to the neck. My mind raced into the day second-guessing my overwhelmed todo list: ‘Was I supposed to special order those microphones?’ ‘Oh man did I tell Chris (SkyLines studio engineer/owner) we’re moving in today?’ ‘I need to call the keyboardest!’ ‘I really hope Chris called the cellist!’ Etcetera. I made myself a cup of twig tea in my black & white checkerboard tiled kitchen. I can’t find a mug big enough to accommodate my thirst recently so I’ve taken to drinking out of pint-sized Pyrex measuring cups. With 16 oz of a steaming hot beverage, I folded myself onto my windowsill wrapped in the Mexican blanket off the end of my bed. I relaxed for a moment, letting the tea’s vaporous ghosts rise and envelop my face. The barklike smell grounded my thoughts and smoothed my brow as I took tiny mouth scorching sips. ‘It’s not like me to sit,‘ I thought. I’m too much of a doer to sit unless my ‘doing’ requires a seated position. As I looked around the still room I realized I have couches and chairs I’ve never used. I stared at them like lazy employees.

‘Just sitting is nice.’

Today, we’re moving into the studio. We’ll start recording tomorrow and then every day (except Sundays) until we’re through — two weeks, thinks Michael, our producer. Sometime in late February think I. Pre-production was extremely tiring but constructive. We finished up Saturday night at 10:30 pm with a complete run-through of all 12 songs.  My voice was gone by dinner and so l had to speak most of the lyrics which sounded, to the band, very much like a William Shatner album. I kept laughing with them at myself even though my trachea was in terrible pain. Marji and the kids from The Walden School in Media, PA, sent the band chocolates for Christmas and that’s what I had for dinner — Chocolates and champagne, which I bought to commemorate the completion of preproduction and the beginning of recording.

I just really hope I wasn’t supposed to call the cellist.