Girls With Guitars

I'm off to the Cities tonight , to practice with Lojo ( www.lojorusso.com )and ( Adam www.adamstemple.com ) for the recording tomorrow and the gig the day after. In just under 12 hours I will go and get Malena from the airport and we will try and get a little sleep before going in the studio, so we can look, uh, well, I suppose at this point I am hoping for awake.

All very exciting, Lojo is an amazing performer, I have known her now for years , and she has played on Flash Girls cd's and Folk UnderGround's as well. She is a mighty fine songwriter and one of the songs we are recording is hers " I ( heart ) Stephen Merritt. The other is an old tune from Belfast called " I'll Tell Me Ma " that she has arranged like the sweetest , most haunting thing ever, and she is going to sing that one, with Malena doing harmonies and me on my trusty fiddle.

The video conferencing is still going strong and makes us very very happy. My new I-sight camera has shipped so I will have some fun news next week.

Lots of fun news.

We might even figure out what we are going to WEAR at the concert! ( the music will be just fine )

Cameras and girls with Guitars

Potions and Lotions

This web cam thing is great! Except when you forget you are being recorded and bite your cuticles AND do far worse things. That was me tonight. You never REALLY know how dorky you look until you get a web cam. Yes, Thank God Qwitchie loves me in all my domestic splendor. Of course at this point, neither of us have any clue what we are wearing to the benefit. I always say, "If worse comes to worst, I'll throw a corset on over a black dress and be done." I mean how can you go wrong with something that pushes up your bust, cinches in your waist and smoothes your hips?

I'm not even packed. I've been making potions and things for the shop. Since all our products are hand made, it takes a while. The lavender-geranium sea scrub is being stored in the freezer right now. When I return from Minneapolis, the shop will be about ready. I've got pages and pages of products to be posted on our site. One line I've been working on is "Goddess Oils". You will be able to select the oil according to your needs. For example Qadesh is the Goddess of Fertility, so that oil would contain herbs such as Clary Sage which helps with Hormone problems and infertility. Of course all our products are "For entertainment purposes only" (Spoken in my radio announcer voice) due to the FDA and all of that. But be assured- I put all of my heart, might, mind and strength into everything I do. Otherwise, why bother right?
So, tomorrow I will paint my toes and get ready to be a diva again. Otherwise, I am just the weird Witchy lady on the corner that sings too loud while cooking her husband's dinner. Hee hee

With love and orris root powder,

Malena (Witchy)

Girls and Pictures

Malena and I have discovered some wonderful new fun, and due to several hours of intense work on the part of my Boss yesterday and the fact that she is computer savy herself ( I , myself , managed to crash my entire e-mail system for a day this morning ) we now have video hookup between us. And we thought just talking on the phone was fun! This is the next best thing to being together!

I know I have a lot to learn, most likely everyone in the world knows more about this than I do but i am jumping on board here. We need to expand this system to include the voice bits so we don't have to be on the telephone ( I have only JUST yesterday learned the term " SKYPE " ) and apparently my IMac needs a Special camera to run with Ichat , but I sense we are going places with this. No bad thing for such a geographicaly challanged band. I want it ALL!!!!

No more " what ARE you wearing " ( we are so girlie ) now we can see eachother in the ever so glamourous outfits we wear around the house. Uh, Right. I think the first 20 minutes last night was spent giggling at eachother. It's a lot of fun singing too, even tho, of course , the pictures don't go anything like as fast as we do.

I'll let Malena explain the bit about " Hobbit Porn " ( feet people, feet, it's not THAT kind of video hookup )

Mostly I love this because I miss her. Every day. All the time. Seeing her makes it just a little bit less.

Two more days until we start recording MIRROR MIRROR. Three more days until we go on stage with Garisson Keilor.

Love and pictures,
Lorraine

Sharing Brains and Flower Pots

Most days I know that Malena and I share a brain, or maybe a heart. We'll write to each other at the same time, or call, only to find the other was just about to do the same , we seem to know when the other needs us. We have the same thoughts about music and the direction of the album, or about what to put on it, about how a song should go. We get happy and sad at the same times.

We each spent this morning buy hooks and hanger things for plants, so we could hang them in bedrooms and courtyards,
( not something I have ever actually done before in my life , tho I would bet she has, little garden Witchie ) When I got home from my shopping I called her to say " WOW I've had this great idea , I am going to hang plant things all over my bedroom " but before I could tell her, she said " HEY I had this great idea and I just went out and bought plant hanger things to hang plants all over the courtyard"

This kind of stuff happens all the time. I'm glad I adore her, as it could be a little disconcerting having someone that much in your brain....

I spoke at lenth with Robin Adnan Anders , of Boiled in Lead today. He is going to be doing the drums on our cd. Gods very gift to drums the man is, never heard better. Oddly enough he and Malena seem to be sharing some thoughts on melding rock-n-roll hard driving Led Zepplin with Steeleye Span. ( no, no idea where they came up with this, but I am happy to go along ) This should rock. Robin has played on my Flash Girl cd's and again with Folk UnderGround, and I am feeling all about drums lately, so he will be all over the thing.

Trevor Hartman, my bandmate from Folk UnderGround is going to play piano on " Post Mortem on Our Love " a song I recorded with the Flash Girls on our first cd. Neil wrote the words, and I wrote the music, and I have always heard it in my head on piano, and I heard Malena sing it a couple weeks ago and am firmly convinced it is going on the cd. She sings it the way I heard it when I wrote it, and then some. ( not sure what -I- am going to be playing, maybe violen ?? ) Trevor may play some accordian as well on another track. ( come on, people, it's not that bad, stay with us here, hee-hee, ONE accordian song )

The last night of the Folk UnderGround week at the Half Time Rec was Saturday night and one of the best times I have ever had playing with that band ( yup, even including Texas, if you have been reading this blog that long ) The bar was packed, our friends all came down ( tho the BirdChick left before we could play El Paso for her ) everyone concerned had a great time. The only problem I have with playing in bars, is , sadly, the drinking people. Not all drinking people mind you, not the people who have 3 or 4 over the night or even 5 or 6 or 10 and get silly , rowdy, fun, danceing, falling over, puking, whatever makes the happy, no not them, I love playing for them and talking to them between sets...It's the would be Romeo's who get younger and hotter ( so they firmly believe ) with each passing drink, and become mighty suprised at the end of the night to learn that despite the fact they havee been watching me all night and digging my music all night, , I am not , in fact, going to go home with them. BIG thanks to Bedlam roadie Liz for shadowing me each time I left the stage. ( Don't mean to whine, mind you, just feeling a bit mauled. )

Anyway, enough of that.I hope this brain sharing thought sharing thinking the same things feeling Malena and I are having keeps itself up until Saturday. Only a few more days until our first real gig. We are singing ALL the time, and hopefully our guitar player, Adam Stemple, is listening to our tapes and learning the songs ( has any musician EVER , in the history of the world since time began , EVER listened to practice tapes??? ) I'm not nervous exactly, I do this all the time, play for people, and having Malena with me is the most perfect feeling ever, I'd rather her there than almost anyone else in the world and I think it will be wonderful and people will love us but every so often I wish life had a pause button, so you could stop time and catch up for a week or two, you know, have another couple weeks to actually learn these songs your ownself...

Keep your fingers crossed and send us good thoughts of me remembering all my lyrics!

Ranting and Raving this evening,
I remain,
Lorriane