The One Where She Opened the Store

I kind of thought that things would slow down just a little once I got my new Christmas CD shipped off to the duplicator. I was wrong. I don’t know why I ever think that!

But today was a very productive day. No, I didn’t get my kitchen clean... but I overhauled my website... click on the photo to check it out:

And I opened up the storefront to sell my new CDs... click on the photo to go to the store!

AND we started selling tickets to our Christmas concerts in December. If you want to come, you should run over and pick up your tickets right away. We will sell out! The dates are December 16th and 17th, and the tickets are the very low price of $5 each. You can buy them from the Archangel Records store along with the CDs. Click to buy:

I got about two hours of sleep last night. And about six the night before... so I’m going to get off the computer now and go pay attention to my family for a few hours before bed! Please go buy CDs and tickets, and please tell your friends!!! Woohoo!

The One Where She Begged (Again)

I have been putting in ten- to twelve-hour days on my new Christmas CD. It is scary, exhausting, exhilarating, and way outside my comfort zone. My business partner, Garry and I have to be finished by the end of October, which leaves us roughly five weeks to finish, and while we have made headway on each of the 13 songs, there is not a single one that is finished and put to bed.

I am not trying to brag here, but I need to express to you that this is going to be SO COOL. My last CD was really fun, but I basically recorded 13 songs that I had already written over the last ten years. This CD is a brand-new effort with all-new songs and arrangements of traditional numbers that Garry and I have created just in the last year. I am so proud of them... I can’t believe I am saying this, but there is not a single song out of 13, where I think to myself, wow, that one didn’t really turn out as well as the others. Each one is a little gift! I can not wait to share it with you.

For now, I am going to ask you for a favor. I need to increase the amount of people I can reach for this CD. I am going to try a few different things to accomplish that, and I will tell you more about that later... but for this week, I would like to pass the 1,000 mark for my Facebook fans. I am currently at 810. Only about half of those 810 are my Facebook friends, which means that half of my own Facebook friends haven’t even “liked” the page yet! So please, if you are a Facebook person, please click here to “like” my page. I would appreciate that so much, even if you are not my Facebook friend. For that matter, I would love to be your Facebook friend as well, so please feel free to send me a friend request! But regardless, please please please help me and “like” the page, here:

Secondly, if I have any friends in the blogosphere who would be willing to use their blogs to forward my request for more Facebook fans, I would love that. If you do, please be so kind as to leave me a comment with the name of your blog so that I know who you are! (I can e-mail you a link with the “like” button if you want it!) You have no idea what that would mean to me.

Thank you! Please, while you are over there, click on the “Band Profile” link on the left side of the Archangel Records page, and you can listen to tons of our songs and watch our videos from there. Enjoy...

The One With the Sneak Peek

Hey! If you haven’t been following my other blog, this is the time to start. I am in the last few weeks of producing a new Christmas album, and I am starting to post sneak peeks and other fun stuff. The latest is a song I recorded with Tandy earlier in the week. Please go over and check it out... start following... and leave me some comments over there! Thank you. :)

Archangel Records Blog

The One Where She Was All Alone

I know. Sounds like maybe I am complaining that I was lonely. No no no. Not lonely. I actually DREAM of being all alone. It happens so seldom. But DK had meetings in L.A. this last week, and I wasn’t invited to them. But I was invited to go hang out at a really nice hotel and have some of that alone time I had been craving.

This was the view out the window. Not to offend anyone, but L.A. is not one of the most beautiful cities out there. Weather, yes. But seriously, I could see four billboards for lapband surgery from my window! Not exactly scenic, but I still enjoyed the view.

DK thought this magazine was humorous. I will leave this one alone.

 

The bed was super comfy with tons of pillows and a down comforter.

 

I had my iPad and a book.

 

The hotel wi-fi was a total ripoff so I tried out the “Personal Wi-fi Hotspot” option on my iPhone 4. Yes, it cost extra from AT&T, but it didn’t cost more than the wi-fi the hotel was offering, and it worked like a charm to stream movies and TV onto my iPad. That is some pretty mind-bending technology, I have to say. Here is a screenshot from my iPhone running the Personal Hotspot. Pretty cool:

 

I was only there for 24 hours, but it was a nice little break. I came back to spend the next five days catering, taking dinner to the sick and injured, and finishing the April music video for Archangel Records. Which, by the way, I am a little bit in love with. Garry and I struggled a bit figuring out how to portray certain imagery in the song, and we hit a lot of brick walls. But we found ways around all of them, and I am really happy with the result. I hope you will all help me out by watching the video, and if you are so inclined, sharing it, too. We would love new fans on our Archangel Records Facebook page here, and we are hoping to at least double the amount of video views from the last video.

Check out the latest on Archangel at our He Said/She Said blog here. By the way, we just finished writing the song for the May video... and it is going to be SWEET. {Hint: think Mother’s Day!}

Anyway, here is the video. Hope you enjoy it!

The One With Facebook 101

Welcome, class, to Facebook 101. Please note that the prerequisites for this class are a) an IQ of 50+, b) aged 13+ and c) a modicum of common sense. I see a lot of hands raised. I know what you all want to ask, and the answer is NO. I will not waive one or more of the prerequisites. I have put low-to-mediocre standards out there, and we are going to stick to them.

Here are the points we will be covering today in Facebook 101. Feel free to take notes. Everything will be on the test.

1. To Facebook or Not to Facebook. I go back and forth on this one myself. I swing between enjoying staying connected with friends and family… even those who live far away… and feeling that small-town sting of everyone knowing my business. I waffle between hoping no one notices me and wishing someone would write something nice on my wall. I try to weigh the value of social networking as a way to promote my music, vs. the time-consuming nature of Facebook. It is really a love (like)/hate thing for me. If you love Facebook so much that you can’t seem to go an hour of the day without checking it, then please skip to #10 and follow the directions there.

2. Friends. If you think your kids are excited to be your Facebook friends, they are probably not. If in fact you believe that anyone is truly excited to see your friend request, they are probably not. If you think that being someone’s Facebook friend means that you are close in real life, you are probably not. If you think that Facebook is real life, please skip ahead to #10 and follow the directions carefully.

3. Posting Etiquette. Type your post into the box that says “Write Something” or if you wish to post to your own wall, in the “What’s On Your Mind?” box. Now, before, clicking on “Share,” read your post carefully. Have you mentioned bodily functions of any kind? Did you reveal the medical status of one or more family members? Did you write how relieved you are to finally be rid of a detested spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend or fiancée? Does your post detail feelings of love or physical longing for another Facebook user, regardless of marital status? OKAY. Before you hit that SHARE button, look at your Friends list. Does your friends list include your husband? Wife? Children? Parents? Siblings? People from work? Boyfriend or girlfriend? Fiancee? Church associates? School friends? Childhood sweethearts? Yes, I thought so. Now, STOP what you are doing, look me in the eyes and listen carefully to what I am telling you: ALL OF THESE PEOPLE will be able to read the post you have just written. ALL OF THEM. It will show up on their news feeds and in some cases on their profiles. Do you understand what I am telling you? Good. If you find what I am telling you to be in some way incomprehensible, then please for the love of all that is holy, immediately skip to #10 and follow the directions included there.

4. Photos. Facebook allows you to post photos. They don’t really know what photos you are posting, so it is really up to you. But inappropriate or offensive photos can be reported, and will be removed by the Facebook gods. If your buddy gets really drunk and you think it would be funny to post photos of him less than fully dressed, I will report you. Particularly if you are a close friend or family member. If you believe that there is nothing in this world more beautiful than childbirth, please feel free to make yourself a scrapbook. If you post childbirth photos that include (but are not limited to) any body parts normally hidden in a public setting, internal organs such as a placenta or any other female reproductive organs, or excessive amounts of blood that came from incisions or female parts, I will report you. You should thank me. If for some reason this seems unfair to you, please refer to #10 and follow the directions.

5. Profile pictures. I know you think you know what I am going to say here… truth in reporting and all that… put up a photo that really looks like you… nothing from before 1980, etc. etc. You would be wrong. I actually prefer to look at appealing profile pictures. So put your best foot forward. Maybe literally… if your most attractive feature is your feet, then let’s see that pedicure. If you looked better in 1970, bring it on. Photoshop if you must. Please refer to Awkward Family Photos and if your photo resembles any of the photos there, please skip to #10 and follow the directions there.

6. Privacy. As part of our class time today, please proceed to the Privacy Settings section of your Account info. Now jack them up to maximum. You will thank me for this. No more friend requests from someone named Yasmine who is “interested in other women” and whose profile pic is her… well, you get the picture. Yasmine, if you are reading this, please proceed to #10 and follow the directions found there.

7. Quizzes. You know who you are: Stop taking quizzes. You are wasting your life away. The Facebook gods do not really know how tall you are going to be, or how many children you will have, or which Twilight character you most resembled in a previous life. These are designed to rob you of your time and your dignity. If you have plenty of the former, and none of the latter, then just start watching daytime TV or tip cows or really anything else besides taking these inane and often sexually inappropriate quizzes. If you really can’t stop yourself, I understand. Please proceed immediately to #10 and follow the directions there.

8. Farmville. Yoville, Mafia Wars, etc. STOP, look into my eyes, and listen to what I am telling you. These things are not real. You have lost your grip on reality. You are dehydrated, your kids are wandering around in three-day-old diapers and your house looks like a set from Hoarders. There is no 12-step program for this. With all the compassion I can muster, I am telling you: Skip to #10 and follow the directions. If this does not immediately solve your problem, then reach behind the computer, and unplug it from the wall. Take a deep breath. Look around you. Do you know where you are? Deep breaths.

9. Homework. Your homework today is to go home and watch “The Social Network.” If, after watching it, you think that Mark Zuckerberg was a nice young man who invented Facebook so you could keep in touch with your kids... then you missed the point entirely, and you should now proceed to #10 and follow the directions. (Disclaimer: The Social Network is rated PG-13 and to the best of my recollection had girls dancing in their underwear and drug use and an occasional swear word so I am not recommending it to anyone of a tender age or sensibilities or anyone remotely Mormon that might think I am a bad person for even suggesting it. Thank you for your understanding.)

10. To deactivate your Facebook, select “Deactivate” under Account Settings. Do this now.

Thank you for your kind attention during class today. I hope it has been fun and informative. If you still Facebook, then be so kind as to click on this button and go “Like” my Archangel Records” page. I am in desperate need of the validation that I get from having fans. And if you want to send me a friend request, please feel free. I am shockingly undiscriminating.

Archangel Records

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