Andy

November 21, 2002. Night.

I went over to Katie and Branum's house last night. I
brought Branum a pie, hoping that wasn't too trite.
Everyone seemed OK, considering the circumstances. Poor
guy. I feel awful for him. Life would be terrible if Nate
died, particularly in such a way. I hope he gets some
therapy.

It's going to be rough, I suspect, on Katie.

Anyway.

I'm trying to get some lyrics down for the Red Nails. It's
the oddest band. I like Dan, but I wonder sometimes if
we're going to be good creative partners. He seems very
unethical sometimes. I don't mean that from a moralizing
standpoint, although he DOES do a lot of drugs. I mean it
in this way: he thought we should send our demos to major
label record companies -- which is one thing -- but also to
advertising agencies. Gack! I mean, I would feel iffy about
signing to a major label IF the chance even came up, which
I suspect it won't, and even if it did, I would have
serious reservations -- those guys aren't in the game for
helping out artists; indie labels are, because they're run
by music fans. But an ad agency! That's just completely
wrong wrong wrong! I wouldn't want to use our music in an
ad even if they APPROACHED us, so the thought of pimping
ourselves is just dreadful.

It's good to think about these things. It makes me ask
myself why I play music. I know why: to have fun, to meet
people, to give myself something to listen to, to spread
ideas, to express myself, and at worst, to make history.
Money...maybe. Money comes if you stick with your
principles and work hard. If you go looking for money,
that's when the trouble begins.

But we'll see. I'd like, for the show, to wear uniforms:
red shirt, black tie. I think it'd add a visual panache.
Gimmicky? Yeah, a little. So what? The Temptations wore
matching outfits. It doesn't really matter, though, because
I don't know if that idea will fly with Becca, Dan and
Sarah, though. I suspect it won't.

Regardless, we begin recording soon. We have six original
songs, enough for an EP. Maybe we could split an EP with
the Pine Club or Baku Hatsu or someone. That would be
tremendous.