Well folks, at long last I have a major milestone toward this goal:

My new 5-song EP Transition arrived on our doorstop yesterday! I don’t know how much 1000 discs weighs in at, but the stork sure delivered a welcome holiday gift. ;-)

Putting together a pre-release email/web announcement today amidst some last-minute gift wrapping and even a little cooking for tomorrow’s seasonal festivities at our friends’ place … It’s an exciting, festive time around here!

Hope all is well with everyone on here and wishing you lots of fulfillment in the new year with achieving whatever goals you set your heart and mind to! :)

Well, I’m finally back with another recording update –€“ hopefully those of you who have been following along are still there and still at least vaguely interested! ;-) I’ll kick this entry off with a bit of advice for those of you following this goal on 43 Things looking for tips from others going through the recording process:

Feel free to set targets for timing, album length, etc. but do not expect to always (if ever) meet them, particularly on your first go ‘round. It is incredibly difficult to extrapolate release timing when you are scheduling sessions here and there over the course of several months or a year, as likely your song selection will evolve, and perhaps even more compelling new material will emerge and threaten to take over other songs that were in the queue … and so now you know a bit of where I’m headed with this entry and its title. ;-)

• by end of July, had finished tracking (recording) 4 songs at the amazing studio over the course of about a month (for those interested, probably spent 5 hours per song total – almost 3 each to track and just over 2 to mix, give or take)

• got a partial scholarship to WOMAD Summer School to study songwriting and African music with pros and peers in the UK and suddenly off we went … this is relevant to the update for two reasons: 1. gone for almost 3 weeks, b. emerged from said 3 weeks rather broke (thanks, weak dollar!), and iii. emerged from said workshop with new material that, as predicted above, moved in for the kill in terms of song selection for the album

• following typical post-travel illness/exhaustion/recovery period, listened back to everything we had recorded, including rough demos, then made more rough demos of über-new stuff and older stuff we had picked out that we re-arranged a little/worked with tempo on, etc.

• early September, had a good production meeting with the studio folks, in which it was determined that the best thing to do is get the pre-release EP out there, then move ahead with the album taking our time to flesh out the best of the new stuff and cull the absolute best out of all the stuff I’ve been writing for years and years and years …

• added violin and cello to the last song we’d recorded, which was feeling like it still needed something after the piano and vocals were done –€“ collectively got very excited about the result and mixed it

Finally, we arrive at our current status: typing this update as we arrive in the studio parking lot to put final mixing touches on the remaining songs!

So, we’re getting very close to actually having something in-hand that I hope moves you and connects with your life in some way. And it’s looking like the full album will be out sometime in ‘09 – but I don’t wanna make any promises. ;-)

Meanwhile, I released the first two preliminary tracks for download online, you can check them out at www.melissaaxel.com

Thanks as always for listening, much love! :)

Goals have been given a skim, all “cause-related” goals have been removed in preparation for more specific, current, really-for-me goal-setting. It is a good start to a long, hopefully rewarding process of energy refocusing for me. Input is welcome, bearing in mind that the wise input “get quiet and listen to yourself” supercedes all outside input… but I would still like to hear the gut instincts of those who care and have a sense about me. Much love to everyone who has cheered and commented while I’ve been off 43 things (and LJ), it has not gone unnoticed and is very much appreciated. =)

and I shudder to think what she went through. But thankfully she seems fine, nips a little when she needs to let you know you’re holding her uncomfortably or sometimes the occasional “love bite” but mostly she is a sweet and super loving licker.

That said, I’m doing a big “goal spring cleaning” (yes, in the fall) and removing all “causes” from the list for now while I determine and focus in on my specific, current to-do list. I am glad to have participated in this goal to make others more aware that declawing is not good.

so I think I can actually check this one off for now. I would still like to swim regularly, but now that we’re heading into winter I’m not sure how much of a priority I want to make it. I don’t usually enjoy swimming in indoor lap pools, which is pretty much what’s available here at various gyms or recreation centers. So maybe I’ll revisit this after the snow has come and gone. Meanwhile, I think this winter is the time to try tubing and maybe even a couple ski lessons (finally, after living in Colorado a year and a half)!

on January 23rd, 2007. Recorded nine vocal/piano demos here at my place into my producer’s iMac (well, I guess the process technically began when he found me on MySpace back in August looking for an artist to work with for one of his projects in the CU Denver Recording Arts masters program)... anyway, we have the nine songs –€“ plus two more I had already mini-disced and many more alternate choices that have yet to be recorded, and now we need to sit down and determine instrumentation/arrangements (several really amazing musicians have agreed to volunteer their talents to the cause so far!), and I need to practice, practice, practice to get back into musical shape, especially vocally.

Some days, it is “all right there” and others, well… other days it sounds pretty much like I just haven’t made much time for making music in a long while. Mostly it’s editing this music mag, but it’s sort of made me gear up for yet another close look into what it is I really want to dedicate my life to career-wise. I don’t see life and career being separate, and that’s certainly true in the case of my work with growing this magazine, but… hmm, I don’t really feel like it’s any one thing I’m meant to do exclusively, and I wonder what path this music will take if it’s not “the one thing” I do. Maybe this is just the way it’s meant to be for me… the balancing act. Or maybe it’s just a question of each thing in its right place and time.

So, we’ll see. Looking forward to the next steps. =)

Meet Mei Ling! =)

let’s just say I promise to keep on it while I shuffle it out of the list to make room for more things. ;-)

It’s all about the clam bake dinner buffet… hopefully they still offer it! =)

While the pavilions of the Future World section have been in a state of (seemingly) almost constant transition since the ‘90s, World Showcase has remained remarkably unchanged – and it’s remarkably still entertaining. Perhaps it’s the ambience of each country “recreated” or, of course, there’s always the amazing restaurants… Whatever it is, I look forward to returning in May for a trip “around the world” at Epcot, probably my favorite Walt Disney World theme park. Maybe this time we’ll try to eat something in every country!

was on May 2nd at the Fox Theatre in Boulder. Regina puts on a great show and is not only an exceptionally talented singer/songwriter and pianist but a very witty, sweet, and approachable person as well. Now don’t you all go bombarding her along the tour and stress her out or anything, I’m just saying it was quite nice to meet and talk with her! ;-) If you’re debating about whether to see her perform in your town, DO NOT MISS HER!

people just liked it better that waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

For a few years, I was passing through this little area between several of the University of Florida business school buildings at least several times daily, so named for its placement between 3 of the main buildings in which classes are held. It’s the courtyard area where all of the business student organizations recruit at the beginning of each semester, where believe it or not, artsy little me got lured into the strange-yet-helpful entity known as a Professional Business Fraternity. Oddly enough, the fraternity was Delta Sigma Pi, the (Greek) first letter of course being the triangle-shaped Delta which represents “change” – supposedly chosen to imply the evolutionary process which would occur in us (from goofy, oft-drunk college kids to poker-faced, oft-drunk upper-level college kids in suits). Fun! Ironic! Potential fodder for quite the psychological study, I’m sure… ;-)

Even more ironic, some of my experiences with Deltasig have helped me not only with career preparation but in my music endeavors as well. Their magazine ended up doing an interesting story on four of us who had sort of “out of the box” type jobs, and just recently, one of my old friends from the group donated some awesome DVD/CD labels for my graduate production, The Human Adventure.

Just the other day I was half-complaining that I had not gone to college somewhere artsy like Boulder, which I had actually dreamed about as a kid. But thinking back to the days hanging out in the Triangle puts me in kind of a nostalgic mood, and remembering some of my experiences at University of Florida – walking around the campus and the places I frequented in town – I definitely wouldn’t change anything. After all, “they” are right when “they” say, “If you had done even one thing differently, you wouldn’t be who or where you are today.” And I’m very happy with today.