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November 11, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Shuffle!

 


 /p
p both;">What bands are you listening to? I thought it would be fun for us to get to know each other's musical tastes. If you have a moment and an MP3 player, follow these three steps and drop me a comment with what you get!



    liTurn on your MP3 Player./li
    liNavigate to SHUFFLE songs mode./li
    liWrite down the artist and song title of the 1st 10 songs that come up./li
    /ol
    p both;">

    Here's what I got. If you'd like to listen to/purchase any of these tunes just click their title to be directed to the iTunes music store.

     


    p both;">Bill Evans - Peri's Scope


    /a/p
    p both;">Jimmy Eat World - Your House


    p both;">Coldplay - Amsterdam


    p both;">Belle & Sebastian - Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying


    p both;">Michael Stipe - In the Sun

     


    br both;" />

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November 7, 2009 at 12:13 pm

We Love Pixies

Hey everyone,



I just saw this post on Pitchfork and couldn't resist passing it along. Our fellow Boston rockers, Pixies, know how to put on an incredible live show. Don't believe me? Ryan Dombal has the scoop on how to download four live recordings for free so you can hear for yourself :)




p both;">Now the band is giving away four songs recorded at their recent gig in Paris on October 16. (Via TwentyFourBit via Slicing Up Eyeballs.)



p both;">Doolittle 20th Anniversary Live Sampler:


02 Monkey Gone to Heavenbr /
03 Crackity Jonesbr /
04 Gouge Away/p

p both; text-align: right;">via Pitchfork: Latest News


If you'd like to download the above songs, just click a target="_blank" href="http://pitchfork.com/news/37048-pixies-release-free-live-idoolittlei-ep/"here/a to find the widget Ryan mentioned. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" is ridiculously awesome./p
p both;">-Mason


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November 6, 2009 at 11:30 am

We Have a Fansite and it's Awesome!



Hey everyone,


 
After spending a day or two recovering from my vacation, I hit the ground running yesterday and began the arduous task of notating the melody line of one of our new songs. It would be easier if I hadn't made this particular melody so damn syncopated. Fire the writer! Why am I doing this? Well, there are many reasons. One of which is that it's nice to look at things. The guys and I are ridiculously perfectionistic and each part must be meticulously crafted to work with the surrounding instrumentation and to satisfy our compulsions :) You should see some of the stuff my principle co-writer, Mike Kreher, submits. It's pretty nuts. But it's also helpful to be able to see how the music looks. We're audio guys, there's no denying that, but there's something about being able to visualize how the pieces fit together that's extremely helpful. In the past we would trade files back and forth or print scores and mark them up in rehearsals. But Mike, being the awesome guy that he is, introduced us to a new way of collaborating.
pprovides an online suite of tools that artists can use to collaborate on musical scores. Think/p
a target="_blank" href="http://docs.google.com/"Google docs/a
p, but cooler (I know, we're biased). Check out this glimpse of the new song. I wrote it on the internet. How cool is that?/p
a href="http://atris.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/screen_shot_2009-11-06_at_friday_nov_6_10-28_am_est_1.png"img width="380" height="111" align="center" 0pt auto 10px; text-align: center; display: block;" src="http://atris.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/screen_shot_2009-11-06_at_friday_nov_6_10-thumb-28_am_est_1.png" alt="" />

Speaking of coolness, our friend Angie made us a fansite! If you click


here

you'll be directed to a'tris Nation where you'll find some of the many awesome banners and glitter graphics she's created for us over the years. If you like them, she's made it easy for you to embed them on your site to share them with your friends. Thanks Angie!






Here's on of my favorites. I have a tie just like this one :)

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November 2, 2009 at 3:42 pm

Beach Vacation

Hey everyone,


I just got back from a week-long vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and boy did I have a blast. For those of you tweeps who've already seen this on Twitter, I really don't mean to boast but I can't get over the place where I stayed. Check out this view from the back porch:



It really doesn't get any better than that! I can't tell you how many hours I sat there and soaked in the hot tub. But I can say that, in that time, I was able to catch up on my reading. I've been on a legal kick lately so I turned to John Grisham and read both The Brethren and The Broker. I have no why these both sit at 3/5 ☆s on Amazon's reviews. Grisham's books, in my opinion, are not crafted to be works of art; they are designed to provide escapist entertainment. And, in that respect, they worked for me. When not reading or playing a round of Wii golf (I'm far better in the virtual world) I had the great fortune of having a wonderful experience fishing with some friends of mine. I say that it was a wonderful experience because I actually caught something (a rarity for me) and I have photographic evidence to prove it:


Yeah, this little guy is nothing to boast about but I'm the frontman of a rock band. What do you expect? I was just proud that I caught him within 30 seconds (no joke!) of casting. Regrettably, I did not continue to have that kind of luck. But I was able to brag that I had the first bite :)


 


 


 


 


This was a day-long trip and, as you can see, it got a little colder outside. With the drop in temperature though came a spike of luck. It's a little difficult to make out in this picture, but I'm actually holding a small shark! Trust me, reeling him in was a lot more difficult than you might think. This was, by far, my coolest catch!


 


 


 


I hope you won't mind me reliving a bit of my trip here. I had planned on sharing some news with you about some cool things concerning a'tris I found in my inbox and on my answering machine upon my return; but, as I sat to write this, I found my mind wandering and thought I might as well trace its movement in this post.


 


Do you have any vacations planned of your own? What did you do for Halloween while I was away? Drop me a line in the comment section and let me know what you're up to!


Hope this finds you feeling healthy!


-Mason

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October 23, 2009 at 10:35 pm

Congratulations

Wow. Whole lot of news this week: First of all congratulations to you! Because of your votes a'tris won the first round of the Indie Show Contest! I've seriously lost count of how many of these we've won thanks to you. This win will allow us to advance to The Indie Show's finals round, so as soon as we have more information about that I'll post it here. Thanks again!




Tomorrow's going to be pretty crazy for me. Our friends at Urban Outfitters have invited me to play a solo show at their Baltimore location and we're talking about putting some more dates together at other Urban Outfitters stores. I'm pretty stoked about having the opportunity to share some of the piano arrangements I've created for some of my favorite songs so, if you're in the Baltimore area, I hope you'll stop by! After the show I'm going to be dropping by Cyclops to share some more tunes and hopefully to get to know you! If you'd like to buy me a caffeinated beverage I will not turn you down because I'm getting up at 5AM. Why? You might ask... I'll let this thread from Twitter do the talking:



Yeah... I think I need to have this looked at. It's a four hour drive to the show tomorrow too so, if I'm to fit this into my schedule (and I believe that would probably fall into the good> category) I have some work to do! Hopefully I'll be able to update this post with a before and after. For the moment here's the before:


Warning: the following photographs are graphic and may offend some viewers - who are musicians - who play keyboards.



-Mason

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October 6, 2009 at 6:31 pm

Can you help us?

Would you like for Reza's music video for "Dark Lotus" to be on TV? If so, will you do two things for us?


ol both;">

  • First, will you watch the video at theindieshow.com?

  • Second, will you take a moment to register and vote for us? Clicking the below picture will take you to our youtube page where you'll find a brief video that will show you how.



  • p both; text-align: left;">If you could spare a couple of minutes to do this we'd really appreciate it. Voting is open through 5 April 2010 so you can vote for our music and videos as frequently and as often as you'd like :)


     


    Hope this finds you feeling healthy,

    -Mason


    p both;">P.S. I just saw that we're in the Top 10 Alternative Rock artists on Ourstage again this month. Thanks guys!

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    October 1, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    Stephen Colbert Plugs “Chasing Rabbits”

     


    During an episode in which Stephen Colbert interviewed Richard Dawkins he suggested that his childhood pets had never died and, in fact, were chasing rabbits. This came only one day after DJ Crier from ABC Radio Network's Fame Games talked about how our song, "Chasing Rabbits" was inspired by the work of Sam Harris and we started a conversation about religion on our Facebook page. Could this have been by chance? Or was a higher power involved...


    Check out the video at


    viddler.com

    .


    Post a comment

    September 30, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    Proof of no God

    <DIV align="center" both; text-align: center;"><SPAN 0pt auto 10px; text-align: center; display: block;">

     

     

     

     



     

     

     

     



     

     

     

     

    <OBJECT width="560" height="340" name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"></PARAM><PARAM name="allowNetworking" value="internal"></PARAM><PARAM name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i1-bbz3crjw&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;"></PARAM><PARAM name="wmode" value="transparent"></PARAM><EMBED width="560" height="340" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" allownetworking="internal" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i1-bbz3crjw&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" wmode="transparent"></EMBED></OBJECT>





    </SPAN><SPAN 0pt auto 10px; text-align: center; display: block;">That Mitchelle and Webb Look - "Proof of no God"</SPAN></DIV><DIV both;">Hey everyone,<BR/><BR/></DIV><DIV both;">Our friends at Fame Games had some <B>great things </B>to say about "Chasing Rabbits" and I have a clip of their review to share with you "after the jump"</DIV><DIV both;"><BR/>





     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    <OBJECT width="400" height="27" name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"></PARAM><PARAM name="allowNetworking" value="internal"></PARAM><PARAM name="movie" value="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://www.atrishq.com/Fame Games/SamHarris.mp3"></PARAM><PARAM name="wmode" value="transparent"></PARAM><PARAM name="quality" value="best"></PARAM><PARAM name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"></PARAM><PARAM name="flashvars" value="playerMode=embedded"></PARAM><EMBED width="400" height="27" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" allownetworking="internal" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://www.atrishq.com/Fame Games/SamHarris.mp3" wmode="transparent" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded"></EMBED></OBJECT>

     





    <BR/><BR/></DIV><DIV both;">Regularly I don't comment on these, but I feel that this deserves a few words. First, <B>I'd like to clarify</B> that we are not necessarily condemning religion. People need to <I>think</I>, make up their minds, and form their own opinions.<BR/><BR/></DIV><DIV both;">How does "Chasing Rabbits" make you feel? What do you believe it is about? Why? Sound off on <A href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmZhY2Vib29rLmNvbS9wYWdlcy9hdHJpcy8xOTQ0MzYzNTQ4OD9yZWY9c2VhcmNoJnNpZD0yMDgwNTgxMS4zNDgyMzgzODI5Li4x" target="_blank">Facebook</A>. We check our artist page frequently and would love to get your thoughts!<BR/><BR/></DIV><DIV both;">And don't forget to use the following links to <A href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm1lZXJtdXNpYy5jb20vY29udGVudC9yZXZpZXdzL3Jldmlldy5hc3A/dGlkPTMzMjIxJmVkPTIzNyZzdWJ2YWw9MCw=" target="_blank"><B>vote</B></A> and <B><A href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm1lZXJtdXNpYy5jb20vY29udGVudC92b3Rlcy92b3RlLmFzcD90aWQ9MzMyMjEmZWQ9MjM3JnN1YnZhbD0w" target="_blank">review</A> </B>if you'd like to keep the conversation going on Fame Games!</DIV><DIV both;"><BR/>-Mason<BR/><BR/></DIV><DIV both;">P.S. Thanks to everyone who called in to request this song when it was being played on <B>College Radio</B>. ;)</DIV><BR both;"/>

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    September 22, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    Chasing Rabbits

     


    Thanks again to everyone for your votes! Our appearance on Fame Games was a big success. Check out what the judges had to say after the break.




    By the way, if anyone else wondered what "tickle my tittler" meant a target="_blank" href="http://www.urbandictionary.com"urban dictionary/a gives us the following definition:br /
     /p

    pstrong1. Tittler/strong - A small alcoholic beverage that is intended to stop after just one. Usually followed by many other tittlers. Usually consumed by people on shift in the restaurant business. tit-lerbr /
    br /
    em"Hey Cypress, is it time for a tittler yet"? /em/p

    p both;">

    So apparently one of the judges did not believe that our music tickled his small alcoholic beverage. :)

     


     /p
    p both;">Some songs take days to write, some take weeks; "Chasing Rabbits" took months. My writing partner, Michael Kreher, came up with the foundation for this tune and I knew he was on to something the moment he first shared it with me. Even in its early form, CR held a lot of potential; but I didn't know where it wanted to go until I watched a speech that Sam Harris, the author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, gave at AAI 07. If you would like to get some more insight into the source material for this song please visit samharris.org.

     


    p both;">More news to come!


    br both;" />

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    September 17, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    a'tris Love You!

    Last time I blogged I asked you guys if you'd like to help us get another tune of ours back on Fame Games by voting for your favorite song. Thanks for responding in a big way! "Black Bird's Song" is now going to be receiving some major exposure as, thanks to you, it will be appearing on Monday's Q show! I'm so glad to see that you like "Black Bird Song"; it's a personal favorite of mine.


    If you haven't had a chance to vote or share your thoughts on the song with the Sid and the gang you can do so at meermusic.com. Your votes and reviews help to create future exposure opportunities for us.


    For those of you who aren't on Twitter, the guys and I have been tweeting about some really great news this week and I wanted to share some of that with you here. Currently "Automatic Doors" is #1 on Ourstage's Alternative Channel for the second week in a row! There are all kinds of cool prizes to be had for monthly winners so thanks for helping us hold steady at the top :) Two more weeks to go, w00t!

     


    In other cool news, a'tris is currently Globally ranked #71 on ReverbNation's Alternative chart. Just to give you some perspective, over 250,000 bands use ReverbNation to promote their work so we feel really good about that :)




    Thanks again for your support!


    br both;" />

    Post a comment

    September 3, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    Media Overload

    Hey everyone,


    As the Fame Game staff prepares for their fifth season selected members have chosen their 15 favorite tracks and DJ Sid Olivera picked our song, "Automatic Doors" as one of his top tunes! Sid's been a figure in the music biz for over twenty years so this is a big honor for us. Check out what he had to say after the jump.


    Sid Olivera's Playlist

    p both;"> p both;">-Mason

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    August 26, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    More on Lyrics & Interview with Paradize Radio

    <p both">A couple of days ago I blogged about Susan Peter's comments on our lyrics. In response the guys and I received some messages asking if we'd made them available and, if so, where they could be found. The short response could have simply been "no," but - because we try to be a little less curt in our replies, I <br />thought a more thoughtful answer might be in order: </p>



    <p both"><br />No. </p>



    <p both"><br />There is a reason behind this though :) When I sat down with my writing partner, Mike Kreher, years ago and first started talking about what we wanted to do with a'tris we immediately agreed that an emphasis should be placed on the lyrical content as we both felt that much of the landscape of popular music at that time was dominated by acts whose works were seemingly calculated to touch upon every conceivable cliché in order to solicit a response which would lead to quick record sales... In other words, boy bands. And that needed to be fixed.<br /><br /></p>



    <p both">The two main acts we sited as influences as we began thinking about how to create music that we believed would be accessible but more relevant were Radiohead and R.E.M. We were both big fans of those acts and each of us believed that they embodied what we were looking to do both sonically and lyrically. Radiohead's song forms and structures were different and their harmony could at times be complex, but everything they did had a clear focus and purpose and, for that reason, it just worked. Many of these same were embodied in Michael Stipe's lyrics as well. A lot of his stuff was pretty esoteric and often I would spend hours when I was growing up listening to his records and wondering what he was saying. At some point though, I stopped focusing on what his meaning could have been and started thinking about what the meaning had become. Mike expressed that he felt the same way and suggested that we avoid publishing lyrics in the future.<br /><br /></p>



    <p both"><a href="http://atris.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/picture_1__10-2-14.png" src="http://atris.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/picture_1__10-thumb-2-14.png" height="250" width="380" text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 10px;" /></a>I could see where Mike was coming from because I had a difficult time understanding Michael Stype's words and could never get what Thom Yorke was saying. (Anyone else find they have that problem, too?) But that was cool because I made up my own words to fill in the gaps. <br /><br /></p>



    <blockquote both"><p>On a side note - I always wondered if those guys, along with many of the other artists whose works I respected, slurred their words intentionally to make their performances sound cooler or to throw me off or something. Now that I've been accused of making similarly incomprehensible sounds though I believe that this has less to do with intent and more to do with the often spasmodic nature of self-expression. </p>



    </blockquote>



    <p both">To try to articulate each word would rob the work of one of its most indelible traits. At the same time, releasing the lyrics would similarly rob listeners of the ability to apply the music we would create to their lives in much the same way that we had both done with R.E.M. and Radiohead's material. But I was (and still am) ridiculously perfectionistic and so I wanted to share them because I would be spending a lot of time creating them. I don't mean to sound self-aggrandizing here but that's honestly how I felt. And would releasing the lyrics really take away from our future listeners' experiences? We were split; but that was okay because, aside from a couple of tunes I'd already written, ("Black Bird's Song" and "Compassion"), we really didn't have any other material.</p>



    <p both">After a few more chats and many weeks of writing Mike and I finished up the songs, put what was to be the first incarnation of a'tris together, and brought Chuck Sokol on board to engineer <em>appeal</em>. It was in 2004, as we began to plan how to release that album that Chuck settled our debate about the lyrics by siding with Mike. A future publishing deal cemented it and that's the story. As of this time, for the above reasons, no lyrics have been officially released.<br /><br /></p>



    <p both"><s>Thankfully it looks like I'm not the only one who would like the lyrics to be made available. I just noticed that someone posted lyrics to "Automatic Doors" on </s><a href="http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858763507/" title="" target="_blank"><s>SongMeanings.net</s></a><s>. And it appears that they made up some of their own words to fill the gaps like I used to :) Whoever you are I support you! If anyone wants to build us our very own </s><s><a href="http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/" target="_blank">Greenplastic.com</a>,</s><s> while I can't supply you with our lyrics, I'll gladly send you my blessings and gratitude. <br /></s></p>



    <p both">-Mason</p>



    <p both">P.S. Care to hear more about our early years? Tune in to <a href="http://www.paradizeradio.com" target="_blank">paradizeradio.com</a> this Saturday, 29 August at 4PM EDT and feel free to ask me some questions in the chat room! </p>



    <p both"></p>



    <p both"></p>



    <br both' />

    Post a comment

    August 25, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    Our Friend Dan

     


    p both;">Currently Dan is attending our alma mater, Berklee College of Music, and he's told me on many occasions that he's going to be a part of a'tris someday. I believe him. Dan's too cool not to be a part of our project. The question though has always been how to bring him on board. College has a way of draining almost all of one's free time, especially Berklee. Maybe I'm only speaking for myself here because Nate, Ben, and Travis are all pretty hip to music theory, but my head was in a book 24-7 during my stay there so any type of street team position is out. Dan's also exploring his own projects so collaboration would be difficult. And poaching him wouldn't fly because, unless you're in Spinal Tap, as far as bassists go - there can be only one. (Anyone appreciate the Highlander reference?)


    p both;"> p both;">Dan Alport, if you're reading this, we have a position available for you if you would like to take it: official mascot.


    br both;" />

    Post a comment

    August 24, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    Lyrics and FTP Servers

     


    Today did not get off to a good start. In an effort to add some new content to a'tris HQ I accidently modified a couple of key files and the whole site came toppling down like a game of Jenga. That's about the only funny analogy I have for that one though because I broke our website... :/


    p both;">Long story short (a little over two hours long, to be exact) I was able to get everything up and running again thanks in large part to an application called iWeb Valet developed by Ziggysoft. Maura and the gang at Ziggysoft are fantastic and those 19.00 EUR were well spent. I hope you'll visit atrishq.com now. After all of that I am through with web development; that is one big bag of hurt. I get extremely perfectionistic about things and I'd much rather focus my energy on writing lyrics than on creating, breaking, and rebuilding websites.


     /p
    p both;">Aug 23 2009 7:32 AM:

     


    HAILS FROM COVINGTON, TN.

    Thank you for requesting to be added to myspace friend's list. I hope that our friendship will continue to grow. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your world of music. Also, I want to thank you for your patience in my getting back to you. I have been having some Internet Explorer software problems, and like children can be, does not want to respond. So everything gets erased and I have to wait and start all over again. Should you guys get a banner, plz let me know so that I may post it on my profile to help spread the word about your music and for future friends and people who come to visit my site. DARK LOTUS-This song, to me, is about a young human-form who is being primed for a particular task. He no longer has to fear leaving home on this journey set before him. He is no longer attached to his mother's apron strings. He is told to leave. Do not be afraid of what he must do. He has reached maturity. Old enough to be able to flourish and replenish the Earth on his own. The information has been put onto tapes that he was given. Possibly instructions on what the task he has to accomplish. He has grown into manhood. Similar to a Noah's Ark possibly. The music and your vocals are amazing. The different octaves that you are capable of reaching are just phenomenal. The music is sooo visionary along with the lyrics. I can see in my mind what you are singing, but it is really hard to put into the proper wording that I have described. It is as if this young man has a gift. That possibly by touching something, he is able to provide life, rebirth to what has remained dead in the Earth. Great job. I love the song and the lyrics. Continued.

     


     /p
    p both;">Aug 23 2009 7:33 AM

     


    THIS MORTAL ENGINE-I love the intro to this song. An accident has happened. He had a dream about the two of them on the beach. He awoke from his dream and believed that she was there. He was able to trace every line ofwhat she looked like in his mind. She faded in and out of his mind. He believes in his mind's eye that this is how life ends. Reality has set in. He is remembering the ambulance sirens. He is remembering the conversation the two of them had before the accident. She told him that this is how healing begins. It starts with remembering. Putting things in perspective. She came to him in a vision and spoke to him, telling him this. Love the story. I hope that this was not an actual event in your life. How sad I feel for you to have lost a loved one so soon in your lifetime. This song brought tears to my eyes. You put such feeling into your songs. I loved it. CACTUS BRIDE-Bridal invites are being sent out by the groom. He is wanting people to arrive bearing very expensive gifts. He is requesting that people arrive in casual attire. The party is in the streets, kind of like a block party which is out of character for a party before the wedding. He is getting bored and his patience is being tested. This is all a fascade. The plastic and artificial rules and regs of getting married. These so-called formalities of a party before the wedding. I have enjoyed every single piece that you have written, played, sung. The whole band was such a joy to listen to. Will continue to keep in touch with you..Kisses, Susan


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    August 19, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    Life Tracking and Blogo Giveaway Winners

    <p both">I stumbled upon this article a few days ago about how a Senator named Bob Graham from Florida successfully disputed claims leveled against him by the CIA. From what I recall, the CIA had alleged that he attended four briefings in which the use of waterboarding during the Bush administration was discussed. As some of you may remember, not more than a month ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also accused of having attended those meetings. Here's the kicker: three of them where never held... and the fourth was discussing another matter. How was that brought to light? Life Tracking.<br /><br /></p>



    <p both">It turns out that Bab Graham meticulously jots down what he does, as he does it throughout the course of his entire day. Doing this makes a lot of sense, especially for a politician right? One who is in that position - at the very least - has a lot of names to remember. Graham takes down far more than just contact information though; he charts everything from brushing his hair to the rooms in which he has stood throughout the course of any given day. Some might believe this to be eccentric but I think it's brilliant. I'm sure he would agree because, when the CIA came knocking he combed through a few of his (I can't recall the number but it was pretty ridiculous) books to find that they had their information wrong :) I wonder if Pelosi sent him flowers.<br /><br /></p>



    <p both">While that's a fun story I highly doubt that many of us will have such a need for this type of obsessive journalling. I am confident though that the daily logging of actions could help me to have a better understanding of how I manage my time. Songwriting is very much a process to me. It usually starts in the afternoon because I'm not the biggest morning person - years of touring have probably irreparably damaged my ability to keep a regular schedule. Lyric writing takes research so I might take a trip to a library, or - when I'm feeling lazy - launch Safari and do some googling. Crafting melodies that fit with the content I'm creating also does not come from the heavens it comes from intense focus and concentration. Sometimes hours pass without a single note being sung or word being written. Why is that? When creativity strikes are there external or internal factors at work? I've taken a page out of Bob Graham's book to see if I can track down some of the reasons behind my creative processes. Move over Jim Collins :) Give me a few years and I'll publish a book to let you know how that goes!<br /><br /></p>



    <p both">Here's a selection from the log I made yesterday: </p>



    <blockquote both"><p>____<br /><br />Aug 18 1:36 PM EDT - I believe we're close to finishing "Behave Yourself"! Mike e-mailed me four points that he and Nate would like to discuss further before moving forward.<br />____</p>



    </blockquote>



    <p both">I can't wait to share this one with you guys! It's going to catch you off guard. </p>



    <p both">If you'd like to track my life please find me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/atris" target="_blank">@atris</a><u><br /></u></p>



    <p both">and you can catch me on the <a href="http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=61089&amp;cmd=tc" target="_blank">Klicicious</a> show tomorrow, 8/20/09 at 7:30PM EDT</p>



    <p both"><a href="http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/61089" src="http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7636/atrisbannert.jpg" height="355" align="left" width="770" display: inline; float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;" /></a><br both" /><br /><br />Thanks for reading! If you'd like to check out some other great blogs please visit </p>



    <p both">Erika Jessop @ <a href="http://www.erikajessopdesign.com" target="_blank">http://www.erikajessopdesign.com</a><br />Tobin Fisher @ <a href="http://www.singalongapp.com/index1.html" target="_blank">http://www.singalongapp.com/index1.html</a><br />Shawn Smith @ <a href="http://www.radioexile.com" target="_blank">http://www.radioexile.com</a></p>



    <p both">They've all won free copies of Blogo thanks to our friends at <a href="http://www.drinkbrainjuice.com/blogo" target="_blank">brainjuice</a>!</p>



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