Sooj

The unmastered digital versions of all of the songs on the new Stolen Season album (aka my jazzy snazzy love child aka that thing that’s eaten my brain and my life for the past umpteen months) are now available.    I will be getting together my promo efforts over the next couple of weeks, working with my album design team and my mastering engineer for the actual CD release of this thing, and filming a release concert for you and for YouTube.   For now, here’s the basic, luscious, lovely audio, laid bare for your listening pleasure.  (That sounded a little naughty because it was.)

I hope you like what I’ve made.

Happy:  There’s a new Tricky Pixie concert on my schedule, for February 7th!

Get tickets here.

Wonders song art by Chaz for “Song of the Witches”

Less happy:  one of my best friends passed away on New Year’s Day.  His name was Stephen Jacob Bell.  I’ve known him half my life, and his widow, Anna, has been my friend for over ten years.  If you knew him as well, and this is the first time you’re getting the news of his passing, I am so very sorry.

Stephen was the spirit of kindness, in spite of his own physical and mental difficulties.  We met in college, and I have never known a soul so determined to stay sweet, regardless of what life threw at him.  He worked with a team who helped identify those who perished in New York City on September 11, 2001.  He worked to become a nondenominational minister and an advocate for alternative lifestyle people of all faiths.  He had a million inventions in his head that he wanted to get out into the world, and he had a million miles of love for everyone he called a friend.

There is a memorial fund going right now which you may contribute to, if you wish.

Are you breathing today?  Are you centered and okay?

Loving Prana like you wanna, it’s the natural way.

Sister, look at your curves.

Never let me hear you say

“how I wish this ugly piece of me would melt away.”

We are down with the booty,

down with the breasts,

but we’re hatin’ on the belly and we never let it rest.

I fight it too, every day I forget to breathe,

turn away from the mirror and the strength I see,

but I come back around like a pop song.

I see the whole picture, and ain’t nothin’ wrong.

There is more than one healthy shape in this world.

If you’re good to yourself, it’s all good, girl.

-WIP, “Full, Loved, Enough” by Renée & Sooj, aka Zeze Oiseau

This is gonna sound incredibly sappy and saccharine, but it’s true.

I’ve had female friends (cis, trans, fluid, and more) of all sizes and shapes and sorts, all my life.  I’m fortunate to be someone who has a very hard time seeing ‘ugly’.  I don’t feel the need to judge.  I don’t make “beauty ideal” comparisons, not of people I care about.

That includes a whole lot of fans and a whole lot of friends.

It’s difficult for me to explain: not really seeing something that I just don’t see.

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The Stolen Season album has taken me much longer to complete than I ever imagined it would, but my own preliminary mixes for the album are finished! I completed them on December 23rd. I’m waiting on feedback from a few trusted fellow engineers before I contact my mastering engineer and replication company.

I’m considering a soft digital release as soon as possible after I get feedback from my colleagues. Hopefully, that means I can have all of my final, FINAL mixes completed by New Year’s. When I do make that goal, I will post the unmastered version of the album and make it available for immediate download and purchase.

In the meantime, my photographers, visual artists, and layout artist are working with me on the design of the physical CD. If we bust our booties, and if my mastering engineer and replication company have room for my project in their work schedule, we’ll have the physical version of the album available by my birthday at the end of February.

Whew.

I hope you’ve had a Happy Holy Holly Day!  I have.

My mother’s cats are every bit as sweet as my cats are.

One of my pirate sisters suggested the other day, after seeing the images in this blog post, that I offer greeting cards for solstice of the images.  Kirk Lanier, my gracious photographer, told me that sounded great, gave his permission, and told me to sell a million.  Yesterday I went through the fairly friendly process of setting up a Zazzle store, and now I’ve got one greeting card and one notecard design posted!

This is the photo available on either a greeting card or a notecard right now.  Sorry we didn’t think of this in time for you to have them for the Solstice!  Next year.  ((nod-nod))

The store is currently very bare bones, but this is an experiment.  If Zazzle and I continue to get along, I will consider posting more designs and photos.  Maybe I can get my act together and actually share my years-long backlog of random photography with you all!

Check out my Zazzle store

I get about $1 for every card.  That’s not nearly as big a return as I get on CD sales or downloads, but I’m still looking forward to designing cards and stuff to share.

Other mundania:  The best friends are the ones who stop by with adorable toddler in tow to bring you homemade chicken soup when you’ve been sick.  Thank you, Melissa and Cora!!

New!kitty Gawain is still doing fine and has integrated himself into the household with hardly a bump.  Even Pooshka is mellowing about the situation- sources say the two boys were seen on the same couch together at one point.  Gawain’s main activities continue to be napping, purring, snuggling, and now playing!

Wintertime in Arkansas can be downright strange.  It’s a wild night outside as I write, safe indoors, listening to my wind chimes rock a wild ballet.  In spite of the impending winter solstice, I was outside in a t-shirt for part of the afternoon.  Weird.

Wild and windy nights fire creativity and magic.  I’ve had two very productive work shifts in my little recording studio over the past two evenings. (Yes, the cold is on its way out at last.  Thanks for the well-wishes!)  I’m closing in on completion of the new record, bit by bit.  It feels good, especially now that I’m down to working on the two songs which have intimidated me the most throughout this process.  It’s not that I worry I can’t do them justice, I just really really REALLY want to make them sound epic.

After tonight, I can honestly say I feel like I’m getting close.  Possibly even leveling up.

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