Finishing & Clearing Out

So, as the title suggests, the two main things on my mind at the moment are finishing and clearing out. By this I guess I mean:

Finishing - So this is kind of specifically referring to the music I've been working on recently. As you may know I've been working on recording an album since June last year. The original plan was just to record some old songs that I had knocking about and complete it all in the time I was in the UK last year. However things kind of grew from there and the more I recorded the more the material seemed to come out. Which is a great thing as one of the reasons for wanting to record all the old stuff was to allow me to get it out of my system and write new songs. However its now kind of got a bit stupid as Ive recorded over 20 songs now, have another 10 in the pipe and there's no way I'm going to be able to get all that on a single CD. So I've drawn a line under recording any new tracks and all my creative juices have to be focussed on finishing the album and whittling it down to approx 80 minutes! Now I know 80 minutes is a long time for an album but what the hell. I'm not song constrained and I just want to get some of this stuff out there! It's also a bit of challenge. Speaking to my mate Chris he threw down the gauntlet to name a decent double album. He's very much of the less is more camp where an album is no more than 11 tracks and the best live gigs are short and punchy. Obviously there are some great double albums (The Beatles White Album & Prince Sign of the Times for starters) but its a challenge none the less! But I guess there are also practical concerns for me in that I have to oversee the production of this little lot so I dont want to have spend my team churning out several little albums when I can bang it all out on one (well the best stuff anyway).

So thus far I'm about 5 tracks into finishing off a track listing not far off 20!

I'm also feeling the urge to try and finish writing a story I barely started last year while travelling. Its weird I keep getting these flashes of where the story needs to go next in the most mundane of situations... I kind of had a title for it as well "30" but then I realised the reason I wanted to call it that (that Im hiding for now) might make it a bit long. Instead I'm favouring "X" at the moment! LOL!

Clearing Out - So this is just tied into to my planned depature to Oz. I had thought that I'd got rid of most of the stuff I didnt need before travelling last year. However it seems a little ferret through drawers etc. constantly turns up stuff that I've been holding onto for years for truly no reason. And I think I must be becoming a bit of an ebay addict. Its good on so many levels.

1) There's a kind of spiritual tidyness about it - in letting go of things that you just dont need or really want - kind of like an ethical fen shui
2) It puts cash in your pocket
3) It reduces clutter
4) It takes things that are of no value to you and gives it to someone who values it - which is kind of nice in itself
5) Its plain old interesting to see what you can get for stuff

So far I'm £500 up and Ive sold nothing that I will miss! Now thats not bad going?