March 25th, 2002
Toronto, Ontario

Happy Spring!!! Had my first day in the studio recording the new album. What a day... George Koller came to play. He is AMAZING. George will be playing a multitude of different basses on about 8 tracks, I believe... and I have even convinced him to sing a Gregorian Chant. We'll be recording an excerpt from "O Quanta Qualia" a hymn written by Peter Abelard in the 12th century. Abelard is famed in history for his tragic love affair with the lovely young Heloise. Their secret (but not secret for long...) relationship lead to his eventual castration and their independent sequesterment (is that a word?) in a monastery and nunnery for life... The song is from a selection of hymns called "Hymn for Heloise" that Abelard wrote during their long separation. Back in the studio tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day...

October 19th, 2001
Toronto, Ontario

I'm in crazy Toronto at my dear friends Katie and Masina's house listening to the streetcars go crash-bang-boom outside the window. I am o so very tired and recovering from a long long long but amazing week. Had a great time at the OCFF conference last weekend and then intensely began working in the studio with my wonderful producer Ken Whiteley, bassist George Koller, drummer Davide Direnzo and an fiddle player Anne Lindsay. It was so great and everything sounds so amazing and I am so very elated right now. I'm gonna celebrate by having a big ol' bath in kt and m's giant beautiful bathtub and maybe sipping a wee bit of tequila while they're off at the bar watching Peaches sing. Tomorrow I'm heading back to London to see my parents off to Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan. But first, I need to zip down to Queen Street to score the one item I most desperately need to add to the aesthetic collection of my life...I mean, how can I resist a giant flaming pink mosquito net with crown velvet trim...impossible I think!!! I will be hiding out in London for the next month or so working hard on grant applications and writing writing writing...