Arcosanti and the Arconaughts

Good day, good readers!

For the second song, we recorded at Arco Santi, an experimental town in the deserts of Arizona overlooking a rugged canyon. We arrived at eleven and found our guide who didn't want to be filmed but was kind enough to take us through Paulo Solari's unique architecture which looks a bit like the digs that the simians from Planet of the Apes lived in. We were taken past the bell foundry and ceramics labs where the small community of sixty maintain their meager but comfortable existence through the gift shop. Spike had dreams that night of shrinking monkeys. Personally, my dreams that night were laced with images of Ben from Lost bursting into my room with a gas mask on. There is a kind of Dharma Initiative vibe about the place which of course gave way the next day when we me the Others.....

The following day, we set up the studio in the outdoor shelter of two enormous arches and waited while our team picked up our collaborator, Cindy and her boyfriend Jerry in Phoenix. Clark started making a jazzy little ditty now called 'everything is useful' that he thought Cindy might be comfortable singing. In the wait, I came up with another less appropriate track we might eventually get to in the trip.

When Cindy and Jerry arrived, I was taken by how sweet and energized about this crazy ass project she was. She had some reservations about doing this, but after meeting Merritt and our team, they quickly melted to zero and she was completely onboard, even co-writing the lyrics. After recording a couple of passes we tried unsuccessfully to hypnotize Jerry who has been Cindy's accompaniment for years to add to our song. That said, I think they both really had a good time and I felt strangely touched by working with Cindy. She carries with her not an ounce of pretense, which is a very refreshing change from the the pool we usually swim in. Being a friday night, we were allowed to play till midnight, but around eleven the Arconauts started arriving with beers in hand so we stopped and joined in the shenanigans.

We are now on the road heading toward the Grand Canyon where we'll continue our movie-making which we are doing between songs to ease tensions (except poor Marcin who has to film it all). Oh, I almost forgot. Our movies. Last night, there were these CRAZY goatlike sounds coming from every drain in Doctor Suess land. We finally caught one of the little culprits in the act of hopping through our makeshift studio after an insect. Yes, frogs. Little guys issuing these enormous belches. So anyway, our movies today revolved around utilizing the frog sound in absurd ways. The place we are staying tonight is in a supposedly haunted caboose in Williams and then tomorrow recording in a boxcar in Madrid Arizona. Nobody has ever been killed by a ghost, right?

Carsick,
Nathan