Making ready for a gig in Himeji tomorrow.  Its gonna be a blast!  Me and 250 nurses, and most of them will be "up in age."  This is a year-end party or "bonenkai" in Japanese.  A time for people who work together to celebrate the end of another year and bond together for the coming one.

These are the kind of events I'm wanting to do more of...private parties, company parties, events, etc.  Not only is it a huge chance to sell CDs and meet people but its always a pleasure for me, even though it sometimes involves carrying the entire sound system as well as keyboards.  In this case they will supply a grand piano so the bulkiest  piece of gear will already be there.

Contemplating recording this performance as a present to my daughter and family back home.

The 23rd will be the whole nine yards.  A Christmas party, mostly for children at an elite horse club in Osaka.  I'll bring keyboards and the entire sound system but my whole setup is much lighter now, still packing a punch of over 1000 watts but powered speakers, and a new keyboard by Korg, the Kross which is weighted and a full 88 keys yet light as a feather.  I got tired of pulling my back out carrying my massive (but passive) JBLs and the usual keyboard I use in the studio.  Took plenty of time to test all the stuff last month and its good to go.  Best of all, I get to bring my two daughters to the party, something we haven't done in a couple of years.

As the year ends I've been working on the remix of "Best Thing to Come," with Imagine already finished.  In the process of the remix, learning a lot about the expensive but effective gear I got for these purposes and getting more clarity and definition from my sound.  But I have a few pieces here that need more testing and that I need to become more adept with, so there's a lot of studio time that is needed.

There is a new release in the near future.  I still have a lot of standards to cover before I can do more originals.

Also completely changing the way I play and learning to create more space for the vocals...not playing so much piano.  Its an issue of timing the piano parts to stay out of the way of the voice.  That all has to do with some issues I had, trying to prove I can play 3 parts at the same time, but overdoing it.  The pianist part of me is kind of overzealous so, just teaching him to lay back in the pocket some more.

Totally immersed in study although my facebook image has me looking like my life is one big party, heheh.

For me its, self improvement, spiritual growth sound design, mixing and making my home environment more orderly.

As the year end approaches, still continuing my plan to work smarter, relax and enjoy the process more.