It's been a very busy, and very hot week at Bad Dog, Butler and Wittman. I've been recording some ditties for my play, and creating a crafty little song for my friend Kayte Terry's new BOOK: "PAPER MADE."

I did some recording right here at Bad Dog Enterprises with my trusty and brilliant pal Ben Butler. Very productive. The biggest problem is that whenever you are actually recording, all AC must cease. So the atmosphere is wildly fluctuating from bearable to suffocating between takes on these 94-degree-and-humid days.

But we are pros, and nothing will keep us from making MUSIC. So, onward to Brooklyn and Wittman enterprises! Ben B. and I had done most of the theatre songs....so Ben W. and I got to work on the crafty song. Kayte's new book is full of gorgeous and fun projects to make out of paper. You will never believe what you could do with your recycle bin!!

We had a BLAST! Kalimba, mandolin, guiro, clave, cuckoo background vocals. I can almost see the wacky video that will follow. You might remember Ben W. from those "Story" Records. Yup, co-producer, drummer, percussionist....

Pro-tools always looks like little fish trapped in a flat computer fish bowl world to me....thank goodness it always sounds way better than it looks, and no one gets hurt....

We kept it fun with a little retro "GO GO CRANKIN'"

Billy the Squam Owl came along for inspiration.

Embarrassing but true: headphones are always too big for my tiny head, so usually I have to use a slipper or a mitten to adjust where the headphones sit on my ears. Well, slippers-no-more. Billy was the perfect solution for these headphones. We even recorded a couple of brand new songs for the hell of it. And when we were getting faint from lack of AIR, we re-grouped by playing in Ben's son's world.

Brightly colored getaway vehicles, bouncy balls, books, toys, - everything you need for fresh inspiration.

Happy Fourth of July. Stay cool if you can. Or find someone with a POOL!!

jb