I'm not recording today because I'm too sick. Yesterday I wasn't quite so sick, so even though I definitely wasn't in total control of my voice, I did okay. Today I really feel like I'd be more of a hindrance to the process than a help.

By and large recording went well yesterday. The sops finally got a part of "In the Light" that they'd been having trouble with since the beginning of the song, and it sounded quite good. Apparently some of core was very dissatisfied with portions of the songs, but that's to be expected. I myself am very dissatisfied with plenty of stuff that they've signed off on in our final product, but that's fine. I've never been in a production where I wasn't dissatisfied with significant portions of the work, and there's no reason to start now.

The reason I feel I can say that is because I don't think the point of performance art is to create a good product so much as to create a product that the audience will appreciate. That much I think we've accomplished, and in any case I think that what we're going to be selling to people is the best we could do. Not the best the group is theoretically capable of doing, mind you, but our directors aren't stringent enough with us (and our coffers aren't full enough) to permit us to record the best we're theoretically capable of.

What about the argument that this CD is supposed to be a ministry tool? Well now, I'm not sure what I think of that. I certainly don't buy the argument that Christian music can be legitimately targeted at nonbelievers, or really even at seekers. So far as I've been able to determine, Christian music is nothing more than prophecy, and prophecies are not for unbelievers but for believers. If a song (and I'd like to point out that none of the songs we're doing is original, except for two original medleys of songs we didn't write) on our album is used to pique somebody's curiosity that's fine, but I still think it's a fallacy to target Christian music more at non-Christians than Christians.

As for the CD title ... well, I don't like it and I don't understand what it means, but I'm not going to protest it. We had a concept committee for a reason, and if the group is going to persist in running itself like a republic then it had best accept that republics have disadvantages as well as advantages. To challenge the title now is either to say that we won't accept the rules we laid down for ourselves or else to say that the concept committee failed to discharge its duties in good faith. I am prepared to do neither of those things. And, as I think about it, I own plenty of albums whose titles I wouldn't have picked. Center of My Universe? Speechelss? Behind the Eyes? Free to Fly? That doesn't mean I like the albums any more or less. Nor was I put off by the choice of album title; I bought those CDs because I like the music on them and I like the artists who made it. Which, I would argue, is precisely the reason that people will be buying our CD.

I finished Inner Restorations yesterday and was pretty proud of myself for coming up with 21 distinct healing spells. I think I'm going to shoot for 21 spells per field, plus any ideas that my players contribute or ideas that simply must be included beyond 21. This morning I brainstormed 21 spells for Inner Statics, the magic of earth and of binding, and I'm writing those up.