9/29/02 - CD Artwork

The CD artwork for Diogenes is nearly ready.

Paul Decker, who is the Silver Wheely in charge of photography, has taken some wonderful timed exposures of the San Francisco International Airport -- by night, from a hilltop overlooking the runway. From that vantage point you can see the runway lights, and planes taking off, and even some lights from across the Bay. We will be putting these shots to use for the Diogenes front cover, inside cover, and the CD itself. I'm really pleased to be getting this part of the project finished because that means the run of CDs at the plant can go ahead.

One of my favorite parts of preparing a new CD is getting the "special thanks to" list ready. Check and see if you're on it when the album comes out. :)

I'm practicing hard getting ready for my live show at CD Warehouse on October 19. It's my first since returning from Eugene. I have other shows in the works including one in San Jose over President's Day weekend 2003.

8/8/2002 - Back from Eugene and more great CDs

Hi! I'm back!

My parrot, Murphy, was really glad to see me. I was gone quite a while.

Jeff Davis and I worked very hard, and we accomplished a lot, completing Diogenes despite the notorious Oregon summer heat. Non-flute-players may not be aware that flutes are sensitive to temperature. When the day just got too darn hot, my flute wouldn't stay in tune, and it would be time to take a break until it cooled down in the studio. (By that time it was kind of hard to *think*, quite frankly...) After the cooling-off period we would resume and work until 10:00 or 10:30 at night.

I'm really proud of what I've recorded. This album will be head and shoulders above Summerland in every way. There is the airplane song you have all come to expect from me ("Tacit Blue"), some psycho Irish music ("Go Home"), several atmospheric poems-with-musical-background ("3 Visions", "Davenport", "Plaquemine Brulee"), some very tight experimental rock songs with (gasp) guitar in them ("Synaesthesia", "Cellular Hill", "John Mockingbird"), and more tunes devoted to mystical yearnings ("Three Quarters (Nubanusit & Contoocook)", "Romp Yello", "Relativity").

The new album will come out on February 4, 2003. I am relieved to have finished it. It's been on my mind for YEARS, as I was writing the songs that are on it. I've been focused pretty single-mindedly on making the CD for over a year. It actually feels really strange to be done and finished...Now what do I do? ;)

So anyway, I'm really proud and pleased.

In other news did I ever tell you I'm a big fan of the Sisters of Mercy? My favorites by them are "Floodland" (1987) and "Some Girls Wander By Mistake"(1983). Check them both out. You cannot really truly call yourself Gothic unless you have. :) (The Sisters don't want you to call *them* Gothic, though.)

6/8/2002 - First entry and essential CD list

Hi everybody. I'm not used to posting my journal entries on the web. I've been keeping journals pretty continuously since sixth grade, but I've never shared them with anyone. Putting stuff up here for y'all to read is gonna be a new experience. In italics and everything so it looks like handwriting. I don't think I'll be posting really often, but definitely whenever I have some news about my music I'll write something.

This is all actually coming about because the Silver Wheelies (a loose and fluid collective) wanted to put my top ten CDs of all time on the web site and they couldn't figure out where, so then the idea surfaced of me writing journal entries, and then the whole site got kind of revamped. So it's out of control, but anyway, here goes. :)

I'm Polly Moller, and I'm a little bit avant-garde, and a little bit rock-n-roll. I perform poetry, and I sing, and I program drum machines and MIDI, and I play the flute. I started playing the flute at a very early age figuring it would be a good way to meet guys. ;) It took 25 years and a couple of degrees before I realized I had miscalculated. I picked up the guitar and bass guitar awhile back in addition to the flute and that's gotten me much better results. ;) I write all my own stuff and do very few covers.

It looks as though I'll have my 3rd album, "Diogenes", finished in the very near future. I have sessions set up in Eugene, OR at the end of July with Jeff Davis at Lucky Dog Studio. There's a lot of work to be done but I think it can be completed quickly. The next task after that will be to pick a release date for the album.

Moving from my album to other people's albums, I wanted to share with you my top 10 CDs, which aren't in any order of importance. It is doubtful I could get along without any of these...check them out:

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire.
Many is the time I bawled and screamed my teenage heart out listening to this album.

Lackadaisy - Still Life
I used to produce and host a music video show and Lackadaisy performed live twice on it. Their music is as spare and cerebral as Talking Heads, and as lush and dark as the Cure. You should definitely own this album if you don't already.

Lida Husik - Joyride
This is another artist I learned about when I was making my video show. I just love her songwriting and her deep low voice.

King Chubby - Other Times
King Chubby and I had tracks on the same compilation CD, Distributed Shared Memory from Mindspore Records, back in 1996. King Chubby member Ed Bialek is a former student of Robert Dick who is also part of the band, along with Will Ryan. I really love their album and I enjoy listening to it right before I go to sleep. Go check out their web site (which is as dreamy and mysterious as the music) and get yourself a copy.

Nirvana - Nevermind
Since being gut-shot by people I trusted with my life, I feel like I understand this album a lot better now.

Oysterhead - The Grand Pecking Order
How could you possibly go wrong with a band consisting of Stewart Copeland, Trey Anastasio, and Les Claypool? Their combined musicianship is mind-boggling and the lyrics are bizarre. You need to own their CD. :)

Hot Rod - Speed Danger Death
This is another CD I found out about through my video show. The leader of the band is Paula Kelley, who since making this album in 1993 has gone on to lead the band Boy Wonder and take up a solo career.

U2 - The Joshua Tree
Listening to this one all the way through is still a deeply spiritual experience.

Golden Palominos - Pure
I kind of picked which Golden Palominos album at random. They are a big influence on me. I really really like Lori Carson's work with them and this is one of the two albums she did as a Palomino.

archy - archy
If you can get your hands on this one you won't be disappointed. It's the project of Michael Haumesser (who engineered, mixed, and mastered my first album) and Carl Daegling. I especially love artists that create their own uncompromisingly original sound-worlds and they certainly have done.