Robert Wolter to Brian

5/6/05

hello there,

i am on tobi every two weeks and another inhaled antibiotic for the other two week and i am constantly bringing up junk. a lot more though as of late. i think it’s left over from a bad cold i got in the winter combined with my sinuses. but i think the summer will help me finally feel back to normal.

i’m playing with the weeds tonight (friday) at the tin angel again with One Star Hotel and Alvin Likes Apples. i think we are the opening act, but i could be wrong. i know the show starts at 9. i think it’ll be a good show, if you want me to put you on the guest list lemme know.

i would like to hear more novenas music sometime, when are you releasing a cd or anything? it was weird that night i emailed u i was looking for a word in the dictionary and i opened up right to novena.

i feel the same way u do about ric for certain bass players. they are really hard to find, good ones at least. melinda who plays w/me in shooting ropes is one of my favorites ever. she plays really simple but can lock up with me really well. i would love to record w/you if you had a day open or something. we are trying to work with a bunch of producers to get a feel for what kind of recording we want, so we figured if we could just do a song here and there with different people we might get some perspective. nothing too fancy or time consuming because we don’t have a lot of money to work with. but i really worry that being in close proximity to you with me having cepacia might be a bad idea. i’ll have to ask dr. lipson what he thinks.

anyways i’ve rambled for too long…i’ll talk to you lata,

bobby.

Brian McTear to me

5/6/05

Whats really weird for me (with my lungs) is that in the dryest, coldest point of the winter, I am clear as a bell. When warmer spells come around, or the spring, and the humidity creeps up I start to bringing stuff up. When I have been on tour, particulary in the high elevation dry places like Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, I feel very clear. On the east coast particularly in the Southern Coastal states (Alabama, Lousianna) the humidity drives me crazy. The other weird thing, like I think I mentioned before, is that I bring up more stuff during a course of Tobi, instead of it killing stuff off and lowering the amount in there.

Anyway, we’re screwed up…. I know I might have mentioned it before, but doing yoga regularly increased lung capacity by 10%. I always feel best when I am a few weeks or months into it. In doing yoga, (you probably already know this) you use breathing to get you from one position to the next. While in a position you keep the same steady breath. After a few minutes, I can breath freely throuh my nose. A few more and my lungs actaully feel wider. Of course, it is tough to work 12 to 15 hour days, get up in the morning, inhail whatever we are supposed to inhail, and THEN do a half hour of yoga… But really, nothing has made a greater difference in my well being than it has. Right now, I am not doing it. Getting started is hard. But I have gone months at a time and they have been the healthiest months of my adulthood.

I would like to see the show tonight, but I am starting an album today with Espers, and think it will go late. I think we could definitely record together, we just have to take precautions. Its not just you, you know. I am sure that my brand of shit in my lungs is potentially just as dangerous to you as yours is to me. I know, I don’t want to deal with cepacia, but I am pretty sure that adding mine to yours would be a bad idea too.

Having said all that, we are mostly booked (almost solid) until the end of the Summer. Then we are moving to Fishtown (much closer to home). We are having the new place built this Summer. Its all very exciting. (There is a yoga studio between our house and the new space). I am sure Amy and I could make the type of record you want to  make. We just have a knack for it. No one ever comes in and says, “this is all just going in the wrong direction…” And as far as money goes, if and when the time comes, I will tell what we charge people, you will tell me what you can afford, and we’ll all figure out how to make it happen. I just know that at some point we have to do it. I love what I have heard of the Weeds, I am sure I would love Shooting Ropes, and you and I just have so much in common that we have to make a record some time. You will love Amy, too. She is very quiet. She sets up and breaks down mics, keeps notes (and doodles all over them) the whole time. The two of make a great team while tracking a record.

Give me your address. I will ask Amy to send you the CD (4 songs) we have of the Novenas.

Great hearing from you, as always. (Sorry this is long winded, too).

B