Dear JC,

On 24 May you wrote that the re-mastered version of Positive would be available by 1 August of this year.
Well, it’s now the fifteenth and I’ve heard nothing about this for quite some time.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall that your last record was also delayed. And the one before that. And so was the one before that.

You know I support you, mate. But let me ask you: Why bother telling people about new albums if you never come anywhere near the target? Why not try putting out a new album after it’s done and not talking about it beforehand?

Hoisted on my own blog-petard. How embarrassing.

The raw truth is this: The sun got in my eyes. So it fell out of me bag on the way to school. And my dog ate it. And then things got really tough.

But seriously ladies and germs, there’s been the usual delays which result from trying to do too many darned things all at once and expecting everything to fall into place. Moving is one thing. The rip off of my drum set being another. The ongoing health crap.

That said, these are all just excuses and my correspondent’s points are all well taken. Unfortunately, in order to sell these coasters of sonic platinum, I kinda/sorta have to have goals. I need to set a time-line if only because I am desperately trying to target another frequent complaint from my most loyal fans. Which goes something like this old joke:

“JC, with your amazing marketing skills, if you’d have met Harlan Sanders back in the day? We’d now know the Colonel’s secret recipe as ‘Hot Dead Bird In A Box For Three Bucks’.”

Guilty as charged. I wanted ever so much to make this record different and not keep missing deadlines. Because the real truth is that if I want to sell this thing like it’s got “a secret blend of eleven herbs and spices” I gotta get it out to “the press” at least a month before it goes into production. It’s called lead time and it’s why I can’t just wait until I “get ‘er done, Larry.”

Anyhoo, rest assured things proceed apace. We’re probably looking at an October 1, 2010 ship date—still plenty of time to get ‘er done for holiday shopping and to stage a wee bit of a comeback tour. (Fingers crossed!)

I was gonna put in some specifically cool things I’m working on to make Positive Re-Mastered the greatest thing since this (Insanity or genius? You make the call!) but shame prevents me from making any other claims that may come back to bite me in the ass.

So for now, I’ll simply tell you that I’ll ping you back when I have more hard facts and fewer predictions on offer. I simply don’t want to oversell anymore.

I mean, seriously, if Positive Re-Mastered redefines the outer limits of beauty and profundity in recorded sound, it’s not something that I should be talking about ahead of time. Now is it?