My Life is a Perfect Graveyard of Buried Hopes

SUNN O)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

2009-07-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, heck yeah! you better believe I'm gonna try to make this show. I need to make sure to find my black hooded robe.

also

2009-07-10T19:01:00.001-07:00

Greatest picture ever? I think so.

Filler post I guess

2009-07-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

should I get a haircut or just be lazy and let it get a little bit longer? mountain man style? I'm not really prolific when it comes to blogging.....I just get too distracted to do a really long post I guess. Or all I ever want to post about is music. So haircut or no haircut?

music.....what else?

2009-06-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to a lot of country music. All kinds. I kind of think that country music is best experienced by people whose dreams didn't come true. Or maybe that have a real internal sadness. or maybe it's just the impression that I get.

Rockin' It Old School

2009-06-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

PLUS

EQUALS......

my new commute to work. I am so excited!!!!! I found an old Walkman at my work and I've uncovered a handful of old country cassettes (music from the 50's, cassettes are not quite that old though). And I've begun making my own mix cassettes transferring from my vinyl collection songs that are not available elswhere. Woo hoo I can't wait!!! My plan is to park my car at work, since I'll need it to go on errands while at work, and to throw some wonderful old cassettes into the walkman and bike it to work. It's only about a mile so it's not gonna be much exercise, but I will be saving gas and it'll be fun. If any one has any cassettes or wants to make me a mix tape please let me know, I will give you my address. Remember how much fun making mix tapes used to be. Doing everything in real time and making sure the levels were correct and you could do your own edits.....it's just so romantic. Please, send me mix tapes. They can be anything you want or like. I just enjoy the romance of it. I might even be able to find my box of cassettes when we go through our storage unit..........

I talk to animals while I'm driving

2009-05-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

....well, really only the ones that are attempting to cross the street while I'm gunning straight for them. I constantly find myself saying out loud "Hey little squirrel, you better be careful or you're going to get hit" or "jump up on that curb quick before more cars come". And it's not only squirrels but cats and dogs and raccoons and birds too. They really need to be more careful. I hate the thought of hitting an animal with my car. I always slow down if there is an animal in the road. Except maybe for birds because they usually fly out of the way in the nick of time, not always though. I also find myself practicing my Scottish accent while I'm motoring around town. I'm sure my fellow roadies out there think I'm talking to myself and I must confess that I often am reliving conversations I've had earlier that day, but this time in a scotsman's accent. I know, I'm pretty cool.....well, you don't have all the information. Here is a picture of me right now at noon on Saturday. I've already had 3 double espresso's and two cups of coffee. And I'm still pretty tired. Ok, back to work now. If you have any funny things that you do while you are driving please comment.

We've got names picked out

2009-04-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

I have baby fever. It doesn't help that my friends Maggie & Josh have the most adorable daughter and they post about all the cute and sometimes messy situations she finds herself in. They update this blog daily and it is definitely worth checking out. I've known Maggie for 12 years now I think. I haven't known Josh for 12 years. Also, Maggie my Van Morrison cd's are in the one box I can't get to in my storage unit and the only one I have on the computer right now is Moondance. Do you want me to burn it for you? I'm sure the Los Angeles Public Library can get you a copy of Astral Weeks. Tupelo Honey is also amazing as is the song "T.B. Sheets" which is on an early singles compilation or something.

Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck

2009-04-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

currently obsessed with this theme song

I love being a turtle!

2009-04-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

I can't help it
when I'm driving down the road and I see one of these ugly vehicles
I automatically think it's this wonderful vehicle
It reminds me of the level in the NES TMNT 2 video game where you're on the skateboards riding superfast on the freeway and your jump kicking helicopters that are shooting you and the helicopters are blowing up.....just from the power of your kicks. But at the end of the level you're in the turtle van and it drives off the side of the road!!!!!!
I think after that maybe some bad guys take Splinter and you need to rescue him from Baxter the Fly.
I love that game.

the way you look at life, in your funny way

2009-01-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

There are some musicians that I would love to see collaborate.
It would be amazing if Daniel Lanois produced a Lucinda Williams album. All of his beautiful pedal steel soundscapes and her gritty gorgeous voice. Just listen to the Lucinda songs "West" or "Over Time" and then the Daniel Lanois album Belladonna and imagine the two of them working together.......aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.

Who would you like to see collaborate?

hey toast, it'll be a breeze

2009-01-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

working

2009-01-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

Hello, so I'm at work. But I figured maybe I should blog. I feel like I'm in a creative rut at the moment. Maybe it's all the television shows I'm trying to watch and all the records I'm trying to listen to and the lists and books.....or maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed.
So I'm going to try to do one creative activity everyday. Today I cut out two stencils for my next t-shirt I'm going to make. The shirts I make are pretty simple, usually just a hand-cut stencil and some spraypaint. If you want me to make one for you, just email me an image and I'll do my best. Oh and maybe a shirt in your size.
I also want to learn to crochet ( I think either Amy, my mother, or the Guzzler will help me with this) or maybe Michelle will help me.
Maybe my creative activity will be using Pro Tools more often, or writing a song and recording it. I don't know. Whatever, like I said I feel kind of in a rut and I'm frustrated......sigh.
Also
I've been listening to some country music lately (pop country on occasion) and it makes me feel sad in a way that no other music makes me feel. Strange how it makes me want to evaluate my life and the choices I've made. Bizarre. I love traditional country music, or old-timey country music like Loretta Lynn, Pasty Cline, Dwight Yoakam.
hahahahahahaahahaha
I'm not lame
Also, I kind of want to start a record club. Get together with friends once a week or month or whatever and listen to one record and just hang out and drink some whiskey and just relax. Is anyone interested in starting this with me?
I'll post a picture of my new shirt later this week as soon as I bust out the spray cans and paint it. It is an edition of 1.
Here is a song that I love very much (the video is nothing, just pictures)

Movie post

2009-01-08T19:49:00.001-08:00

So here is a short post of the movie groups I'm involved in right now. Purely for enjoyment I'm watching:
the entire Friends series with my mom and Amy
the entire Twin Peaks series with Daniel and Jenae
every Criterion Collection movie (there are almost 500 of them)
Planet Earth with my parents
plus movies that I want to watch for my own enjoyment and not just to fulfill some kind of crazy list type thing
as well as movies that Amy and I watch together.
and then there's work, music, driving, reading, hanging out with friends and family....do other people do these types of things? or am I just crazy?

here is a music video for an amazing band. have fun!

In Heaven Everything is Fine

2008-12-31T19:32:00.000-08:00

Peter Ivers wrote this song for David Lynch's Eraserhead, sung here by Laurel Near. There is a book on the mysterious death of Peter Ivers which I just requested from the library, can't wait. The Pixies cover this song, but somehow not as well done as the girl in the radiator.

like all my posts, random and pointless

2008-11-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

So the weather is finally getting chilly. I'm wearing a light jacket everytime I step outdoors. To me this weather means it's time to have a Samurai movie marathon. I'm talking Samurai Spy, Samurai Rebellion, Harakiri, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Onibaba....it's gonna be amazing. Anyone that wants to join me in the fun please let me know. We can watch them at my place or I can bring some over.
What else?
Oh, I've decided I want to become ambidextrous. I'm tired of my left hand being almost completely useless. Just think, I could potentially write two different emails at the same time using both laptops. Brush my teeth for twice as long when my right hand gets fatigued. Eat two pieces of toast simultaneously, hold one in each hand and take alternating bites.

Things I still need to post about:
-Tattoos (my thoughts and current plans for a new one)
-Siblings (mine and why I love them and think they're awesome)
-Abraham Lincoln (my admiration of him and how I'm tiring of the Obama/Lincoln comparisons)
-Vinyl (specifically what I love about it)
-Southern Lord record label and they're dedication to the art of vinyl releases
-The weird nostalgic funky mood/depression I've been in for 6 months and the....well, whatever

also, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Does anyone know the origins of the holiday? And is it strange to celebrate something out of tradition if it's roots are bad?
also, pretty excited about the double cd live Boris (pictured above)

I love vinyl

2008-11-01T14:35:00.001-07:00

I'm a pretty picky person when it comes to music. It makes it hard for people to buy me gifts sometimes because generally what I want is limited edition and has to be ordered from some special secret laboratory......ok, I'm a pain in the booty. So sometimes Amy lets me order my own gifts which may not sound like fun, but it's better for me than stressing out about not getting something special before it's out of print.
So here's what I ordered for myself for Chrismas from Amy:
Earth - the bees made honey in the lion's skull limited edition of 980 on double gold vinyl mailorder only from Southern Lord. 980 doesn't sound too limited, but it'll go fast. The double vinyl can be picked up in stores, but it won't be on gold vinyl and it's still limited to 4,000 copies.

Can't Hardly Wait!

2008-11-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

I get more and more excited about seeing this movie!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not gonna lie

2008-10-30T20:11:00.001-07:00

I haven't felt much like posting lately. I'm not sure why. There's things going on in my life right now for sure. I went to San Francisco with my work for the 125th AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention.
But I haven't really been too interested in posting about it. I had a great time, and it was definitely kinda a boy's club type of experience. I don't know if that's the correct word for it. How would Michael Scott say it? Probably like this: An Hour Long Shower with Guys, no wait, A Guy's Afternoon in, A GAI. I love that guy. I've been reading a lot lately. One of the people I worked the soundboard with at Modified Arts turned me on to Bret Easton Ellis, who I think is incredible. So I've been reading his books. 3 out of 6 so far.
The weather is finally turning colder. I want to wear orange everyday because of the season. Although I only own 5 orange shirts (hahahahahahahaahahahahhaahah, actually that's kind of a lot for just one person to own I guess!) I'm wearing one right now actually. My PHX Suns shirt, underneath my ripped up button up shirt. Actually the Suns are playing New Orleans right now so I'm gonna go watch part of it. I promise I'll blog for real soon. I need to. I need toast.

McMurray

2008-10-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

I have a friend named Michael. We met at Michael's Arts & Crafts in Phoenix, AZ in the frame department. We started hanging out because we both like Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams. We started hanging out and watching movies together, going on hikes. We even went to the snow one time at Four Peaks.
One day Michael completely changed my life when he brought Shaun of the Dead over to my apartment to watch. I'll admit, I didn't love it at first....you might even say that I didn't like it. But we started going to the movies together to watch zombie flicks. This is something I had never done before. I guess I kinda considered myself above all the gore and the slow-moving undead.
After a while though I started thinking about my plan of attack for when the zombies invade. I started thinking of where the safest place would be to hide and possibly live for the rest of my life. Now I think about zombies everyday. Literally. and Shaun of the Dead is one of my all-time favorite movies. I put it on when I'm sad, or melancholy or I just wanna laugh, or I don't want to pay attention to what's happening on the screen.
So thanks Michael, for being awesome. I truly look forward to the day when you and I have to defend ourselves and our loved ones from zombie attacks.
Here are a couple of cool links for you zombie lovers.
Zombie Pin-up Calendar (Angela would probably love this)
Stuffed Animals that came back from the dead!!!!

I like Cats

2008-10-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

my brother emailed me this funny and short video about how strange cats are. Or how cats are less better than dogs????? maybe????? I think it's pretty funny.

Zombie movies....sometimes you lose

2008-10-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

I just watched the entire Resident Evil trilogy. Yeah, I knew it was gonna be lame, but I didn't realize how lame it was gonna be. Here is what Roger Ebert had to say about it:

"Parents: If you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children."

He is pretty funny sometimes

Also, I should do a real post one of these days. You know, a post about my feelings, or Fall, or my siblings or tattoos or work or real life.
It'll happen one day I promise
Here is a picture of me at work today, I'm wearing layers (and yesterday's clothes)

It makes me happy

2008-09-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

or just makes me want to drive.....anywhere, everywhere with the windows down, off a cliff into the sea or just along the coast. Anyways, I've been obsessed with this song for a while now and here is a live clip of it.

Christmas Wishlist Item

2008-09-06T16:29:00.001-07:00

I know it's kinda early to ask for Christmas gifts, but this is a limited edition triple vinyl set that could be out of print by the time December rolls around.....so I thought I'd just put the word out there.

So Excited!

2008-09-02T07:48:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite movies! Finally!

robot

2008-09-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know that I am supposed to post about tattoos and my strong feelings about them, but this is not that post. This is just a quick one about the next tattoo I'm gonna get and if anyone knows any good artists that would be able to draw something like this.
A robot blasting off into the air (with some fire or something shooting out the bottom of his boots) one arm in the air a la Superhero guy, in the other hand a frying pan with bacon & eggs cooking (the bacon needs to look tasty) and a metal piece of toast for a heart on the outside his metallic body. Probably some other stuff too, but that's all I've got for right now. It's gonna be on my left forearm and I would like for it to take up the entire forearm. Also, I would like to try to.....oh nevermind, I think I'll get in trouble for saying that. ahahahhahahahahahahhaah........aaaahhhhh.
Also included is this Bishop picture. You can't tell, but I haven't showered yet today (it's only 8:37 am) and I don't plan on it. POW! BAM!

Labor Day

2008-09-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hey I'm in Bishop right now.....getting internet at the Looney Bean Coffee Shop on Main Street. It's 8:14 am, and I'm drinking dark roast coffee. Not out of a mug though, out of a heavy cardboard cup or disposable paper cup or whatever it's called. I think I prefer to drink out of mugs when I get coffee-for-here in a coffee shop, I don't know why. And when they have just a rag-tag collection of random mugs and you get a crazy one about the best way to eat lobster, or an all pink mug, whatever, it just feels really homey served in a mug. Other than that, though this is a really nice place, with some tables and comfy leather chairs by the windows and free wi-fi. The drive to Bishop was nice, listened to M83, The Beach Boys, Ben Folds, Robbie Fulks and Paul Burch. We drove past my grandparents old house. I haven't been to that house in maybe 16 years. It's still beautiful. There is a stream that runs down the entire length of the street in front of all the houses and almost every property has a pond in the front yard, and with the running stream the water isn't stagnant or gross. Spent yesterday afternoon hanging out with my Grandma Sheila (it's her birthday today) doing puzzles and playing Scrabble, reading a little bit (finished Winter of our Discontent) and watched part of Psycho (the original, not the remake). I'm not sure what the plan is for today. I think my cousin Lisa and her son Darren are gonna stop by for lunch. Probably finish the puzzle that my Grandma and I started, then in the early evening leave for home. Music for the ride home: Idlewild, Aretha Franklin, Belle & Sebastian, some other stuff I forget what is actually in the car.

topics

2008-08-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

This is a reminder blog of things to blog about:
a) Blog about living alone
-buying records instead of food
-falling asleep on the couch everynight
b) My, apparently, strong feelings on tattoos
-if you can't ever figure out what you want or try to find a tattoo that sums up your life you are putting too much thought into it.
c) My siblings

that's it for now I guess
I need to not forget to blog about this

I'm not afraid

2008-08-08T08:35:00.002-07:00

I don't mind killing spiders. I don't know if I feel that it's my duty as a man or maybe it's just because Amy doesn't like to do it, but I find myself grabbing a wad of papertowels, napkins, toilet paper or tissues (not necessarily kleenex brand). I've killed a lot more spiders now that we're back in CA than when residing in AZ. I probably killed literally 2 spiders for the 5 years and 12 days that I lived in AZ. I easily kill that amount in single day in southern California. I was once bitten by a black widow spider on my finger when I was younger. I had been playing with some toys in the backyard and I got bit. Nothing serious happened. Ok, but back to my original thought: I am not afraid to kill spiders. Unless.........I see a dead spider. The ones that are just hanging dead in a web, and it looks like they're bodies have been sucked dry. That's when I get the chills because I'm positive there must be a bigger, scarier spider lurking nearby.

There are 3 ninjas on this page

2008-08-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

When I was maybe 8 or 9 I was pretty obsessed with ninjas and ninja turtles and swords and karate like most boys that age. My dad made me a couple pairs of nunchucks out of wood and some chain (which I'm sure is not the proper material to attach the two wooden sticks, but it was good enough at the time). He also built me a treehouse pretty high up in a pine tree in our backyard and my friends and I would have sleepovers and stay up all night hoping for some mischief on our quiet street. It was around this time that a mysterious catalog showed up at our door, a catalog that consumed my every thought for the next couple of years. This treasure map to my heart was filled with swords and grappling hooks and spiked gloves for scaling walls and climbing up trees and every type of ninja weapon or aid you could think of. I spent hours everyday rifling through it's pages, circling the items that I couldn't live without, showing my friends and thinking of all the stealthy possibilities of the life of a suburban pre-teen ninja. I wish I still had this catalog, maybe I'd order a grappling hook just for memories sake. When you're 9 your allowance isn't really enough to pay for weapons, unfortunately.
It was also around this time that I would make my own catalogs/magazines. I would page through the JC Penny Christmas catalogs and cut out the toys and clothes that I wanted and gluestick them to a few pages that I had folded together. This served two functions: 1) Easier to carry around and show everyone I met all the cool stuff I wanted and 2) It made it very convenient for my parents to see what I most desired to receive that Christmas.
I don't really do that anymore, the closest I would come to that is looking through a catalog for an independent record label such as Bloodshot or Drag City Records, but with the internet and wishlist's, the homemade JC Penny catalog is kinda obsolete.

Gang Activity

2008-08-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Amy and I are part of a 2 person gang: The Shotguns. One of the many ways that the Shotguns contribute to society is to do fun things with old people. So last week I decided to follow through with this plan by going to Bishop, CA to see my grandmother. Grandma Sheila is my mom's mom and she lives in a small one bedroom apartment in beautiful Bishop. I haven't been to Bishop in probably 8 years (last time I went I fell asleep on a rock for like 2 hours and woke up incredibly sunburnt; which reminds me of another Shotguns story) and it's been maybe 7 months since I've seen my grandma. So I drove up there on Wednesday morning in my new car and when I got to my grandma's house we played Scrabble after a short while of visiting. Then we started a puzzle. Then we watched her programs which include: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, So You Think You Can Dance & America's Got Talent. It was my first time watching the Dance show and second time watching Talent. Even though the dancer's were very talented, the shows still hurt my heart and I'm glad that I don't watch them on a regular basis. I picked up dinner from BBQ Bill's Restaurant (open face Beef Tenderloin sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy) and we had a fun night of puzzles, programs and visiting. I went to bed around 11 and fell asleep reading. When I woke up we visited and watched the news and my Aunt Susie stopped by for a short visit. More puzzling and pizza bread for lunch and then I headed home around 12:30. I had a nice drive home, just did a lot of thinking and probably talking to myself and singing. Got home and decided to go to the beach. So Hazel and I packed up the car really quickly and headed out to Pointe Doom to watch the sunset. That is just a little glimpse into the gang activity of The Shotguns.

Sunday at the Echoplex

2008-08-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

yep, pretty excited to see these guys again.

888

2008-08-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

Yes! Only one week away. 88 drummers playing at LaBrea Tar Pits, limited tickets available and I got one! This should be a pretty incredible and possibly confusing thing to witness and I'm glad that I will be there. Click the above link for details.

I've got dreams to remember

2008-07-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that I love great white sharks. I am going to save my money to go to the Farallon Islands outside of San Francisco and go in a shark cage to see some great whites. Probably in a couple of years I will have the money saved and take the time off for a two days of almost getting eaten by 20 foot man-eaters. I'm pretty excited that something like this is so close to home.

$6.48 at Burbank One-Dollar Bookstore

2008-07-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

In tribute to a post that my friend McMurray always does (which is super fun for me to read, and always get a little jealous when people buy new music) here are the latest treasures I found:

Ride - Nowhere

Ride - Smile

Slowdive - Souvlaki limited edition

Drag City Supersession (feat. Jim O'Rourke, Edith Frost, Bill Calahan etc.)

Sloan - One Chord to Another limited edition with bonus live disc

Jellyfish - Bellybutton

and for $0.49 on Amazon.....Paul Westerberg's new album 49:00

All business

2008-07-20T19:42:00.001-07:00

Proof that my wife is crazy and that she is not always mad. She is also cute.

Chumbucket

2008-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

This morning Amy and I went to malibu. We just decided yesterday that it would be nice to get up in the morning and head out to the coast for a few hours. I was pretty excited to see some sharks. We were driving and were trying to find the perfect shark beach when we came across the State Beach called "Point Doom"!!!!!!! Perfect! There will definitely be some great whites prowling this beach. After we were there for about 30 minutes we hadn't seen any sharks so I cut off Amy's arm and threw her in the water as bait.....because sharks like blood. Unfortunately we didn't see any sharks, but we did see a kite that was shaped like a shark. Then we drove home.

new car

2008-07-18T18:11:00.001-07:00

I bought a car today. It's a 96 Honda Accord DX Sedan. It's nice. I'll do a full post on it when I've got it all cleaned up and can take pictures to post.

Upcoming Shows!!!

2008-07-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of a little place called the Echo? It's a little place in Los Angeles. I've only been there once, but I saw Ellliott Smith for the 4th and last time before he killed himself and he debuted a lot of the material that was to appear on the Basement album. My brother has been there a handful of times; he saw The Thermals there which is now a Thermals live album and he saw Boris there, two of the songs from the show appeared as a download only addition to the Smile album, Nels Cline....it's just a fantastic place. Here are a few of the upcoming shows that I hopefully will be attending:
A Hawk and A Hacksaw

Boris

Bob Log III

The Night Marchers

The New Year

and...........

WIRE!

The Champ, it's a fake name

2008-07-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

All of my regular blog readers probably remember that I recently acquired my dream car. Sometimes things are just too good to last, sometimes the moment you've made a hasty decision you realize it. I was turning left onto Angeleno from First Street. The light was yellow and the person who hit me didn't see me even though the car on his left had stopped because the light was turning red. Unfortunately for me, according to the law drivers turning left at an intersection always have to yield to oncoming traffic. So even though all other oncoming traffic had stopped, since the light was still yellow and my turn was almost complete the Chevy Tahoe was in the right. I feel sore, but no major injuries. I might have some microfractures in my left wrist, but those don't always show up immediately on an x-ray, so I'm wearing a wrist brace for now. Luckily, I already had the weekend off. Oh, I was listening to the Cure's Faith album at the time. Maybe I'm being punished for my vanity.....everyday I looked at my car and thought how beautiful it was and how I wanted to keep it forever. This is 1/2 of what Amy's post is referring to.

explosions

2008-06-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

I guess I just enjoy guitar violence. Does that make sense? Guitars so heavily affected and noisily played that it no longer sounds like guitar. Agata from Melt-Banana plays like this as does Kazayuki K. Null from Zeni-Geva. I don't know why I like this. I've been meaning to blog about my extreme love for avante-garde experimental/improvisational music, but I've been lazy.

youtube some videos for agata solo guitar stuff or whatever. it's interesting and loud.

I was born already born, be prepared

2008-06-19T08:01:00.001-07:00

V-neck shirts. Are they exclusively for old men? I'm also wearing brown polyester pants.....or slacks.....well, I got them from Boot Barn which is a cowboy store. So they're cowboy pants, officially. My v-neck white t would be more believable if I had more than 12 chest hairs.

Magnetic Tape: Do Not X-Ray

2008-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched Be Kind Rewind with the family. One of the greatest movies ever!!! Michel Gondry is a genius. You can tell that the people in this film had fun with the homemade effects (one of Gondry's strengths) and that Michel probably got the idea for this script from making his own movies. Definitely made me want to purchase an old video recorder and cast all of my friends and remake some of my favorite movies.

cross one wish off my list

2008-06-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

on monday morning I'm gonna get a gold tooth! Finally! Well, it's only partially gold. It's a porcelain crown with a gold band around it. And it's the second tooth from the back on my upper right. so it's not a gold tooth next to my front chompers, but it's still pretty good. Probably the only gold tooth that I could get without Amy wanting to kill me.

I'm Way Behind

2008-06-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

I was gonna try and watch all of the films in the Criterion Collection before the end of the year and I haven't watched a single one in 3 months. Shoot.

An Accident Implies That No One's at Fault

2008-05-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the Hollies "Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse" on my way down I-5S towards work when I was rear-ended. It's my first time being in a traffic collision. Luckily, my car only has a small (barely noticeable) dent in the rear bumper and the guy's truck didn't sustain any damage at all. We traded insurance info and then I headed off to work. Later on that day I was stuck in traffic for 3 hours on my way to Costa Mesa....however, I took the roundabout way to avoid the 33 collisions on the 5. I took 134 to 210 to 57 to 5 to 55. The 57 is incredible. It had been raining on and off all day, so the sun would peek it's head out of the clouds every once in a while, 57 is windy with mountains on both sides and it heads towards the Angels Stadium. I was listening to the Cure "Disintegration". Incredible record.

if only my life was like this

2008-05-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

"hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile"
what an incredible line. might be my favorite song lyric ever.
what's yours?

To A Wonderful Mum!

2008-05-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Ok, well this is a day early, but I don't think you'll check my blog for a few days. You are such a wonderful mother. I appreciate that you've spent your life trying to make your children happy and make sure that we have the necessary skills and education to get on in our own lives. You've been an extremely caring person that shares your life and ideas and love of life with us. I hope you have a great day and realize how special you are to so many people.
I love you.

Huzzah!

2008-05-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that Amy and I live together again. It has been over 3 months since we've been roomies and tonight Amy will be officially living in CA again! Too bad I have to work tonight, so I won't be here to greet her. But I do have tomorrow off (happy mother's day!) and I took Monday off so I could take her to work and pick her up since I know where the building is.
I have all these fun plans in my head now that Amy will be here. Hiking at least once a week, day trips to the dinosaurs and middle earth area (outside of Palm Springs off I-10).
The living situation/plan is to stay with my parent's for a few months while we get money issues sorted and then find a small apartment, or convince our wonderful friend Michelle to move to CA and room with us.
Love you tiny Amy, can't wait 'til I see your pretty face tonight.
xo

My favorite food

2008-04-25T18:35:00.001-07:00

I love salad. It's my favorite food.

Here are the four Andrew's

there are worse things in life than never being someone's sweetie

2008-04-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

I've been bringing home a few boxes from AZ when I come back from my trips....and I wanted to bring all the CD boxes home, but specifically all the M's because I've been wanting to listen to Morrissey. And that is the only box of cd's that I forgot. What a bummer.

Dragon Force

2008-04-13T22:56:00.001-07:00

I didn't mean to post 2 You Tube clips of the same music video by the horrible band Dragon Force. but watch for that one hilarious part.

Dream Car Etc.

2008-04-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post about my new car. It's an '89 Acura Legend. It's awesome. I've always wanted a four-door car (I've only had an old clunker truck and a Saturn Coupe). It's an old luxury style car and all boxy......I love it.

What else? Amy has been sending me links to apartments in the Los Angeles area to check out and so far 2 of them have been the Missionaries in Africa scam. So weird.

My mom just got a new shelving/case type unit for the kitchen. She bought it off Craig's List.

I've been on a 90's music kick.....listening to bands like Sloan, that dog., Velocity Girl, The Autumns, Teenage Fanclub, it's been great, just kinda rough around the edges guitar pop. and beautiful harmonies, definitely worth checking out these bands if you grew up listening to them, but haven't put the records on in a while.

I played Guitar Hero for the first time today. I'm rubbish, but there is this really hard (and horrible) song by some band called Dragon Force. I looked up one of their videos on You Tube....just watch 'til about 20 seconds in when the singer catches the microphone that has been spinning in the air towards him.....I laugh every time, it's completely ridiculous.

That's about it. My mouth has really been hurting so I'm only sleeping a couple of restless hours per night. And the new Boris album is available for pre-order with bonus DVD and 7" etc. The japanese version features different artwork and a completely different mix from the domestic version.

depressed

2008-04-05T11:59:00.001-07:00

I'm not gonna lie, I miss Amy all much. I don't have a lot of energy to do much right now except work and drive out to see her.

Jumped the fence.

2008-03-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is a little tribute to the friendliest box turtle in the world....Betsy! Sadly, today we found her empty shell in the wood pile behind the new shed. My family doesn't know how she died, but it looks like it was from natural causes as there is no damage at all done to her shell.

I can't remember how old I was when we got her from my Uncle Steve, but I remember coming home from Bishop with her and a Generation X greatest hits CD had arrived for me at the library, so I'm guessing I was in 10th grade, maybe 9th. Wow that was a long time ago. Box turtles tend to be really anti-social since they have a hinge on the front of their shells and they can shut out the world at any time, but not Betsy. She would come out in the mornings and walk up to my mom and eat worms and some food my mom had prepared for her. Here are some cute pictures of Betsy and one of her babies that she had a couple years ago.

Little Eleanor

2008-03-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I drove out to Calabassas to visit my old friends Josh and Maggie and their tiny little cutie Eleanor Marie. Eleanor is 3 months old and adorable. We had some terrific Mexican soup and cheese quesadillas and I brought flan but we didn't eat it.....and I also need to get my muffin tin back. Here are some pictures of the family.

A visit with my wife

2008-03-15T09:39:00.001-07:00

Amy came for a visit last week....and it was so awesome to spend an entire week with her. Too bad that I had to work 5 of the 8 days that she was here.

Day 1:
She got into town on a Tuesday morning and took a taxi to my work (which is 4 miles fromthe airport). Then she went back to my parent's house and relaxed until I got off work. Then we went out to Thai food with my parents.

Day 2:
I went to work and my mom and Amy went to the Getty museum. When I got off work, I picked Amy up and we drove out to Los Alamidos to stay the night with my sister and Joe. We went out to Mexican food and watched the movie "Sunshine". I liked it, everyone else fell asleep.

Day 3:
Woke up and my sister dropped Amy and me off at Disneyland. Man I love that place. We stopped by the cafe in downtown Disney and ate some food and then went into Disneyland and headed towards the Finding Nemo ride. It was pretty fun. The park wasn't that crowded and we pretty much walked onto every ride. We went on Pirate's twice. This was the first time I had been on it since they added Jack Sparrow. It looks just like him....the only bummer is that at the end of the ride where usually you see the pirate struggling to push a treasure chest up the incline and a skeleton that failed to get away with his treasure, they now put Jack Sparrow sitting in a chair surrounded by jewels and treasure....I think that some of the romance and sadness of the pirate myth is lost when you get rid of that part of the ride. Other than that, what a great day.

Day 4: I had to work again. In the morning we went for a visit to my great-grandpa's house. Amy got together for coffee with her friend Angela. We hung out when I got off work.

Day 5: Work in the morning. After work I met Amy over at her Aunt and Uncle's house and hung out with her grandma and grandpa. I shot some hoops with her cousin Lucas and played some video games, Shanghai and watched the Clippers game.

Day 6: Went over to her cousin's house in the morning to see her grandparents before they went back to North Carolina.....then went back to my parent's house and watched the Suns beat the Spurs and waited for my cousin and uncle to come out from Bishop. After they got here, we played a killer game of traveling pictionary.

Day 7: Work again in the morning. Went to see Semi-Pro and eat dinner at Don Cuco's. Semi-Pro was hilarious and Step Brothers looks even funnier. Came home from the movies and watched half of "A Hard Day's Night"

Day 8: Amy's last day here, we visited with my cousin and uncle, played with Hazel, went out to breakfast at the Egg Plantation (101 omellettes). In the afternoon we headed out to Burbank and went to the park on Olive St. where my great grandfather has a plaque with his name on it (for Lockheed), went to see my great grandfather and then dropped Amy off at the airport.

It was too short of a visit.....But I'm glad that we know what day Amy will be living here. I can't wait until we live together again.

Springville

2008-03-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

About 4 years ago my dad bought some property in a little town called Springville. It lies right outside the border of the Sequoia National Forest. Over the past 4 years he's spent a lot of time cleaning up the property. When he first purchased it, it was nothing but 5 foot high weeds. He started clearing them away slowly and found that there were hidden trees, a fast moving stream and all kinds of beautiful sights that had he hired a bulldozer to clear the property would have been destroyed. I took a few pictures of the property and of the watchtower that is about 7 miles above his spot.

what has been up

2008-02-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been working for the past 2 weeks at Resonate in Burbank and I really like it. It has a very professional and positive vibe to it so it makes it easy to go into work. I should be done with my intern hours in about a month and I think I'll continue to work at Resonate. Yesterday I was off work. I had just gotten in from AZ the night before so it was nice to have the day off. My car died just around the corner of my parent's house and I pushed it back to my parents and used my mom's car for the rest of the day. I drove out to Paramount studios to meet with an old friend of my dad's and his co-worker who has worked with Bob Dylan and the Eagles just to chat and make contacts. Later that night I went to Aldo's house (co-worker of my dad). He has a voiceover studio set up at his house and he wants some assistance with Pro Tools since he is getting more work, so it looks like I'll have a job on the side working with him which will be fun.
Today I spent the day sick (still sick) and I took Hazel on a hike and I think my iPod broke.....frustrating.
I did however set up Pro Tools and my Fast Track Pro on my computer.........I'm gonna take some more medicine and try to figure out what is wrong with the iPod.........

He seems pretty funny

2008-02-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

Can't wait until I can see how this turns out.

female musician's that I have a crush on.

2008-02-07T19:14:00.001-08:00

post

2008-02-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Amy wanted me to post this picture. It is me post interview 2/6/08

Interviews

2008-02-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

I went on my first interview today in the audio world. It was at Resonate Audio. I'm gonna work there for about a week and then will feel me out and see if I am a good fit.
And tomorrow I have an interview setup at Sage and Sound in Hollywood.
Resonate is mainly mixing (one today's most respected mixers works there) and Sage & Sound is tracking and mixing....I originally wanted to do tracking, but whichever one is the better opportunity is what I'll choose. I should hopefully know tomorrow.

Oh, still really excited about the upcoming Boris album......and a new Jim O'rourke as well.

Most anticipated record of 2008

2008-02-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

" All set to release Smile, their first non-collaborative album in two years, Japan's mighty Boris have announced the details of the new record's first single.

The 7"-only release will feature Smile track "Statement" with exclusive B-side "Floorshaker". Southern Lord will release the single in a run of 3,000 copies on February 26, and a "Statement" video will also appear sometime this month.

Southern Lord has also given Smile a release date: April 29. There is still no tracklist or tour to speak of, but the trio has a one-off show at the Knitting Factory in New York City on March 4."

all text is copied from pitchforkmedia.com.

good news

2008-02-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

I got a call back today for an interview at a studio in Burbank. I go tomorrow at 2pm. That's about it. I'll post once I know how it went.
What else? Oh, I bought a new pair of shoes. tennis shoes. they're black and white.
yep

useless

2008-02-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

Still no word on a studio yet. I did send my resume to a couple of studios even though I'm not supposed to and the school is supposed to take care of that part. Apparently it can sometimes take up to 3 weeks before you get an internship. I haven't been doing too much since I've been out here....just hanging out with family, taking Hazel for walks, watching movies, hiking.
I met my friends Betsy and Justin for dinner the other night in Silverlake. They have a cute one-bedroom apartment at the top of a pretty big hill and for dinner we walked over to a small italian resaurant and ate dinner outside under a heatlamp. I had pumpkin ravioli which was delicious.
that's all for now.

the last few days

2008-01-28T11:22:00.000-08:00

Amy gave me her old camera so I could take pictures on my trip.....so here is what has been happening the last few days. It's been raining everyday that I got here up until today. There have been a few sunny breaks but mostly just downpour. On one of these sunny breaks, I went to get into my car and found about 2-3 inches of water on the passenger side floor, front and back. I knew my car leaked from the sunroof, but it's been a long time since it's rained that consistently and hard in Phoenix. I went for a bike ride with my brother and his girlfriend, Jenae. She has a really cool beach cruiser. Above is a picture of my car under a tarp so as to protect it from more leakage. Also notice the broken sideview mirror (which my dad and I fixed last night in the rain, and now I want to check on it to make sure it stayed fixed).

Rain

2008-01-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

I arrived in CA on Wednesday about 4pm and it hasn't stopped raining since I got here. I love the rain, so it doesn't bother me at all. I called my intern coordinator and he is contacting the studios on my list. One of the studios is right down the street from where my great grandpa lives. Sorry no pictures to post. I did get a new pair of shoes though, which is pretty cool.

Off to California

2008-01-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

So I'm done with my schooling on campus. but before I can graduate I must complete 280 intern hours at a studio in a city of my choice......so on Wednesday I leave for California indefinitely. I'm pretty sad about leaving Arizona....it's been a great home for the past 6 years. I was driving around today and I realized that I used to love driving around in Phoenix and that it's been a long time since I've paid attention to the city whilst driving. And Amy is staying behind while I start my internship....so we'll be apart for 1 month, 2 months, 3 months? Sad.
Today I am just getting ready to move out. Trying to see everyone before I leave......
Thanks everyone for making my time in Arizona awesome! I'll miss seeing all of you. Much love.
If you live in California, I will definitely see you in a few days.

Studio Choices

2007-12-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!
I am currently in the middle of the first week of the 10th and last cycle of school. I have the rest of this week then a 2 week Christmas break (which I really need since I haven't had a day off of school in like 30 days, no joke) and finally 2 weeks of school after the break. Last week I had to turn in a list of 10 potential studios that I would like to intern at in the city of my choice. Although I would have loved to pick Chicago and intern with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, I chose the Los Angeles area for financial reasons. I will be staying with my parents while I am on my internship, which will last no more than 14 weeks. From there I don't know what exactly will happen. Hopefully, I'll get a job at whichever studio I intern at. Here are the links to the studios I'll be applying at. I tried to find smaller studios with more independent clients, but I've got some larger studios as well. Check out the client and gear lists.

Kingsize Sound Labs
Grandmaster Recorders
Sound City Studios
Mad Dog Studios
Ocean Studios
Penguin Recording
Sage & Sound Recording
Westbeach Recorders
Sound Factory
Skip Saylor

(currently listening to: The Who - Tommy)

Wishlist

2007-11-30T07:42:00.000-08:00

Good morning. I'm going to create a wishlist and keep it as a sidebar on my blog. Mostly it'll be for records and stuff that can't be found on Amazon.com or in one place. Partly it's so I won't forget that one day I want these records. I'll specify LP or CD.
The other day at school I spliced 2" 24-track analog tape for the first time, which was definitely a highlight of my week. I can't imagine editing that way as opposed to editing in ProTools or in a digital domain. You would have to be darn sure of the cut before you messed up the tape. But for the most part nobody splices tape anymore anyways.
Check out the Wishlist if you ever need to get me a present, or I have about 4 different lists on Amazon as well.
Kind of a weird post.

2007-11-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

Cash Advance Loans

It's Finally Here

2007-11-12T16:35:00.001-08:00

I can tell that it's officially Fall when I want to drink coffee every second of every day. A certain melancholy, depression usually comes along that I kind of look forward to. I don't know what it is, but I must relate it with overcast, windy days and sweaters. I love this time of year. All I want to do is drink black coffee and watch old foreign movies. And leave both of the doors open. I think I'll try to watch all of the Ingmar Bergman films this winter. Here is a picture from my favorite Bergman film (so far that I've seen)

#10

2007-11-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

I know it's usually Amy that posts about the Suns, but Leandro was incredible tonight! He started in place of an injured Raja Bell and he beat his previous career high of 32 points with tonight's 39 points against the Orlando Magic! He also sank 8 3-pointers beating his previous high of 7. Mostly, I'm just really happy for Amy since Leandro is her favorite Sunnie.

In other news, I had a pretty eventful week. I got certified on the TC Electronic M3000 reverb unit (I received 100% on the certification test). The M3000 is one of the most popular pieces of Outboard gear in studios and considered to be one of the most musical and technical units of it's kind.
Two of my classmates were dropped from the program because of their poor grades and attendance. There are 6 people, including myself, left. This is the perfect class size because we get more hands on time, and now it's really just the serious students left.
I received my 50% completion progress report and my GPA is 3.9! Damn, I'm really shooting for a 4.0.
Still figuring out where I want to intern.....I need to have it narrowed down in a couple of weeks.
I sold merchandise on Wednesday for a band called Heavy Trash. They are a bluesy rock-a-billy band consisting of Jon Spencer (from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, recorded with Steve Albini) and Matt Verta Ray (from Speedball Baby). Meeting these guys was incredible because I've been a fan of their previous projects for years. It didn't hurt that they've worked with Steve Albini, R.L. Burnside, The Dirtbombs & Andre Williams (to name a few). Then, Thursday night I did sound at Modified for 4 awesome bands: Complainiacs, Pillars Tongues, Fog and Parts & Labor. I'm still pretty nervous running the board, but I'm getting a little bit more comfortable and better at it.
Friday night I passed out fliers at the Hold Steady show at the Marquee. I'm allowed to get 120 intern hours done before I actually go on my internship and I have 90.5 so far, with 4 more nights working at Modified this month.
I guess that's about it. I'm tracking my classmate Eddie tonight and tomorrow Amy and I are having steak fajitas.
Cool.

Lucille

2007-10-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

I posted earlier about the D.I. that I made and here are some pictures of her.

Last night, Amy and I went to go see the
movie Lars and the Real Girl, about a young man that has some delusional issues and falls in love with a anatomically correct sex doll (he doesn't have sex with her or anything, it's a really innocent, naive love). It was pretty awesome, I can't think of any other movies that have been based on a story like this. Well, maybe that movie Mannequin (or whatever it's called), but the doll in that movie comes to life....so it's kind of unrealistic. Lars wasn't at all slapstick or silly in the way that the previews or storyline suggests....it's just kind of touching and sad.

A Pirate's Life For Me

2007-10-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

It's fall and I know that everyone is posting about it, but it makes me really happy so I'll post about the season as well. What is it that I like about fall? Maybe it's the quality of the light...it doesn't seem to shine as bright, I guess. The sun isn't beating you into the ground. The wind breezes by and the sun warms my heart. That doesn't really make sense to write out. It's the perfect sun:shade ratio? No that's not it. The sun seems to provide endless light, the day holds unlimited possibilities for love and adventure and leisure, three incredible holidays are around the corner, but people aren't freaking out yet. There just seems to be more life, happiness. All right, I admit it, I'm not good at this whole writing thing. Maybe the fall is like your favorite book, your favorite song. It could be that Amy and I fell in love in the fall.....drinking hot cider, wearing sweaters.
Tomorrow I'm going to school to assist my friend Eddie on his recording session and then Amy and I are driving out to Tuscon to go to the corn maze with Michelle and some of her friends. Sunday I have a AutoTune review class at 3pm and then I'll study for the at least two tests I have next week.
This cycle in school, we are focusing on Post Production, so one of our projects is to record all of the audio for a 30 second clip of Pirates of the Caribbean. We do the 4 audio parts of any movie: ADR (automatic dialog recording), Foley, Sound Effects & Music. So far we have recorded the ADR and Foley.
I was surprised to find out that over 90% of every movies dialog is replaced with ADR, which is dialog recorded in a studio as opposed to onset. Mostly because of noise.
Next week we are tracking a full orchestra for the music part of the film clip. Hopefully, I will get a copy of the clip and I'll post it. Today I played the footsteps of the Town Clerk walking up to Jack Sparrow

Dronevil

2007-10-18T16:35:00.001-07:00

It has been an awesome and tiring week so far. It started on Sunday morning at 3am. I assisted my friend James while he tracked Adrian recording a mariachi song. Then I assisted Amy on her photo shoot of Zach and Hannah. Then at 10am, we hurried over to the Gilbert campus to for Eddie's session -which didn't happen, check Amy's blog for the details www.thosecrazyschuberts.com
Sunday night I headed over to Modified Arts to help with sound for the Scout Niblett show. Man, that girl is awesome. She's reminds me of a female Kurt Cobain.....I guess it's just the way she plays guitar and sings......
Monday I had school and then my first night running the sound at Modified alone. Sic Alps and Magik Markers played. Both bands were really nice and really good (I guess if you don't like poppy melodies washed over by loud guitars and feedback, you would'nt like them.)
And then Tuesday....the day I've been waiting for for a long time.......BORIS with guitarist Michio Kurihara (from the band GHOST) were coming to town. They were incredible! If you haven't heard their music, they are a mixture of punk, metal, psychedelia, noise. I wasn't sure what to expect since I had seen some live footage of them and it was all just one long noisy song. They ended up playing more of their song structured material instead of their more droning songs........it was everything that I wanted to see in them live. The pictures are from a different show, not the one that I saw them at. Wednesday night I made a passive DI box at school. Basically I was handed a transformer, 2 metal pieces that screwed together to make a box, a handful of wires, a switch, an XLR input and two 1/4" input jacks. I had to solder everything together. It was my first time doing anything like that, but I can't wait to try it out and see if it works. Amy named it Lucille, so I'll have to screen print it on there. I will post a picture of it when it's all dressed up. Today is my first day off (well, I still had school today) in a while and I'm looking forward to cooking dinner for Amy and watching The Office.

Iceland looks pretty awesome

2007-10-09T20:04:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, check out this trailer for the new Sigur Ros movie. It reminds me of LOTR.
http://www.emichrysalis.co.uk/sigurros/heima/film/heima_trailer.html

Bacon & Eggs

2007-09-25T19:25:00.001-07:00

This Halloween costume is just like the tattoo I want to get (well, it doesn't have the frying pan)

Wisdom Teeth

2007-09-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

I still have to post about my session last Saturday, but for now it'll be a short one on my weekend. On Thursday after class I went to have 5 teeth pulled: My 4 wisdom teeth and another broken tooth (which I had pulled most of it out, but there was still some tooth left in my gums). The entire procedure only takes about 20 minutes, no drilling, just pulling. I spent the rest of the weekend on the couch sedated and kind of nauseous and watching a ton of movies. Here is the list: King Kong, Kicking & Screaming, Pirates of the Caribean II, Jurassic Park, A Lazarus Taxon, Shaun of the Dead, Batman Begins, The Mummy Returns, Wedding Crashers, The Incredibles, Muppets from Space, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Ghostbusters II, all 3 extended edition LOTR, Trainspotting......oh and Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. I hadn't been to the dentist in 5 years and it was a heck of a first time back. Now it's Monday and I'm starting to feel better, still sore, and hungry (all I've been able to eat is soup). Tomorrow it's back to school and real life.

Happy Birthday

2007-08-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today in music business I learned that the Happy Birthday song is still under copyright....so technically, anytime a restaurant sings "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you...." they should be paying performance royalties. That's why most restaurants have their own birthday songs......
The song will be under copyright until the year 2030.

OOPs

2007-08-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

hey, I posted today, but for some reason it is below my bridge post.
so scroll down.

The B's

2007-08-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have my first actual recording session coming up. I will be the chief engineer and am in charge of everything. I have to do pre-production by making a list of mics that I'm going to use and their placement in the studio proper and what inputs on the wall they are going to go into, what I/O I will patch them into and what track on tape they will go to. I'm really excited. I get an 8 hour session and I get to record the band/artist of my choice. I am going to record a local all grill punk group call Breakfast Of Champions (I know, it fits in perfectly with my music business project on bands named after literature). Check them out: http://www.bocgirls.com
I've never recorded before, so I'm trying to get ideas on the best way to record a 3 piece band. Should I put the drums in the main room, and have the bass and guitar in the iso booth? Should I track them all in the same room, or will I have too much noise bleed into the mics? I'm gonna do a lot of reading and I've emailed a few engineers that have recorded similar bands......If anybody has any suggestions feel free to send them my way.....

I worked my first show on Friday night for Rhino Staging co. I showed up at U.S. Airways Center around 10:30 p.m. to do load out at the Beyonce show. I walked into the Employees Only entrance and checked in with security and then checked in with the crew chief. He handed my a large red shirt marked "Beyonce Experience World Tour Crew". There are 6 different color shirts, each one marking a different job. I started out by breaking down and loading the 2 drum kits and then helped out everywhere else. In a large show like that, they break down everything: The entire stage (not just the equipement on it), the entire light show, the trusses, everything. The entire job took 2 1/2 hours and I'm still sore, but I look forward to working another show (especially because I earn intership hours as well as pay). I even got to see Beyonce walk by. (Cool?)

The last B.

Amy and I just watched a documentary called "The Bridge". It is about the 24 people that committed suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. The bridge is one of the most popular sites to commit suicide (maybe the most popular) and this documentary tells the story of 8 or so of the people to jump off the bridge. The crazy thing is that there is actual footage of these people jumping to their deaths. The crew interviews family members, friends, witnesses and even 1 survivor (a kid about 25). The crew staked out the bridge for an entire year, filming people they thought looked suspicious. If they saw someone about to jump, they would call authorities immediately to try to intervene.......
It's hard to describe how I felt about the movie, it's unsettling to witness people die, but it's not gory at all and the fall somehow seems exhilarating and freeing....I don't know, it was just a pretty interesting movie.....

VOTE FOR OBADIAH PARKER!

2007-08-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

here are a few new posts.....
oh, and please vote for Obadiah Parker everyday for the next week. You can vote everyday from every email address that you have. If they are in the top 5 they go to Austin to compete for the final round.

Here is the link:
http://acl.mp3.com/feature/soundandjury/?band=OBADIAH-PARKER-

oh, so I've started to think that some musicals are pretty ok. When Amy and I first started dating I hated musicals and I only listened to punk rock......now that I'm not as stupid as I used to be, I can actually admit that there are some musicals that I like and maybe two that I love.
Like: Evita (I didn't like the movie very much, but I did like the music)
LOVE: Wicked
Little Shop Of Horrors

Those are the only musicals that I'm at all familiar with, oh, maybe Last Five Years, too.

ok, new topic

Does anyone have want to tell me who they think the greatest American songwriter is?
Sometimes I think it's Paul Simon, but I don't know that much about the writers of Tin Pan Alley or Cole Porter, or whatever........

Music Business Project

2007-08-23T15:56:00.001-07:00

I think Amy already posted about my project for music business. I'm doing a presentation on bands that are influenced by books. So far I've got:
Nirvana-"serve the servants"--based on Perfume
The Decemberists-The Crane Wife--based on an old chinese story
Obadiah Parker-taken from a character in a Flannery O'Connor story
Arcade Fire-The Neon Bible--taken from the novel of the same name
Belle & Sebastian-taken from the french children's story Belle Et Sebastian
The Decemberists-the Tain EP-- it's based on some old story (I'll have to find out what it is)

If anyone can think of anything else please let me know. It doesn't even have to be a band that I like.
So what's new with everyone?
I know I haven't been posting at all.
Today in class we tracked a guitar player. We were working on the Neve VR console in studio C and set up 9 microphones in the proper:
2 SE Electronics SE2A in x/y on the acoustic (hypercardioid polar pattern)
2 Neumann TLM103, spaced pair on the acoustic
2 Audio Technica ATm23 on the electric guitar amp
2 Shure SM57's on the electric guitar amp
and 1 Audio Technica AT4050 (omni) for the talkback mic.
It was pretty awesome. First we tracked him playing acoustic guitar on tracks 1-4 of the Otari MTR-90.
Then he switched to electric and we tracked 3 seperate parts onto seperate tracks. It was kind of a spanish KILL BILL sounding song.

What else?
I guess that's it for now.
Bye.

Just a thought

2007-07-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

So, I don't post that often. Originally, I wanted to start this to post about school, but by the time that school is out and I've done all of my homework I don't want to post about what I've spent all day doing.
Right now I'm listening to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and drinking cold coffe (you know, with ice and half & half, not just room temperature coffee), thinking about the toast that I'm going to make at Christian & Avalon's wedding in 2 weeks. I'm also thinking about this limited edition Boris 10" that just came out. It has been pouring rain here for the past couple of hours, and it's about damn time! The sky has been cloudy and overcast for days, but no rain. What else? Oh, I'm making a mix cd for my friend Fernando. I used to make him like one mixtape a week when I lived in California and I guess that I'm just slacking (about 3 cd's in 4 years).
Last Thursday I had my first tracking session at school. Joe Morris (an incredible drummer) set up his drumkit in studio B (the Neotek Elite room) and my whole class (10 of us that day) set up the microphones, loaded the tape onto the MTR, patched all of the outboard gear and preamps into the Neotek and took notes on mic placement. For most of us, this was our first job as assistant engineers. We then recorded Joe to 14 tracks of a 24-track tape. It was incredible. I'm going to try to get into the Neotek to burn it to a cd.
Internship? Right now, I really want to go to Chicago and work at Electrical Audio. I've been visiting their website for a couple of years now, but I now I recognize the gear that they use. The two consoles they have are Neoteks, which is what I'm working on now......but, I'm also thinking about Seattle, California, Oregon.....who knows.
Oh, and I think I'm gonna grow a mustache. I think Amy posted a picture, but I think it looks so funny that I'm gonna post it as well.

History of Mixing

2007-07-23T17:10:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure that everyone knows that I am obsessed with music. In class we've had a couple of "History Of Mixing" classes and here are a couple of interesting (to me) things that I learned.
-On the Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Women" final product, the scratch vocal was used instead of the final overdubs.
-The Beatles 'Sgt. Pepper' album was recorded at a tape speed of 7.5ips onto a 4 tape. The industry standard is 30 inches per second.
-The first instance of artificially induced reverb was on a track called "Peg O My Heart" by the Harmonicats. The engineer, Bill Putnam, recorded the song and then took a split from his console into a speaker that he had placed in a bathroom (the first echo chamber) and then rerecorded the song being played through the speaker. Incredible. No one had ever heard anything like that on a recording before. Before that, most recordings didn't have reverb because they were intended for playback in large dancing halls which had enough natural reverb.

On two shellac 7"s (one pictured above) instead of writing out the lyrics to their songs or having pictures of themselves, they listed the microphones, tape machines and magnetic tape used during the session. These guys are awesome. These five particular songs are also recorded electrically with no overdubs, mastered entirely in the analog domain directly to metal. I love this band.

Tom Dowd

2007-07-13T08:51:00.001-07:00

I'm watching a documentary called "Tom Dowd: The Language of Music". This guy is incredible. He was a physicist and took part in the Manhattan Project and was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. When he learned that he couldn't continue in physics because everything he knew was classified information he decided to pursue audio engineering. He invented the fader for consoles, replacing large knobs. Here is a short list of the artists he's worked with: Cream, Derek & the Dominoes (Layla), Otis Redding (Try A Little Tenderness), Aretha Franklin (first album for Atlantic, her best), The Allman Brothers, John Coltrane, The Drifters, Charlie Mingus, Lynard Skynard, Ray Charles, Charlie Parker, Roland Kirk....the list goes on and on! Can you imagine? Watch this documentary, it's awesome.

www.daytrotter.com

2007-07-10T08:32:00.001-07:00

This is an amazing site to download some free exclusive music. The Mountain Goats session is completely unreleased material. www.daytrotter.com

ANALOG!

2007-07-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got to start what I originally wanted to go to school for, Analog Recording. The picture to the left is the Otari MTR90 tape machine. 24 track 2" tape. Today we took a full reel of tape (2500 feet of tape) and put it onto top, right side and then loop the tape over the different bars, around the head and onto the other reel and then basically arm the machine and roll tape. It might sound really lame and boring, but it's what I've been waiting to do. Some other things that I learned today are: 1. The different speeds at which tape is run. Industry standard is 30ips which will record 16mins 20sec to a reel of tape. The other common speed is 15ips which will give you double the time, but more noise floor (Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" was recorded at 15ips).
2. Analog refers to analagous, which in the audio world is a direct reflection of what you record to the MTR.

The picture to the right is the console that we
are working on right now, The Neotek Elite.
Did I mention that I love school?

monopoly

2007-06-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

Does anyone ever finish a game of monopoly? Michelle and I played last night for about 3 hours and weren't even close to ending the game. We played Wizard of Oz Monopoly and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was awesome.

Laffy Taffy

2007-06-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a joke that Michelle found on a banana Laffy Taffy wrapper.
Q: What lake tastes good with french fries?
A: A Ricki Lake burger

Here are some pictures of us.

Finals week

2007-06-28T07:59:00.001-07:00

This week is finals week for cycle one. On Tuesday I had a final in Digital. I only missed half of a point. I forgot one word in my definition for a Thru Port on a MIDI device. Today I have a final in Troubleshooting which will be covering transformers, electricity, circuits, conductors, balanced and unbalanced cables, etc. And tomorrow I have a final in recording which will be covering console basics, signal flow, the basics of sound and how to calculate the length of specific frequencies. Next week, Cycle Two. I'm not gonna lie, I love school. Above: Picture one is an AC adaptor. It is converting AC current to AC current. Input: 120vAC Output: 12vAC. If a device is converting AC to AC then it must have some kind of transformer inside, and since the output voltage is less than the input voltage it must be a step-down transformer. Picture two is the step-down transformer.

Tonight at school DJ Voodu Spellz is hosting a seminar on recording techniques for hip/hop. Attn: Michelle, he has worked with Ludacris.

Guzz

2007-06-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

Daniel and Jenae came for a visit and I gave him a very rare Shellac record. He was happy.

Stereo Miking Techniques

2007-06-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

M/S stereo. Two microphones. One microphone is designated as the Mid (M) and set to a cardioid polarity pattern. The second microphone, the Side (S), is placed above or below the first microphone at a 90 degree angle with the grills as close as possible without touching, and set to a bidirectional (figure 8) polar pattern. The mid will pick up directly from the source in front of it, while the side will pick up ambient sounds from the room as well as reflections. The side microphone can then be bussed to two tracks, one panned hard left and the other hard right, while the mid microphone can be put on one track directly in the center. This is supposed to be the optimal way of miking.

O.R.T.F. Office of Radio and Television Francaise. This one is kind of cool because it is supposed to represent the human face. Two microphones set to a bidirectional polarity pattern, sitting exactly 6.75" apart from each other (from capsule to capsule, not grill to grill) and set at 55 degree angles. This set up gives almost an omnidirectional polarity pattern, but with the two microphones picks up signals in stereo. This technique was used on Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" album.