here i am at the coffee shop once again.
i have been rereading a few of the entries here and i must admit that i am pretty pleased with some of the things i've written here. i had pretty much thought that this page was a graveyard of incoherent rambling- something i'm really exceptional at, especially on the internet- but here not so much. not that it really matters- so few people follow this thing.
the recording from the record bar show is finished. i posted it on cllct and all of the sound files on our website as well. i'll post that stuff at the top once i'm done with this current dense chunk o stuff.
the newest hurdle in the ongoing drama of shalloboi- where am i going to get the 'dandelions' ep pressed? disk makers and cdman both offer only a minimum of 1000 bulk cds. the price is good, but fuck man- i don't need 1000 copies of it. 500 i can stomach sitting around unbought for ages and ages, but not 1000. i am beginning to wonder if i should just press the ep on vinyl. i've been having some problems with the hidden tracks anyway, so i figured i might as well look into pressing 500 or so and using the screen i have burned to make promo cds. i even checked superdigital and they do a minimum run on bulk cds with no artwork of 1000. i'm just not so sure what i should do with this stuff... i'm even considering not bothering with an official cd release. cds are so useless as it is these days. i know i only pop them into the computer once to rip the audio and put it on the ipod and then they tend to languish on the floor in piles by the computer. this is the whole point of switching to lp only releases. that and i think it will force me to shape up and make things a more bearable length. i also think that people will actually buy lps.
i am feeling a bit distracted right now- the people across from me are talking about some really heavy stuff. i suspect that it's a man and his lawyer going through divorce papers. the man does not seem happy at all. i haven't really been eavesdropping- i'm listening to music on my ipod.
some recording- i just did some guitar tracks on monday night. back to the old way- i asked stefanie if she would rather play along with guide guitar tracks or those drum presets in the keyboard. she said she liked the guitars better to play along with. this is probably not much of a surprise and probably will sound a bit more organic since the guitar tracks for these songs required the real dense treatment- it's the two amps facing each other, excessive volume and five microphones placed. not very conducive to live recording. not even enough mics left over to mic the drums properly. plus a nightmare in terms of bleed. so it ended up taking me an excessively long time to get these two parts recorded- a while to get everything set up and then it took me a few takes to play the whole thing through without something going wrong- mostly forgetting to step on the switch for boost at the right time, a problem with the sound, a few careless errors, some sloppy playing. once i finally got them both finished i listened to the playback and they just sounded dreadful and i couldn't figure out why for a spell until i happened to notice that i hadn't plugged the guitar chord into the second amp. dep. i had been playing and wondering why it wasn't as loud as normal- normally things shake and quake- i can feel the force on my chest. then i had to do them a few more times to get it down, but then i got them both and they sounded pretty nice. i'm not sure what to do today- i would like to get some work done, but i also have a nice helping of errands to run, so it might have to wait until tomorrow. i only have a few things i'm working on at the moment. what i can currently do is a touch limited. i am still holding out for a few more mics. unfortunately they are of the rather expensive variety.
i think i might have to ban yelp.com from our computer. something i do now is i tend to type in my favourite places in town and read the reviews and get very offended at the very negative ones. i really should probably ignore them because the negative ones are usually more telling of the people giving them. one thing i have picked up from the negative ones- don't order chinese food delivery. it never seems to work. pick up and take out seems fairly reliable. but not delivery- that seems to be something that doesn't quite work.
i only have four more months until i turn 30. i guess that my life isn't really what i thought it would be by the time i reached that age. when i say that i'd like to clarify that i don't mean that in a bad way at all. i think that i'm doing what i love and obviously i'd be much more unhappy if that weren't the case. there are costs of course- i'd say the bulk of the costs is the whole 'being ignored' thing. i feel like i'm putting it all out there and not getting much back and just hitting the requisite road-blocks. on tuesday i had to go to permanent records and pick up all of my consignment cds that i had there that hadn't moved. i think i sold one cd out of 10. i guess that means i'm a glass-half-empty person. it's not a bad thing though- at least i sold one. i am aware that my self-promotion skills are nil and given that it's a miracle that i even sell anything at all. what was kind of funny was that will was talking to a customer while i was cooking and somehow he'd told her that i was a musician and she was asking me 'what kind of a musician are you?' and i didn't answer immediately because i wasn't sure if she was talking to me. i'd also just picked up all of my stuff, so i said 'me?' and will was like 'of course, who else?' and i think i said 'i play a lot of slow, sad bastard stuff that no one buys.' i try to say those things in a joking way- but when you see it written out it does seem a bit negative. i dunno. i guess that what's going to happen is these next two releases are going to come out and then i'm going to be 30 and working at a coffee shop (which i discovered via yelp is a refuge of young and un-employable) for who knows how much longer and playing in a band that is garnering zero recognition or attention. i guess i'll worry about that more towards the end of the year. no sense in getting all worked up about it now. stefanie wants to take a trip for her birthday. somewhere where we don't know anyone at all- she doesn't even care where. my little change peanut butter jar is basically for that trip. i'm in a place right now where i'm having trouble picturing how i'm going to be able to save anymore money for such a thing, but i'm sure we'll get there. we always do. plus 2010 is going to be somewhat of a reflective year. a release-free year. i am going to stick to this assertion. i'm looking forward to going a full year without doing another release. i don't even know what i'm after anymore. i don't even think i want to be signed to a record label- ideally i'd like to just be able to keep control of how my music is released. it'd be nice to have someone else to handle all of the promotional mumbo-jumbo because i'm just not a fan of that stuff at all. it's just not something i'm terribly good at.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
henry yr a star
this is henry- the awesomely obese dog that billy was watching over the break. this dog was so chunky that it couldn't make any of the typical dog noises. particularly nice is at the bottom when the dog climbed into my lap. billy's cats also beat up on the dog mercilessly. hooray for henry!
and then, of course, the images from the record bar show.
and then, of course, the images from the record bar show.
parachute me down
killing some time at the coffee shop waiting for some bidding on some tape. finally. i almost bought a microphone last night but a coin toss told me not to. i feel a bit better after my ranting and raving yesterday. i did wake up agitated this morning about some hotbed issue- probably gay marriage. this whole gay marriage ban is the incredibly disheartening flipside of this last incredibly encouraging election year. a warning to make sure not to have too much faith in humanity just yet- there are still plenty of ignorant jerks. my favourite thing about arguments that people use with me against gay marriage that whole 'preserving the sanctity of marriage' thing i am always surprised because i tend to get into discussions with people about who aren't married and who usually have no intention of getting married any time soon. most curious. plus there is the fact that i'm married and i'm all for gays being allowed the right to marry. fuck, just look at that last sentence and tell me how a gay marriage ban is NOT discriminatory. they. aren't. ALLOWED. to. marry.
i tested out the new harmonica mic yesterday- VERY happy with the results. i used it on a new songs that i demoed earmarking it for 'chinese blue' and it's turned out really nicely, but i'm going to give it another shot because it got a nice string arrangement one of those mornings when i had to open at work, so i'm going to give it the stripped-down with strings treatment as well and see which one i like better.
i have no idea what to do with myself today after i leave here. the internet is increasingly becoming less and less of a time-killer. youtube binges kept me up late last night, but even that's starting to dry up. occasionally i get caught in the wormhole, but it is becoming increasingly rare these days. i have been enjoying watching the new dvd sets. the nina nastasia bootleg i downloaded is nice as well click if you please. i haven't had a second to listen to any of the new cds that i got for christmas. i've only now gotten a chance to listen to the new sigur ros. i assume i obviously could've listened to it at some point when i was driving around in my mom's car.
i finally got ahold of the photos from the show at the record bar. they are pretty nice- thanks to grace's husband adam for those. nicely done indeed. the recording needs to go through a few alterations before i can post it but i burned it to cd yesterday. i just need to find something short to finish out the rest of the cd.
i just lost the ebay auction. i lost it to one of those fucking robots- there's someone who always seems to be bidding on any and all recording equipment that's around- i have lost about it's a name like this- x*****0- always just a letter, a bunch of asterisks and a number. there are different ones but i find it very difficult to believe that they are all different people, call me crazy. possibly different people with the same kind of hacked software that they use to outbid people on ebay. kinda sketchy if you ask me- but they didn't so there you go. if it is one person they have incredibly deep pockets. grrrrrr.
oh well. my only hope is that my christmas money holds out until i am able to use it on something recording related whether it is tape or more mics. i'm after two or three more. soooooo close.
my pay schedule is turning back in my favor for some reason- i don't really understand how that's possibly but it's happened. i get paid again on the 9th. woohoo! it's going to be a bit of a weeny paycheck, but that's ok. it's going to be more than half- which i can work with.
so there you have it- i think i'm about out of steam here. might be leaving soon after doing a few more things.
i tested out the new harmonica mic yesterday- VERY happy with the results. i used it on a new songs that i demoed earmarking it for 'chinese blue' and it's turned out really nicely, but i'm going to give it another shot because it got a nice string arrangement one of those mornings when i had to open at work, so i'm going to give it the stripped-down with strings treatment as well and see which one i like better.
i have no idea what to do with myself today after i leave here. the internet is increasingly becoming less and less of a time-killer. youtube binges kept me up late last night, but even that's starting to dry up. occasionally i get caught in the wormhole, but it is becoming increasingly rare these days. i have been enjoying watching the new dvd sets. the nina nastasia bootleg i downloaded is nice as well click if you please. i haven't had a second to listen to any of the new cds that i got for christmas. i've only now gotten a chance to listen to the new sigur ros. i assume i obviously could've listened to it at some point when i was driving around in my mom's car.
i finally got ahold of the photos from the show at the record bar. they are pretty nice- thanks to grace's husband adam for those. nicely done indeed. the recording needs to go through a few alterations before i can post it but i burned it to cd yesterday. i just need to find something short to finish out the rest of the cd.
i just lost the ebay auction. i lost it to one of those fucking robots- there's someone who always seems to be bidding on any and all recording equipment that's around- i have lost about it's a name like this- x*****0- always just a letter, a bunch of asterisks and a number. there are different ones but i find it very difficult to believe that they are all different people, call me crazy. possibly different people with the same kind of hacked software that they use to outbid people on ebay. kinda sketchy if you ask me- but they didn't so there you go. if it is one person they have incredibly deep pockets. grrrrrr.
oh well. my only hope is that my christmas money holds out until i am able to use it on something recording related whether it is tape or more mics. i'm after two or three more. soooooo close.
my pay schedule is turning back in my favor for some reason- i don't really understand how that's possibly but it's happened. i get paid again on the 9th. woohoo! it's going to be a bit of a weeny paycheck, but that's ok. it's going to be more than half- which i can work with.
so there you have it- i think i'm about out of steam here. might be leaving soon after doing a few more things.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
cover me, slowly
so the trip. it was good. relaxing for the most part. the 26th and 27th were understandably and unsurprisingly a bit stressful- even a 30-minute strings set proved to be quite a bit to get together in two days. of course, i expected it. but at the end of the day we pulled it off. i think it was a success and everyone told me it sounded really good. the strings sounded quite nice and courtney and grace did an awesome job. billy always does an awesome job- so there were no surprises there. my mom kept remarking on how serious billy looks when he plays the cello. once the show was over relaxing and unwinding was really easy to do. even christmas day was more relaxing than last year was (not that that's a big surprise either). we stuck to a policy of not doing anything that we didn't feel like doing, but we still got a good amount in. going to the cashew was a lot of fun. a good mix of people. it degraded real quickly once stefanie suggested we go over to the condo to drink the sixth glass bottles. wow. i have never seen a group of people get shit-faced faster than that. i was the only one that didn't participate in the drinking of the sixth-glass since i was the one who had to drive stefanie home. that stuff truly is brutal. in a brilliant way. dad, if you're reading please keep that stuff coming- i love it.
stefanie and some dude sitting in the aisle next to us almost got into it on the plane. we were pulling out onto the tarmac to take off and this guy wouldn't stop talking on his cell phone and a flight attendant came by and said 'sir, please turn that off' and he still wouldn't so stefanie tried to tell him to get off of his cell phone as nicely as she could and he got all huffy- 'i know the flight procedure, miss' and she said something like 'well, i just thought you might not have heard them' and he got all sarcastic-like 'thanks soooo much for reminding me.' it's always fun when you have someone much older (and supposedly more mature) than you acting like a complete baby to you.
is it possible that people could just grow the fuck up for a change- everyone is so sensitive these days that you can't say 'boo' to them without them getting offended or touchy or shitty. she really wasn't being rude to this guy at all and he should've hung up his phone way back when they closed the doors and a flight attendant asked him to hang up. there's just no call for getting offended when someone says something to you about it when you ignore repeated reminders. this is something i'm beginning to just want to blame on the cell-phone culture that is beginning to infect our society. people just have no manners or consideration when they're using cell-phones. if i am at a restaurant and i absolutely have to use my phone i excuse myself from the table and go outside to take the call. it's not that big of a deal.
anyway, other than that and a really rough and scary landing (it was very wobbly) the flight home was fine. it was very fast- they made up all of the time that we'd lost in the delay.
i was a nervous wreck on the way to the airport- i'd thought that i was going to be able to get through the day without falling victim to my ridiculous pre-flight nerves, but i was proven wrong wrong wrong. wow. before the flight to kc i'd gotten my nervousness out of the way on the 23rd- of course it lasted all day. it also had to do with how horrible the weather was and the fact that i spent most of the day hearing everyone's horror stories about how no one could get out of town on a plane, train or automobile.
some shit might be about to go down at work. the owner asked me about getting certified today. it's possible that that means that he intends to fire anthony as he is the only other person who is food handling certified at work. it's one of the main reasons that he tolerates the constant lateness and saltiness with the customers- anthony is certified and that way he doesn't have to go to the trouble to have anyone else get certified. but now that i'm mr. dependable there (not a tall order, let me tell you) it might become me *shivers*.
read some more yelp reviews of the shop today. uncovered another little gem of a modern phenomena- the working stiff 'yuppie' inferiority complex relationship with 'hipsters.' it's a real paradigm folks and it needs to be addressed. read the review at the top dated 12/17/08. i normally don't give much of a shit about these because a lot of it is to be expected- people typically want organic hand-made sandwiches/coffee drinks but they want them as quickly as they get a big mac at mcdonald's because our culture is held up on a giant pillar of complete impatience and complete disregard for how long things take, but this really is too much. my favourite feature is the lecture on 'not judging a book by its cover' and then the complete admission at the end that this person doesn't even bother to take their own advice. i work at beans and bagels- i am not a fucking stoner. i smoke weed very seldomly, but by no means with any amount of regularity that would justify anyone writing me off by putting me in that drawer. i would be willing to bet the person (who wrote this review) that they probably smoke more weed than i do. i'm not a fan of the snarkiness that seems to be running amok at my place of work either, but it's not very fair to cast aspersions about everyone in the shop when you're only talking about one person (which is what a majority of these reviews do) and on top of that commit it to printed words. i guess i should be relieved at my absence amongst these reviews as it means that i haven't pissed any one of these people off enough for them to write me off on a website. but what to me is the most infuriating of all is this ridiculous paradigm showing up- why the fuck do people who consider themselves to have 'real jobs' and who have benefits and decent living-wage-allowing salaries, paid vacations, dental/vision plans, kids, life insurance, savings accounts with money in them, checking accounts that they don't have to watch like hawks and check their statements every day give two shits what someone in a fucking coffeeshop/record store/bike shop thinks of them? just look at what a huge stink some of the people on that page make about the fact that they're being served coffee by 'hipsters' make merely about the fact that they are 'hipsters.' who the fuck cares? it's a coffee shop that you spend 15 minutes of your morning in max? futhermore everyone there is paid minimum wage and our lives aren't padded with the comforts that their lives are- we don't have any of those benefits. i don't want to make this a 'selling out' debate because i've come to find that that's kind of a myth- everyone makes choices and sacrifices. being a 'hipster' working in a coffee shop/record store/bike shop what have you means that you've sacrificed these pillars of stability because you're just looking for something that you aren't going to get in an office environment. damned if i could tell you what it is because it's different for everyone so basically i don't understand why there has to be such a fucking hubbub about it from someone who's in a much-vaunted better social standing than i am. if i want to work in an environment where i can wear whatever i want then what skin is it off anyone else's teeth? is it harmful to anyone's pride? is it really such an awful thing? that's a choice i've made and have to live with AND serve people who are in a much better social standing than i am and listen to them bitch and moan about how i'm a fucking 'hipster.' where the fuck does the inferiority complex come from? what do they have to feel inferior about? i really want someone to tell me. i'm not defending how any of my co-workers treat customers because i've always felt uncomfortable when someone i'm working with gets shitty with the customers over nothing. i don't make a practise of doing that- i actually like the majority of the customers who come in. i just don't like this theme of people thumbing their noses like cowards and bitching on the internet when they really don't have anything to bitch about and i don't like being corralled in with people who i work with just because i'm there- i don't act that way and i don't appreciate being included in the catch-all write-offs.
or i guess i could just try to accept this fact and move on with my life. i'd be happy to if i didn't get weird looks every time i stop at a truck stop while i'm travelling or get randomly solicited for pot by someone who looks the part of a 'straight' and having to just laugh it off when they tell me to my face 'i know you're a stoner- you look like one. come on- i know you have some pot.' guess what- I FUCKING DON'T SO GO GET IT YOURSELF MR. HIGH AND MIGHTY JUDGEMENTAL PANTS. yay, rant over.
i got some really nice music for christmas and a few great dvd boxed sets. stefanie bought me 'microcastle' on vinyl. it came with 'weird era continued' which is nice. plus the vinyl is white and sounds like the aural equivalent of a warm down blanket. stefanie's mom gave us about 40 lps. we now have every beatles album in existence, as well. at least i think we do. we have 'magical mystery tour,' 'sgt. pepper,' the white album and the heap of early tracks. she also gave us a buffalo springfield double lp collection and the first black sabbath album. there's some dusty springfield, buddy holly, kinks and other ill shit mixed in there. nice. we were only able to manage to carry about 1/3 of it home with us though because it was pretty heavy carrying all of them on the plane.
i finally got ahold of a tasty nina nastasia bootleg that i was trying to get through those ridiculous bit torrent sites (i can't for the life of me figure that shit out- so annoying). i've only listened to a little over half of it. i have the next two days off.
i want to send out some sympathy to my co-worker emily who had to take one of her cats to be put to sleep today. i am not sure if she had to have both of them put down or just the one- but they are not very old cats. i don't even think that she's had them for a full year. after that she has to go out of town for an intense family visit.
i have to test out my new and amazing mics and preamp as well. i would like to give the harmonica mic a maiden voyage in particular. i figured out how to get it sit on a mic stand (it doesn't have a place to clip it on- but can be easily jerry-rigged). i am intending mostly to sing out of it as i am a huge fan of how jason pierce does this and i think it will prove to be a nice effect for the next record we are working on (and have already started). in fact i think i shall go to do so right now. tah for now! happy new year. my only resolution is to concentrate on decreasing my debt.
stefanie and some dude sitting in the aisle next to us almost got into it on the plane. we were pulling out onto the tarmac to take off and this guy wouldn't stop talking on his cell phone and a flight attendant came by and said 'sir, please turn that off' and he still wouldn't so stefanie tried to tell him to get off of his cell phone as nicely as she could and he got all huffy- 'i know the flight procedure, miss' and she said something like 'well, i just thought you might not have heard them' and he got all sarcastic-like 'thanks soooo much for reminding me.' it's always fun when you have someone much older (and supposedly more mature) than you acting like a complete baby to you.
is it possible that people could just grow the fuck up for a change- everyone is so sensitive these days that you can't say 'boo' to them without them getting offended or touchy or shitty. she really wasn't being rude to this guy at all and he should've hung up his phone way back when they closed the doors and a flight attendant asked him to hang up. there's just no call for getting offended when someone says something to you about it when you ignore repeated reminders. this is something i'm beginning to just want to blame on the cell-phone culture that is beginning to infect our society. people just have no manners or consideration when they're using cell-phones. if i am at a restaurant and i absolutely have to use my phone i excuse myself from the table and go outside to take the call. it's not that big of a deal.
anyway, other than that and a really rough and scary landing (it was very wobbly) the flight home was fine. it was very fast- they made up all of the time that we'd lost in the delay.
i was a nervous wreck on the way to the airport- i'd thought that i was going to be able to get through the day without falling victim to my ridiculous pre-flight nerves, but i was proven wrong wrong wrong. wow. before the flight to kc i'd gotten my nervousness out of the way on the 23rd- of course it lasted all day. it also had to do with how horrible the weather was and the fact that i spent most of the day hearing everyone's horror stories about how no one could get out of town on a plane, train or automobile.
some shit might be about to go down at work. the owner asked me about getting certified today. it's possible that that means that he intends to fire anthony as he is the only other person who is food handling certified at work. it's one of the main reasons that he tolerates the constant lateness and saltiness with the customers- anthony is certified and that way he doesn't have to go to the trouble to have anyone else get certified. but now that i'm mr. dependable there (not a tall order, let me tell you) it might become me *shivers*.
read some more yelp reviews of the shop today. uncovered another little gem of a modern phenomena- the working stiff 'yuppie' inferiority complex relationship with 'hipsters.' it's a real paradigm folks and it needs to be addressed. read the review at the top dated 12/17/08. i normally don't give much of a shit about these because a lot of it is to be expected- people typically want organic hand-made sandwiches/coffee drinks but they want them as quickly as they get a big mac at mcdonald's because our culture is held up on a giant pillar of complete impatience and complete disregard for how long things take, but this really is too much. my favourite feature is the lecture on 'not judging a book by its cover' and then the complete admission at the end that this person doesn't even bother to take their own advice. i work at beans and bagels- i am not a fucking stoner. i smoke weed very seldomly, but by no means with any amount of regularity that would justify anyone writing me off by putting me in that drawer. i would be willing to bet the person (who wrote this review) that they probably smoke more weed than i do. i'm not a fan of the snarkiness that seems to be running amok at my place of work either, but it's not very fair to cast aspersions about everyone in the shop when you're only talking about one person (which is what a majority of these reviews do) and on top of that commit it to printed words. i guess i should be relieved at my absence amongst these reviews as it means that i haven't pissed any one of these people off enough for them to write me off on a website. but what to me is the most infuriating of all is this ridiculous paradigm showing up- why the fuck do people who consider themselves to have 'real jobs' and who have benefits and decent living-wage-allowing salaries, paid vacations, dental/vision plans, kids, life insurance, savings accounts with money in them, checking accounts that they don't have to watch like hawks and check their statements every day give two shits what someone in a fucking coffeeshop/record store/bike shop thinks of them? just look at what a huge stink some of the people on that page make about the fact that they're being served coffee by 'hipsters' make merely about the fact that they are 'hipsters.' who the fuck cares? it's a coffee shop that you spend 15 minutes of your morning in max? futhermore everyone there is paid minimum wage and our lives aren't padded with the comforts that their lives are- we don't have any of those benefits. i don't want to make this a 'selling out' debate because i've come to find that that's kind of a myth- everyone makes choices and sacrifices. being a 'hipster' working in a coffee shop/record store/bike shop what have you means that you've sacrificed these pillars of stability because you're just looking for something that you aren't going to get in an office environment. damned if i could tell you what it is because it's different for everyone so basically i don't understand why there has to be such a fucking hubbub about it from someone who's in a much-vaunted better social standing than i am. if i want to work in an environment where i can wear whatever i want then what skin is it off anyone else's teeth? is it harmful to anyone's pride? is it really such an awful thing? that's a choice i've made and have to live with AND serve people who are in a much better social standing than i am and listen to them bitch and moan about how i'm a fucking 'hipster.' where the fuck does the inferiority complex come from? what do they have to feel inferior about? i really want someone to tell me. i'm not defending how any of my co-workers treat customers because i've always felt uncomfortable when someone i'm working with gets shitty with the customers over nothing. i don't make a practise of doing that- i actually like the majority of the customers who come in. i just don't like this theme of people thumbing their noses like cowards and bitching on the internet when they really don't have anything to bitch about and i don't like being corralled in with people who i work with just because i'm there- i don't act that way and i don't appreciate being included in the catch-all write-offs.
or i guess i could just try to accept this fact and move on with my life. i'd be happy to if i didn't get weird looks every time i stop at a truck stop while i'm travelling or get randomly solicited for pot by someone who looks the part of a 'straight' and having to just laugh it off when they tell me to my face 'i know you're a stoner- you look like one. come on- i know you have some pot.' guess what- I FUCKING DON'T SO GO GET IT YOURSELF MR. HIGH AND MIGHTY JUDGEMENTAL PANTS. yay, rant over.
i got some really nice music for christmas and a few great dvd boxed sets. stefanie bought me 'microcastle' on vinyl. it came with 'weird era continued' which is nice. plus the vinyl is white and sounds like the aural equivalent of a warm down blanket. stefanie's mom gave us about 40 lps. we now have every beatles album in existence, as well. at least i think we do. we have 'magical mystery tour,' 'sgt. pepper,' the white album and the heap of early tracks. she also gave us a buffalo springfield double lp collection and the first black sabbath album. there's some dusty springfield, buddy holly, kinks and other ill shit mixed in there. nice. we were only able to manage to carry about 1/3 of it home with us though because it was pretty heavy carrying all of them on the plane.
i finally got ahold of a tasty nina nastasia bootleg that i was trying to get through those ridiculous bit torrent sites (i can't for the life of me figure that shit out- so annoying). i've only listened to a little over half of it. i have the next two days off.
i want to send out some sympathy to my co-worker emily who had to take one of her cats to be put to sleep today. i am not sure if she had to have both of them put down or just the one- but they are not very old cats. i don't even think that she's had them for a full year. after that she has to go out of town for an intense family visit.
i have to test out my new and amazing mics and preamp as well. i would like to give the harmonica mic a maiden voyage in particular. i figured out how to get it sit on a mic stand (it doesn't have a place to clip it on- but can be easily jerry-rigged). i am intending mostly to sing out of it as i am a huge fan of how jason pierce does this and i think it will prove to be a nice effect for the next record we are working on (and have already started). in fact i think i shall go to do so right now. tah for now! happy new year. my only resolution is to concentrate on decreasing my debt.
Monday, December 29, 2008
the top five of the year
at last. i finally picked my five favourite records released this year. it wasn't difficult- i just had to pick the ones i've been listening to the most. they are nearly all records that aren't getting that much love from big publications- but man these five are all unbelievable keepers.
1. spiritualized- songs in a & e (this might be my favourite spiritualized record- it's the second most played full-length record on my ipod)
2. sian alice group- 59.59 (this band and album are criminally overlooked)
3. the walkmen- you & me (this is my favourite walkmen album- hands down- the kind of record i'd always hoped they might make some day- beautiful)
4. the black angels- directions to see a ghost (i bought this on two formats)
5. portishead- third (this would be the only exception to that whole criminally overlooked thing as it's on everyone i've seen's list)
i also love deerhunter- 'microcastle' and jolie holland- 'the living and the dead.' i just had to limit it to five- thems the rules.
1. spiritualized- songs in a & e (this might be my favourite spiritualized record- it's the second most played full-length record on my ipod)
2. sian alice group- 59.59 (this band and album are criminally overlooked)
3. the walkmen- you & me (this is my favourite walkmen album- hands down- the kind of record i'd always hoped they might make some day- beautiful)
4. the black angels- directions to see a ghost (i bought this on two formats)
5. portishead- third (this would be the only exception to that whole criminally overlooked thing as it's on everyone i've seen's list)
i also love deerhunter- 'microcastle' and jolie holland- 'the living and the dead.' i just had to limit it to five- thems the rules.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
let it come down
it's snowing and snowing and snowing outside. it's fantastic.
i stayed up really late last night, but still woke up really early. i was here at the coffee shop before 10am. there's no one here either- all of the students have gone home for christmas. there's nothing i love more than our neighborhood when the students are gone on one of their many breaks. it's like night and day. the neighborhood becomes sleepy and quiet. beautiful.
we watched 'white christmas' last night. despite the fact that i'd seen it before i'd forgotten when all of the musical numbers were coming up. some of them pop up with absolutey no warning. i really hate that. it's one of the many things i hate about musicals. anyone who knows me has heard me wax about this for extended periods of time so i'll spare you. it's pretty much the normal reasons people dislike musicals.
today i am listening to all nick drake. i'm listening to 'bryter layter' right now which i haven't heard in years i'm realising. i never really thought much of it to be honest- i always preferred the other two- but now that i'm listening to it i am loving it and can't believe that i have cast it aside for so long. nick drake's biography is my current bathroom reading material (i keep books in there that i've already read). bathroom lit is very fascinating to me. i usually keep books in there that i've already read. it's fascinating to me how quickly i can finish a book. i don't necessarily spend extended amounts of time in there- but the regularity with which one visits the bathroom is ideal for reading books quickly. even if you only read a few pages it adds up quickly.
this might be the best blog entry i've ever done so far. ever.
i got back on the writing horse last night. it made me desperate to record again- but no! i shall stick to my recording exile. it will probably be longer than a week since i shall be home in a week. the last time i visited billy suggested that we could finish some of the stuff we didn't get to during my last visit over christmas, but i was adamant that since there was going to be an acoustic show that would be all i would burden myself or anyone else with.
i have a twitter account. i hadn't thought much of it but it has become a bit addictive. i kind of enjoy it. i'm even following two people i don't know for some reason (it just added them when i joined and i don't know how to take them off of the list) but i still read their little updates and enjoy them. it doesn't let you write long-winded updates- which is perfect for people like me- it keeps things short and to the point.
for some reason the holidays seem to coming up extremely quickly this year. it happened while i wasn't even noticing. it hasn't really hit me at all yet. it probably isn't going to hit me until christmas morning since we're getting in on christmas eve fairly late. i kind of hate that it has to be that way, but money's money and a deal's a deal.
i'm beginning to get depressed about the whole languishing in obscurity thing. i'm going to try and be strong though and not let it take hold of me. it's important to keep perspective and i'm getting better at it and i am more content with our position in the world. just the fact that the west coast tour worked out as well as it did was pretty encouraging. that is probably the first proper tour we've ever been on. plus the shows were good- the only clunker being that one in minneapolis.
i'm not looking forward to this week too much. either choice seems a bit unappetizing- either painfully slow or painfully busy and stressful. i guess i could use painfully busy and stressful at the moment. it would certainly mean i'd have more money for when we visit. i'm sort of hoping that we make some money for fun stuff when we play the show. i'm not holding my breath- but at least they will feed us. plus last time they paid us very well and the crowd was really not that big. ad astra draws a big crowd too, so hopefully that means we will be paid pretty well. the violinist seems enthusiastic about getting a bunch of people out to the show. then there will be friends and family who will most likely show up. it's nice that we're playing so early so if people aren't in the mood for the hawd koah then they can leave.
as always fingers are crossed. if we can just weather this slow period then we'll be okay. i'm sure that that's what everyone is thinking and telling themselves. over and over again. it's still going to be a fun holiday. i don't even really care what i get. i'm mostly hoping that i will get a decent income tax return (even if it is a vain and foolish hope) in january.
i stayed up really late last night, but still woke up really early. i was here at the coffee shop before 10am. there's no one here either- all of the students have gone home for christmas. there's nothing i love more than our neighborhood when the students are gone on one of their many breaks. it's like night and day. the neighborhood becomes sleepy and quiet. beautiful.
we watched 'white christmas' last night. despite the fact that i'd seen it before i'd forgotten when all of the musical numbers were coming up. some of them pop up with absolutey no warning. i really hate that. it's one of the many things i hate about musicals. anyone who knows me has heard me wax about this for extended periods of time so i'll spare you. it's pretty much the normal reasons people dislike musicals.
today i am listening to all nick drake. i'm listening to 'bryter layter' right now which i haven't heard in years i'm realising. i never really thought much of it to be honest- i always preferred the other two- but now that i'm listening to it i am loving it and can't believe that i have cast it aside for so long. nick drake's biography is my current bathroom reading material (i keep books in there that i've already read). bathroom lit is very fascinating to me. i usually keep books in there that i've already read. it's fascinating to me how quickly i can finish a book. i don't necessarily spend extended amounts of time in there- but the regularity with which one visits the bathroom is ideal for reading books quickly. even if you only read a few pages it adds up quickly.
this might be the best blog entry i've ever done so far. ever.
i got back on the writing horse last night. it made me desperate to record again- but no! i shall stick to my recording exile. it will probably be longer than a week since i shall be home in a week. the last time i visited billy suggested that we could finish some of the stuff we didn't get to during my last visit over christmas, but i was adamant that since there was going to be an acoustic show that would be all i would burden myself or anyone else with.
i have a twitter account. i hadn't thought much of it but it has become a bit addictive. i kind of enjoy it. i'm even following two people i don't know for some reason (it just added them when i joined and i don't know how to take them off of the list) but i still read their little updates and enjoy them. it doesn't let you write long-winded updates- which is perfect for people like me- it keeps things short and to the point.
for some reason the holidays seem to coming up extremely quickly this year. it happened while i wasn't even noticing. it hasn't really hit me at all yet. it probably isn't going to hit me until christmas morning since we're getting in on christmas eve fairly late. i kind of hate that it has to be that way, but money's money and a deal's a deal.
i'm beginning to get depressed about the whole languishing in obscurity thing. i'm going to try and be strong though and not let it take hold of me. it's important to keep perspective and i'm getting better at it and i am more content with our position in the world. just the fact that the west coast tour worked out as well as it did was pretty encouraging. that is probably the first proper tour we've ever been on. plus the shows were good- the only clunker being that one in minneapolis.
i'm not looking forward to this week too much. either choice seems a bit unappetizing- either painfully slow or painfully busy and stressful. i guess i could use painfully busy and stressful at the moment. it would certainly mean i'd have more money for when we visit. i'm sort of hoping that we make some money for fun stuff when we play the show. i'm not holding my breath- but at least they will feed us. plus last time they paid us very well and the crowd was really not that big. ad astra draws a big crowd too, so hopefully that means we will be paid pretty well. the violinist seems enthusiastic about getting a bunch of people out to the show. then there will be friends and family who will most likely show up. it's nice that we're playing so early so if people aren't in the mood for the hawd koah then they can leave.
as always fingers are crossed. if we can just weather this slow period then we'll be okay. i'm sure that that's what everyone is thinking and telling themselves. over and over again. it's still going to be a fun holiday. i don't even really care what i get. i'm mostly hoping that i will get a decent income tax return (even if it is a vain and foolish hope) in january.
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