Recording Madness

Last night we found out what song we're mixing for our final...which happens to be the song we've been mixing all semester. That's actually a good thing because we know the song very well and can mix it very quickly.

Also, we found out what we are doing for our one-on-ones and I'm going to totally ace that. So Recording I, you get an A.

This weekend I'm playing my last show with the Reptoids so everyone should come out. Tonight there's a killer show at Sub-T: Sweet Cobra and Yakuza!! It's super cheap and I'm actually going.

Hooray!

Alligator Gun

So I'm currently rocking Alligator Gun's Onehundredpercentfreak album and damn is it rocking. I went and found them on myspace and little did I know they played a reunion show in December of 2006. WHY DIDN'T I KNOW!?!? Plus, they played with Compound Red which is rad as hell (I think when I was in Pulse, we played with Compound Red at Concert Cafe). I remember seeing AG in 1995 at the Concert Cafe...those were the times.

It's actually amazing that Onehundredpercentfreak still holds up after 13 years...so good on them for making an album that stands the test.

I'll put up a a song on the blog page from them next time I post. Then you should try finding their albums.

Don't worry I'm not dead

I forgot to post yesterday. Sorry. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I can't believe I just apologized like it really matters and as if I offended someone (mike) with my lack there of.

Practiced last night with the 'Toids. Ran through some old school material that we haven't played in about 1.5 years...it was SLOPPY!!! But, it'll be ready for the show. I hope they find a good bass player. I hope the tryout candidates actually come out and see us so they get an idea of kind of show we put on.

CTA Fun time

It took 2 hours to get to work today thanks to the CTA and general El awesomeness. Basically, a train malfunctioned in between Grand and Clark/Lake. So that means the 5 cars in between mine and that one, couldn't move (I'm sure people even further north were pumped).

So we get to the Western/Mil. stop and the operator tells us that we will be standing for a bit as they try to fix the problem with the stalled train. Forward to 20 min. later.

The train begins to move and then we stop in between Western and Damen for approx. 15 min. We then pull into the Damen station and the operator announces we are going to be sitting for a bit again, because the other train has not moved. 10 minutes later (9:00 am). "Everyone needs to clear off this train. There will probably be shuttles waiting or you can take the #56 bus downtown."

Well shit. So we herd off the platform which takes another 5 minutes as people can't listen and do not get off the train. So at 9:05 am, about 500 people en masse descend from the platform to the North/Milwaukee/Damen intersection. No shuttles and one 56 bus packed nuts to butts (that's for the search engines and porn seekers). So basically all 56 buses will be packed because everyone north of us will have already gotten on them.

So here everyone is waiting for the shuttles. Finally (about 10 min later), the crowd sees the first of the shuttles and in what looks like the L.A. riots sans bricks and semis, run and trample stampede like to the stopped transport. I'll have none of this, so I sit back and watch it go down. I do this for about 4 more shuttles.

I took some photos with my new camera phone. Doesn't really give the size of the crowd, but it was pretty large:





Once the 9th shuttle came around I decided I should fight the crowd and actually get on a shuttle. Can't be passive. But the first 5 shuttles, no way. Those people are assholes. I think pregnant women and children may have died in that crushing "MUST GET TO WORK. BOSS WON'T UNDERSTAND. ME BUSINESS GOOD."

But now I sit here at work looking at design Web sites trying to get some juices flowing and get back on track with my design skills. The rut sucks.

Ahhh...

So I did absolutely nothing this weekend. Ok, I take that back. I took apart my mixing board, cleaned it, broke some stuff, now I have to bring it in for repair. That's fine though. It needs the work. I ended up fixing some of it myself while I was in there. I just have to make sure it's up and running by June so I can record The Unnecessary Gunpoint Lecture. More on that later.

I also bought a glue gun! Welcome to world of arts and crafts for me. Anyone need a fake floral arrangement?

I'm disappointed by the lack of comments from Mike.

Not so interesting fact

I looked at the posts from previous years and it turns out, I'm pretty sardonic and sometimes even, I dare say, witty. Also, I've posted more in the last 4 months than I did all last year. I know most of you don't care, but it's weird. I don't know what else to say. I might try adding music to this thing to. Stuff I like and you should check out, you know, to give this a purpose.

Birfday

So it's my birfday today...maybe I'll post more later.

This is really exciting

SUCKER.

Anyway, today marks the last day of my 20s. I don't think it will change anything, but it still is interesting. Apparently people are supposed to treat me more like an adult, but unfortunately those people keep getting older and the gap remains the same.

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to do something childish to commemorate the last day. Which basically means that I act normally.

Information Age

Today I signed up at Classmates.com. For some reason, I feel the need to get in touch with old classmates that I was friends with in high school that I haven't talked to since then. Nobody specifically...it's just a feeling. Actually, I've been trying to find Zack Dahlman. The last time I checked he was in Spain.

Maybe somebody knows.

Whoa!

So we had the big 3-0 party on Friday night for myself and it was quite enjoyable. I got to see a bunch of people I rarely get to see anymore now that I'm 200 miles away. Overall it was a good night. The food was tasty, so hopefully people ate some and the drinks flowed freely (the root beer for me was fantastic). However it was the cupcakes that were hot diggity delicious. I actually didn't even get one until last night at home.

Go to Cupcakes to check em out.

So I went to the Hu Hot restaurant when I was in town to meet with the guys I'm going to Canada with and I'd have to say it's really not that great. Apparently in GB, people rave about this place like it's the next "insert something huge here that would only appeal to people who live in suburbs with other white people". I'll admit that I've become this food snob since moving to Chicago. I can't help it. Even the littlest ma and pa restaurant here serves better food. They have to, or they go under. So I would recommend saving the $12 you would spend on dinner at Hu Hot, go get yourself some taco bell and maybe go see a movie.

Like Megan said about Hu Hot, it's as if you ordered the asian dish at Perkins.

what's that you say?

I can never think of good titles for my blog posts. Oh well.

I don't really have much to blog about today, but thought I would check in and see how cyber space has been and what it's been up to. So, what's up cyber space?

It's brat thursday at the eatery where I enjoy lunch. I'm going to get one now. YUM!

This birthday celebration is getting out of hand as well...it's going to be a blast.

WHA!

Ok, so I'm feeling slightly better today (about to go to bed soon).

I've finished mixing the Fremont CD...so now it's on to mastering. Mr. Harter will be giving it a shot and I have high hopes for said music's recorded quality. I think he'll do a good job.

I think I'm over some of the creative block I've been having, which is a positive thing. When I'm 100% I'll know for sure.

On a much sadder note: I've quit Reptoids. It definitely wasn't easy that's for sure. In fact we just put out a really fun little e.p. called Slayed. I recommend people buy it. What I was finding is that I couldn't meet the bands goals with my time commitment. I really want to focus on school and getting my recording engineer degree. The band wanted (and still going to) practice a couple times a week and do shows every other weekend. If this was 5 years ago...I would have said hell yeah. But I just can't do that now. And quite frankly it's unfair of me to be in the band and hold them back by having to cancel shows or not take shows because of scheduling conflicts.

Like I said earlier, I want to apprentice in a studio and that will eat up alot of my time, because not only will have that, but I also have the 9-5 M-F. I just don't really have the time.

I do wish them tons of future success and hope they find a new bass player who is willing to tour and play out alot. They're a good bunch of scrappy kids. If they don't get a guy for a bass player, I may have to show up and sing "We are the Wolves" as I sing that on the disc and I don't know if they could pull it off....well, Meg could (she'd find that amusing..I hope).


I just heard that Derek quit NDL as well. That sucks too, but he has a new little clone and needs to do the dad thing.

Bass players...what a bunch of jerks.

My Friends

These are my two new friends. Say hi everybody!

Being sick sucks

The title really says it all. I left work early on Friday (which I never do) and went home to sit in my pajamas as I was overtaken with a fever. First I was super cold, then I was burning up, cycle repeat.

This whole weekend I sat under a blanket on my couch watching TV trying to feel somewhat better. The other thing is that I don't take medicine. I know that seems crazy, but it's true. Nothing for headaches or anything. However, I caved. I had to take some Aleve and damn did it reduce the symptoms.

My throat today hurts pretty badly, which probably has everything to do with the fact that I was coughing all night long. "Is the pain terrible?" Yes. I guess I'll take some Aleve for the next couple of days. Feeling like shit sucks.

News is good

Apparently America should care:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4482242&page=1

This presidential election is getting a bit out of hand. The back-and-forth of the democratic candidates makes me want to vote McCain. No I'm just kidding. Nothing would do that.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired and can't really concentrate, plus I've been having a design funk lately. I think I need to meditate or medicate.

UGH!

So some of you may know that I have bad heartburn (see: GERD). Well for the last 2 years, I pretty much stopped it in it's tracks and have been able to eat anything (still don't drink much or consume caffeine at all).

Well, it came back with a vengeance. Apparently, my esophagus isn't cool just chillin like a villain.

I read online about some yogurts helping. So, I'm back to watching what I eat so I stop the feeling of burning and puking. DAMMIT.

On a better side note, I think I may have posted this, but I get to apprentice in a studio. And I picked up all of Haste's discs from Century Media (www.cmdistro.com). $3 a piece. Can't beat it. Also got Ahab's "The Call of the Wretched Sea" which is basically an Ambient Doom album about the story of "Moby Dick". It's really good and I'd recommend it even if you aren't into doom and can handle low low low vocals.

I think I may start posting more.

Nerd Tears

R.I.P. Gary Gygax.

Interweb

So I just read a blog from Matt Cutts (google employee) about Writely.

Basically it's an online word processor, spreadsheet and powerpoint creator. The coolest thing is that you can save your documents and then have access to them anywhere you have an internet connection. I think that's pretty great for people who don't have a laptop and hate carrying around those jump drives.

Plus, because google is tied in with blogger.com, you can publish what you write into your blog. You can also share your documents with other people by publishing them to a special URL.

I don't know, let's say you are writing a script for a movie called Korporate Karate 2. You can have the document online and accessible to the people you wish to see it and can create collaboratively regardless of distance. No more do you have to send the word doc to someone and have them make changes, then send it back, thus creating an endless amount of versions and clutter.

Rock and Roll

Hey all...and by "all" I mean the 2 people that may read this.

Fremont record is almost done. It's actually coming together nicely and they seem to like it. One more round of edits and it's done.

At school, I'm in Recording I and we did our first tracking session with a 7 piece jazz group. They were really good and it seems to sound good. I think our next couple of labs are going to be mixing it which is sweet. Oh yeah, school makes me feel old. Cause I am. My lab partner is from Wisconsin which is awesome. Smart guy too.

Oh yeah, I'm also going to be able to hang out at Volume Studios, where Reptoids just recorded our latest EP called Slayed. It's an interesting little 3 songer with metal, rock and garage influences. Please buy it from us. It's only $3 ($5 with shipping).

I don't really know what else to blog about. If someone could help that would be cool. And, no Mike, I will not blog about squadging or granking.

Fine. I'll do it.

Finally a new post. Reptoids CD release party was fun and nice. Sold some merch and the other bands were awesome. It was a good night.

In Recording 1 now at school. RAD! Mixing Fremont material which should be easier now that I know what I have to do.

I could post for hours on random things, but my employer would frown upon such things...and I agree.

That's it for now, look for Future Post™ coming soon!