Thursday, April 19, 2007

Yuba lockdown




One of these teaches math at Yuba High school. The other threatened to do something in a Yuba/Sutter school that would make Virginia Tech look mild.
Chris had to draw the shades, lock the door, and tape the windows while students were doing STAR testing. The students weren't supposed to know.

Anyway, Chris was OK when I talked to him. It's REALLY creepy to glance over at CNN to see that hovering-helicopter-camera aiming down on your friend's workplace.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

67 seconds of Hot Tub Disco

Done and Done



The bookshelf was a good learning experience and doesn't look terrible, in my opinion. The Huck Flint mixes have been mastered and sound awesome. On the left is Kevin "The Secret Weapon" Porter from HF and on the right is my new hero Martin from Sonic Temple. We had an extended talk about audio fidelity, the kind of talk that would bore a girfriend right out of your relationship. Good times.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Sara learns MovieMaker...

...on Sasha's 4th birth monthday. Bonthday. Mirthday.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Dang!



So Huckleberry Flint and I have been semi-consistently mixing their new CD for the last few months. Which is fun and all, but it's just about done. I made the handoff to the mastering guy today.

I had a nostalgic feeling yesterday that there was a Final Exam coming up today, but it's cool. I studied hard. Where's my number #2 pencil? Bring it on!

Anyway, the mastering guy is very cool and broke the news gently: the compression on the mixdowns is too crude. The vocals are too low. The guitars squelch the vocal, and the bass squelches everything.

Dang! Dang! Now I'm walking out of the testing hall with B-/C+ test.

So now it's back in for another late night of mouse-pushing, EQ,cross-fading, multi-band compression, reverb adjustment, and all around normaliztion. And gentle, gracelful compression.

But hey. The dude was nice about it, and honestly, we're talking about tiny, tiny adjustments in the grand sonic spectrum. I though I was a perfectionist, but no. I'm not. Soon, though.

PS- That guy was right. Worked til 2AM and I think it does actually sound better. "You could probably say that every day", said Sara.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Day 5



The lady at the workshop said that 'finishing' the piece is going take a good chunk of time. But did she say apply Minwax and then sand? Because the Minwax was wet....and sanding something wet felt wrong. Beyond that, I have followed the instructions.

It still looks uneven.

Two coats of wood conditioner, one coat of stain. Now what?

Monday, April 2, 2007

The very next morning.....


Here's the thing. They stole hardly anything. We don't leave anything 'hot' in the cars. Stereo? Still there. Sunglasses? Still there. They took a book of super-unpopular CDs, such as Calexico, Cat Power, & Gillian Welch, all of which won't fetch a modest sum on eBAy.

The window will cost $265 to fix. Our deductible is $250. The cop was prompt and unhelpful. The villain(s) left their grubby marks on my window, presumably scoping it out. I almost wish they'd emptied my car of all those half-decent promo CD's. But no, they saw the dog hair, sand, and filth and opted for the more sanitary vehicle.

Auto glass is suprisingly cool. It crumbles into dull little chips. It's still a drag when you're vaccuuming it out of your wife's cupholder.

Sunday, April 1, 2007



Oma is in the ground.


She was widowed in 1987, and on Friday afternoon we took his ashes and stirred them into hers.