right on bro!

I ordered a bunch of CDs from Insound yesterday. For some reason, they overnighted them to me. I’m not going to complain.

This week I had three rolls of film developed. Some of the pictures actually came out pretty well. But my scanner has apparently developed a major suckage problem, so it looks like I won’t be putting them online anytime soon.

The third roll was slide film. I filtered out the good ones and some old ones from last year, and I’m going to send them out to be scanned. So I’ll put those online in about two weeks.

I started mixing on these new monitors tonight and had to stop. I’m having a bit of a hard time with them. They add depth and punch that I’m completely unfamiliar with. The Paradigm Titans were pretty straightforward speakers, and there was also the advantage that they’ve been my main general-use speakers for the past ten years. So when a kick drum was punchy on the Titans, it was punchy everywhere.

On the Mackies, it’s not necessarily the case because everything’s punchy, so I just need to figure out what the right level of punchiness is for things to actually be punchy on regular speakers.

I guess I just need to listen to more albums through them for awhile to get used to them before starting any more work. I’m kind of tired right now, too, so nothing really sounds good at all.

Went to Taylor’s for dinner. Was originally going to go to the Black Angus in Burbank but after it started raining it would’ve been hell to drive there. Never been to Black Angus - if anyone knows if it’s any good, please let me know. Anyway, I think being stuffed with prime rib is partially causing the problem of nothing sounding good. Seriously.

It’s the annual “self-review” time at my workplace. I’m expected to fill out a five-page survey, evaluate myself on like 15 different things, and comment on each one. Then I’m supposed to write up what I’ve learned over the past year, what I’ve accomplished over the past year, and what I hope to accomplish next year.

This is going to take me few hours to complete. I’m tempted to just write “Doing good, just need raise” on it and handing it in.

Spent yesterday evening playing with new guitar. Recorded some tracks where I mic’ed the Blues DeVille in my front hallway. Surprised nobody complained. Gonna have to mix to see how it sounds, we’ll see.

Plugging away, plugging away.

Since I was up early, and I’m almost never up early, I saw the sun come up. So I climbed up to the roof of my building and took some photos with a disposable camera I bought to take pictures of my accident last week.

Here you go.

· Sky
· Me

Solid self-working yesterday. Took a nap at 4:30 in the afternoon, woke up at 4:30 this morning. I feel good though.

Ended up getting that Les Paul Studio yesterday. Wine red, chrome hardware, made in 1984 in the Nashville plant, original hardware including the Gibson Deluxe tuners and PAF pickups. It’s got some cosmetic damage (looks like it was gigged with pretty heavily) but it sounds and plays sweeeeeet! After bringing it back home, we compared side-by-side with the Epiphone Les Paul Standard - the Studio had a much better neck and a much clearer sound.

Now I need to actually write some new stuff with it…

I bought a pair of Mackie HR624 studio monitors today. They sound absolutely fucking fantastic.

I went to the store planning to listen/buy either the Alesis M1 Actives and the new Event True Reference series. But after listening to all of those, some M-Audios, and a pair of Genelec 1029’s, the Mackie monitors really stood out. The Genelecs sounded really good, too…just not as much low end.

I’ve also got the Auralex MoPAD isolation pads underneath the monitors now. It does make a difference - not significant, but the low end seems a bit clearer and cleaner.

Been listening to CDs and some of my old work on these things all night. Surprisingly enough, the demos I did for the Monumental Divide and Matt actually hold up fairly well, considering we were using some pretty low-budget stuff. The stuff I’m doing for this new band isn’t sounding as well, but that’s why I bought these monitors, to fix that.

I think I’m in love with music again.

On Thursday I got worked while driving to work. Was driving south on Vermont Avenue by LACC, when a young, unknown actress from Indiana changed lanes into the left side of my car. I hate it when that happens.

So, did everyone get their auto insurance renewal and found their rates were going up? I don’t get it. I have no accidents for which I am at fault, my car is getting older, and I’m a longer-term customer at the same company - and my rates are going up. So I called these fools and asked them, “How can I lower my insurance rates?” The agent did some jeetering and adjusted my rate lower than what I was paying before, without changing coverage. She said she was adjusting the annual mileage from 20k to 10-15k but the policy’s always been for 10-15k. Hmmm.

Got my ass kicked in Halo last night, but as Mr. Regul says, I’m getting better every time.

Oh, I also broke the picket line and went to Vons last night to buy beer. All of the union picketers were just kind of sitting down, lounging around, holding their picket signs down on the ground. I guess they’re as tired of the strike as I am.

As much as I’d like to support these fools, it’s getting harder to care about it as the weeks go on. I don’t really blame them, I blame the Big Giant Corporations Who Are Out to Exploit Each And Every One of Us. Up until the time where I get to run my own Big Giant Corporation, that is. But for now, I’m just a wage slave like everyone else.

So keep on keepin’ on, comrades, and please try to find a way to forgive me for buying the beer.

There are three houses down the street from where I live for sale. I looked them up today. Asking prices are: $549,000; $549,000; and $629,000.

Looks like I ain’t gonna be moving down the street from where I live anytime soon…

Went with a friend today to watch his new record get mastered. The mastering dude was busy setting up his vinyl record pressing machine, so we didn’t get to hear his rig, but went to his shop instead to watch him set up his machine for 180-gram vinyl (a.k.a. really high end stuff).

I’ve never seen how records are made. Dude has a giant contraption that he apparently bought without instructions and assembled it himself. Vinyl pellets are heated up, squirted into a round shallow cup so you have a piece of vinyl with labels on each side about the size of a hamburger. Then that piece is transferred over a metal plate of the actual record, where it’s pressed and steamed into the actual record. Then the remnants are cut so that the record is a perfect circle. Fuckin’ crazy. I have a new appreciation for vinyl manufacturing.

Also saw a World War II era lathe that was taken from a ship. Even crazier.

The chick I called last week about the Les Paul Studio called me back today. I thought she’d sold it, but she hasn’t. Made in the 80s, wine red, chrome hardware. Gonna check it out this weekend. Hope it turns out cool.

Cooking dinner, then gonna play Socom for awhile.

Was supposed to work on songs today, instead spent all evening playing Socom 2.