michaelhayes (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} michaelhayes) wrote,@ 2009-01-12 11:26:00 |
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Geeks-R-Us, how can I help you?
I love it when I sit down on MON and need to back my calendar up and say, sheesh what DID happen this weekend?
FRI
I got home from work, laid down with the cats who were curled under the coffee table next to the heater grate, and fell straight asleep. 8 minutes later when Rick Miller showed up at the door I lept up and got to work. It's amazing how much rejuvenation I got out of that little power nap.
So Rick showed up to record (and turns out, reconceive) a few songs he'd written for Blind Spot, the latest show going up at Annex Theatre. As we sat there and discussed a strategy for recording is when he started dropping key bits of info like "odd time signtaures", "adding some instrumentation", and "transposition". It being 7pm I was background processing what I knew I knew how to do and going "uh oh".
Well, fortunately for me Rick is a impeccable performer, so once I got a microphone, headphones, and a stool set up for him in the salon (which, turns out, is an excellent room to track in) he pretty much just bashed out the main melodies on guitar. While he did that I was one-step ahead in the studio reading on how ot accomplish whatever the next song it was we were doing (mostly setting up the sequencer to track to waltz time and the like).
Two of the songs had codas, so we recorded and sequenced those up real quick. One song needed some extra "oomph" so we tracked Rick on bass guitar and I added some drums. Together we dialed in some wacky drum fills so it didn't sound too stale and moved on.
The last song, written on acoustic guitar, was requested be changed to something more odd, since it's supposed to be coming out of the pipes in a household (long story, just go see the show). Oh, and a shanty. So I got to work mucking up the guitar so it sounded weird and we started playing around with weird clanking percussion (and a timpani yay!), accordion, and the like.
Meanwhile Kendra and her troupemate had come home, gone out clubbing, AND come back home. So after a quick and dirty mixing session I sent Rick off into the night at 2:30am with a disc of the night's work. Tired but happy. I was particularly pleased with my own work, not only the business-end of getting everything done and being able to provide everything Rick asked for, but also my creative contribution to the songs. Score one for the home team!
Note: Amante deliver until 2am on the weekends. Yay late night pizza!
SAT
*yawn*
After a slow struggle to awakeitude I hustled out of the house (which apparenlty will be a regular SAT am occurence since Kendra has early pole students...and the idea of chicks in hot pants learning pole dance who don't know me seeing me pad around the house in the buff is a "distraction"... who knew?). Since I was also helping the sound designer for Blind Spot (which I keep mis-typing as "Bling Spot" haha), and they were starting tech on this morning I figured I'd pop in on my way back from getting coffee and make sure everything was going okay.
Well, good thing I did. Having insight into the sound system, since I spec'd and set it up, I was able to quickly solve a few things before they became major show-stoppers and still go through my morning email checking and random "oh haha lookit this" web surfing.
The cool thing about all the arty-farty peeps I know is that you get to interact with them in the weirdest states. 11am on a SAT while two people make costumes, one records a last minute jingle, and one asks challenging questions like "what's your favorite Spam subject line?" is just a great way to hang out as far as I'm concerned.
Well I eventually got home and started working with Emma on some keyboard parts for a Fog People song. She's just returned from Hawaii, and not having a functioning keyboard on her own needed some hands-on time. We had a great time and got a lot done.
I took care of some housework and general chores and then Kendra and I took off for a friend's house. There, in exchange for a pretty kickass dinner of filet of sole (which had me singing the Dead Milkmen song of the same name for quite a while), I proceeded to: install and setup a wireless network, connect a laptop to a HD (frickin' large) tv, AND install and connect a wireless printer (a pretty cool device actually). My geekly services were rewarded with not only the dinner, but then getting to watch movies on said frickin' large tv. A pretty awesome experience.
SUN
A lot of shuttling around and prepping for band practice, which went very well after a few weeks off for the holidays. I got home exhausted, and managed to drop into bed at around 9pm. We watched a few epsisodes of Extras, and I fell asleep. I must've slept for a long time, because this morning my body was actually sore from all the rest, if that makes sense.
MON
I kicked off my work week with a craptastic meeting where the boss threw what I consider to be an actual petulant tantrum. With me being one of the targets of said tantrum, I just chose to nod and say "okay" about ten times while trying to write blurbs for the next Fog People album in my notes. How DO some people end up in charge, anyway?
I love it when I sit down on MON and need to back my calendar up and say, sheesh what DID happen this weekend?
FRII got home from work, laid down with the cats who were curled under the coffee table next to the heater grate, and fell straight asleep. 8 minutes later when Rick Miller showed up at the door I lept up and got to work. It's amazing how much rejuvenation I got out of that little power nap.
So Rick showed up to record (and turns out, reconceive) a few songs he'd written for Blind Spot, the latest show going up at Annex Theatre. As we sat there and discussed a strategy for recording is when he started dropping key bits of info like "odd time signtaures", "adding some instrumentation", and "transposition". It being 7pm I was background processing what I knew I knew how to do and going "uh oh".
Well, fortunately for me Rick is a impeccable performer, so once I got a microphone, headphones, and a stool set up for him in the salon (which, turns out, is an excellent room to track in) he pretty much just bashed out the main melodies on guitar. While he did that I was one-step ahead in the studio reading on how ot accomplish whatever the next song it was we were doing (mostly setting up the sequencer to track to waltz time and the like).
Two of the songs had codas, so we recorded and sequenced those up real quick. One song needed some extra "oomph" so we tracked Rick on bass guitar and I added some drums. Together we dialed in some wacky drum fills so it didn't sound too stale and moved on.
The last song, written on acoustic guitar, was requested be changed to something more odd, since it's supposed to be coming out of the pipes in a household (long story, just go see the show). Oh, and a shanty. So I got to work mucking up the guitar so it sounded weird and we started playing around with weird clanking percussion (and a timpani yay!), accordion, and the like.
Meanwhile Kendra and her troupemate had come home, gone out clubbing, AND come back home. So after a quick and dirty mixing session I sent Rick off into the night at 2:30am with a disc of the night's work. Tired but happy. I was particularly pleased with my own work, not only the business-end of getting everything done and being able to provide everything Rick asked for, but also my creative contribution to the songs. Score one for the home team!
Note: Amante deliver until 2am on the weekends. Yay late night pizza!
SAT*yawn*
After a slow struggle to awakeitude I hustled out of the house (which apparenlty will be a regular SAT am occurence since Kendra has early pole students...and the idea of chicks in hot pants learning pole dance who don't know me seeing me pad around the house in the buff is a "distraction"... who knew?). Since I was also helping the sound designer for Blind Spot (which I keep mis-typing as "Bling Spot" haha), and they were starting tech on this morning I figured I'd pop in on my way back from getting coffee and make sure everything was going okay.
Well, good thing I did. Having insight into the sound system, since I spec'd and set it up, I was able to quickly solve a few things before they became major show-stoppers and still go through my morning email checking and random "oh haha lookit this" web surfing.
The cool thing about all the arty-farty peeps I know is that you get to interact with them in the weirdest states. 11am on a SAT while two people make costumes, one records a last minute jingle, and one asks challenging questions like "what's your favorite Spam subject line?" is just a great way to hang out as far as I'm concerned.
Well I eventually got home and started working with Emma on some keyboard parts for a Fog People song. She's just returned from Hawaii, and not having a functioning keyboard on her own needed some hands-on time. We had a great time and got a lot done.
I took care of some housework and general chores and then Kendra and I took off for a friend's house. There, in exchange for a pretty kickass dinner of filet of sole (which had me singing the Dead Milkmen song of the same name for quite a while), I proceeded to: install and setup a wireless network, connect a laptop to a HD (frickin' large) tv, AND install and connect a wireless printer (a pretty cool device actually). My geekly services were rewarded with not only the dinner, but then getting to watch movies on said frickin' large tv. A pretty awesome experience.
SUNA lot of shuttling around and prepping for band practice, which went very well after a few weeks off for the holidays. I got home exhausted, and managed to drop into bed at around 9pm. We watched a few epsisodes of Extras, and I fell asleep. I must've slept for a long time, because this morning my body was actually sore from all the rest, if that makes sense.
MON
I kicked off my work week with a craptastic meeting where the boss threw what I consider to be an actual petulant tantrum. With me being one of the targets of said tantrum, I just chose to nod and say "okay" about ten times while trying to write blurbs for the next Fog People album in my notes. How DO some people end up in charge, anyway?
