Direction

Bad Direction: "This Sucks, Try Something Else."

Good Direction: "When you add parts to it think orchestral arrangement. Some things come in briefly and then don't repeat. Imagine the song is a soundtrack to a montage of cars driving."

Thanks John!

-Joe

Making Music is Good

Just finished working on one of John's songs called Almost Better. I added some atmospheric layers to it, a handful of synths and tweaked the drums a bit. Think NIN's hurt meets The Cure's Lullaby. I think it's going to turn out really nice.

This makes 9 songs so far that are arranged and nearing completion that have been started in the month of February. This RPM Challenge is turning our to be pretty cool. We're under the gun now to finish these up and get them mixed be by the 28th. The pressure is on. Woo-Hoo!

-Joe

My New Cylon Hood

I just finished installing my new Cylon looking Range Hood in the kitchen. Yes, I know the economy blows and the world is falling a part but the Appliances I had were over 20 years old, falling apart, oozing grease and at times making chirping noises that would wake us up in the middle of the night. It was time to take the plunge. So we went to Sears and picked up some nice looking Kenmore Appliances. Hopefully they'll last another 20 years.


Old Hood:

Hood & Range:

New Fridge:

The Whole Set:

It's funny to think that less than 2 years ago I would of hired someone else to do this job. Now I install these things my self. Proof in the power of the internet for research and some Patience!

Ok, now it's time to go make some music!

-Joe

Morning Links: Something Is Squeezing my Skull... err Stomach

It's Tuesday, I've a server class to attend this morning, a wireless network to set up this afternoon, several customers to call back and my stomach is being quite grumpy. Grrr! Here's some morning reading:

Smart Cars, Smart Grid

New Music from Morrissey, Lilly Allen and Sufjan Stevens on NPR's All songs

DVD Sales on the Slide along with everything else!

TV on the Radio remix Nat King Cole This sounds really cool actually! Nice Dark and Dubby Number!

Billboard recaps NIN & Jane's Addiction Tour and Album news

Pep Talk

New Simpsons Intro

Jason Snell does a review and video onDropbox for Mac World

Enjoy!

Joe

It's Amazing what you can do with excessive Amounts of free time...

Communication Break Down

I'm at Sawgrass Mills mall, in the faux Ritzy section at Coco Day Spa. They're blasting nausiating what sounds like Isreali Pop music. Kristen is getting a pedicure and I'm holding it down in the lobby with all the fake boobs and overweight woman clutching enormous handbags and booking bikini waxes. It's kinda gross. None the less eveyone around me is starring downninto their phones texting away or reading emails doing their best to look and feel importan, My sled includied I guess, I'm typing this up on my iPhone, but for journalistic purposes of course!
;)

Just making the observation. We're more connected than ever but have farless to say. Kind of a bummer.

On the upside, Kristen and I went to Stir Crazy last night with a friend and we were really suprised by a new implementation of technology they used for notifying people when their table was ready. Instead of getting a pager that usually limits you to the lobby area and about 20 feet outside the front door they just took down our cell number. Good Stuff!! When our table was ready an automated service called to not only confirm we were comming back to the restaraunt but also allowed us to cancel the reservation or push back our reservation time. Very cool espcially since we were at a new outdoor mall so we were able to causally browse around the mall with out worry of missing out table.

It's a minor thing but it's nice to see a sign of progress and a justifiable use for all those phones everyone is just starring down into.

"Art" is everywhere... sort of.