Wednesday, September 29, 2004: RENDEZVOUS 6.02
Sandy and I had a rendezvous today as we hadn't seen each other since Monday morning. Her Sister is still in the hospital and I have finally found out what the problem is. She had her appendix removed. Since she's six months pregnant she'll have to stay in for a little longer than normal.
I finished cleaning up "The Crying Man" vocals last night. I placed them and mixed them but now I am bothered by other things. I wrote and added a new ER-1 drum part, but that didn't save the day, so I think I am going to have to re-record the guitar parts. I wish I had Paris' Fender Strato-castrator here but I will make due.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004: Home Alone
Sandy's Sister is still in the hospital so Sandy will be staying at her place to take care of Pet until she is released. Being male I am not qualified to be informed as to the details of what is wrong. This is not unlike Sandy's concerns about my ablity to wash clothes.
"You are man, you cannot do."
"Who washed my clothes in Canada?"
"Canadian Girlfriend did..."
Right...
So it is just me and the fish. And the Playstation. And the computer.
I watched "Old School" again. I just love the band at the wedding.
"Turn around...."
And speaking of Home Alone. If you haven't seen this, well it's scary. Be sure and page through the Police report as it is pretty amusing.
Monday, September 27, 2004: Compressor etc
Saturday night Sandy and I came back to the Redoubt to find that the air-compressor pump thing for the kingdom of Fish had cacked out. The water was still moving but there were no bubbles. This would mean a trip to the Weekend Market.
We had intended to go early Sunday morning in order to beat the heat, and the crush of the place, but Sandy got an emergency phone call regarding her pregnant sister so she had to run off to the hospital. I remained at the Redoubt and waited for further instructions. Sandy called at around 11:00 am and we met at the Victory Monument BTS (which is near the hospital) then we headed over to the Weekend Market.
The Weekend Market was hot, crowded and exactly what we had hoped to avoid. We wandered through it until we reached the fish tank section and then after some debate decided on a new pump. It was a whopping 80 Baht. Which is why, despite the heat and crowds, the Weekend Market is such a great place. We headed out as quickly as we could, as my tolerance levels for the place aren't that high and headed back to the BTS. Sandy went back to the hospital and I went back to the Redoubt to install the new contraption.
I spent the afternoon converting the vocal tracks I recording last week to .wav files then cleaned them up (all seven tracks) in Sound Forge. I loaded the files into Acid Pro but didn't remix the levels. I will do that this week some time.
Sandy got back at around 8:00 pm with her nephew Pet. He will be at the Redoubt until his Mom is out of the hospital today. He was very pleased with my Playstation.
Saturday, September 25, 2004: Less Rain
The past few days have seen less rain. In fact we had a whole day of sunshine. Unbelievable. Sandy insists that this rainy season is worse than usual. I only know I am most home-sick during this time of year.
I have posted "Six Point Five Not Eight" in the music room. I completed the vocals for "The Crying Man" this week but still have to assemble it and render it to MP3. I have a few other tracks I also want to finish up before the end of the month.
Thursday, September 23, 2004: 2010 Twenty Years Later
I watched 2010 last night. It was very strange to watch after originally seeing it in the theatre in the autumn of 1984. The thing I found most difficult to stomach was how deeply mired it was in mid-80’s politics, and the notion that the Cold War would still be in full swing in 2010. A conflict in Honduras (better tell Bruce Cockburn to get his rocket launcher) between a “reactionary” American government and the Soviets serves as the back drop for a trip to Jupiter. The American and Russian space travels have to sort out the big cosmic mystery of that monolith while their governments make hawkish demands of them.
Cold War politics! Sandy was sort of baffled by that element of the story. I think more so than the Dave Bowman ghost aspect. It is actually shame that there wasn’t less politics and narration and more spooky mysterious space stuff. The film would have been more enjoyable 20 years on.
The effects are still pretty good looking. The predicted technology of course looks ridiculous with text based computer systems and giant vacuum-tube monitors, but the visuals of the ship “air-breaking” is great. As I have probably mentioned a dozen times here I am not a fan of most CGI and I think that the old school “model” space ship has far more depth to it than the obviousness of CGI.
My favorite scene in the movie is still the John Lithgow space walk. He looks so genuinely terrified it’s hard for me not to empathize with his character. How would I feel having to do that?
I haven’t read the book so I have no idea how close the movie is to its story-line. I would assume there is more of an explanation of Jupiter caving in on itself as well as why the ghost of David “open the pod-bay door, HAL” Bowman is running around.
Now I want to find the DVD of 2001 (2010 was a renter) just so I can really confuse Sandy. I already know how she'll react to the monkey-men at the beginning of the movie.
She'll say, "Dayb, why you in movie?"
Tuesday, September 21, 2004: Bookday
I think that the "Mountain of Waste" headline was draw from this report. Still the headline is ridiculous. You don't see garbage everywhere here. Litter is even rare. Sure, it's NOT Singapore and there may be logistical problems in dealing with 14 million peoples trash but that headline is misleading.
Today is more that Bilbo's birthday. I have been keeping a diary or journal for 27 years. Maybe that is longer that you've been alive.
Monday, September 20, 2004: Mountain of Waste?
Last night the BBC was showing the Iranian rejection of the demand by the UN atomic watchdog to freeze uranium enrichment by November and cooperate with UN inspectors. The feed of the Iranian guy had been pulled off of either the Iranian news channel or one of the Arab ones. Below him there were the typical running lines of news headlines, like you would see on any major news channel only in this case the headlines appeared in both English and Arabic and the details were in Arabic. One headline said THAILAND’S CAPITAL BANGKOK BURIED UNDER MOUNTAIN OF WASTE… I had to explain to Sandy what “a mountain of waste” would be, although I couldn’t explain to her why a Middle Eastern news service would report that we would be buried under it.
You get a pretty good view of things in the City from the BTS. It was brilliantly sunny out this morning and although I looked I failed to see a mountain of waste anywhere. Despite all the rain we have had lately we haven’t even had any flooding. No waste to be seen. Lots of trees. Lots of tall buildings. Lots of people going to work. Lots of venders selling food and drinks. No mountain of waste. It sort of makes me wonder what other kooky shit the Iranian Government tells its citizens about the outside world. Then CBC certainly misled me all those years in Canada so I guess it’s only fair the Iranians get to make stuff up too.
Friday, September 17, 2004: Goodbye Johnny!
Another Ramone has gone to that Rock n Roll Highschool in the sky. I sent a text to Bonhomme when I read the news today (oh boy), as he is a big Ramones fan.
It is still pissing rain. It had taken a break yesterday but now it’s back at it and then some. The rain in the day time reminds me of BC when I was a kid, although today's humidity is more Ontario-like. The thing about the endless months of rain is it insures that if you go back to Canada some dope will ask you why you don't have a tan.
Some creature, probably a gecko has passed away in the Redoubt... Somewhere. Sandy and I have been searching under sink and shoe for the location of its tiny lizard corpse for couple days with no luck. It hasn't reeked the place out or anything, as it’s only a lizard not a cat, but every now and then we will get a whiff of a smell that one recognizes by instinct alone...
DEATH...
Thankfully it isn't inside my computer.
Unlike the ants. With the rain come the ants. The Redoubt must be their designated assembly area in case their little ant-fart trails gets washed away. They alternate between the little red bastards who bite and seem to be able to get inside any container that isn't in the fridge and the big black ones who like to run insanely around on my desk. One of them got INSIDE my plasma screen monitor and I foolishly squashed it, thinking of course it was on the outside. Now I have the remains of ant forever preserved inside my screen.
With the ants of course come the geckos. Which we don't mind. Except when they die and smell.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004: Weather Report
The weather has gone from rainy season to Blade Runner. It's drizzling down at night so much now that I half expect Daryl Hannah to come cart wheeling down Sukumvit.
This rain has cooled things down though. It's surprising how cool 25 C can feel. Sandy keeps pointing out to me that I can never return to Canada now since I find 25 C intolerably cold. I think this is a ploy on her part. The real question is if I brought her to Canada how would she deal with the sub-zero weather?
Friday, September 10, 2004: The 1979 Vibe
I picked up two new CDs. “Franz Ferdinand” and “The Hives: Tyrannosaurus Hives”. Both have a really strong 1979 vibe to them. In case you were still eating pabulum in 1979 that was a year of great musical optimism. The phrase “new wave” had yet to be invented but there was a real new wave of music that promised to liberate those of us who were interested from the endless dope-smoking hippy crap that dominated the airwaves.
Back in those days there was no escape from “The Eagles” or “The Doobie Brothers” and for a 15 year old such as myself “Devo’” and “The Stranglers IV” (yes that was their name before they dropped the roman four) was a welcome thing. Of course things went all off the rails in about 1982 and the result was ten years of hair-gel, digital reverbs and wheezy DX7 keyboards. In any event these two CDs remind me of some of what could be heard on Toronto’s then independent CFNY. Back when they’d pay you 105 bucks if you could catch them playing the same song twice.
“Franz Ferdinand” sounds sort of like “The Stranglers” in a way. Perhaps in the same way that “The Stranglers” sort of sounded like the “Doors”. As for “The Hives”, they have a definite “T-Rex” or “Rolling Stones” thing going on. I am not, nor have ever been a “Rolling Stones” fan, but the similarities aren’t so strong enough to chase me away. I would have loved this stuff when I was 15. One thing I must say about both these bands is that compared to stuff like “Jet” or the gawd-awful falsetto squawking of “The Darkness” they don’t reek of music industry pre-manufacturing.
“Jet” I truly dislike. They suck. Not that they suck in the way that Robbie Williams singing “Mr. Bo Jangles” sucks, they suck in the way that they are all gussied up like its 1974 and they carry themselves with this smug rock star look that suggests they actually thought this whole rock thing up on their own without any help from “The Beatles”. I can’t take them seriously, and they take themselves so seriously that they aren’t any fun. Compare that to something like “Cheap Trick” which couldn’t be taken seriously and who didn’t take themselves seriously and that is what made it fun. And what makes it still fun. When ever I see “Jet” I have this strange desire to throw dirt bombs at them.
As for “The Darkness”… I can only think of a handful of singers who should be allowed to sing in that high a high voice and two of them are dead (Robert Plant, Jon Anderson, Claus Nomi and Freddy Mercury). Really this band is music for 10 year-olds. Guitar riffs that sort of sound like slightly altered classic riffs from other songs with a hard rocking 1974 K-Tel hits feel. Perfect music if you are making ramps to jump over with your new bike on some suburban street in a subdivision.
Understand that I make these judgments as a listener not a player. As a player my choices remain obscure and often bizarre. I like the idea that music can possibly be something different than what ever is currently happening. I really like the idea of music that is truly new. However I am willing to listen to something really good that harkens back to 1979 rather than something that is currently fashionable and sucks. As a listener and player there are only occasions times when these two things coincide. The “Rebirth of Cool” period that occurred in about 1994 is a good example of that. Suddenly there were bands like “Portishead” and “Massive Attack” that combined everything I ever loved with something totally different.
Speaking of totally different, The Music Room is up and running.
Thursday, September 9, 2004: Taking Foy
"One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it."
I had a rather big personal victory recently. Huge actually. Giant sized. Of course I can't actually write about it here. The funny thing about victories is that you think they will spell the end of something when in actual fact they mark the beginning of something.
It is sort of like getting a new colour belt in a martial art. All the stuff you've learned and the beatings you've taken give you that new rank, but all that new rank does is give you the requirements to start the next lesson (and new beatings).
So it goes. I am not ready to start singing "Salisbury Hill" but for the first time since I don't know when I am not cowering waiting for the next tree burst.
11:58 am, time for a pepper steak.
Wednesday, September 8, 2004: 6.5 Not 8
Sandy and I watched "Hell Boy" on disc last night. I missed it in the theaters, being sort of unenthused about movies based on comic books... er sorry... GRAPHIC NOVELS (comic books) ... and tired of CGI (computer generated stop motion plastercine dinosaurs). We had rented it so there it was and then we watched it.
It was okay I guess. It was better than "Dare Devil". Better than Matrix Retarded... but then going to the dentist a few weeks ago was better than either of the Matrix sequels. Maybe I just don't care about stuff like that anymore. I'd rather watch something really stupid that makes me laugh.
Meanwhile...
I have been working on re-recording a few things using the new microphone. I have also been trying to finish off something called "Six Point Five Not Eight" which has been mutating from something about lights floating over the Redoubt to something else. The process is more refined now. I started with recording sounds and sequences from some soft-synths on my PC to Sound Forge then snipping them into nice little loops, arranging them, and then rendering them, transferring them to the MRS-4 as guide tracks, then recording vocals. Not having to pay for studio time is wonderful. I spent 4 days recording vocals until I had this Sons of the Pioneers type stack of harmonies... which I promptly abandoned and replaced with a new set of vocal tracks that I recorded Saturday. Once I've placed them and mixed them I'll render it out as a finished piece which maybe someday I will post in the Music Room...
That is when I manage to post something there.
Saturday, September 4, 2004: Awful
Why won't anyone come out and say exactly what these scumbags are;
FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAMICS waging "Jihad"? They will have their justification and cause. They always do. Their excuse that gives them the okay to go and do something like this.
Note that the press makes it sound like the storming of the school was why the terrorists started killing, not that the Russians stormed the school because the terrorists HAD started killing.
The BBC talking heads seemed surprised that Arabs had been found among the terrorists. Since Chechnyans have been found fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq why would it be a shock? They share the same ideology.
They weren't mecenaries. Mercenaries fight for money. These clowns think they are fighting for God.
I tried to upload a MP3 again only to have nothing happen. I will let you know when it works.
Friday, September 3, 2004: MP3s and Scumbags
Sorry I haven't been able to post as often the last while. I have been busy busy busy.
I have made one attempt to upload an MP3 to The Music Room but... It never worked so I will have to try again on the weekend. I'm not sure how long it is supposed to take to upload but without broadband access I will assume that "forever" is a good guess.
Since I have failed to jump on the MP3 bandwagon this conversion of my experiments to the format have made me aware of something. MP3's have all the bass sucked out of them. Tinny is the word that comes to mind. I have been tweaking them in Sound Forge to try and correct this problem, but I think it might just be part of the MP3 experience.
Meanwhile the BBC is referring to the scumbag malcontents who've taken over a school and a threatening to kill all the kids as "an armed gang"... They don't dare say terrorists. That might offend someone.
