February 21, 2005 - 2:01 PM

Not Joshing Around

I spent much of this weekend doing rough mixes at home of songs that I recorded for Adrianne. I don't know if you, casual reader, care, but it's an interesting experience, trying to mix a song on a pair of computer speakers and decent headphones as opposed to in a fancy studio with acoustically engineered paneling and 3 sets of speakers that cost at least a months' rent each. It certainly isn't an optimal environment to do what we call "critical listening" is what I'm saying. I'd get a song to sound good in the headphones, then switch over to the speakers and realize that it was too bassy and muddy. After tweaking it on the speakers and thinking it sounded good on the headphones too, I'd listen to it in the car (one of the most useful tools for any mixer is the car stereo) and find that the vocals were too honky. A never-ending battle, and I'm still not sure which speaker source I should be trusting the most, unlike in the studio, where I know for sure that if it sounds good on Yamaha NS-10s (a set of speakers that almost every studio in the world has), then I have a finished song.

The mixing was a lot of fun, so much so that I didn't log on to World of Warcraft much. I believe that Mark, Nick, Tony, and Gee were all slaves to the game, and here I was, like a dilettante, popping in and out for an hour or two at a time while they slew dragons and giant women and the like. How can a little game be so addicting?

I also braved the rains (personally, I think it's a heaven sent flood to do away with all the sinners in LA...which means, I'll be seeing you all in Hell soon) Sunday night to go to a comedy club on the Sunset Strip. Flori invited me to come check out a guy who was in my class at Amherst named Josh Friedman. I vaguely remembered the name, and immediately it clicked into place when I saw him. He gave a pretty good commencement speech for our graduating class. Oh, and if any of you watch CSI:Miami, he's David Caruso's stand in, so a lot of shots where it's Horatio's back, or his hands, or a distance thing, that's probably Josh.

The show was at the main room of The Comedy Store and was a bill that featured 20 comics each doing 7 minute sets over 2 and a half hours. There were some very funny comedians (if you can, check out Vargus Mason) who got great crowd reactions, some funny ones who got mediocre crowd reactions (ooh poor Josh, I think you were too smart for the audience), and some who were just bad. This was my first time at a comedy club, and I think I'd like to go back, minus the drunken assmonkey hecklers who get kicked out for interrupting the show. No, that wasn't me.

Opening up the show was Bobby Lee, the Korean guy from MadTV. What a frickin' riot. That was a nice treat. But there was an even huger surprise at the end. After the last of the 20 comedians, the host came out and asked us to stick around, because Chris Rock was going to be on in a few minutes. I thought it was a gag, but I was wrong. 10 minutes later, after a warmup guy, Chris came out and did a little set. I'm pretty sure he was trying out material for his Oscar-hosting gig next Sunday on us, as everything he riffed on was pretty much related to the movies that came out last year. And he kept saying "we're here for the movies", which was kind've a giveaway. Be on the lookout for jokes about Jude Law. And maybe the Gap and Banana Republic. But only if he gets political.

After the show, I went out to Mel's Diner with Josh and his friends for late-night supper. Sitting behind us was Ryan Merriman, the kid who played "Young Jarod" on the tv show The Pretender (what? it was on USA tv whenever I came home from school or work in Boston, right after NewsRadio. I couldn't help but get hooked.). He was also on the miniseries "Taken" and you can catch him in previews for the Ring sequel. Unfortunately, I didn't think anyone else at the table would have appreciated that little "star" sighting as much as me.

Now Listening To : Adrianne's songs on the computer at work. And it sounds different here too. Dammit.
Random Thought : Rachel Weisz is awfully pretty, isn't she? Maybe I'll go see Constantine after work.

What I Just Wrote Before - What I'm About to Write

The Five Most Recent Entries

Here's a hand-picked playlist of 40-plus songs for you to listen to: