August 19, 2003 - 1:47 AM

Two hours of sleep? No Problezzzzzzzzzzz...

An 87 hour work week. That's what I got last week. And this week will be more of the same (at least through Thursday). I've been having a lot of fun with this assisting gig and have learned tons of stuff. The best part? Having all of my meals paid for by the clients! Grub-a-dub-dub, baby.

I had a pretty interesting Saturday. My session ran from Friday night at 11 until 7 Saturday morning, at which point I had to move all of our gear into another room at the studio because the room we were using had previously been booked for a different session on Saturday. So we moved from Room B to Room A, and I spent the morning and afternoon resetting all the keyboards and equipment, making sure that they all worked and sounded through the board. I left a little before 6 PM, went home for a shower and a nap, and waited for the call from the engineer telling me when we would be starting again that night.

Around 8 PM, having no start time yet, I decided I could make it to Sylvie Lewis's concert in Hollywood. Six of the people who I invited all flaked out on me, but my cousin-in-law (that's a stupid designation isn't it? I'll just call him my cousin) Matt agreed to meet me there by 9 PM. Parking wasn't too difficult to find and I found a table for two near the stage. Matt showed up after the first act ended, keeping me awake with banter, bless his heart.

Sylvie took the stage looking like a prim and proper Cyndi Lauper and strolled through mostly new songs (she only did one song from her album) with her band. Her music is folk pop with a smattering of jazz, a tinge of cabaret lounge, and a healthy dollop of 70's literate balladry. I think. I have such a hard time describing her music, but I knows that I likes it, yesiree.

She finished her set around 10 PM, stopped to chat for a few minutes (I found out that she had been recording some new tunes with a fellow Berklee grad with whom I had worked at my first studio here in L.A.), then went off to pack up her gear. Matt and I decided to stick around for the next 2 acts since the closing band was friends with a woman in the audience who used to work with Matt's wife, my cousin Sharon.

After the sets were over, I went back home, checking in with the studio to see if there had been any word on my session. Nothing. So I logged on to the internet to check my mail and the baseball scores. Around 1 AM, I got a call that the engineer was at the studio and we were going to be starting soon. Doesn't that suck? Being on call is a royal pain in the ass, let me tell you. We worked until 10 in the morning, I slept for a couple hours in the lounge so that I could have enough energy to drive home, and then I slept for a couple hours more.

S'all good though. I'm gonna have a fatty paycheck at the end of this month. Which means I can actually buy my sister a nice birthday present. Anyone have suggestions for what I should get her for her 29th?

Now Listening To : Tara MacLean-Silence
Random Thought : Has anyone else watched the World Series of Poker on ESPN 2? Riveting stuff.

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