November 17, 2003 - 9:30 PM

You Know You Want to Go to a Concert with Me

We'll get to that entry on Sarah's latest album, digital copying, and music downloading in another entry, depending on when I have time to organize my thoughts (I've already written a two page and growing rebuttal to an editorial that was in my high school's latest newspaper about music sharing...why? I don't know...I'm not super-passionate about it, but I do feel somewhat strongly about it since it does affect my vocation). For now, I'll just fill you in on what's been going on since my last entry.

Let's see...last Thursday I was up for 21 hours because I recorded a band that one of my coworkers is producing. I was at the studio from 4 PM until 6 AM, and we were able to get all of the instrument parts down as well as some vocals. After breaking down the equipment, I went to the gym for an hour, then came back to the studio to return some microphones and mic stands to our sister company, Audio Affects, which rents recording gear. Home, shower, diary entry, bed.

I woke up around 4 Friday afternoon, mucked around a bit, then picked up Nick and LDBL to head to Nick's party at Denise's apartment. Highlights for me included reorganizing Denise's DVD collection into genres, with alphabetical subordering; George Foreman grilled burgers; and, you guessed it, party games. Sadly, there wasn't much drinking going on (especially on my part since I was the driver of the group, and I had to work the next day too), but everyone was still loud and sarcastic, so we had fun.

I put forth the question "at what age do party games become a cool way to pass the time?" because, really, when I was 16, these kinds of games (Taboo, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit) seemed dorky and fogey-ish. Like, who would be caught dead in college, spending a Saturday night with your hallmates playing Scattergories? Now, a board game like Monopoly, or Sorry, or The Game of Life would be more interesting to a younger person, I'd wager. One of Nick's co-workers, Lisa, backed that up by suggesting that kids start to like board games around the ages of 9 or 10. This of course, after their phase of Candyland and Chutes and Ladders when they are in kindergarten.

Saturday, I actually had work! I was filling in for Andrew, one of the other assistants, on a Linda Perry session again, this time with an artist signed to Linda's own boutique label. His name is James Blunt and I think he could do quite well in this current musical climate that is favoring male singer-songwriters. James has been working with producer Tom Rothrock, who has produced for Beck, Elliott Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, Andy Stochansky, and many indie-rock bands. Interestingly enough, my friend Mike, with whom I watched Trust, is Tom's assistant and had mentioned that they were working with a Linda Perry artist, but I didn't put two and two together until halfway through our session.

James reminds me of Ellis Paul, with some Tracy Chapman of all people thrown in, as well as a little Elton John and Badly Drawn Boy. Over the course of two days, we recorded two songs with guitar, bass, drums, piano, and lots of overdubs. During breaks in the recording, I gossipped with the studio runners about what was going on with the business. Apparently, all the guys who've been laid off in the past couple of months weren't let go because of financial problems, but because they were slacking off (which I had known since I was a runner alongside most of them for over a year); in fact, several of their positions were filled by interns who management thought showed good motivation. While the company as a whole is downsizing, the studio side isn't so much, which is a relief.

Also, the company just filed for Chapter 22, I believe, which allows for a 6 month grace period from the bank to reorganize. Some things I've heard from people with experience is that the studio will survive, and my job will survive with it, so that allays some of my fears.

And today, I'm working with Ron Fair again, so that makes three days in a row of work. I'm pretty sure he'll be coming back tomorrow, too. Next week, there's the probable possiblity that I'll be filling in as assistant for Linda Perry again on Monday and Tuesday. I know I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch, but for this month, at least, I should be fine. I'm still going ahead with my plans to try substitute teaching, but at least the monetary situation isn't smacking my ass as much now.

Oh, and I bought a ticket home for Christmas. With taxes and charges, it came to $390 for the roundtrip fare. Yikes. For Thanksgiving, I'm planning on driving to Las Vegas on Wednesday to hang out with relatives and gorge myself on food until Friday or Saturday. My cousin Carol has promised to treat me to a Buffet at the Bellagio, so I'll take advantage of her on that count. *psst* don't tell anyone, but she's getting her long, luscious hair dyed/highlighted purple for FREE by a salon so that she can be a print model/advertisement for them.

You know, the last time I dyed my hair was the last time Susan Werner passed through these parts. At that point, I did the front portion of my hair blue. Maybe I should dye it again for her show this Friday. Speaking of which, c'mon, doesn't anyone want to sally forth to McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica with me to be judiciously entertained by Susan this Friday, the 21st of November? She's funnier than heck and writes brilliant songs with wit and charm and heart. Talented on both the guitar and the piano, she's the uber singer-songwriter, gliding from a cole porter-esque jazz tune to a mid-western folk ode, then shuffling over to a bluesy rocker before shimmying into beatles pop territory. You know you want to listen to good music. Don't make me stalk you.

Now Listening To : Peter Gabriel- Us
Random Thought : Nick seamlessly used the word "inure" in a conversation. Nick is a god.

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: