July 29, 2004 - 3:35 PM

In the Past Two Weeks...

The hell? It's been two weeks since I last updated? Geeze. A look back at the notable events what have transpirated since last we spoke.

July 10th, rode down to San Diego with Nick, LDBL, Tony, Fabulousness Incarnate, and Matt in Matt's SUV. We wanted to see the new stadium, Petco Park, where the Padres play. While it does incorporate the city skyline and already existant structures into the design, the stadium doesn't ape the red brick/green girder style that most new parks have adopted since the introduction of Camden Yards in Baltimore. Instead, it uses beiges and blues as well as a noticeable spaciousness to evoke the ocean and beaches of San Diego. Very SoCal. And they've got these hotdogs that are, like, 1 lb of beef. Yum.

After the game (the Padres lost to the Colorado Rockies), we stopped by a pub for some drinks and snacks before heading back up the highways to L.A. That downtown area around the park was pretty interesting, with lots of stores and restaurants...a bit like Boston, a bit like Fells Point.

July 13th, watched most of the All-Star game, then saw Sarah Slean at the Tangier Restaurant.

July 14th, saw Sarah again, this time with Matt and Kyler and a friend of Kyler's. Kyler was gushing about Sarah...really really dug her stuff. Good crowd, and we got a sing-along encore of Edelweiss.

July 17th, watched Anchorman with Nick, LDBL, and Mer; then went bowling at Pins in Studio City, where we bowled two lanes over from J.K. Simmons, famed character actor, perhaps most notable for his appearances on Law and Order and in the Spiderman movies. Afterwards, we had some drinkypoos, hopped over to a bar/restaurant in Los Feliz for dinner and more beverages, and then finished off the night with some lazy recuperating back at the Nick/LDBL compound.

Anchorman was very funny...not full-on, non-stop funny, but there were a lot of bust-out-loud guffawing parts scattered throughout. Steve Carrell was particularly hilarious. "I love carpet."

July 20th, finally started working at the new studio (Paramount Recording studios). I worked from 9:30 AM to 5:30 AM, assisting on a 5.1 Surround mix of Rio for a Duran Duran live concert video.

July 21st, worked from 1 PM until 5 AM, finishing the mix for Duran Duran.

July 22nd, started a new session at 9:30 AM with engineer Jim Rondinelli, who was the engineer on Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend. We spent the next three days doing 8 mixes for a group called The Happy Hatters. They're putting together an album of songs for kids with the idea of developing a tv show for children and getting a tour together to back it up. Apparently, the kids music/tv market is huge, and there is a dearth of quality stuff out there. The Hatters and the producers behind them recognize this and are trying to make music that won't cause parents to go insane from listening to it 100 times a day. I actually enjoyed the songs since a lot of them were Beatles-esque.

We wrapped up the session around 9 PM, and I just managed to get to Tangier to see Sarah Slean again. No, I'm not stalking her. The crowd turnout was decent, and I talked with her a bit after the show.

July 23rd, worked from 10 AM until 1 AM on more Happy Hatters stuff. I met one of the Hatters who it turns out is a Berklee grad from '98 and is really close friends with Sylvie Lewis. Small world, huh? Also, it was through Sylvie and Adrianne that he met his now-wife, Mary Jane...she stopped by the session, and we discovered that, not only did she live at the end of the block from where I lived in Boston when she went to Northeastern U, but she later transferred to UMass at Amherst, which is about a mile from Amherst College. We talked about Amherst and Northampton, and missing the changing of the seasons. It was like walking down memory lane.

July 24th, finished up the Hatters, working from 12 PM until 3 AM.

July 25th, slept. Turned down an offer to work a session from 3 PM to 3 AM because i was so tired. Watched the Bourne Supremacy. You have to go see it for the final car chase alone. The rest of it is decent, but I was not fully enthralled because there didn't seem to be a good narrative "rising action, climax, denoument" flow to it. I liked the Bourne Identity, but I thought it too suffered from uneven pacing and a climax resolution that was a bit off-kilter. And the fight sequences in both movies were the kind that I dislike quite muchly, where lots of quick edits are supposed to heighten the energy, but really, all they do is confuse the whole thing. I remember seeing a behind the scenes special on the first movie where they showed Damon rehearsing the fight scene at the bank, and then they filmed it, and all the moves were done gracefully and convincingly in one shot. I had hopes that the movie would contain the fights in long, uncut shots to show that Matt Damon could really take out those guards, but instead, it was all chop-chop-chop. Blech.

July 26th, beach! With Nick and LDBL. Tried to bodyboard, realized that I suck at it.

July 27th, attended another baseball game, this time in Anaheim with just Tony and The Amazing One to see the Angels squeak past the Texas Rangers 2-0. Good game with some astounding defensive plays. Also got a call from my friend Kristie who hooked me up with an interview with a UCLA professor who is looking for a male cellist to go on tour with a play to Poland for 3 weeks in October. I guess I should start practicing again.

July 28th, one final Sarah Slean show. Coaxed LDBL and Nick to attend, and they thought it was good. It was a good run while it lasted...now she goes back to Canada, probably to rev up the publicity engine for when her album comes out up there in a month. Afterwards, we three gorged ourselves at IHOP, and then Nick and I watched some Aqua Teen Hunger Force and two episodes of Farscape.

Splizzah!

Now Listening To : Jonatha Brooke-Back in the Circus
Random Thought : Happy Birthday Tony. He's 35 as of this past tuesday.

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