Yeah yeah, long time no post. Sorry to anyone who hangs on my every word (you really need to get out more ;) Really!)
So what's been going on to keep me from updating. Heaps, tho not all interesting I'm afraid.
Basically a month or so ago I was given notice that the people I rent this house from wanted to renovate. As such, I had to look for a new place to live, which is harder than it sounds when you've got a rough location in mind, two cats and a penchent for playing guitar at odd times of the day.
Anyway, just over a week ago I made a successful application to rent a place just down the road from where I work. It's also one street away from Mick and Nums, which is great all round - they'd be able to feed the mogs for me if I was away, so I'll be able to go on training interstate again (I've had to turn down some courses due to them being run in Sydney).
I'll be able to drive them to the shops etc, pick 'em up from the station when its pissing down with rain etc etc. I'd also be able to pick up the girls from daycare if Mick and Nums get stuck in the city for some reason (they both work in The Valley, and if Mick gets busted for soliciting on his street corner and nums has to bail him out again etc etc). The silly idjits have bought me an amazing microwave as a housewarming prezzie - it's fantastic... HUGE, and has a built in recipe book. In a tremendous show of restraint, I've left it packed until after I move - and I have NO idea how I've managed to do that (boys and gadgets, you know the score)
Of course, being geeks, we're already planning a wireless internet connection between our houses....
Work on the band's demo is still in progress - Phil's done some wonderful work on Emily, Cult of the One, No More Kings, Chrominence and Before You Fall. He's taking extra time to make sure he gets a 'sound' that suits us.
The band's still amidst auditions for bassists and drummers. Dane, who replaced Dave after the recording sessions vanished after about 4 weeks - we've been unable to contact him, so I hope he just lost his phone rather than something nasty happening. He's a real nice guy.
In the 'downtime' between auditions, we've been working on new songs. These are going tremendously well. So far we've worked on:
* Finding Emo (working title for one of Justin's songs)
* Prizefight (another one of Justin's)
* Outta My Mind (working title for one of Shane's songs)
* Betrayed (One of mine - Shane does a great Cello impression on his guitar)
* Can I Feel Your Heartbeat (Mine. Previously known as 'No Baby')
* Your Stolen Mind (Mine)
* Label Me Blameless (Mine - used to play it in Torn)
* The New Red (Mine. Previously known as Silverscream)
* Little England (Mine)
We've also worked on a cover of Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf, and had a brief look at a couple more of my songs (Starlingfall and My Strange One). Shane and Justing both have other new songs in the works - one of Shanes is this really cool drop-D riff (similar in style to 'D' but somehow darker). I've got rough recordings of most of the new stuff but nothing we'd want to share at the moment (we're still nutting out structure, harmonies and in some cases lyrics)
Work's been pretty busy too - a couple of ago I put a new mail gateway server live, and also doubled the student email mailbox quota. Both were successful, and it ended up taking about 3 hours which isn't bad going. I was also nominated to be my section's person put forward for the AVCC Leadership Programme (AVCC being the Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee). I was very proud! Yesterday I received word that I'd been accepted! The Programme is run at Deakin uni in Victoria, about an hour from Melboune (apparently). Guess who's hoping he can meet up with the Mandi?
A couple of entries ago I think I mentioned that I'd gone for the team leader position in my group. Well I didn't get the job, which went to Mitch, who had recently left the team to work in the research computing dpt. I'm almost glad I didn't get it - Mitch has been a VERY busy man the last few weeks, and he's coping very well!
A few months ago, I did a stint as acting Snr Security Specialist (basically acting Manager of Computer Securiy), which I thouroughly enjoyed and was rather sad to have to hand the reigns back to Eddy when he came back from leave. Eddy has since resigned, and it'll be very sad to see him go - he's had a very positive effect around the place, and we get on well.
The position's been advertised, and I'm going to apply -- I've worked at the Uni since 1998 and never applied for any jobs, then this year I've applied for two (both at the uni, so don't panic Karl!) This is not due to lack of ambition (at least not since I got over San and I's split), but is testament to how much I love my job and enjoy being in the team I'm in.
The two jobs I've gone for have been closely related to my current work and basically 'next rung up the ladder' with (allegedly, Mitch would dispute this!) less hands-on technical work and more management type work. I'm not bored with my current work by any means, but I would like to have a bit more responsibility and impact on processes/policies (though I have to say, my boss is great at hearing our opinions and ideas and enabling his team members to run with their convictions - and unlike many other bosses, he's all for deferring credit to those responsible).
Last night, my boss had a BBQ at his house and I was invited, along with my guitar and PA. My boss got his drumkit out and a couple of other colleagues brought keyboards and guitars. We had a monster (nearly 5 hour) jam session, some good stuff, some bad stuff, but overall: fun. Included in the 'set' were Rainbow Connection, a punked up version of Leavin' on a Jet Plane (!) and, especially for Troy and his wife, the first verse of Black Sabbath's Paranoid. Cristy and Anna, the sisters who work in my group had goes at singing and drumming.. the most notable for me was the version of Alanis Morrissette's "You oughtta Know" - not all lyrics were remembered, but Cristy sang with complete conviction. I got home about 1am and am still rather sore from all the playing and equipment lugging... yet I'm also about to do more packing. Ug.
Oh, breaking news - I'm now addicted to Kitkat Peanut Butter bars. Thanks, Nestle, you'll be hearing from my tailors.
Finally, tonight I finally get to meet Lil Miss Squish, Extreme Ironer, owner of an impressive set of.. er.. thongs and all-round cutie. We're having a games night at Mick and Nums', and we'll be joined by IRCaddict and BiteYrBum. I'm currently looking out my hairties, nail polish, halo and marker pens so Team Freckle can be in full effect! Plan is Pizza and games of Pictionary and Baulderdash
Better go do some packing. The girls know something's happening - Willow's giving me that "Wachootalkinboutwillis?" look and tammy's sitting on the highest point possible (which is currently atop the microwave box)
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Monday, May 02, 2005
NO SLEEP 'TILL........... GRAFTON!
It's Monday afternoon. I'm knackered. Well and truely knackered. I'm sat at my PC contemplating a nap for a while, but I keep getting distracted by another song. I haven't had much sleep the last few days and I'm achey and my fingers are rather blistered and my throat rather sore yet I'm the happiest I've been for a fair number of years. Here's the rundown of my weekend.
Friday:
Get up at 5:30 to start work at 7am as there's some stuff to do to a system before people start using it at 8am. This all went fine. Finished work at 3pm, stopped off at the music shop to get some picks and other gubbins. Headed off to bed at 9.30pm because I had an early start the following morning. Despite being physically knackered, my head was overactive, so I watched a couple of episodes of Sherlock Holmes on DVD. Around midnight I tried to get to sleep but the cats were aware something was different and were extra-active.
Saturday:
Got up at 4:30am after about two hours total sleep. Moved all my gear into the hall, showered, then went out to the drive to wait for Shane and Justin. Justin arrives about 5.20am, Shane about 20 mins later. Load all three of us plus 2 amps, 7 guitars, 2 large boxes of effect pedals, cables etc and 3 people's bedding into Shane's car. Hit the road at around 6am.
About 7:30am we're driving past Byron singing "It's the End of the World as we Know It and I feel fine" (REM) at the top of our lungs, followed by "Stand" (REM) and "Lake of Fire" (Meatpuppets). Road Trip is well and truely underway. Sometime around 8am we were in Ballina and needed a pee break. What better place to stop than a Bee Pee servo? This servo had a collection of porno mags that would put Lemming's DVD collection to shame. We were definitely in New South Wales then. Back on the road, we had a small titter at the absurdity of The Big Prawn and cooed at an inquisitive wallaby. Ended up at Taf's in Grafton at around 10am.
11:30am Shane and I had set our amps up in the studio, Justin had befriended Taf's tribe of kitties and I'd discovered the miniDV cam I'd borrowed was complaining it had dirty heads despite cleaning them a couple of times. With a few re-takes, smoke breaks and a REALLY nice cheese and ham roll (thanks Taf!), that afternoon we recorded the main guitar and scratch vocal tracks of 9 songs (Emily, Drugfucked Mona Lisa, Before You Fall, Lights, Relapse, Cult of the One, D, Chrominance and two versions of No More Kings at different speeds). After a well accepted dinner of KFC, Phil and I headed back into the studio to record the basslines. Phil lent me one of his basses for this. It was a wonderful guitar to play, and had a great sound. Basslines took until around midnight. Justin had crashed hours before, whilst Shane had stayed up chatting to Taf and Alex (chookie tiramisu) and talking to Dave.
Dave had realised an hour from Brisbane that he'd left some kit behind and had turned tail to go and get it. Now on his way a second time, the combi of doom had decided it wanted to enjoy a theme park and broken down outside Movie World. Shane was all set to go and get him, when Dave called back to say that Simone, drummer girlfriend extraordinaire was driving him down and we'd see him Sunday morning.
Sunday:
About half midnight I crashed on the floor of Taf's computer room. Justin was snoring away in the living room and Shane was muttering to himself in his sleep in the doorway. I slept suprisingly well, getting up at 5:30 when the birds were fooled by the false dawn. Sat outside on the veranda watching the real dawn for a while, then had a smoke and a coffee with Justin and Shane when they woke up around 6. Went back to sleep until abut 8:30 when we sat out on the veranda with Phil, Taf, Alex and the cats for coffee and optional toast.
Sunday morning Justin did main vocals on the 9 songs we'd put down on Saturday. Dave and Simone arrived just as Justin was finishing off. For someone who'd had such a shitty time the day before, Daveo was doing well. He set up and put down drum tracks on 8 of the previous days songs. We discovered that Emily had a tricky bit where (playing along to a click track) we'd deviated from what we normally played with Dave, and so we had to re-do it, recording drums and guitars simultaneously. So we redid Emily, and while we were all setup, did Tear as well, bringing our song total up to 10. We did Tear differently to normal and it sounded great. Quite EMF really as Shane was wah-wahing away like a man posessed. That done, we loaded Dave and his kit in Simone's car and waved them on their merry way.
With main guitars, vocals and drums down, it was time for me to record my solos and a couple of guitar overdubs. I had suprisingly little trouble with the Lights solo for a change, did the solo for Drugfucked in 2 takes (1st take was ok, but had a couple of slightly late notes). I then did the bass on the new version of Emily and came up with a funkier bassline for Tear that fit its new style. Justin then came in and did vocals on the two new tracks while Shane and I woke up our vocal chords in preparation for doing backing/harmony vocals. I did a couple of tracks then handed the mic to Shane while I got my voice back to do my remaining tracks. Had reheated KFC for lunch. Yum. Made a mess though (cats didn't mind!). Finished off the backing vocals once Shane finished.
It had taken a while longer than we'd planned, but saying that, because Dave hadnt been able to make it on Saturday due to work, we'd recorded more tracks than we'd originally intended. As we loaded Shane's car up for the trip home, Phil recorded a very rough mix of each song onto a tape for us, and burned me CDs of the source material. We're both going to have a go at mixing it and compare notes. The trip home was fairly uneventful save a rousing rendition of Bye Bye Love (Everley Brothers) with 3 part harmony and discovering that Ballina's local radio station had a good mix of songs on at 1 in the morning. Oh, and that ruddy big prawn is illuminated at night, which caused me to choke in Iced Coffee in mirth. The servo at the big prawn is good though and Julie behind the counter's a hoot (she pointed at my "I am God" t-shirt and said "I have a son who tells me the same" before asking what on earth we'd been up to to be so tired and have a car so loaded up)
We got home safe and sound at some time this morning that I didn't really take note of. Despite being well and truely exhausted, I couldn't sleep so I watched an episode of Sherlock Holmes before passing out. Got up today about midday to do my washing, and couldn't resist having a go at mixing a couple of songs. So far I've looked at Before You Fall and Relapse, and it's very easy to get a mix that sounds good, so it shouldn't take too long to get this demo completly mixed and mastered.
Taf took a number of great pics of us over the weekend and sent them to me last night (they got here hours before we'd even started off home!). I'll put a couple of them up on this page soon.
Friday:
Get up at 5:30 to start work at 7am as there's some stuff to do to a system before people start using it at 8am. This all went fine. Finished work at 3pm, stopped off at the music shop to get some picks and other gubbins. Headed off to bed at 9.30pm because I had an early start the following morning. Despite being physically knackered, my head was overactive, so I watched a couple of episodes of Sherlock Holmes on DVD. Around midnight I tried to get to sleep but the cats were aware something was different and were extra-active.
Saturday:
Got up at 4:30am after about two hours total sleep. Moved all my gear into the hall, showered, then went out to the drive to wait for Shane and Justin. Justin arrives about 5.20am, Shane about 20 mins later. Load all three of us plus 2 amps, 7 guitars, 2 large boxes of effect pedals, cables etc and 3 people's bedding into Shane's car. Hit the road at around 6am.
About 7:30am we're driving past Byron singing "It's the End of the World as we Know It and I feel fine" (REM) at the top of our lungs, followed by "Stand" (REM) and "Lake of Fire" (Meatpuppets). Road Trip is well and truely underway. Sometime around 8am we were in Ballina and needed a pee break. What better place to stop than a Bee Pee servo? This servo had a collection of porno mags that would put Lemming's DVD collection to shame. We were definitely in New South Wales then. Back on the road, we had a small titter at the absurdity of The Big Prawn and cooed at an inquisitive wallaby. Ended up at Taf's in Grafton at around 10am.
11:30am Shane and I had set our amps up in the studio, Justin had befriended Taf's tribe of kitties and I'd discovered the miniDV cam I'd borrowed was complaining it had dirty heads despite cleaning them a couple of times. With a few re-takes, smoke breaks and a REALLY nice cheese and ham roll (thanks Taf!), that afternoon we recorded the main guitar and scratch vocal tracks of 9 songs (Emily, Drugfucked Mona Lisa, Before You Fall, Lights, Relapse, Cult of the One, D, Chrominance and two versions of No More Kings at different speeds). After a well accepted dinner of KFC, Phil and I headed back into the studio to record the basslines. Phil lent me one of his basses for this. It was a wonderful guitar to play, and had a great sound. Basslines took until around midnight. Justin had crashed hours before, whilst Shane had stayed up chatting to Taf and Alex (chookie tiramisu) and talking to Dave.
Dave had realised an hour from Brisbane that he'd left some kit behind and had turned tail to go and get it. Now on his way a second time, the combi of doom had decided it wanted to enjoy a theme park and broken down outside Movie World. Shane was all set to go and get him, when Dave called back to say that Simone, drummer girlfriend extraordinaire was driving him down and we'd see him Sunday morning.
Sunday:
About half midnight I crashed on the floor of Taf's computer room. Justin was snoring away in the living room and Shane was muttering to himself in his sleep in the doorway. I slept suprisingly well, getting up at 5:30 when the birds were fooled by the false dawn. Sat outside on the veranda watching the real dawn for a while, then had a smoke and a coffee with Justin and Shane when they woke up around 6. Went back to sleep until abut 8:30 when we sat out on the veranda with Phil, Taf, Alex and the cats for coffee and optional toast.
Sunday morning Justin did main vocals on the 9 songs we'd put down on Saturday. Dave and Simone arrived just as Justin was finishing off. For someone who'd had such a shitty time the day before, Daveo was doing well. He set up and put down drum tracks on 8 of the previous days songs. We discovered that Emily had a tricky bit where (playing along to a click track) we'd deviated from what we normally played with Dave, and so we had to re-do it, recording drums and guitars simultaneously. So we redid Emily, and while we were all setup, did Tear as well, bringing our song total up to 10. We did Tear differently to normal and it sounded great. Quite EMF really as Shane was wah-wahing away like a man posessed. That done, we loaded Dave and his kit in Simone's car and waved them on their merry way.
With main guitars, vocals and drums down, it was time for me to record my solos and a couple of guitar overdubs. I had suprisingly little trouble with the Lights solo for a change, did the solo for Drugfucked in 2 takes (1st take was ok, but had a couple of slightly late notes). I then did the bass on the new version of Emily and came up with a funkier bassline for Tear that fit its new style. Justin then came in and did vocals on the two new tracks while Shane and I woke up our vocal chords in preparation for doing backing/harmony vocals. I did a couple of tracks then handed the mic to Shane while I got my voice back to do my remaining tracks. Had reheated KFC for lunch. Yum. Made a mess though (cats didn't mind!). Finished off the backing vocals once Shane finished.
It had taken a while longer than we'd planned, but saying that, because Dave hadnt been able to make it on Saturday due to work, we'd recorded more tracks than we'd originally intended. As we loaded Shane's car up for the trip home, Phil recorded a very rough mix of each song onto a tape for us, and burned me CDs of the source material. We're both going to have a go at mixing it and compare notes. The trip home was fairly uneventful save a rousing rendition of Bye Bye Love (Everley Brothers) with 3 part harmony and discovering that Ballina's local radio station had a good mix of songs on at 1 in the morning. Oh, and that ruddy big prawn is illuminated at night, which caused me to choke in Iced Coffee in mirth. The servo at the big prawn is good though and Julie behind the counter's a hoot (she pointed at my "I am God" t-shirt and said "I have a son who tells me the same" before asking what on earth we'd been up to to be so tired and have a car so loaded up)
We got home safe and sound at some time this morning that I didn't really take note of. Despite being well and truely exhausted, I couldn't sleep so I watched an episode of Sherlock Holmes before passing out. Got up today about midday to do my washing, and couldn't resist having a go at mixing a couple of songs. So far I've looked at Before You Fall and Relapse, and it's very easy to get a mix that sounds good, so it shouldn't take too long to get this demo completly mixed and mastered.
Taf took a number of great pics of us over the weekend and sent them to me last night (they got here hours before we'd even started off home!). I'll put a couple of them up on this page soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
