May - July, 2006
OK - so obviously, things are really busy if I
haven't been able to work on this one webpage in 2 months.
In a nutshell:
figured out the Showcad Artist lighting system
installed a bunch of MIDI gear in JET nightclub
started playing with a camera
and been watching lotsa Battlestar Galactca - both old and new.
That's about it. My world has revolved around lighting
in a rapid attempt to get myself up to speed. I haven't been playing the
guitar much, or the dulcimer, or the flute... But I have been playing piano.
It's a perfect instrument for after-work, as the sun rises. Lovely.
No, I haven't been writing much. Fortunately, Sue has
decided to become a writer. So she's left work and is now writing full-time.
Her first short story was really (and I do mean really - this ain't
some "biased husband" thing) well written. Now, she's working on her first
novel, and she's literally flying thru the first draft. She's incredibly
happy, and I love her all the more for what she's doing. We're going to
have to set up a website for her soon...
This month also features a few "firsts" for this site.
Right off the bat - you'll notice the image doesn't contain me anywhere!
This isn't quite what I wanted to show you, because I am a rather vain creature.
However, I really wanted to show you what the new club looks like. Without
getting too technical, allow me to describe what you're looking at here:
the ceiling is 120 full-color RGB LEDs, kinda like a huge TV over your
head
there are 16 Mac 250s, 4 Mac 550s, 6 Digital Light Projectors and 9
strobes
all lighting computers in the booth are being operated by a custom MIDI
interface assembled by yours truly.
Nice, eh? Now you know just why it takes so long
to program....
Also - I will be in Chicago from July 9-16! That's
right - it's time for the Frankie Knuckles' event at the House of Blues.
This year, it's been pushed back until Friday, July 14th. I'll be using
my new lighting computer - a laptop running ShowCad Artist via USB using
a Novation SL MIDI keyboard as a trigger. Should be interesting - it'll
be the first "out-of-town" test for this gadget. I look forward to the results,
and look forward to your being at the show. After all, I don't just do this
lighting thing for myself, you know...
Another first is... My first Slideshow! How d'ya like it? I think it works in Firefox, but this site has always looked better in Internet Explorer.
The final first is - in an effort to give you more of my
random prattlings to make up for the several months of relative quiet online
- I've decided to paste in a bunch of stuff I've posted on message boards
in the past few weeks. Enjoy!
Just Saw Ministry in Las Vegas...... and I must give Al some
serious advice: Replace the sound engineer No, really. When I saw Ministry
for the Mole tour, the sound was absolutely perfect. Perfect volume, solid
3-D layering of the entire frequency range, etc. This time, however, the
samples were louder than the vocals. Hell, a hi-tom was clearer than anything
else in the mix. All it was, was a wall of sound, no layering, no depth,
nada. Everything was lost in waves of feedback, and not the sort crafted
by the band. Damn, but I'm a bit disappointed. The group kicked ass. RevCo
was effin' terrific. But I really couldn't hear the nuances - let alone
the lyrics - behind a mountain of room feedback. So yeah, Al, no disrespect
- train yer sound guy to know WTF he's supposed to do, or replace him/her.
They're killin' yer message.
50 Best Magazines for 05 according to the Trib. No Rolling
Stone. Thank God. Don't get me wrong - I agree that Rolling Stone
has some excellent writing about non-music topics. My problem is I'll never
read 'em, because there's so many goddamn ads that you truly have to hunt
down the articles between the nonsense. Not only is that annoying as fuck,
but it's also kinda hard to give the more serious topics any credence when
they're stuffed between incredibly expensive cologne, jewelry and liquor
ads. I mean - come onnnnnnn......
favorite commercials.
"the COG" by Honda. Hands down, one of the neatest things I'd ever seen.
Especially after you
Read More about how it was made.
I was!!! And what about the "possibly going out
on my own so I could move back to Chicago" thing? Well, see, I plan
to make my photography company be the vehicle that allows me to travel the
globe. And as much as I love and miss Chicago, I still think I need to wander
the world more before I return. I'd love to live in NYC, Portland, London,
Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong and even Moscow at some point. After all that,
we'll see...
I was!!! Too bad that now it seems like turntables
are on their way out again, with digital DJ shit being the new thing. So
buying a nicer version of that setup again, along with lots of vinyl, would
probably be the worst investment I could make at this stage of my life.
So I missed out. It's never too late to play with
Serato!
Nearly every DJ in Vegas uses this. And I must admit - it's a pretty stable
and coooool toy. Basically, you load up yer mp3's on a laptop (preferably
a Mac, but PC works too), and you have complete control over how the files
play using 2 and only 2 records, which simply play time code into the computer.
You can scratch mix, blend, go absolutely bananas using either record or
CD time code. Then you download more files from the 'net (double-check their
quality, please) and you're off to the races. Your whole show is carried
in a briefcase. This system's even got me thinking of spinning again...
TV shows on DVD OK so I never have time to watch movies these
days, and probably won't for at least the next few months. Part of the problem
is my hectic work schedule which takes time away from my other hobbies like
photography and music, so whenever I sit down to the tube I can only stay
focused for an hour before I get restless. And since I never know when I'll
actually be in front of the tube, it's pointless to get cable (plus, I hate
the idea of spending money to have commercials beamed into my house. But
you already knew that, right?) Fortunately, there's the modern miracle of
TV shows on DVD. And, interestingly enough, thanks to my crazed work schedule
I actually have some money to burn on this project. Now it's yer turn to
tell me what else to investigate. I really haven't watched much TV in the
past decade, and all I know are what people recommend. What shows do I need
to watch?
Would you want to own a record store? As much as I miss cruising
a good record store, it's a sucker bet to own one these days. Sorry, but
it's true. But man, do I ever miss the days that I would bike down to one
of several Chicago neighborhoods and just spend money on music... one store
after another. Then go home, order some food and listen to it all.
Tell us a Story explain how you were introduced, fell in love
and now worship a record. Ministry. I was bored of the standard nightclubs
in the city - they all pretty much played the same mainstream stuff. I was
bored of the people who found this all so exciting. I was 21 and looking
for something - anything - that had more than an ounce of shrink-wrapped
attitude. You know - something with passion. I was getting pretty goddamn
pissed off at seeing the world so obviously out of whack with nobody around
seeming to notice, or even care. I was exploring the possibilities in electronic
music, had already been thru the prog rock phase, the pop phase, the soundtrack
phase, the surprisingly short-and-dull heavy metal phase, and the new-age
Tangerine Dream / Vangelis phase. And then I walked into Club 950 in Chicago.
Less that 20 minutes in the door, the DJ played Ministry's 12" remix of
"Just One Fix". I was floored. Had never heard anything like that before,
and never would have imagined my even liking such a hard sound. Up 'til
then, the hardest music I'd heard was heavy metal (snicker), some death
metal, and yer average radio-stuff like Queensryche, etc. And none of that
appealed to me. It all sounded like people who desperately wanted to scream
at you incoherently, or say something psuedo-intellectual with big loud music
behind it to make it seem more important than it really was. But man...
"Just One Fix" hit me like a freight train. From the driving percussion,
the churning guitars, and the time signature change before the 3rd verse.
It was a warning, a scream from someone who was looking for a fix - and
you could dance like a MF'er to it! Overnight, my taste changes.
Got into all sortsa different genres - industrial, techno, house, avant-garde,
even the Velvet Underground, David Bowie and Iggy Pop - all because of that
one record. No matter which direction Ministry might turn, no matter if
they produce records that hit or miss, I will always love 'em for "Just
One Fix", and the albums Psalm 69, the Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste,
Twitch and RevCo's Linger Fickin' Good.
Stay tuned.
