MetaAnomie

I got sick of looking at the old blog format so I figured I would take a shot at changing it up. It still has it’s kinks but I think I got the main parts working anyway. Oh well, consider it a work in progress.

The princess just went to take a nap so I have, oh, maybe five minutes to write this post I expect. This weekend has been rather uneventful for the most part. The wifey and I went out to meet the architect yesterday. We got a lot done but it looks like we still have a pile of stuff left. Kind of wondering if we will ever get finished.

Not too much going on today. I updated the fit site a bit but that’s about it besides playing with the princess. And totally of subject but I’m utterly sick of this blog’s theme but way too lazy to update it. Bah.

The princess has this thing where she just keeps saying “Ah!” all the time now. Occasionally when you’re not expecting it, she will change it up to “Bah!” just to keep you on your toes. My typically conversation with the princess when I get home from work goes like this:

“Hey the princess!”
“Ah!”
“Did you have a good day?”
“Ah!”
“I see you have pulled all the shit out of the kitchen cabinet again.”
“Ah!”

I also think it’s funny how when she is really tired and you offer her a toy (for example, a stuffed bunny), she will take it from you just for the purpose of throwing it across the room to tell you how pissed off she is.

Just like her mother

I can’t tell if my coffee cup is paying me a compliment or if it’s just pissed off that I’m drinking out of it.

The wifey and I spent two consecutive days going around to different showrooms, trying to pick out various stuff for the house. We have been mainly focusing on the bathroom and kitchen this last week.

To be honest we are both getting a bit exhausted with it all. I always hear people talking about how exciting it is to build your own house but for me, it has been a pain in the ass more than anything else. I’m sure I will love it after we move in but I’m really ready to get finished with all the design work. It’s just been keeping us so busy this year.

We did get some good news last night though. We had to get the lot we bought measured off for the “setback” (the section the government is going to steal to widen the road in front of the house). We had some initial numbers we were using with the architect that we got when we purchased the lot, but we found out in the middle of the whole process that they weren’t official. And it was looking more and more as if a bigger chunk of land was going to be taken than we previously though, causing us to have to shrink the house and change the floor plan in the process (because of the various building rules). The good news it that our lot didn’t shrink — it actually got a tad bit bigger. Not a significant amount of course, but consider we were thinking it was going to shrink, it was definitely good news to get.

Went in to the studio to record “Pretense” on Saturday. This makes our sixth track if I remember correctly. We ran into a little technical trouble at the beginning, namely a deep sound that was muddying up the base line, and it took us about an hour to get it worked out. We all thought it was the bass settings at first but after some fiddling, we realized it was actually coming from the guitar. So we ended up getting the engineer to filter it out from the board.

It actually ended up being a good thing for me though. I got to play through the song a couple of times before the actual recording and hear how it was coming out upstairs. One thing I have always noticed is that playing a song live and recording it is just so, so different. Something that sounds wonderful live can sound horrible when you put it down, and vice-versa of course. For example, when I’m playing a really loud section and am keeping rhythm on a crash rather than the high hat, I usually keep the rhythm on the larger (in this case 16″) crash and play my accents on the smaller (14″) one. Playing live this sounds best because the larger cymbal rings longer, making all the beats connect together a bit compared to playing them on the small one and having it come out all staccato sounding. Also, the higher pitch of the smaller cymbal stands out from the low like a good accent should. The first time I played it like this on mic it sounded like trash. It probably had a lot to do with the mic placement. Anyhow, I switched hands when actually taking the track down and it sounded a hell of a lot better.

This is my experience with recording: you will never play at 100%. Ever. 100% is just an ideal and if you focus all you’re energy trying to get there; one, you never will anyway, and two, you will just waste a lot of valuable time that you could otherwise have used to improve the mix, etc. Traditionally, I have always aimed for about 80% plus, and stopped once I felt I was approaching my peak.

I have kind of revised this approach the last two sessions. Once I get a take down that I assume is my peak, I’ll play it one or two more times knowing in my head I already have my “insurance take” down, letting myself experiment a bit and play around with the part. If the last take was truly my peak for the day, there will be an obvious drop in quality and I can just throw in the towel at that point without having to say to myself later “man, I know I could have done that better.” Because I couldn’t, obviously. Not that day anyhow. If the newer track sounds a lot better, I will of course take it, like I did in the case of this recording. The nice thing about this approach is that I can throw all of my remaining energy into the last take without worrying about or holding back for another in case I screw it all up. And for me, I play a lot better when I feel like I have nothing to lose.

Anyhow, the track came out nice and tight, recording went a lot more smoothly than I was expecting (given the speed and difficulty of the song), and all in all, I’m a happy boy. Guy. Man. Whatever.

Contrary to popular belief, I actually do get dressed up for work occasionally.

I planned on trying to get a lot of work done tonight but I made this instead. Because I have very good time management skills of course. Maybe I should spend less time with google image search and go get some sleep.

We’re on to play 87 Sonic again this year! Last year was filled with good bands, good people, was a hell of a lot of fun, and I have even higher expectations for this go around. If you’re in the area, be sure not to miss it!

87 Sonic 4 - Summer

Live @ Shibuya Guilty
http://guilty.ne.jp

Date: 08.16.2008 (Sat)
Doors Open: 17:00
Show Starts: 17:30

We’re scheduled to play at around 19:00.

Tickets: 2,000 Yen + 1 Drink (500 Yen)

Artists:
Sundhulla Black
Bermuda Pants
fit
87 Stupid

Ticket Reservations: info@fit-noise.com

I went back in the living room this morning to find the princess happily gnawing away at my cell phone. She even left some bite marks along with her slobber. How cute. Maybe there is a use for those waterproof phones after all.

And why do plane tickets cost more than a small country now? It leaves me debating with myself if I should take a holiday back home or feed a poor African nation, because it’s probably about the same cost.