July 2005 Archives
This may not look like much, but it's a piece of my history. It's the former site of River Track Studio, where Stuart, Jessica, and I recorded our first album as U.S. 52, our old band.
It was the summer of '99, right before our senior year started. Ever since 8th grade or so, Stuart and I had recorded songs in his bedroom/recording studio at every opportunity. In the earliest days, the sophisticated recording process included one boombox with a microphone on it. One of us would hit "Record," and we'd proceed to put a take or two on a cassette. Naturally, this allowed for at most three instruments per song, not including vocals: one that we'd each play, and possibly a pre-programmed Casio keyboard drum beat or piano part. Sometimes we'd get fancy and overdub a second layer of parts using another boombox playing the previous tracks simultaneously. We filled up countless numbers of 90-minute cassettes with our noodling, and "released" eight or nine 60-minute albums under various names.
As time passed, some of our friends and family would come in and play with us, expanding our instrumentation possibilities. Most of the time, it was just the two of us. The complexity and quality of the songs we created naturally grew greater as we improved our playing. By this point, it was mainly Stuart coming up with the basic idea of the song. I would fill in some of the gaps with a bassline or maybe a keyboard part, and Stuart's girlfriend at the time, Jessica, would sing background vocals and fill in some saxophone parts. It was with this line-up that we were coming up with songs that we really liked and that we thought other people would possibly like, too.
Thus, at the end of the summer of '99, we picked a few songs that would be the most likely to sound good on a "real" album and made a deal with a friend of both our families, Otis, the man who owned River Track. He made us a good deal on using the studio, since money was the main concern at the time. We loaded all of our stuff into my '94 Olds and headed over to Louisa to play for a few afternoons in a row sometime in August.
I can vividly remember passing through those doors, exiting the sweltering heat and entering an underground world of bluegrass instruments and publicity photos tacked to the walls. Strange duplicating machines lined the main hall, which ended in the front desk. Cassettes and CDs piled high in every available corner. It took us a while to set up our instruments and figure out what we wanted to do, but after a while, the whole studio aspect came more naturally to us. We even relaxed enough to come up with an instrumental right there on the spot one day. I do believe that the excitement that we were actually doing what we'd only dreamed of for years helped to cancel out the learning curve that's involved when singing and playing in a studio environment.
In a way, those days were a new step musically for us, and we certainly learned a lot about how to structure and piece together songs. When I listen to the recordings from those sessions, I realize how much better we've gotten as musicians since then, but I'll also remember the sense of wonder at actually completing a project like that, in a real-live studio. If nothing else, it encouraged us to keep up with playing and writing songs, since we're still doing that today.
Tonight, Amanda and I got together and went to see Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, two of our high school teachers. I had her for all four of my high school English classes, and him for Biology and Science. I can't even do the visit justice in this space, mainly because we stayed for five hours and talked about everything imaginable. Suffice it to say, though, that I hope I have as much fun in retirement as they're having. Ask me about the visit sometime, and I'll give you an earful of stories!
Visiting with them and Amanda has helped make me feel even more connected to my past here in the Fort. This kind of thing is very important to me as I gear up for my last real week at home for a long time. It started with going through my old pictures, continued with recording music with Stuart again, and will hopefully culminate in some photography trips I plan to take over the next few days.
Mom and Dad are returning from their camping trip tomorrow, too, so things will be normal around here again for this last week, at least.
... What's the fate of the shuttle program? Well, they're going to have to retire them eventually (currently around 2010), but I just haven't been inspired with confidence lately that NASA can come up with something better to actually get us to the moon again, let alone anywhere further. I don't really place the blame solely on them, though. Here's hoping I'm proven wrong!
... Tom Cruise is still nuts.
It's very disconcerting when you're browsing iTunes Music Store and you suddenly notice everything's in German. I didn't even realize there was an option to switch between the U.S. and the various international stores, but well ... now I do. For a good five minutes, though, even the U.S. store was in German. I kept clicking and clicking, and cycling through Canada, then Switzerland, then the U.K., then trying to return to my homeland, but nothing worked.
Then I gave up and ripped a few songs to my library. When I returned to the Store, everything was normal - or so the Germans would have us believe.
... The heat index topped out at around 106 today, and I made the mistake of trying to wash my car in the mess. I ended up doing a shabby job and having to drink a lot of water, and it's indirectly caused me to be very very tired and to put off the entry I was otherwise going to write.
... Couch-standing, Scientology-spouting, Holmes-brainwashing: Tom Cruise is nuts.
Hello, everyone.
I'm free now, but for the majority of the weekend I've been catching up with Harry Potter.
It took me longer than most to get into this series back in the day, because I casually cast off the novels as children's books. Never mind the fact that if they'd come out while I was a kid, they're each exactly the kind of book that I'd read cover to cover as soon as I could. And so it was that sometime after Goblet of Fire came out, I finally got around to borrowing my niece's copies of the novels and started the series from the beginning. I was, of course, subsequently hooked.
So, I've had my head buried in Order Of the Phoenix for the second time and Half-Blood Prince for the first time. J.K. Rowling obviously does know a little magic, because I couldn't break myself away from the novels until they were complete. I'm sure I'm not alone in this phenomenon.
I won't spoil Half-Blood Prince for any of you, in case you want to read it, but if you do get around to finishing it (it's a lot shorter than the last two), I just want to share a "holy crap, I can't believe it" with the world. And in general, I sure am glad there are talented writers out there - where would the world be without them?
The last couple of days since I moved out of the Bretcave have gone by quickly. Yesterday, I had to take a trip to Huntington to have the Nissan dealership take a look at some moldings on the Altima that blew off during a freak car wash accident last week. I was still pretty exhausted from the move the previous day, so it was tough getting up earlier one more time.
As it turns out, though, it was well worth it, as the day developed into another one where life hands you a pleasant surprise out of nowhere. I was eating lunch, thumbing through my latest book purchase (The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 anthology) when Lacy, one of my friends from high school who was working at the restaurant, came by my table to say hi. I hadn't seen her for at least four years, so it was really cool catching up and remarking on what things had changed, how little we had actually changed when we thought about it, and where we were going with life. Very cool indeed.
... In website news, I'm almost finished backlogging the "lost year" of photos on my Flickr photostream. Eventually, I'll index every Flickr set on my main photo page for easier chronological browsing with the other galleries that are hosted on Project BS, but for the time being, you can start checking out what I've got on there. Flickr is one of the best things I've come across lately... plus it can be addicting to a photography nut like me.
... Firecracker, the fish I gave Gina for Christmas 2003, returned to that great Aquarium in the Sky a couple of days ago. Aptly named due to his red scales, Firecracker was a fighter. He survived numerous close calls with toilet bowls and water shortages. He served in the Aquarium Wars alongside Sapphire, Gina's other deceased fish, and he made serveral trips to Blacksburg, Maryland, and even Fort Gay. He was a veteran betta, though he had become a bit of a recluse in recent months, preferring to hide under a large fake rock in his tank.
Come to think of it, I don't think he liked me much, given that he nearly died the day I gave him to Gina, and the fact that he blew up his gills every time he saw me.
Ah well, time to let byfins be byfins... rest easy, 'cracker!
... Today, the world said goodbye to James Doohan, who played Scotty on, of course, the original Star Trek and the films featuring the original crew. I got his autograph once, at a convention that came to Charleston sometime in late middle school or early high school. He was a very engaging speaker and a very talented voice actor, beyond what you might expect from just his work as Montgomery Scott. And on a personal note, since I grew up watching Star Trek reruns with my brother, Scotty is certainly one of the reasons I headed down the engineering career path. He'll be missed.
Well, today was the day. Mom, Dad, and I were in extreme move-out mode, since Dad wanted to get back across the Turnpike before dark, so we got the last of my stuff loaded up within about five hours. I would have liked to have stayed a little while longer in Blacksburg, to give myself a little bit of time to transition... but perhaps it's better this way. I'll be back in a few weeks to help Gina move in, anyway, so I can hang out more then.
It was with a bittersweet feeling that I loaded the last box in the trailer and looked at the bare room that had been my home for the better part of four years. But, I do know it will be in good hands next year, and every era has to end sometime. Besides all that, I'm really beginning to look forward to starting a brand new chapter soon.
All good things must come to an end sometime, but I know there are lots more good things ahead for me.
Hey kids. I'm pretty tired tonight, so all I'm going to mention is that tomorrow, my family and I are heading back down to Blacksburg to move me out of the Bretcave for good this time. I'll take a few pictures, but it's definitely going to be bittersweet moving out of the room that I called home for four years.
Oh, and I wanted to explain my non-posting over the weekend: in between visits with family, Stuart and I have finally started recording again. The stuff sounds good.
Also, I've been massively working on the lost years photo galleries. Very soon, you'll have access to all my photography that I never got around to putting up since spring of 2004. Huzzah!
Until next time, ya'll.
The palindrome title should clue you in that I've got some random stuff for you today (as if all my other entries weren't random as it is):
... We all hate spam e-mail, right? I know I sure do. Occasionally, though, one will come along that actually makes me smile and/or laugh. Usually, the chuckle comes from the unusual names that the spammers put as the sender on the message. Lately, there have been a stream of spams that have a random word from the dictionary followed by a random middle initial, followed by another random word from the dictionary. The results are often amusing. If it wasn't for the whole unsolicited and annoying e-mail factor, wouldn't you at least crack a smile when you got an e-mail from Frustrating Q. Featherduster or Longish K. Lagoons? Coming up with those names might be almost as fun as coming up with random band names from everyday life.
But I digress. The latest junk e-mail that actually piqued my interest was as follows:
Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!
As it turns out, according to Wiki, Gouranga is a term originating in the Hare Krishna religious movement. So, as positive as the message seems to be, it's still spam. I'll stilll take this over the less-than-savory messages that usually flood my inbox, though.
... Daryl posted today about a new catchphrase he's gleaned from the latest William Shatner/Ben Folds collaboration. I like catchphrases. I can get behind that.
... This week, Amazon is celebrating its 10th anniversary, which culminates in a concert they're streaming live this Saturday. There's all kinds of hoopla going on, including a deal where UPS is having celebs make "special deliveries" to Amazon customers by letting them deliver the orders personally. I think you pretty much have to live near a celeb for this to happen, though, so maybe you Californians and New Yorkers will get lucky.
What this really says to me is how drastically shopping has changed the past ten years. I can remember finally convincing my parents to order a set of books for English class from Amazon, being the first person at high school to order anything online, and just marveling at the ease of it all. Back then, Amazon only sold books. Now you can get everything from toasters to gardening tools, and the store's been behind numerous innovations in online shopping. So, even though my English professors always said Amazon was contributing to the demise of small, independent bookstores - here's to another decade!
... Finally, I just wanted to thank you all for your comments on entries, especially Gina and Katie's reports over the last few days. You guys make it fun to post things! I encourage you all to check out the new recent comments if you haven't already, and as always, the archives are open to visitors.
One thing I learned from Gina talking about her Hospitality & Tourism classes this past spring was that, quite often, the same large corporation is behind a multitude of restaurant chains. I find this pretty interesting. I mean, you know, sometimes it's surprising to find out that some of your favorite restaurants are cousins. I guess the most popular one for me is that Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver's, A&W, and Pizza Hut are all managed by Tricon, aka "Yum" brands. That's why the Kentaco Hut combo restaurants are becoming more popular and numerous in smaller towns and airports and such, I guess, though I haven't yet seen a Long Kentaco Fried Hut & W. Maybe that would be too confusing.
What are some other odd corporate restaurant team-ups? How about Wendy's, Baja Fresh, and Tim Horton's? Olive Garden and Red Lobster?
Can you imagine some kind of odd future where all these similarly-owned places were combined into one store to save space? A store where you could get a donut, a gigantic burrito, and a Frosty all at the same time, and wash it all down with some coffee? Would this be a heavenly type of place, or would it make us all weep for the end of our sanity?
It's too early, I believe, to tell.
It's a bit of a difficult thing having a serious weather event with your namesake. I wonder if anyone else - named Ivan, Irene, Andrew, or Hugo, for instance - has ever had any problems. On the one hand, you might feel some kind of kindred spirit with a storm with your name on it, and you might feel a bit like rooting it on somehow. On the other, when they end up causing so much damage and take lives, they're clearly unstoppable, deadly forces.
That being said, I'm happy to report that this year's Tropical Storm Bret didn't pack too big of a punch. It was downgraded to a tropical depression before it hit land over Mexico. In fact, I didn't even realize there was a storm named Bret this year until my grandmother pointed it out to me. The last Bret-related meteorological phenomenon that I was aware of was Hurricane Bret back in '99, which hit southern Texas and cost nobody their lives.
This brings up a curious point, though, because I thought the hurricane naming people tried not to repeat names, at least not as often as every six years. It turns out that everything is on track. When I Googled and did a little research today, I found out that there are actually six set lists of names which rotate every year. Particularly destructive storms have their names retired, but otherwise you will end up seeing the same names every six years. Thus, we're back up to the Arlene-Bret-Cindy-Dennis combo list, which will reappear in 2011.
I guess it's time to look up Dennis, my old Space Camp roommate, to see how he feels about all this.
I've been working heavily in front of the computer screen today, so I'm going to make this a relatively quick entry.
I just wanted to add to the chorus of voices sending their best wishes and prayers to Londoners. Over the course of the day, it's been at times tragic, at times inspiring to watch and read about the aftermath. Our British counterparts have been shouldering the burden of this latest terrorist attack with a grace and stoicism that are to be commended, in my opinion.
In news closer to home, I finally tracked down Stuart, and we made plans to start recording some new material over the rest of the summer. I'm very excited about this, and catching up with him was also good. He seems to be doing a lot better than perhaps he was recently.
Back to either sleeping, watching some taped episodes of Battlestar Galactica, or getting back to my computer work. We'll see!
Allow me to descend into computer geekery for a while:
The last couple of days, I decreed a need for repairs to my computer before I get started on some projects, so I've been organizing things and defragging my hard drives. It's so easy to type that sentence out, while it takes so long to finish defragging 60 GB at a time, especially when I was just now able to keep my media drive from crashing the system every time I started the defrag. So, yes, my poor computer's been chewing through about two years' worth of fragmented goodness for a day and a half. After it's all done, though, I can get rolling on my other goals.
One of those goals I started earlier this year. I have around 3700 songs in my iTunes library now, and I thought one day that it would be neat to see if I could try listening to every song in the library at least once. iTunes keeps track of play counts, so it should've been a simple matter... but not when you keep adding a bunch of songs at a time through new CDs and downloads, my friends. I'm currently about two-thirds of the way through the library. We'll see how far I get before clearing all the play counts and joining a support group. I'm a musical nutjob, and I need to be stopped.
I've also devoted a lot of time recently toward going through all my old mix CDs that I created over the last five years or so. Part of this is to really look at how my musical tastes have grown in that time, but the other part is to make sure that, somewhere, I still have a copy of all the songs I used on the mixes. The idea here is to ensure I'm not missing some critical piece of my personal music history, and unfortunately, it seems that I am in a few places. So, I've begun a search for a few oddball songs that have somehow disappeared from my hard drive during my college years. I've also been adding these mixes as iTunes playlists, so I can listen to them iPod-style. This may seem a bit much, but to me, my mix CD's are not only a pretty good snapshot of what I listen to at a certain point in time, but they also are inexorably linked as reminders of what's going on in my life at that time. If you make a lot of them with care, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
To offset this proud geekery, I've also made it a practice to not forget to play guitar for at least 30 minutes a day, every day. It's all part of the master plan to not get bored this summer, and to enjoy every free day to its fullest.
News bits of interest: London got the 2012 Olympics bid, and I'm sure Daryl is happy that it didn't end up in NYC. Plus, SciFi's Battlestar Galactica remake is airing all of Season 1 today in a pre-Season 2-premiere marathon, and though I've never watched it before today and haven't seen any of the original series, it's probably my new favorite summer show. Way better than Reality Show of The Week.
Hey kids! I've returned to blogging after another long, long vacation. When I say vacation, I use the term loosely, since really this whole summer break is my last wild and long vacation for a while. The 2005 Hershey Park trip was excellent as usual, though really hot. My latest Dave concerts were rockin'. After that, Gina and I took a few days to visit such places as the National Cathedral and the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum. I was back in Blacksburg for a bit to go to Dustin and Kathy's wedding, while in between I braved the toughest two drives I've had in a while getting back to Blacksburg and WV. And then there was the usual Fourth of July weekend fun. All that wore me out, so I had to just kinda lay around for a bit the last day or so. I didn't actually do anything on the actual Independence Day.
Today, I'm off to Huntington to check out some new contacts and some other random stuff. I have a lot of cool stuff planned for the next few days. It's a great time to be alive!