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i had dinner tonight with two taiwanese professors. their names were dr. chen and dr. chen. they told many interesting stories and lauded the effects of democracy versus communism in mainland china. one of the good doctors even gave me a ballpoint pen with a small flashlight and a laser pointer. and the other doctor gave my family a beautiful blue vase. all in all, it was an exciting evening. perhaps i should go live in taiwan for awhile.
i arrived back in louisville on wednesday night. well, actually, it was monday morning around 3, at which point i slept for a few hours before catching a plane to new york. at one point i attempted to navigate the ny subway during rush hour and found myself in an awkward predicament. in order to catch the 6 downtown after the transfer at union station i had to proceed down a narrow but traversable part of the platform. i saw the sign where i was supposed to go. i was feeling good about going there. then suddenly, a train pulls up on the opposite track and a millisecond later, i'm surrounded. bodies are everywhere and i'm pinned to a steele beam near the escalators. i received several dirty looks and someone called me a 'stupid ass.' so that was me on that particular morning. stupid-ass. here's a terribly drawn diagram of the occurence. 9:15 9:16 and here are some photos from my last few days in atlanta: a note on my car the mini moog at red tuxedo mastering house hosea wiliams bail bonding the jail across the street clifton's house path to the guest abode bedroom living room daily drive bunny in a bag THIS IS IT!
ok. now we're really finished. we mastered everything today with alex lowe at red tuxedo studio. first of all, the mastering studio was pretty amazing. and alex is a very talented individual. there are actually several studios in the same building. aside from red tuxedo, there is also the rodney mills mastering lab. rodney actually lives upstairs and works downstairs in the basement. the house itself is enormous, beautiful, and very welcoming. and even cooler, alex has an old mini-moog signed by bob himself.
so anyway, the sound portion is over. i feel slightly sad honestly. i've experienced a certain amount of separation anxiety with all the projects on which i've been involved, but never so deep and resounding as right now. this is by far the most personal endeavor i have ever undertaken. when i left the studio today i was even slightly afraid. i was excited and moved about being finished, but for some reason i felt as if something awful was going to happen on my way home. maybe that's the way anyone feels when they reach the end of a chosen process. but still, it was a bit unnerving. anyway, now we just have to finish the artwork and manufacture everything. dom has put together some great images. we'll also be doing different layouts and imagery for both the cd and vinyl releases. and since there will only be a limited amount of vinyl available, they will all be numbered in order of their sequence off the press. so one day they'll be as valuable as that generic painting of two pheasants that hangs above your family fireplace. but seriously, thank you to those who've made it this far.
mixing is finished. after our mastering session on thursday everything will be off to the manufacturer as soon as the artwork is complete. some presale information should be coming along soon. the album will be available on both cd and vinyl. thank you for your patience. please stay tuned.
well, on friday my body finally said "ok, that's enough" and proceeded to shut down at several points throughout the weekend. my hours have been fairly random lately i guess. and to supplement my overall sense of discomfort, i was also stung by a bee yesterday.
anyway, we finished recording on friday. in the morning we edited the last of the string sections before moving on to some background vocals. and i added a final keyboard part for a short instrumental i had been putting off for awhile. now it's monday as i sit here listening to glenn mix the first of ten songs we hope to include on the finished product. and honestly, my brain is too tired to type anything else. we have an album to mix. have a nice day.
today we worked on 2 songs for 7 hours. in the morning we edited vocals for a song and then switched to good old-fashioned singing during the afternoon. i’m not sure if it was the egg and cheese sandwich i ate this morning or the eight cups of coffee i consumed before lunch, but i certainly sang better than my last endeavor. we doubled a lot of the main vocals then laid some harmonies over top of them. so whoopee i suppose.
does anyone think kenneth lay faked his own death and is now living on a tropical island somewhere? well, not me. that’s crazy talk. speaking of...
back and forth. i've returned to atlanta for the final stretch now. yesterday morning we edited for a couple hours before recording some guitars in the afternoon. tomorrow and thursday we'll try to finish the rest of the vocals. oh, and friday some friends are coming to town to lend their vocal skillz on a few songs. plus, we'll be editing string parts in there somewhere. and i've almost settled on a sequence as well. all in all, everything appears to be coming along according to plan.
i also have to apologize for the lack of photos here lately. my camera is currently somewhere between here and idaho. where are you kate? we miss you. and the camera... oh, and happy birthday america.
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