Farewell, Christine

Today we sadly said goodbye to Christine McVie, most notably known for her role in the band Fleetwood Mac.  It seems appropriate that she was born Christine Perfect for I personally think she was a beyond brilliant songwriter, someone that I've really admired for quite a long time.  There has been just a plethora of talent in the Fleetwood Mac catalog over the years, of course, but with the more well known line-up, I've always been slightly annoyed at the fact that Stevie Nicks got most of the attention while Christine seemed to be closer to what I think of as a songwriting genius.  I'll also say that Christine had such a unique singing voice that I really loved.  Stevie had one as well, of course, and she was certainly the sexy part of the band, but Christine always seemed like the anchor and reliable one that would always submit top notch writing.

I couldn't resist digging to find "Future Games" and playing it tonight.  It ended a bit ago and now I'm on to "Bare Trees", the follow-up.  Both albums are considered "weak" and a forgettable point in Fleetwood Mac's early career by many but I really love these two albums, and once again a sincere thank you to my friend CJ for turning me onto them.  I'm not sure that I would have ever ventured there without that necessary yet gentle prodding and I'm forever grateful.

I decided to pull out the Gibson 335 tonight.  I'm not really sure why but it's been in my brain for awhile to dust it off and play it.  The guitar is practically brand new, it's been played so little, but it's nearly 10 years old.  I know, despicable.  Anyhow, I hadn't even touched it in quite awhile and I was beyond tickled by how good it sounds and plays.  The guitar bends like no other instrument I own, or maybe I'm finally just getting the hang of the bending thing.  I will say that guitar and I have clicked on a whole new level over the past couple of years and I'm constantly amazing myself.  I truly believe that if I keep at it that I could actually one day be a decent guitar player (wow).  I have been mentally planning to use the 335 on the new Jazz Machine album, and since I'm going to start playing around with those ideas in a few weeks, it was time to get reacquainted.

Having said that, I'm having incredible issues with my pinky finger on my fingering hand.  The trigger finger has set in now to a point that I basically wake up with a completely stiffened pinky that needs to be massaged for about 5 minutes before it'll even think about bending.  Unlike how my middle finger acted at the crux of my trigger finger issues on it a couple years ago, my pinky can be quite painful when trying to get it to bend.  Getting old sucks, and I wish I could say it's my only issue but alas it isn't.

Wow..."Sentimental Lady" finished just a bit ago.  What a gorgeous song.  It almost brings tears to my eyes.  The other track that I simply adore is the title track from "Future Games".  Pure bliss.  But, not long after came Christine's "Spare Me a Little of Your Love".  Ah, that voice.

Thinking of Baseball

Hah!  I can't help but laugh at that title.  Well, for those of you young 'un's, that phrase used to be a sort of recommendation for, um, a certain 'something', something that used to be recommended to young men specifically (and that's all I'm saying).  In my case, though, the title is really about my lack of any real update, all due to the fact that the San Diego Padres just happened to make it into the Post Season.  And yes, folks, that is my excuse for doing close to nothing on the musical horizon over the past couple of weeks.

I was fortunate to see both a Division series game and an NLCS game, albeit not the "right" one, mind you (meaning they lost).  In any event, baseball fever has overtaken San Diego in general and so all scheduling is right now revolving around the game times.  I even skipped two shows that I was planning on going to.  You can tell that this is serious stuff.

Apart from that, I now have a plan in place for getting a couple tracks mixed, one by Peele and the other by myself.  I'm hoping to have something released online at least in the next 2 months.  In the meantime, I need to somehow get my head back "in the game", as they say.  See what I did there??

Meanwhile, ideas are rattling around in my head, enough that they're beginning to make some real noise.  I have a week off coming up in November and so I simply need to get back to it soon in order to be productive.

On the listening front, one of the albums in my current rotation is Richard and Linda Thompson's "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" CD which I just recently found/acquired, actually based upon Marc Maron mentioning it more than once.  I must say that I'm liking it quite a bit.  Now, see?  That had nothing at all to do with baseball.  Go figure.

Let Them Play the Music

I've taken yet another small break from even the thought of playing music as of late.  It's not exactly intentional; I simply have had no time.  First, I needed to deal with the stereo dilemma, of which I think is finally behind me.  I decided to keep the Outlaw Audio receiver, so therefore I returned the Denon DRA800H and I also just returned the Klipsch RP8000's.  It simply finally hit me that the damn things are way too huge for my studio room, and after extensive tests and flipping back and forth between the two sets of speakers, it slowly became obvious to me.  It's not official as of yet but I do believe that I'm going to keep the Polk R600's for I seem to really like them, and I'd say that they're a small step upward over my old JBL's.  Strangely, Billy Squier's "It Keeps You Rockin'" really sounds the most amazing on the R600's, of all things.  Now, why that's become my standard for good sound...well, I couldn't really tell you.

I will say that flipping between speaker sets is an interesting venture.  It's funny because it takes at least 20 seconds for your ears to adjust, meaning that no matter what speakers you "flip" to they always sound odd and worse than the predecessor initially.  I also learned by process of playing around with it that the critical sound that I wasn't liking was actually coming from the Denon Receiver, not as much from the speakers.  I did lose a little bit of that by going with the Outlaw Audio Receiver, which is a bit of a detriment for mixing and such, but my actual music listening experience will be a bit closer to what it was previously...which is good.  I was actually finding that I didn't want to listen to music as much with the Denon because everything sounded horrible to me.  Now, why exactly so called "audiophiles" want things to sound horrible...well, that's beyond me.

Apart from the stereo decisions, and I will say that it was quite a feat getting the huge Klipsch speakers back down the stairs and packaged up in their boxes (they weigh about 70 lbs. a piece), I actually finally ventured out again to see and hear live music.  First up, I FINALLY made it to the Hollywood Bowl, a venue I've been meaning to go to for literally 30 years but have never made it before.  The show?  Grace Jones...wow.  It was actually a double bill of sorts with Ms. Jones and Chvrches, the latter of which I will say I was fairly impressed with even though it's not exactly my usual sound (lots of strong 2/4 going on in an electronic vein).  Seeing Grace was amazing, though, and the most frequently heard comment was "...can you believe she's 74 years old...?"  No, actually I cannot whatsoever.  I mean, the woman shows almost no signs at all physically of aging, not in her looks, movements, etc.  Simply remarkable.

The Bowl is definitely a venue to visit, I will say.  It's not only historical and quite stunning to be at but the sound was also wonderful.  They built that venue in a truly amazing fashion, putting great care into the sightlines of each tier, etc.  The slope on the back of the venue as the seating rises up the hill is beyond words since the last row of seats is so incredibly high into the air (on the hillside) that it's hard to comprehend what you're looking at from down below.  And then, strangely, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere...and yet you're smack just north of super busy and crowded Hollywood.  If you've never been there and you have an interest in such things, I'd definitely put it on your list.  I was also amazed by how easy it was to do a Park and Ride shuttle to get in and out of there, and so on.  Getting out was a bit more convoluted but getting in was super simple...and cheap!

Two days later, I went to my favorite local venue, the Belly Up Tavern, to see Cate Le Bon.  It was another great performance, completely different from the Grace Jones show 2 days earlier, of course.  Cate has a great stage presence and setup on stage with her band, and I must say that the show was even better than I had expected.  Cate's latest album "Pompeii" comes highly recommended from me.

I'm hoping to get back into the musical swing of things fairly soon.  I've had lots of ideas rolling around in my head so I've just been waiting for the time to actually act upon them.  More soon, hopefully.

No, I Haven't Given Up

I've mainly been quiet for the past 2-3 weeks since I was sick with some sort of persistent cold.  We're having work done on our house and, low and behold, it took a whole 3 days of said work for both of us to catch this freakin' illness from one of the workers.  The timing was great as always since I had planned to work on some vocal corrections that weekend, of which I still can't quite get back to even now due to persistent phlegm issues.

Upon feeling a bit better, I had meant to write up how I drove up to Irvine one Saturday afternoon to do an errand, and I just happened to be in the neighborhood of the one and only Taco Bell that was trying out the Cheez-It Tostada and so I made a point to stop in.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.  Also, if you hadn't already guessed, the Cheez-It base is actually much smaller than they made it appear in the pictures so it isn't some mammoth sized cheese flavored biscuit attempting to take over the world.  Oddly, I was expecting a true flagship Taco Bell location but it looked no different than any other one except that it's the first I've ever been in that you literally have to order through the tablets for there is no one on duty taking orders.  Apart from that, the seating was a bit more community oriented but nothing else really stood out as that different.

There IS actually a chance that I'll finally submit the CD order for "...Miss You Most..." this weekend for the redo of Track 2 is currently at the mastering lab for reprocessing.  Once that's complete and checks out, I only need to do a few more minor changes on the booklet and layout, of which I'm hoping to get completed this weekend so I can finally put this behind me.

Apart from that, I've barely touched Pro Tools or did any real mixing over the past month just due to either feeling lousy or being overwhelmed between work and juggling house improvement decisions.  There was also Wimbledon to contend with which is always a major distraction but a welcomed one.  I did manage to upgrade my Pro Tools version to be the latest 2022.06 and that ended up being more labor intensive than I had counted on but at least it's ready to go.  I'll hopefully have some real news on my next update.

Uncle Bob

We went to see Uncle Bob (Dylan) this past weekend.  It might sound strange but I've never seen Bob Dylan live before, and to be honest I'm not even particularly even a fan of his, but I figured he was one of a sole few living legends still left on the planet, and that he was somebody that I really should see before he passes on.  For the record, I can't quite remember who coined the name "Uncle Bob"...it wasn't me...but I know that I heard it somewhere and, well, it's just stuck.

The good news is that Bob Dylan is still alive and kicking!  The bad news is, um, I'm not sure how much longer he actually will be.  There were quite a few true oddities at this concert, to be frank.  The first one was that his name was not anywhere on the marquee, and instead it just read "Rough and Rowdy Ways", as if that was the name of the band we were seeing (versus the name of the tour).  We debated the reasoning behind this and could only come up with safety as an explanation, considering we're living in an age where random fans go up on stage with daggers and try to attack performers.  I would think Dylan is fairly protective in general so this seemed like the logical reasoning but who knows if it's actually true.

The next weird thing, that I actually greatly applaud, mind you, is that no cell phones were allowed.  In fact, if you brought one, it was locked in a secure case and could only be unlocked after the show.  It was like the olden days all over again with no one sticking up a phone in your view during the show (aaahh).  This was a rare positive for the night.

I was under the impression that Dylan was primarily a guitarist.  Except for the instrumental bluesy opening number, though, he never played guitar again through the whole set.  Instead, he basically stood behind an upright piano the whole show so that the only thing visible on him was his head and mop of hair or hat, depending upon the song, and then he came out 80% of the time from behind the piano once the song was done so that the crowd could see his entire body.  Once everyone clapped a bit, he would do a strange prance back behind the piano once again.  Personally, I've never seen anyone do this and the whole thing seemed a bit unusual.

We then debated why they'd have the piano positioned so that it blocked his entire body during the performance.  It was almost like it was helping him stand upright because when he didn't have the piano there he looked incredibly frail, like he could maybe fall at any moment.  He did actually sing one song just holding the microphone but he was incredibly fidgety and the song was abnormally short, like maybe only 3 minutes.  Again, kind of odd.  We therefore wondered if he wasn't actually able to stand or hold a guitar on him at this point, and maybe that's why he didn't really play one.  Who knows.

His voice is, well, it's what it is.  He almost sounds a bit like Tom Waits at this point and trying to understand any words coming out of his mouth was nearly impossible.  The sound system was also the lowest volume I think I've ever heard at a concert of this type, so much that it was almost completely pointless to even have my ear plugs in.  The little bit of guitar playing that he did do during the opening number was done nearly in complete darkness, and even though I thought that the lights would go on once the singing began, they really didn't.  I've never seen a darker stage in my life, almost to the point where you could barely make out Dylan's face much.  Again, very strange.

Lastly, his playing, whether it was that intro electric guitar or his piano playing, was quite underwhelming.  I mean, he played piano close to around my ability which is saying very, very little.  The sound guys seemed to constantly try to hide his playing by lowering the volume of his instrument, trying to mask it by the other sounds going on.  Even more disturbing, Dylan's entire backing band watched him constantly with just a strange look in their eyes, like they were expecting him to keel over at any moment, and that they had a contingency plan in the wings just in case that did happen.  The whole thing was just very odd.

Apart from physically seeing Dylan live on stage, there really wasn't too much to cheer for.  He never once addressed the audience and he didn't say a peep when the band left stage.  In fact, there was no encore, and it was almost like he was debating whether we were worth another song, of which we apparently weren't.  I'd say, unless you're a mega fan or like me and have never seen him live, there's not much reason to go now.  The guy is 81 years old, though, so I guess we need to give him a break and understand his limitations.

Still, it's hard to take it all in when you're looking at a living legend on stage, so I guess that's worth something.  The sad part is that I don't think Dylan would stand a chance today if he was young and just starting out, and that says way more about us and society than it does anything else.  Cheers to you, Bob!

Windows 11 and Other Joys

I just received a phone message saying that I have an eye appointment scheduled for February 21st at 8:35am.  This completely confused me since, if you happen to know me whatsoever, I would never voluntarily schedule an appointment at that ungodly hour of the morning.  Upon calling the office back, I told the operator that I was fairly certain that I did not schedule this appointment, and the reply was "we do this as a service to you to make sure that you stay on your annual schedule."  So, just to put this in perspective, this means that the burden is on me to a) call and cancel/reschedule the appointment and b) if I don't get the message, I'm fairly certain I'd get charged for a no-show.  Yep, this really sounds like it's for my benefit.  I promptly told them to cancel my appointment and that I'd most likely not be returning to the office...ever.

Yes, this is the world we live in.  I could go on and on, of course, like most everyone else.  It's gotten to an absurd level lately and I'm not quite sure how to get through a day anymore without getting angry and close to livid at least once or twice.  The worst part, of course, is that we all PAY to have this anger occur.  Wow.

For example, my fairly new refrigerator is freezing items in certain areas of the fridge.  No problem - just alter the temperature, right?  Well, in the old days, this would take about 2 seconds because you'd turn the dial and be done.  This new fangled machinery, though, has everything hidden within a digital interface that is completely non-intuitive.  Therefore, I need to take the time to find the manual, then find the right page and info (mind you, the info in the manual is usually either incomplete or incredibly vague), and then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to accomplish what I set out to do originally.  If I'm lucky, it'll take 10 minutes.  Yep, from what used to be 2 seconds to 10 minutes (again, if I'm lucky).  Good deal, no?  And then, the likelihood of it even correcting the problem considering the lowered standards of all modern day appliances is beyond belief low.

In other news, I just upgraded my fairly new desktop to Windows 11.  This is a computer I purchased last year mainly for doing my Photoshop work and other odds and ends.  I'm usually the very last person to do an upgrade to a new Windows version simply because a) I see no point in doing the upgrade and b) I take no pleasure whatsoever in being the first person on the block to do anything, and why others see this as important is beyond me.  Initially, the download wouldn't take but it was because there were other standard updates that needed to be done first and were therefore blocking the upgrade.  Once I fixed that, though, it went fairly smooth.  The end result?  Well, it's pretty much what you'd expect.  Windows 11 looks out of the box a bit more like Mac OS which I would think is sacrilegious for Microsoft, but apart from that nothing that major has changed or been improved from a user perspective.  This is of course absolutely no shock from me since I personally thought Windows 95 was absolutely fine in every aspect, and every update since then has just been either fluff or completely unnecessary in terms of the user interface portion.  Basically, if you create and refine a product early on, why upgrade or change it?  Well, that's me at least.

Besides these complaints and various whines, I'm afraid I have no other real news to share.  I'm still dragging my feet in the music arena but I just got word that my Boss SY-200 came in today so it should be arriving within a week.  I'm excited to start playing around with it and hope it'll give me some new sounds to create with.  If nothing else, it's another box and gadget to take up space on my floor and closet.  Sigh.