And the winner is...

no one? You would think that a guy with as many dvds and videotapes as I have would be more interested in the Oscars -- but I didn't really care at all this time. I looked at a short list of the winners, and realized that I hadn't seen any of them (although after seeing the previews for "There Will be Blood" I believe I saw Daniel Day Lewis give the exact same performance in "Gangs of New York"). I'm kind of (pleasantly) surprised that Michael Moore didn't win for Sicko - Hollywood normally loves his kind of antics - maybe this time someone decided to reward fact over fantasy.

In the Studio

If you follow me on one of the several social networks I hang out on (twitter, Myspace, facebook) you may have seen me referring to my studio. In all honesty, comparing my studio to what most people think of a studio is like comparing a my high school friend Kevin's moped to my Harley Fatboy. Yeah, they both have 2 wheels and a motor, and they both carry 2 people and maybe some cargo. Of course, my fatboy carries 2 people at highway speeds and carries as much as 2 saddlebags can hold, where the moped could carry 2 smaller people at almost the same speed as a horse could trot, carrying whatever was strapped to the bicycle rack in the back (of course, you had to pedal to get it started at the red lights...).

So what I have, is a space with my instruments in it, a couple of microphones, and some computer equipment to actually record the music on. If I had a lot of money, I would buy one very expensive sampling synthesizer keyboard, a very expensive microphone, a very expensive mixer, and a very expensive audio recording system housed in a room with recessed lighting, audio insulation, and fancy monitor systems. Instead, I have 3 older keyboard synths and a rack full of older sampler and synth modules, hooked up to an old Dell notebook and a couple of small keyboard mixers - all fed into the sound blaster card in a PC I have yet to put together. All of this equipment is in the unfinished portion of my basement, where blankets hang from the ceiling to make walls, and a 75 watt light bulb in the center provides the illumination, and the sound comes from a pair of Alpine 6X9's in boxes. That, and when it comes time to record vocals I'll have to temporarily shut off the HVAC and sump pump.

Still, it's the first time I haven't had to share the space with a car or a kid. And even though a lot of the equipment is older, it sounds pretty good -- and it's old enough enough to actually be retro, instead of pretending to be. And when I get it finished, I won't be to embarrassed to invite people down to see it or (more importantly) contribute to a track.

If the Beatles can record Sargent Pepper's on a 4track tape recorder, my studio should be the least of my creative difficulties...