Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in jblum's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, May 27th, 2012
2:55 pm	Back again. What was meant to be two three-day business trips to Canberra turned into two and a half weeks. Whee! Kate came down to join me for one weekend, which was lovely. But I'm off again for another three-day trip (allegedly) on Wednesday. Here's hoping the cats remember who I am by the time I get back... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
11:55 pm	Two snickers from the internet: Joss Whedon on the success of The Avengers: RDA: What do you feel is the greatest achievement of "the Avoiders"? JW: Getting "mewling quim" out there to the masses. Also, Hulk. ---- Rush Limbaugh claims that President Obama is leading an assault on traditional marriage. Limbaugh's first, second, third, and fourth wives could not be reached for comment. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
10:41 pm	Life In Fast Forward Been a ridiculous amount of time since I've posted anything! Here's a brief summary of what's been going on in the House Of Sticks: * Had a wonderful time with my parents on their visit -- Kate said it was the easiest and most stress-free visit they've had! Usually my parents have so much energy and desire to do touristy stuff that we end up completely run ragged -- we just can't keep up with them! Especially if I'm working through the trip, as happened this time. But I still managed to spend a good day with them roaming through Cockatoo Island, and we all spent my birthday galumphing through Taronga Zoo, getting stared at by basilisks and watching extremely intelligent tigers. Kate got the downtime she needed in between events, and I... Well, when I got called to Canberra for work, my parents even came with me for a day-trip! * Did I mention work? Lots of trips to Canberra for software installs for the Defence Department and support calls for the ATO. Basically, my three-week stay in Canberra has been followed up by a couple of day-trips, a three-day stint last week, and another three-day-at-least stint this week. Wibble. Working a fifty-hour week plus travel time is *not* how I wanted to spend my parents' visit. At least they let me crash in their hotel room the night before my flight! * And oh yeah, I've turned 40! Still feel about 26, though. Spent most of Saturday with a long open-house party (hosted at my parents' swish hotel suite) with friends dropping in throughout, a few board games, and a chance to play them my album in progress! Wonderful time catching up with people I haven't seen in far too long, like Rob and catsparx, and even folks like Anna who couldn't make the party itself but stopped by on the Sunday. Then my actual birthday was just me, Kate, my parents, and a bunch of giraffes and what-not. * The album! Nine tracks in listenable shape -- not counting the bonus StockAitkenWaterman pastiche track we did for Todd's birthday, which is hilarious. My parents gave me great feedback -- I realized I'd been burying the drums, Dad said it needed more of a clear beat for him to dance to. Elated to find that direct-injecting the bass via the mixer gives me a much fuller low-end sound than through the amp; somewhat depressed that this means I should probably re-record almost all my bass parts. I really want to get onto the next batch of songs (I've got about six more I want to record, two covers and four originals), but I should probably tidy up what I've got first. Oh, and I've got a huge blister on my thumb from playing fingerstyle bass on "Something's Gotta Give"! * We've now finished Stargate: Universe, and it's astounded us by not sucking. It's a quite-often-genuinely-intelligent SF show with some proper science and neat bits of character drama. The fact that it's often Stargate in name only is one of its great strengths. And the finale, while leaving the ostensible goals of the series incomplete, is a very satisfying way of rounding off the actual journey these characters have been on. This is definitely a series worth watching on DVD in a bit of a binge -- I've heard people complain about the slow pace, but that's easy to fix on DVD -- we mainlined the first seven episodes within a week, and got through all 40 episodes within about four months. There are some stumbling blocks along the way (especially early in series two), but every time after a few dud episodes the show kept snapping back into focus with surprising and effective new developments. Definitely worth checking out. Next up, Game of Thrones at last... * Have I raved about the Zombies' Odessey And Oracle in recent memory? It's made its way back into heavy rotation at our house. I really should do an essay about this one... * In the midst of all this chaos, work stress, and creative frustration, Kate has been a joy -- incredibly understanding, supportive, kind, practical, and a general sex goddess. Now if only I got to spend more time in the same state with her! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
11:03 am	Once I Was Stacey Tappan, an awesome soprano friend of ours, is putting out a CD! It's a re-recording of a concert she did with Ricky Ian Gordon called Once I Was, of a collection of his songs woven into a life story. Here's a preview! There are more clips available at the site below... It's crowd-funded, so please click through to http://www.indiegogo.com/onceiwas and contribute what you can. They still need $1000 more to get over the line. And speaking as someone whose last recorded vocal came out in the key of H flat... Stacey's got a voice to die for, as well as being witty and clever and gorgeous and silly. Give the clips a listen and see what you think! (Comment on this)
Friday, April 27th, 2012
10:54 am	Three words: Bouncy castle Stonehenge! I'm just grinning ear to ear. Now *that's* an interactive art exhibition... (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
12:24 pm	Signal boosting off_coloratura, our terrifyingly talented soprano friend, is recording an album! It's a re-recording of the concert she did with Ricky Ian Gordon, of a whole life-story's worth of his songs. It's being crowd-funded; if you like the clips, go to Indiegogo> and give her a hand! ...On a personal note, after the singing I've been doing lately, I'd just like to say that hearing how pure her tone is just makes my lungs ache... (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
3:20 pm	Whew. Back on planet Earth after crashing for about twelve hours! Anyway. The concert on Friday night: Steve Howe is about 92, Geoff Downes is a hobbit, and the new lead singer appears to be Ventricle from Protey, but the latest incarnation of Yes is still a damn good band. We had no idea they were even playing in Sydney until about Wednesday, but when we heard we snapped up nosebleed seats at the last possible minute. For those who don't know what I'm talking about (hi Mom) -- Yes is to Kate what the Beach Boys are to me, the music which absolutely hits her God Spot.( Read more... ) Pity about the drunken old-school Yes fanboy sitting next to us, prone to random eruptions of YEAAHHHHHHs, swearing when they played an '80s track, and bellowing along to "Wondrous Stories" like a wounded musk ox. At least he wasn't slagging off the new stuff, which would have been enough of a cliche to actually justify tossing him off the theater balcony... (7 Comments |Comment on this)
2:13 am	Had a really packed few days, by our standards -- wandering Sydney with jvowles on a visit, then off to a Yes concert with Kate, and finally Todd's 40th birthday bash -- which included everything from a Stock Aitken and Waterman pastiche recording session to soap bubbles and crackers and a cake full of sparklers. More detail when I recover. But at the moment, I feel wrung-out and strangely downhearted. Just cause I've spent all this time being cheery and talkative and superficial, and going please like me to assorted strangers, when all I really need is for someone just to deliberately come to me and say hey, you all right? And for me to be able to answer honestly, rather than making light of how exhausted I am. My life's been full of work and challenges lately, and when that's let up it's been full of distractions. I really need some time just to be a human being -- a tired, weak, caring, worthwhile human being, who's still worthy of being the center of someone's attention even when I don't have a lot to give. When Kate has a downswing like this, her way out of the pit is to keep her mind busy, active and distracted. I'm the opposite; I need to talk about how I'm doing and feel acknowledged rather than fobbed-off, for long enough for me to turn the corner. That does more for me than surrounding myself with other people and cheery nonsense. Not that someone baking me a cake full of sparklers would hurt, though!... (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 8th, 2012
7:43 pm	After two days of fiddling with the solo on "Evening Star", I recognize that I am playing at the limits of my skill. Or to put it another way, it ain't gonna get any better. I replayed the entire acoustic part over and over, but I'll probably only end up using about four notes from the new version to patch a screwed-up bit or two. Ah well, at least the electric lead is technically better, though I don't know how much of it *feels* better. Still not managing to be Dave Gilmour. Making all these little twiddly changes is getting demoralizing; I need to actually try putting a new song together, feel like I'm making progress again! (Comment on this)
11:22 am	Let's Kill Hitler: another possibility... Been a while since I posted anything about Doctor Who! For those who remember my review of Let's Kill Hitler, I was a bit nonplussed by just how much story Steven Moffat tried to cram into a single episode. Not just the search for Melody, but an entire redemption story for River Song, the explanation of the Silence, and an apparently-unrelated big-and-bonkers RTD-style season opener which turns out to be a subplot to the whole shebang. I really felt like there just wasn't enough space for it all... it desperately needed to be a two-parter, but there just weren't any episode slots left available, and Moffat was under such a gun with his deadlines that he'd probably have whimpered at the thought. But now, after all the months of thinking time Moffat didn't have... I think I've got an idea how you could have made it work. ( Read more... ) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 7th, 2012
12:42 am	Back less than a day, and I'm already back into the music. First recording I've done since my last Sydney layover, when I tidied up "I Can't Forget". Today, it was doing nine bars of a demo for an '80s-style synth-pop pastiche, plus lots of fixes of little glitches on "Something's Gotta Give" and "That Wasn't Me". Man, my slide playing was sloppy on the latter... I've completely redone it, and it's probably still sloppy, but less so! After the intimidating number of takes necessary, I note with forced humility that I haven't actually become a vastly better guitarist in three months. Also, have been thoroughly humbled by my old boss Adrian's skill at mixing -- I don't know nearly enough about EQ and compression! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
11:01 pm	Back in Sydney at the House of Sticks. About ready to curl up in bed with Kate, in the midst of the evidence of her general bachelorly squalor in my absence. Be it ever so post-apocalyptic, there's no place like home... (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
5:38 pm	Dunno if anyone's been missing my updates... Reason why I've gone quiet is that I've been down in Canberra for two-and-a-half weeks straight, give or take a 48-hour pass for one weekend -- working 60-hour weeks and trying to write an article for a fanzine on top of that. Still there till Easter. But the main reason it's been bearable? The place where I'm staying. I was going to be in a little old place in Griffith, but thanks to a snafu the serviced-apartment people had to upgrade me to a two-bedroom place on a hillside in Narrabundah. With a PORCH. Not one of those little porchlets overlooking a parking lot -- a proper one with a gorgeous panoramic view of eastern Canberra, off to the mountains. The kind of place where you can sit out at the table with a drink and your laptop, and work from home for an afternoon till the sun goes down. This brings back so many rich memories of my *proper* vacations growing up -- two lovely uninterrupted weeks in Ocean City, sitting next to Dad with his martini and Mom with her books, listening to the radio and watching the ocean. There's just something about having a view right there that's good for the soul. Kate was supposed to come down this weekend, but she was under the weather and battling a deadline -- she's hoping to make it down tomorrow. I can't wait. I want her to see what this skyline means to me. And it's already inspired a song, called "Feel The Sun". Yep, the guitar's keeping me company... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
1:04 am	Okay. So I'm leaving for Canberra tomorrow, and I had two songs to finish up. And neither one of them had their lyrics finished. Could I make it? First up, "I Can't Forget" -- the song which surprised me by making it out of my head in less than 24 hours after nineteen years of sitting around. Today's work included trying to replace the clavinet bass part with actual bass... after struggling with the first eight bars, I realised the clav bass was way funkier than I could be in the time available, so it stays. Instead I wrote a proper clavinet part for the chorus on top of it (pure Stevie Wonder!), added fills to the drum track, and patched up some stuff-ups in the guitar parts. And then the vocals... record a bit, write a bit, record a bit, write a bit, etc. I think the performance hangs together well for a guide vocal, but I think my pitch is kinda wobbly on this one. I started trying to record a harmony vocal too, but quickly realised my limitations -- I really need a good backing singer on this one, or indeed a good lead singer! Then, after playing back the day's work, I played the completed "I'm Not A Singer" for Kate as well -- and winced in agony at some of the off-key vocals. Well, hey, the title's truth in advertising. I re-recorded the worst of those before proceeding. And then, finally, back to "Evening Star". All I needed was for Kate to fill in the last four lines of the bridge... but after a bad night's sleep and a major wallow in her Talons essay, she was in no shape for lyrics. So I tried writing in her style... because of the content of the song, this involved researching translations of the Exaltation of Inanna. Never say my wife aims low. Anyway, after a few hours of literary headbanging, I recorded the guide vocals just before the 11PM curfew (and, erm, just after). And... wow, that was weird. Don't know if I got the proper tone for the song -- instead of cool, wry observation, it came out kind of stalkery, even Renfieldesque! But man, there's an intensity there which surprised the hell out of me. I still want Kate to replace this with her own vocals, but even just as a guide track, it was something neat... So there we are -- eight songs recorded, six of them in the past six weeks. All complete, if not finalized -- they sound like whole songs, even though they could still change radically in a couple of weeks (when I play them back and hear everything that's wrong with them). Still, nearly half an hour of music, and at least five more songs lurking in my queue for when I'm back up here... (Comment on this)
Monday, March 12th, 2012
3:29 am	Yesterday's music session was a good'un -- after finally sort-of resolving the saga of the mic (I can get usable signal out of it if I crank it to the max and then process the sound, but to use it properly I'll need to borrow Andrew's mixer to use as a preamp), I went back to finishing off outstanding numbers before I depart for Canberra on Tuesday. That meant re-recording my vocals for "I'm Not A Singer" (the acoustic guitar part turned out to be okay) and doing a solo for "Something's Gotta Give". So now both of those are completely done -- at least till I return from Canberra in a few weeks and can hear everything that's still wrong with them! And just before sacking out, I started fiddling with a drum part for original song #5 -- "I Can't Forget". Which I attacked in earnest today -- recording percussion (banging our wok lid in lieu of a muffled cowbell -- it makes a pretty awesome thunk), three different guitar parts (though one of them was a replacement -- see below), a clavinet sketch for what's going to be the bass part, and a piano sketch for the melody. I may polish it up tomorrow, but it's second in the queue behind working out Kate's vocals for "Evening Star". This was a weird one for me... the actual song, I wrote back in about 1993 or so, but I could never work out the chord progression! Just the funky bassline, melody, and lyrics... though I've forgotten the third verse in the intervening nearly-twenty-years! Plus I've written a new bridge which still needs words. Plus the chords turned out to be trickier than I'd thought -- and the melody I'd been hearing in my head was distinctly off-key. As I exclaimed around take 37 -- how could I have this song in my head for twenty years and still not have any clue how to play it?! I was aware of the Climax Blues Band influence on this one, but I steered clear of anything too similar. But throughout the whole recording process, I kept being haunted by the sense that this was sounding a lot like *something*, but I couldn't figure out what... then at 2:30 AM it hit me. The main guitar part for the verse was the chorus of "The Boys Light Up", and I hadn't noticed. Guess I've got to hand back my Aussie citizenship now... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
3:24 am	'Nother 3 AM session... Got an XLR cable from Andrew, which promptly turned out to be flaky as well, but after a fair bit of jiggling and screw-tightening I managed to get a decent signal, if a bit low overall (even when practically making lip contact with the mic). Oh, except that we were still getting interference from our router, of all things. Might still buy a new cable just to see if I can get more volume out of the thing. Net result? One complete take of the new acoustic rhythm track for "I'm Not A Singer", several attempts at the verses (neither one quite there yet, I think), and then it was 11 PM and Kate warned me to stop disturbing the neighbors (including, her). Bit of a break, then another two-and-a-half hours or so spent inventing a solo for "Something's Gotta Give". Got it all down on tape, but one awkward phrase will need a rethink, it's defeated me for tonight. A definite improvement on my first couple of solos in terms of how it hangs together; hope it doesn't sound amateurish in the morning... At this point it looks like I won't be leaving for Canberra till Tuesday; that gives me three-and-a-bit days to finish off both these songs *and* do Kate's vocals for "Evening Star", and maybe do a quick demo of "I Can't Forget" so I can finish working out the lyrics while down in Canberra. It's not impossible, but I'll be busy. And I can forget about my fingertips growing back any time soon... (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 8th, 2012
11:01 pm	Gah. Comedy of errors tonight trying to pick up the phantom-power box for the microphone -- turns out it needed an XLR->XLR cable, and all I've got is XLR->phono! Bum. Ah well, vocals and acoustic will have to wait till tomorrow. Tried redoing the "Circle Sky" bassline to make it meatier, but now I think I'll go to sleep early. Sleep is good. (Comment on this)
1:22 am	Adventures in field recording today -- borrowing a mic from Andrew, then popping over to Susie's place to record her violin part for "I'm Not A Singer". We threw in a couple of takes of it on piano as well. Unfortunately, the mic adapter was cactus -- we ended up having to record her using a headset mic clipped straight to the violin, and later shoved right into the piano! Fortunately, we got a good take out of it in the end, and I bought a new adapter for the mic when I took it home to do further recording. Only to find that the mic still needs phantom power, which my Mac lacks -- and without a mixer, my only alternative was to run it through the guitar amp. Which got some good volume, but no matter how I fiddled with it it still gave my vocals a tin-can processed effect. And not a good one. Sigh. Three-and-a-bit more working days till I have to put all this aside and go to Canberra; two sets of vocals and at least one acoustic guitar that I need to record with a decent mic... hope I can borrow Andrew's mixer for a bit! At least the bass part from last night for "Evening Star" sounds good. Though one of the guitar licks in the bridge sounds too Gary Glitter for my liking... In other news: I do believe it's just about a month since I recorded my first original (not counting Kyla's piece late last year). I'm astonished how much I've done... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
3:24 am	Urgh. Spent the evening laying down a new bass part for "Evening Star", after isolating the track and realizing just how hard it sucked. Then had a bitch of a time trying to get any volume out of the wretched thing without peaking and distorting; I'm not sure whether it's the amp or the cable that's flaking out. As for the result? Well, I'm not sure whether my playing is going to sound wonderfully grungy and aggressive, or clumsy and amateurish. And why did it take me sixty-two billion takes to try to get one little two-bar phrase right?!? Ah well, the Bad Session had to come eventually. Tomorrow I go cable-and-adapter-shopping, I guess... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
3:35 am	Spent the night fixing bass parts in both "Circle Sky" and "I'm Not A Singer" (and the tambourine in "Singer" too -- you were right, Adrian, there were a couple of hits that were way off). I've discovered that if I dub the bass after I've recorded the guitar, I tend to follow the guitar part rather than the drum / click track -- which compounds any bits of loose timing. Much easier to keep the tempo if I turn everything off but the drums! Also sent out the revised "Circle Sky" to some friends, as a tribute to Davy Jones. Man, Kate's singing really makes it a lot better than just me doing all the harmonies myself! Had an insight on a song I wrote back in '94 or so, called "I Can't Forget" (though, erm, I've forgotten part of it). If I slow it down a bit, I might be able to get a bit of that Climax Blues Band "Couldn't Get It Right" kind of groove. I'll try recording it, but it might require more funk than I can muster... then again, the Climax Blues Band could turned out to be a bunch of white British guys, so I suppose there's hope for me yet! (Comment on this)