Partial to Grey

The return of Newton

I've spent the month of April with the boil covered  cock of the cosmos balls deep in my unappreciative ass. I've wanted to post here, but I haven't seen a point in typing up a bunch of bitching and whining. Well, at least not unless I could throw in an unusual perspective or a little humor... thus nothing much of late.

So, to heaven with all of that.

We've moved Newton from beneath the deck in response to spring. Currently he resides beneath a crabapple tree in our back yard. Christina tells me that he'll stay there for a couple of days while he acclimates, then he'll be moved to his usual spot.

Last year when I posted about him, we were working ridiculous hours in support of the Katrina/Rita/Wilma=Katrilma disasters. Consequently we couldn't get a good photo of the guy, because we departed and returned in the dark. This time Christina took some pix. Yay!

He's already poppin' figs!

I typed earlier that I wasn't going to bitch and whine, and I'm going to stick to that... but I suppose I should provide an update about the Babble-on forums for those who are checking this site for updates. I'm still working on the code whenever I can snag a moment. I had nearly finished it when I was hit by another unexpected and wholly unnecessary hurdle. It may be another week before the boards are back, but I am working on them and they will return as soon as I can get them updated. As of now, nothing was lost, all of the existing posts remain.

Where's the Monkey been?

So, see, I fell asleep reading a MySQL book on Sunday night, pillows askew and book on my chest a mere inches from Lil' Elvis who was reading along. I woke up on Monday morning with an annoying crick in my neck - an added bonus for my scheduled Monday morning dentist appointment.

I made it through the dental visit; it was only a cleaning and a checkup (no cavities!). It was rainy and cool and kinda sexy out, but the weather wasn't doing my neck any good. By Monday afternoon I was stiff, sore and feeling rather lousy despite my freshly cleaned and cavity-free choppers. I went to bed early Monday evening.

By Tuesday morning I wasn't quite in a physical misery yet, but I could feel the possibility of its onset. I hooked up with a buddy of mine on Tuesday evening, he's been working on some of my guitars and he took an old piece of crap Telecaster that I've been using as a wall ornament for years and turned it into a bloody gem, but that is another story. By then I was in quite a bit of pain. Sadly a familiar pain as I am prone to back troubles (one would think that my front would be the culprit for my most common troubles).

I spent Wednesday and Thursday lying about, stoned out of my gourd on pain killers and muscle relaxants wishing I could have a drink (can't mix Booze with the pills). There is no foreseeable chance of my ever becoming addicted to pharmaceuticals, because I don't like 'em. I like Booze. My drinkin' saves lives, pills just make me want to die on a toilet like the real king.

Each day I had a few hours as one cycle of pills wore off, before the pain became unbearable and the next cycle of pills would begin. I used those hours to work on the Babble-on message boards. I'm making progress, slowly but surely.

Today, I'm in the office at the day-gig, a little sore, a little stiff, with that weird sensation one gets after a couple of days on the pills. Pyucky. But I'm feeling better, nonetheless!

I thought it was about time that I tossed out a note of explanation.

Babble-on will be back soon, hopefully before this time next week!

Little to tell, really.

As I was lathering the Jordanaires at O-dark-thirty this morning it dawned on me that I should probably post an update despite the absence of interesting news.

Two main issues have consumed my time and attention lately aside from the usual burdens of day to day subsistence. These issues are the status of the SanityCheck.net Babble-on forums and the upgrade of my studio.

I originally slated myself two weeks for my studio upgrade with the un-verbalized hope that I would actually finish it in a single week. Five weeks later I finally made some progress this past weekend. My studio is set up to be fairly modular with my main goals being the ability to accomplish any task by myself (it is difficult to multi-track acoustic drums, for example, while engineering the recording but my studio is set up to accomodate just that) and to simply facilitate inspiration to fruition. That is I try to make my studio a comfortable creative environment, so that I can hop onto the back of an idea and ride it all the way to the corral. This means an arsenal of diverse instruments within easy reach with a means of recording those instruments simultaneously close at hand. Much of my gear was upgraded during the winter, but I hadn't upgraded my main studio PC in quite some time. In fact I waited until pretty much the last possible minute for that task. Finally, once I started bottle-necking my main studio computer at the processor I knew it was time.

I elected to upgrade my Sony Vaio to the newest model and to swap out my audio interface for a new model with more inputs and outputs. I had decided to add a ninth microphone to my drum kit, thus requiring one input more than I had. After several weeks of working through the nightmare of Windows based software migration I ultimately decided to revert to my original audio interface while awaiting some rather serious advancements in the drivers for my newly purchased hardware. Big damned sigh. But I finally managed to get everything working smoothly this past weekend (sans the new audio interface).

On the other front, last week, my web host encountered a bunch of different issues and SanityCheck.net was down for three full days. I had no email, nothing. I was lying dead on the side of the information super highway(s). Upon its return, I lost my mySQL database for Babble-on. Finally I was forced to face the fact that I needed to upgrade the (much modified) phpBB code for the forums. I have been working on this and I hope to have a far more secure version of Babble-on back online by the end of next week. Fingers crossed.

At least 85% of my socializing is done through Babble-on. Right now, I'm suffering serious "board withdrawls".

So, my nose is to the grindstone, and progress is being made, but there is currently little to show for it. In the meantime, if you haven't done so, check out South Mountain Magic! At least check out the 45 minutes worth of free downloads!

Grin.

Babble-on-Off

The ever-active Babble-on forums at SanityCheck.net have been taken offline for a long overdue upgrade to the message-board code. Christina and I do all of our web design and development by hand, so it takes considerable time.

The boards probably won't be back online for a week or so.

The rest of the site(s) should continue to be accessible while we work on the forums.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

 

A New KASS!!

There's a new episode of the Ken & Squip Show online!

On Halloween 2005 Kenster J. and Beautiful Cindy the Squipper posted their one year anniversary extravaganza. It was their 32nd podcast and it was a 90 minute blow-out celebrating a year long exploration of a medium that was barely a year old itself. If you've never listened to KASS, the anniversary blowout is a great introduction, methinks.

On New Year's eve, Ken and Squip posted a brief six minute update recorded on a park bench in New York City that helped us dedicated fans ring in the new year. Since then they've taken a much deserved hiatus.

The new show is just about a half-hour long and, for the most part, is Ken flying solo as I understand Cindy has been quite busy. Ken put together a new show in celebration of Squip's twenty-ninth birthday. Cool birthday wish, methinks!

Ken is fantastic, funny, and masterful behind the mic. He tells a bunch of funny stories involving burst nipples, Natalie Merchant and a coked-out troll of a DJ, and his preternatural insight into the truth about the Higginbothams. But towards the end of the show he plays a bit that he and Cindy recorded previously that had not yet been podcast. In the bit he and Squip take the KASS-copter in a fly-over to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Radio Clash podcast. It is typically hysterical Ken & Squip. The kind of stuff that once nearly caused me to fall off of a ladder, and another time caused me to nearly drive a riding lawn mower into a satellite dish. Funny stuff!

Listening to the show, in part hosted by a solo and entertaining Kenster J followed by a portion featuring both the Kenster and Beautiful-Cindy made it apparent how brilliant and wonderful the chemistry between Ken and Squip truly is. It is something vaporous that cannot be easily defined or pin-pointed, is is simply a matter of chemistry. Ken and Cindy are two of the coolest people I've ever been fortunate enough to encounter, they are gracious, engaging, caring, damned-intelligent and funny as hell. But this particular show - which I enjoyed (twice) from beginning to end - clearly illustrates the real magic that makes the Ken & Squip show one of the best podcasts ever - the chemistry between two funny and talented individuals.

I am overjoyed to have a new episode of The Ken & Squip Show!

"I see your hiney!"

SanityCheck.net down

My main website - SanityCheck.net - has been down (or bouncing) since yesterday morning. As I currently understand things, my webhost is working through emergency software upgrades. As a result my website(s), online store and the Babble-on forums have been inaccessible. I can't even check my primary email addresses. It figures; we just put the new SCM Online Store up last Tuesday.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Update: 12 April 2006 - Approx. 0900 -

Everything is still down. Update in the comments for this post.

The look was priceless

I'm having a receiving hitch installed on my car. I wish I had a video of the facial expression on the cat behind the counter at the joint that is doing the work on my cruiser when I said:

"Yo dawg! Brokeback my ride!"

It was priceless.

South Mountain Magic Released!

The audio CD version of the original score for South Mountain Magic is finally available!

South Mountain Magic (SMM) is a motion picture written, directed, edited and helmed by Dave Dull for Maryland's Antietam Cable. It is based upon a book - of the same name - by Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, originally published in 1882. The movie version of SMM aired on Antietam Cable throughout September and October 2005.

The DVD version of the movie has been available for purchase for $24.95 directly from Antietam Cable since January 2006.

As of today the Audio CD version of the soundtrack recording is available for $9.99 from both CDBaby.com and the newly rebuilt SanityCheck.net Online Store. We are offering both the audio CD and a DVD/CD combo pack (for a reduced price) at SanityCheck.net.

It is always difficult to describe music with words; music is a language unto itself. Further that, I am quite inept at describing music with words. With that caveate in mind I've taken to describing the SMM soundtrack as a quasi-orchestral motion-picture score comprised of Appalachian instruments and Native American instruments as well as traditional orchestral instruments. I'd go on babblin' about it here, but that would be redundant because I've created a web page for the CD at SanityCheck.net.

Over the years I've created a great deal of diverse music. I am very proud of this recording and I've been surprised and quite pleased to discover that far more people than I ever would have expected enjoy this CD. However I do not want people to purchase this CD only to find that it isn't what they were expecting. Consequently I've made more than half of the music on this CD available for free download at SanityCheck.net!

This album took me a very long time to create - well over a year. This recording is the primary reason that I do not have an entry in my personal discography for 2005. I have never created any piece of music with more instruments, tracks or a comparable arrangement. It took a great deal of time, but I tweaked absolutely everything about it until I was completely satisfied with it. In short, I'm proud of this record and for those who are interested in my musical endeavors, I hope you enjoy the music.

As is not uncommon, I want to thank Christina for working extensively with me to prepare the distribution, business and web site(s) for this release! I couldn't do it without her. Special thanks as well to Dave Dull, without whom this recording would not exist.

Mac's little helper

I hereby deem this cool!

I'm both a Mac and a Windows user. I also work regularly on Linux and Unix boxes. After many years of disliking Macs (I still think OS 9 was a horrid OS) I was completely seduced by OS X and its BSD underbelly.

Most current Mac users know that problems on a Mac are few and far between, but when they act up, they act up hard. Presumably because a problem has to be rather severe to stop a Mac from working. That is a mixed blessing, on the one hand, it is great that you can rely on a computer in such a fashion. On the other hand, when a Mac begins to give you difficulties it usually means there is a serious problem.

Often Micromat is the company to turn to when a Mac goes cheney (begins cursing in public and shooting its friends while its innards sputter).

I think I'll be purchasing this little device. Aw jeah, I deem it cool.