The View From The Drey
- Thread starter The Squirrel
- Start date
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
@The Squirrel, your name appears 11 times on this Wikipedia page. I think you need your own now.
Chapeau!
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I didn't attend. I stopped going in 2001. I've been nursing this head cold so my Grammy events were napping, eating lentil soup and going to bed after Bob's Burgers.
If I did go, I might have. There's the general after awards party, but each of the labels has a separate party. Beyoncé and I work for the same company in different capacities.
Last edited:
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Thanks. Yeah, working on old music is my wheelhouse and I work for a company that has the most amazing back catalog. It's almost like fishing in a bucket. There's a bunch on that list pre-1996 that I worked on, but didn't get nominated for because engineers weren't included before then.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Test.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Test 2
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Besides being sick, I've been juggling geese for a while at work and home. I thought I'd make a quick post which has nothing to do with anything just to bump the thread. I swear I'll get back at it soon.
Lookie there, I got an image to upload!
די וועווערקע
Lookie there, I got an image to upload!
די וועווערקע
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
I am not of the tribe, so all bets are off. For me, shellfish is still a no-no.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Sí, sono lo scoiattolo in tutte le lingue!
I've been studying Italian on duolingo for the past year and change. I've been dreaming about retiring to Italy. It's an interesting diversion, but what I really need right now is a good Japanese course and duolingo doesn't have that.
I've been studying Italian on duolingo for the past year and change. I've been dreaming about retiring to Italy. It's an interesting diversion, but what I really need right now is a good Japanese course and duolingo doesn't have that.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Since I haven’t really posted in a while I’m going to go back a few weeks….
Things were going well on the trainer, but almost 2 months into the New Year and I hadn’t racked up a single foot of climbing. This was a concern considering I had signed up for the Sourlands Semi-Classic. Then, I caught the damn head cold. I decided to force myself off the bike to recover so I brought my road bike to Jalapeno Cycling for a tune-up. After a week of sleeping late I picked up my bike. Andrew did an amazing job on my bike. It hasn’t ridden like this…ever! Not even when it was new. The cold moved to my throat, which is where it currently resides. My lungs feel raw when I’m outside and breathing hard. So, with all that in mind I decided to do my “hills” ride to see if I was ready for the climbing to come at SSC. This ride tackles a bunch of the steep hills between Jersey City and Fort Lee. It’s basically just going up and down the cliff of the Palisades. They’re not long, but a bunch of them are very steep. Considering I hadn’t done this ride for more than a few months, I did great and felt good about SSC.
SSC sucked. I felt like crap. It was cold and windy. I was tempted just to throw the bike in the ditch and take up running, which I’m not good at either. I didn’t. Yet.
Work and home have gotten really crazy. I’m not getting the sleep I need. I only have time to write this post because I was suppose to work all weekend (I almost never work on the weekends), but they just can’t put a bow on this project so I have a reprieve until next weekend. So, I see the impact this is having on my training. I’m just missing the mark and bailing on some of the workouts. Now I can swear this same thing happened to me last year. I don’t want to lose that lovely training glow that I had at the beginning of the year, but I see myself sliding down the same slope. It's time to reset and see where all this goes.
Wet Studio Story #1
I was starting to get good at what I do and with that came more challenges. This session had its personal challenges. It was a big band recording and it would be recorded live in the studio. What this means is there’s no going back and fixing bad mixes. If a musician messed up then they would have to record the piece or a section again and then edit it together. The group was the Widespread Depression Jazz Orchestra, an ensemble I knew nothing about and have heard little of since. The engineer was a “name”, someone who gained a certain reputation and was trying to ride that for as long as possible. These people tend not to be fun to hang around because their egos fill the space and it becomes suffocating.
As requested, the studio was set up so the band formed a “V” with the point farthest away from the control room. Everyone would be on platforms about 6” above the floor. This is an odd set-up for such a group, but hey, what did I know. When the engineer arrived he had his own box of microphones. They were familiar, but odd to me because they all had some funny wrappings around them as well as a power cord. He tells me that this “proprietary” modification was so the microphones would be at the correct temperature and humidity to capture the sound perfectly. In my head I call B.S. and it’s something I had never heard of or seen since. Unprepared, I ran to the hardware store to pick up tons of extension cords to make this odd set-up work. Everything comes together nicely, mics are warming up, machines are set and the engineer is happy.
The band starts showing up and working through the charts. Little did we know 4 floors above us there was a “situation.” It seems a resident of the building had medication issues. While drawing a bath this resident went into panic mode and hid. As the apartment below started to receive the overflow of the still filling tub, the neighbors started to bang on the apartment door. The resident is now under the bed in fear of her life. As the water goes down another floor the fire department is called (why they didn’t kill the water to the building I still don’t know) to knock down the door.
I’m sure you can figure out what’s about to happen. What always struck me about this story were the timing and the drama because the ceiling was 40’.
Everyone is prepared for the live recording. The tension is high. I’m instructed to start the tape machines and as the conductor counts the very first take the ceiling gives way on the first beat and a pool load of water fall 40’ right into the middle of the “V”, almost taking out the conductor. Instinct kicks in. Knowing there’s a mile of A.C. on the floor I run to the power panel and kill the mains.
It’s pitch black in a ballroom-sized space. I have 20 musicians with valuable instruments wailing like they’re stuck on the Titanic while it’s going down. Water is still falling from the ceiling, just not as much and a room full of specially heated microphones, which (hehehe) are now ruined.
The rest of my day was spent escorting each musician out like a theatre usher with a flashlight and mopping up the mess.
Bonus Sorta Wet Studio Story #2
Most of the time, I'm not phased by the artists who I work with. I formed this opinion early on when I was working with with a famous 80's British New Wave artist while he was in his prime. I happened to cross paths with him at the rest room. He's coming out, I'm going in...and at that moment it dawns on me that they're all human. So here I am almost twenty years later and I find out that I'm mastering an album for a 70's singer/songwriter. She's older than me, but during those important years of my life I had a total crush on her. So, I'm transported back and I'm a little besides myself about that fact that she'll be attending. On top of that, this is the biggest record of my career to date.
I start the session with the producer. We're about 2 hours into the session and she blows as if she's levitating and just lays down on my couch. O.M.G!!! The session comes to a crashing halt as she tells us about her life and this new book that her psychiatrist wrote. She seemed quite proud of the fact that there were three chapters written about her (or she thought). As we got back on track everything was going well and she was just so pleasant. The session ended well and she blew out just like she blew in. It was late, I wanted to celebrate and a close co-worker was still at the studio, so we decided to go up the block and throw back a few.
As I got back to the studio the receptionist handed me a phone message from the artist. Even though it was late, I became concerned that there was something wrong so I called her immediately. She was so nice on the phone and very chatty, which struck me as odd. She asked me what the first single was. Now, NO ONE has ever asked me this before or since, so I was a little off balance. It's not like I don't have an opinion about things like this, but I'm not forming them while I'm working. She seemed very annoyed about my lack of opinion, but I recovered by offering to listen and sharing my answer in the morning. She specifically asked me to call at 11am.
I came back early the next morning, listened to the entire record twice and prepared for the call. 11am I called ready for a good discussion with my teenage fantasy. We went back and forth for almost an hour about the merits of each tune and how to convince the record company to change their mind about what they thought was the first hit on the album (it ended up there was none).
It's almost noon and she says "I have to get out of the TUB now, the movers are here, bye". The TUB!!!
This ranks very high on the weirdest 24 hours of my life list.
We never spoke again.
Things were going well on the trainer, but almost 2 months into the New Year and I hadn’t racked up a single foot of climbing. This was a concern considering I had signed up for the Sourlands Semi-Classic. Then, I caught the damn head cold. I decided to force myself off the bike to recover so I brought my road bike to Jalapeno Cycling for a tune-up. After a week of sleeping late I picked up my bike. Andrew did an amazing job on my bike. It hasn’t ridden like this…ever! Not even when it was new. The cold moved to my throat, which is where it currently resides. My lungs feel raw when I’m outside and breathing hard. So, with all that in mind I decided to do my “hills” ride to see if I was ready for the climbing to come at SSC. This ride tackles a bunch of the steep hills between Jersey City and Fort Lee. It’s basically just going up and down the cliff of the Palisades. They’re not long, but a bunch of them are very steep. Considering I hadn’t done this ride for more than a few months, I did great and felt good about SSC.
SSC sucked. I felt like crap. It was cold and windy. I was tempted just to throw the bike in the ditch and take up running, which I’m not good at either. I didn’t. Yet.
Work and home have gotten really crazy. I’m not getting the sleep I need. I only have time to write this post because I was suppose to work all weekend (I almost never work on the weekends), but they just can’t put a bow on this project so I have a reprieve until next weekend. So, I see the impact this is having on my training. I’m just missing the mark and bailing on some of the workouts. Now I can swear this same thing happened to me last year. I don’t want to lose that lovely training glow that I had at the beginning of the year, but I see myself sliding down the same slope. It's time to reset and see where all this goes.
Wet Studio Story #1
I was starting to get good at what I do and with that came more challenges. This session had its personal challenges. It was a big band recording and it would be recorded live in the studio. What this means is there’s no going back and fixing bad mixes. If a musician messed up then they would have to record the piece or a section again and then edit it together. The group was the Widespread Depression Jazz Orchestra, an ensemble I knew nothing about and have heard little of since. The engineer was a “name”, someone who gained a certain reputation and was trying to ride that for as long as possible. These people tend not to be fun to hang around because their egos fill the space and it becomes suffocating.
As requested, the studio was set up so the band formed a “V” with the point farthest away from the control room. Everyone would be on platforms about 6” above the floor. This is an odd set-up for such a group, but hey, what did I know. When the engineer arrived he had his own box of microphones. They were familiar, but odd to me because they all had some funny wrappings around them as well as a power cord. He tells me that this “proprietary” modification was so the microphones would be at the correct temperature and humidity to capture the sound perfectly. In my head I call B.S. and it’s something I had never heard of or seen since. Unprepared, I ran to the hardware store to pick up tons of extension cords to make this odd set-up work. Everything comes together nicely, mics are warming up, machines are set and the engineer is happy.
The band starts showing up and working through the charts. Little did we know 4 floors above us there was a “situation.” It seems a resident of the building had medication issues. While drawing a bath this resident went into panic mode and hid. As the apartment below started to receive the overflow of the still filling tub, the neighbors started to bang on the apartment door. The resident is now under the bed in fear of her life. As the water goes down another floor the fire department is called (why they didn’t kill the water to the building I still don’t know) to knock down the door.
I’m sure you can figure out what’s about to happen. What always struck me about this story were the timing and the drama because the ceiling was 40’.
Everyone is prepared for the live recording. The tension is high. I’m instructed to start the tape machines and as the conductor counts the very first take the ceiling gives way on the first beat and a pool load of water fall 40’ right into the middle of the “V”, almost taking out the conductor. Instinct kicks in. Knowing there’s a mile of A.C. on the floor I run to the power panel and kill the mains.
It’s pitch black in a ballroom-sized space. I have 20 musicians with valuable instruments wailing like they’re stuck on the Titanic while it’s going down. Water is still falling from the ceiling, just not as much and a room full of specially heated microphones, which (hehehe) are now ruined.
The rest of my day was spent escorting each musician out like a theatre usher with a flashlight and mopping up the mess.
Bonus Sorta Wet Studio Story #2
Most of the time, I'm not phased by the artists who I work with. I formed this opinion early on when I was working with with a famous 80's British New Wave artist while he was in his prime. I happened to cross paths with him at the rest room. He's coming out, I'm going in...and at that moment it dawns on me that they're all human. So here I am almost twenty years later and I find out that I'm mastering an album for a 70's singer/songwriter. She's older than me, but during those important years of my life I had a total crush on her. So, I'm transported back and I'm a little besides myself about that fact that she'll be attending. On top of that, this is the biggest record of my career to date.
I start the session with the producer. We're about 2 hours into the session and she blows as if she's levitating and just lays down on my couch. O.M.G!!! The session comes to a crashing halt as she tells us about her life and this new book that her psychiatrist wrote. She seemed quite proud of the fact that there were three chapters written about her (or she thought). As we got back on track everything was going well and she was just so pleasant. The session ended well and she blew out just like she blew in. It was late, I wanted to celebrate and a close co-worker was still at the studio, so we decided to go up the block and throw back a few.
As I got back to the studio the receptionist handed me a phone message from the artist. Even though it was late, I became concerned that there was something wrong so I called her immediately. She was so nice on the phone and very chatty, which struck me as odd. She asked me what the first single was. Now, NO ONE has ever asked me this before or since, so I was a little off balance. It's not like I don't have an opinion about things like this, but I'm not forming them while I'm working. She seemed very annoyed about my lack of opinion, but I recovered by offering to listen and sharing my answer in the morning. She specifically asked me to call at 11am.
I came back early the next morning, listened to the entire record twice and prepared for the call. 11am I called ready for a good discussion with my teenage fantasy. We went back and forth for almost an hour about the merits of each tune and how to convince the record company to change their mind about what they thought was the first hit on the album (it ended up there was none).
It's almost noon and she says "I have to get out of the TUB now, the movers are here, bye". The TUB!!!
This ranks very high on the weirdest 24 hours of my life list.
We never spoke again.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
I've been battling with my body fat % for a while. My Dr. tells me that I need to be below 10% for my disease reversal to be truly effective. I've been as low as 7%, but recently it's crept up a bit. More than a bit, actually. Today, I was at 14%.
In an effort to see the flaws in my eating patterns, I'm going to document a weeks worth of eating. This week will be my picture journal. Let's see if I can get my number down.
Monday:
You've seen my breakfast before, but here it is again:
My usual smoothie, bowl of oats and breakfast bar. The smoothie has a heaping teaspoon of almond butter added to it from the recipe earlier in the thread. The oats have a heaping teaspoon of chia and hemp and DHA/EPA. The mug has saline for my morning neti pot. This will be the last of my breakfast shots for the week because they'll all look the same.
My lunch was a salad with carrots, pepper, walnuts, raisins and a squeeze of lemon. I'm only ever drinking water or green/herbal tea.
What I didn't have after lunch. Good squirrel.
This is Wet Jollof Rice with root vegetables. It's a tweak from a Bryant Terry recipe. I went a little bat $hit with the pepper flakes. I was still a little hungry, so I had a small bowl of leftovers as well:
This is what was left of the Southwest stew we had on Friday.
d'Schéier
In an effort to see the flaws in my eating patterns, I'm going to document a weeks worth of eating. This week will be my picture journal. Let's see if I can get my number down.
Monday:
You've seen my breakfast before, but here it is again:
My usual smoothie, bowl of oats and breakfast bar. The smoothie has a heaping teaspoon of almond butter added to it from the recipe earlier in the thread. The oats have a heaping teaspoon of chia and hemp and DHA/EPA. The mug has saline for my morning neti pot. This will be the last of my breakfast shots for the week because they'll all look the same.
My lunch was a salad with carrots, pepper, walnuts, raisins and a squeeze of lemon. I'm only ever drinking water or green/herbal tea.
What I didn't have after lunch. Good squirrel.
This is Wet Jollof Rice with root vegetables. It's a tweak from a Bryant Terry recipe. I went a little bat $hit with the pepper flakes. I was still a little hungry, so I had a small bowl of leftovers as well:
This is what was left of the Southwest stew we had on Friday.
d'Schéier
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
That's called "chili".
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Tuesday:
My snow day started with an hour ride on the trainer.
Breakfast...See above.
Lunch:
A (out of focus) bowl of black bean quinoa soup and
A salad with sunflower seeds, currants and a home made salad dressing.
Snack:
This was my little treat for all the shoveling I did.
toasted walnut, banana, chocolate sourdough and a mint tea.
Dinner:
couscous and currents with butternut squash and Romanesco.
Okere
My snow day started with an hour ride on the trainer.
Breakfast...See above.
Lunch:
A (out of focus) bowl of black bean quinoa soup and
A salad with sunflower seeds, currants and a home made salad dressing.
Snack:
This was my little treat for all the shoveling I did.
toasted walnut, banana, chocolate sourdough and a mint tea.
Dinner:
couscous and currents with butternut squash and Romanesco.
Okere
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Mi dispiace.
It's been a little over the top at home and work. I have a ton of food and plumbing repair images that I just haven't had the time to post.
Here's a quick one:
Guns were always a big issue at the studio. Before the off duty police used to wand everyone at night there were quite often rival posses working in the different rooms and everyone was packin'. One night, Cash Money was in studio A. The assistant on the session was a small, middle aged woman. Well, this session quickly got out of control and everyone in the building started to become concerned. As usual, there were drugs, and hookers and guns. The overnight manager calls the VP and tells him what's going on. The VP asks to be transferred into the session to talk with the assistant. This is a joke as it is because the sound level in these sessions is always paint peeling loud. So, he gets the assistant and asks what's going on. She explains the situation. He then asks if she's OK and she replies "Oh, I don't think they'll kill me, I'm the only one who knows how to operate the console". He then proceeds to hang up.
I'll catch up soon, I swear.
It's been a little over the top at home and work. I have a ton of food and plumbing repair images that I just haven't had the time to post.
Here's a quick one:
Guns were always a big issue at the studio. Before the off duty police used to wand everyone at night there were quite often rival posses working in the different rooms and everyone was packin'. One night, Cash Money was in studio A. The assistant on the session was a small, middle aged woman. Well, this session quickly got out of control and everyone in the building started to become concerned. As usual, there were drugs, and hookers and guns. The overnight manager calls the VP and tells him what's going on. The VP asks to be transferred into the session to talk with the assistant. This is a joke as it is because the sound level in these sessions is always paint peeling loud. So, he gets the assistant and asks what's going on. She explains the situation. He then asks if she's OK and she replies "Oh, I don't think they'll kill me, I'm the only one who knows how to operate the console". He then proceeds to hang up.
I'll catch up soon, I swear.