My friend  _silent_star_ recently posted that there's not enough posts from her friends on LJ, and I heartily agree. So in reponse to her, I'm taking a little time out of what has really been a hectic couple of weeks.  If you have been posting recently, my thanks for keeping your friends in the loop, regardless of what you have been up to.

As for me, my time has been split between working at work and working at home...as it were, on some remix projects for a music label in Orange county.

Remixing projects have been a combination of fun and hard work. Nothing will teach you more about production than dealing with the issues that arise as a result of dealing with other people's music. That's not to say there's anything wrong with it, rather it's the process of dealing with issues related to timing or key of a piece, as opposed to it's artistic quality. And after a long day in the cube farm, the prospect of sitting in front of a mixing desk and starting at another monitor till the wee hours of the morning doesn't have a lot of appeal. Frankly, my health has been suffering a bit as a result. As I get deeper into various aspects of production, it's becoming apparent to me that I need to take some time and dedicate it to staying physically ok. The long hours slaving over groovy beats is definitely glamorous, but it comes with a price.

-- As a quick techincal aside, for those dj's and musicians that are interested, I'm using a combination of Ableton Live, with Logic as my main DAW.

In addition to the above, I was recently approached by someone to help them with some issues related to production. Said person shall remain nameless for now, but suffice it to say this is someone I hold in high regard, and I look forward to future developments more than ever.

Other Westside Record Crew members have finally broken into Beatport (which, incidentally, is a sign of success now - way to go RiSC!). This is a really exciting development. Brett Adams first single "Hear You" Seems to be doing well.
Please consider buying a track.

On the work front:
Life in the cube farm continues much this day as it always has, the little people scurrying to and fro, without so much as a a care for the outside world, for which I am extremely grateful. Watching my boss get pressured by his boss often makes me feel sorry, but hey that's life behind the corporate firewall, I guess.


Movie Reviews in One Sentence:

-- 9: I doubt that "Stitchpunk" will take off, but the animation is dazzling, and the story is charming.
-- Zombieland:  A must-see for fans of the zombie comedy schtick, optional for the rest of us.
-- Pandorum: Kind of an 'Aliens' meets 'Sphere' deal; space vampires meet the jittercam, good sci-fi if you are a fan.
-- Inglorious Bastards:  I don't know how 70's homage films became the rave, but an anti-nazi film about a pro-nazi film is avante garde (I guess.)
-- Surrogates: An interesting theme with a solid performance from Bruce Willis; great sci-fi, whether you're a fan or not.
-- Where the While Things Are - Spike Lee lives up to the hype by delivering a solid film with a lot of challenges.


Need to post about my chillits 2009 trip, will try to do that as soon as my photos are developed.

Workng working working... more to follow...keep posting people...

P.S. - henry rollins radio show on kcrw is like going to school (in a good way)

Once again, many apologies for the long delay in posts. I find that time spent riding my motorcycle around LA seems to have a higher return value than sitting in front of a computer.

I'll be adding photographic evidence of said trips here.

On the work front...
Despite the current software cycle, I’d by lying if I said I was as stressed as the same time last year. Our department has more staff, and I find that I don’t have to do everything to get all that I’m responsible for completed, which is nice. Today we are finishing up the majority of our beta testing, and our test-complete day is today. I can already feel the urge to take off early, suit up and put some more miles on the triumph. I’ve managed to keep the flow of data from our group to the management contained to a web site, which has really made things run much more smoothly.

In other news I haven’t really been posting too much about the events I’ve been to lately, mostly just by phone post. a quick re-cap:

- Doc Martin’s 25th anniversary of acid house with DJ Pierre was off the hook! amazing show.

Movie Reviews in One Sentence:

- Transformers -- The Ultimate Summer movie; Humor, Action, and Gigantic Explosions; very entertaining.
- Ratatouille  -- Another slam dunk by Pixar; Stunning animation, and a great story.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- The Darkest HP yet; pre-pubescent angst meets ultra-baddies; tweens shall swoon.
- Wizard of Gore -- Another dynamite performance by Crispen Glover, strange, twisted, and very LA.
- La Vie en Rose -- Ultra depressing and tremendously sad, a must for francophiles; a rental for the rest of us.


Hot Track: ”Behind the Moog” by The Girth - Theodore Girthkins telepathically summons another funky house banger on Funkfield
Cool Site: pownce.com - Kevin Rose (of digg) new project site