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)

Back at work after a pretty fun weekend.

Friday - Saw Bassnectar at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood and saw a slice of culture I hadn't seen before; the burner/indie crowd. They weren't burners, not indie, but somewhere in the middle. An interesting demographic to say the least.

Saturday - Spent time in the studio with djrisc, working on a remix project.

Sunday - took some quality downtime, re-adjusting to life Post OODE; watched some hockey, and installed some new audio filter apps for the production computer.


Movie Reviews in One Sentence:

-- Star Trek:  J.J. Abrams delivers a hot young and sexy star trek.
-- X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Another X-men flick on par with the original.
-- Monsters Vs. Aliens: Nice Dreamworks animation with great performance by Reese Witherspoon; good flick!
-- Terminator: Salvation: A great summer blockbuster film, lots of action, and a plot that holds up.
-- UP: Pixar doesn't make bad films; strait up, the best movie of the year so far.

Blatant Promotion:
I'm taking a quick second to pimp my brother's beer blog... if you take your beer seriously, it may be worth a read.

New Mixes:
I've posted some new sets up on my mix page:
Poolside 2009 -- deep/tech house for your summer lounging needs
Sawtooth Symphony -- A collection of this and that with an uptempo electro feel.
Enjoy.

Yes, yes, I know it’s been a long time. I’ve been quietly pondering how to break such a long and extended silence except to say that it’s over.  I missed the initial January ’07 year recaps, but I’ll try my best to sum up what’s been going on so far.

On the work front…

Work kept me pretty slammed all the way up to around feb of this year, which made it the most intense development cycle I’ve been through.

I thought that work would have let up a bit, but it seems that my responsibilities have expanded to a year-round tracking of our product’s performance. This being quite the laborious task, I’ve been given the opportunity to delegate some of my duties to other team members.

I was quite proud to have helped launch a new product for the company I worked for, which quickly won several editor’s choice awards. I must admit that was pretty cool, considering all the hard work that went into it.

I’m enjoying a bit of a respite for now, but we are already gearing up for the ’08 products. It’s been truly busy, but very rewarding.

In other areas, the SoCal weather has finally begun to break and the warmer days are coming back. This winter was colder and wetter than last ( I can hear my PDX posse laughing from here). Nevertheless, I’ve rapidly become addicted to the warm weather that LA has to offer.

I took a few limited trips, principally up to SF to DJ at one of the Cloudfactory gatherings… CloudHouse. My thanks to msmeliss for the booking engagement. SF really reminds me of Portland in so many ways it’s disturbing. It has definitely got me thinking of looking for work up there, however, see previous paragraph to address any possible misgivings I might have.

DJ RiSC is back in the Broadcast booth, as he is now under consignment with eve-radio. You can check out the details of his broadcast at DJ Risc's Westside Records Page.  You can check his fly sounds out Friday nights from 8-11 PST.

Cool Site: CueFlash - Make your own flashcards...interesting concept.
Cool Media: DataDreamer.com Project 2 - interesting sequencer/flash thingy