Today marks the first time in over three weeks that I've had staff duty. For those who don't speak military, staff duty is a one-day position where you sit at a desk in Headquarters, answer the phones and kiss up to your chain of command. When I say one day, I mean one ENTIRE day: the duty lasts 24 hours and you have to stay awake the entire time.
Needless to say, there's a very good chance that I'll be posting drivel tomorrow morning when I get off work, so be forewarned.
Some of you have heard that Jon Stanka and I have started a production company called Soundgruve. I'll expand a bit more on the company in the next few weeks, but here's a quick overview: we're going to be a full-fledged music production company, with services ranging from actual in-studio recording and production all the way to photography and web development. The concept for the company is to provide artists and bands with a one-stop solution to recording, releasing and marketing an album. Instead of building our own studio, we made an arrangement with my Dad (and Faith West Church) to take over the current studio there. We are keeping virtually none of the gear they've got and are replacing it with some incredible, incredible gear, and that process has currently started.
So, here's an update on how things are going with the company.
Jon and Tiffany are painting the studio this week. We've been using this studio for several years now, but since we were just guests, we always used it as it was. Now that we're running it and are going to be spending a large part of our daily lives in there, we took a long, hard look at everything that needed to be improved upon, fixed, abandoned or built. Painting the rooms was the most obvious choice outside of gear; the walls were painted with a bright white, which, while cheap, certainly doesn't make it easier on the musicians who have to spend hours upon hours laying down tracks in there. We opted for a really awesome combo of a muted, earthy green, a vibrant dark red and a neutral tan color. The green and red are used for accent walls while the tan color takes up most of the space.
I've seen a few pictures Jon took from his cameraphone, and the place looks incredible. Jon's supposed to be sending me a few better-quality pictures tonight when they get done working, so I'll post them on here whenever they come in.
We're also re-doing most of the lighting, opting to use lamps with soft bulbs instead of the current brilliant white overhead lights. We'll keep the overhead fixtures in place for load-in and setup times, but I have a feeling that most musicians (if they're anything like me, at least) will want to use the ambient lighting we'll provide.
So, the studio is coming along nicely. We purchased our webserver from Media Temple yesterday as well, so we'll begin the process of moving the official Soundgruve site (along with our personal sites) to that server tomorrow. I think Jon is planning on picking up our console desk on Friday, and our first client sessions begin on Saturday. Things are moving right along; we haven't even started advertising Soundgruve yet (outside of friends and family) and we're already getting bookings, so things look to be moving about like we thought they would. Given that I'll be making the jump from the Army to a job where I'm helping run the company and can mostly set my own hours, everything looks exciting.
I've told some of you about another job I'll be holding down come January as well. I can't reveal details just yet, but I can tell you that a major blog network has hired me to become the Managing Editor of a new music blog focused on up and coming bands. I'll be on salary and bonus incentives, but I'll be writing about music for a living and that's a pretty amazing feeling. Not only will I be writing about it, but I'll be producing it as well, and it feels like I'm living a dream come through.
If all goes well, I'll be out of the Army one month from now. That, friends, is a reason to celebrate like none other. I've already moved 99% of my personal belongings back to Houston, cleaned all my gear, and am basically living out of a backpack with just enough clothes to get me by until the next time I wash, which is becoming more and more frequent.
You know, it's two days after Thanksgiving and I'm still in an eating mood. I don't know if that says something about the nature of the holiday season this year (since I'm getting out of the Army in a month) or the nature of me needing to go on a diet and stop eating like it's going out of style tomorrow.
Sufjan's Christmas stuff is on the iTunes, I've got a belly full of food, I've taken two naps today, and I'm getting ready to sit back with the family and watch a movie. Oh, and I successfully avoided all Black Friday sales despite a trip to Walmart and the grocery store.
What comedian makes you pee your pants laughing?
Submitted by pookieb.
There's only two comedians that make me laugh hard, and one of them isn't even a real comedian. Sasha Baron Cohen doesn't qualify as your standard comedian, but he's funnier, more subversive and a whole lot more brilliant than just about everyone else out there.
My all-time favorite, laugh-out-loud comedian would be Mitch Hedberg. It's a real shame he couldn't get his issues together, because he's hysterical and the world truly misses his unique brand of comedy.
What's your favorite radio station, past or present?
I don't really have a favorite radio station. I've never been a huge radio listener, instead choosing to either purchase my own music or make playlists to listen to. And hey, I'm not just saying this because it's the cool thing to do; I could never stand regular radio stations because of all the advertisements.
When I *do* listen to radio, it's of the talk variety. 610 Sports in Houston is a pretty good choice.
