1. Springtime is the time for concerts. Hangman's played a great show a couple of weeks ago with our friends Radio Control and Sad Red; the next night Sarah and I saw AIR at Berklee (which was phenomenal, with psychedelic visuals and a wall of electronic and organic sounds being generated solely by the two band members and their drummer.) Then ( Read more... )

1. Just got back from a lovely work retreat this evening. It started off inauspiciously; I got to work Monday morning at 7:30, with aim to catch a bus to Prindle Pond in Charlton, MA by 8. As it turned out, there were some disasters waiting for me that required about three hours of my attention, so I missed the bus and ended up driving myself and ( Read more... )

1. I wrote another game review for IGN: 2005's PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus. It's interesting how one develops a more critical eye for things when they know they'll plan on reviewing it afterwards. Next up: started "Metal Gear Solid 4" last night ( Read more... )

I've been reading David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas," on the recommendations of spicyleesh and others. It's the first easily digestible postmodern fiction book I've read; the story begins with the diary of a notary taking passage from Australia to California in the mid-19th century, then abruptly breaks off mid-sentence to chronicle the letters of an arrogant ( Read more... )

Overall, a very enjoyable weekend. I worked a bit late on Friday, but afterwards Sarah and her friend Erika and I went out for sushi -- and it's always nice when it's more than just the two of us, because we end up ordering more kinds of rolls and end up trying new things. We then watched the end of the 17-1 rout that the Sox handed the Yankees ( ( Read more... )

It was a good weekend for music. Between Thursday night and Friday, Chris, Thom, and I mixed three more songs for the [bert] record -- meaning we basically have one song left to mix, and then this fucker is done. Two and a half years in the making, we've been working on this record longer than I've been dating Sarah. Friday night we drank beers ( Read more... )

Shanghai gamer killed over virtual property dispute. This is even worse than the events depicted in the 2002 docu-drama, Rape at Animal CrossingDid another ten-hour day in the studio yesterday, eight of which I spent tracking guitar. I've got three of the eight songs done, including the most difficult, "Valentinnitus." We're heading in again on ( Read more... )

Recording on the Shark & Bear record continues. We finished all the bass and got a good start on Sean's guitars this weekend; we've got two weekend days booked in June, during which we should finish his guitar and get a good start on mine, if not finishing it as well. It's weird spending twenty hours in a studio when you're only needed ( Read more... )

Shark and Bear spent most of the weekend in the studio, starting our recording for the full-length. We got all the drums done for the eight songs, spending a lot of time setting up and getting sounds (our engineer Chris set up his new 2" tape machine for us, and we used fourteen mics for drums, including an overhead stereo ribbon microphone, very ( Read more... )