Inner Hearing
Where to begin? Today began with a morning jaunt to the climbing gym. The route setters were hard at work revamping the back walls and part of one of the walls I’d been focusing on (which all seemed to have climbs in the mid to upper 5.10 range) So there wasn’t too many ropes/ routes to choose from.
Lila kicked the ass of one of the routes that’s been challenging her for a while. Its overhanging, and overhangs are something that are very formidable when you aren’t 6’0”. ;) So she pulled it off-and proceeded to do well on a few other routes and then even bouldered a little bit with me. I keep telling her its like “gifted and talented” educational programs for teaching climbing techniques… and I think she’s getting it.
I’m going to be very happy for her because Usenix is around the corner, so maybe she’ll be able to boulder a bit after each work day… I hope to be so fortunate to find work in Berkeley!
Work was ok today. I’m convinced my Boss is a suffers from a BiPolar Class II disorder. I should check the DSM-IV. But its not predictable to the point where I know what to expect… One day shes very busy and feeling overwhelmed, and even a $16k commission check doesn’t lift her spirits. On these days I hear stuff like “the Tour is going to be horrible because you messed up the Spinach Dip” (when in reality the house sold fine, and the change in catering was the catering company updating their old menu and slightly changing the Veggie Platter.
Usually within one or two days of these moods, she hits her upswing, and becomes approachable again for questions and direction on projects I need to fulfill them to her taste. On those days asking for days off, or even getting a smile from her sometimes happen. I guess you just gotta roll with the punches.
One thing that has me worried-this woman takes off every October for Yelapa Mexico. She works 8 months of the year doing 12 hour days, 7 day weeks non stop. And then she takes off to Yelapa for the rest of the year. Last year, she kept her real estate assistant (which is what I am) aboard while she’s abroad because there are tasks left here at home for her to do-but in the past some of them were related to her tenants (she owns several apt buildings in Berkeley)-and I’m not doing any of those things at all. She co-sells and markets houses with brokers and agents here splitting the commissions when she’s gone, so I imagine there may be some of those tasks to be done.
I really hope she’s not planning on letting me go come October. I really do hope to have a real job by then… but with the pace of the recovery especially for project managers, I don’t wanna have to worry about being totally income-less in 2 months. Once again I guess I’ll just have to trust in things… and hope things go my way.
On other job news… I’m on a short list of a company called GlobalTeam Solutions for a business partner manager position. Its more bus dev, but its not sales so I’d be happier in it. Its in San Jose… looong commute. But I’ll take what I can get these days. I had to freaking write an essay for them, but hopefully they’ll like what I submitted. Also got submitted to the SBC FastTrack job again as a PM billing in the low 30s range… but that would stoke me out. Its only 6 months. I’d love it! On the dreamy side there was a web producer position that Elf forwarded me which sounded tooo good. Telecommuting, and lots of stuff I’m good at. My fingers are crossed.
I also am trying to get my resume re worked so I can maybe see about entering the Game space. Colin’s friend Frank is helping me a lot here. I’d love to somehow convince a game company to give me a chance as an entry level producer-assistant or associate. That too would be dreamy.
The Project
Tonight Addison and I got to work on our special 4 CD project some more. I’m very excited about this. The first CD is going to be downtempo/ambient but all very melodic/symphonic in nature-a lot of remixes of some geoff type trance… We’ve finished laying out the first cd just tonight with some very cool surprises we found.
Musically, I hear tracks and cds and sets in my head practically all day long. Sometimes its several songs. After about 6 years of spinning now, my inner voice or inner ear hears and feels things sometimes that’s very eerie in terms of foresight. I’ll hear a song out and about and instantly feel it would go well with another track. By “well” I not only mean beat wise, energy wise, but melody/chord progression. Sometimes its really scared me with what my inner ear can hear…
Examples: At the PlayStation sponsored Area2 Last summer… while listening to Tiesto spin (and loving it). He played a short sample of a track for a few minutes. It was a very trance educated crowd, and he knew it. So the track I thought I heard was one of my all time favourites-Seven Cities. It was of course a new remix I thought-and only played a few minutes of it before moving on to the next track. He didn’t even play the melody. I just kinda knew. Well it turns out that it wasn’t that a new remix of Seven Cities at all. It was the V-One remix of his “In My Memory”… the cool thing is that once I found the track id, I realized that my favourite Seven Cities is also the V-One remix. So in a crowded dancefloor with muffled sound, I felt the “V One” thing click deep inside.
It was the same way when watching the opening scenes to the movie “Gladiator” I was entranced by the opening sequence (of him, walking through the fields of wheat back in home” Instantly visions of Baraka came to mind. I was left with a very strong impression. It turned out that it was none other than Lisa Gerrard who did the hauntingly beautiful vocals in Gladiator at the behest of Hans Zimmer. Apparently while figuring out who to select for the movie, he was listening to some Dead Can Dance, and figured-why not get Lisa herself. The Gladiator soundtrack is one of my favs still to this day.
So in creating this downtempo cd, Addison and I are switching off of course, trading ”turns” at the decks. One of Addisons tracks he was playing is a nice slow vocal love ballad, with a very creamy rich female vocalist featured. Instantly Chicanes “No Ordinary Morning” came to mind… and after I cued them up, it turns out they’re pressed in the same key. I’d already heard the entire mix in my head, just as we figured out on the decks. The transition is amazing…. So that was last week when we were first starting.
Another track on the CD is Forbidden Fruit by PVD from a few years ago. A nice melodic breaky track, recently featured on Global… anyway Jason Lee, posting the mp3s for the new Chicane album “Easy to Assemble” last weekend (the night we announced that we had the Stargaze 6 houses again for this upcoming Stargaze)… well that made my day. And as soon as I heard the song “Locked Down” (it’s the nice vocal track with heavy Indian influences) I knew too. I didn’t hear inside my head a transition this time, but I heard both tracks playing simultaneously-weaving and wandering back and forth between her mesmerizing voice and vocals and the simple powerfully addictive melody progression PVD has in his track. And when we tried mixing them tonight, it was a perfect match. Amazing stuff really.
Addison and I are both excited about this first cd. Heck I would head out and buy this one if I saw it in the stores,
CD 2 is going to be just Addison. CD 3 will be the both of us playing progressive and progressive trance. CD 4 will be just me. Our goal is to be able to multipurpose the thing-we’ll do our best to key things so that things coincide with each other. Hopefully you’ll be able to take CD1 and 2, or CD1 and 3, or all the cds together as different journeys in a continual journey. So if it works out, it can be 4 1 cd sets, a 4 cd set, or a combination thereof. Our hope is to have it ready before a big road trip, maybe on the way to Stargaze? To pass out and let people enjoy on whatever trip is at hand. I know the timing on that, somehow, is going to be marvelous as well. ;)
Another big hope currently for me is the upcoming Stargaze. And that’s something I’ll write more about tomorrow. This one is truly going to change things. Things are going to be different in a profound way after this. The momentum we have going now is pretty damn incredible.
This is only the beginning. Revival is around the corner. I can feeeeeeeel it.
http://www.stargaze.org/media/gallery/sg12lila/aco
nite nite everyone out there under the stars tonight.
Lila kicked the ass of one of the routes that’s been challenging her for a while. Its overhanging, and overhangs are something that are very formidable when you aren’t 6’0”. ;) So she pulled it off-and proceeded to do well on a few other routes and then even bouldered a little bit with me. I keep telling her its like “gifted and talented” educational programs for teaching climbing techniques… and I think she’s getting it.
I’m going to be very happy for her because Usenix is around the corner, so maybe she’ll be able to boulder a bit after each work day… I hope to be so fortunate to find work in Berkeley!
Work was ok today. I’m convinced my Boss is a suffers from a BiPolar Class II disorder. I should check the DSM-IV. But its not predictable to the point where I know what to expect… One day shes very busy and feeling overwhelmed, and even a $16k commission check doesn’t lift her spirits. On these days I hear stuff like “the Tour is going to be horrible because you messed up the Spinach Dip” (when in reality the house sold fine, and the change in catering was the catering company updating their old menu and slightly changing the Veggie Platter.
Usually within one or two days of these moods, she hits her upswing, and becomes approachable again for questions and direction on projects I need to fulfill them to her taste. On those days asking for days off, or even getting a smile from her sometimes happen. I guess you just gotta roll with the punches.
One thing that has me worried-this woman takes off every October for Yelapa Mexico. She works 8 months of the year doing 12 hour days, 7 day weeks non stop. And then she takes off to Yelapa for the rest of the year. Last year, she kept her real estate assistant (which is what I am) aboard while she’s abroad because there are tasks left here at home for her to do-but in the past some of them were related to her tenants (she owns several apt buildings in Berkeley)-and I’m not doing any of those things at all. She co-sells and markets houses with brokers and agents here splitting the commissions when she’s gone, so I imagine there may be some of those tasks to be done.
I really hope she’s not planning on letting me go come October. I really do hope to have a real job by then… but with the pace of the recovery especially for project managers, I don’t wanna have to worry about being totally income-less in 2 months. Once again I guess I’ll just have to trust in things… and hope things go my way.
On other job news… I’m on a short list of a company called GlobalTeam Solutions for a business partner manager position. Its more bus dev, but its not sales so I’d be happier in it. Its in San Jose… looong commute. But I’ll take what I can get these days. I had to freaking write an essay for them, but hopefully they’ll like what I submitted. Also got submitted to the SBC FastTrack job again as a PM billing in the low 30s range… but that would stoke me out. Its only 6 months. I’d love it! On the dreamy side there was a web producer position that Elf forwarded me which sounded tooo good. Telecommuting, and lots of stuff I’m good at. My fingers are crossed.
I also am trying to get my resume re worked so I can maybe see about entering the Game space. Colin’s friend Frank is helping me a lot here. I’d love to somehow convince a game company to give me a chance as an entry level producer-assistant or associate. That too would be dreamy.
The Project
Tonight Addison and I got to work on our special 4 CD project some more. I’m very excited about this. The first CD is going to be downtempo/ambient but all very melodic/symphonic in nature-a lot of remixes of some geoff type trance… We’ve finished laying out the first cd just tonight with some very cool surprises we found.
Musically, I hear tracks and cds and sets in my head practically all day long. Sometimes its several songs. After about 6 years of spinning now, my inner voice or inner ear hears and feels things sometimes that’s very eerie in terms of foresight. I’ll hear a song out and about and instantly feel it would go well with another track. By “well” I not only mean beat wise, energy wise, but melody/chord progression. Sometimes its really scared me with what my inner ear can hear…
Examples: At the PlayStation sponsored Area2 Last summer… while listening to Tiesto spin (and loving it). He played a short sample of a track for a few minutes. It was a very trance educated crowd, and he knew it. So the track I thought I heard was one of my all time favourites-Seven Cities. It was of course a new remix I thought-and only played a few minutes of it before moving on to the next track. He didn’t even play the melody. I just kinda knew. Well it turns out that it wasn’t that a new remix of Seven Cities at all. It was the V-One remix of his “In My Memory”… the cool thing is that once I found the track id, I realized that my favourite Seven Cities is also the V-One remix. So in a crowded dancefloor with muffled sound, I felt the “V One” thing click deep inside.
It was the same way when watching the opening scenes to the movie “Gladiator” I was entranced by the opening sequence (of him, walking through the fields of wheat back in home” Instantly visions of Baraka came to mind. I was left with a very strong impression. It turned out that it was none other than Lisa Gerrard who did the hauntingly beautiful vocals in Gladiator at the behest of Hans Zimmer. Apparently while figuring out who to select for the movie, he was listening to some Dead Can Dance, and figured-why not get Lisa herself. The Gladiator soundtrack is one of my favs still to this day.
So in creating this downtempo cd, Addison and I are switching off of course, trading ”turns” at the decks. One of Addisons tracks he was playing is a nice slow vocal love ballad, with a very creamy rich female vocalist featured. Instantly Chicanes “No Ordinary Morning” came to mind… and after I cued them up, it turns out they’re pressed in the same key. I’d already heard the entire mix in my head, just as we figured out on the decks. The transition is amazing…. So that was last week when we were first starting.
Another track on the CD is Forbidden Fruit by PVD from a few years ago. A nice melodic breaky track, recently featured on Global… anyway Jason Lee, posting the mp3s for the new Chicane album “Easy to Assemble” last weekend (the night we announced that we had the Stargaze 6 houses again for this upcoming Stargaze)… well that made my day. And as soon as I heard the song “Locked Down” (it’s the nice vocal track with heavy Indian influences) I knew too. I didn’t hear inside my head a transition this time, but I heard both tracks playing simultaneously-weaving and wandering back and forth between her mesmerizing voice and vocals and the simple powerfully addictive melody progression PVD has in his track. And when we tried mixing them tonight, it was a perfect match. Amazing stuff really.
Addison and I are both excited about this first cd. Heck I would head out and buy this one if I saw it in the stores,
CD 2 is going to be just Addison. CD 3 will be the both of us playing progressive and progressive trance. CD 4 will be just me. Our goal is to be able to multipurpose the thing-we’ll do our best to key things so that things coincide with each other. Hopefully you’ll be able to take CD1 and 2, or CD1 and 3, or all the cds together as different journeys in a continual journey. So if it works out, it can be 4 1 cd sets, a 4 cd set, or a combination thereof. Our hope is to have it ready before a big road trip, maybe on the way to Stargaze? To pass out and let people enjoy on whatever trip is at hand. I know the timing on that, somehow, is going to be marvelous as well. ;)
Another big hope currently for me is the upcoming Stargaze. And that’s something I’ll write more about tomorrow. This one is truly going to change things. Things are going to be different in a profound way after this. The momentum we have going now is pretty damn incredible.
This is only the beginning. Revival is around the corner. I can feeeeeeeel it.
http://www.stargaze.org/media/gallery/sg12lila/aco
nite nite everyone out there under the stars tonight.