December 2006
Thursday, Dec. 28
For those who check in here periodically, please bear with me on studio-related stuff...I'm up to my neck in wiring, installations, and final details, and I have MANY hours to go.
If I don't write anything here for a week or so, that is the reason.
Monday, Dec 25
I am gradually becoming aware that my days will no longer revolve around the presence of carpenters, and having to hover about to ensure that they do at least some of what they're here for.
Even better, I no longer have to write anybody's paycheck at the end of the week.
I can begin a productive day tomorrow on my own time, following my own schedule. Of course, there is still work to be done, and I need furniture, a phone, and a video monitor.
Friday, Dec 22
12:04 A.M.
The carpenters finished around nine-thirty.
Now, it is mostly up to me to complete the wiring and equipment installation.
The live room has "room boom" issues, however. Even though I had the ceiling height raised significantly, and one wall that was supposed to be fabric is now all stone and wood diffusor, I don't think I'm entirely in error. I need to talk to the designer and ask about potential remedies. I imagine there is a solution, or a combination of adjustments that can be made.
Thursday, Dec 21
7:40 P.M.
The carpenters are feverishly trying to finish my job and get the hell out of my life. Now that the builder has some incentive - a flight home to his mother in Connecticut for Christmas - he and his two assistants are really pouring it on.
I personally have made three trips for supplies today - one was to get the final piece of glass from the rep himself, who had to drive to Georgia yesterday to get it. I met him in the Truckstops of America parking lot at I-24 and Old Hickory Blvd.
One of the carpenters fucked up my brand-new expensive wood floor. The floor guy thinks he can repair it. He'll be here in the morning, and the hundred-fifty dollars comes out of Mike's check. The floor should have been the LAST thing done - naturally it didn't happen that way.
The carpet people were supposed to be here yesterday to fix a bubble in the padding in the hall. When I called them today, the rep said he'd been told they'd been here and done the repair. So either he is lying to cover himself, or the other guy lied to him. Either way, one of them is not telling the truth.
I say it loud and clear, people - in my lifetime, this fucking country will be answering to China.
Saturday, Dec 16
I pulled all the audio cables today, from mic panels and equipment closet, to the patchbays.
From the equipment closet...
...and the mic panels...
...through the wall...
...into the pit beneath the console and up to the patchbay.
I am a wiring fool.
Many Elco pins, many hours.
Thursday, Dec 14
WOW - I get a freebie that I really do want...
After my equipment list suffered extensive and severe lacerations from construction costs, one of the items just got added back - for free. Now I'll have not just eight, but sixteen discrete analog outputs from Pro Tools to the console after all...for true, old-style analog mixing...YEA!
Now, isn't that nice?
Tuesday, Dec 12
I'm wiring Elco pins...many...I have around two hundred fifty to do, and it is not rapid progress. But it is satisfying, and way better than hiring it at thirty dollars per hour. I'm very glad that I know how to solder for studio connections. It is one of the first useable skills I learned in my line of work.
I am still being victimized by incompetent, scatterbrained, purposely irresponsible fuckwits, three to four times a week.
I am getting hit in every direction with enormous bills, some warranted, others most definitely not.
I now trust absolutely no one in any service or materials industry, until they prove themselves worthy.
Get ready, people - someday, China is going to overtake this country's economic system. Our continually plummeting standards of professional behavior and ethics will be our downfall (preceded by this decade's figureheads of the political system).
Wednesday, Dec 6
I love the smell of lead solder fumes late at night, and early morning.
I love new carpet.
I love Barefoot monitors.
Sunday, Dec 3
I love the smell of lead solder fumes early on a Sunday morning.
Barefoot monitors are absolutely the shit.
Saturday, Dec 02
The control room carpet was installed on Thursday, and yesterday I assembled the Argosy desk. Suddenly, it looks like there's really going to be a studio there, very soon. The control room, known since 1972 as the playroom, has never been fully carpeted, and has taken on a brand new existence. It will be a very comfortable and attractive place to spend many hours.
Now that the console is in place, I can commence serious wiring layout and installation. I'll be hefting the main monitors in, cranking up the toons, and settling in for some long hours of fine detail work and breathing lead fumes.
Sorry, no photos...the place is still a wreck and I'm tired of it. I'll wait until it's finished to take photographs, and I might have a professional do it for the studio web site.
I am so sick and tired of construction people I could scream. I'm tired of their bullshit, and tired of picking up their fucking trash.
There are a few electrical tweaks to do, an electrical inspection (and how many months before that happens?), the delivery and finishing of the door to replace the one that Mike fucked up, and the glass company to do their goddamn job.
There is a punchlist of carpentry stuff (Mike) to do - set mic panels, finish a couple of shelves, finish sheetrocking the equipment closet. Things that should have been done many weeks ago.
The live room floor will be completed early next week, after (hopefully) all the other work is done in that room.
to top of page