So I'm finally back. I know you've been wondering where my posts have been. I have been so crazy busy that I haven't really had time to even sleep that much, so posting was obviously not something I felt like doing. Joe is faithful in posting every day, no matter how much sleep he gets, but I guess I am just not that dedicated. That's one reason why his blog is better. I won't bore you by trying to remember everything that's happened in the past two weeks. Just imagine lots of studying, working, and general busyness. It all came to a head on Tuesday night when I only went to sleep around 4 and had to be up a little after 6 to leave for an exam. Right after my two exams I went straight to work and set things up for Jingle Jazz, which started at 7:30. I'm pretty sure the stress of no sleep, exams, and the nervousness of it being opening night will make all the other nights seem easy.
Today was great. I slept in until 10, which felt wonderful. Lucy was tired too from spending a few days at my parents' house playing with Molly and Carter, so she slept in too. It was really helpful that my mom was willing to watch Lucy some this week, I don't know what I would have done without that since there were a few days I was literally gone all day. I don't know what Oliver did all that time...probably destroyed the Christmas tree. We got one last week, and Oliver just can't keep himself off of it. Funny story...last year since our apartments were literally next door to Home Depot, we bought a tree there and I just held it through my sun roof to get it home. Since Home Depot isn't too far from our house, I decided to do the same thing this year. It was a big mistake...even though I wore a warm sock on my hand to keep it warm, it is probably a mile or two to Home Depot, and my hand was numb by the time we got back. Not only that, but there were alot of sharp turns that made it hard to keep the tree from rolling off. I think next year we'll have to do something different.
But anyways, after waking up I got ready and took Lucy for a really long walk. I then left to run some errands and go to work. Kristi's Chi flat iron broke, and she was pretty distraught this morning. So, being the good husband I am I decided to go get her a new one at Ulta. I drove to the Shops at Greenridge, went in Ulta, and found the Chi. It was $140! I just couldn't make myself get it, and there were so many other options I didn't know what else to get. Kristi is going to go herself and look at some of the other options, just in case there is another good one that is cheaper.
After shopping I called Joe to see if he needed lunch. He has been spending so much time editing and rendering videos that he hasn't been able to go get food much. I am amazed at some of the stuff he does, and the videos for Jingle Jazz are awesome. Sometimes I feel like people don't really appreciate all that goes into sound, they just think "Oh, that sounds good." They don't see or understand all the different compression, mic choices, mic placements, reverb settings, panning, and EQing that goes into it. But even so, I don't think it is anything compared to the lack of appreciation for the video stuff. I think people enjoy the videos, but don't appreciate all the planning, lighting, filming, keying with the green screen, editing, after effects stuff, etc. etc. that goes into it. Of course, the same thing could be said for the lights, which Tyler and Nathaniel did an awesome job with. I like to think there are at least a couple people in the audience that sort of know what goes into it and appreciate all the work.
Man I keep getting sidetracked...where was I. So Joe did need lunch and I decided to try this place I had seen at Greenridge called "Oriental House." They just remodeled, and I was impressed by how nice and clean it was when I went in. I was expecting your usual run down Chinese fast food restaurant, but this was way nicer. Still, you order at the counter and the food is very affordable.
To give you some background, my favorite food is probably fried rice. I love Miyabi's fried rice for just straight up rice, but when you start mixing ingredients it gets trickier. I used to love this place called Red Bowl, that was right outside of my neighborhood in Mauldin. Their "house fried rice" was delicious, and I went there a few times every week during the summer when I was in college. I actually kept salt and pepper in my car so that I could order to go and enjoy it to it's fullest potential. I had the number memorized and they knew me by just my voice. Sadly, the week I went on my honeymoon my dad called me and told me it shut down. I think I was one of their only regular customers, and they must have known that I was moving. Ever since then I have been unable to find house fried rice as good. There have been some OK attempts, but nothing that has gotten me excited....until today.
I ordered some house fried rice, no peas or carrots, extra spicy at Oriental House, and it was amazing. So amazing that I am tempted to say it is better than Red Bowl's...but I did love Red Bowl's, and it's been over a year, so it's hard to say for sure. Either way, I am just so excited. Not only that, but it looked like they had some stuff Kristi would like, so I'm hoping this becomes a regular restaurant of ours. I'm not joking when I say that finding this place was probably one of the most exciting things that's happened in a while.
Once I got to work I ate my lunch and then worked on a few things. I didn't have a whole lot to finish up on the sound end, so I did a few things here and there for Joe. Matt wanted a Christmas tree montage for "O Tannenbaum," so I spent an hour finding good stock photos of Christmas trees and putting them in a slide show. I found some pretty cool ones. A little after 6 I changed into my black clothes and got ready for the show.
Jingle Jazz went really well tonight. I was on top of all my cues and felt like I had a better handle on things than last night. I was able to do some different things with mics that ended up working really well. For instance, I was getting tons of drum bleed with the Shure LDC for the sax...so much so I doubted it would be very usable. Joe suggested I rig something to be able to clip a mic on the bell, so that's what I did. I found a lapel clip that was big enough to hold one of our micro Audix condensers, and taped it all together. It is a little airy sounding being right on the bell, but all in all it sounds amazing. Not only that, but there is practically no drum bleed at all. Another thing I did was put a Shure LDC a few inches in front of the kick drum. It really livens up the kick alot, and even the toms a little. I used some MXL 991's (some of my favorite cheap mics) as OH's on the drums, and those sound really good too. I think I may switch the AKG's I usually use as OH's for something else, because the 991's sound way better to me.
This weird thing happens when I run sound where I constantly tweak up to a certain point and never really hear things as a whole. When I finally get to sit back and just listen, I am usually shocked that it sounds so good. It's almost like an epiphany. I remember a jazz mixing project in college that I worked on for a few days. I was still not completely happy with everything, but when I sat back with the whole class to listen to my work, I realized it sounded amazing, and got several comments to that effect. Tonight was kind of one of those moments. I had been tweaking everything for the past few days. With sound, there really is endless artistic possibilities, so something can always be changed. Tonight was the first time I was able to really sit back during some songs and listen to everything, and it sounded really good. I'm sure with more time there are things I would try, but I couldn't really find anything I didn't like.
Once Jingle Jazz was over I came home and got ready for bed. I feel like I haven't seen my wife or my pets this week, so it will be good when things get back to normal. Tomorrow a guy is coming to fix the old piano my parents gave me. I'll have to give you its history some other time. I am really excited that I will soon be able to play a real piano in my own house. By the way, have you looked at my soundclick page lately? There's some new stuff up, so you should.
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