Studio Update

I just finished watching the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony and was astonished at the visual effects, the precision of the performers and of course the pyrotechnics. What an immense amount of planning organising and logistics must have gone into this event...almost as much as has gone into the transferring of my studio from matchbox sized bedroom to garage.

Currently the instrument shelf is in place (which spans almost all the way across the garage), the area is also now carpeted, with a large red and gold Persian like design piece of carpet which matches the gold velvet David Lynch style curtains which currently cover the window, but will eventually wrap around the room. The whole decor of the room is starting to look rather Buddhist. The leather lounge and two rocking single seater matching chairs (which also double as great reading chairs) are also in place. But my greatest (though most torturous) achievement award of the week goes to the large shelf I managed to construct.

Now I must establish that I am no carpenter, though enjoy building stuff, or more honestly seeing a good looking finished product which I know I built. This week though it was not to be. Firstly I had trouble with drilling into the brick wall. After melting the tips of a number of masonry drill bits and sheering numerous screws, I had my shelf brackets up. As I placed wooden shelf on them, I noticed that there should probably be another bracket in the middle (due to the slight bow in the centre of the shelf ) whilst also noticing that the shelving was quite lot deeper than what the bracket arms extended, but it'll do. I was proud of my half arsed job, and started loading up the gear. Needless to say, a few hours later, i heard an almighty crash from the other end of the house. I didn't need to ask myself what has made that god awful sound, my keen sense of intuition and the inevitable (though against all hope) was spot on. I spent the rest of the afternoon clearing up the debris of a shelf and contents that (as much as they struggled) could not hang on to the wall. I slept on it that night to return to the scene of the crime the next day.

With my next attempt, I decided to use ramset plugs which were supposed to carry greater weight, but as I tested the bracket, once again it pulled out of the wall. I was frustrated and confused. I spent the rest of the afternoon testing different wall plugs and screw lengths until I had a combination which seemed successful, so I went with it, changed all the plugs, used longer screws, added two centre supports, and finally placed the shelf on the brackets. So far the monolith still stands, and I feel confident about loading it up without a repeat collapse.
This little experience (in addition to many similar botched construction attempts) convinces me that my tendency to do things my way, then the right way is still alive and well in my nature. Good to see I haven't changed.

This coming week I will move my computers and other music gear into their new home and sort out and organize my mess of leads and various bits and pieces (hopefully I will have room for everything). I should be up and running around mid week. After that the only sounds I expect to hear from the room are musical ones.

I will leave you with an apt soundrack to the week

Cheers.
Ecca (the shelf erecta)



Soundtrack for the week.

Beatle juice.

Today, I have chosen to bestow upon my loyal blog readers, one of my favorite Beatles Songs.
I am far from a Beatles nut, I like their work and appreciate their talents and that of producer George Martin who in my view was the fifth Beatle.

This posting is especially for a friend of mine, who plays a great version of this song for me on his six string during his set on Thursday night jam sessions.

Enjoy...Ecca

Happiness is a Warm Gun

The happy sound of crying chidren.

Something you may not know about me is how I like to torment and tease little children, like eating an ice cream in front of them without giving them one, or asking them if they want something then saying 'well you cant have it'... all good fun in my eyes.

There is nothing like a bit of healthy disappointment to prepare the young spirit for a world that doesn't give them everything they want, and often lets you down. If they get to deal with this at a young age, then I believe they are able to cope with this much better as they grow up.

I therefore found myself in a perfect position on the weekend having been selected to be on the judging panel for a junior talent quest. I began preparing some of my responses like 'give up on your dreams of being a performer, and take up accountancy' or 'I've heard better sounds coming from a howling dog' all that sort of degrading, spirit shattering, mean, devastating stuff.

Fortunately for the performers, the judges did not comment on each or the acts, but simply marked them on a number of criteria and totalled the scores at the end of the night and i must say that the level of talent on the night was exceptional (so I would have felt rather guilty about shattering the dreams of someone who was truly talented), most of the acts received encouraging scores from me, and having peeked at some of the other judges scores, i was being rather generous.

Apart from the 12 year old bagpipe player and his 7 year old brother who kept a beat for him on a snare drum, or the under 10 year old brother and sister team who sang terribly out of tune, though oozed of confidence, most of the acts were really quite good.

I was quite impressed with a few acts which had attained quite a high level of performance at such a young age, and of course there was also the cute factor when one 5 year old sang Jet's 'are you gonna be my girl' with such flair and perfect timing (though a slightly out of tune voice), only to return later in the night and perform 'Eye of the tiger' in hooded red boxing gown and boxing gloves punching the air with the musical accents. (The cuteness factor actually got this little fella into the grand final).

So by the end of the night, I didn't get to tear anyone's dreams apart mainly because no one really deserved it, and I wasn't really given the opportunity. In retrospect it probably ended up being a good thing as I really wouldn't have wanted to deal with angry parents and relatives of a bawling child. That's not to say that the temptation wasn't there with some of the lower quality acts.

Gosh if I sounded crap, I wouldn't want to be told that I sounded great just so that I don't embarrass myself on one of those tacky Idol competitions.

Ecca (the childhood dream wrecka)