DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

My summer recording session is proceeding according to plan. By which I mean, I planned to be several weeks behind. That’s why I allowed myself an extra month.

I had two goals:

• upgrade my studio gear and my tones
• appear on as many CDs as possible

The second goal meant working with songwriters who are more likely to release CDs in the near future than I am. I found several. Here is the current track list:

I’m taking a lot of time with these projects — sometimes a couple weeks to work up a demo, then a couple more once the demos get approved (which itself can take weeks, if not months (hello aaron!)).

The untitled gospel/techno tune is a remarkable exception. Given a scratch bass track and a stylistic reference to a tune I’ve never heard by an artist I’d never heard of, I turned around two demos in one evening, and recorded a final take in another evening. It ended up being a pretty basic groove — there was no other way to play it, because none of the cool breaks had been written yet — but I was so pleased with it I listened to it a half-dozen times the next day. I have no idea what the final song will sound like, because the bass line has since been rewritten. So, basically, I don’t know what song I recorded, but I know the drum track is pretty cool.

In addition to the above schedule, I have another artist who I’ve promised four drum tracks. That project is somewhat at risk, because I’m postponing it until the rest of these songs are complete.

Also I have a half-dozen song fragments of my own bouncing around in various formats — GarageBand, ProTools, MP3, and even a digital 8mm videotape of neat dulcimer lines. I hope to put together at least one new song of my own before I have to take my kit down next month. It’s just a matter of time.

By the way, we bailed on Rawstock when we figured out tickets would cost us $100 apiece. (!)

The SF Weekly has a cover story on Fred Franzia, the founder of Bronco Wines and father of Charles Shaw (“Two Buck Chuck”) wines. It’s a fascinating peek under the soiled bedsheets of the somewhat incestuous wine industry.

One of the most interesting parts of the story describes Bronco’s purchase of winery names that have been grandfathered into the law regulating appellation labeling. In short, there’s a way to put a “Napa” label on Central Valley wine, and Bronco knows all about it.

Read the story: Discount Dynasty

An older story from the Napa Valley Register recounts much of the same history in many fewer words, and also describes why “Two Buck Chuck” actually costs $3 outside of California:
The voice of ‘Two Buck Chuck’

One of my favorite photos from a recent trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park shows a wide-angle view of the sky above the Bear Lake trailhead. Due to poor hygiene (I’m referring to the camera) the image is marred by spots and reflections.

Fortunately, stripping lens flare, dirt, and reflections with Photoshop is easy:

1. Select the Healing Brush.
2. Set the brush size to about half the size of the largest spot to be repaired.
3. Option-click a clear patch of sky to define the source of the “healing.” Or, make the canvas bigger and in this new space paint in a block of solid color (any color) and option-click that. The color is irrelevant; what’s important is that it has no texture or variation.
4. Paint over the lens flare, dust, streaks, reflections, etc. Photoshop seamlessly paints in the right color, removing whatever artifacts were present.

This technique works well and quickly on areas of solid color, such as blue sky. If you’re trying to preserve texture, this approach will not give good results.

You can see the repaired image here.

Colorado gets much nicer clouds than California. These appeared on the Old Ute Trail.

More clouds, looking east from the Continental Divide.


And these inocuous clouds, surrounding the Bear Lake trailhead, turned into a thunderstorm about an hour later, sending my hiking party scurrying for cover.

(If there are any meteorologists in the audience, I’d be curious to know what kind of clouds these are. I found some classification guides here and here but those Latin terms are all Greek to me.)