Friday, December 31, 2004

Happy New Year

Tonight Jacki and I are going to Nava in Atlanta for New Year's and our anniversary. Its hard to believe its been 5 years, and what a fast five years it has been.

You may have noticed on the navigation to the left I added a new link with Past Events. This logs many of the events I've been to or participated in, and if available you can see concert tickets, mementos or even pictures from the events through the years.

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Studio Day 7

Drums for Can't Say No are complete. We finished the overhaul on the arrangement tonight and collectively came up with some great changes. It took the better part of the night and my final drum track was pieced together from 3 different performances but it is rock solid.

Mike G, the bass player, will have some changes he'll need to make to his parts since he was out tonight and outside of any concerns he may have we have consensus from everyone else on the arrangement.

Next Tuesday we will lay rough basic tracks (rhythm guitars, bass), put together a rough mix and then tackle the drums for the next song. 1 down and 5 to go. We completed arrangement and drum takes over the course of 2 nights, so if all goes well we should be able to knock out 1-2 drum parts a week and be completed with drums and basic tracks towards the end of January.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Top CDs of 2004

Here is my attempt at a top 10 list. Just like last year the same rules apply, these are from the list of cds I bought in 2004, and may not have necessarily been released in 2004. Once again not in any particular order.

  • The Thrills - So Much For The City - released in 2003 but I had not heard of them until an instore at Tower. Jacki, Darian and I got to see a small acoustic set and got the cd signed afterwards. Neil Young meets the Beach Boys with a knack for pop melodies against folk songs. Also this album is much better than their second release that did come out in 2004. Highlights Big Sur, and One Horse Town
  • Damageplan - New Found Power - RIP Dimebag. This cd was one of the ones I listened to most in the first half of 2004. And with the tragedy in early December the disc as well as other Pantera music has been in strong rotation. The cd is good, not as great as Vulgar or Far Beyond but definitely one of the better metal releases of the year. Standout tracks Breathing New Life, and Pride.
  • Norah Jones - Feels Like Home - What can I say. Although I don't like the production on this release as much as on her first disc, I do really enjoy the music. This one has been in heavy rotation in my car since its release. The Deluxe Edition has some nice extras, but is probably not worth the extra cost. Standout tracks Toes, and Creepin' In.
  • Ryan Adams - Rock N Roll - Great disc. Much more rockin' than his previously released material. Some of the songs have the production values of U2 circa 1982. There are some standout tracks on this disc, highlights include This Is It, Wish You Were Here, The Drugs Not Working
  • Bob Schneider - I'm Good Now - The best artist no one has ever heard of, at least outside of Austin. Bob continues to amaze and his song writing seems to get more creative and polished over time. One of Darian's favorites on this disc is Piggyback. Favorites of mine include Come With Me Tonight, I'm Good Now and God Is My Friend.
  • Killswitch Engage - End Of Heartache - By far the best metal release of 2004. The band caught my attention last year but they brought it home with this release. Rose of Sharyn, and the title track, The End Of Heartache are worth the purchase alone.
  • Dave Matthews Band - Live At the Gorge Box Set - This set gave me renewed interest in live DMB material. 6 discs is quite a bit to absorb but these performances from 2002 have some great moments. The 2nd of the 3 nights has the best performance with Loving Wings -> Where Are You Going and Two Step back to back. Carter plays some great drums on Loving Wings which is included on the 2cd/1dvd set available in stores. The dvd and box set also include my all time favorite DMB tune Seek Up. The box set is only available at dmband.com
  • Green Day - American Idiot - This may get the vote for best cd of 2004. I think when the grammys come around in February they will bring home multiple awards. Buy this disc for Jesus Of Suburbia. It calls back to some old school riffs including the Crue, The Who, Sex Pistols all with Green Day's stamp on it. This song is one of those mini-epics in a similar vein to The Who's A Quick One.
  • Frank Zappa - Quadiophiliac (DVD Audio) - This is disc Dweezil put together with the help of the Vaultmeister Joe Travers. These are the quad mixes FZ put together through the years and now with the advent of surround sound the Zappa Family Trust has been able to put this disc out in DTS and the high-res DVD Audio format. I've only heard the PCM stereo mixes and the DTS mixes and I've got no complaints. Chunga Basement is a rehearsal recorded in Frank's Basement and Rollo, as Dweezil states, is bitchin.
  • Kings Of Leon - Youth & Young Manhood - After seeing them at Bonnaroo I was hooked. I had never heard of these guys and came away a believer. This was another release from 2003, and much better than their 2nd release which did come out in 2004, although as import only. Tracks to check out Happy Alone, Red Morning Light, and Wasted Time.
I'm now out of my top 10 but I'll go ahead and make a few honorable mentions.
  • Mike Keneally in some shape or form released 3 cds and a dvd this year. The DVD that accompanied Dog is some of the most inspirational playing I've seen in some time. Seeing him jam with the Mike Keneally Band in a living room with minimal set up and taped with standard home video cameras makes you wonder why can't anyone put out products like this. Check out the following from keneally.com
    • Dog w/DVD (The dvd is better than the cd)
    • The Universe Will Provide (classical music with solo electric guitar)
    • Steve Vai's - Piano Reductions Volume 1, performed by Mike Keneally (Mike arranged and performed some great Vai tunes for solo piano)
  • Bon Jovi - 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong - Much like the DMB 6 disc set, this 4 disc set with dvd is quite a bit to digest. The remarkable thing is 38 of the tracks nearly 3/4ths of the material is previously unreleased. These songs represent some of the rarities and outtakes through the years. The clincher is many of these songs are better than those on actual Bon Jovi releases. Yes there are a couple of duds (sorry Tico), but overrall you'll discover some great Bon Jovi tunes from the Slippery Days all the way up to their latest release. Jacki and Darian have accused me of being gay going through a Bon Jovi phase, but thankfully I think I'm out of it.
  • Primus - live releases from primuslive.com - between the Bonnaroo show, the Atlanta show I attended, the Roseland show I bought from last year's tour and the DVD release of the final US show in Chicago Primus shows that it has the chops live. Maybe even more so than their studio releases. Check out primuslive.com
  • Umphrey's Mcgee - Anchor Drops - Another Bonnaroo discover although indirectly. There was a huge buzz about these guys but I ended up watching Primus the night they were on stage so I missed their set. Nothing like a listening station at Tower Records to hook me.
And a few that require some type of comment.
  • Velvet Revolver - Contraband - It's good but it should have been better given the talent. Check out Big Machine
  • Col Claypools Bucket Of Bernie Brains - Another Tower Records listening station purchase. Check out Junior (Yee Haw!)
  • U2 - How To Dismantle A Bomb - Vertigo is up with American Idiot for best rock song of 2004.
  • Marc Broussard - Carencro - Once again listening stations really do work! Check out Home.
And the most overrated disc of 2004.
  • Deathcab For Cutie - Transatlanticsim - Numerous people at work couldn't stop raving about this disc. I just don't get it. And as I've always believed my friend's music sucks :-)
So all in all you get 20 recommendations from me and one advisory!

And there it is for 2004...

If you have read this far please provide comments or suggestions of your favorites for 2004. I'm always looking for an excuse to check out new music.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Studio Day 6

We got back into the studio tonight and completed working on the drum sounds. It took another hour or so as expected but I think all of us are happy with they way things are sounding. I tightened the top head on the snare, left a little ring/overtone, loosened the bottom head, and muffled the head slightly. A nice wet snare with a tiny bit of ring.

For the toms I moved the mics farther back from the heads which oddly gave more clarity and definition. It is getting more of the stick and less of the drum.

We worked on the drum part to Can't Say No. Spent about an hour or so working out bass drum patterns and putting together a consistent part that locked with the bass. Quite a bit of work that I'm hopeful will pay off in the long run.

On Thursday we will record my track and if time permits begin working on the next drum track.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Studio Day 5

Last night we got focused on recording. We spent about 3 hours working on drum sounds using Can't Say No as our guide track. So far we are pretty pleased. We have much better fundamental sounds on the recording than we have had for any of our previous demos. We still have a little more work to do, possibly close mic'ing the ride cymbal and the snare has a little more room for improvement.

Oddly enough letting the snare ring and loosening the snares gave a much better recorded sound than naturally what sounds good to the ears in the room. However it doesn't matter what we hear it matters how it sounds on tape, not that we using tape, but recording to a hard drive doesn't sound right.

Mike G and Katie left around 10 or 10:30 but Mike V and I talked a good bit more about arrangements. We had some good ideas about letting the song breathe a bit more and altering the changes and breaks so each one isn't identical and predictable. He warned we may have a bit of a struggle convincing everyone to change parts but I'm pretty confident it makes the recording much stronger.

Not sure if we will get together on Thursday or not but if we do it will be another hour or so of working on drum sounds, maybe trying an alternate snare, and playing with the ride cymbal. Once complete I should be able to start recording tracks. By the end of next week I should have some tracks completed.

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Back in the States

I got back from Korea yesterday. With the time change I actually landed before I took off. My departing flight was at 10:05am and I landed around 9:30am 13 hours later. It took about an hour to get through customs and out of the airport.

I got home about 11am, checked email and snail mail and got ready for the day.

My band The Superlatives played a charity event for Toys For Tots last night so since we hadn't played in over a week we got together around 3pm to rehearse our set list. Something like 10 songs running about 55 minutes. Strangely enough this was probably one of our best rehearsals, no problems with tempos, very few wrong notes and one of the first times Mike G and were locking in tightly as a rhythm section. We finished up about 4:20pm and decided to meet around 6:30pm at the venue for a 7:20pm start time.

The venue was a bit of a dive but not far from my house so it was fairly convenient to get to. I picked up Jacki and Darian, we went to Moes, and then got to the venue around 6:15pm or so. As usual with Butchy Rhythm productions (he coordinates these charity events) he was running behind schedule. Thankfully we were the 3rd band so the delay didn't keep compounding for us. We went on about 8pm and played our set. It was a good performance and we had a good crowd, quite a bit of cheering, some dancing occurred and it sounded like people were having a good time. With the lights and being behind someone else's drum kit I could barely see over the top.

Butchy likes to give our band and all bands for that matter an encore so we held back our last song and sure enough Butchy asked us to play more. Well he asked us to play 2 more, we added an unrehearsed "Too Far" to the set and closed with "Rejected". Great response to our finish and since we were probably going to be the best original band for the night we were asked to play yet another song. This was tougher but we ended up adding "Silver Lines" that went over well for the final track.

All in all we played about an hour and fifteen, and added 2-3 songs at the end of the set that weren't necessarily going to be played. For not playing live in 6-8 weeks this was a good and fun thing to come back to.

Today the plan is to catch up on rest and get ready for Christmas. Its good to be back home.

Monday, December 13, 2004

In Korea

I'm back in Seoul for another week. The trip yesterday was easy and uneventful. Left Atlanta with no issues and we got in about 10-15 minutes after our schedudled arrival. Today the first of a week of all day meetings focused on IT / Billing / CRM.

Someone says it might snow here tomorrow. I'll be sure to post some pictures if it does.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Horrible shooting of Dimebag Darrell

I just read that Dimebag Darrell from Damageplan and Pantera was shot and killed on stage last night in Columbus Ohio. I have many good memories of going to Pantera shows through the years in Texas. I saw them a couple of times in Houston in the early 90s, on one of the first Ozzfest tours and the highlight was a secret show in Austin at the Backroom to celebrate the release of their Far Beyond Driven album.

Darrell Lance Abbott August 20, 1966 - December 8, 2004

Rest In Peace and prayers go out to all of the families and friends of those killed at the show last night.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Studio Day 4

This past Monday we spent another day in the studio preparing for our recordings. We completed the scratch tracks (guitar, bass, vocals) that will allow me to lay down my drum parts. It went pretty quick and we ended up using the last hour of practice for rehearsal.

We usually practice on Tuesday and Thursday but with birthdays, first mine on the 7th and now Mike G's (bass player) on the 8th we are taking the middle of the week off. And of course I'm still busy with work so if we get together again this week it will probably be Friday night.

When I get back from Korea I'll start working on getting a good drum sound, and I'm hopeful I'll get one or two songs completed by Christmas.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Birthday

Birthday proved to be a long day. I ended up getting up extremely early so I could get in some extra work. I was in the office about 7:15 which for those people that know me is 2-2 1/2 hours earlier than I normally get to work.

After working till 7pm I met Jacki and Darian at The Cheesecake Factory, ate too much and headed over to Tower. And low and behold a celebrity sighting. We saw Mike Mills of R.E.M. shopping for cds, in fact he was in line right in front of me. I wasn't able to check out what he bought other than the fact he probably purchased between 10-15 cds in one shot.

And off he rode as a passenger in a new BMW.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Motley Crue

The original Crue is back. Check out their press release in all of its glory.

http://216.166.80.131/pr_2004-12-06.html

Its a bit odd how they've been downplaying the upcoming of this reunion. In many ways it is very similar to the Swine reunion back in '97. Or was it '96.

It looks like Atlanta won't be until the Summer but maybe I can use some frequent flyer miles and catch the first leg of the tour somewhere.

The new single is posted on AOL's First Listen Site. Click the first link to hear the new single If I Die Tomorrow

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Studio: Day 3

We recorded scratch tracks for Lonely One and All About You tonight. We set tempos for the other songs. Next Monday we will finish the scratch tracks just in time to take a break for another one of my trips to Korea and a gig for Toys For Tots on December 18th. Probably the week before Christmas we will start fine tuning mics for the drum recording.


Tuesday, November 30, 2004

iTunes Playlist

I finally got the Recently Played iTunes link to update again. Since I had moved my iMac to the recording studio I haven't been playing music on that machine and no longer sync my iPod to that machine. I had been syncing to Windows and wasn't able to easily port my script to XP. Now I've got a Powerbook from work and have revised my script to upload to this server. So now you can see what I've been listening to. It won't update every 15 minutes, but will be updated periodically as I play music and sync my iPod.



Studio: Day 2

The band reconvened tonight and we continued preparation for our recording. Tonight we rehearsed 6 songs that will likely be recorded.

Mr. Knowitall
Can't Say No
Lonely One
Kiss Me Goodbye
All About You
The Weather Song

I'm pretty sure I'd like to record Lonely One given the current arrangement, and I think it fits well with the other tunes. The rehearsal was rough but we did 3 full run throughs and recorded the rehearsals and listened back. Other than rusty performances there isn't much that we want to change musically. On Thursday we will print the click tracks for the tunes and record scratch tracks. At that point we should be able to start recording the various parts and will probably work on drums if I can stop traveling for work.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Back Home

Saturday we ended up with Darian back at Universal and saw some of the 3d movies. That night we went to the Hard Rock and were able to go into Hard Rock Live. Darian couldn't believe how small it was, but was assured by the staff that this is the same venue used for the MTV/VH1 concerts.

I was able to spot some more KISS items on the walls as well as a lot of items from The Who.

We got back from Orlando last night. It ended up taking longer to drive back with the heavy traffic then it did going to Orlando with the heavy rain. About an extra hour of travel time and stop and go traffic the last 80 miles back was not fun.

I've finally posted the pictures from the Korea trip, as well as the pics from Orlando. There are quite a few Orlando pictures including Universal Studios and Kennedy Space Center.

Saturday, November 27, 2004

In Orlando

This little get away has been a bit busier than I had expected. We drove through 7 1/2 hours of rain Wednesday night and arrived to the condo about 2am. Nothing like driving with the front of a cold front. Not fun.

On Thursday we went to Universal studios, and went through the Twister experience, Earthquake, MIB, Mummy and some other things. The kids split off so this was the adult outing. The kids went to the amusement ride part of the park. That night Jacki and I walked around and ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. This is the same Hard Rock that the Hard Rock live is filmed from. The place is huge and is the largest Hard Rock in the world.

Yesterday we went to Kennedy Space Center and were able to see the launch pads for the various rockets and shuttles. Space stuff is always fun and we got some pretty cool pictures too.

Today it is back to Universal and then we plan to head back first thing tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

and we are off to Orlando!

For a little Thanksgiving in a condo near the beach, with another family we are friends with.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

In the studio (Day 1)

The band finally got back together this past Wednesday. A fairly unstructured practice. We ran through a few tunes, played a couple of covers including Midnight Rider, and had a good time just playing again. After about a one hour practice we took a break and I decided to begin the prep work for recording.

I'd like to have the drum tracks recorded for our EP by Christmas, which means by the first of December we should have all arrangements, tempos, and scratch tracks with click within protools. I was able to get the drums mic'd and the vocals and guitars coming cleanly into ProTools. We will record our next rehearsal and pick apart the tunes we will be recording. The good news is we should be able to reuse the scratch and click tracks for Mr. Knowitall and Kiss Me Goodbye from the demo sessions from August.

We've accepted the fact that we will not have a completed recording by Christmas and also have accepted that a 10-11 song cd is a bit ambitious. We will probably settle on 5 songs. Once we complete recording in January it will probably take several weeks to mix. Possibly a finished product we can sell will be available in February.




Tuesday, November 16, 2004

On this day in Dave history

I added a little feature to the front page of the site. The feature shows mostly "events" that I've gone to in the past. For instance if you are on my site today, November 17, it says I went to a Dream Theater concert in Austin Texas in 1994.

I knew the concert tickets I kept since I was a child of 9-10 years of age would come in handy at some point. If I ever get a scanner, I may scan in the old concert stubs for posterity.

Hey Ron, I've got the Cinderella and Rush shows we went to in the database of entires... Do you remember the day?

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Apple AirPort Express

Last weekend I bought the Apple AirPort Express. I wasn't too happy about paying $129 to try out the feature that would allow me to play iTunes through the stereo wirelessly. But I figured I'd give it a try.

I must say this product is fantastic. The AirTunes feature which is all I've used it for works flawlessly. I never realized how much I missed hearing music through good speakers. The sound quality is great as well.

The only thing that gave me a little challenge was getting the unit to properly join my linksys network running locally.

If you are on the fence about this feature it is worth it. Especially if you have a laptop that can power your iTunes.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Brandyhouse Gig

I just got home from our gig at The Brandyhouse. The band that was supposed to play after us cancelled so we ended up going on stage a little later than planned. Some new friends of Mike and Katie made it out so I belive out of the 4 or 5 people we knew in the crowd none of them had seen us before.

Ironically the band that was supposed to play with us was a band I had talked to about joining right before I joined The Superlatives. By the time I had coordinated phone calls and practiced the other bands demo I had already joined my current group.

It is starting to seem the music community in Atlanta is quite small.

Now I can focus back on work and family and will probably give the band a rest until later in the week or possibly next week. It is now time to get some sleep. I still haven't fully recovered from the Korea trip.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Home

I'm back home from Seoul for a few weeks. Its good to be back. We had a good family night tonight getting to sit on the couch and talk. I always think its funny how we have this big house yet our closest family moments are when all of us are crowded onto two cushions of a 3 cushion couch.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Go Bush

Congratulations to Bush and 4 more years.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

One more pic

This one was to funny not to post. Check it out O'Kim's an irish pub.

Picture from Korea

I haven't seen much in Korea due to the hectic work schedule but here is one of the pictures I took from in front of the hotel.



As you walk down streets you will see the new intermixed with the old. In some ways the culture is very modern and the technology oftentimes seems more advanced than the US, however traditions, and the people seem very conservative and respect for foreigners and for elders is easy to observe, unlike the US.

I'll post more pictures when I get back.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

The Election

Even though I'm half way around the world the US election has an unbelievable amount of coverage. It really shows that the US is THE world power. The papers both in English and Korean have significant coverage and TV is as if I'm sitting at home in the US. Results are coming in live.

Go W!

Monday, November 01, 2004

Gate E1

Yes the absolute furthest gate from the entrance of the airport. At least I left the house early.
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from EarthLink.

In Seoul

I landed this morning about 6:00am Tuesday local time. They are 14 hours ahead so it would be 4pm in the afternoon on Monday in Atlanta. Somehow we missed the car that had been arranged for our trip to the hotel and we ended up taking a cab that hadn't been to our hotel before. After an 1hr plus cab ride we got to the hotel and checked in around 8am or so. Suprisingly,getting through customs was a breeze, even with my sruffy passport photo.

I had a bad headache took a couple of hour nap, found some advil from a co-worker of mine at the hotel and as of now I'm in good shape. Sitting on the 35th floor in an executive area and hope to have some pictures for the site.

I'm off to work. I'll check in soon.

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Seoul

I'm off to Seoul today. I will never truly experience tomorrow, Monday. My flight leaves at 8:35pm tonight and after a quick connection in LAX, I will land in Seoul on Tuesday morning at 6:30am.

I expect the trip to be quite productive especially after being at CTIA all week. I have quite a few new product ideas and it will be great to see how much further ahead the South Korean's are with wireless technology.

With the short notice for the trip I realized I would not be here for the elections. Last Tuesday I faxed in an absentee ballot request form and received it on Thursday. As of Friday morning I had voted. Who do you ask, W. of course.

Ever since I've been voting there doesn't seem to be a clear cut winner. I try not to think of myself as republican or democrat, however I realize that the upper middle class seems to be a big fan of republicans. So I can't tell if this is a function of who I've become or if the candidates really do speak to my concerns. Regardless W. got the vote this time around, and I'll call it now, if Hilary runs in 2008, Cheney better look out.



Thursday, October 28, 2004

Duran Duran

For the week ending October 30, 2004 Duran Duran had the #1 album on the US Internet Sales charts. I guess this shows that housewives buy cds on the internet. Oh and did I mention that my wife bought hers on the internet as well!!!

Jacki just got her tickets to the Jingle Jam with Duran Duran here in December. Several of her friends, Janice, Jennifer and Owen are flying in for the show.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Hot Ringtones Chart

A flash from the conference I'm at today. Billboard, starting November 6, will publish the Hot Ringtones of the week. A few stats I heard this morning. The top ringtone is downloaded over 100K times a week and the Top 20 account for 500K a week. Expect to see explosive growth much like we saw with iTunes a year back. 1M downloads a week for the Top 20 by the end of the year won't be surprising.

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000684908

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Travel

I'm heading out for a couple of weeks. First to San Francisco for CTIA. I'll be there for the majority of this week. I'm also putting the Powerbook to the test. I've moved nearly all of my work files from the 1Ghz Dell laptop to the 15" 1.5Ghz Powerbook. I've decided to travel light and only carry the Mac. We'll see how it works out. Since I'm only out of the office for 4 days this week I know I can catch up on Friday if I end up needing the Dell for some reason. As far as I can tell the only program I really need is Visio. and I have not found an acceptable work around on the Apple yet.

The following week I'm making my trip to S. Korea. The travel visa has arrived and flight arrangements have been made.

Unfortunately all this travel delays the recording plans for the band as well as being away from the family for the better part of 2 weeks.


Saturday, October 16, 2004

The trip that wasn't meant to be...

As I type this I was supposed to be in South Korea on a business trip. After planning, visa applications, and changing previsou plans, the trip ended up not happening. I would like to blame it not happening on FedEx but after all that happened it became quite obvious I wasn't meant to go at this time.

It all started a week ago Wednesday. My manager at work informed me that he'd like for the make the trip so I'll need to bring my passport to apply for the work visa tomorrow. That Thursday I brought in everything I needed, obtained a passport photo for the visa application, and filled out all paper work and FedEx'd overnight to Arlington, Virginia for processing. The plan was to get the visa back on Saturday and after the Falcons game gig I'd leave.

Friday morning I call the visa processing company to inquire about timing and they inform me that they never receieved the application. I then spend the bulk of that Friday calling FedEx trying to find the overnighted package. They couldn't say why it wasn't delivered, just that it wasn't going to happen that day. So the original plans to leave on Sunday after the gig were changed.

Monday morning I receive a call from FedEx stating they delivered the package. This would have been great had it not been a government holiday. Tuesday morning I called the visa processing place and they had received and were pushing through the system. We had an overnight rush for processing but 24 hours to process and 24 hours to process and return mean two different things. So it was a wait and see. The next flight out to South Korea was Wednesday afternoon. If I didn't make that flight the next flight out would be Friday. Wednesday morinng came and no visa arrived. At this point I realized the trip wasn't meant to be. I informed my management and said we can try again in a few weeks.

Thursday morning arrives, in comes my visa and I'm still here in the states. Maybe in a few weeks I'll get to update the map of visited places with South Korea.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Falcons Game

We played the Atlanta Falcons pre-game today. By far our largest crowd, although not a crowd necessarily there to hear live music. The day started bright and early, actually it was still dark when I left the house.

We played two sets. The first set was pretty rough. Or at least it felt that way. We took the tunes a little fast. I must say having a cool wind blowing with the sun in your eyes isn't anywhere close to rehearsing or playing in a dark smoky club. Not to mention this show took place 12 hours before our usual sets.

Highlights of the set include a crowd pleasing When The Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin. The only cover we played, but big outdoor shows like this the crowd seems to appreciate hearing music that is familiar. My guess is we played to 100-125 people that were near the stage and in the general vicinity there were probably 300-400 people walking around, tailgating and just having a good time.

Here was today's itinerary.

6:45am - wake up
7:25 - leave the house
7:50 - arrive at the gulch
8:00 - set up
9:00 - sound check
9:45 - first set
10:20 - break
11:00 - second set
11:45 - end set
12:15 - break down gear
1:00pm - return home

Here is a picture taken from behind the stage of my drums. Why, because I like it.


Monday, October 04, 2004

Atlanta Falcons Pre-Game

We just found out The Superlatives will be playing the Atlanta Falcons Pre-Game at The Gulch. This should expose us to quite a few people and we may even get to take in a little of the game.

The Gulch - Lot A down at the Georgia Dome.

We will be playing 2 sets
9:45am - 10:30am
11:00am - 11:45am

Hope to see you at the game.

The Official Web Site of the Atlanta Falcons

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Battle at Andrews

We played Thursday night at Andrews Upstairs for the final battle in the battle of the bands. We didn't win but we had a great time.

One thing that caught us by surprise included the fact that we had the second most votes from the audience, but only a single vote out of the four judges. We had made the final round because of the judges the Thursday before but it was great to hear that people liked our music.

Out of 15 bands we came in 3rd place which I think is respectable. Andrews did a great job of packing the venue. We played to 100-150 people in the venue which was by far our largest crowd yet. We typically play to 30-40 our in the case of Smiths on Monday to 10.

The high profile gigs have gotten us a few calls this past week and we have lined up a show at the Brandyhouse in October and will probably play at the Masquerade again in the next month. In the meantime we will get back to recording and continue to keep up our profile around town.

Thursday also marked our 20th public performance.

The Superlatives

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

The Superlatives

Its been a great few days for The Superlatives and live music in Atlanta.

Picking up where we last left off, Jacki and I went to see deSol at Andrews Upstairs Saturday night. We got there during soundcheck and Soto waived to Jacki and I as we walked in. After the finished up Jacki went down and talked the band. Evidently Soto and James had told the other members about The Superlatives performance from Thursday. All the guys came by and introduced themselves and were very supportive of the fact that we won Thursday night.

I had taken some pictures of them from Bonnaroo and Aquafina on the Bricks and Armando and Albie had seen the pictures and were visibly excited about how they turned out.

After the set we talked to the band a little more and then watched The Connells. I know I'm in no position to criticize a band, but watching REM type music just isn't my thing.

We stepped out met up with deSol again and closed out the night. A very good Saturday night.

Sunday we rehearsed and Jacki and I went to the Allman Brothers Band at the Fox. Great music, although not too exciting to watch. They were selling Instant Live cd performances of the show immediately afterwards and I'm realizing that I'll enjoy the cd of the show better than the show itself. At least I can now say I've seen them. I must admit they brought a guest keyboardist and proceeded into a great jam between him, Warren and Derek Trucks. That jam was worth the price of admission.

Monday night we played an 11pm set at Smiths Olde Bar. Of course load in at 5:30 occurs just as Hurricane Jeanne, which is now Tropical Storm Jeanne blows into the greater Atlanta area. I'm out trying to take my drums up a flight of stairs fighting rain that is coming down in horizontal sheets. Needless to say I was soaked after load in.

As the first band from Nashville went on, I could immediately tell we've gone to the next level. The first two bands were great. Very tight, good songwriting, great musicians, and in general young people that love original music. Most of the places we had been playing preferred cover bands, so having a full night of original music was definitely a treat.

A few of my co-workers and their significant others came out and we put on a great 50 minute set. Short and sweet. After our show some people from the crowd that we didn't know asked how they could get more information on us and some of the other bands came by and gave us their approval.

We have Andrews again on Thursday and it appears we are moving up in the world of local Atlanta music.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Nelly Runs 'Sweat,' 'Suit' Straight To The Top

Nelly Runs 'Sweat,' 'Suit' Straight To The Top

And the winner is...

We went on an hour and a half later than our scheduled performance, to a moderate sized crowd and won the wildcard for the battle of the bands. So we've been invited back to play next Saturday in the final round. The votes were 10 points from the judges and 1 point from any person you brought through the door. The amazing thing is we only had two people come through the door but still managed votes into the high 20s. Maybe we are the next critically acclaimed band :-)

One of the high points of our set was The Weather Song. You had people out in the crowd visibily feeling the groove of the song and having a good time. And then after the song, the sound guy comes across our monitors and tells us that was a really good song.

It turns out a new band, deSol, that Jacki and I discovered at Bonnaroo was in the audience. James, the conga player, Soto, the lead guitarist and a friend of theirs was sitting right in front of my band. I approached them, reintroduced myself and after a weird moment of them not realizing who I was, they remembered Jacki. We talked about some pictures I took of them at Bonnaroo and at a show a month or so back in Atlanta that they were able to check out.

deSol was gracious enough to stay long into the night to see our set. They had nothing but good things to say about our music and about my playing. The funny thing is they seem to have the Spinal Tap syndrome with drummers, so I said next time the rotating door opens, then give me a call. :-) They are on Curb records and their album came out about 3-4 weeks ago.

We exchanged phone numbers and there is a chance that Jacki and I will take some of the guys out to dinner in appreciation of their music.

Our next show is at Smith's Olde Bar on Monday night and we hope to see you there. And remember my offer, if you come out to our show, find me, and mention my blog, I'll buy you your first round of drinks.


Thursday, September 23, 2004

Battle at andrews

I'm sitting at Andrews Upstairs waititng for our time to go on stage. As usual things are a bit unorganized as you'd expect with 10 bands. The best I can tell they are running about an hour behind which should put us on stage around midnight.


Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from EarthLink.

Monday, September 20, 2004

Super Demos

I'm pleased to present for your listening pleasure the new demos from The Superlatives.





Katie Voss - Vocals / Guitars
Michael Voss - Guitars / Background Vocals
Michael Gavrielides - Bass / Background Vocals
David Howard - Drums

Recorded August 2004 at Voss House studios.
Engineered, Mixed and Produced by David Howard and Michael Voss.
All songs written by Katie Voss and Copyright 2004

For more information check out The Superlatives website

Special thanks to Ron Rudd for some feedback during the early mixing stages.


MSNBC - Forecast: Song Costs May Fall Like Rain

Article from msnbc. Real has done the standard loss leader experiement in order to attract new customers. Their experiement worked. They gained new customers but more significantly. Real sold six times as much music and took in three times as much money.

Now lets put the math together. For simplicity, let's assume Real sold 6,000,000 tunes.
Real's revenue = 6,000,000 songs * $0.49 = $2,940,000

Apple in the same period, if you believe Real's CEO :-)
Apple's revenue = 1,000,000 songs * $0.99 = $999,000

With Apple the music publisher received approximately $0.70 per song therefore $700,000
With Real the music publisher received $4,200,000

Quite a big difference. Unfortunately this is a model that Real can't sustain, and the opportunity the music publisher gives up today is quite large (4.2M - .7M=3.6M)

Even if the publisher cuts their royalties to $0.20 they will still receive more cash in the above scenario $1,200,000.

Music publishers take notice. Finding a middle ground, between $0.20 and $0.40 would be better for all players, except Real. Honestly who are they fooling if all parts are equal. iTunes will win everytime if price isn't a differentiator. The one thing Real and Napster has going for them that Apple hasn't figured out quite yet, is a subscription model for services.

MSNBC - Forecast: Song Costs May Fall Like Rain: "This summer provided a clue to further harnessing the force of digital nature. For three weeks, Real Networks tried to lure new customers by slashing prices to 49 cents a song and $4.99 per album. Since Real paid the full royalty load to the labels (almost 70 cents a tune), the company lost money on every transaction. CEO Rob Glaser says that the company did get new customers, but here's the real news: Real sold six times as much music and took in three times as much money."

Sunday, September 19, 2004

The Superlatives - Super Demos

After nearly two months of sporadically working on the album demos we've finished. Three songs completed for others to hear. These will be posted on our website in the next week or so and if the band can afford it, we may have the tracks mastered and put onto cd for promotional purposes.

I strongly recommend a ProTools 6.X setup on a Mac as a viable recording solution. Although a G4 iMac with only 768MB of memory might be cutting it close if you will be using many of the plugins or a large number of tracks. The recording equipment and software cost $1195 but was well worth the price. The iMac was another $2K or so, but Apple just announced their new G5 iMacs which should nicely do.

The Superlatives has a few gigs over the next couple of weeks. I suspect after we finish those we will put together the plan for the cd. We have been toying with the idea that we will use fewer tracks, maybe 5-6 instead of the 8 or 9 we had originally discussed. And then to throw everything off Katie mentioned tonight she has two more songs she has been working on, one of which is probably worthy of our next batch of recordings.

For those of you wanting to hear the tunes, you can check out our website under the Music section, or you can pester me at a show or via email and I'll post them or burn a disc for you.

The Superlatives

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Shows keep coming in

My band has gotten a windfall of new shows lined up. After a month of dealing with death, heavy work schedules and little rehearsal we are back to playing.

It all starts Sunday at Jake's Toadhouse to finish off the battle of the bands. A bit uncoordinated on their part, but its all just rock and roll now, isn't it? Next Thursday at Andrew's Upstairs, the following Monday at Smiths Olde Bar, and then the last show is perhaps something to get excited about.

We've been invited to play the Atlanta Falcons Tailgate party pre-game on October 10. This should get us hopefully in front of out largest crowd yet. A full 2 hour set.

Come out and support live music. Mention this site and I'll personally buy you a beer at the show. (Band members don't count!)

Friday, September 10, 2004

Live on DSL

Received the DSL replacement modem last night, and all appears to be well. Up and running and just converted the website over to the DSL line.

Now I just have to watch to see if lack of static IP is going to cause a problem.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Sunday, September 05, 2004

DSL false start

Looks like DSL isn't working after all. I got it to briefly and intermittently work Friday night but nothing on Saturday. After a few more calls to customer support they've decided to send me a replacement modem.

In the meantime this server is back running off the cable modem connection.

I will note that when it was working the speeds seemed faster than the cable line. Only time will tell...

Friday, September 03, 2004

DSL

Two weeks and four contacts into customer support DSL is finally up and running. No maybe for those users who Upload or Download from my servers will get slightly better performance.

Let me know if things seem terribly slow.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Reminder to self

Always remember to save before you bounce a mix to disk.

We had the perfect mix, really!!! I ended up losing about 2 hours of mixing tonight due to a crash. Drums, vocals and bass need to be re-eqd and automated.

Ugh!!!

CNN.com - Space signal studied for alien contact - Sep 2, 2004

Maybe my SETI work will pay off after all. It is pretty exciting to think we may looking at an ET signal. The only problem is we will likely never know for sure.

CNN.com - Space signal studied for alien contact - Sep 2, 2004

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Mixing

Last night the band got together and listened to mixes of some of our favorite cds. The intent was to listen to mixes of other bands to see what can guide how we mix and ultimately inspire our approach to mixing.

Cds included some of my favorites including Bob Schneider and The Ugly Americans, Cry Of Love, Edwin McCain, Black Crowes, and a couple of others. The other guys brought in Tom Petty, and John Mellencamp.

It was definitely a good experiment. We were able to quickly identify what we liked and how we could apply to our music. Mike V and I spent the remainer of the evening mixing Kiss Me Goodbye and approaching with how do we add emphasis to the different sections of the song, and attempting to keep it interesting but not over the top. After a couple of hours I can confidently say we have our best mix to date.

We should finish up mixing of our first three tracks in the next couple of weeks and I'll be posting at least one of them on the site. The others you'll have to come to our shows to get.

Did I mention Smiths Olde Bar called. We are booked for Monday September 27.

McGraw's 'Live' Powers To No. 1

McGraw's 'Live' Powers To No. 1

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Appliance Bust

Its been a tough couple of days as a consumer. We bought a new washer and dryer last weekend and they were delivered today. Well, they don't fit. Buy German backfired on us this time around. We have a small laundry room and it looks like the super capacity models just won't fit. After a couple of hours at Best Buy measuring, and measuring again we found some that might work. If they don't we are going to have to stack them. They will be delivered on Monday so hopefully it will work out.

First DSL and now this.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Setting Up Your DSL Connection

Strike One.

I received my DSL install kit today. After the better part of an hour working on my own and another hour with customer support all I have is an opened troble ticket with escalation.

It amazes me anyone has DSL. This is my third attempt in over the years to get DSL and all have failed. We will see if they can get me up and running.

Also, don't you hate when they tell you to perform troubleshooting such as, please shutdown your computer, unplug all the wires, plug them back end, and restart your computer. Like this wasn't the first thing I did before I called you!!!

Stay tuned...

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Sunday, August 22, 2004

DSL vs Cable

This site has been running off of my cable connection. I've decided to attempt the switch to DSL, mainly because my work will reimburse me for DSL service since they are the ISP. Over the next month, if all is successful, I should convert over to DSL.

I suspect upload speeds will be quicker, but downloads will be slower. This is good for users of my site, but bad for my lossless music downloads.

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Battle continued

Can you believe it? We won tonight's competition. I am quite surprised. We played well, for us, but listening back to the recordings and watching the video we still weren't 100 %. We had great energy on stage and a nice sound mix so all of the good things paid off for us.

Now the final round is September 11, which is the night of both Edwin McCain, which Jacki and I are going to, and Gov't Mule, which Katie and Mike are going to. I may be selling some Edwin tickets on ebay if we can coordinate times to play on 9/11.

I'm off to bed and quite happy about tonight's small victory.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Battle of the bands

Another battle of the bands took place tonight. We played a great set at jakes toadhouse. It felt good to play one of our best sets, played in front of new people and were even exposed to judges that have grammy and multi platinum credits.

the second band is a hippie jam band. Not a bad band in any way and seem to be hitting it off with the jakes crowd. I think they called honky voodoo.

Who knows if this battle will take us anywhere but regardless its been fun. It turns out the band will make a debut appearance without me monday at smiths. I'm a little bummed I can't join them but hopefully they'll make it through the first two rounds and I can join themn on wednesday.


Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from EarthLink.

Day of mourning

Usally I don't have very personal things to write about but yesterday my grandmother passed away. Not expected but not a shock either. We will be heading to the funeral in Louisiana tomorrow. An unfortunate thing about the timing is my daughter's 13th birthday is tomorrow, and definitely not something you want looming over a celebration.

Needless to say The Superlatives open mic performance on Monday at Smiths Olde Bar is cancelled.


Monday, August 09, 2004

Being one with the MIx

This weekend was a weekend of mixing. Or at least learning how. Now that we've finished tracking for 2 of the 3 songs we are currently demoing I decided to invest a little time in the mixing process to see what I could come away with.

After 2 1/2 hours Saturday night I thought I had a rough mix that could use a little work but was a good start. Not being familiar with the monitors at the studio I ended up creating the deadest, dullest mix one could imagine. I listened to the track on several different stereos including my home system with my reference quality NHT speakers. I took quite a few notes on what needed to change and headed back to the studio.

But first a quick trip to Guitar Center to see what books they had that might be able to help. I ran into Ryan, who has helped me quite a bit this past year with my DW drums, and he recommeded I speak to Skip in pro audio. We chatted for a bit, and the guy had some great experience working in the original Capricorn studios and seeing members of the Allman Brothers pass through. He helped me pick several books and then I was back to the studio.

I spent about an hour flipping through the books reading what I could and then thought lets give this a quick run and see what I come up with. Once I again I learned that nothing about mixing is quick. I spent another 3 hours or so and ended up getting 2 mixes that sound fairly nice. I'm also getting to where one mix sounds better in the car and the other at home. I've got a few more tweaks to make but will have a demo mix I'm proud of after the next session.

If anyone in wants to give some tips on mixing please send me an email dhoward@gmail.com


Thursday, August 05, 2004

CNN.com - Space race contender sets launch date - Aug 5, 2004

And the race is on. I have a strange feeling about this second contendor. Hopefully they are truly prepared, but with a recent injection of $500,000 and a bit of a sudden approach I hope they don't put anyone in jeorpardy with an accelerated launch.

CNN.com - Space race contender sets launch date - Aug 5, 2004

CNN.com - Cincinnati lifts 1979�ban prompted by deadly Who concert - Aug 5, 2004

Too me this is big news. Considering the impact it had on The Who and the recent Rockslide incident with Peal Jam I know some of those bands will be torn by this decision. Clearly festival seating needs to be a fun safe environment, however with heavier bands like Metallica, and many of the acts on Ozzfest the fun agression of the pit can quickly turn dangerous for the unprepared.

CNN.com - Cincinnati lifts 1979�ban prompted by deadly Who concert - Aug 5, 2004: "and security personnel also will have to be in place before the doors are opened, and a written evacuation plan will be required"

Sunday, August 01, 2004

The week of concerts

A couple of days ago I saw one of my favorite bands W.A.S.P. Play at the Cotton Club in Atlanta. I decided to go last minute due to the bands notoriety of canceling shows and even tours.

I did a drive by of the venue and could tell the show wouldn't be packed so I parked and went in.
The opening band was over before I walked in which was fine by me. Checking out new metal bands live isn't at the top of the fun things to do list for me.

I noticed the PA was extremely bad, very muddy and no clarity in any of the tunes playing. I figured no big deal. The roadies kept playing with the mics and looked as though they were going through a soundcheck. Evidently the sound on the stage was not any better.

Blackie and band finally came and played a medley of tunes. You could barely hear the vocals but the band seemed into it. After the medley Blackie proceeds to tell everyone the club is ripping people off with the sound and that the band can't hear a thing on stage. The threat was if it wasn't fixed the band was leaving.

They proceeded to play through their largest hits back to back including Wild Child, Animal, The Real Me, I Wanna Be Somebody, Blind In Texas. Almost too good to be true, especially since these are the staples of their set. And then it was over. 7 tunes 35 minutes and 20 bucks later it was over.

Rather disappointing. Turns out after reading their website this tour has been pretty hit or miss. I felt better after reading the longest set of the tour was 12 songs and about 60 minutes. I guess I should only try to get 10 of my dollars back.

Now I'm sitting at hifi buys amphitheater waiting for Rush to go on stage. Rush and KISS are the shows this week. I'm sure they won't disappoint.

Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from EarthLink.

Kiss Me over and over again

Yesterday Mike and Katie recorded guitars and vocals most of the day. I thought I was going to run by the studio and re-cut a drum track but that didn't happen. Jacki and Darian tagged along for my quick one hour drum re-tracking and ended up spending the better part of 8 hours at the studio as Katie and Mike recorded.

The good news is we are getting the hang of the ProTools gear and were able to start experimenting with microphone placement. We used a condensor mic from the drum set and were able to get a large full sound out of Katie's Ovation. We also started double mic'ing vocals and the amp for the electric guitar. One mic was close range and used the condensor about 3 feet back to capture the sound of the room. All in all we are getting some great sounds recorded.

We will be tracking background vocals next and should be done with the preproduction tracking for Kiss Me. We may add an electric bass track to complement the acoustic but that will be it for this tune.

The goal is to complete tracking for the preproduction tracks by mid August and perform mix and mastering of these demo tracks the following week. This will allow us to fully familiarize ourselves with ProTools, getting decent sounds, as well as arrangements for the songs. Once we have these three demos we will start the true recording of our cd.

Oh, and when this all said and done I will likely get an engineering credit and possible production credit on the cd :-)


Thursday, July 29, 2004

Rough Tracks

The last two nights have been spent tracking pre-production type takes of 3 songs.  We've decided to demo 3 of our new songs for this next round of recording.  The purpose is two fold.  It allows us to become familiar with the Digidesign gear, and ProTools.  It will also give us an opportunity to listen critically to the parts we're playing and provide feedback to one another.

Kiss Me Goodbye, Mr. Knowitall, and Silver Lines, which is a new song title for the song we debuted live last week.  Raw drum and bass tracks have been recorded and we will start tracking guitars and vocals over the weekend.  I'm hopeful by the end of next week all recording for these tracks will be complete and then we can spend a week or so learning how to use the effects plug ins, mix automation, as well as final eq'ing for cd mastering. 

The beauty of digital recording became apparent last night.  We peformed a handful of punch-ins on the bass and were able to easily select the section we wanted to punch in visually, provide a 4 bar lead in, and 2 bars out of the take.  We were able to do all bass recording and punch ins for three tracks in about 2 1/2 hours, and that was with the learning curve of ProTools as an obstacle.

When we did our last set of demos to ADAT, the punch process involved setting locations, punch in and punch out points, and then recording.  You had to hope that the punch in/out points weren't audibly noticeable and didn't disrupt the previous parts.  In the event that the punch in or out point was slightly off you had to expand the duration of the punch in and try again.  Digitally if you don't like what you did or you did it in the wrong place, you just click Undo.

The ProTools set up will likely cut our recording time in half compared to what we had to deal with previously.  We will also have much more control over compression, EQ, reverb, etc...

 

Monday, July 26, 2004

Tuning drums

My daughter and I spent a couple of hours at the studio tonight tuning the toms. I purchased a Drum Dial that allows one to easliy measure the tension of the head at each lug. The goal is to match at each lug and then the head is in tune with it self.

Running through this exercise made a HUGE difference. The toms are well spaced musically from one another and the overtones and ringing I used to get seem to be almost entirely gone.

Tomorrow night I'll need to set up the snare drum with a new top head and we will likely begin tracking Kiss Me Goodbye.

Kiss Eyeing Concert DVD

Kiss Eyeing Concert DVD

Recording Day 2

Well we aren't quite to the recording phase but we worked through most of the gear, mic'd up the drums and are recording through the line ins as well as through the ADAT light pipe.

Other than learning on the fly about digital clocking, and isolating a couple of noisy cables, things went rather smoothly. It took about 2.5 hours to get things up and going, and we were able to successfully simultaneously record 10 tracks live to disc. I'm confident running up to 16 tracks live will not be a problem and will likely be something we test tonight.

Toward the end of the night we figured out how to break out separate mixes so I can get a mix with a click track and no drums, and the rest of the band can get some drums and no click through their headphones.

All in all the Digi 002R is a very cool piece of gear.

The mission for tonight will be to tune the drums and likely replace some of the drum heads.

Saturday, July 24, 2004

The Toadhouse

Last night we played at Jake's Toadhouse and had a great time. Sana Band opened the set and played two 40 minute sets before we went on. Pretty interesting and obscure blues covers. They were having their cd release party which for them was unfortunately a bust. I don't think they had one person come through the door to see their set. The last song of their set was a James Brown cover with a guest performance by one of their friends who did an amazing James Brown. His performance alone was worth the price of admission. An older black man likely in his late 50s. He danced, did splits, and a had the presence of James Brown at his peak 30+ years ago.

We ended up going on shortly after midnight and played about 2 hours. When it was all said and done we left the stage after 2am. A late night indeed. For those that came out we unleashed 3 new original tunes. Mr Knowitall, I Guess, and Don't Start. I think Don't Start is a working title but we may end up keeping it. Katie wrote the new tunes and they are some of her strongest material yet.

Stu, a friend of Mike V, and now a friend of the band came up for 4 songs and played harmonica. A couple of covers including Blues Traveler's Runaround and When The Levee Breaks by the mighty Zep.

All in all a good night. We sold a couple of shirts, made some new friends, and I was even able to lure a couple of my co-workers out for a late night.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Our first CD

The Superlatives, my band, has decided to record our first cd. The irony is this all happens as we are invited to play a new series of shows in the Atlanta area. Including Jake's Toadhouse, Smiths Olde Bar, and possibly an appearance on one of the college radio shows.

Back to the cd... We are hoping for a release in December, however the biggest obstacle, and greatest opportunity is we are doing this ourselves. Mike Voss and I will likely be doing all of the recording, engineering and production. I've put up the money for most of the new gear we need to complete the project.

Gear includes:
iMac 1GHZ - 17" flat screen
Maxtor 250 GB firewire drive w/Oxford 911 chipset
DigiDesign 002R w/ ProTools LE 6.4
Tascam US-428 as a control surface for ProTools

The great thing about this system is the software will be a ProTools LE 32 track system. We will increase our tracks from the 24 ADAT tracks we had, and we will have the flexibility of digital recording and editing. The bad thing is we have zero experience.

All the gear should be set up in our studio this upcoming week and we will likely record a rehearsal or two to see how everything is working out before we focus on recording tracks. I'll get some pictures of the setup later this week.

Our next show is Friday July 23rd at Jake's Toadhouse. They liked our demo and press kit and called us this past Thursday to book us. Now if only all bookings were that easy.

Monday, July 12, 2004

iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDs | CNET News.com

Can someone explain the commotion with this? I recently purchased this so called copy protected disc and was able to easily rip into iTunes and sync to my iPod with zero problems.

When I placed the disc into my iMac it asked if I wanted to install the software, I simply said no. I have no compatibility problems.

Likewise, on the PC simply saying no to the installation of optional software will prevent this copy protected mess from SunnComm from being installed on your computer.


iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDs | CNET News.com: "600 customer service comments we've gotten, you see that 80 percent of them have to do with iPod compatibility,' said SunnComm International Chief Executive Officer Peter Jacobs, whose technology "

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Debian

The majority of this evening was spent setting up Debian as my new webserver. I had been running everything on my iMac. The change comes because of the band.

We've decided to invest in a ProTools LE setup and have decided to use Mac as the platform of choice. So as a result I had to move all of my server settings over from the iMac over to this new server.

I took the harddrive from my old DishPlayer and retrofitted an old Dell PII/450MHZ. No real problems and this will be the first post to the new box.

Friday, July 09, 2004

My trip to San Jose

Here is an email I shared with a coworker yesterday. Not something I'm necessarily proud of, but it is my life nonetheless.

Subject: The Morning After

I'm glad my day didn't start in atlanta because I'd still be on the ground.

I woke up at 6:08 for a 7:05 flight. Evidently setting an alarm clock in a druken stupor is not a skill I have.

I get downstairs, grab some cash since I can't wait for a credit card cab, check out and hop in a cab. I get to the airport at 6:15. I've now been awake for less than 10 minutes.

I walk to the delta counter and the line is going almost out the door. So my sorry ass with no delta status walks through the first class line and the person at the counter said nothing. Maybe it was the fact that my flight was to leave in 40 minutes, maybe it was the unbrushed hair, or maybe it was the alcohol still on my breath. She didn't say a word, just processed my ticket and gave me no direct eye contact.

I'm now waiting to board my flight, still tipsy, slightly dehydrated, and so tired I can barely bring my vision into focus.

All I can say is today would not have been possible in atlanta. And I'm the only person I know that wakes up less than an hour before their flight and actually makes it in a post 9/11 world.

Thanks for getting my ass trashed last night. Enjoy your game of golf.

G-Unit Rapper Banks No. 1 Solo Debut

DMB comes in at #10, with 83,000. A sign that their live albums have quite a bit of demand. I just ordered received the Gorge Box Set from the DMB website.

Rush also came in at #19 wtih 48,000 units sold. Not bad for a covers ep of 60s songs.

G-Unit Rapper Banks No. 1 Solo Debut

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Jadakiss Cruises To No. 1 Debut

Velvet Revolver hangs on to the top 10.

Jadakiss Cruises To No. 1 Debut

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

BILLBOARD

As expected the Beasties take number 1 and Velvet Revolver falls from the top. I am surprised to see second week sales of VR over 100K.

Also looks like Los Lonely Boys and Phish (Trey) may have benefitted from Bonnaroo.

BILLBOARD

Monday, June 21, 2004

MSNBC - Private rocket ship breaks space barrier

They did it. Scaled Composites launched the first private craft into space. I suspect the X-Prize will be captured by the end of September.

MSNBC - Private rocket ship breaks space barrier

Indie music riding the digital surge | CNET News.com

A good article on how GarageBand.com has helped one musician get noticed. This is definitely something I'll be telling the rest of my band about.

We are looking at another round of recording this summer and will be looking at distribution options in the fall.

Indie music riding the digital surge | CNET News.com

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Bonnaroo pics

Bonnaroo pictures are posted here

livebonnaroo.com

One of the great things about a live show such as Bonnaroo is the numerous tapers. Less than a week after the last performance shows are starting to appear on the net as well as on the official livebonnaroo.com site.

Last night I downloaded from the livebonnaroo site the Dave Matthews and Friends performance from the first night. A really nice sounding matrix recording, although not as clean sounding as most of the Dave Matthews warehouse club releases, it does properly capture the sound that evening.

Another great show I've downloaded off of STG is from Kings Of Leon. I had never heard their music before the performance and I was surprised to see how good they were. Evidently the tapers were hasselled a bit about taping but that didn't stop shows from getting released. Considering this was an audience recording it came out great.

Other shows I'm in the process of downloading and listening to include Chris Robinson and Govt Mule.

And considering a fell asleep before the end of the Primus set, I'm hopeful for a Primus release with the Adrian Belew guest appearance.


Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Velvet Revolver # 1 - BILLBOARD

Velvet Revolver did it. They came in at number 1, with 256,000 copies sold. The hype definitely worked for the band, although I suspect it may drop out of the top 10 next week.

BILLBOARD

Monday, June 14, 2004

Bonnaroo day 3 and day 4

So when we left off we were sitting in our car waiting for the rain to stop. Well it didn't. It took nearly two hours for the rain to let up. Galactic went on about an hour and half late and we were able to listen from the car. We cracked the windows and heard their entire set. Towards the end of their set the rain stopped and we ventured back out.

When we left Atlanta we picked up a couple of hooded rain ponchos as suggested by the Bonnaroo "to bring" list. We thought we had picked up some white ponchos with an Atlanta Falcons logo on it. Once we opened the poncho up it turned out that we were a walking advertisement for the Atlanta Falcons. And we don't even watch football. So imagine the spectacle, a bunch of muddy and wet hippies that have no care for corporate america and then we walk in with bright white atlanta falcon rain ponchos. Helmets were all over it, we looked ridiculous and couldn't stop laughing at ourselves. And then to rub salt in the wound as we walk over to The Dead some guy stops me and says Atlanta huh... I hate you. He shot me the finger and mumbled something about how "our team" beat his. I think he said he was Minneapolis, I don't even know who "we" beat. Oh well, off to the Dead.

The one thing I didn't think about is dirt and rain brings mud. Lots of mud. The festival grounds were a mess. It took us nearly 30 minutes to make a trek that normally took us 10-15. We got to the VIP bleachers just as the Dead went onto the stage. We didn't know what to expect, considering this was our first Dead show. All I can say is we were in full people watching mode. There was this one man or woman (we couldn't tell) that was dancing around in the most uncoordinated way. Imagine a cross between Elaine from Seinfield combined with fat Monica from Friends and then a little chicken dance thrown in for good measure. This was as entertaining as the show itself. We must of watched this person for half an hour.

The Dead's first set lasted about an hour. You could tell they were good, and the crowd was into it but it was a little too mellow for Jacki and I. Warren Haynes was the best part of their set. Since Jacki's getting bored she says hey lets leave and head back towards our camp. As we were walking down the stairs to the grounds The Dead says were going to take a quick break. So instead of quietly sneaking out of their set we are back in the crowd of 90,000+.

It took us about 30 minutes to get back and we headed for the Primus stage. We got there about midnight in anticipation of a 12:30am show. Primus had their full stage set up and were in the process of having their video screens and props placed on the stage. About 12:15 we looked all set to go. A Johnny Cash cd was playing over the PA and was good music to hold us over. I think it was the American III cd, covers of I Won't Back Down, One, and some others. We heard about 40 minutes worth of music and it was pushing about 12:40 now. Then the cd started over. Then another 40 minutes and Jacki says I'm outta here. She goes back to the camp and I'm sitting in the bleachers soaking wet and cold, and then the cd starts over yet again!!! Then the crowd started yelling change the cd. So they did. About 1:15 or so they change the cd and the crowd thought they were about to come out. It felt like easily another 30 minutes or so and then they finally came out. Our tent was only about 100 yards away from the stage so Jacki was awoken by the crowd and the band.

Primus was playing the second largest stage and it looked as though the entire crowd from the Dead had come out for this set. It was solid people as far as the eye could see and Les Claypool even commented on it. I stayed for about an hour of the set and after hearing Jerry Was A Racecar Driver I decided to head back to camp. I was about to fall over from being so tired. In fact, while in the bleachers I nodded off briefly, would wake up, wonder where I was would see I was at a concert and then I would spaz because I'd then notice all of these people sitting right next to, in front of, and behind me. After the 2nd or 3rd time of doing this I headed back to camp.

I don't know what time it was but I got back to camp probably around 3am as the drum solo was finishing up. And then I was out. Rumor has it Adrian Belew showed up for the end of the set, but I'll just have to wait for the bootleg.

The next day we got up and went to see de SoL. They were awesome! Lots of energy and a cross between Rusted Root and Santana. Lots of percussion and great vocals. They also had guitar and keyboards. The guys we met the day before were the drummer (drum set) and the lead guitarist. They have an album coming out in August so be sure to check it out.

After their set we ate some lunch and headed back to the camp to cool off. We heard about a 45 minutes of Taj Mahal and then we headed over to see moe. It was hot, but we learned our lesson at Govt Mule. We brought an umbrella for shade. We sat through to the end of their set and then headed back to one of the tents for Maroon5. On our way to the tent we stopped by Cat's Music the cd store on the grounds and I picked up some more discs of some of the artists we had seen. I asked someone to hand me the Maroon5 cd and they said have you heard. They canceled. So I put the cd back and found Jacki sitting and listening to Antigone Rising. I mentioned that Maroon5 cancelled but I wanted to confirm so I headed over to their tent and sure enough the sound guy said the singer blew out his voice and they canceled their show.

It was now about 6pm and we made a decision to head back home and get out of the mud pit. We were able to hear David Byrne singing "Once In A Lifetime" from the camp. So I started doing my best David Byrne impression by chopping my arm from the elbow down to the wrist.... same as it ever was... Yeah whatever that means.

Once we got to our car our neighboring campers told us that another big storm was heading in with hail and gusts of up to 60 mph winds. Well whatever motivation was left for seeing Trey Anastasio was lost and we packed up. On our way out I asked one of our neighbors to give me his email address so he could turn me on to some good Trey shows. And then he gets excited and runs back to his car and emerges with multiple Trey shows. He explains that some friends he had planned to meet up with at Bonnaroo didn't show so I was able to take my pick of a couple of shows.

We left about 6:30 and got on our way. It was an uneventful ride home, although we could see a lot of Bonnaroo cars on the road. And right around 8:30 Bonnaroo time we put in one of the Trey shows to carry us back into Atlanta. When we got home the first thing on the list were showers. No more mud, and no more sulphur water. Monday is a day of rest and Tuesday is back to reality...

When it was all said and done, we saw or heard 20 bands over 3 1/2 days and got to see first hand what a crowd of 90,000 people looks like. It was a lot of fun albeit very tiring. The heat and the mud weren't fun but after talking to other bonnaroo'ers it is a part of the experience.

New bands we were turned onto include Kings Of Leon, de SoL, My Morning Jacket, and Los Lonely Boys. We ended up leaving with their cds in hand. Now we can look forward to next year, and we'll be sure to bring the rain boots.

Bonnaroo article on Billboard

Billboard article on Bonnaroo

I'll be posting my personal wrap up soon. We left the show early about midday Sunday but a caught a few more bands on Sunday.

BILLBOARD

BILLBOARD

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Day 3

We are about half way through day 3. Yes it is 7pm and we are only
half way, Primus will be carrying us until about 3 in the morning.

We were able to sleep a little later today, since we figured out how
to ventilate the tent. We made it to the late hour of 7am. After
eating some fruit, and drinking some water we headed out to that 70s
tent. The worst reject video games, and ironically only one or two
came from the 70s, the remainder were mid to late eighties.

The first band of the day was Kings Of Leon. A very young band with
all of the right moves. We were able to get right up front but Jacki
bailed because of the crowd. And then the first of the day
occurred... it rained. A quick 10 minute rain that puddled up things
and left a great cloud of steam. I watched into the last song of the
set and met back up with Jacki for lunch.

We walked back to camp and heard Gomez but didn't stop. They were
playing at the stage closest to the campsite. After cooling off we
went to the big Mule show. Another Zep appearance was made. Warren
and band played No Quarter in its entirety and then quoted a lick off
of Physical Graffiti toward the end of their set. It was hot so we
mainly listened and didn't see all that much. The only gripe about
the set was by the time they were getting warmed up the show ended.
An hour and half doesn't do Warren justice.

When we were waiting for the Kings of Leon set a song came over the PA
that I had heard a couple of times over the last couple of days. The
guy next to us said it was My Morning Jacket. So, after Govt Mule we
headed to the other big stage for My Morning Jacket. On the way we
met two of the guys in a new band called deSol. They have been
together about 4 years but have their major label debut coming out on
Curb records in a month or so. They were passing out cds to passer
bys to encourage people to come to their set on Sunday. After taking
the freebie we looked at the cover and noticed it was the band that
was passing out the disc. We went back chatted briefly and got a
picture and they signed the disc.

On the way to My Morning Jacket the clouds started to roll in. We saw
about 2 songs and then ran for cover. About 10 minutes after we left
their set the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the rain let loose.


We did get to have a good visit with our camp neighbors. John and
Melissa had a sun shade thing that was about to blow away. We ran to
grab it as it was taking off from the ground. Then we found out the
shade was just kind of sitting on the ground and wasn't strapped down.
John and Melissa showed up as we were holding the screen down. John
found the stake hammered it down and then we had a good chat. Turns
out John is the editor of a new magazine "Best". I'll have to hit John up
to write an article on the stuff I do at EarthLink at some point.


And that brings us to now. Sitting in our car, listening to John's
iPod via the iTrip on 87.9 FM. They are sitting in their car and he
is broadcasting for the neighbors.

Tonight we've got Galactic, The Dead and Primus. 3 bands down and 3 to go.

Day 2 Part 2

After the Chris Robinson signing we went right back into the same line
for the Warren Haynes signing. You could clearly see the popularity
of an artist at Bonnaroo. Los Lonely Boys line was 10 minutes, Chris
Robinson was 20 minutes, and Warren Haynes was about 40 minutes.

After the uncordial signing by Chris, but we did get a good picture of
him, it was nice to see how friendly and sincere Warren Haynes was.
Jacki took a picture of me with Warren.

At Chris' they gave out a home made CDR of New Earth Mud tracks. It
looked like they were made for the signing, since his new album is
still about 2 weeks away from being released.

After the Warren signing we went to see Chris and the New Earth Mud.
We saw about 45 minutes of his set. The band was smokin. Audley
Freed was on lead guitar and even Chris was playing guitar throughout
the set.

We left Chris' set about halfway through to catch the second half of
Dylan. Jacki and I split up as I was off to the General Store.
Miraculously we actually met up behind the soundboard with no
problems. Dylan played a few songs off of his most recent release and
closed the set with some of his older hits. It was the first time for
us to see him.

We headed back to camp, got some drinks, dropped off some of our gear
and headed right back to Dave Matthews. Both Bob and Dave were
playing on the big stage so we were able to take advantage of our VIP
status and sit in the bleachers and not have to sit in the sea of
people.

We thought Bob was packed, we were wrong. Dave was standing room only
as far as the eye could see. 10s of thousands of people. I'd guess
upwards of 50,000 people were at Dave alone. This was a Dave and
Friends set, Trey from phish played about 3/4 of the set with him, we
had a brief Dave and Tim set, and the show was heavy on the covers.
Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel), "Thank you, for letting me be myself"
(?), Fire (Jimi Hendrix), Mr Bulldog (Beatles), and on some of the
jams Tim would interweave other songs. One that stuck out for me was
the intro for Bring It On Home (Led Zep).

The set had the full range of emotion, mellow songs, mid tempo and
even some driving rockers. They played about 2 1/2 hours.

After that we walked to the movie tent, rested, and then saw about 5
minutes of Praxis with Buckethead ala KFC. Back to camp, showers, and
we'll wait for the morning sauna...

Day 2 Part 2

After the Chris Robinson signing we went right back into the same line for the Warren Haynes signing. You could clearly see the popularity of an artist at Bonnaroo. Los Lonely Boys line was 10 minutes, Chris Robinson was 20 minutes, and Warren Haynes was about 40 minutes.

After the uncordial signing by Chris, but we did get a good picture of him, it was nice to see how friendly and sincere Warren Haynes was. Jacki took a picture of me with Warren.

At Chris' they gave out a home made CDR of New Earth Mud tracks. It looked like they were made for the signing, since his new album is still about 2 weeks away from being released.

After the Warren signing we went to see Chris and the New Earth Mud. We saw about 45 minutes of his set. The band was smokin. Audley Freed was on lead guitar and even Chris was playing guitar throughout the set.

We left Chris' set about halfway through to catch the second half of Dylan. Jacki and I split up as I was off to the General Store. Miraculously we actually met up behind the soundboard with no problems. Dylan played a few songs off of his most recent release and closed the set with some of his older hits. It was the first time for us to see him.

We headed back to camp, got some drinks, dropped off some of our gear and headed right back to Dave Matthews. Both Bob and Dave were playing on the big stage so we were able to take advantage of our VIP status and sit in the bleachers and not have to sit in the sea of people.

We thought Bob was packed, we were wrong. Dave was standing room only as far as the eye could see. 10s of thousands of people. I'd guess upwards of 50,000 people were at Dave alone. This was a Dave and Friends set, Trey from phish played about 3/4 of the set with him, we had a brief Dave and Tim set, and the show was heavy on the covers. Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel), "Thank you, for letting me be myself" (?), Fire (Jimi Hendrix), Mr Bulldog (Beatles), and on some of the jams Tim would interweave other songs. One that stuck out for me was the intro for Bring It On Home (Led Zep).

The set had the full range of emotion, mellow songs, mid tempo and even some driving rockers. They played about 2 1/2 hours.

After that we walked to the movie tent, rested, and then saw about 5 minutes of Praxis with Buckethead ala KFC. Back to camp, showers, and we'll wait for the morning sauna...

Day 2 Part 2

After the Chris Robinson signing we went right back into the same line for the Warren Haynes signing. You could clearly see the popularity of an artist at Bonnaroo. Los Lonely Boys line was 10 minutes, Chris Robinson was 20 minutes, and Warren Haynes was about 40 minutes.

After the uncordial signing by Chris, but we did get a good picture of him, it was nice to see how friendly and sincere Warren Haynes was. Jacki took a picture of me with Warren.

At Chris' they gave out a home made CDR of New Earth Mud tracks. It looked like they were made for the signing, since his new album is still about 2 weeks away from being released.

After the Warren signing we went to see Chris and the New Earth Mud. We saw about 45 minutes of his set. The band was smokin. Audley Freed was on lead guitar and even Chris was playing guitar throughout the set.

We left Chris' set about halfway through to catch the second half of Dylan. Jacki and I split up as I was off to the General Store. Miraculously we actually met up behind the soundboard with no problems. Dylan played a few songs off of his most recent release and closed the set with some of his older hits. It was the first time for us to see him.

We headed back to camp, got some drinks, dropped off some of our gear and headed right back to Dave Matthews. Both Bob and Dave were playing on the big stage so we were able to take advantage of our VIP status and sit in the bleachers and not have to sit in the sea of people.

We thought Bob was packed, we were wrong. Dave was standing room only as far as the eye could see. 10s of thousands of people. I'd guess upwards of 50,000 people were at Dave alone. This was a Dave and Friends set, Trey from phish played about 3/4 of the set with him, we had a brief Dave and Tim set, and the show was heavy on the covers. Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel), "Thank you, for letting me be myself" (?), Fire (Jimi Hendrix), Mr Bulldog (Beatles), and on some of the jams Tim would interweave other songs. One that stuck out for me was the intro for Bring It On Home (Led Zep).

The set had the full range of emotion, mellow songs, mid tempo and even some driving rockers. They played about 2 1/2 hours.

After that we walked to the movie tent, rested, and then saw about 5 minutes of Praxis with Buckethead ala KFC. Back to camp, showers, and we'll wait for the morning sauna...

Friday, June 11, 2004

Day 2 part 1

It is HOT!!!

We got up bright and early at 6:30am because the tent had become a sauna. It was a tough start, showers in standing water, muddy grounds, rough port-a-potties.

Two observations. Jacki stated I'm in the minority, and a very small minority for not having a tattoo. Second observation is people are sunburned. We saw one girl with her back blistering up due to the sun.

The Los Lonely Boys started todays festivities with a main stage kick off at noon. We went to their autograph signing afterwards in the sonic village and saw them perform with no instruments “acalpulco” style. Briefly listened to Wilco while eating lunch and just left the Chris Robinson signing. We'll see him perform later today.



Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from EarthLink.

Night 1

We got into the camping grounds last night about 7pm.

After struggling with the instructions, the 95+ degree heat and our lack of camping skills we got our tent set up.

We thought we would miss the VIP party at 8pm but we had the time zone change on our side. The special guests were the Dirty Dozen Brass band. Great pictures are forthcoming. And the food in the VIP area was great. Caeser salad, albeit with soft croutons, green beans, new potatoes, and prime rib, although not "prime" it did the job. Once we got through the line they had run out of chicken.

So get this. There was a free beer line that was empty. Food was king in the VIP area. We stood in line for tshirts and posters, complimentary for the VIPs, and then roamed Centeroo.

Headed to the Movie tent, saw some Dave Chappelle, and then over to the comedy tent. Three of the 4 comics we saw were excellent. The lady comic was not in her element and although no one booed you could tell she wasn't going over well.

We saw a crazy Japanese punk band, that kept yelling Mango which we think means Comic, based on the sign they held up. Not here for punk so we roamed, found the artist signing areas and are now out and about the next morning.


Thursday, June 10, 2004

10 miles outside of Bonnaroo

We are about 10 miles from bonnaroo in traffic. We've gone 4 miles in the last hour.

We stopped at walmart on the way out and saw many bonnaroo'ers. Walmart came over the pa to say thanks for making this your last stop before bonnaroo.

The one thing we noticed is everyone has beer. And bad beer at that. Cases and cases of bud light, and coors light. We may be out of our element with one 6 pack of shiner bock.

I wanted to get those little brown paper bags for our cokes. At least we'd look like we were drinking in that white trash kind of way.

Stay tuned.....
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from EarthLink.

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

The road to BONNAROO

Jacki and I are heading out to Bonnaroo tomorrow with the full on VIP experience. A nice small show with 80,000 of our closest friends.

I'm looking forward to the sets from
Dave Matthews
Govt Mule
Chris Robinson
Dylan (unfortunately playing at the same time as Chris Robinson)
Primus
Los Lonely Boys
Wilco
The Dead (w Warren Haynes)
Galactic
Moe
Maroon5

I'll try to send updates from the show!

2004 BONNAROO MUSIC FESTIVAL

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

San Francisco

This past weekend Jacki met me in San Francisco. Considering how little time we actually had we did quite a bit.

Saturday morning we headed to the Golden Gate for some pictures. We then went to Sausalito and grabbed a bite to eat and saw walked through some art galleries. The first gallery had art work of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick. Grace Slick had a great painting she did of Frank Zappa. The price was a smooth 9 grand so we quickly left.

Further down the street we met the Tapia's. They have a great little art gallery that you should visit. We purchased an orginal painting of tulips that had tremendous depth and a fantastic frame. We also picked up a painting of the Golden Gate bridge as seen from Baker Beach. This was Jacki's favorite.

After that we drove through the Muir Woods and over to the Pacific Cost Highway. Very dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean with cliffs that dropped a couple of hundred feet to the shore.

From there we headed back to San Francisco, drove down Lombard Street and saw a view from Hyde down to Fisherman's Wharf that was identical to one of the paintings in the Tapia Gallery.

Next we went to Pier 39. Saw the Sea Lions and ate at Bubba Gumps. We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf, viewed Alcatraz in the distance and then headed back to the hotel. A fun and busy day.

Sunday was spent heading over the Bay Bridge towards Oakland. After we drove across we drove right back and headed to Ghiradelli Square. We ate some Seafood and getting some chocolate desserts. Then it was time to head to the airport. On the way we passed through Union Square and then our trip was back to Atlanta.

You can view some pictures of the trip here.

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