Oh yeah. I forgot to keep writing here. I'm still finishing up The Other Paris, an official CS recommendation. Sante can say so much in so few words, suggesting rather than insisting. Presenting the facts and then making what seems like an effortless observation. It's no wonder Sante translated Fénéon, a gift from CS. Brevity is wit. I am taking my time reading now. For a couple weeks I went through a frenzy, but it has passed. I'm reading technical manuals now, also, which has slowed me down almost to a stop. Though, not just reading, I am applying what I've learned. Each page a repeated chore of sorts, but the skill learned becomes fun. Using machines to create music or rhythms requires practice and patience.
Somehow - perhaps through some crisis of age - I have started building a new home studio. I have no idea how much money I've spent, but so far I have no regrets. Life is about getting your money's worth. I have a pretty good mixture of analog and digital gear - old and new, automated and manual. Enough to keep me having fun. A bit of knowledge has come back to me through the fog, memories of how to do things a certain way and why to do them that way. CS has asked me about home recording and I have offered some small bits of advice. What he is trying to do is very difficult to do well, because it captures and announces every inconsistency and error. I have learned to record in such a way that errors can be mitigated or corrected, but it leaves the result sometimes feeling stale.
Well, I've been practicing playing the guitar, also. Though mostly scales - the minor pentatonic - up and down the neck in every key, over and over again and in different positions, when what I really need to practice is rhythm. Anybody can play the guitar, fewer can play along well with a song. It is a different kind of practice. The sound of a metronome starts to drive me crazy. I'm no Jerry Garcia. This also requires practice and patience. Where does time go.
It goes in there. You put it in the hole, dummy!
Way down in the hole.
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