Caustic Reverie’s latest album Mute is available for on-demand streaming and download from last.fm. I’ve added two more songs in addition to the title track: Vespers and Mute (Reprise).
Mute released on last.fm
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Category Archives: General
New toy: the H4 Handy Recorder
I’ve just gotten a new recording gadget, the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder from Samson. Although the menu layouts can be frustrating, this thing has remarkably good sound from the built-in microphones and even comes with lots of on-board effects. I tried to record some guitar and bass to test its 4-track recorder functions but I was having trouble getting any signal from the inputs. I guess I’ll probably have to read the dern manual.
Lost my greencard today
Someone took my greencard today when I was up in Miami. Luckily, I was getting sworn in to become a US citizen at the time, so it looks like I won’t be needing it.
It was a pretty long ceremony, as they had people stand up by nation in mostly alphabetical order with Cuba being last, probably because they were the largest and loudest group (over 400). I was one of six Canadians out of the 1201 to be naturalized. There was a big projection screen that they used mostly to show footage of a giant American flag fluttering. We recited the oath, said the pledge of allegiance, and then all of a sudden it turned into Lee Greenwood karaoke time. They didn’t use the screen for the oath or the pledge, but by god did we need to have the lyrics to God Bless the USA handy.
As we were leaving, several people with clipboards offered to fill out my voter registration card and mail it for me, probably at the expense of giving me party affiliation. I wonder if I can do a write-in for the Bull Moose party.
Trip report: Hellboy II
Since everyone was potentially flocking to the theaters to see either The Dark Knight or Mama Mia, I figured it was a good enough time to finally see the new Hellboy installment, The Golden Army.
Visually, it’s one of the most imaginative flicks I’ve seen in a while. Hellboy 2 has more weirdo trolls, faeries, and magical crap than any movie to date except maybe Stardust. I think I preferred the first movie for its Lovecraftian take on Men In Black (or MIB take on cosmic horror), but this time around, I’d easily trade an elf for a shoggoth or two.
I didn’t realize that they’d replaced David Hyde Pierce, so I was a little suprised to hear Abe Sapien not sounding like Frasier Crane’s brother. Doug Jones did a great job physically portraying him but I prefer Niles. Also on the character quibble side, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) has a really stupid haircut all of a sudden. Seth Green joined the cast to voice the semi-corporeal Johann Krauss and did a great job.
I didn’t care much for the story but it helped move things along from one sprawling action sequence to the next. Unfortunately, the cinematography occasionally suffers from Gladiator syndrome when there’s some crazy fight going on that I can’t focus on because the cameras are shaking, switching angles, and cutting to closeups so fast. I don’t think they screened this one for epileptics. There were some elves and crap that I couldn’t really relate to or care about, but who cares as long as they’re doing jumpkicks and flipping out like an albino ninja on PCP.
Overall, a good popcorn munch with some laughs, a few scares, and a crapload of intricate set design.
New gear!
I’ve finally gotten around to getting a decent pair of monitor speakers: the Edirol MA-15D active. They’re a good size for my room, sound great, and have a ton of input options including SPIDIF so I can go all-digital.
Not only is this much better than my tiny 5.1 setup (several speakers of which can be spotted in that shot) for mixing purposes, but it allows me to use my sound card for its intended purposes, rather than just as some extra inputs. It has two separate buses, so I can feed them from my regular sound card or the fancy recording one.
There’s another Random ML competition going on at SA, and this one is themed around the Panama Canal. My entry is turning out to be very abstract to the point where it might end up for something else. I’ll post a WIP mix once I get the drum programming finished.
Absente minded
The other day, I saw an article about absinthe being legalized in several states including Florida. Last Friday, I dropped by the local package store to see what was available. When I asked the woman at the counter if they had any absinthe, she pointed me to gift-set from a brand called Absente that was complete with glass and an absinthe spoon. She assured me it was the real thing but waited until after she had rung up my purchase to ask what the heck it was. It turns out that this brand uses a relative of wormwood to get around the thujone ban, and a lesser advertised fact would be the presence of food coloring to get the trademark green hue. It’s still pretty high proof and a lot less bitter than La Fée.
5-27-08 update
I’m still waiting on the replacement hard drive to get here, so my computer building has screeched to a halt.
On the music front, I’m working on two songs. The first one was based on a little keyboard etude I was working on to try and get myself back playing piano. It started to take a turn towards the chiptune so we’ll see how that comes out. In the midst of that track, a SA forums contest came up to write an original song based on a random Wikipedia entry. Quizzically enough, the theme ended up being the Ixil Triangle region of Guatemala. I’m mostly done with this track but there are a couple of rough transitions and I’d like to find some South-American flute sounds that would fit with the track.
New system in the works
The parts for my new computer have arrived. There was a nice big gash in the shipping box that looks suspiciously like someone tried to punt it.
There was a shit-ton of packing peanuts inside the box, so hopefully everything will be intact when it comes time to power the thing up.
Tomorrow shall be the day of building.
Hello world!
I’ve been threatening to update my horribly out of date website for years. Hooray for blog software for making it relatively easy to set something up.
A little about myself: I’m a graduate of the University of Miami where I double majored in Music Engineering and Computer Science. I code in Java, C++, and php/mysql. I’ve dabbled in Prolog and C#, and I’m in the process of learning Python. I’ve designed sound effects and written music for the independent shooter Facewound and have done voiceover work that appears in Garry’s Mod and Spongebob: The Movie for PC. I run a progressive rock/metal radio show for Sun 103.1/99.5 called the Eleventh Hour.
In my spare time, I like to write. Most of my stuff has been short fiction and essays so far, but I’ve been working on a few scripts here and there and have about a third of a novel banging around in the back of my mind. I’m an aspiring lyricist though I don’t really have anything recorded. I’m primarily a drumset player though I did pick up some marimba, tympani, and hand percussion at UM. I play a bit of bass and have been trying to teach myself guitar aside from the few power chords and Sabbath riffs I’ve picked up from jamming.
Close to the Edge, down by the river
I’m going to be playing one of my favorite side-long prog songs on tonights the Eleventh Hour: Yes – Close to the Edge. Scott lent me the remastered edition of the album, and on it there was a three minute edit for one of the movements that just doesn’t do the song justice. I know it ends up taking about a third of my show but I think more people should hear the song in it’s entirety.