Sticky History

Apparently s4 and I both had difficulty getting to work. I got parked in by a Coca Cola semi truck, or, as the English might say, an articulated lorry, at the petrol station. Tee hee. (I watched "Spaced" on Sunday. Shup.) star5 called a bit ago from the Apple Store looking for s4, who apparently was supposed to open the store according to their schedule. According to his, he didn't work until 11am. (sigh)

Had a lovely evening last night with thaad and alisgray that included pomegranate and pie and scones and lots of tea and very nice conversation. Seems strange that I've known thaadpole for so long, sometimes. She mentioned that her kitty, now a pudgy, tortoiseshell lapcat (who bears a frightening resemblance to star5's kitty) just turned eleven. I almost didn't recognize her from the bouncy, rail thin kitten I met right after Thaad got her. Eleven years ago.

The artistic director from the music theatre down the hall just came in with his neck craned to the ceiling. The ceiling in here is 15 feet up and comprised of thick beams and boards, being a converted warehouse. He asked if we ever had any problems with stuff falling from the ceiling. I, too, craned my neck to the ceiling and replied that I hadn't had any problems, but that I was the new kid, so that really only means everything's been fine here since August.

He asked if I knew about the molasses. I didn't. He told me that in the 30's, this warehouse was a molasses factory, and that a mob hit caused barrels of molasses to get shot up and soak into the floorboards. Apparently it's still there, and when it gets hot enough in the summer, it gains...er, loses enough viscosity to drip out of the ceiling and into our studio spaces. Summertime molasses drips, he says, have been confirmed by the photo studio and sculpture studios down the hall. He was concerned because they'd put plastic on the ceiling to prevent molasses mishaps, but the fire department wasn't looking so kindly on that solution and they'd have to take it down. I guess he's okay until May or so at least, barring another indian summer weekend.

hey, music geeks!

Aimed mostly at, but not limited to my music-geek friends:
Tell me, if you please, your recommendations for two things.

Firstly:

Trip-hop. I want more trip-hop. I'm familiar with some, but not a lot. I like it, I want more. School me! Dark is good, glitch influence is good. I really like Portishead, I really like Bowery Electric, some Tricky and some Massive Attack.

Secondly:

(Warning, music geekery following.)

I wanna save up for more gear in the next 6 months to a year. I wanna continue and refine the live-loop-based solo thing, but get more gear that will facilitate doing this without hauling my whole dang studio around. I basically rigged up the K2000 to a MIDI fader box (Peavy PC1600, for those who care) to be a 16-track looper, but it's not really built to do that; setting it up is a pretty severe pain in the ass and it's glitchy in a not-good way. Not to mention that thing is HEAVY. I like the ease of the boomerang, but get annoyed at its limitations pretty easily. So, my geeky gearhead friends, lay it on me- Pros and cons of grooveboxes? An Echoplex? A laptop running Live? The various electribes? Possible combinations of these? I'm thinking a MIDI synchable looper would be really awesome, so I'm seriously considering saving up for an Echoplex even though they're mono.

I'd eventually like a new keyboard too, maybe an Ion, something so I can put Sigfried the Prophet into gigging retirement and let him live out more of his lovable yet detuned old age in the studio and have something more conducive to Low Orbit shows and recording practices. Also, I'm still poor, so only cheaper or older gear is usually really feasible. Okaythanks.

I might know as much as I need to know about this stuff via Low Orbit and just have to hunker down, save some money and just decide, but thought I'd think out loud and solicit opinions anyway.

(Music geekery done.)

I feel some trip-hoppy kinds of things wanting to come out. I haven't made nearly enough music this year, so this is the seed of the plan.