I’m perhaps a quarter of the way through Michael Pollan’s How To Change Your Mind. It’s been an engrossing read thus far, but one of the things that I’m finding most interesting is that it brings some of my favorite comics into a whole new context. Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles is pretty obviously referencing some of the same experiences Pollan writes about, but it’s not like Morrison was ever coy about his influences. I suppose I always knew that Warren Ellis’ Planetary issue #21 was covering this territory, but I hadn’t recognized just how specific it was.
On an unrelated note, I’m currently working on absolutely mangling one of my favorite old Genesis songs. I’m not putting that way to be self-deprecating; “mangling” is a literal description of what I’m doing to the poor, helpless tune. It’s a simple, lush, and sentimental song and I’m trying to make it cold, distant, and mechanical and…I think it’s working? I dunno. We’ll know more in a week or two.
This has been the most fun, and most challenging thing I’ve worked on from a production standpoint. I’m still a complete newb when it comes to recording music. I’m not at all familiar with the tools, and the learning curve is steep. It’s like trying to express ideas with an extremely limited vocabulary. It’s difficult, but the fact that it forces you to be creative is rewarding. Today’s fun? Recording the drum parts as separate parts when there’s only one audio output on the machine. It worked, but I bet there are better ways to do it.
My brain feels reasonably bright and well-functioning right now, which would normally be an unreservedly good thing. But…I’m not a winter person, and the time between Thanksgiving and New Year gets my anxiety cooking. In some ways, a dull mind would probably be preferable, huh? Anyway, it’s going to be a busy, busy next couple of weeks or so. I’m going to go to parties. Plural. More than one. I’ll be among friends, or at the very least pleasant acquaintances, so it won’t be bad, but Mr. Brain isn’t having it. I should probably stab it with a Q-Tip or something.
We moved out of our last apartment complex in no small part because of the constant construction and repairs. What is the point of having a view of a pond when there’s scaffolding over your windows for over a year? Not that we could see the scaffolding, since there was also a plastic sheet of unknown purpose over the window as well. I say “unknown purpose” since it didn’t prevent paint or stucco from getting on the glass, nor did it prevent rain from getting inside.
Because we like the neighborhood, we didn’t move far. In fact, we only moved across a small service road from the old place. Can you guess where this is going? I bet you can! The construction at our old complex has moved from the building where our old apartment was to the one that is directly outside of our windows. So now, we see nothing but scaffolding and we hear hammering and drilling and the unmistakable beep beep beep for trucks backing up all day long.
In retrospect, perhaps we should have considered moving more than 50 yards away? We do like the neighborhood, and the view is lovely when the scaffolding is down.
I am saddened to report that the Vero experiment is not going particularly well. Ello was positively lively in comparison. They have a nice interface, but if I wanted to simply post things for my own benefit without any expectation that anyone would ever see them, I might as well just have a blog, right?
-RK