work, work, work, ride, repeat

Had a great week of studio work. Monday I recorded a kids choir for a new Christian/kids album coming out soon. Tuesday I leasurely setup for a three day tracking date for Jonathan Singleton out at the Castle studio. Wed-Fri was assisting on tracks from 9-6pm with Jonathan. It went smoothly and we got some great songs recorded. Ben Fowler was engineering and it is always a pleasure working with him! We all enjoyed the nice pace and being done each day at 6pm. It is very beautiful out by the Caste. You are in a totally difference state than working on Music Row. You can take a break and just stroll around the back yard amid all the cedar trees and rock outcroppings. I hadn't worked there since last Aug so it was nice to be back.

Saturday morning came and Thad and Troy planned a trip out to Mount Eagle to ride. We loaded up in Troy's Element and hit to road around 9:30. We were on the trail by 11am and loving life! The trail was awesome, a great mix of all the elements you want in a trail. About the only thing I noticed missing is long grinder style climbs, which I wasn't missing saturday. I brought the single speed, mainly because I'm lazy and haven't fixed my rear tire on the squishy bike, but also because I knew Thad and Troy would be on their single speeds and I wanted to take mine to a new trail, even if it meant I would have to work harder. Turns out Thad was 100% correct, this trail IS a great SS trail! All but a very few of the climbs are doable and involve a nice run up to keep/get your momentum going. I liked having the lighter bike and really didn't mind not having rear suspension even though it was pretty rocky. My upper body is sore today but it feels good. It's that nice feeling that you know you worked hard.

My neck is still bothering me just slightly. Mainly during the ride it started acting up on me. This past week it has been feeling really good. I probably should be more diligent about stretching it. I don't think riding the SS helped it yesterday but it's not too bad today.

I've got a few more hours of Google work to cram in today sometime. I've had such a full week that I managed to put it off too long. I'm wondering what next week will be like. I'm assisting on a week long mix session at Blackbird studios, so I hope I'll have time in the evenings to get in some Google work.

busy busy busy

Another week gone by and lots and lots of stuff going on. Headed to Chicago last thurs for 4 days. Beth and I headed up a couple days early to enjoy the city before The Renegade Festival started. We had a great time in the city and had a hugely successful show. We were both blown away by how busy we were saturday. We were just swamped for hours with customers, helping answer questions, teaching how lariats fit and checking people out. We actually had a steady line to buy stuff. Sunday was more sane and we still sold a good amount; definitely the best show to date.

I uploaded my pics from the trip to Flickr so you (all of you) can view them here: Chicago Pics



I worked on a fun Brooks and Dunn project last week. We recorded a live show at that they filmed for a future release. The entire road crew came and setup like it was any other show. I wasn't sure what to expect when I accepted the gig but it was a lot of fun and it all went very smooth. We also lucked into some great catering and we're done by 5:30pm. Can't beat the banker hours with free food. Well there could of been free beer I guess.

I decided I'm going to put my Google money towards a new laptop once Leopard is released. It has already given me more incentive to put in some extra hours. I've already put in my required hours for this week and am going to try to get in as much as I can. We are heading to St Louis this weekend for a one day show with Freshie and Zero. We'll be back in time for some biking on sunday I hope.

I went out for the first time in a few weeks last night. Thad emailed me an invitation for a night ride with he and Mike N and I jumped in. We got two fun night laps in at Chickasaw Trace, one forward and one reverse. It was my first reverse lap which led to some surprises in the dark. Had one close encounter with a friendly rock which led to a big goose-egg on my shin...thinking it is time for a top tube pad and a crotch guard for the stem. I've experienced way too much leg injuries from my bike frame. You can read Thad's account of the ride complete with pics here:
J5MarsupialStreet

tired but accomplished

Well we (Beth and I) made it through our first show weekend for this month. Two more to go, then probably a couple in October as well. We headed down to Germantown outside of Memphis friday afternoon at a leasurely pace and found our hotel, no thanks to Googlemaps directions. Apparently Google needs to work on their left and right some more, back to school, no student left behind!! The hotel turned out to be a great find. Large suites with a decent breakfast and a pretty comfy bed, can't really ask for more on the business trips.

The show went well minus some grueling temps on Saturday and a few downpours on sunday. We managed to stay relatively dry and sell a bunch of jewelry. A lot of folks stopped by the booth and expressed how happy they were that we were back again this year. I think it is so awesome to think that Beth is having such an effect on people across the country!

A lot of the vendors surrounding us decided to leave sunday morning before the show even opened because of the poor weather. I have to admit the idea crossed our minds, but we always get so aggravated when people leave early and you never know what is going to happen in the long run. It always seems when people give up, the weather always turns for the better and the customers flock in. This show was no exception. We had great sales saturday even in the extreme muggy heat, and then sold almost as much sunday with 4 less hours and all the wet weather. The scared vendors really missed out this time!

I haven't been doing much biking lately. It's sad, but I've just had too much going on. I thought about getting out today but I had a few random studio projects to work on and some Google work to do. It also was muggy in the morning and then rained quite a bit around lunch. I'm looking forward to some more bike polo tomorrow. We are heading to Chicago thursday and I have a remote session in Franklin booked for wed. Tomorrow may be my only chance to be on a bike this week. I was doing so well last month towards my goal of 1000 off-road miles this year. Hopefully I can still put in some good miles sometime this month, or hit it really hard in October to stay on track. I've got about 300 miles to go. I wonder what my reward for myself will be?? hmmm never really gave that any though til now!

Well I'll leave this with another pic from the weekend. Found a good beer at Outback of all places while we were in Germantown. Coopers Sparkling Ale. Sounded like I wouldn't like it, and that it may be cider-like, but it turned out to be fantastic and refreshing. Sorta reminded me of a bubbly Bottingtons, even had a little Yazoo Pale taste to it, though less hoppy and more carbonated.

tired and self-medicating

Well, another long day of work, emotions ran the gamut today... excitement, frustration, accomplishment, aggrevation, awe, exhausted. That would be the summary of today's events in chronological order. Worked a tracking session today at 10am which went well but just seems filled with little things to aggravate you. At the end of that session though I was happy with the sounds I got and the songs all turned out well. A little hectic getting rolling and getting the herd happy, but I think everyone left happy (I hope).

We recorded vocals on the 5 songs we cut starting at 2pm, after a too-short lunch break of Jersey Mike's (yum!) I was presented with a few different challenges as far as vocal types to record but it was fun and I still feel that I get better and quicker each session I do. At this point it isn't so much of how to do it, as it's listening and deciding what I 'want' to do and how I want to handle or treat the vocal. I also had the pleasure of recording a very talented singer today which was enjoyable! She had an amazing power to her voice and had all the control it needed. Surprisingly too she was almost 8 months pregnant and still belted it out!! We finished up the day with songwriters singing on their respective songs, did a couple rough mixes and headed home.

My neck is still really bothering me. It felt great for most of today but after about 5pm it started to ache again. Still not sure of the cause of the problem, just hopeful it goes away before the end of the weekend. I am currently enjoying a taproom No.21 Lager.

I just took another pain pill from Beth. Hopefully this one helps more than the last one I took which only seemed to give me a stomach ache.

Looking forward to a long night of rest and sleeping in a little tomorrow. Then we'll be packing up and heading to Memphis for the weekend. I think it will be very nice to get away for a few days.

Wow, since May 2006

Can't believe I set this thing up over a year ago! Still not sure if or how much I'll actually use this thing. I'm not the best with writing down what's going on with me and having it come across remotely interesting. I figured out how to integrate mycyclinglog info into the blog which I think is pretty cool.

I just finished up another night of bike polo with the Yazoo crew. Another night of very few crashes and little carnage which is nice. I will have a few more bruises on my legs, mainly below my knees. My knees have a bad habit of scraping down my top tube repeatedly. It's been a blast these past couple weeks riding and hanging with Thad ( Johnny5 ) and the other Yazoo guys I've met. They have quite the weekly riding schedule down with many nights filled with beer which is always welcomed! Between two rides at MB, bar hopping from Yazoo through midtown and two game of bike polo I've just been lovin' it! They are very welcoming!

As I sit here and type I can barely move my head to the right without a load of pain. I'm not sure if this would be polo related or just a bad night of sleep this week. I'm thinking that latter. Beth just gave me a stout painkiller so I'm waiting for it to kick in before I crash. I've got a big day of work tomorrow which is great! Work has been picking back up again which has been very nice. Work always equals cash flow which keeps morale up! I've got two sessions booked tomorrow and need to find time to set up for a tracking date that's going on thursday morning. No sense complaining! Enjoy the work when it is there and enjoy the time off when it isn't.... keep telling myself this!

It is actually going to work out great this week. I worked a little last night (Labor Day), worked today and will work tomorrow and thurs. Then friday, Beth and I are packin' the Explorer and heading to German Town in Memphis, TN for a craft show weekend. Hopefully the show will go smooth with a constant flow of interested consumers. No electricity at this show so no fan, hope it stays relatively cool for us, under 90 would be grand!

Here is a link to my flickr set from my first bike polo night this past saturday:
Chewieez Inaugural Bike Polo Night
video:
Click for Vid, didn't want to embed (too big)