Lost in the Skahazadhan (and some other news)

I have been quiet here for the last week or so and with good reasons (or so I tell myself. heh.) I am knee-deep in the new George RR Martin book, A Dance With Dragons, the fifth in his series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I've found few faults with it thus far, and those that I have found, are pretty trivial and mine own writerly conscious going, "Well, I wouldn't have done it that way," but, of course, this isn't my story, regardless however much I want to be Jon Snow.

Okay, for those of you who haven't left from the geek-out, some other news on the horizon:

1. Don't forget my story, "El Camino," is available at Amazon. The print version - for those without kindle or smashwords - is coming very soon! It's fairly cheap to purchase and the other stories are also top-notch. (While you're at it, pick up the first Digital Science Fiction anthology with my friend Ken Schneyer's story in it.)

2. My Clarionite friends, Tom Underberg and Kali Wallace, are in the just-released The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. Get your copy at the liquidating Borders bookstores now! Or here! I recommend going to a physical location, however, and asking the bookseller if they have the new "Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities," to see the look on their faces. When I asked a recent bookseller at Borders, her respone was, "I don't know the words you just said to me." We had a good laugh.

3) In music news: Tin Tin Can continues to make headway on the full-length. Guitar overdubs are nearly finished. We have some horns, background vocals, banjo, and various other odd instruments to add. We've got 12 or 13 songs to choose from, but right now, we're leaning on 8 or 9 to make the cut.

4) I saw the final Harry Potter flick over the weekend, the Deathly Boring Hallows. Well. I was not impressed. Zero character development, 19 years later, inexplicable magic without consequences (yet again), 19 years later, and 19 years later. I also thought Hermione and Ron were about as boring as ever.

5) This weekend I'll be watching Cowboys & Aliens, which I am wary of, but have heard great things about (chiefly from http://www.io9.com/). We shall see. It looks stupendously cheesy to me, but I have been wrong before. The movie I really want to see, however, is Another Earth (despite its kind of moany-emo-trailer) but it isn't playing anywhere near Chicago as yet.

Now, back to the Skahazadhan and the Wall. I shall return again soon.

Tin Tin Can Recording: Father's Day Sessions, Day 2

Our second day of recording was a 14-hour session. It was initially plagued by some technical difficulties, but our engineer and studio owner, Mark Baykian, is pretty quick fellow and the difficulties were fixed in no time. The band set a grueling pace, doing take after take after take of each song. I think we got some really excellent stuff to tape, and I know the five of us are excited to share it with the world. We'll be working on vocals and overdubs over the next few sessions.

Here are some interesting things to note about the recording sessions:

1) We used two and a half reels of 2" analog tape to record the songs on.

2) A D19 mic was used to record scratch vocals with; this is the same mic used in a lot of Beatles recordings.

3) The cats' names are Lucky and Mikra. They did not allow their pictures to be taken.

4) Chris's guitar was recorded in an echo chamber beneath the studio, not unlike a dungeon.

5) Mike tuned a piano.

Here are some pictures of Day Two:

Tin Tin Can Recording: Father's Day Sessions, Day 1

These next few posts will mostly be pictures because, umm, recording is hard and hasn't left me with lots of free time. We worked diligently for thirteen hours yesterday, getting some really good takes on songs; today will be no different. I will have a rundown of antics and other nefarious deeds done in Pontiac later this week. Until then, enjoy these. I'll post more as time allows.

Mike tuning up.

Mike's guitar pedals. I'll see if I can get a pic of the elusive Chris B.'s tomorrow.

 Mike and Pierce in the studio.

The head and cab. It sits high up and away from all the rest of the amps, in the cold mountainous regions of the studio.

The carefully placed paperback and money. This book is amazing! So is that money!

The elusive Chris B., blurred and shrouded by the flash of a camera, as always.