andrew dodson

I spent this evening mixing, editing and mastering the orangewhip live recording. As I type this (on my Profile 4), I’m exporting the first mix (on the iBook). I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out, and I think the guys from orangewhip will be really surprised. I didn’t expect to be this far along so quickly, but I’m glad I am. Hopefully by Sunday, I will have a final mix. Reason being - I’m also recording Crestwood’s concert on Sunday. My iBook only has a 30GB hard drive, of which 12-15GB are usually free. Since the orangewhip recording is living on the hard drive right now, I’m down to only 5GB free. I have it backed up on my external drive, but it’s always good to have two copies until the master disc is burned. It’ll be nice to free up some space for the Crestwood recording.

I’ve learned, though, that I’ll need more RAM for future projects. I’m looking into getting a 1GB upgrade before I start work on the Crestwood project. I’ll also be working on the Josh Martin Band’s live recording once we finish overdubs in the coming weeks.

A little random blogging for my loyal readers. Here’s what I’ve been up to the past several days:

1. I had a rehearsal with Crestwood’s praise band on Sunday afternoon. We ran through our set for our concert this coming Sunday (downtown, Old Capital lawn, 2-4 p.m.). I was e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d afterward. The combination of mid-to-upper 90s temps and playing drums for a solid two hours did me in. I’m very much looking forward to the concert, though.

2. Went to The Dame in Lexington last night to record my good friends from orangewhip. They were covering Cream’s Disreali Gears from start to finish. They played extremely well, and the recording is going to turn out really nice. I did a 16-channel multitrack recording, which I’m now in the process of mixing and mastering. Unlike my multitrack recordings of Crestwood each week, which I usually only spend a couple of hours mixing & mastering, I’ll probably spend a good bit of time on this project. Hopefully, I’ll be able to hand them a product worth releasing when all’s said-and-done.

3. I’ve gotten a decent bit ahead at work, so I spent today working on the new CLS website. It’s a big undertaking. In regards to content, it’s by far the biggest site I’ve had a hand in developing. Fortunately, someone else handled creating the design. Now, I just need to spend a good bit of time inserting content into the pages. I’m thinking of going in on Saturday and slamming through it for a few hours to see how much I can get done. We’re hoping to launch the new site in the next couple of weeks.

4. It’s stinking hot!!!!!!!!!!!!

Music Reviews:
1. Just previewed (pre-listened?) Big Daddy Weave’s new album. It sounds really, really good. I’m going to fire up my iBook in a couple of minutes and download it from iTunes.

2. Jars of Clay - Redemption Songs. Part of the new trend that’s going around Christian music - taking old hymns and putting them to modern music. This is a really good effort. I especially enjoy the Beach Boys-esque version of “It Is Well With My Soul.”

3. Third Day’s Live Wire DVD - filmed at Louisville’s Palace Theater. Not intentionally, I hadn’t listened to Third Day in a really long time. I watched this for the first time this past weekend and realized Wire isn’t such a mediocre album after all. Not to mention, the DVD includes a really good version of “My Hope Is You.”

4. Lifehouse - all their albums. A few months ago, I gave Lifehouse a bad rating on one of their albums. I put together a playlist of their three albums on my iPod, and have been listening to it the past couple of days at work. I take back the bad rating I gave them. They’ve written some pretty good songs.

Movie Reviews (I recently joined Movie Warehouse and have been renting quite a few movies lately):
1. Butterfly Effect - saw it in theaters, decided to see it on DVD. Fairly good movie. Good entertainment on Friday or Saturday night.

2. Seabiscuit - I’ve rented this twice now and haven’t made it past the first thirty minutes. So… I can’t really review this movie. What I’ve seen was shaping up to be an interesting story. Maybe I’ll rent it again soon.

3. Gangs of New York - a decent amount of profanity, and a scene or two that aren’t for young eyes. Getting past that, I enjoyed watching this again (also saw it in the theater).

4. Harry Potter - Prisoner of (can’t spell this word, don’t feel like looking it up) - I’ve never read any of the books, but I admit to being a fan of the movies. I didn’t catch this one in the theater, so I had to catch up by renting it. I enjoyed this one as much as the previous movies.

5. Hitch - the first “chick flick” that guys seem to enjoy. Pretty much every guy I know that’s watched this has liked it. I’ll admit I liked it as well. A good movie for a date or mixed company.

I went to the UPS store yesterday to pack up and ship my Creative Zen Xtra MP3 player to Illinois. Some of you received my mass email a couple of weeks back with a list of things I’m selling. Looks like some people passed it along to other friends, and it payed off. Thanks! Here’s what’s still for sale:

1. Gateway Profile 4 all-in-one (think iMac) computer.
2. Canon camcorder - really nice, but I’ve only used it handful of times. Can’t justify keeping it when I have credit card debt!
3. Some odds and ends stereo equipment. If you’re needing something, email me and I might have it.

If any of you in the blogosphere are needing any of this stuff, or know someone who’s interested, shoot me an email at andrew@brianandrewdodson.com. I’ve found that shipping stuff from the UPS store is really, really easy, so I’ll be able to send it anywhere in the country. Adios…

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. My internet has been down for the last few days. The Frankfort Plant Board did a software update, only to discover it wasn’t completely compatible with my modem. They took care of the details on their end, and I came home today to find I was back up and running. For any of you that own a Linksys cable modem that may’ve experienced trouble this week with FPB cable modem service, now you know why. My internet withdrawal is now over.

I went to Georgetown College with the intentions of becoming a sports journalist. Thank God that idea changed pretty quick (although I stuck with my major and enjoyed it very much). I’m growing very tired of the media. Local, state, national, world. It doesn’t really matter.

In particular, I’m quite tired of the Karl Rove fiasco. How many people truly care about this? Democrats care because they consider it another black mark on President Bush’s tenure as our head hancho. Republicans care becuase they want to prove Democrats wrong, since the war in Iraq isn’t quite living up to its billing.

The only redeeming factor of the media? If it’s on TV, I can change the channel or turn it off. If it’s in the newspaper, I can put it down and open a book. If it’s on the internet, I can come to my blog and get on my soapbox.

*steps down*

For those that haven’t discovered him as of yet, I’d like to introduce Amos Lee. Imagine a male version of Norah Jones, and you’ll probably be listening to Amos Lee’s music. Ballad-style, jazzy, folksy, relaxing music. Head over to Google or iTunes to find out more about him. Good stuff.

I spent this evening updating the Distinct Impressions website. My client had sent me several email updates and a CD of pictures. The real work was transferring the site over to a GoLive CS format (the site was originally created in FrontPage). It didn’t take as long as I thought it would. For anyone out there looking for a great web design program, I can’t recommend GoLive enough. For that matter, I can’t recommend any Adobe product enough.

Several months ago, I posted about things preventing me from using my iBook (or another Mac) exclusively, and selling my Windows machine. Well, as I’ve learned more about Macs, I’m now convinced that I can do everything on my 12″ iBook that I can do on my Gateway Profile 4. Today’s discovery:

I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my email application on both machines. When I started using it on my Windows machine, it automatically imported all of my email from Microsoft Outlook into archive folders in Thunderbird. Way cool. Today, I found out that since most mail applications use the same file formats (even across Mac and Windows platforms), I can import all of my email on my Windows machine into Thunderbird on my iBook. Sound confusing? Here’s the long and short of it - I have over two years of email on my Windows machine that I don’t want to just delete. Now, I can bring it over to my Mac machine and keep it archived.

Thanks, Jesus. Never make it easy on us, do you?

Last night while enjoying Gangs of New York with some friends from church (and my landlord’s son), I get a knock at the door. I open it up to see one of Frankfort’s finest there to greet me.

Policeman: “You been playing some loud music up here?”
Me: “No, we’re just watching a movie.”
Policeman: “Well, might want to keep it down a little bit.”
Me: “okay.”

This is the second visit to my apartment by the FPD (not including Chuck stopping by one night for a visit). The first time was a few months back when I was practicing drums a little too late at night, shortly after she’d moved in.

I’m gonna have to disagree with her on this one. Justin says it may’ve been a little loud. Now, I’m a drummer, so I’m sure I’ve lost a bit of my hearing over the years. I would say it was above average volume, but by no means loud enough to be paid a visit by the cops. That’s just low on her part.

It gets better…

A couple weeks ago, I was leaving my apartment. She was in the driveway getting some things out of her car. I proceeded to get in my truck and pull away. NOT ONCE did she look up and acknowledge me. Not a, “hello,” not a, “how are you?” Nothing.

I’ll just keep forgetting all the times her two-year old goes running around the apartment, or starts jumping up and down. Or the occasional thuds from time to time that I still can’t figure out. I’ll just keep thinking about

Matthew 19:19 (Listen)

19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

.

I purchased a copy of Eugene Peterson’s The Message: Remix tonight. An alternate title could be The Laid Back Bible. I do not recommend this bible for actual study - that’s not it’s purpose. But, if you’re wanting to just get the point of what’s being said without having to use a lot of brain power, this is your translation.

A lot of people (traditionalists, extremists, etc.) are against this translation. I’ll say it again - it’s not for study purposes. It’s just a very laid back way to read the bible that’s put into modern language. The introduction says, “A lot of people think that the Bible originally came out sounding like something from the Middle Ages, but in reality it was originally written in the language of the streets. It was the language of fishermen, shopkeepers, and other regular people. Eugene wanted to get the Bible back to that kind of everyday, common language that all of us use when we’re not trying to be religious.”