This building sits back in the woods of the Lafata property. 

This is a look inside of the red building.  

The old shack back in the woods. This was way too unsafe to go inside. I would love to know how long it has been abandoned. 

This is a side view of the old shack. 

These doll parts used to be nailed to the trees surrounding the old shack in some "Blair Witch" type of display. 

Tom's omelette in all of its glory. 

Paulie G. relaxing in the back of his pickup truck. 

Happy 4th

I hope everyone had a good extended holiday weekend. I am finally almost 100% recovered from the jawbone infection incident of 2005. I had a lot of rest this weekend and of course my beautiful and awesome wife took great care of me as always. Also thank you Terrie, for your kind thoughts and your Take 5 tribute.

I watched the Live 8 concerts Saturday. I was mainly trying to catch The Who's and the reunited Pink Floyd's performances. They did not broadcast much of The Who's performance but from what I did see I have no choice but to draw the conclusion that they should really hang it up. Townshend looked old as hell but he jumped around like a kid and was very energetic. Roger Daltrey looked old as hell and it seemed as if he couldn't move. He just stood in one spot slightly crouched over. I know some people will read this and will be absolutely shocked that I could ever write anything negative about The Who. The Who were always my all time favorite rock band (at least until I discovered The Band) and I could never disparage them but let's not kid ourselves. This is not The Who. It's two old guys who used to be in The Who.

Pink Floyd by contrast were awesome. They are also old as hell but at least they don't still tour. I never thought I would see Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters occupying the same stage ever again. They sounded excellent. I have always thought that David Gilmour and George Harrison were the two "classiest" guitarists I have ever heard and Gilmour's guitar playing was flawless. Waters's basslines were just as good and I loved every minute of it.

Also, after seeing her at Live 8 I now think Joss Stone is the Hottest white girl in all of the land besides my wife of course.

Saturday night I heard my first ever shortwave pirate broadcast. I was scanning around the North American pirate frequency of 6,925 khz when I heard "Stairway To Heaven" playing. I did some fine tuning and I got it sounding pretty good. After the song had ended the announcement was made that I was listening to "Undercover Radio", broadcasting from "the middle of nowhere". The guy doing the broacast said he was going to end the show with "Free Bird" but instead played "Slow Ride" by Foghat. I was really amped to hear a pirate station. I have been trying to hear one since I first got into shortwave listening.

We celebrated my birthday at my parent's house yesterday with them and my grandparents. Jack and I had a really good time. My mom made her homemade pizza which I dearly love. I recieved a Guiness t-shirt, Guiness 4 pack, lemonade maker, and the complete series collection of the TV show "Chef" on DVD from my parents. My grandparents bought me a really cool biography of Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci is the supreme embodiment of the ultimate creative individual.

Last night was my first night out in a while. I went to Joe Lafata's house to do some overdubbing of guitar tracks to this past Friday's "House Music" session which I missed due to the root canal. I laid down about 5 or 6 of the craziest, most twisted guitar tracks that I have ever produced. It was a very productive session. Joe bought me a cool guitar t-shirt for my birthday.

After Joe's I headed over to Scott Lozon's. Rob Armitage was there as well. I gave each of them a copy of "A Beautiful Morning" and we shot the shit for awhile. Always good to see them. Have a great week.

The House Of Pain

I just got home from recieving an emergency root canal on my lower right molar. I have spent the better half of the last three days in a hell of a lot of pain. I had a dentist appointment tommorrow at 9:00 a.m. but I couldn't wait that long. My molar was infected and the infection spread throughout my jawbone eventually causing severe pain in my mouth and also to my inner ear on the right side. I figured I would write a quick blog update before the novacain wears off.

Somewhere there are a bunch of Take 5 candy bars silently laughing.

Another Lovely Summer Day

It's really hot out. I mean damn hot. I was working on the roof of the American Axle plant in Hamtramck like I always do and I thought that I had died and went to Hell.

Jack and I went to her cousin Denny and his wife Jen's house Saturday for their son Matthew's birthday party. It was cool to see everyone and they had some great food. Denny has built a home theater in his basement and it rocks extremely hard. He also has two of the most comfortable couches in that basement that my ass has ever had the pleasure of sitting on.

After Denny and Jen's we went to my cousin Tom's house for a graduation party for his son and my other cousin Tim's two daughters. They had good food as well. We didn't stay very long since I had to be back at American Axle at 6:00 A.M. Sunday morning.

Jack and I went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse last night for Father's day with Norm and Sass. Norm, Terrie, Brendan, and Aaron were also there. I had country fried steak and it was good.

I am really hoping I get the time off of work I requested. I am supposed to go up to Joe Lafata's cabin up by Ludington on the weekend of July 9th. If I do go Joe, Tommy, and I are going to do some recording. As much of a pain in the ass it is dragging a bunch of recording equiptment up north with me it is a really good feeling to know it's all there, ready to capture any magic (or lack of) that may occur. It should be a good time.

Jennifer Wilbanks: "The Runaway Bride". 

The Runaway Bride

All of you have seen pictures of the "Runaway Bride" by now i'm sure. What the hell is wrong with her eyes? Is she about to be hit by a bus or something? I mean DAMN!

Work Floyd

I have been working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for what seems like a long time although it has probably only been a week or so. I will be on this 7-12's schedule for awhile working down at the American Axle plant in Hamtramck on their rooftop air conditioners. Due to this constant working I probably will not be updating this blog much for a little while. I will try to update when I get a chance but lately I pretty much get up, work, shower, eat, and go to bed.

Pink Floyd and Roger Waters re-united? It's true. Click the link below for the details.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/

Download Update and More

I have updated my music download page with the last piece from "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 1" and a "mixed bag" of other songs.

We had a good "House Music" session last night. The lineup was Tommy, Nancy, and Danielle on vox, Joe on keyboards, Paulie G on drums, and Tim Kas and myself on guitar. I played bass for the last jam of the evening.

I have a Spooky Garcia session tonight. Should be a classic.

Another Weekend In Paradise

I hope everyone's Memorial Day weekend went well. As I wrote before Jackie, Aaron and I went up to The Northern Estate in Paradise for the holiday. We had a good time although we did more relaxing than anything.

Saturday we took Aaron to see the OK Corral which is a highlight of any visit to the Paradise area. We also went to the Point to see the lighthouse and to visit the giftshop where I bought yet another book of ghost stories and Jackie bought a Whitefish Point baseball hat and shirt set. For dinner Saturday night we took Aaron to the Bear Butt bar in Eckerton.

Sunday we mainly relaxed although we did go to the Yukon for lunch. Aaron and Jackie took advantage of the quiet to get some sleep while I devised a couple of new recording equiptment configurations for an upcoming musical collaboration with a certain someone from my musical past.

I had my shortwave radio with me and I received a couple of stations up there that I don't usually get down here. I logged my first ever reception of Radio Cairo Egypt, a station that has been high on my "must hear" list for a long time. I also received Radio Japan with amazing clarity. I will never again take any kind of trip without bringing a shortwave radio.

On Sunday afternoon while we were out on our Yukon run we stopped at an abandoned cottage that Jackie and I discovered about two years ago while exploring the area. I had always wanted to check out the inside of it but never got around to it. When we pulled up we noticed that the front door had been broken open so we decided to check out the inside. Upon entering and smelling that familiar "abandoned house" smell we noticed that someone had bolted a steering wheel from a car to the living room wall. I guess kids who had explored the inside in the past could have bolted the steering wheel to the wall but I really don't think so. Who would take the time to do something like that? Why would someone do that? Whoever bolted it to the wall made sure they found a stud to bolt it to. It was very solid with absolutely no movement of the wheel. My guess is that the original owners of the cottage placed it there. But why? I have explored probably close to 50 abandoned houses in my lifetime but I have never seen anything like that in one.

All in all it was a good weekend. Even better was the fact that didn't have to mess with loading and unloading recording equiptment and instruments. Other than working out the aforementioned recording equiptment schematics I didn't think about music at all which was nice.

I post below some of the "abandoned cottage" pictures.

This is the abandoned cottage that Jackie, Aaron and I explored while up in Paradise this weekend. 

Inside the abandoned cottage. 

The bathroom of the abandoned cottage. 

Inside of the cottage we found this steering wheel bolted to the wall. Why this was is anybody's guess. It looks like it was done by the original owners of the cottage. 

A closeup of the steering wheel afixed to the wall. 

Happy Holiday

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Enjoy some hamburgers and hot dogs but if you are eating the weiners be careful that you dont take too much and choke on them.

Preparing For The Holiday

Jackie, Aaron, and myself are going up north to the Northern Estate for the holiday weekend. I am so looking forward to getting up there. There are a couple things that we want to show Aaron but other than that we will just be relaxing. He has been up there before so he has seen a lot of what the area has to offer but we will be showing him some of our favorite spots such as the OK Corral and the creepy cemetary on Wildcat Road. I initially thought that I would bring some recording equiptment or instruments up with us but I have decided against it. It is just more stuff to bring up and to worry about when packing. Today I have to start getting some music together for the ride up. I usually stick to the 1920's and 30's country blues that I love so much.

Speaking of which. Does anybody out there reading this have any favorite albums to listen to while taking longer drives? Long drive music?

The Weekend

Twas a good weekend. I did my "House Music" thing Friday night.

Yesterday was my grandparents 80th birthday party at my parents house. Both Jack and I had a really good time. You couldn't ask for more cooperative weather. My aunt and uncle came in from Seattle and my other aunt and uncle were in from Grand Rapids. There was a ton of great food there as well as my dad grilled pork tenderloin, hot dogs, stadium kielbasa, and hamburgers. There was a ton of fruit dips, chips, pasta salad, cheesy potatoes, ect. as well. Jack and I got the cake from the same woman who made our wedding cake.

I have been getting into the shortwave radio again lately. This morning I heard a couple new stations for the first time. I heard Ecuador HCJB on 12,005 khz and Radio Korea Intl. broadcast from South Korea on 9,650 khz. Shortwave radio rocks.

This is the ARP 2500. It came out in 1970 and it is the synthesizer that I want the most. 

My Mistress

Although I am a married man I have a mistress. Jackie knows about my relationship with her and is suprisingly incredibly supportive of the time we spend together.

I have known her all of my life. She is wonderful, beautiful, and intelligent and makes me feel so great that I cannot imagine that anyone has ever felt better. When I am down she cheers me up. When I am mad she soothes me. If I feel worthless she gives me hope.

When I was a little boy she took me into her confidence and told me that someday I would find myself in her. I didn't know if she was lying but I wanted to believe her. Deep down inside I knew she was telling me the truth. I did find myself within her eventually and in her, I feel that my talent is unlimited and that I can accomplish anything that I want to.

It's taken me years to understand her and although I have made great strides in comprehending what she tells me I sometimes feel that she is speaking a language foreign to my own.

Sometimes I feel bad about the time I spend with her when I know I should be spending that time with Jackie but I feel helpless about needing to be with her.

She can be difficult sometimes. When I try to communicate with her she is silent. When I need her for inspiration she gives me none but I know that it will always pass and that we will be together forever.

She has been with me all of my life. Her name is Music.

Music Download Page Update

I updated the download webpage today.

http://www.ic-musicmedia.com/artist_pages/artistpage.php?id=102893

I posted the first 10 pieces from "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 1" for whoever is interested in checking it out. I will post the 11th and final piece from the album next time I update the page.

The Urge To Lose

I think I am ready to make a serious commitment to lose some weight. I would love to lose about 50 pounds or so. I realize that even if I lost the 50 pounds I would still be a large man because for some reason God saw fit to give me this massive bone structure that I carry around daily.

Keeping on a schedule of working out and exercising has never really been an issue for me. That is the easy part. My problem is cutting out the sweets. I have always been a chronic sweets binge eater. It is part of the very fabric of my being.

I like the thought of weighing 50 pounds less than I do right now but then I think what if I do it all in vain. I could lose the weight and look really good for a month and then get hit by a car driven by some distracted teenager. Then I would have to lie there on the sidewalk thinking "Goddamnit Life, You Son Of Bitch. You Screwed Me" as I slowly died. Or I could fall off of a roof at work and as I fell everything would go into slow motion and I would think of all the precious Take 5 candy bars I turned away from just to look good to the ground as I hit it.

If I did lose weight I'm sure it would prolong my life in someway but wouldn't that make me a procrastinator. Wouldn't I just be putting off the inevitable?

End Of The Week (a.k.a. Sweet Freedom)

It is finally Friday afternoon. There is no sweeter time of the week. There really isn't. I need this weekend. My arms are sore, my ribs are sore, everything is hurting.

I'm really looking forward to creating some beautiful music with my "House Music" cohorts tonight. I dearly love my Friday night "House Music" recording sessions although tonight I am being threatened with having to be the bass player unless Aaron comes through for me.

Jack and I are going to her cousin Leo's wedding tommorrow so I have to get out my dress clothes tonight and make sure I can still fit into them. Although I have been known to drink a beer or two at her families get togethers I am not sure how much drinking I will be doing. Terrie and Ryan will not be there and I am guessing that Norm will not be coming either.

In other news I am hopelessly addicted to Hershey's "Take 5" candy bars. I have taken to buying 4 or 5 at a time and eating about 2 a day. I have always been a whore for chocolate but this is bad. I also have tried "Peanut Butter Toast Crunch" which is a different version of "Cinnamon Toast Crunch" and I see the potential for another addiction.

Message To Microsoft Front Page

Message From Jeff Archer To Microsoft Front Page:

Victory Is Mine, BITCH.

Microsoft Front Page Sucks

Microsoft Front Page blows so hard. It really does. Don't think for a moment that it doesn't. Please don't let it trick you into thinking that it is some really nice easy program to use where all you have to do is type some things on the screen and post a picture and then you press a button and it all magically goes onto the web.

I have redone my main website again. It's all ready to go except I can't get Front Page to transfer it over correctly. It does this to me everytime. There is always a problem. This program uses no lube on me. NO LUBE and I'm raw and I'm bleeding now.

Eat me Front Page.

Links and Stuff.

I finally found out how to post links and a profile picture up on the blogpage here. I have links to my main website and my music download page in the "links" section. I also updated the songs on the music download page to include the last 6 songs from "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 2", the last of the Paradise tapes.

I'm pretty sure that with these two modular synthesizers at my disposal, I could rule the world. 

I love this picture. 

Milk, The Goddess, and The Haunted House

That heading sounds like it should be a song title eh? Perhaps a 30 minute song written in the style of the 70's progressive rock bands that I love so dearly. Maybe someday. Although in actuality these titles reveal themselves to be the three main topics of this post.

Milk: Thursday afternoon I updated my main website. Then I was hungry so I grabbed a bag of Quaker chocolate rice patty things and a glass of milk. I came back to the computer to update this site and placed the bag and the milk on the computer table. I turned to get something and I knocked the glass of milk over. It went everywhere but mostly it just poured directly into the cable modem. I reacted quickly but the modem was fried. I disconnected it and turned it upside down to drain what milk I could out of it and then I let it dry out for a day. I hooked it up again Friday afternoon and it made a horrible whining sound (which in hindsight I really wish I had recorded) and the internet LED in the modem got dimmer and dimmer so I disconnected it again. I was going to call Comcast yesterday morning but I thought I would try it one more time before I made the call. I hooked it up and it worked. Amazing.

The Goddess: The Goddess Irena 1 has a show from 7:00 to 7:30 P.M. every Thursday on 7,415 khz, which is WBCQ - The Planet on the shortwave radio band. She plays the 12-string guitar and sings. I LOVE her music. Her voice is really nice and her playing is excellent but there is something deeper in her music that I hear and love but I can't describe it. She mostly plays older songs like "Blue Moon" and "Fools Rush In" and things like that. Maybe it's the sound of the home recordings that I like. Her website is http://www.biznetmall.com/goddessirena1/

The Haunted House: How many of you that usually read my blog page have re-occuring dreams? I had a dream last night in which I was at an abandoned house with Chris from "The Sopranos" only he wasn't Chris but some sort of tour guide/friend. He told me at first that the house was brand new but that no one would live there because of what had happened there which he did not disclose. He took me into the back of the house where nailed to a tree I saw a sign that read DEVIL WORSHIP AREA - REALLY. It was like a regular city or road commission sign like "Deaf child in area" or "School Zone". I took a couple of pictures of this sign with my digital camera. At that point he mentioned that there was a cemetary at the back of the house and asked if I wanted to see it. I declined and upon reaching the back gate to go out to the front of the house I noticed a sign on the gate that was kind of like an old movie poster and it read "Black Mamba". I do not know if this was a reference to a movie or what it meant. Out of the top of the sign was a vortex of black smoke rising up in a funnel shape. We walked out to the front lawn in front of the house and I asked him again about the age of the house. He said it was built in the 1940's. Sometimes in dreams I can kind of hover over things. I can't exactly fly but I can raise myself into the air and slowly move over things. I rose into the air over this house and moved over the top of it. The roof looked like any other old abandoned house but I noticed on the right side of the house towards the back about 5 feet up from the roof was a man, bloody and upside down, frozen in place as if he was falling or captured in mid fall. I assumed this was some kind of key to the house's haunting.

Now about a year ago I had a dream about this very same house. I went there with "The ghost people" who I hung out with briefly a couple of years ago. The house was exactly the same. The backyard was the same although there was no "DEVIL WORSHIP AREA" sign on the tree. In this dream however I did visit the cemetary in the back of the house which was a small family cemetary which was creepy but seemingly harmless. On the way out of the back yard on the fence was the sign that read "Black Mamba". There was no black smoke coming from the sign this time. I also did not hover above the house and see the "bloody, upside down" man.

The constants between the two dreams are the house and surrounding property, the cemetary, and the "Black Mamba" sign.

I have had re-occuring dreams before. As a child I had the same dream about 500 times over a 6 or 7 year period where my parents would be gone and I would be watching my younger brother and sister and two black cars would pull up to the house. For some reason I knew that they had come to kill us. I would get the both of them and we would run out of the back door. Once we got to the fence I would lift them both over the fence and I would tell them to run. Then I would be shot and killed.

Another dream I have had probably 100 times or so concerns another house. Sometimes it is abandoned, sometimes I live there and parts of it are not used. Nothing much happens in these dreams other than myself walking around in it and checking things out. It has these huge staircases that come down in a perfect square shape. The house is a mansion and when the dreams concern it being lived in it is very beautiful.

I was just wondering how many of you that regularly read this page have had re-occuring dreams of your own. Post your responses if you wish I would love to read them.

(as a side note to last nights dream I mentioned that I took a few pictures of the DEVIL WORSHIP sign. I anxiously looked at my camera this morning in the slight chance that I did indeed take these pictures in an O.B.E. or "Out of Body Experience". No such luck as I don't think pictures of the new red, white, and blue border that Jackie and Sass put up in the bedroom look much like a "DEVIL WORSHIP" sign.)

Quiet Week

This last week has been pretty quiet unless of course you are a devout Roman Catholic or a Michael Jackson fan. I have been pretty tired all week.

At work I have been conducting mechanical equiptment audits at Metro Detroit area Office Depots. This requires getting all the unit information, taking pictures of certain sections of the rooftop units, ect. All in all it's pretty easy work so it's been cool. Yesterday's Office Depot happened to be located right next door to the Edison customer service center in Lapeer where Jackie has been working so we got to have lunch together.

Last night Jackie and I got our taxes done then went to the Olive Garden for dinner. It occured to me last night that perhaps the Olive Garden is a new trendy spot for gays and lesbians? While there I saw three gay male couples and three lesbian couples eating separately. Now don't get me wrong, In my mind there is nothing wrong with being gay. I have friends that are gay and I love them all. I just wasn't aware that the Olive Garden was such a cultural mecca for gays and lesbians.

After dinner we came home and we watched "Napoleon Dynamite". I really, really, really don't think I have ever seen a more horrible movie. It was so awful and unbelievably unfunny. I really wanted to like it but there was no way. My in-laws loved it but I don't see how.

Last night I began feeling the first signs of an oncoming urinary tract infection. I'll leave you with that.

Here is a picture of the core members of "House Music". From left to right - Tom Saari, Vocalist Extraordinaire - Paul Gagnier, Drummer Extraordinaire - Stu Taylor, Bassist Extraordinaire - Otto Taylor, Guitarist Extraordinaire - Joe Lafata, Keyboardist Extraordinaire. 

The "Morrison Ballroom"

Hey everyone. I posted on my other website that I would be posting some pictures here of my friend Tommy's house where we played Friday night. His house really is the most beautiful place. It was abandoned at one time but they have fixed it up and it is very impressive.

The gig was ok. There were some sound problems that had to be dealt with. A death occured to one of the amplifiers as well but when the music was good it was good. Tommy was at his rock star best and I played guitar, keyboards, and drums.

Here are some of the pictures (in no certain order) below.

Some of the "House Music" equiptment. 

A shot of the outside of Tom's house 

A view of the ballroom from the band set-up with Stu and Joe cleaning up. 

Tom's Front Room 

This is a shot of Tommy's ballroom where "House Music" played Friday night. 

New Music Download Website

Hey everyone. I have a new website which will host downloads of my music. I have the new E.P. - "Duets For Synthesizer" posted up there currently along with some other gems. The website address is

http://www.ic-musicmedia.com/artist_pages/artistpage.php?id=102893

I will be changing up the music on there frequently just to let you all know.

Spring is almost here so Jack and I are going to make the final push to get the condo up for sale. I took today off of work so I could pull the weeds in the front of the house and clean up the outside so it looks presentable. Jackie painted in the shower recently so that looks much better. I still have to caulk the bathtub for the sixth time. We can't wait to get a house and more inportantly we can't wait to leave the condo!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone.

Went to Scott Lozon's last night. What was weird was there was a period of 15 mins or so that Mick Senish, Rob Armitage, Scott, and myself were all in the same room. The combination of us 4 is what constitutes according to leading music critics and fans, the "classic" Tonto Savalas lineup.

Spent most of yesterday at Jackie's Mom and Dad's doing the Easter thing. I had a good time. We watched "The Birds". Dinner was great as always.

We are going to my Mom and Dad's today for Easter dinner there. Dinner should be good as well.

Have a good holiday and as Leon Russell once said, "Don't Get Hung Up About Easter".

Website Resurrected?

I have started to rebuild my original website. The original website revolved around my musical activities whereas I always intended this one to be an online journal of sorts where I could write about whatever. It seems like lately this site has concentrated more on "The Music" but that will be changing soon. The address for the new website is

http://home.comcast.net/~sonicworkshop/ArcherSite.html

The guestbook that was on the original website is still there and was quite funny to read after so long. Please sign the guestbook if you get a chance because most of you that will read this are really twisted and I like to read your insanity in word form. God bless you all and have a blessed day.

Update On Ongoing Musical Projects

In my last update I listed the ongoing musical projects that I have running at the moment. I didn't have time to get into the details at the time of that posting but I do now.

"The Paradise Tapes - Volume 2" (Album)
I recorded this album between December 24th and December 31 of 2004 at "The Northern Estate" in Paradise, Michigan. It was recorded to 4-track cassette. The album is finished with the exception of two pieces which I need to remix. This should have been done long ago but I cannot seem to concentrate on one thing musically. This is as the name implies the sequel to "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 1"

"Experimental Music #2 - Electronic Music" (E.P.)
This E.P. is about 80% completed. I played Joe Lafata the rough mixes of this a couple of weeks ago and he liked it. It is being recorded onto the 'Cakewalk" program. It was originally supposed to be finished in October of 2004 but I have decided to once again (see Albatross) play "the perfectionist" with this E.P. This is the sequel to "Experimental Music #1 - Moog Music" and the second part of the 4 part "Experimental Music" series.

"Experimental Music #3 - Answering Machine Music" (E.P.)
This E.P. is about 90% completed but I stopped work on it a couple of months ago to concentrate on completing "Electronic Music". I never did. This E.P. is made up of recordings I made using 20 second and a 30 second "endless loop" answering machine cassettes recorded onto 4-track cassette. The idea is that the tapes never end so I start by recording the first track or loop and when I am satisfied with it I record up to three other tracks on top of it (4 tracks = 4 loops). Then during the mixing process I am free to start the piece with any of the 4 loops I want to and I can bring the others up and down in the mix as I please. Since the tapes never end I can make the piece 2 minutes or 2 hours. I don't think any of you reading this really know how insane I am.

"A Thread Of Light In The Cloak Of Darkness" (Album)
This album is about 90% completed. It consists of recordings made via the Boss RC-20XL "Loop Station" pedal. It is being recorded onto the "Cakewalk" program. It is related in theory to the "Answering Machine Music" E.P. in that it is "loop" music but it is produced by a much different process. I start by recording a single loop onto which I then overdub various numbers of other loops (one piece on the album features over 45 guitar loops).

"The D.J. Wonderbread Experience" (Album)
I have 4 finished tracks for this album. I have about 20 other tracks of which the recording of is in progress. I must keep details about this album shrouded in mystery for the time being.

"Northville Soundtrack" (Album)
I have 4 tracks finished for this project as well. Over the last 9 months or so I have been composing and recording "soundtrack" music to video footage of the now demolished Wayne County Child Development Center in Northville, Michigan. I have about 5 other tracks for this project started but not completed. One of the guys from the W.C.C.D.C. site www.northville-tunnels.com plays the cello and we will be collaborating on some of the music in the future. It is being recorded onto "Cakewalk".

"Albatross" (Album) (as always)
Ahhh "Albatross". I started the writing and recording of this album in the fall of 2000 and I still am not finished. It is a double album consisting of one "vocal" album and one instrumental album recorded onto 4-track cassette. I have 14 songs completed so far. I wouldn't usually be such a perfectionist about the album but it really is the greatest thing I have ever done. "Albatross" is my Masterpiece. It is my "Sgt. Pepper's" or my "Physical Graffitti", or my "Quadrophenia". I am so extremely proud of this album that I can't half-ass anything on it. It will be finished sometime before 2010 I hope.

I have a lot going on at the moment musically.

Productive Saturday

Saturday I wrote and recorded a new 30 minute E.P. entitled "Duets For Synthesizer". It was recorded directly to the Cakewalk program using both the Micromoog and ARP Odyssey synthesizers with extensive effects processing. I think it turned out really well. I gave Rob Scheys a preview of it Saturday night and he really liked it.

Although I am pleased with finishing a new E.P. in the span of 3 hours or so I really should be concentrating on the projects I have going right now. At the time of this writing I am working on the following projects.

"The Paradise Tapes - Volume 2" (Album)

"Experimental Music #2 - Electronic Music" (E.P.)

"Experimental Music #3 (E.P.)

"A Thread Of Light In The Cloak Of Darkness" (Album)

"The D.J. Wonderbread Experience" (Album)

"Northville Soundtrack" (Album)

"Albatross" (Album) (as always)

So as you see I have plently on my musical plate to contend with.

I will be updating again very soon as I am pleased to announce two new blog pages for all of you to view at your leisure.

The Mars Volta And Other Subjects.

I wrote last time in the music meme (I still don't know what that is) that the last CD I bought was "The Mars Volta" - "Frances The Mute". I had bought the CD at that time but I didn't receive it in the mail until the next day. I had never really heard "The Mars Volta" before I bought the CD and I only really bought it because the guitarist Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez has appeared on a couple of John Frusciante's albums and I liked what I heard of him. This CD is INCREDIBLE. I usually play about three CD's a day in my Jeep driving around. One or two songs from this one then a couple from another, ect. "The Mars Volta" CD has not left my CD player since I bought it. Once every three years or so a CD will come out that really gets me excited about music and being a composer/musician and this one definately has. It reminds me of old Yes and King Crimson and all the "progressive rock" bands that I really love. It has blown my mind.

"The Shield" starts it's fourth season this Tuesday at 10p.m. on FX. It's probably my favorite show of all time.

Aaron and I went out Sunday to take some pictures two of which can be seen below this post. When we were driving up to the Adair church I said to Aaron "One day we will come here and the church will be caved in". As soon as I said it we saw that the church had indeed caved in and in a bad way. It must have made a hell of a sound when it came down.

Rob Scheys lent me a book called "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" It basically contains tips for mixing multi-track music down to Cd or whatever format. For a nerd like me it is a really good read. I have always been very proud of my mixes and have considered them to be of high quality but this book has caused me to think of a couple things differently.

That's all I have for now. I'm boring as hell.

This picture of the Adair church was taken about a year ago. This was always one of my favorite photography subjects. I always wanted to go inside of it and look around but I always thought (righfully so) that the structure was very unsafe. 

This is what the Adair church looks like now. 

This is a classic pic of myself taken after drinking alot of beer and Jagermeister up in Caseville. I have to use it for an album cover someday. 

Day Off Yesterday

I called into work yesterday to see what they had for me to do. It was pretty slow so I took the day off. I love days off especially when I'm not sick and I can actually do things.

After I talked to my boss I went into my parents house and drank some coffee and hung out with Jessica and Ozzy for awhile. I took some containers up to storage in Richmond and I cleaned pretty much the whole house, vacuumed, and did some laundry.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day musically. I worked alot on "Electronic Music" and I am pleased to say that I am going to make my first CD of rough mixes of the E.P. tonight and I will play it for Joe Lafata tommorrow before the "House Music" gig to see what he thinks. Joe also gave me cassette copies of the latest "House Music" albums "Across Your Teeth" and "What Was..." for me to put onto CD so I started the mastering process for those yesterday as well.

My life is just chocked full of excitement isn't it?

Music Meme

Scott filled out this music meme (whatever that is) on the Tonto/Buddha blogpage so I thought I would try it out.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:

Approximately 5 GB's. I really thought it would be more but whatever.

2. The last CD you bought was:

The Mars Volta - "Francis The Mute".

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?

"Lever Pulled" by John Frusciante.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

1. "A Shield For Your Eyes" by Melt Banana - Probably the coolest song I have ever heard.

2. "Opel" by Syd Barrett - Six and half minutes of the most beautiful music ever commited to recording tape.

3. "Sea And Sand" by The Who - No other song reminds me of my childhood and the carefree feelings of my youth than this one.

4. "Man-Erg" by Van der Graaf Generator - Peter Hammill wrote this song about himself and it remains the greatest song ever written about one's self and the personality traits that they are capable of exhibiting.

5. "Where Do We Go From Here" by The Band - This song shows why Rick Danko is my favorite singer of all time. I would give ANYTHING to be able to sing like he did.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?

Who said anything about a stick? I don't know what they mean.