5.22.05
Against ME!
GREAT GREAT GREAT.
Just got the revision of the Clutch mastering - it sounds awesome.
Just got a ref of the Bomb mastering - this also sounds awesome.
I love good mastering. I love these records.
And that's pretty much where we're at.
Oh yes, and I love the Magpie Cage.

Mystifying things:
• the new Pope was in the Hitler Youth
• the incoming President of Iraq is named Talibani - just a weird coincidence I guess
• virtually every Bush nominee to any cabinet or diplomatic post, especially this new guy he wants to be the ambasssador to the UN, who sounds like a total fuckin' tool
• Bush seems to think that vapid statements like "John Bolton ... is a good man" amount to a satisfying explanation for these surreal choices
• tempered tuning - why no guitar can ever really be in "perfect tune" - which periodically drives me totally insane
• a LOT of people actually watch reality TV
• I saw a Sherriff's Dept car drive past the drug dealer's house on my block, and the cop inside actually honked and waved at the dealer sitting on the stoop. In fact that was last Summer but I expect nothing different this year
• that anyone is, or was ever, willing to believe one word out of Tom Delay's mouth
• that there are people out there who have already drawn - and indeed published - conclusions about records that haven't even been recorded yet.
• Hummers and their drivers

4.10.05
Here at Water Music, with John Agnello, mixing the Clutch record.
John Agnello is the shit.
Mastering on Tuesday with Alan Douches. Post-partum depression is about to set in - it's been fantastic to spend this much time on a project this good, with such great people.
It's the first real spring-like Sunday of Spring - perfect cookout weather.
Finally talking about playing some more Channels shows - I'll put up some dates when the outlook on that gets a little clearer.
Thank God it's finally Springtime.

4.03.05
Saw the Medications play tonight in Baltimore at Sonar. I can't even find words for it. They slay me. It's official - they are the band I would kill to record.
The studio is in tip-top shape - I have been doing overdubs with Clutch in there all week, which has been a blast - tomorrow we go up to Water Music to begin mixing. But this weekend Kurt and Scott from PTG came back down and did the last bit of hardcore DIY stuff - put the quarter-round around the edge of the live room floor, finished the acoustic treatments, etc ... and Scott single-handedly repaired not one but two dodgy toilets. I don't know if Scott Padden wants to be known for his plumbing prowess, but when the Gods bestow a gift like that, it's foolish to turn your back on it.
The funniest unfunny thing I heard all week was that US officials were prepared to release 38 foreign detainees from Guantanamo, but didn't do it because they were afraid that these people might be indefinitely detained or tortured when they returned to their country of origin.
Maybe funny isn't the word I'm looking for.
In other news:
The Clutch record is GREAT. I will be sad when it's over, but I can't wait to mix these songs.
They might even bring religion to the Mole People.
Looking forward to spending April and May with Against Me! - and to finishing up some of the Channels stuff we started a couple of months ago.