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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Henning says:  I watched the American Music Awards the other day. I didn't mean to, I just happened to see it there in the cable listings and when I turned it on it was all super hi-definition and sparkly and my eyes glued themselves to it like ants on a dropped lollipop. I pretty much watched the whole thing. I felt like I was in Vegas.The performances were so packed full of stuff, it was like walking through a casino. There were colors and flashing lights and everything was IN-YOUR-FACE. I'm not sure, but I think most of the artists did little medleys of their current hits. It was one chorus after another surrounded by hundreds of crazy dancers. There was no breathing. There was no time for contemplation. It was ADDTV at its best. Luckily there were commercials and I was able to mute the sound and think about the fact that my world of music was so different than the world that was on my screen. I created a fantasy in which I walked out onto that stage in between, say, the performances by Lady Gaga and Eminem, with my old red acoustic guitar and I stood there and sang Campground Daughter. There would be no flashing lights or screens, no dancers, no fire, explosions, or confetti. No screaming. It'd be just me with my warbly voice singing this little song. What would the audience think? How would they react? Would they throw tomatoes at the old guy who didn't work-out for three hours a day. Would they storm the stage and try to put product in my hair? Would they sit and listen? Would they look around for somebody in charge to tell them how to react? Would they all start texting about the after party? What would happen? Would they all hush and tear up like they did when the cricket played its song in Times Square? Would Adam Lambert's eye-liner stream down his face? (Yes, I had to look up his name). Would people be able to last through an entire verse? Would I make it through the whole song without being pulled off the stage in exchange for a Taylor Swift PSP commercial? Would the whole event screech to a halt when everyone started realizing that, "hey, I'm not making any money out of this!"? What do you think would have happened? (2) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:  
Henning says:  (0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Monday, November 23, 2009 Henning says: See that bar up on the top of this screen here? Yeah, the blue one. Well, there's a link there that says "Next Blog". It used to be that when you clicked it you were taken to a random blog. It could have been anything, even in a different language.Well, now Blogger tells me that when you click it you will be taken to another blog that you might enjoy based on this blog. So, I tried it. Did I come across another music site? Nope. I found one parenting blog after another. I guess they only take into consideration the most recent post. I wonder what will come up now. Blogs about the "Next Blog" button? (1) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Henning says: A note to parents of young children. It's amazing and admirable that you have learned to ignore your child's constant "hey mommy! mommy! mommy! mommy? mommmmmmy! mom! hey mom!". I understand that you are having a conversation with your adult friend over coffee and you can't answer a question from your child every second. I understand that it is part of the survival of parenting that you are able to tune out the innocuous pleas of your child at times. I also understand that it is next to impossible for you to get out on your own and have adult conversations.Just keep in mind that the rest of us haven't learned to tune out the pleas. It's like the constant screeching of a loud alarm clock at the next table over or like a tied-up and desperate dog barking for help. Just keep it in mind. (Couldn't say it at the restaurant, so I said it here.) (0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Henning says: On Sunday morning, Lesa woke up and said, "Why do I smell like patchouli?".We took a moment and replayed the events of the night before. We had attended two musical performances, had run into many old friends, shook hands, and hugged. Who do we know, we wondered, that wore patchouli? We revisited the hugs and the hand shakes, could so-and -so wear patchouli? It didn't seem likely. Lesa turned to check the time and noticed four one dollar bills on the night stand. She brought her face closer and declared, "It's the money!" It all fell together. Cut to the night before the last. Friday night, The Dark Star Orchestra comes to the Calvin Theater in Northampton. Droves of patchouli scented hippies crowd into the old historic theater. One such reveler purchases some refreshments from the concession stand. The money is placed in the register. Later that night it is counted out and collected by the Iron Horse Entertainment Group (owners of the Calvin). A day passes. The next day, The Iron Horse Music Hall opens for business and the bar register is stocked with cash from the previous evening's windfall. A show is performed from 7:00 to 9:00. At 10:30 Lesa and I arrive at The Iron Horse for the Fancy Trash CD Release Party. Lesa purchases a drink and receives change from the register. She wakes up the next day do the wafting odor of the hippie from two nights before. It's in the money, man! It's spreading like a virus. Lesa can't stand the smell and I take the bills from her and place them in my back pocket. Even my weak nose is insulted by the fragrance. Later that morning, we order breakfast at the Woodstar. Three of the dollars go into their register. The fourth is deposited in the tip jar. I wonder who has them now. Sorry, whoever you are. (0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Friday, November 20, 2009 Henning says: Are you on Facebook? Come on over and join us there too! We'll be your best friends.(0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Henning says:  (0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Monday, November 16, 2009 Henning says: It was a creative and productive weekend for me. On Saturday, Brian returned to the studio and we made some changes to the new Sitting Next To Brian mixes. We recorded a few new parts and mixed down the rest of the songs. My ancient computer was huffing and wheezing and refused to play one or two of the songs all the way through without stopping. Still we managed to get everything down on a CD and, barring a few changes that Brian has noted, it's pretty much all done and ready for mastering!After Brian left, I decided that I would try to record some of my songs, too. I didn't feel like going through the whole process of setting up click tracks and what-not. I really just felt like I wanted to record some songs. Let me explain. A click track is just a modern way of eluding to the use of a metronome. When I create my own tracks without the aid of the band, I usually first make a click track so that I have a constant tempo to play along with. That way, when I inevitably start to add other parts, the songs is consistent throughout. On this night I didn't have the patience for setting that all up. Also, I've been toying with the idea of making a solo album that is really pared down, almost entirely just guitar and voice. That is very difficult for me because my favorite thing to do is add parts and create arrangements for songs. But, I thought it might be interesting to try to be as simple as possible and really let the songs shine through on their own. A few of my favorite albums are like that. Robyn Hitchcock's "Eye" and "You and Oblivion", Nick Drake's "Pink Moon", and Dennis Crommett's "I Count None But The Sunny Hours" all are almost entirely voice and guitar with just a few hints here and there of other decorative instruments. Also, I would love to hear records like that from some of my favorite writers, like Paul Simon or Suzanne Vega - unfortunately they seem to add more and more instrumentation as they age. I thought it might be an interesting challenge for myself. I don't know if it'll be a thing that I release or if I am just doing it for my own archives. I'm trying not to decide. I just want to make recordings without thinking about what they are for or where they will end up or who will hear them. That's what I used to do when I started this whole recording music thing. I would just write a song then go down into the basement, hit record on the 4-track, and make a little recording of it. I didn't think about why I was doing it, or if I would release it or anything. I just did it because I like doing it. So, I took a few of my portable carpeted walls and made a little triangle with them. Then I put a Styrofoam insulation board on top and set up a chair and a microphone. Basically, I built myself a fort on Saturday night. I blocked off as much sound leakage as I could and sat down with the guitar and played and sang about fifteen songs. Some of them are old, some of them are new, some of them will be School for the Dead songs, some will be solo songs. I just played whichever ones came to mind. I played and sang and played and sang until I realized it was far past my dinner time. That always happens to me when I get caught in the current of the recording process. I lose track of time. I forced myself to stop. I went outside, got in the car, and drove through the rain to find a chicken Parmesan sub. After eating and reading in a small Amherst sandwich shop (The Sub), I returned home, went back into the studio, and started playing and singing more. I finally stopped when my finger tips hurt too much for me to make it through one of my more difficult songs to play (Dreams I'll Never Have). Now...my finger tips haven't hurt like that in over fifteen years. Over time, I have built up pretty thick calluses but I guess they still aren't good enough. I think the recordings came out pretty nice. Again, I'm not sure what I'll do with them. I've already added a little electric guitar to a couple of them, but I'm really really going to try to not add much at all. I will definitely limit myself to four tracks total. Maybe I'll put on a harmony here and a guitar lick there, just the things that I initially heard in my head when first writing the songs. It was a nice creative evening of recording and I felt like I was back in high school with my 4-track recorder. The next day, after breakfast, Max came over and we filmed two music videos. One is for Disgruntled Lover and one is for Rock and Roll Camper. I think they are going to be pretty funny. Max took the raw footage with him to do the tiny bit of editing needed. I'm going to badger him daily to force him to finish them and put them up on-line so you can see them (and so I can see them). It shouldn't be too difficult. One of them has no edits at all and the other needs only one. It was a beautiful unseasonable warm Sunday and I felt like I was back in junior high school making stop-motion animated films again. Good times. (0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Thursday, November 12, 2009 Henning says: Music News Flash: Our good buddies Los Hijos Unicos have officially changed their band name to the Salvation Alley String Band. Word is that their old name just wasn't long enough.Read more here: Name Change (1) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Henning says: Yesterday was Veterans day. Rub Wrongways celebrated by working on The Wrong Tree by Sitting Next To Brian. We mixed down four songs, while adding a few extra parts here and there, and we have two more to go.Those four tracks are now on a shiny CD in Brian's shiny little hands and he's already sent me a few notes of things to change. A tambourine hit here a harpsichord note there. Here a thing, there a thing. Ding ding ding. It was a full day of work. I started at about 9:30 and we finished at about 5:30. Pretty good. Thngs are coming together although my ten year old computer was wheezing and struggling to get through the process. Someday, somehow, I'll save up enough money to get a new computer with up-to-date audio software, instead of Sonar 1.0, which is what I am currently using. Sonar is already up to 8.x. Yikes. I am so far behind the times. (0) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Monday, November 09, 2009 antwes says: Hello, all. My daughter Hannah, eight years old as of Saturday, and my 2 1/2 year-old son, Owen, now have another sibling, Spencer Bartlett Ricci-Westcott, born today at a hefty 9 pounds. Mom and baby are both healthy and doing well.(2) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
Henning says: There have been many things invented in my lifetime that I always hoped would be invented. Maybe someday I'll make a list of them all. Let's just say for starters, I used to daydream of being able to take as many pictures as I wanted and not having to pay for expensive film and wait for it to be developed.Here's something more recent, though. Yesterday, Lesa and I were in our neighborhood Target and we meandered over to the holiday lights section and there, lo and behold, and finally, were solar powered string lights! Here's what I said on this very Rockumentary three years ago: Wednesday, December 27, 2006Well, now, three years later, I have two boxes of solar powered lights. I guess they weren't actually inexpensive, though they are currently on sale, but when you add on the convenience of not having to go out into the cold night winter to turn them off before bed each evening, they pay for themselves. Also, there are no extension cords to run. Besides, solar is just really cool. Hope they work. Thank you world. Keep making the stuff that I want you to make, ok? Here's a suggestion, iPhone, make a button to push when a song comes up in my earphones that I don't want to hear ever again. Then when I sync you to my computer, automatically delete that song. Thanks, buddy. (1) Comments | Links to this post Permalink | Del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | Technorati | Furl | Blinklist | Email this post to a friend:
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