Actually just one blister on one finger. I was playing bass today and blistered my middle picking finger. That happens to me when I play a lot of bass after not playing much for a long time.

I applied for unemployment today. I'm in Orange County so the ESC (Employment Secuiry Commission) office I go to is in Hillsborough. So I drove up there around 11:30 today. I found out that I can apply in person there at either 9AM or 2PM Mondays and Thursdays or apply by phone or online. So I came home and applied online. It was easy. They already had info about the company I had worked for. I don't know whether they had it because I gave it to them when I went off unemployment last time, or from my tax returns. Apparently they don't send you checks, they send you a debit card and automatically deposit to the account. I can fill out some paperwork and mail it in to have it direct deposited to my account.

Anyway it's been a while since I've collected unemployment (last time was for about three months in 2006). So I'm on the job hunt. It's too bad the studio business isn't bringing in enough to pay the bills.

What a year it's been. It's been just over a year since I purchased my second house, the one that houses Gismo Studios. My very first customer was a young woman recording music to use in a movie she was making. She didn't play an instrument but brought three of her friends who played electric and acoustic guitars and violin. It sounded OK. The acoustic mic picked up way too much violin.

My second customer was Éamonn and Leslie. You can hear the results of that session in the songs "That's the Way" and "Big Yellow Taxi" on their page.

Well E&L are coming back to record again this weekend and I'm very excited about it. Leslie has an amazing voice and Éamonn is one of the best guitarists I've ever heard, and also owns one of the sweetest sounding acoustic guitars I've ever heard. I can't wait for the results of that session. They're going to be great.

I recently did a live recording of Southbound 85, a great country band. The songs on their site are from that recording.
Anyway as I was mixing it something occurred to me. When I've recorded rock bands in the past, I would frequently have to ask "What's the name of that song?". With country music there's usually no doubt what the song title is.

Yes friends, Gismo recording just posted its first cash revenue. A guy named Bob who plays the saxophone used my services to record his demo. Mostly smooth rock stuff from the 70's and 80's. A couple of Chicago songs, other songs like "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Spooky", "Dancing in the Moonlight". Stuff like that. We recorded and mixed 18 songs (not full songs but one to two minute samples) in just over 8 hours. It sounds good too. I have a guy coming over today to record some Mexican music.

I can't figure out if someone in the marketing department at Macy's is really stupid enough to think that their phishing myspace passwords to spam people is going to bring in business, or if it's someone who's pissed off at them that's doing it in order to hurt their business. I'm pretty certain for every one that's bought their gift card there are two or three (ot ten) who have vowed never to shop at Macy's again.

Seems every day I get a friend request from someone shilling for a porn site. The profiles always say something like: "Myspace won't let me post nude pictures so click here to see the good stuff". I have another myspace site and that one never gets these. I wonder why this site is such a porn magnet.