So this is the first time I have taken the train in over 2 months.  Schedules have changed.  Not only for me but the train as well.  Oh, and the fact that I am going into work an hour and a half earlier than usual for some silly meeting with some of the cool night peeps.  Anyway, here I am.  At last on the train I can spread out a bit more and tapping away on the trusty laptop is a little easier.

So over the last few months, my Delicious has been back-packing Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.  She got back last week and we have been scouring 4000 photos ever since.  Amazing photos.  We did a travel blog www.blogabond.com/groovespook which has a couple of photos and documents the whole journey pretty well. Before she left I got her a 32 gig flash memory card for her camera so she didn't have to worry about clicking away.  Clearly she didn't!  I have looked through all of the pics now 3 times and am still mesmerized by the visuals of her travels. Particularly through Laos and in Cambodia where she visited Angkor Watt. Angkor is a huge expanse of temples built around 500AD. (think Tomb raider - they filmed it at one of the temples that have been "left to the mercy of the jungle")

While she was absent from my little life I utterly demolished almost all of the upstairs of the house.  I ripped out the ceilings of 2 rooms and the adjoining wall of the concrete and wooden slated "plaster and lathe" style walls.  Right back to the studs.  I filled a10 cubic yard dumpster with concrete and wood debris from it.  Then re-sheet-rocked both those rooms, put in attic stairs in the spare room, totally redid all the outlets and put in recessed lighting that amounted to 5 new circuits and a sub panel in the basement for electricity.  Then, stripped and sanded the floors back to the amazing oak,  polyurethaned them and now, as we finalize the spackling, sanding and painting (Delicious is now eagerly helping out so we can move back up there) I managed to fit in building a built-in 8 ft by 2 ft closet in the master bedroom with 6 ft sliding mirrored doors.  Oh and we are repainting the master bedroom as well. 

So I was kept out of trouble whilst she was away.  Of course, I neglected to mention that during this time we also had one of our 3 yearly peak periods at work so I am averaging 50 hour weeks at a real job to boot.  HEnce why all this is taking so damn long.

I really wanted to have it all done for my Delicious before she got back but NO FRIGGIN WAY was that going to work out without me keeling over from exhaustion.

So there.  The studio is in utter disarray.  I placed some fancy shaped pieces of carpet on the ceiling a while back for some added acoustic deadening and these have started to peel themselves off randomly as my adhesive strategy has failed.  Liquid nails WILL NOT fail but requires a day of prep.  I honestly have not even seen my dumkit in months.  The plan is to save up enough dosh for the Korg M3.  It is TO DIE FOR and will retire ALL of my old keyboards in the corner and give me room enough for a small vocal booth.  The vocal booth is the answer to all my sound proofing nightmares.  There are so many things in the studio that make noises and really, the only time I actually need utter silence is for vocals or perhaps my hand drums.

Speaking of hand drums, Delicious took me on a date last night to the Montclair Library where a man named Glen Velez came and displayed what might be the most awesome tambourine playing I will ever see. Yes, Tambourine I said.  I am usually loatheful of that blasted TOY as the majority of people who play one aren't exactly interested in keeping time with whatever is going on around them.  The very nature of the "Tambo" (Australianism) means that it's tinny frequencies cut through everything making it "front and center" in your ears and if it is not being played perfectly in time, it bugs the crap out of me.  Well, this guy played a tambourine with a tunable drum skin. Tuned very low ( like I have my low bongo - sort of like a low Tabla) and preceded to BLOW ME AWAY.  Very Trilok Gurtu.  HE also re-defined what a frame drum is capable of and showed of some prowess with a handful of different shakers.  I am always a mix of awe and irritation during performances like this, Awe at how brilliant these guys are and their dedication to such art, then irritation at the knowledge that I am so close to having that ability, but my own stretched out want to be that good at everything inevitably means that I never get quite that good for shear practice and determination.