My friend Joaquin made comments about my last update which is such old news that I decided to get current. The Williamsburg space has fallen through (4/2/2008, the day after I contracted freelance work with VH and lose benefits), the landlords/owners of Midnight Lick have not gotten their lease renewed for music spaces and we are all displaced, ostracized, cast out. My advisor said I'd make mistakes in the beginning and I guess this was one of them. I do think the noise complaints are bullshit, just a phantom excuse to kick them out because they probably weren't getting paid, you know? You're in a raw industrial commercial building 20 yards from the fucking bridge and getting noise complaints? From who? The woodshop next door? Or the paper factory downstairs?

It's not all bad because truly this space would not have worked out. You saw it. It was an 8' X 9' room only needing padded walls and a straitjacket to be complete. The construction was poor, almost resonant. The amount of drummers practicing at any given time was laughable, around 40% of the complex of rooms, only one being any good and ironically a jazz drummer using brushes half the time. The neighborhood was cool (South Williamsburg) but a bitch to get to as it lay just between the J and L. Not quite north enough to get full convenient use of hood amenities, re: sending a fax? 30 minutes.

So I'm homeless. I've moved my stuff home to work on production for May while I lick my wounds and learn how to love again. Not going into another sitch like that again, this time I'm looking for bona fide studios, jobs, etc. You cannot have a business at a rehearsal space like that. But of course I said I'd try to make it work and maybe was rewarded by this act of fate. Gotta look at it like that. That being said all positively and flow-going, I'm fucking stressed, depressed, smoking, tired, defeated, and wondering why the fuck someone doesn't build some real studios with real leases, real soundproofing, real respect of common areas, and real work going on inside by real producers with real clients. This idea is a goldmine. All you need is leases signed by a handful of fed up guys like myself and the bank will pony up the dough. At least that's the theory. Good news is a composer friend of mine (who I won't name) is thinking of approaching some realtors about this very idea as a result of our collective experience. Sign me up!

In the meantime, look for more promotional materials from me as I stay home, produce, and restrategize. Thanks to the new DJ's coming around too.