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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Saturday, September 27, 2003

It's rare that a movie snags me, gets me watching it when that's not what I intended, but Chasing Sleep just did that. A bevy of denial and necrotic nightmares it was, holes growing in the wall and water dripping, public service people popping pills, insomnia in the midst of unrealized dreams, and labyrinths in places that should be familiar. It might not be your cup of tea, but I couldn't stop watching – even though I quickly figured out the spoiler. 10:06:47 PM    comment []

All the tracks are now stripped out. I used GoldWave for this. The process is simple: (1) Find the end of the first track and mark it as selection finish, (2) Go to the beginning and mark that as the start, (3) Cut the selection and paste to new, (4) Save selection with leading track number and title, (5) Repeat until last track, which doesn't have to be cut, just saved. This process preserves the silence between selections, an important decision by the original engineer (Don Zientara, who also plays lead guitar on some track of this album). This album was exquisitelt engineered. I only changed one thing: On track 5 (a live track at CBGB!) there was one place where the guitar hit a brief loud chord that resembled the click. shown in a previous entry. When I tried to normalize side 1, this one chord forced down the dynamic level of the whole album side. So, I compressed it down so the rest of the cuts would sound balanced with side 2. The other lead guitarist is Andy Charneco. "Lead Guitarist" is understatement. This guy plays Holy Hell Mother Of God Kickass Lead Guitar, which is noticeably better. Mark does the vocals to his compositions with equal intensity. He told me this was "punk," but it is not my "Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust" preconceived notion of punk. There are many layers of thought in this album and these guys are way too talented to fit in any pigeon hole. It's time to burn this to CD before it catches fire by itself. I want to hear it on the living room stereo.  4:39:18 PM    comment []

The spike on the left is the pulse made by the needle dropping on the LP. To me, this is one of the most beautiful sounds in the universe. It won't be heard much anymore. Much as I like it, I'll cut it out of this recording. On the right are the opening sounds of The Aliens Have Landed (track 1 on Mark's album). That first burst is Mark singing the word "Well." In between is a typical pattern of tracking noise, the sound made by a needle scratching a silent groove in vinyl. The software allows me to make a "thumbprint" of this and remove it completely, even when it's in the background of the music. This too is a beautiful sound, but it's a weed in this garden. No screenshots, but after I removed the tracking noise and needle landing (and takeoff), I "normalized" the entire side - raised the volume to the max. 1:20:34 PM    comment []

This is a click, one of two that found itself into the dub of Side 1. If there were more, Cool Edit can remove them by algorithm. It has a duration of about .5 milliseconds. I zoomed in on this one and used dynamic compression to force the range down to where the rest of the wave is. Alternatively, you could paste .5 milliseconds over it from somewhere nearby. Either way, it will not be noticed. 1:06:04 PM    comment []

Ready to go Sample set to 44100 Stereo 16-bit. Input set to Auxiliary 2. Recording level set. Press "record" in the Cool Edit program (which I learned has been purchased by Adobe) and "play" on the turntable. Leave room and come back in 20 minutes. 7:43:35 AM    comment []

Bremer urges Congress to support supplemental spending Mr. Bremer: I don't want MY TAX DOLLARS WASTED giving WELFARE to TERRORISTS! I thank you for your time. Joe Neocon 5:28:39 AM    comment []

Nigerian Satellite Launched! Here is the first transmission: I AM MAKING THIS CONTACT WITH YOU ON BEHALF OF MY COLLEAGUES AFTER AN ACCEPTABLE RECOMMENDATION FROM AN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AGENCY.   MY COLLEAGUES AND I ARE MEMBERS OF THE CONTRACT AWARD COMMITTEE (CAC) OF THE NATIONAL ELECTRIC POWER AUTHORITY (NEPA). I HAVE BEEN MANDATED BY MY COLLEAGUES TO LOOK FOR A TRUSTWORTHY COMPANY INTO WHOSE ACCOUNT SOME FUNDS ARE TO BE TRANSFERRED.WE HAVE IN OUR POSSESSION INSTRUMENT OF PAYMENT FOR US$22.5M (TWENTY TWO MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S DOLLARS ONLY) NOW IN A DEDICATED ACCOUNT WITH OUR APEX BANK THE ABOVE FUNDS AROSE FROM THE OVER INVOICING OF SOME SUPPLIES AND ENGEENERING WORKS CONTRACTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EXECUTED AND THE CONTRACTORS PAID IN FULL. THE FUND IS THEREFORE FREE TO BE TRANSFERRED OVERSEAS WITHOUT ANY RISK WHATSOEVER. 4:04:33 AM    comment []