The History of WTH (part 24): Symphony No.1, Mov. I “The Trek”

"The Trek" was another prog/art rock tune that Aaron and I put together. The setting was a large apartment complex on the corner of Dwight Way and Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, CA. Aaron was living there with his wife, Brenda (then his girlfriend, I think). He had an idea, I had an idea, and they [...]

Fixing the Flipper

As I mentioned before, I think my company's (EnVivo Pharmaceuticals) Fly Transfer Machine will play a valuable role in a future WTH album. Unfortunatley, this will only happen if the flipper works.
For the past week we have been working on repairing the thing. An engineer from SRI International, Bryan Chavez, came out on [...]

Happy Birthday, Chuck!

So, yesterday was Chuck’s birthday. I decided to celebrate at the Cantab Lounge open mic night. I played a couple of tunes, one of which was dedicated to him. It’s a song called “Follow” from our next album. As I announced Chuck’s birthday, the whole bar started cheering (a good indication [...]

Southie Geyser

During a break from Custom Deluxe rehearsal today, Faris Albayya, Jim Hill, and I witnessed a perfect example of human idiocy. What originally drew our attention to this calamity was a twenty foot geyser emerging from a 6 inch diameter PVC pipe. This pipe along the curb of Dorchester Ave. was originally observed prior to [...]

The Trek at Open Mic?

I've recently been considering performing "The Trek" at an open mic.  I'm not too sure how receptive people would be to a 10 minute song, though.  It's does have some good changes…  That being said, I have been arranging a solo guitar version of the tune.  We'll see if it makes its way out of [...]

Basement Conversion Factor

So, I spent most of the day erecting walls in the basement. I'm kinda slow at this sort of labor, so it should take me a few weeks before the studio is back up and running. I've just installed a number of studs, leaving room for a 30in door and a large window. I'm working [...]

The History of WTH (part 23): The Stream Demo

Stream of Tears was the third song that I wrote, according to the green notebook that I recently found in a backpack hidden in the attic. It was also one of the first demos that Aaron and I put together.
At the time, Aaron was living on the second floor of the Norton dormitory in Unit [...]

The Fly Conference, Houston

For the past 5 days, I've been in Houston enjoying the 47th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. Learned a lot about flies, hung out in a warm climate, and drank a lot of beer. Good times. Now I'm back and can blog again.
So, tonight, I played again at the Cantab Lounge. This time, I was playing [...]