Me despierto a las 6:00AM todos los días literalmente con las gallinas. Paco y Lucía quieren salir del gallinero apenas despunta la madrugada. Generalmente, les abro y regreso a la cama. Como a las 7:00, me levanto y hago un desayuno para Bubu y para mí. Daniel y Gabriel tienen su propio horario incompatible con el de nosotros (hasta que Gabriel comience el cole, cuando, nuevamente lo veremos).

Después de despedir a Bubu que sale a su chamba, me monto en mi bici y pedaleo hasta la escuela. Abro, quito la alarma y dependiendo del clima ventilo al natural, abriendo puertas y ventanas, o prendo el aire acondicionado (cosa que trato de evitar, ya que la electricidad aquí es burda de cara).

En la mañana hago papeleo, aspiro las alfombras y tres veces por semana lavo los baños (parte del glamour, sin duda). En la tarde enseño, o (hopefully) cobro.

Entre clases y papeles, trato de escribir una serie de cursos interactivos acerca de un software de música llamado Reason.

Tengo cuatro tipos de alumnos: (1) guitarra (2) técnicas de producción (3) percusión (4) flojos. Por ahora los grupos están bien repartidos. Solo tengo dos flojos.

Tengo dos tipos de clientes: (1) Maravillosos, únicos y fantásticos y (2) mala paga. Es sorprendente ver personas cuyo empleo es limpiar cuartos de hoteles y pertenecen al grupo (1), así como personas que llegan en Ford Explorers último modelo y pertenecen al grupo (2). Por suerte, son ejemplos aislados, pero me recuerdan esa vaina de no juzgar a la gente por su apariencia.

Anuncio en Craigslist y en YouTube. También mantengo un patrocinio en la emisora de radio comunitaria. Pago impuestos. Burda de impuestos. Si pudiera cambiar solo una cosa, sería pagar menos impuestos.

Motoricerca is a non-profit from Italy that offers a free Robots.txt validator, located here. It is a useful tool. Go check it out.

An awesome new school. Great option if you want to learn music in Sonoma, CA. They have seven studios, one of them is equipped with a Pro Tools LE rig. They teach all styles, all ages in most popular instruments (i.e. guitar, bass, drums, violin, sax, trumpet, trombone, piano, voice, etc).

Why am I getting so much spam on this post only??? Long live Paco y Lucía.

Galería de fotos hechas con teléfonos celulares. Cortesía de Zona CERO!

Me recuerda cuando estábamos en bachillerato y todos compartíamos un cuaderno para matar la ladilla. Este concepto es similar, pero está mejor hecho. Nosotros dibujabamos a lápiz. Ellos usan BIC. Algunas de las colaboraciones parece que estuvieran Photoshopeadas (pero no le resta nada al trabajo). El enlace es cortesía de Katarsis un buen sitio si estás buscando cosas interesantes, como libros gratis (tipo Cortazar, Bukowski y otros).

From the Library:

1. All about chords : a comprehensive approach to understanding contemporary chordal structures and progressions through solid drills in suggested study questions, keyboard drills, and ear-training exercises by D’Amante, Elvo S., 1929-
   Hard to crack, but highly recommended. I am up to my third renewal on this loan.

2. The Beatles guitar book /by Jones, Joff.
   Just source material for SMAS.

3. The complete book of small business legal forms /by Sitarz, Dan, 1948-
   I am returning this one. Too curt and heartless. I copied the CDROM, in case I need to refer to a form quickly, but in general, it looks like the attorneys from Enron wrote it.

4. Drive a modest car & 16 other keys to small business success / by Warner, Ralph E.
   I read this one with relish. It is written by the owner/founder of Nolo, a self-help law advice publishing house. Just good common-sense advice on how to start and stay in bidness.

5. Echoes of Africa in folk songs of the Americas /by Landeck, Beatrice.
   This one’s a hoot. Published in 1961 by Ms. Landeck (whom is lily-white) with the best intentions, it comes across as a bit dated (”que lindos los ritmos de los negritos”). The music examples are straight from the strap-a-conga-on-your-waist, Ricky Ricardo School of Latin American music cliches and it (gasp) rhymes “Caracas” with “Maracas” (how many more times?). Still, very charming and scholarly, though not in the way Ms. Landeck intended.

6. The employer’s legal handbook /by Steingold, Fred.
   Written by a lawyer, so very boring and inhumane.

7. Entrepreneur magazine : human resources for small businesses /by Sullivan, William R.
   Haven’t cracked this one, I admit.

8. Harmony /by Piston, Walter, 1894-1976.
   A classic.

9. Legal guide for starting & running a small business /by Steingold, Fred.
   A bit dry, but very useful. I hate some of the advice, because it’s written by a lawyer, but I guess they know what they’re saying.

10. Music law : how to run your band’s business /by Stim, Richard.
    Not what I need right now. I’m returning it as well.

Una bitacora hecha en Canada, acerca de (en su mayoría) música brasileira. Está bueno esto del “Press It”.

Just when I thought I really got a hang of this WordPress business, I really discover that I don’t know jack. Well, I’ll dust off the books, fire up GoLive (it really works well with WP) and away I go. This is again, a content-free post to fill out space.

1. Mix Magazine - October 1996: I found it while browsing some old boxes. Has a great article about recording horns.
2. TapeOp Magazine March/April 2005: Some good interviews and a good article about condenser microphone capsules (and how they’re mostly the same ones, except for the really high end mics.

Three weeks ago, we had a paella in honor of our friend Karen, our mighty money lady. She showed up at our doorstep with two hatchlings. We named them Paco and Lucia (even though we’re really hoping that they’re both hens).

Apparently, raising poultry in your backyard is very common in this area, which makes Bubu incredibly happy. So she cooked up these super-duper plans for a modernistic chicken coop for P&L . Construction took an afternoon (I helped a bit with cutting and attaching the mesh). The girls took quickly to their new digs and all the neighborhood cats are very interested in this new plaything.

Today, Bubu and I said farewell to our good friend Gus, who has been our cat for the past seven years, but was almost nineteen years old when he passed.

He was a tough cookie until the very end. This morning was pouring rain until 11:00 in the morning. When the sun came out, I grabbed my shovel and went to dig him a nice deep grave. The earth was soft and dark brown, which is always a good sign. When I finished shoveling, it started to rain again. When I returned to the house, he had finally given up the ghost.

We were in tears, but a bit relieved, because it looked like he wasn’t having fun in the end.

RIP Gus Kettman D’Angelo Mosca Alvarez 1985-2005

I have known Erica since we were kids, so I owe her this shout out. Erica: You are the best. Even your most commercial work looks artful. How do you do it?

These are some old photos (1997-2001) taken by myself and (mostly) Bubu. I was just wondering how they would work with the WordPress formatting. At first glance they look OK, although I should resize them in Photoshop because the file sizes are way bigger than necessary. These are from the times when people scanned photos printed on paper, by placing them on a flatbed scanner. We still own the scanner, an old UMAX with a SCSI interface. Four computers (and three operating systems) later, I am proud of the fact that it still works.

1. Hot Studio Tips for the Home Recording Studio by Hank Linderman. Contains a very good section explaining many tricks that can be done with a mid to high-end mixer (therefore, not all the “hot tips” apply to my little desk) and a very good explanation of how a compressor works.
2. Thelonious Monk: His Life and Music by Thomas Fitterling (with a foreword by Steve Lacy). Short bio chapters followed by a complete discography. Highly recommended.
3. Duende - A Journey into the heart of Flamenco by Jason Webster: Reads like a novel, but it is actually full of useful information about the “palos” (i.e. the main forms) of Flamenco. I’m not finished with it yet, but it looks like Jason did the right thing: (1) he wanted to learn to play Flamenco guitar, so he (2) moved to Spain. Buy it at your own risk because, like I said, it reads like a novel, not a scholarly treatise, which may or may not be a problem with you.

Initially, it was going to be an item on the sidebar, which would link straight into amazon.com. I knew that amazon pays for referals, so I signed up. When you click on the items that I recommend and BUY them from amazon.com (from my link and within 24 hours) I get a modest $um. I then reasoned and decided to create a category where I would give a longer review than what is allowed when adding an item to the sidebar. Also, it makes it feasible for archiving the older reviews. With only a sidebar item, you’re limited to the current ones.

In the past, I have written a few of reviews for amazon.com, so I guess that’s a start. In any case, I have no interest in becoming the next Harriet Klausner