(the garoffice during SPP4 mixing. I’m finishing the mix on the machine I started it on, my laptop. To facilitate multi-tasking, and avoid moving my crappy speakers from machine to machine, the laptop is setup in front of the desktop. I right hand mouse the desktop and left hand mouse the laptop. I keep notes on the desktop, as well. It’s kind of ludicrous. For my upcoming mixes on other records [oRSo9 and orso9rmx, MSP, MD8ME, SleepWalks, Kenton Camerata, Brother X, My Special Porpoise, ect] I am sticking with the desktop. To that end I just re-installed Live on it. I am abandoning ProTools for mixing. I can’t see launching it unless I need Pitch n Time, at this point. Mixing with Ableton is faboo.)

I’m pleased to say that we’re closing in on the final mixes of the fourth Stowe-Pembleton Project record. A few more good days, like I’ve had this past week, will get it in the can. And then it’s off to Soul Note. We’re pretty confident they’ll pick it up for release as our third release on their label.
But the third SPP record, embarrassingly, is still not mixed. D’oh! Heaven only knows if the label it was originally recorded for will still be interested. Rest assured getting SPP3 mixed is high on my spreadsheet of things to do. Well, item 13 of ~59, anyway. But since some activities exist in overlapping states, it’s higher than 13 might seem to suggest.

Research for Vile Dead continues. Which is to say I’m watching zombie related tv and film, as well as horror and supernatural flicks. I’ve been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. This weekend I watched The Hunger (the first 2/3 is awesome. Then it’s downhill into complete, “quick, wrap it up, we’ve used our allotted 70 minutes! Screw linearity, comprehensibility, plot, characters and everything that’s happened in the film thus far, we need a quick ending. Oh hey, could you throw in a twist! Don’t worry about it making sense, this a vampire movie with David Bowie and lesbians, we can’t lose!”) and Hellboy II (Lots of fun to watch with absolutely no promise or pretension to being anything else.) I must admit, I always love the research phase of projects, but VD is particularly enjoyable.

Yesterday 23E Studios hosted a little tea party in the front courtyard of the garoffice. Our overlords, the Nightmare City City Council, were in town and wanted to check up on us. I think we passed the spot inspection. They declared the garoffice very nice, and expressed a strong faith in our ability to be productive in the 23E complex. While here they picked up their tribute for the year, the Nightmare City arcade from the Disembody installation/set. And their outfits from that film for use in future NC ventures.

(This is the courtyard. In the pic it is setup for mixing SPP4. It looked much nicer for the NC3: no computer paraphernalia, just my blue teapot and white cups and saucers.)

You’ll note from this post that the rebuilt desktop is performing fine thus far. I yanked out two internal drives, and hope to replace them soon with much larger drives for the logging and editing of Disembody. That’s one of the first things that came up in my logging strategy session with my father. The other big thing at this stage is establishing the best possible naming system for the clips. And defining parameters based on future uses of the footage. To that end I’ve begun a catalogue and timeline for the footage.

In other Disembody news, the NC3 think they spotted the dumpster from Disembody still residing in an alley in Chinatown where we filled it. The dumpster company has still not carried it away. Why not?
In sad Disembody news, 20th Century Props, where 23E rented theater seats for the Morgellon, is selling off its props and closing its doors. Oh, if only we could buy those seats for future projects! They’re being auctioned off, but A) I’ll be on tour and B) I have no money. So…

Above is some of the messy Copy Lake/My Daddy Ate My Eyes setup for our coming shows (and hopefully tour) in July. I’m mixing a MD8ME demo today. And rehearsing for the shows every day for the next many weeks. Also working on new material for Forever What?. We hope to rehearse in August in preparation for shows in Fall. With luck we’ll start gigging out semi-reguarly here in LA starting in September.

This our food supply.  There’s more to the right.  We won’t be able to restock apparently.

The restroom is to the rear of the gallery.  We spent part of our food budget on a Glade Pug-in unit that can’t really be used since there’s not an outlet in the restroom.  Apparently.

Lee sent me off on a break/walk to go find an RCA to BNC adapter.  I didn’t find one.  I didn’t find an electronics store.  I did find this, however:

An abandoned cat sanctuary in an abandoned bank lot.  I could smell the baking, rotting cat shit from the corner across the street.  Every inch of loose dirt was covered in feces.  There were kittens everywhere.  Someone had left them chicken wings coated in that Chinese orange sauce, but they hadn’t eaten them.  The kittens hung out behind the iron fence like lions in a zoo.  Pretty fun.  Super cute.

The editors are on edge about the powertooling next to the editing station and so am I.  I snapped at Carson for shaking some luon around.

I’m in SF to pick up the ceiling and a slew of gear.
Jonny flies in today. Monday, he and Skye and I will pick up a Budget truck.
Then all over the Bay Area picking up items:

Douglas and Sturgess to get 4″ pink foam to use installing the ceiling
Carson’s studio to pick up the ceiling panels and Carson’s tools and Elise’s hotdog machine
Adi’s to pick up a popcorn maker
Kathryn’s to pick up the usher outfits
Skye’s to pick up some of his possessions (we’re helping him move South)
Terry’s to pick up the hoodies and concession stand and menu light boxes
Alex’s to pick up a ton of production gear.

We’re convoying down in Skye’s truck, Alex’s car and the Budget truck.
If you’re on I-5 and see a little green Ford truck driven by a bald guy with a handlebar mustache following close behind a 26′ Budget truck, that’s us, so honk and show us some love.

Today Elise and I looked at rough cuts.
I AM SO FRAKKING HAPPY!
Yeah, the crew on this project are blowing my mind.

Last week I hung out with my friends Chuck and Barbara. They both work in the film industry in Hollywood. Chuck’s a producer and while we talked he mentioned that it’s a given that you always make three films on your way to release:
1) the film on paper - the script
2) the film you shoot - that is, the footage that ends up getting shot and which inevitably differs from the script
3) the film you release - that is, the film that is made from the footag in post-production and which differs from both the script and the film the director, cast and crew were making.
I liked this idea, and the idea that it is a truism in Hollywood, because I feel it is one of the points Disembody is designed to bring to light about art.

It’s been an incredibly busy week, but I hope you’ll all forgive me if I haven’t documented it as well as I should have here. We’re getting really close and I’m finding it harder to frame and organise what’s happening in a legible manner for the blog.

I can tell you we are all incredibly excited. And everyone is working around the clock at this point to get this thing ready to start. Which is pretty amazing.
Incredibly excited and incredibly nervous.
Skye and Alex have both taken up smoking cigarettes again, due to nerves they tell me.
I hear other stories of sinful regression, as well. As we approach the opening and then kick off of the project, exhaustion and nerves are taking a high toll.
I couldn’t be happier.
For my part, the vice I’ve returned to is listening to Gary Numan and Franco Battiato pretty much around the clock.

Yeah, it’s like I inhabit some weird movie by Dennis Potter, where my desires manifest in magnificent song and dance routines.

Elise writes:

“dude - we have a mini hotdog machine - if that helps - the buns go in the top and it kinda looks like this:

i think we lost the pan but we just always use the rollers”

That’s right! Hot dogs and popcorn and soda pop and candy and arcade games. We don’t even need to make the theater and movie now - our lobby is going to be the place to be in Chinatown!!