Rants and Raves

Hi friends,

Yeah, I know I was shy about writing there for awhile, sorry about that.

Enough about me talking about me, how about you talking about me? OK, well, Gary just finished a wonderful new instrumental record from one of the great guitarists/orchestrationist (!?) of our “time”; Adrian Belew. His Power Trio recorded mostly live in Adrian’s studio at his Ponderosa there near Nashville. I had the privilage of mixing the tracks in the evenings in my own studio prior to Adrian’s visit with me here in San Francisco. His visit with me was pure joy, we just had tons of laughs together, we’ve always had that for some reason. We put the final touches on it, then I mastered it up and now it is on the market (Aug 3rd). the album is entitled “e” and features Julie and Eric Slick, a brother/sister team that would make Karen Carpenter sit up in her grave. Ok, that was crass. But anyway, Julie is a total monster bassist and Eric is waay beyond drumming - he’s superb. These two provide the most amazing “wall of sound” (Wallace Hound??) behind Adrain’s many guitar personalities. When you think Adrian is playing a piano, he’s really playing guitar. Weird shit like that. And the grooves on this record are killah, I mean there are some really hard-drivin’-never-in-4/4-where-the-hell-is-”one” grooves and a half. Anyway, my audio life is complete, at last.

Oh, there was an article in the Ohio University Today magazine this quarter featuring a page and a half of pictures and interview on…me. As you might know, I’m an Ohio University alumni. I am very honored that they wrote this article about me. In life, sometimes when I was young in college I’d see those glossy college alumni mags that come out semi-annually and think, “it WOULD be cool to be in there someday”. Well, I got to have that experience twice in my lifetime so far, and I’m really grateful for it.

More…what else…oh yeah, I know I need to update the file photos because Mrs. Platt is ex-Mrs. Platt now, Randy Nelson isn’t at Pixar any longer, and I’m not a Red Potato now, so there’s been lots of changes going on that need updating. New pics are on the way. I’ve been a bit preoccupied.

My experience with SAE Institutes has been very good. This is a school that I recently joined as VP of Academics and Regulatory Compliance in February. (There is a press release on Google about it) I’m a “change agent” basically. We are implementing a brand new degree program, and we’re in the process of licensing and accrediting the six SAE Institute schools in the USA. (NYC, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, San Fran, Los Angeles). The people are fantastic, and we are making huge changes that require lots of cooperation and I am happy to report that the experience is better than expected. We’re really getting it going, it’s just so much fun. TON of work, but fun to see the transformation!

My son, Preston, goes off to Chico State this Fall, in about a week actually. Gonna miss him when he’s gone. His brother, Alex, is gonna have the car and the TV and all of it to himself for the first time. Trust me, Alex is going to miss him too once the exhilaration wears off. ha!

Also, I’m moving back into my house at 31 Columbia Court in September, I bought out my ex and now I’ll be living there instead of the gutter I live in now…juuust kidding. My place is nice enough, but I miss my home.

Nuff for now, this blog was a personal one. Next time I’ll rant. yeah!

smilez,

Gary

Congratulations to Barrack Obama. Holy shit, what a mess we have here for you to pull apart. Figure that those numbers we heard at the end of the Bush administration were pumped up and the new administration will publish updated values that will demonstrate a far worse disaster than you can imagaine, folks. Nice “starting point”, huh?

Friends used to tell me a few months ago that I was all doom and gloom because I saw this coming and kept talking about it. (”just look at the foreclosures in Contra Costa County alone - it’s a BOOK! Now multiply that over the country~) Hey, I want to live in the real world when it’s good and bad, just give me truth. No kidding myself. Anyway, the country (and other parts of the world) are teetering on the egg of severe depression this year.

So, it is my sincerest hope that Obama places the most focus of his economic plan on small businesses. Each night on the news we view another business failing, resulting in another tens of thousands of job losses, such as in the case of Circuit City recently. Walking down Piedmont Street in Piedmont, California, with it’s quint shops and restaurants, one can not help to see that “for lease” signs now adorn probably 40% of those locally owned shops.

While we do need a Work Projects kind of plan to renew our failing infrastructure, ask yourself who is going to do that construction work? Lots of illegal immigrants, not so much you and I. Indeed, illegal immigrants are part of the meltdown because they were offered loans for houses far beyond their means to pay the loan back EVER = foreclosure time bombs. The construction industry should NOT be the focus of Obama, small business should be. Illegal aliens mostly send their money to Mexico, not the local community, and they don’t pay taxes often.

We are not in the 1930’s, the USA is dependent on the rest of the world, and vise versa, quite unlike the first depression circumstance. We’ve hurt ourselves with greed and the pressure to show constantly higher profits. Companies squeezed out every atom of efficiency by using SAP software, rfi tracking systems (think UPS), and by flattening management. Regulations were loopholed by slick attorneys and special interests. Once completely squeezed, what was next? OUTSOURCING! So, we outsourced the manufacturing sector to China to save improve profits. You know the rest of the story…

Here’s my point - Let’s help to FIX THIS situation by NOT buying our necessities at TARGET or WALMART. Buy at locally owned shops because that will help the LOCAL, more immediate, economy. When your money goes to those bigbox stores, most goes to fat cats in a far away places, or the stock price moves in a positive direction, neither helps your community! I say buy LOCAL as much as possible, spend your money nearby so the community benefits through these hard times. Sometimes the price at a Costco is a small percentage lower, but don’t get sucked into turning the quint streets of cities and towns across the USA into your OWN communities’ urban blight. It isn’t worth the few bucks you save, not at all, because it directly affects your neighborhood.

Soon, we will need to give more to our neighbors. Many families will become homeless as jobs are lost with none to be found, they will need help with basic neccessities to maintain the lowest standard of living. Donate to those local charities with money or items that directly help families with food and shelter, it is important because supplies are at their lowest level in years

It’s not all up to Obama, it’s up to you and me to support ourselves and turn this economic mess around.  Obama will do everything he can, and things can change, as long as we all get involved in our communities at any level we personally can.

This year I vow to record everything at 96khz sampling Yeah, there’s a joke for the engineers in the crowd.

So, my personal “New Year’s Resolution” is the following:

“To demonstrate joy and reserve in times of present distress.”

So, where does anyone draw from, when the “present” is a joyless, shitastic disaster in all regards? Draw from the past, the best of the past. Look towards the future, and draw from the picture of success and satisfaction from the mind and heart. As the tests become stronger, the draw must grow in intensity until it reaches it’s final, desperate threshold. And then the orgasm of forgiveness brings further joy into the present.

I’m gonna kick Kahil G’s ass with this stuff.

I want to propose something to you that can provide the mechanism for extended joy. It’s very simple: Make DVDs that you can watch with your friends and/or family from those REALLY old vhs, Hi8, Dv tapes, and films (lucky few). I believe there will be a resurgence of viewing those old things now that people have kind of created an archive of family gatherings and such that they threw into various drawers, and have forgotten about. You know how it goes - you videotape some event, come home, put the tape in a “secret safe place” ‘ FORGOTTEN. Whenever you’re looking for something else, there’s that damn tape again.

Now that the market crashed and we’re all broke, we’ve gotta do something different than a Tom Cruise movie & popcorn at 50 bucks a date. So, go find those tapes and start watching them. It’s really a pile of fun. If you don’t find joy in that, then start making some tapes that will bring you joy in the future, silly. If you don’t have a camera yet, get out of your CAVE. Bring your girlfriend over and play one of hers and one or yours. Trust me, it’s going to be interesting!

Speaking of joy, when an 18 year old watches themself as a child, they gain tremendous insight into who they are as people. More often than not, moments captured on tape are of some joyful moment, like birthdays, holidays, family gatherings and plane crashes in the neighborhood. Nobody video tapes the mundane. So, the joy that is infused into a human by watching themselves as children is amplified in, normally, very positive terms over and over again. My kids LOOOVE to watch themselves, they laugh themselves sick, and they watch the same scenes over and again.

Of course as a weapon, no, let’s call it a “learning tool” there is nothing like taping a child having a meltdown. You’re a kid, you freak out, you get taped. Now what? Your screwed because NOBODY wants a recording of themselves throwing a complete shitfit (FOR ALL TIME for GAWD’S SAKE!), it’s mortifying to watch! “What if my FRIENDS see that?” Really, it’s quite powerful when a parent needs a “favor” or some ‘redirection of a behavioural problem’. No need for yelling, or physical abuse, just a TV monitor and some pals over.

I was thinking of that guy who is always saying he can “fix your kid in less than 6 minutes” and actually I believe I can do it in less than THAT using a video camera! But that’s not joy…well, for the parents it is, so yes, it can stay in the column because it has some positive “joy” value.

My point is that hopefully, when you and they rewind your lives, you will find a goldmine of forgotten joy to experience again. And let’s face it, we’re gonna need all of the “joy” we can get this coming year. Happy New Year friends!

smiles,

Gary

In the 80’s and early 90’s records were mostly still being recorded on professional grade analog tape. At the time, there were these advertised “incredibly low noise” tapes created by companies such as Ampex and 3M. This was the best of class tape, they just packed the iron onto the tape and coated the backing (polysomethinghyrdiod - I don’t remember) with a sort of spongy black material so there would be “better contact with the capstan”, meaning less “warble” - professionally termed less “wow and flutter”, no I’m serious it’s true. Anyway, fast forward to a few months ago and I’m in my closet looking through my old two track tapes and discovering that they are just completely destroyed. The back coating peeled off and was attached to the wrong layer, and the oxide peeled off completely. Just fell apart in my hands, really. I could bake them, but to be honest, they were beyond that. I had kept them in air conditioning and all that jazz but I was screwed, so who cares? (I lamented)

So, out of the blue, I find a bunch of “metal” cassettes with all of those concerts I had recorded on two track, and some recordings of bands that were fantastic, but never made it, some I forgot about. There ARE some excellent songs in there…I’m considering putting them on this site as a tribute to “great unsigned 80’s bands”. and then…I’ll get sued. HA! Anyway, the point is: here is the lowly cassette tape that survives the decades and provides the future with an archive that the “best” medium at the time simply failed to do. Truly, the cassette is the cock-roach of audio. I always thought it ironic *ha! that we were meticulous in obtaining exactly what artist and producer desired, only to transfer it onto a cassette, that just KILLED me. I remember thinking “well, it sorta sounds the same as the recording we made.” Now, I am simply grateful for the ability to hear them again. Thank you, Mr. Cassette. (that hurt)

(they still sound like total crap, however, let’s face it.

thanks for reading!

smiles, Gary

Well, I guess I need to officially report that after 23 years of marriage to Debbie, we’ve split up.  What can I say?  If one party in a relationship loses the “love” then it’s pointless I suppose.  We’re still very good together with our guys when we’re with them, but even I can see she’s just not interested in me any longer.  We are living apart, and she feels there is no turning back, and I acquiesced.  Life sure has a strange way of grabbing your balls, huh?  OUCH.  She’s doing fine, she’s living at the house and working at Structural Engineering as an AutoCad specialist, I see the guys (Preston and Alex) and hang out with them, take them to lunch and all that, but I miss them terribly on a day-to-day basis.

This week, Preston and Alex played a jazz clinic at Diablo Valley College, and Preston was awarded the “best of the band” award for his drumming.  He also won that award at another clinic earlier in the year.  Poor Alex, he’s back there thumping his acoustic bass like a madman and he’s not recognized.  He is far better than anyone else I heard, but you can’t give the award twice, especially if they’re BROTHERS! ha ha ha

I am so proud of them both, they’re one helluva rhythm section.  The Platt Brothers.  I like it.

So, this is my public service announcement for the week.  If you read this, I want to say THANK YOU for coming to my little site, please leave a note or email me at: yourpalgary@sbcglobal.net  I always answer my emails!

Smiles to you!

Gary