I'm in a New York State of Mind.

And that's great cause Billy Joel's in the studio. I haven't seen him, I guess he likes to record in the middle of the night. I don't really care if I get to meet him, but man, would I ever love to meet his daughter.



Whew! So hot. That Christie Brinkley has good strong genes.

Oh, and here's some more pictures, I chilled in Central Park a bit today.





















































































And I know it's completely dorky, but I totally listened to Stawberry Fields Forever on my iPod while I took this.

Some New York Pics and First Day of "Work".

This is the building where I have my internship. Yes, there really is a five room world class studio in there.

The studio's in an area of West- Central Manhattan called Hell's Kitchen.







Our immediate neighbors are Sony Music...








...and Montel Williams. One day after work I might try to sit in the studio audience. Just for kicks.


Work was pretty cool actually. We set up a decca tree (above). To record some strings for the original cast recording of some musical called Grey Garden. And I saw my first famous person, but in an effort to not be an annoying stupid intern didn't go shake his hand or even talk to him. It was Ryan Adams...the hip indie country singer, not to be confused with Bryan Adams, the hack, Canadian pop singer (see below).

Ryan Adams

Bryan Adams

I finally have something I've wanted my entire life.

A fire escape.

In related news. I live in New York. Harlem actually. It's loads of fun so far. My internship is, as predicted, a very casual affair indeed. They're like, "Come in whenever you like." My first real day is tomorrow. I'll be sure to blog about it. Actually I can't promise that.

We live right on Riverside. The Hudson is really pretty beautiful when Tuna Trollers aren't reeking up the air. I accomplished exactly 3 things today. I went grocery shopping, I went to Barnes and Noble (that visit was most of my day) and the new Apple store on 5th Avenue. I should've done more, but I'm soaking in the city. Pictures soon maybe.

Go Go Gadget Gospel

I bought Gnarles Barkley Tuesday and I have to confess it's pretty awesome. Danger Mouse is my new hero, I want him to be my mysterious robed spiritual advisor. Cee-Lo is awesome as per usual, I want him to be my personal Santa. Good stuff I tell you.

And now I wonder how I was made...

This song has been in my head for weeks. I can't get over how cleverly the Pinnochio story was used as a setting for his self-doubt. I think you should all appreciate this so I'm doing "Scream Phoenix Forum" Style and posting the lyrics here. The song is "Driftwood" by Cursive on The Ugly Organ.

[Sample of an old pinnochio story record:]
"And I am what is left: a puppet!
Laughing at the look of amazment on the musician's face,
Pinocchio dove off the cliff and swam away
He swam steadily for most of the day.
Suddenly he found himself approaching an enormous floating cavern.
Could it be an island?
Pinocchio looked closer and he saw two huge rows of sharp,
yellow teeth and he realized his mistake."


So he would sulk and drink and mope
and cross his arms and hope to die.
And then a fairy came one night
to bring this sorry boy to life.
She pulled some strings
and spun him about.
That boy sprang up
and began to shout,
"My arms, my legs, my heart, my face they are alive!"
And she would cry, "Liar, liar!
What have I done?
You're no lover, and I'm no fighter."

(The story goes on)

So he would buy her things and kiss her hair
to show he was for real.
And she would take those gifts and kisses
though just stringing him along.
She knew about those wooden boys-
it's an empty love to fill the void.
"Pinocchio! Oh boy, how your nose has grown!"
So he would cry, "Liar, liar!
I'll prove it to you!"
But then it grew
He had grown tired of her
So it was true
He left her apartment
And he walked all night long
'til he was stopped by the shore of the ocean.
But still he walked on, amongst the whales
and the waves, and screamed
"Liar, liar!"
And his wooden body floated away.
He just drifed away.

And now I wonder how i was made...
And now I wonder how I was made...
my arms, my legs, my heart, my face,
my name is Driftwood.

Coachella 2006 And why Life is So Good.

Coachella was completely awesome. On Saturday I saw Head Automatica, The Walkmen, Wolfmother, Common, Imogen Heap, Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand, Atmosphere, and Depeche Mode. On Sunday I saw The Infadels, Murs, Mates of State, Jamie Lidell, Gnarls Barkley, Yeahs Yeah Yeahs, Massive Attack, and Tool. I also saw small chunks of many other bands' sets...some of which were great.

Highlights include:

Gnarls Barkley (Cee-Lo Green + Dangermouse) appearing to perform with a 15 piece band including strings. The band came on stage dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz and struck up Breathe (the first musical cut from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon) whereupon Cee-Lo and Dangermouse triumphantly entered dressed as the Cowardly Lion (see picture) and the Tin Man respectfully. What followed was 45 minutes of pure, unadulterated awesomeness.

Imogen Heap the singer/co-programmer of Frou Frou played a completely awesome set and called the soundguy a "lazy douche". And he was.

Atmosphere (w/Brother Ali) was really incredible...even better than last time. They were lined up next to the headliners (Depeche Mode), so it was a cozy little crowd. I got to go with a cute girl from Australia who worked at the festival (more on this to come) and had so much fun, I feel I could reasonably contest their assertion that you can't imagine how much fun we're having.

Murs performed a really awesome set in front of a pretty small crowd. Slug showed up for the last song and that just made it even better.

I got to sit in the sound booth for most of Tool and had a straight on view of the stage. I had been about 10 rows from the front in the push-and-shove for the first 4 songs or so. Then I deecided I would get out and watch from the back (I really am getting old). So I worked my way to the trough and was pulled out by security. I followed them toward the sound booth and asked where the exit was. They said there wasn't one and to sit down and watch the show. So I did. Tool was astoundingly good. I'd seen them once before in HIgh School, but this was way better. I sat down with Tool's soundguy and got to ask him questions about how he mic'd and mixed and stuff. I learned a lot.

All that... and I only had to pay around $300 for the whole trip and get a little sunburned. Good deal.

So on to why my life is so good now. I used to be rather good at social interactions with the opposite sex. It was easy for me to talk to girls, even ones I didn't know and ask girls out. Now many of you can attest I am arguably somwhat handicapped in that department, and most of you (Adam excepted perhaps if he even remembers me from Riviera days) have always known the retarded me. One lousy girl pretty much ruined me about 4 years ago. No joke. I fell harder than I've ever fallen for a girl who played me hard. The first of "the Melissas". Ever since that she-devil ripped my heart out of my chest I have been clumsily bumbling my way through the whole "girls" part of my life.

Not any more. I totally just snapped out of it. I was trying to sort out some ticketmaster issues with our camping tickets and was invited to sit down in the shade with the 3 people selling tickets while I waited on the bastard ticketmaster rep for an hour or two. There was an independantly wealthy ex-hippie who only worked at Coachella for fun (and belonged to the Amalgamated Order of Real-Bearded Santas http://www.aorbsantas.com/pages/1/index.htm ), a completely quiet "intern" from a nearby college and a super cute girl named Bre from Australia.

I just up and snapped out of it. Snapped out of my 3-4 year social impediment. Before I knew it I was the old me just talking to this girl. She was a big Atmosphere fan, and we really hit it off the first day, and went to Atmosphere together. Then we went dancing to Daft Punk afterwords and hit some shows together the next day. Then she came by my tent night before last and kissed me. And I kissed her back... a lot. It was awesome.

I want to clarify, I'm not in love with this girl. I'm not even anticipating ever seeing her again. I'm pretty confident IM will pretty much be our only future contact. It seemed understood between us that it was just this random thing. I'm typically not into "random things". I usually crush pretty horribly until it all dissolves around me. But I wonder if my only reason for this random thing was to pull me out of a slump. I told Yancy last night I felt like a could defeat a Yak in head-to-head combat. I really feel amazing. I'm moving out of Provo. I've got my old confident self back, and I'm really happy. So my life rules. I don't really understand it. I even forgot my happy pills this weekend. And yet here I am, more content with my life than I've been in years. Strange.

The unrequitable crush list.

Jen inspired me with a post subject. The following is a list of the women I will always have a little-boy crush on. My future wife will just have to accept that I will always love these women too.

Zooey Deschanel. Beautiful actress and singer/ukeleist in an old-time Hollywood bulesque act. What's not to like? She's hot, funny, has a lovely voice, and to my advantage has a thing for guitar players.



Kristen May. The hotty lead singer of Veda posessed of one of the most devastatingly powerful female voices I've ever had the pleasure of being assaulted by.



Jena Malone. The girl next door type crush. Another actress. Perhaps she'll play a character older than 17 this year, but probably not.



Julia Dufvenius. New young favorite of the best director ever (Ingmar Bergman). I'm not even sure she speaks English, but who cares? She's lovliness defined.



Oh, and she really plays cello.

It's about time.

So here's an update. Not that I have anything too specific to say or anything... I just thought perhaps it was about time for a new post. So I guess I'll do a sort of "State of the Mooney" address. Remember to only clap when the little light comes on and it's politically in your favor to do so.

New York is looming. While I love it with that half love-half loathe that has been described by others so well, it's a pretty intimidating city. There's kind of this, "If I flinch they'll kick my ass." fear about the place in general. It feels kind of exhilarating until, of course, I flinch. Let me clarify... I am decidedly going, but I've got nerves. I really hope I get hired. It would be very nice to have a paycheck to offset that cost of living a bit, and make me feel like a little bit less of a tourist.

You'd think at this point (moving across the country in just over a month) I would ease up a little about girls. I mean, really, are you gonna start a relationship at this point? Of course not. But of course I'm still crushing on her like a little boy... I'm pathetic. And she's soooo indie. My love of Bon Jovi spells disaster for me, I'm sure of it. I don't have a prayer to live on and I'm not even close to halfway there.

I've got this obsession with buying gear, but I need capital, and badly. Come on Kellen just give me the phone number already. Do you know how much money I could make on 8 Hammond Organs? Lots. More than enough to say... survive in New York without a paycheck for 3 months. Oh, analog project starts soon with Jason. That will be very fun. Oh how I love old school recording. I haven't gotten to really nerd-out in so long too. It's about time.

What else? Oh, work. I'm flat out sick of Velour. In the core of my soul. Al hasn't mixed in like 3 weeks and I'm losing my mind. I'm pretty sick of Heritage too, a warning to Jason. If I sell these organs I may just quit all my jobs at the end of April.

That seems like enough, especially since nearly all of it was complanatory. I don't even know if that's a word (I was thinking I could conjugate complain like explain). Perhaps Jen or Liz could fill me in on whether I was right or not.

Capote, Nachos, and Girls.

For your entertainment/consideration: 3 random musings of mine.

Capote was good. I liked the sound design a lot. Most sound designers like mostly action movies and such on account of the explosions and such, but I thought Capote and Walk the Line were the two best sound films I've seen this year. And did Phillip Seymore Hoffman desreve the Oscar. Damn straight he did. Joaquin Phoenix will get another shot, although I'm sure he cried.

I really feel like nachos... not even good nachos. 7-11 nachos. With not but cheese and tomatoes and lots of both. This is a 70% intensity craving. Really strange too.

My problem with girls is not so much not being able to ask them out. While the pre-phone call experience is arduous, maybe even tortuous for me, the actual call usually goes medium well to good. It's when they tell me they can't go because of whatever reason. I really have a hard time believing them. Not that I don't believe them, but after all the courage-mustering it takes. A "No." under any circumstance is a nearly fatal blow. It is so hard to ask her out again... or really any female to tell you the truth. If I ask a girl out a second time after an "I can't", no matter how legitimate that "I can't" might be, I'm probably crushing on her pretty hard and just can't give up hope until the 2nd, "I can't". A 3rd is pretty much unheard of. I admire Yancy's resolve with "S". I pretty much crawl under a rock to die after strike 2.

Ready for the official announcement?

I'm moving to New York City in late May for an internship and potential job at Avatar Studios in New York. It's one of the largest and most legitimate facilities on the East coast. With 5 world class studios and possibly the best large live room in the world, it... well, it rocks.

So everyone come visit me and have good times. I'm psyched and am anxious to prove myself a valuable asset to the staff. There's only a few problem as I can see. Problem number one: How do I avoid buying wonderful Pizza every day? Problem number two: How do I avoid falling for a beautiful Broadway hopeful? Problem number three: How do I remind myself that the above concerns are actually problems?

Just turn it sideways, Celloooh...

I'm gonna rent a cello and teach myself to play. I've wanted to do this for years and at last, it's time. I'm gonna be rocking the cello before you know it. Roommates, prepare to be annoyed.

100dB SPL.

I love ultra-compressed shimmeringly hi-fidelity music like that of say, Peter Gabriel who's 2-disc compliation "hit/miss" I bought today. I played it at full today in my car. Which I estimate was nearby the threshold of pain (100-120dB SPL). It was so delightfully loud and yet astonishingly clear, especially for a CD (which contarary to popular myth/advertising is not a high fidelity medium). My thanks to Adam for inspiring this purchase with his inclusion of "Games without Frontiers" on a spontaneous playlist yesterday afternoon. I'd almost forgotten how very much I like Peter Gabriel. I still love Phil Collins though and as far as I'm concerned, Genesis was just as good with both singers. That's just my humble opinion though. And yes, I'm a huge audio nerd.

Happy Dirty Indeed.

I had a pretty good birthday. A pretty good Salt Lake day (considering I'm out of practice), a good nap, and a good dinner with lots of people I haven't seen in way too long. And Katie Bug camre over and I actually got to have real talk with someone about this mess I call my life. I needed that, and in some ways that was the best birthday present. But the not snowing was right up there too. When it snowed last night I was sure today would be tragic at best. But it was better. It was really quite nice. With that all said:

Improvements to be made for next year...

1. A girlfriend? Well, a brother can hope right?
2. No singing in of "Happy Birthday" in French or any other language besides English. At least not by a mediocre baritone. Emily pays for that one.
3. More cake.
4. Some Rock & Roll. Perhaps of the Brobecks variety.

Your g-string is too loose.

I actually said this to a kid today. It was his first guitar lesson and instead of using technical terms like sharp and flat I start out with tight and loose. Trouble is his dad was sitting in and cracked up. While I didn't mean it like that, the humor wasn't lost on me and I too laughed. But then the kid looked perplexed and asked what was so funny. I deferred to the dad, who deferred to me and then I looked at him sternly and re-deferred. The dad said "Nothing". The kid halted inquiry but was clearly unsatisfied with that answer. He'll probably go ask his friends at school what's so funny about a loose G-string. Then he'll come back and tell me I'm an imature, sick minded individual. Which I am.

Just one of those moments in learning guitar that you never forget. Your first G-String joke.

"... it'll never grow, it'll never groooow."

This line and it's graphic precursor won't leave my head. I'm not sure why.

Oh yeah, cause I heard it for like an hour straight this evening during New Nervous practice. We need to put an end to the band practices in the house. Also I made little turkey/mozzerella sandwiches out of my Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. They are so delicious. Next can will be ham and cheddar. Yummy.

New perspective at 5:30 AM

Wow. I've finally reached the point in my ever-turbulent sleep cycle at which I've screwed my schedule up so much... I awake at a time most people would consider getting up early. As far as I'm concerned 10am is early. But I woke up at 5:30. I have a session at 8:00. Chances are I will experience what most consider a normal day today. I wonder what it will be like? I suppose an even more intriguing question would be: Will it last? Mmmmmm...

I did the 6:00am thing for exactly two years under requirement. Never again.

Meet the girls of sigma pi. Some will live and some will die.

Adam and I watched possibly the worst horror movie I have ever seen in my life last night. And that's really saying something considering I have seen the original Salem's Lot and more than one of the Evil Dead movies. My theory about these kinds of horror directors is this... they have serious sexual frustration and/or deviancy, a freaky freudian fascination with the phallic [10 points alliteration], and somehow an ability to procure funding for film projects that do no more than exacerbate this already evident fact. Who cares? It seems that 6 movies got made of this particular series. HOW? I ask...how?

So I finally did it...

I've been asked at least 20 times to make a blog. At long last I relent. Here is my blog. And this record is off the record. I really can't be held accountable for what I write here. As anyone who knows me is well aware, I have to say things (particularly difficult to say things) in a 20-40% exaggerated way to make my point. If I seem negative or even suicidal on occassion I'm probably not, just in need of more hugs at the particular time.

One final point... Expect to encounter extended periods of no updating. I've never been very good at updating these kinds of things much less journal keeping in general. But I will try to update more than occasionally and perhaps a few of you may even still be reading this after the first dry spell. But who knows?