Who's Going To Take Care Of The Oompa Loompas?

 Once, my son visited Santa. Now, he IS Santa!

Editing Room Tally

Today I leave Pacific Ocean Post in Santa Monica (stairs to my editing room, above). I've already been here three days longer than originally planned (thanks Peter!).

While I can still remember, I thought I'd try and reconstruct all my editing rooms since Soundelux closed.

1. John Ross Mansion up Mt. Olympus in Laurel Canyon. Free meals, insane views, met Tom Hanks. Wow! (two weeks)

2. Universal backlot, in the same building I worked on Bill Cosby's "Ghost Dad" decades ago. Modern but claustrophobic. Fun lunches, though. (two weeks, during the heat wave.)

3. Formosa Building 66 - 1st floor. Okay room, but love the funky old Danetracks building.

4. Formosa 66 upstairs - great editing suite (which is why I got kicked out, eventually) and right next to the men's rooms.

5. Formosa Main Editorial Building. REALLY old structure, plain white edit room. NOT very inspiring!

6. POP - Pacific Ocean Post in Santa Monica. Recently bought by Formosa and undergoing intense, noisy renovations, this is nonetheless an amazing facility.  Great location, cool room with a window, amazing structure (lots of character), snacks, friendly and pretty women at the front desk, decent restaurants nearby (If I didn't have trouble walking it would be even better.) It also smells like sweet tea and honey downstairs, which is how EVERY place of work should smell!

Cons, and they are big: tough (though not impossible) morning drive, totally freeway-congested drive home East on the 10 (going 10 mph!) Parking lot access, but can't drive at lunch or you lose your spot.

Next week is yet another new room at Formosa 66... at least, that IS the plan!

UPDATE

So, no sooner do I sing the praises of POP than they start tearing the front desk apart! (I guess I'm the only one who thought it was cool.)

Warren Zevon - I Get It

For years and years, I heard that Warren Zevon was a Songwriting Genius. 

But the only thing I knew him for was WEREWOLVES OF LONDON, which I thought was one of the most stupid and annoying songs ever recorded. I definitely did not want to hear more from THAT guy!

Then he got sick and died, and there was another flurry of publicity. Once again, artists I respected paid tribute to this guy. Once again, he was heralded as a Genius.

So I thought: "What the hell!" and borrowed his Best Of collection on CD from Chris.

Okay, Zevon was obviously talented, and the songs were pretty good... but I STILL didn't get all this talk about "Genius."

It wasn't until I played his first album from beginning to end that I finally GOT it.

Unlike some artists, I think Zevon really needs to be heard in context. Each of his albums were written against the backdrop of different times and events in his life, and though one song doesn't necessarily reflect on another (though they sometimes do), they definitely work better as a "whole" than the sum of different parts. Heard in context, even Werewolves of London isn't so bad (though I still mostly skip it).

This whole experience also solidifies my suspicion of Greatest Hits CDs. The choice of what goes on those things is somewhat capricious, and even if every song is great, it's like eating too much sugar: you really need the sour and not-so-great tunes to get you where you're going. Also, there's an unspoken tension with a greatest hits CD that EVERY song had better be awesome, or else! If you're daring something to be GREAT, it will rarely live up to your expectations. That was my whole problem with Warren in a nutshell.

I once read a review of the worst Zappa show I'd ever seen - New Years Eve at the Forum. Frank was always great onstage but this was a pickup band and Frank really indulged himself with guitar soloing that night. A review the next day said: "I've never seen Zappa live, but heard tales of his greatness..."
I knew exactly where this guy was going, but I guess the moral is: We all deserve a second chance!

Now I can enjoy the Zevon collection, knowing where the bits came from. I only wish I'd started at the albums, but I'm making up for that by slowly building up my Zevon vinyl collection. Mostly into the first four or five LPs, but I know the rest are there, whenever I'm ready.

The Gang is (Mostly) Here

Todd-Soundelux closed almost four months ago. I was one of the last to jump, and it felt like a sinking ship in every way.

Of course there was little of the old company still standing when I finally handed in my keys, but that hasn't made the loss of my 24-year-old job any easier.

I was actually very close to coasting toward retirement in the same room I'd had for years, working with most of the same people, having my restaurants and dry cleaners and gym and post office all within walking distance.

In the weeks since, I've picked up work at Universal and the John Ross house in Laurel Canyon. Early on, I was added to the payroll at The Formosa Group, where 75% of my Soundelux friends had migrated around August of 2013.

But it wasn't until Monday, almost a year and a half later, that I rejoined my original crew with Per Hallberg, Chris Assells, Karen Baker, Dan Hegeman, Chris Jargo, Jon Title, and others still to come.

My dreams of an easy retirement have been retired, but at least I'll be spending some of these years with my old friends and colleagues. Some of the "survivors" have not been so lucky.

The Last 12" Record

Okay, so what's the date today?

September 15?

Just now I listed the very LAST vinyl record from that vast, 1400-disc collection that I wrote about below... back in MAY!

Of course I have not been processing, listing, and selling these records every single day. In fact, the first month was spent mostly throwing out the garbage, which was more than half. Then, I grouped the most promising records together first, followed by the secondary batch, and finally the stragglers. Many of the stragglers had no existing product page on Amazon, so they had to be created ( like the very last one, above.)

I've WAY lost count by now, but at one point I figured out I had at least 80 records with a good chance of being sold (anywhere from 5.99 to 32.99 each, with a couple maybe even higher.) 

Since I spent $160 on the whole batch, that's comes to about $2 per record, which ain't bad.

How have sales been? Slower than I expected. I know the 80's are the most difficult period for vinyl, because there was just so much of it... but I know some of these remixes and imported 12" singles are rare, and I fully expect to get top dollar for them eventually. But at this moment, I've only made about half my money back.

In contrast, I've gone to other sales recently where I spent about $40 and more than doubled my money in a week. 

Would I do such a large purchase again? Sure, but not for 80's records, unless they were in way better shape than these. But I did discover that 1400 records is the outer limit of what I can handle on my own, and can cause way too much distraction from my family and working life to be worth it.

Fun, though!!

Adventures in Record Hunting

(Email sent to my cousin Doug)

Followed a craigslist tip last night to Monrovia, where a guy needed to unload 4,000 records in a hurry.

"Dude, you could have the whole thing for $500!"

No way I could have done that, but we agreed on $15 per box of (roughly) 100 records. I figured I'd take 6 boxes for $90.

He'd told me they were mostly 80's 12" singles, but "there's some regular LPs mixed in."

When I got there, the sun was setting and the garage had no lighting.

The only way to check anything was to haul out each box and put it on my car. The boxes were packed tight, but the records seemed okay. I decided to fill up the car as far as it would go, which became 12 boxes for $160.  Then, there were a bunch of loose records, which they jammed into my trunk any which way (no charge; they just wanted to get rid of them.)

Carrying them all into Gower, even with Friday and Elizabeth, totally wiped me out.

I started going through them slowly last night.

Pretty quickly I realized this was a DJ's WORKING collection, with beats and other notes written on the covers, and definite use on the vinyl.

But the worse part is, this guy had a signature that looked like tagging graffiti, AND his personal trademark was to create a spiral with magic marker on the fucking LABELS!!!!!!

Given that I have at least 1200 records (probably way more) the law of averages has left a few UNMOLESTED records behind… but making this money back is not gonna be as quick or as fun as I'd hoped.

I had nightmares about those spiral'd labels!!

So, Like, Retirement...

So, like, retirement is not THAT far off for me. It's exciting, but really scary.

Obviously, after retirement comes… death?

But if you're lucky, you can stretch out that final act for quite some time. Given my genes, and assuming I can stay out of the path of errant vehicles (or not fall and break my hip), I have an excellent shot at some enjoyable free time in my final third.

However, when I do a mental exercise - as in: pretend Monday is retirement! - I get freaked out really fast.

Given my age and my accrued hours, I could definitely retire early, but you take a big financial hit, so I don't think it's in the cards even if I wanted to opt out sooner.

But what if I were able to  collect as much as I could RIGHT NOW?  I still don't think I could do it yet.

Turns out, I still like coming in and slaving away on somebody else's shitty movie!

I still like the challenges, and I still like the feeling of a job well done!

My dream is to continue collecting and selling vinyl in my retirement, maybe even get back into toy trains, drink, look at sunsets, travel with Sharon... Make more music, make more CDs… make a record?

But sadly, that Siren Call must not be heeded. Not quite yet!

Happy 4th Anniversary Sharon!!

As I said in your card:

4 Years Married...

9 Years Together...

This is starting to turn into a THING!!

Love you so much!!!

The Magic Band!

It finally happened!

Nearly 40 years after I saw them with Captain Beefheart at the Forum, and 10 years since I got screwed out of seeing their big reunion show at the Queen Mary (long story), I was rewarded at last with an intimate, intense, and VERY hard-rocking Magic Band show at the Troubadour!

Originally it was just going to be me and Sharon, but my friend Greg caught wind of the show and came along, and it was great to have him. He and I took 3rd and 4th place in line while Sharon said goodbye to Sam and Sarah at home, and she joined us shortly before we got in.  The two old maniacs in front of me said the best seats were upstairs, so we dutifully followed them and wound up just behind John French's family.  We had a few rounds and some fries and onion rings during the show.

I'd been telling Sharon that the Magic Band starts their shows with the easier, bluesy material, and then slowly brings in the harder, more complex & off-center music toward the middle. WRONG! This new Magic Band jumped right in with MY HUMAN GETS ME BLUES from Trout Mask Replica, and that set the tone for the evening.  There were still the mainstream tunes like Diddy Wah Diddy and Click Clack, but the bulk of the set was dedicated to the crazier stuff and that was fine with me!  Sharon seemed to enjoy the show but got a little sleepy towards 11:00 PM.

I have to say that this Magic Band sounds far more cohesive and spot-on without Gary Lucas, Beefheart's last original guitarist who previously toured with these guys.  The new, much younger 2nd guitarist and drummer were both amazing, especially during ALICE IN BLUNDERLAND which had a long and gorgeous solo.

The remain original players were John French (in amazing form both out front and behind the drum kit), Rockette Morton (always note-perfect) and Denny Walley (who is awesome, but did lose the beat a couple times, especially during BIG EYED BEANS. DOH!!)

At the end of the show, John French explained that it's almost impossible for the band to get booked in Los Angeles or the USA, because promoters "...don't think we can attract an audience!"  Hopefully last night proved some people wrong and the boys will be back before another 10 years!

Soundelux of Hollywood

Been musing lately about the changes on Hollywood Blvd. these past 23 years, which is how long I've been working at (what's now known as) Todd-Soundelux.

When I originally needed a sound editing gig, I really hesitated asking my pal Dan Rich to get me in here, because they were on Hollywood Blvd and I knew how sleazy and dangerous it was.

My fears turned out to be well-placed. I began working during a particularly cold February, and I was driving an extremely temperamental '70 Mustang at the time.  Most nights I had to sit while the car was warming up, which was a good 5 minute timespan for bums and homeless guys to come up and bang on the window, begging for money.  I got so freaked out that I started paying for parking below the building, which was anything but cheap.

We had a company man, Charlie Meister, who kept saying: "Hollywood's coming back! You'll see!"

It took many years and false starts, but Charlie was proven right. Eventually the store owners banded together and hired a private security force to walk the streets, and suddenly, all the homeless and the scary bums were gone! I don't know if that's good or bad, but it definitely felt safer. Instead of getting hit up for change 6 or 7 times a day, it happened almost never.

Meanwhile, they finally tore down the eyesore at Hollywood and Highland and created the new shopping complex and subway station.  Again, it has its good and bad aspects, but overall it was brand new and shiny and made for a much better tourist experience.  You could actually invite people to visit, knowing there was somewhere nice to go.

However, the street patrols seemed to disappear after just a few short years.

Now we've almost come full-circle: the bums, the homeless, and the scary drifters are back, and I'm getting hit up for change multiple times a day.  They are not literally pissing out in the open as they used to, but that doesn't seem far off. The only difference is that the surrounding buildings are better and more varied.

But I am mostly alone out there now, because almost all my friends left Soundelux for the Formosa Group. This morning I found out that the company's co-founder, Lon Bender, has also boxed up his room and is now an independent agent.

Not many of us left!