Just got a f/b message from a woman who writes and produces video game music (one of my classmates) offering help with the CD project. So many Aspies are gamers that this could be a fitting addition to the CD.

I'll be exploring this option, while also exploring getting an LA agent for myself so I can get some of my calls returned concerning rights and masters. This is apparently an industrywide problem according to the folks on the audio board - so this could be an expensive, but effective, way of getting calls returned and rights secured.

Still working on it!

And there's still the SF schmoozefest on the 18th. Might meet some people who can get some calls returned there. Need to get some business cards printed up before I go.

Just secured some really cheap lodging in a really dangerous part of SF just a mile or so from the club where the party will be. Not sure exactly how bad the alley this hostel is located on is, but crack, smack, and hookers are within a block or two. Not a happy place to be at night. But it's $26 - with breakfast - so I'll take my chances. No trains leaving that late, so there's not much choice. The Tenderloin (as that neighbourhood is known) is really strange. One block is fine - the next an open-air bazaar of human misery and degradation. Homie will just have to watch his back with unprecedented vigilance.

Still, it means there's a chance of meeting some people who can help with the CD, and I might even be able to get someone from the SF Chapter of NARAS to get behind it and get some calls returned. I'm excited and encouraged. I will be asking EVERYONE what they are doing to help with Autistic Spectrum Disorders using music - and maybe guilt a few reasonably big names into lending a hand.

Or, then again, maybe no one important (other than me ) will be there.

We'll see.

I'll let you know if I live through the Tenderloin.That walk from the club to the hostel is where my NY friend got mugged. Hahahahhaha. And all the Manhattanites told me not to take the L-train after midnight. To quote Michael Jackson, "Who's Bad?"

Maybe the trick is to have a 'costume' that makes it look as if you have already been mugged? Why would anyone try to mug someone who has obviously got nothing left but those town pants and ripped shirt?

It's all about walking quickly, looking a bit scary, and never pausing for anything or anyone, especially when they ask you a question.

NT rules most definitely do not apply. They are the tools of the hustlers down there.

The alley is likely OK - but one of the blocks I seem to recall as running the gamut.

We just got a new police chief, and at a press conference he said he was shocked SHOCKED! that there was open drug dealing in that neighbourhood.

He still hasn't lived that remark down, because it's not like it's a secret to anyone else in the City.

Oh, I think there will be other important people there.....

Yeah - The waiters with the hors d'oeuvres and a couple of the bartenders....

I think Linda Jones will be there - Spike Jones' daughter - because I think she is part of the P&E wing - she runs all the engineering at the Skywalker Soundstage. The cool thing about these events - including the NY ones - is that after the presentations, you can just walk up to everyone and ask them questions and it's all casual. No presentations here - though likely the usual half hour of introductions and self-congratulations - but the vibe is the same because it is a pre-screened crowd.

Just confirmed train reservations to/from SF. Couldn't get the trains I wanted, so it looks like I'll be there for a day and a half.

There are worse places to be.

Maybe I will visit the relics of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco in the morning at the Cathedral. Quite an amazing man with many spiritual gifts, including clairvoyance. He lived in a spiritual world where time was much broader than what we perceive, so he could see more of time all at once. He never owned a bed - slept on his knees praying a few hours a night.

A truly remarkable man - and an example to all of the Orthodox of what is truly possible with enough faith and devotion.

Worth a trip across the city. His uncorrupted remains are on display at the Cathedral, and the oil from the lamp over him are said to have healing powers.

Yeah. Even in the 21st century.

This is a summary of just one of many, many such roundtables I attended in NYC: http://www.martinporter.com/aes/articles/article_361.shtml

Here's a live version of Chuck Ainlay's contribution. I was really impressed by what he did, because I don't really get to hear a lot of Nashville stuff, and he did an amazing job. I once did a CD that was half cut in Seattle and half in Nshville, and it left me with the impression that Nashville was just not up to snuff - but Chuck cured me. There was another Nashville dude there - Tony Roberts I think - and his stuff was great too. That's why I like to go to these things. You not only hear the track, but you hear from the guy (mostly a boys club) who made the track. There were two prominent women engineer/producers at the various functions, including Britney Spears' and Alicia Keys' engineer, and the woman most famous for making the Tool records.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCtG1mt5q9w

I would have never heard this amazing song if Chuck had not brought it to me in NYC.

Sylvia D'Massy? (Or something close to that). Love Tool. Awesome band.

That sounds right - I had a little chat with her in the lobby. She owns a studio in Weed, CA that used to be a movie theatre.

I can look up her name for you if you want when I empty my jacket pockets before going to SF next week - I didn't take many notes - just relied on the handouts unless there were changes - and we got two books full of summaries of presentations.

She told a great story about shooting an old upright piano with a shotgun and recording it for a Tool record.

Said she would never do it again because it sounded like babies crying and she felt sorry for the piano and the people who made it.

So yeah. We listened to some Tool on a Grammy quality playback system.