Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

Cool Beatbox...

Man, this is the coolest thing I've seen since I saw a Tabla Drum Machine at Music Explorium a few years ago.

Check out this site.

Saturday Morning...

This morning as I woke up and stumbled to my computer (as I do most days) I began a web journey that I thought I'd share with you...

First off, I read an email from TypePad (the great company that provides an awesome service and allows me to continue blogging and designing this site) and it's from their President saying how they want to keep their customers informed of what's going on with their company and why their service hasn't been as speedy as usual.  I thought it was amazing that in this day and age, a company president would take the time and effort to explain to his customers what was going on.  Pretty cool customer service I thought, and I think it had the effect of making me a more loyal customer, during this time of transition with their company. To read more about what I'm talking about, check out Mena's blog...

Next off, thanks to an email from InSound, I found out about McRorie.  He makes the promises of the digital music revolution come true:  He proves that you CAN do it all yourself. 

Next, as I'm tooling around on MySpace, I come across the most hilarious name I've heard for a Christian band in a long time...they're called - get this - RevelAsians.  Their sound isn't too bad (though they could use some better production) and they sound like Lone Justice and early U2, sorta kinda.  I think they reminded me a little of Wesley Willis as well, because the more I listen to them the more I wanted to tell other people about their music!

Also, I came across this fabulous artist, Stephanie Dosen and really enjoyed what I heard.  She reminds me of early Innocence Mission, Over the Rhine, Sarah Masen and The Sundays.  Really cool stuff.  Sparse production, acoustic guitars, mellow and melancholy. And while I was checking out the abundant links on Stephanie's MySpace page, I saw a link to Sabrina Ward Harrison's page on MySpace.  Sabrina was the artist that created the amazing backdrop that appeared in Sixpence's "There She Goes" video.  I really loved her work with that backdrop and so it's fun to discover her again via MySpace.

I finished off the morning by viewing the Coudal Partner's Museum of Online Museums.  Once there I looked at a few of the exhibits and then became captivated once again by the lovely Flash presentations over at the Van Gogh Museum.  I watched about half of the exhibit on Van Gogh and Gaugin.  Beautiful stuff.

 

Yes, we have a baby.

You'd think that as addicted as I am to my blog I would've posted the news quicker, but I guess better late than never, right? 

I'm not sure how long you count someone's labor.  Originally we were supposed to have our baby on Sept 23rd but then the due date was moved to Oct. 9th.  The midwifes and birth center folks kept telling us that the baby was probably going to come early and Carole just intuitively felt that this baby was going to be here sooner than later.  So since about Sept 23rd, we've been in a state of nervousness, so does that count as labor? 

And then we've got the false labor pains Carole experienced on numerous occasions...do we begin the labor count from that time?  The only reason I'm asking is because it seems that Carole was in labor for a relatively short time...I mean the medical records state that she only pushed for 8 minutes.  Which I think has got to be a record for the shortest labor ever...however, the Friday before our little baby showed up Carole thought she might be starting her labor, so I took the day off from school (I work half days at this Montessori school near my house) because we thought it was the real thing.  We found out later that morning, nope.  False alarm again!  I had a drum student cancel his lesson on Sunday, and I thought for sure that meant we were going to have our baby on Sunday.  Nope. 

So, early Monday morning  Carole gets out of bed at like 4:00am and takes a bath...a sure sign that she might be going into labor only to tell me later in the morning that once again, it was a false alarm.  So Carole goes back to bed, I go to work.  After work I come back and she's still resting, we eat lunch, watch some TV and around 2:30 she starts feeling the contractions kick-in again.  So we go to the birth center and they confirm that yes, she has progressed since Friday, but doesn't look like she'll be having a baby anytime soon.  So they send us home with a recipe to try some Castor Oil the following morning. We don't have time to stop by the store and get the oil, because I'm rushing back to teach a couple of drum lessons. 

I teach my drum lessons and after the last one, Carole says she's really feeling the contractions now and they're coming fairly close together (6-7 minutes apart...).  So we call the birth center and they have us come in again...time on the clock:  6:37pm.  At 9:05pm our little baby girl is born!  We lounge about a bit, the baby is tested, our son and Grandma (Carole's side) come and visit the baby, I go get some food for us to eat.  I take a nap and we head home around 2:00am later that night.

I'm still not sure how long to tell people Carole was in labor for...but now you know the whole story and you can make up your own times based on the information above. Oh, and here is a little picture of our little baby...

Wow, this is a waiting game...

So we thought we'd have a baby by now...but it seems we had another false alarm on Friday.  So we're just on pins and needles and eggshells waiting for this baby to make her arrival.  I'm starting to understand why so many people are getting unnecessary C-Sections these days...I talked with a couple of moms yesterday and they mentioned how convenient it was to just be able to schedule your due date.  I can see the logic in this now, I'm sure in cases like us there is alot less stress and uncertainty involved. But I don't think I'd have it any other way.  Carole read this thing to me which I found interesting:

The monetary damage from Hurricane Katrina could be paid off in 15 years just by eliminating unnecessary c-sections in the United States.

According to the World Health Organization, the optimal c-section rate is between 5-10%.  Yet, here in the United States in 2005, it is over 25%.  Obviously, over half of the c-sections done are unnecessary . . . often done because of lack of patience or fear of liability on the doctor's part.  These unnecessary c-sections account for over $15 billion annually in patient charges.

Interesting huh?  It came from this website in case you want to see for yourself.

So I don't think we're in any danger of having a C-Section but you never know.  "The best laid plans..."

I checked out this site last night that I found through a bunch of related links while I was messing around with MySpace...this guy takes some freakin' awesome photographs...I think in another life I would've aspired to be like him...and then it gets better...I ask to be added to his MySpace friends and he sends me an email saying he went to HS with my wife!  Not only that, but I find out HE'S the guy behind all those awesome PixelGrazer sites that I love.  It's a small world isn't it? 

In other news...JJ has a MySpace site now (woohoo!) and The Prayers and Tears will be playing in Toronto tomorrow night...(road trip anyone?)...

The Physics of Meaning - New CD and Tour...

I just heard the new Physics of Meaning record that is coming out soon and it's pretty darn cool...again it's another fine release from those fine folks at the Buhanan Collective...

Daniel Hart's voice is in fine shape and his odd-metered compositions wash over you delicately. His guitar and violin playing complement each other nicely, adding some moments that seem George Harrison-esq and yet Pedro the Lion-like at their textural best.

This album has a very cinematic quality to it, and I'm not talking about flavor-of-the-moment song placement here, rather the production has a timeless feel to it, not unlike Sergio Bardotti and Piero Piccioni's work on The Tenth Victim.  Classic stuff. 

My favorites so far are "Oregon" which is a down-tempo, melancholy tribute(of sorts) with some beautiful oboe (or is it english horn?) parts played alongside degraded and twisted string and mellotron parts awash in a beautiful organic sort of delay - very transcendent.  Alex Lazara's production touches make that song a stand-out for sure. 

Another favorite part of the record is the transition between tracks 10 and 11 (really it's the start of track 11), when the previous song starts to play backwards and speeds up until it sounds like the tape machine is getting out of control and then there is an explosion of sorts and jumbled sounds and lyrics and then - the soft electric piano chords signal the start of the last song of the album.  My description doesn't do it justice, but let me tell you I haven't been this excited about an album's production trick since the speed sequencer part in the album version of Michael Jackson's "Black or White..."

The album will be officially released on Nov. 8th and the band will be traveling through the end of October and most of November to promote the album.  If you're in the area, be sure to catch the FREE album release party:

• Saturday, November 5th, 10pm
  Chapel Hill, NC
  @ Local 506
  The Physics of Meaning CD release show
  with Eyes To Space,
  Ticonderoga,
  and the prayers and tears of arthur digby sellers
  FREE SHOW, ages 18+

Anyhow...if you can't see them here, be sure to catch them on tour, they'll be heading up to Philly, NYC, Boston and down south to Atlanta, Alabama, Texas and all parts in between.  And be sure to check out their MySpace site as well...

Stuff and Life...

Alex, Perry and Nicole came over last night and I grilled chicken out back, made a salad and just pretty much tried to relax a bit.  Alex and Perry are leaving on tour in a few days (actually tomorrow) and so I invited them over for some dinner.  Alex brought with him some free software plugins for me to try and he helped set up my computer a little so it was running a bit smoother.  There were three plugins in particular that he brought that I think are pretty awesome...

1. Supatrigga (great randomizer thingy...)
2. Reversinator (one button only...awesome!)
3. RetroDelay (cool, dub like sounds...delay for days...)

Alex also showed me some production tricks with Fruity Loops that I hadn't seen and generally encouraged me to start messing around...you only learn this stuff if you use it...

Also, in other news...some of you might know, but I'll tell the rest of ya...Carole (my wife) and I are expecting another baby anyday now...so if I don't post for awhile, you'll know that I'm staying up tending to the new baby baker and otherwise doing father/ husband duties around the house!

We're pretty excited about the new addition, as you can imagine...

Well, that's it for now and if you get a chance, check out Perry and Alex on tour with the Mountain Goats...

Switchfoot CD recalled...

So apparently they had to recall all those copy-protected Switchfoot cd's.   

Read the article here.

ugh.  I'm glad I'm waiting to get my new Switchfoot CD.  I feel bad for the band...