数日前ダレンジャーさんと電話で話し、最終の準備を確認した。そして昨日、奥さんと車で出発したというメールが届いた。今夜は北九州で演奏してから、明日は広島へ。

ジェーミーさんが九日（日）に慈善イベントを主催する。El Barco、Barco Tropicalにて十八時半から様々なミュージシャンやディージェイが演奏する。目標は五十万円を集めて、すべてを津波の被災者のため日本赤十字社に寄付する。詳細はScheduleを見てください。

現在のエフェクターなどの機材をやめて、すべてコンピューターやソフトで音を作ると考えている。昨日はまた数時間をかけて、欲しいiBookを決めた。他にソフトなどもあるので、すぐ買えるのかは分からないけど、見るだけで興奮していた。

I’ll be playing one solo set at Koba on Saturday night, along with bassist/vocalist Kajiyama Shu and “Bass Ninja” Imazawa Quagero. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the club’s owner, BOM, to join me for a bit of a jam with his didgeridoo.

The event scheduled for Sunday at Cusco Cafe has been moved to 5 December, also a Sunday. I also have a couple of promising gigs in development for December, as well as a large event scheduled for early January. More info on all of this will come later.

My research on the “MacRack” is progressing. I’ve changed my mind several times on both hardware and software, and will likely change it several times again before I have scratched together enough cash to finally make the purchase (hopefully sometime in the first half of 2005). Right now I’m in the process of soliciting advice from more knowlegable friends.

I fell asleep in my armchair Monday night reading the newspaper. I do this often, but this time I must have been sitting/slumping at an odd angle, because I’ve had a ferocious pain in my neck, shoulders, and upper back all week. I thought it would eventually work itself out, but if it keeps up like this for much longer, I may need to see a chiropractor.

I’m beginning to give some serious thought to making a major change in my effects rack. The new rack would be built around a laptop computer (probably a Mac, but haven’t gotten that far yet in the decision making) that would be installed with recording/mixing/sequencing software and any number of a variety of plug-ins for effects. The main advantages I see at this point are (1) being able to record tracks in my own home studio and (2) being able to add effects, processors, etc. as I like onto the computer’s hard drive, without any actual physical increase in the amount and weight of the equipment I have to move around. The main disadvantage (for me) is that I just don’t know much about this area of computers and computer software yet, and still have a lot of research to do. Luckily for me, there are already some pioneers in this area among Stick players, most notably Don Schiff. You can read more about his “MacRack” on his website by clicking Musings in the main menu, and then MacRack on the left side.

I finally mailed in my absentee ballot yesterday for the 2004 U.S. general election. This is my first time to vote since 1992. I had the ballot filled out for a week before I finally mailed it. Deciding who to vote for was no problem at all for me, but I did start to get cold feet about whether I wanted to participate. In addition, considering my candidate of choice and the political leanings of the state where my ballot will be counted (Indiana), my vote for president will in effect have zero impact. (You need to understand how the U.S. Electoral College works to understand that last bit.) Having said that, however, not all hope is lost for my candidate of choice: in all of the U.S. presidential elections in which I have participated (ok, there are only two: 1988 and 1992), no one has ever won the White House without my vote.

月曜の夕方からはジェーミーとナタシャの結婚披露宴だった。数年前からカップルだったが、今までは披露宴はしていなかった。そして、ちょうど今ジェーミーのご家族が広島に遊びに来ていらっしゃるので、タイミングが良かった。十八時から三十五人くらいでランデブーにて飲んだり、食事したりした。そして、二十一時三十分にエル・バルコに移動した。バルコの方でたくさんの人が遊びに来て、遅くまで演奏したりして、楽しい夜を過ごした。僕が朝の三時三十分ごろにクタクタになって帰ったが、パーティがまだ終わりそうでもなかった。

ところで、ジェーミーと彼の弟たちフランとサイモンが出身地スコットランドのキルトを着て、女性に大人気だった。膝が見えたからじゃないぞ。たくさんの「アップスカート」写真が撮れたと思う。

大分前からメロディ弦にもう一つのエフェクターが欲しいと思っていた。しかし、今は買えないため、諦めた・・・はず。昨日それをまた考え初めて、遅くまでインターネットで興味のあるエフェクターのマニュアルを読み続けた。今のお気に入りはT.C. ElectronicやLexiconと言うメーカのもの。現在使っているBoss SE-70にもう一つのエフェクターを直列につなぐとメロディ弦の音を拡大し、もっと自由に音づくりができると思う。とりあえず、ベース弦で使っていたBoss SE-70もメロディ弦に移動し、両方のSE-70を直列でメロディ弦に使ってみようとしている。そうすると、ベース弦にはエフェクターがなくなる。これは別に悪くはないけど、いつか新しいメロディ弦のエフェクターを買って、一つのSE-70をベース弦に戻したい。

土曜日のアリス・ガーデンにてのアムネスティ・インタナショナルのイベントは非常に暑かった。三十五度以上だと聞いた。しかし、開演の十二時から終わりの二十時までお客さんが多かった。いつもの通り、ジェーミーが器材を運んだり、音響したり、イベントが予定通りに終わるように全ての人を指導したりして、三人分ほどの仕事をした。お陰で、大成功に終わった。

今週末の土曜日、非公開のイベントで演奏して、そうして十七日にFeedbackで演奏する。詳細はScheduleをご覧下さい。

二週間ほど前、器材の配線を変えてみた。今はStickのベース出力が直接SWR SM-400Sのプリアンプに入って、そのままエフェクト・チェンを通し、Rane SP 13プリアンプのExpand Inに入って、メロディ信号と混合され、メロディ・ベースのモノ信号になる。このモノ信号がSM-400Sのパワー・アンプに入る。結局、SP 13のプリアンプを使うだけよりも低音が低音らしくなった気がする。

Although there are always several new pieces of gear that I want for processing my Stick signals, rather than dwell on how limited I am because I don’t have “super processing unit X”, I think I need to focus on being more creative with my existing units.

I’ve recently purchased a portable mp3 player with a 20GB hard drive. Supposedly, this thing can store several thousand compressed music files. It also has an internal microphone for recording audio direct to a compressed file. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to use it to record my performances, and maybe upload some files to my website in the future.

I’ve been compressing (actually using Ogg Vorbis rather than mp3) some of my favorite CDs, which has led to me spending several hours over the past few days listening to Stick recordings I hadn’t touched for quiet a while. This “re-discovery” has been rather inspiring.

Although nearly 20 years old, Emmett Chapman’s Parallel Galaxy is, for me, still the quintessential Stick recording. While there have been several incredible albums by great Stick musicians since then, Parallel Galaxy is still the one that sets the bar for everyone else.

I got my new Stick cables on Friday. Plugged in and did a little practicing. Not only are these new Planet Waves cables much heavier-duty (also heavy-weight, too) than what I had been using before, the sound is noticebly clearer as well. The clarity of these cables had been demonstrated to me before, so I was expecting it. What surprised me was the extra volume I am getting, particularly out of the bass side. I’m going to practice with the settings as they are now for another day or two, but initial impressions are, since switching cables, that I’m eventually going to need to tweak the balance between the bass and melody string groups. So far, I’m using only the new stereo-stereo cable into my Rane SP13 preamp; I haven’t yet had the chance to use the stereo-mono cable.

I’m excited about instrument cables. This is pretty indicative of how exciting my life is.

Recently, I’m really enjoying the CD “subzerosonic” by Stick player John Edmonds. He describes this CD as “odd-time deep-space ice groove for ambient hypnosis and motional haphazardry”. Check out his website for more info and a sound sample.