OpenCut Film Competition

Neil’s Blog Entry

A month or so ago, some friends of mine at work decided to enter at film competition at OpenCut.org. We were to take footage shot on the new RED 4K camera and edit it into a short film. There were around 250 or so entries, but only about 50 actual submissions when it was all said and done.

Alas, we didn’t win. But I thought I’d post it up here for you all to watch anyway. All the editing was done by my friends Susan and Ben while I did the coloring and other post production type stuff.

Enjoy!

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

Note: Not Safe for Work - Language

And if you want to see it in high res, you can download it at vuze.com

I Am A Dork

Neil’s Blog Entry

As Laura and I have mentioned we are in the middle of some well-deserved (and well spent thus far) vacation time. Among several projects and fun things I’ve been doing is a project that truly screams to the world that in no uncertain terms I am indeed a dork. You know? A geek. A square.

I have been giving my recently purchased Optimus Prime a custom paint job.

I’ll let that sink in a bit before I continue. Any of you who thought I was cool because I make industrial goth music… I feel for you. It’s kinda like finding out that Kurt Cobain collected My Little Ponies.

So, rather than give you all the details of the week and a half spent airbrushing metallic paints, or the delicate hand-brushed work in all the gears and workings, or the careful application of the “weathering” effects needed to make it look more real, I thought I’d just post some pictures. I mean, I don’t wanna come off like some kind of loser or anything.

So as Laura is fond of saying… Don’t judge me.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

The One About the Easy Bake Oven and Long Island Iced Tea

Laura’s Blog Entry

Well hello there! Welcome to our summer. We’ve been doing lots of silly things since Neil had been on vacation. He is working feverishly on the new record. I almost feel like I am holding things up with the vocals, but we’ve gotten a good bit of them done. We have two to redo – with our better microphone. And one song that is dead to me. But I’m not thinking about that one right now. Or ever. Maybe it will be like the thirteenth floor and we’ll skip right over “Song 4.” Just a suggestion.

Neil is also working feverishly on his little hobby project, but I’ll let him tell you about that. It involves an airbrush and Optimus Prime – GEEK ALERT!

For Mari’s summer fun she has started ballet training to go on pointe. It is a very slow process, with daily foot and ankle-strengthening exercises that she is doing without complaint. She won’t even be letting go of the bar the whole summer – so she is easing into it. Here are her spankin’ new pointe shoes:

She is also keeping herself busy with a hand-me-down Easy Bake Oven.

She and Neil found recipes on the internet to use instead of those obscenely expensive mixes they sell in stores. So far we’ve had to take the oven apart twice due to a badly formulated brownie recipe that actually makes searing-hot-chocolate-lava-that-overflows-the-pan. Want to see the hopes of a 10 year-old dashed on the rocks of life? That will do it. Tears and angst I tell you. She seems to be recovering, but you never know when the flashbacks are going to hit.

She did have success with teeny tiny peanut butter cookies.

For my vacation, I’ve done a bit of office organizing that I never get around to and loads of crafting, but that will be a separate blog. For my own kitchen disaster, I have done some serious cocktail mixing - trying to come up with an entry for the “How Much Do We Love” Podcast summer cocktail contest. The verdict: I stink at making up drinks. EPIC FAIL! So last night I decided to drown my sorrows and master the Long Island Iced Tea. I had to venture out to buy Tequila, Sweet and Sour Mix, and Coca Cola, but I summed up all my energy and made it happen. Here’s what goes into a Long Island Iced Tea:

OK so I have really crappy rum. Don’t judge me. I usually just use it for rum cake. Really. Oh and it tastes best served in my Kenny Chesney collector glass. Don’t ask.

Long Island Iced Tea

1/2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. triple sec
1/2 oz. light rum
1/2 oz. tequila
2 oz. sweet and sour mix
Coca Cola

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice. Top off with a generous splash of Coca Cola. Serve in a tall glass with even more ice.

Sip S-L-O-W-L-Y. I’m not kidding. Not for the faint of heart. I suggest you go to a bar and order one instead of making at home. Or come over here because now I have all the ingredients.

I sipped this, watched an episode of “Shear Genius” and did some crochet. Then we turned off the loud fan and recorded some vocals. It is soooo hot upstairs when it gets into the 90’s. But we suffer for our art. It has the best acoustics in the house.

Other than that, we’ve just been dressing up the cat:

Follow this chain of events. Neil takes Mari to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. Neil buys Mari an overpriced ice cream sundae in a plastic Red’s helmet. Cat gets dressed up. Makes sense to me.

And now I am off to dig into my stack of summer reading.

Jesus Spotted In a Light Fixture At Chilis?

Neil’s Blog Entry

You decide.

Stuffed Shells

Laura’s Blog Entry

I make the stuffed shells once or twice a year. They are a bit labor intensive, which is OK when you have time. But I don’t usually have time. When there is a large pasta pot and a food processor involved, I consider that labor intensive. It took me about an hour to put these together. Add baking time to that. I did enjoy some yummy Pomegranate Sparking Water while cooking. It came from our trip to The Fresh Market. We also got some chocolate covered animal crackers that Mari wanted. Good pick, kid! They are very yummy!

On with the shells. These are vegetarian, BTW.

Stuffed Shells

1 T olive oil
2 green onions, minced or 1/2 cup diced onion
6 cups peeled zucchini, shredded (I use the food processor to shred) This is about 3 large zucchini.
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1-15 oz. container ricotta cheese (I use fat free because I can’t tell the difference and who needs all that fat?)
1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
1 large egg, beaten slightly
3 T fresh herbs (I recommend 1 T dill, 1 T parsley, and then an additional T of whatever you want – I used oregano and rosemary, but basil would be good too. Use what is on hand, but the dill adds a different flavor, so I always use that. Don’t use more than 1 T dill though. Too strong!
1-12 oz package jumbo shells, cooked, rinsed and drained
2-28 oz jars of your favorite marinara sauce (we like lots of sauce, you may not need this much if you like it a bit dryer.)
Red pepper flakes, optional – if you sauce is a bit bland, you might want to add a 1/4 teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes. All the cheese can make this a bit bland, so I like a sauce with a bit of a kick to balance it out.

Heat oil on medium high in a very large skillet or sauté pan. Add onion and cook until it begins to soften. Add zucchini, salt and pepper. Simmer 10 minutes until zucchini is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add garlic and incorporate well, cooking only 1 minute more.

If you are a multi-tasker, while filling is cooking, heat water in large pasta pot and cook shells. Or you can finish the filling and then come back to this. Add a small splash of olive oil to the boiling water to keep shells from sticking together. Remove and let cool slightly, separating any that have nested inside each other. Cozy little buggers.

When filling is cooked, remove from heat. Stir in ricotta, parmesan, egg and herbs. Mix well.

Now the messy, boring part. It’s quicker if you can get help. Spray 2 regular-size baking dishes or one huge one with cooking spray. Pour in 1/2 cup or so of the pasta sauce and spread around the bottom.

Fill each shell with a generous tablespoon of filling and place in baking dish. (At this point, you can freeze part of the shells once they are stuffed if you like.)  Top the shells in the baking dish with however much more sauce you want and then bake at 375 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Probably closer to 35.

Serves 8.

Note: This makes a ton. I usually freeze part of the batch (without adding the sauce) and only bake half of it at one time.

Yum.

Katie

Laura’s Blog Entry

The world lost Katie Reider yesterday. There’s nothing I can really say except how exceedingly sad that is.

Learn about her story and how to support her family here:

http://www.500kin365.org

NOTE ADDED 7/22/08:
Services for Katie Reider will be held Saturday, July 26 at 11 a.m. at Crossroads Community Church, 3500 Madison Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45209. This is definitely open to the public. Please come celebrate Katie and pass the word on.

Welcome to Gothy Musicland (Part 6): Come Together

Neil’s Blog Post

We are deep into vocal recording and mixing on the new record. I have taken some vacation time and am devoting it to the record. I have set up a little studio in the upstairs bedroom and while it gets pretty hot in the middle of the day, it’s been a nice place to work.

The studio consists of two Genelec studio monitors borrowed from work, a Miglia Harmony Audio interface, sound mixer and, of course, my laptop. As mentioned in an earlier post, we’re using the Blue Baby Bottle microphone to record vocals and I am so in love with it’s sound. In fact, both Laura and I love the Baby Bottle so much that we have recently purchased it from Dave (our guitarist). Thanks, Dave!

A normal recording session starts with Laura warming up a bit while I check all the levels and tweak all the knobs and technical kinda stuff like that. We’ll then record a take. Laura wants to get into the emotion of the song as much as possible, so we’re recording in long takes whenever possible. If we feel a line or two needs re-recording, we’ll just punch that one line in and keep the rest of the original take.

Once we’ve recorded the main vocal lines, we’ll go back and do backups, harmonies and overdubs and stuff. Then I’ll grab a pair of headphones and do a rough mix of the song. I know… I know… Headphones? You should never mix using headphones! I know, but what I’m actually doing is arranging the vocals within the song. I’m not all that concerned at that point with how they sound – more so with where they are in the song. Plus, like I said, it’s gets hot up in the bedroom/studio and because I’m using headphones, I can go downstairs and work where it’s much cooler.

Anyway, once Laura and I have OK’d the rough mix I go upstairs and start working on the final mix. And let me tell you: mixing is a bitch. I have so much respect for those who are sonically skilled in that particular area. I am pretty much making it all up as I go – although my friend Tony has given me some tips on frequencies and spatial relationships and all that kinda stuff that makes my head hurt. All that said, though, I think the songs are coming together very nicely and sounding great.

And speaking of sounding great, I have to tell you all that Laura sounds fantastic on this record. Her voice just sits so beautifully in the music, and there’s a lovely quality to it that I can only describe by saying “this is what it sounded like in my head when I wrote the song in the first place.”

As of this writing, I have four of the possible eleven songs completely finished and ready for mastering. But long before that, I’ll have Tony and Dave give their creative input on the mix… besides, I am still narrowing down my list of possible mastering engineers (although I’m pretty sure I’ve made up my mind).

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

Tabbouleh

Laura’s Blog Entry

Finding lots of ways to use up the CSA bounty. Cooking a bunch the last two days. We also made a little trip to The Fresh Market yesterday for fun and browsing… and to supplement our ingredients for Tabbouleh and Stuffed Shells.

It is all part of our home vacation. Not doing any “normal” work stuff if we can help it. Doing miscellaneous projects if we feel like it. If I get a task done – yippee! Bonus! If not, who cares! I did get to work this morning cleaning 73 years of dirt off another portion of the basement floor. Today was Shop Vac day. Then it will require multiple moppings. Then I am sealing it so that it is easier to keep clean. Makes it feel less dungeon-y down there. My dream is to get a treadmill down there. I used one while we were at a hotel for a few day and loved it. All those flashing numbers got me feeling quite competitive with myself. I love walking outdoors, but in bad weather this would really help. Well, add that to the dream-on list.

Tabbouleh is a delicious cold vegetable salad that uses a good bit of cucumber, which we usually get each week and are tired of just eating on a regular salad. I love having the Tabbouleh for lunch like I did today. I added a smear of mashed avocado with lemon juice on the pita wedge and then piled on tons of Tabbouleh. Really yummy. And makes a great party appetizer.

If anyone would like the recipe I will email it to you. Can’t reprint it here. Up tomorrow: My recipe for vegetarian stuffed shells that even Neil will eat. No really!

Warning: Adorable Children Ahead

Video Blog Entry

As Neil gets to rockin’ it upstairs in his new “Mixing Room” (translate: my sewing desk in our bedroom) I thought I would post this video from back in May.

Our friend’s son turned one and it was a great excuse to get together and eat fantastic food – the best coleslaw I’ve ever had (I need to remember to get Danyne’s recipe), yummy BBQ on buns from the Servatii bakery, (they also have the best French bread in the city) and of course, cupcakes.

Brace yourself for mega-cuteness:

A Garden Variety Blog Entry

Laura’s Blog Entry

Amazing how much time there is to do other things when you stop doing all the normal things. We are officially in vacation mode. Here’s what that looks like around here:

Neil started his vacation on July 4th. I always have to keep in mind the decompression period that spans the time between when he stops working and when he begins relaxing. He has to mentally disengage from work mode. It wasn’t too bad this time. Usually it involves much more silly singing and strange voices.

I spent a good bit of time this weekend in the garden. The weather is not too hot, so it has been very pleasant. The herb garden was a jungle again. But no more. I uncovered some basil plants that had sprung up under the weeds. Score!

This year I am moving some things around. I had to move a huge bunch of lythrum that was next to where the hose hooks up. That way I could then more the hose storage thingy to the right, off of where it was presently located on top of my little paving stone path. Yea! I wanted to do that for 2 summers! Lots of digging involved. But it’s done.

I am even pulling out all the garden ornaments.

One of my favorite vacation traditions is to find a new garden decoration each year. I am hoping to track down a garden gnome this year to add to the display. I’m pretty sure I’m going to name him Fletch.

My teeny little tomato plant that came from my food co-op has yummy little red jewels on it.

Even the kitty is in vacation mode:

Time to set a chair right in the middle of the driveway, pop a Blue Moon in a beer cozy and admire my work.