There was a break from gaming last night, as music had to be attended to. However, the band was in the full spirit of explosive ingestion. We’re heading into the venerable Q-Division recording studio in Somerville for drum and bass (as opposed to drum ‘n’ bass) tracking on June 28th. Then on June 30th, we’ll be at Charlie’s Kitchen in Harvard Sq. for our typically Boston Monday night at 11:30pm debut show. Yes, Charlie’s has bands. No, we didn’t know either until they booked us. We’re called The Memory Effect. There’s a website (www.memoryeffect.com). It’s a 2 -guitar rock and roll attack. We have an endorsement from the cute girls in the rehearsal space across the hall, so we must be good…

See, ’cause the grain’s infected. That’s why. If they’d just stuck to the meat provided for them by all of those exploding sheep, they’d be set.

The tally for the day:

Cables built: 4 (dbx compressor, power amp, and mackie output now on the patchbay)

Warcraft Levels Completed: 1

At this pace, I may actually finish! See what happens when you put your mind to something? And my Mom didn’t think I’d amount to anything.

GET SOME!!!

If I learned one thing the last time through this game, it’s to upgrade your heroes as quickly as possible. In that spirit, I now spend one level in each section attacking with nothing but my best. That way I can blow through the rest of them more quickly.

I will say this about Warcraft III; I do not understand the “optional” quests. This is already a pretty freakin’ long game. Why do we need options? I didn’t care about the farmer and his ledger. I don’t care about saving Timmy. In the end, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If I waste my precious time saving one whiney little kid, thousands may die.

…but I digress.

Current tally:

Warcraft Levels Completed-3 (I did an extra tonight)
Cables Built-2 (right angle 1/4″ to straight 1/4″, connecting my Mackie mixer to my audio interface).
Emagic concepts learned-3 (fades. scrubbing, and basic editing)

What a depressing moment the re-load of Warcraft III was. I have vowed to finish one mission a night until this is done. It’s been suggested that, having made it all the way to the 6th Orc mission, I should just get the cheat codes and be done with it. I will not. Why? Because I’m stupid. I did, however, skip the intro level. That despite Warcraft’s warning that important “plot elements” would be missed. I also took great joy in leaving the farmer and his family stranded by the side of the road while bandits made off with their ledger. I had more important things to do.

I have also vowed to finish one audio device’s cables each day until my gear is all hooked up to my patch bay.

Finally, co-editor Tim Franklin and I continued work on our Franklin vs. Kennedy acoustic side-project on Sunday. Work was slow. Emagic Logic presented us with multiple difficulties. I fear the manual will be needed. The manual, for those who do not know, is over 600 pages long.

Upon the purchase of our new computers, Jeff had the brilliant idea of separating the software from the files via multiple drive set-ups. This saved my tucus last week. Unfortunately, in the wave of system drive destruction, my Warcraft 3 profiles and saves were lost. Perhaps the summer is going to be more interesting than I thought…

So I have 3 games to finish this summer. Everybody’s already played them, and I’m notorious for allowing my “I’m going to physically harm the machine” frustration to get the best of me.

In that spirit, I will be keeping you apprised of other murderously painful things I’ll be doing with my (and sometimes other people’s) computers this summer. Most involving music recording of some kind. When you look at the interfaces in audio software, they look like games too…