The Proper Way To Get The Celestine Prophecy

I never read The Celestine Prophecy when it came out because I was already reading Jung and some Chinese filosophy like the I Ching and felt that I already knew what the book was about. Since I'm taking an online course that asked me to read it I decided to finally do it.

Problem was, the book is out of print in Buenos Aires (and South America). Was a huge best seller, broke all the records but for some reason they didn't print it anymore (probably due to the effects of the Argentinean devaluation of the peso in 2002). I went to the used bookstores but they had no copies.

Yesterday I went jogging and, though I use to take no money with me, brought $20 Argentinean pesos (less than 7 US dollars). I run around Aeroparque, the local airport, and entered to see something. i remembered there was a bookstore, but the clerk was having lunch. So I decided to run to another mall, where there was another bookstore. I entered and asked the guy for three or four books I'm looking for. All of them are temporarely out of print. One of them was The Celestine Prophecy "La Novena Revelación" in Spanish.

"That's a book impossible to get these days" he said

I took a look at the books. I spent some time, and when I decided to go... There was a copy of the book on a shelf.

"I found a copy" I said to the guy.

"What? Where?" he asked me, not believing it.

"On the self helf shelf"

"That's impossible. I put books there three or four times a week... Never seen it..."

He scanned the book.

"This book is out of stock... The system doesn't even recorgnize it... Must have spent years there..."

He finally charged me $15 por the book, the price it has before the devaluation of the peso (US$5 now). Really cheap... The book was in mint ciondition, with a plastic envelope, and I'm reading it right now...

TIMELINE - Akai S2000 PART 2

• Bid on Internet for two SCSI hard disks starting at $40 (Argentinean pesos, US$14 or less).
• Asked the guy if he meant $40 per each one (I understood it was $40 for the two of them). The guy said $40 each one.
  
• Discussion. Guy agrees $59 total for both SCSI disks (IBM, 2,1 Gb).
• I won the bid. Called the guy, agree to be at his place to pick up the HD' s Thursday, 21 hs.
• Thurday 20 hs get the car to do several things.
• Thursday 20:30 a storm starts. The pouring rain is so heavy that nearly all the traffic lights stop working. The avenues are flooded, people are soaked. My car is very low (in height), I expect it to stop due to the water.
• Get to the guy's place. The rain stops. I get both HD's for $59.
  
• Get home. Try the HD's on the HD case. The Akai doesn't recognize #1
• Recognizes #2 and formattes it. It takes more than an hour.
  
• The PC recorgnizes and formats HD #1.
• Akai doesn't, again.
• Try both HD's on my old Ensoniq EPS16+. No response.
  
• Trying to make everything work I accidentaly format HD #2 again, so I have to format it again with the Akai.
• The Akai starts formatting it but displays "FORMAT ERROR!" after an hour or so.
• I go to bed at 5:00 having decided twrowing the Akai and the HD's by the balcony.
• Wake up and, instead of mounting the disks on the disk case, I open the PC, disconnect the hard disks (so it won't boot) and plug the SCSI HD's to the SCSI card (instead of the CD burner).
  
• Akai recognizes #2!! Formats it.
• Akai recognizes #2!! Fomats it.
• Ensoniq EPS16+ recognizes #2!!!!!! Formats it again.
• I try booting the PC and make an SCSI chain (Akai - HD - PC). I take the termination away from the disk. It works!!! - I load the sounds on the HD using the MESA editor.
• I cancel my plans of throwing things by the balcony, go dancing in the streets under the pale moonlight instead.
  
• Take the SCSI case to repairman.
  

Technology sucks.

I Made Up My Mind

OK, desition taken...

CanalPop will be a one man band (as if ever was other thing). I'll work with different sessionists.

I wasted enough of my precious time negotiating with vocalists... And the funny thing is: I know that my songs work for themselves. If they want to play they are stars or worst... "artists", they better start their own [deficitary] projects...

I'm here for the money folks, I never denied this.

No Easter relax for me

Many people from Buenos Aires left the city for a 4 day vacation, but I stood here, trying to make the sampler work (I bought 2 hard disks, I'll get them on Monday), working on my Internet pages and reading.

I finished the lyric of "Minimoog", the song about a young girl who is deeply in love with a jerk who visits her only to put his hands in her brother's Minimoog.

Well, almost finished. The bridge is not finished yet. I mean, the melody is, but I don't have the final lyrics...

It's a short melody so probably won't make too much sense ("I miss you... I need you...") Hey it's a love song and I've already sweated myself off to make it complicated enough!

The more stupid the lyrics= the more easy to understand the song= the more popular the song becomes= $$ for me...

[But you moron shouldn't say these things aloud... Talk about ART, talk about ART...]

¡¡Charly García vs Piñon Fijo!! - [La que faltaba]

Tomado de Infobae, 27/03/2005

-----------------
Que Charly García es un personaje polémico no hay dudas. Sino basta leer las siguientes líneas.

El talentoso cantante dejó a todos con las ganas en Córdoba cuando el viernes por la noche abandonó el escenario del Teatro del Lago después de tocar 40 minutos y de interrumpir el show en sendas ocasiones culpando al payaso Piñón Fijo y a los problemas de sonido, según publica el diario la Voz del interior. Por tal motivo, la organización decidió devolver el costo total de las entradas ante semejante fiasco.

“No se puede tocar después de un payaso”, dijo Charly García en referencia directa a Piñón Fijo que se había presetado minutos antes en el teatro.

Luego Charly se quejó del sonido y dijo que ya se había quejado en una presentación anterior en Cosquín. Más tarde volvió a ir contra el payaso y luego de tirar el micrófono se bajó del escenario y suspendió el recital.

Después salió de nuevo al escenario para sólo tocar dos temas más e irse.
"Charly es así", dicen.

Trent Reznor - En Español (Sí de Clarín, 25 Marzo 2005)

Esto salió en el Sí de Clarín, sólo lo cito porque pronto va a dejar de estar disponible - Copyright Clarín

ENTREVISTA EXCLUSIVA: TRENT REZNOR

Honestidad brutal

Después de seis años, el líder de Nine Inch Nails vuelve con un nuevo disco ("With teeth") que revela el período más oscuro de su vida, según confesó al Sí!: "Toqué fondo y entendí que tenía dos caminos: la salvación o el infierno".

Txt. Silvia Maestrutti. Desde Los Angeles


Al menos soy coherente", dice Trent Reznor con una sonrisita que no llega a ser irónica cuando se le recuerda que, en mayo del 2000, en Miami, la primera pregunta que le hizo el Sí! fue la misma que ahora: por qué demoró seis años en sacar un álbum de Nine Inch Nails, que por entonces era The Fragile (el sucesor de The Downward Spiral) y hoy es el sucesor de The Fragile, With Teeth.

En aquella ocasión habló de bloqueo mental, de la muerte de su abuela, de haber estado ocupado produciendo un disco para su entonces amigo Marilyn Manson. Esta vez, la pregunta le abrió la puerta a una honestidad brutal. "Antes de venir para acá (un hotel muy hip de Los Angeles) me preguntaba cuánto iba a querer hablar de lo que estaba pasando en mi vida. Y me di cuenta de que no puedo hablar del álbum sin contar cómo nació, estaría esquivando un montón de preguntas si no digo la verdad. La verdad es que tuve que asumir que era un adicto y un alcohólico, que es algo que he estado negando por mucho tiempo. Mi adicción fue también la razón por la que me demoré tanto en sacar el disco anterior".

Muy sereno, muy pausado, vestido informalmente, para nada producido, con algunos kilos extra que le sientan bien, Reznor toma sorbos de un vaso de agua y carraspea cada vez que retoma el relato que va a terminar con él yendo a rehabilitación y sintiéndose sobrio por primera vez en muchos, muchos años. "Toqué fondo en el final del último tour (The Fragility Tour). Ahí entendí que tenía dos caminos: la salvación o el infierno", confiesa.

—¿Qué era lo que te tenía atrapado?

—Primordialmente el alcohol, pero después de beber, la cocaína parecía una buena idea... una semana más tarde no me acordaba qué me había pasado, y me sentía como la mierda. Me terminé de hundir haciendo The Fragile. Fui un tiempo a rehabilitación y lo mantuve en secreto porque estaba avergonzado. La primera lección que aprendí fue que la adicción es una enfermedad y el alcoholismo es una adicción. Mientras grabé The Fragile, estuve sobrio por dos años, pero no estaba recuperado. Cuando el disco salió y fue directo al número uno tuve que ir a tomar un trago, y ahí empezó el proceso de nuevo.Y pasé un año en la ruta enfermo todo el tiempo, en estado de abstinencia y con pánico de que si no tomaba me iba a enfermar. Fue un período muy oscuro en mi vida y terminé odiándome a mí mismo.

—¿Cómo fue que decidiste cortar?

—Si me hubieran dicho que tenía que cortarme un brazo para salir de esto, te juro que lo habría hecho. Descubrí que me había mudado a Nueva Orleans para estar en el medio de la nada, porque esa ciudad es un buen lugar para beber y esconderse.

Desde el 2004 Trent vive en Los Angeles, en una casa escondida en las colinas de Beverly Hills aunque mantiene su estudio de grabación en Nueva Orleans, construido donde antes había funcionado una funeraria, qué menos. Fue en el 2001, concluye, que se sacó los lentes y pudo ver que el mundo no había cambiado... pero él sí.

"No quise apurarme a escribir otro disco, preferí darme un tiempo para acostumbrarme a mi nueva piel, para hacer terapia, para ordenar todo en ese gigantesco clóset lleno de mierda. La verdad es que también tenía miedo de no poder volver a escribir. Tenía miedo de que mi cerebro se me hubiera ido por la nariz". También dice que, muy disciplinadamente, empezó a hacer dos canciones por semana y que cuando se quiso acordar ya tenía dos discos. "Mientras escribía empecé a darme cuenta de que en vez de estar limitado por estar sobrio, estaba libre, podía pensar. Eso me hizo sentir como si tuviera nuevos superpoderes". Y también agradece tener una compañía discográfica que lo apoye: "Puedo decir en mi defensa que no he sacado álbumes malos sólo para ganar plata".

—¿Quién es, en definitiva, el Trent Reznor modelo 2005?

—Alguien que lucha por encontrar su lugar en el mundo. Me siento como saliendo de una cueva de una máquina del tiempo y me encuentro con que tengo 39 años ¿Cómo pasó eso?

—Bueno, casi 39. El próximo 17 de mayo cumplís los 40...

—¡¡¡Shhhhhhhh!!!

50 CENT NETS A FOURTH TOP 10 HIT

In addition to notching a fifth week atop the Billboard Hot 100 with "Candy Shop" featuring Olivia, 50 Cent also moves 11-6 as the featured artist on the Game's "Hate It or Love It" giving him four current top 10 hits. The rapper is the first artist to do this since 1964, when the Beatles held the top five spots on the tally.

From Billboard

TIMELINE - Akai S2000

OK, this is more or less what happened

• Bought an Akai S2000 - The deal included a 100 MB Zip drive .
• Couldn't make the Zip drive work, connected to the Akai.
• The Zip drive worked while hokked to the PC, though.
• After a couple of days, the Zip drive sterted clicking.
• Posted questions in 3 forums, got lots of advice. Everyone told me the Zip drive was dead.
• Attempted to buy a new one, but they're not available anymore, new.
• Sent the Zip drive to a repairman (a computer store next to my place, I go there 3 times a day).
• Looking for Zip drives realized that hard disk were not very expensive (they USED to be expensive and they need a powered case, but prices dropped. A 2 Gb hard disk is very affordable, and many people sell used cases).
  
• Realized that I can also plug a hard disk to my old Ensoniq EPS16+.
• Borrowed a Zip drive from a friend. It worked perfectly with my sampler. Formatted a Zip disk.
  
• Went to the computer store, the guy told me that my Zip drive was so dead that the PC coudn't even recognize it. Or was it a mistake of the repairman?
  
• Took my friend's Zip drive to the store to find out if it worked.
• The guys realized that I was talking about SCSI Zip drives (they assumed they were IDE).
• Took my SCSI PCI card to the computer store.
• Bid on an Internet page for 3 SCSI disks. I offered $2 Argentinean pesos (less than $1 US).
• The guy from the computer store returned me the Zip drive: he said it worked flawlessly, perfectly with the PC.
  
• Tried the Zip drive with the Akai: no response.
  
• Bought an SCSI powered case for hard disks. But I don't have the disk yet.

Before an after each one of these steps called Andrés from Midi-Midi for help...

Technology sucks.

Here's my new sampler... My expression is a result of not having slept for days because I coudn't make it work... 

I finally found her... A girl with a big heart... 

I met the biggest moron

I'm talking about a guitar player (surprised?). He came to my studio, to record some things. He messed up with everyhing, gave me his oppinion about everything, connected his guitar and HAD NO IDEA of what to do... So he started suggesting that MY ARRANGEMENTS crashed with his guitar (it was the other way around, my arrangements were there first). I gave him a lead sheet with the chords and so... He didn't even read it, started playing some dumb rock and roll riffs and suggested that they had to fit because the song was in D minor and what he was playing was in D minor to... After all he complained that I didn't have a decent pre amp to use while recording.

A COMPLETE MORON

And guess what... After making me lose 2 hours he asked me for some money to get back to his place...

Luckily enough for me, he forgot his jacket... I'll return it to him , of course, but it'll cost him some work to get it...

New Moby Album

Moby into hotels

Posted by: Side-Line on Mar 09, 05 | 1:00 am

Out on March 14th is "Hotel", the new album by Moby. "Hotel" is Moby’s first album since 2002’s four-million-selling "18, a record that defied its creator’s own fears that his phenomenally successful ten-million-seller from 1999, "Play", had been a fluke. In the intervening three years Moby has jammed with John Kerry, been publicly attacked by Eminem and also recorded an anti-war single with hip-hop godfathers Public Enemy. "Hotel" was recorded by Moby in his New York bedroom studio almost single-handedly with a little help from vocalist Laura Brown and live drummer Scott Frassetto.
Moby

From SIDE-LINE Magazine

Trouble with hardware

I bought an Akai S2000 sampler with an Iomega Zip Drive - Which never worked...

Details apart, I freaked out and freaked out everyone around me, specially the guys at the S3000 Yahoo group and my good friend/ technology adviser Andrés from Midi Midi

Now I'm looking for an SCSI hard drive - wish me luck.

Some I really love sent me this pic... 

And this one too...  

What time did you say it is??? 

The chord is a little weird, but you can notice my cool triceps.  

Kraftwerk Will Release Live DVD's

Taken from Side Line Magazine

:::..: Mon Mar 07, 2005
Kraftwerk to release live DVD and more
Posted by: Side-Line on Mar 07, 05 | 1:01 am |

The German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk are to release a live 2DVD of their recent 2004 world tour. But the new release is not limited to just a live 2DVD. Entitled "Minimum Maximum", the package will furthermore include a double live CD, a double multichannel SACD (Hybrid) and a 4 vinyl LP set in a special designed box. Each product offers the complete set of live performances, available in an english and a german version. Detailed information about this release will be published soon. In the meantime the band has confirmed several live performances: June 30th will see them live at work at the Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium, July 3rd live at Eurockéennes de Belfort in France and on July 4th the band plays the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Stay tuned for more.
---------------


Now that I think of it... Maybe a Kraftwerk show is not the most exciting thing t0 view in your new DVD player...

New songs

I'm changing the songs, replacing old ones with new. There was nothing wrong with the ones I intended to record. Quite the contrary, some of them were my best songs and there's no point in making an album with your twelve best songs if only a couple of singles will be released (hoping the best). So I took two or three songs away and added two or three more.

The reason that I took one of them away was because it was supposed for a guy to sing, and had no way to make it work sung by a girl (without make her sound like a slut, that's it).

Titles of my new songs:

• "Minimoog"
• "Your Granny's House"
• "I Am A Freak"

A "Minimoog" is an old analog synthesizer, maybe the best known one, a classic, similar to the VW bug in cars. And the story of the song is somehow ironic. It's about a young girl who falls in love with a guy that visits her and her family. Everyone asumes that his visits are because he's interested in the girl but in fact he only cares about her brother's Minimoog. He even brings an Akai sampler while pretending to be there visiting the girl.

Singers II...

Alright, I changed my mind again... I want to work with professional singers, but I want the singer to be part of the band. I met a beautiful girl who's a minor celebrity here and everything leads me to think that she sings very well (I didn't listen to her yet).

Synthpop releases

From Synthpop Music - by the way, thanks for the link to this blog, Dave!

---------
Erasure Release "Don't Say You Love Me" Single March 15
UK CD Single 1-Tracks: 1.Don't Say You Love Me (Single Mix) 2.Lie To Me. (US amazon has it on import here.)
UK CD Single 2-Tracks: 1.Don't Say You Love Me (Mark Moore Mix) 2.Don't Say You Love Me (Rock & Rave Mix) 3.Breathe (Pete Heller Vocal Mix).(US amazon has it on import here.)
UK DVD Single (PAL format!) -Tracks: 1.Radio Mix (Audio) 2.Piney Gir Mix (Audio) 3.Video.

---------------

New Order new single due March 7 in the UK- Album March 28
Krafty UK CD Single -Tracks: 1.Single Edit 2.Album Version
Krafty UK MCD Single - 1.Glimmers 12" Extended Mix 2.Phones Reality Mix 3.Andy Green Mix 4.Album Version Re-Edit. (links as soon as we can find em)

The Album - Waiting for the Siren's Call is due out March 28. Tracks: 1.Who's Joe 2.Hey Now What You Doing 3.Waiting For The Siren's Call 4.Krafty 5.I Told You So 6.Morning Night And Day 7.Dracula's Castle 8.Jetstream 9.Guilt Is A Useless Emotion 10.Turn New Drum 11.Working Overtime.

Singers...

I'm not happy with the singing. I almost decided I'll change the format of my project to a unipersonal band and the singers will be guests. That means, professional singers I'll pay.

If other guys can get away with it I can too...

And I always liked Alan Parsons Project. OK, those were two guys (Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfsong) but they were pioneers in having multiple singers...

Time to change all my stuff again...

Another questionary....

Taken from This Girl's Blog

------------------------
I AM: Pop Producer
I WANT: the world
I HAVE: no choice but to go on
I WISH: I had it
I HATE: wasted talent
I MISS: certain people
I FEAR: the monster in me
I HEAR: when I mix stuff
I SEARCH: but I find it while not searching
I WONDER: nah
I DON'T: care about them
I REGRET: wasted opportunities (I wonder if I ever had any chance)
I LOVE: against my will
I ACHE: not anymore
I CARE: but I shouldn't
I ALWAYS: change
I AM NOT: what you think
I CRY: in songs
I SING: far from what it takes to make a pro recording
I NEED: the world
I DO NOT ALWAYS: care
I FIGHT: like I'm already dead
I WRITE: songs
I LOST: everything I had, and it was worth almost nothing
I CONFUSE: morons
I LISTEN: only to those who had results
I DANCE: for myself
I AM HAPPY ABOUT: you
I SHOULD: go to bead early
I AM CURRENTLY: awake at 2:53 AM
I THINK: but my decisions are not based on logic
I DREAM: and then I write dreams down