Month: September 2010

Site Update: Music Pages

I got my CD’s back from the manufacturer the other day and am in the process of getting it set up for internet sale on CD Baby and iTunes. To prepare for my forthcoming album release I updated a few of my web pages:

http://buzzytonic.com – the new home page for Buzzy Tonic, my once and future group.

http://zingman.com/music/facetheheat.php – page for Face the Heat, the new album by Buzzy Tonic

http://zingman.com/music – main music page.

http://zingman.com – main home page.

Check ‘em out. This will be your last chance to listen to the full versions of the songs before they are behind a paywall.

Colored Lights Can Hypnotize

My friend Leo Villareal is an artist who works in the medium of flashing LED’s. I’ve known him since grad school when he was just getting started with this stuff, and I did some programming on one of his light shows a while back. Yesterday CNET ran an article about him and his work, including an new exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. Leo’s a brilliant and kind guy, and it’s good to see him getting to this level of success and recognition.

Long May You Run

Jeannie’s car died over the weekend. The timing belt broke and caused a bunch of collateral damage to the engine. Our mechanic tried valiantly to fix it, but once it became clear we’d need to remove the head, which would mean pulling the engine, it was the end. The car had a good run and it’s time had come. It was a ’93 Subaru Legacy that was past 176,000 miles. We bought it in ’97 shortly after we moved to California and put about 125k of those mile on the car. Too bad though, because it has a full tank of gas and we just had it washed.

We’re gonna replace it with a Prius. Jeannie wants a 4-door hatchback or wagon, and we’ve looked around and there’s not alot of other small-to-midsize cars out there that we like. We have several friends who drive Priuses (Prii?) and they’re all very happy with them. I think its a pretty cool looking car too, at least in some of the colors. And the 50mpg thing is like a superpower from the future. No other car out there even comes close. They’re not even super expensive if you avoid the trim packages with all the silly electronic superflua. So we’ve been running around to Toyota dealers all week looking to find one in stock in a color we like (blue, tan, red or black). We’ll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile we’ve been sharing a car. Yesterday I brought my rollerblades into work, planning on skating home so Jeannie wouldn’t have come pick me up at the train station. But just before I left work there was a freak thunderstorm. I cam back to my office from a meeting at the end of that day, and the sky was black like nighttime. The storm hit the building like a wave crashing against a ship, and the building swayed and rocked. A half hour later it was clear and the sun came out. I found out later a tornado touched down on Queens, causing massive damage, mainly from trees falling down. We’ve had a few big windstorms up in our neck of the woods over the last few years, so I was glad that this time it missed us. Brought my skates again today; gonna try again. Right now at least the sun is out.

California Pics

Okay, here you go. Five galleries of pics of our trip to California, plus a few upfront to whet you appetite. As always the family and friends fotoz are password protected, so contact me if you need the password. Enjoy!

http://zingman.com/fotooz/2010-01/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2010-02/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2010-03/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2010-04/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2010-05/index.html

Back To School

Another summer vacation has come to a close. Tomorrow the kids go back to school. They’re all packed and prepped and off to bed.

We spent the long weekend at the beach, as has become our custom, and had a mainly excellent time. Hurricane Earl didn’t bother us much, mostly wind and big surf. At one point it was raining sea foam, which was pretty weird. It came in quickly Thursday night and left just a quickly Friday afternoon. We had to stay out of the ocean for a day and all the rides were closed. But it was just as well cuz I was really tired and got a chance to catch up my rest. The hotel had a pool and game room, and we went for a big walk down the beach and around the island as the storm cleared. The rest was pretty much the usual: amusement pier, water park, beach and ocean. We went for a great nature hike at Asseteague and saw lots of blue crabs, shellfish, fish, birds, tadpoles and turtles, and some cool shells and stuff. Pictures coming sometime, maybe soon.

Lizzy got a pet hamster today and named her Delilah. She’s very excited. For a while she considered getting a pet turtle instead, but the cuteness factor won out.

Work has sort of stabilized. Our first release candidate went to QA, where a few minor bugs turned up. I’m going to build release candidate 2 tomorrow. I impressed everyone in my project by seemingly fixing a bug before it was discovered. Actually what happened was I discovered and fixed it last week before I went on my trip, but the bug tracking system was down that day, so our QA guy opened the ticket for me while I was away.

Had a chance to get caught up on a number of random tasks between all our travels. I even did some more work on my book this weekend. One thing on my mind now is upgrading my studio. I have a lot of options, each with pros and cons. But with my new record done, I really want to get into making more music, not mucking around with technology. More on that in the weeks ahead.

Face The Heat Album Art

My album is done! I sent the master CD off to get duplicated this morning. In the tradition of obsessive bands like Boston or Steely Dan, this record was close to four years in the making, so I feel good about having reached this point. Soon it will be for sale on my web site and elsewhere. Meanwhile, here’s some images of the album cover, sleeve, etc. Enjoy!