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National DO NOT CALL RegistryThe Federal Government is finally taking charge of all the Telemarketers who plague our phones with the Do Not Call Registry. Click over to this website, sign up your phone number, and it will be illegal for Telemarketers to call you.
It's about bloody well time. Now, if they'll only hurry up and start dealing with all the SPAM!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Monday, June 30, 2003 |
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Hot or Not?I've roaming the internet hitting a variety of websites, including some singles websites. It's been fun meeting people. And yesterday, I joined up with hotornot.com. And they have a way to rate people as hot or not. So you can now cast your vote using the following link:
Posted by Marc Gunn on Friday, June 27, 2003 |
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Another great evening of musicI had a wonderful evening last night. I went to Mother Egan's to meet a friend and chat with one of the owner's Mick about a few projects lined up. Fortunately, Mick was there, and we had a great brainstorming session, including an idea I had to celebrate Bilbo's Birthday in September and to benefit Excalibur Fantasy Faire. We still have a few things to work out, but I think it'll be ago.
Any case, after waiting a couple hours for a no show, I went home and decided to start recording again. I remixed two songs and then recorded a beautiful original aire in the vein of Turlough O'Carolan that I named "The Lady of Setliff Manor". The song came out beautiful. Gonna listen for a couple more days to make sure it's too my liking, and then see about uploading it. I totally lost track of time I was so excited with this piece. So I figure that's a good thing.
Meanwhile, I uploaded the two remixes of "Patriot Game" and the newly renamed, "Middle Earth Bragging Song" (formerly "Never Give Up the Mountain"). Hopefully, you can listen to them today or tomorrow.
I may not be getting much sleep this week, but with fun like this, who cares!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Tuesday, June 24, 2003 |
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Kitty LoveIt was just a few short weeks ago that was worried that Jasper, Tiziano and Torre would be killing each other. But last night, they proved to the world that kitties can get along with a wee bit'o'time. I present, "Kitty Love", a thirty-second AVI clip of Torre and Jasper showing how much they've learned to care for one another.
P.S. Forgive me. Got remember to learn to stand still with videos.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Monday, June 23, 2003 |
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Busier and busier and busierI was just checking my calendar today, and I'm booked through next week. That's really kinda frustrating with all I need to be getting done, like finishing recording. I'm just not even sure when I'll be able to let alone, when I can start on the Bard's stuff. I think it's time I start organizing my time more creatively. Fortunately, the work rush is nearing its completion, then mayhaps I can relax and take some sick leave. Cuz I'm burning out. Though I must admit I am enjoying work these days. No great stress, plenty to do. Idleness makes me unhappy. Despite the fact I have to work this weekend, I've been very happy.
And tonight... the Harry Potter book release party in Georgetown. Woohoo! That'll be a blast. Slainte!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Friday, June 20, 2003 |
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Featured folk musicThis morning I saw that "The Bridge" was added to MP3.com's featured folk music section! Woohoo!
Every little bit helps. I'm very pleased with the turn my solo music is taking for the better. Every little step seems to make my pending solo CD better and better. I almost have a full album too, and yet there's still more to record. So many directions and yet so little time. Wish I could take a week off to finish it, but alas, work is extra busy these days. So I'll just have to settle for recording one evening at a time.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 |
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Austin Rennie Gathering and KittiesAlso, yesterday, there was a gathering of Austin Rennies at Mother Egan's. That was sooo nice. Not often I get out and in social groups. It's very odd for me.
Okay, I did a wee bit o'business. I was chatting with one killer fantasy artist, Jen Clower-Brown, who's helping me with some Celtic MP3s compilation CD covers. And she made a good point that I never mentioned WHY Jasper has been staying with me. Has he moved in permanently?
Nope. It's very temporary. Jasper is living with me while his mommy is in summer school far away. So I'll have him for another three weeks. And then he goes back to his home.
But boy will it be tough parting from him. All the kitties are getting along pretty well now. They spend all day together in my bedroom and haven't killed each other yet. And they play. Jasper plays a little rougher than TnT, but they get along fairly well all things considered.
I just don't know how Jasper's gonna be able to handle going back to his smaller home after living in my big apartment. Course there'll be fewer kitty annoyances, but I'm sure he'll miss them too. Oh, such beautiful kits.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Friday, June 13, 2003 |
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Magical garments, the Dweomer of DraI've come to the conclusion that I own magical clothes from the House of Dra.
Now wait. Don't laugh. Let me explain.
I work at the University of Texas at Austin. It's one of the largest colleges in the nation with over 50,000 students. It's got a lot of money behind it, including a bunch of wealthy oil folks with hot daughters. Yeah, there's a LOT of beautiful women on this campus, but ye know, they don't cast me a second glance.
I know I'm nothing special, sure. But yesterday, I was able to SEE the difference. Yesterday, I wore my Issy Cossack Shirt I bought from the House of Dra a few weeks back. Man, everywhere I walked I had women smiling and flirting with me. Considering, I've been working at this university for what five years now, and all of a sudden they take notice when I'm wearing Dra's magical shirt. Yes, it Definitely MUST be enchanted.
Oh, and let's not forget that I was wearing that Same style of shirt when I met my ex-fiancee of six years.
Yeah, I don't know how she does it. She's a Wizard of some sort. Yup. Magical. So guys if you're looking to romance some woman, talk to Dra. She'll take good care of ye!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Friday, June 13, 2003 |
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Busy year aheadWow! I talked with Andrew last night and our year is filling up fast. We have pretty much I think seven weekends free between now and December, so the days of relaxing easily are about over. Now it's time to prepare for a wild ride.
The other thing amazing about how busy our schedule will be is that at long, long last, I may HAVE to quit my job. I'll hold onto it as long as I can, but once we head out to Louisiana Ren Faire in November, I'm really not certain I'll be able to take as much time off as I'll need to head to Louisiana. That has got me pretty excited.
I'd be totally thrilled, but I really need to get to bed earlier. Once again, I was working on remixing songs for my CD. I uploaded "The Bridge" last night. It should be on MP3.com today or tomorrow. And man, it sounds awesome! I rerecorded it on Monday night with three different vocal versions. Yesterday, I reviewed those and found one that just sounded beautiful. Then I think I found a great sound for the autoharp. The biggest challenge though was fighting the desire to add other instruments, but this I decided to keep simple for now methinks. I may change my mind before it's released though.
I also listened to "Star of the County Down" again. This was the second recording I made on my 4-track. And actually it wasn't too bad. The vocals are a wee bit off timing-wise, and I couldn't fix that, so I guess I'm gonna have to re-record them. The original version was also a bit long--6 minutes, in fact. Considering I was recording a slow version, I decided to take out that third verse.
But what was really fun, was in my test version, I added a bunch of effects and gave it a nice ethereal quality with this cool reverb and echo. Sounded sweet! But will I keep it...? Probably not. This album is leaning more towards folk music than contemporary new age stuff, so I reckon I'll keep it simple, though I might have to upload the ethereal version nonetheless. It sounds too cool!
Still looking for more CD title suggestions. Please drop them off in my forum if ye have any. Thanks!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 |
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Musical progressI'm very happy to report that I transferred ALL my relevant recordings from the 4-track. Now it's just a matter of mixing it all. I was also surprised to find a couple'o'songs I seemed to've scratched, like a very lovely version of "Star of the County Down". It was actually the Second recording I ever made on the 4-track. (The first was a recording of "Little Drummer Boy", but I didn't care for that recording).
All this mixing has gotten me excited. Ye see, when I started recording, I'd meant to take each of these individual tracks and put together an album. I sorta did that with Mountain Rain and Celtic Love & War, but I was never pleased with either of those albums. The reason for my dissatisfaction was the sound. They didn't sound as professional as I wanted my music to sound.
So why didn't I just remix and put together something professional? Well MP3.com was my intended distributor, and if you delete a song from MP3.com, then they leave the song in the stats since it may still get play in My.MP3.com. Well, that's just plain annoying to me. Then there's also the problem that some songs were added to MP3 radio stations and to delete them would run the risk that I'd never get back on those stations. So basically, it was for a silly reason.
So a couple days ago, I said, "screw that". I'll just delete the old one, and put up a new and better version. That's what I'm doing. Not only am I deleting and cleaning up the sound flaws, I'm also encoding it at a higher bit rate. This means every song on the next album will be of near CD quality in sound.
Now, the only problem is that in the past three years, I've recorded a decent amount of material. In it is very likely that I could end up with TWO CDs!
Okay, so that's not a problem except that it means I have start working on MORE artwork, but that's no prob. One thing at a time though...
So for now, I have a new question. A couple weeks ago, I asked for songs from that list I gave you. Well, now we're gonna broaden that list a wee bit. What songs would you like to hear on my CD(s)? Post your suggestions 16 song suggestions in the Bard Forum. I'll pick some of the best. This can be from Any song I've recorded on my MP3 site, plus maybe some bards stuff if ye're really interested in it.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Friday, June 06, 2003 |
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Snarf!!! (Not just a funny word)Many, many moons ago, I was a Dungeons & Dragons fanatic! Somewhere along the way, I started buying copies of Dragon Magazine. Then, when I had no one else to game with, I used Dragon to jumpstart my mind and move me to create adventure after adventure.
This was particularly prevalent when I visited Italy. I did a lot of research for my games, but Dragon Magazine helped me to deter my boredom and give me a lift, especially when I discovered SnarfQuest.
Snarf Quest was comic strip at the end of Dragon Magazine about a race of creatures called zeetvahs who hold a quest to see which zeetvah can return to their home in one years time with the biggest treasure and show of power and prestige. One such dreamer who heads out on this quest is Snarf, a wimpy, but lucky bastard who finds some amazing riches on his path to greatness.
A few years later, I jumped with joy when I found that the author Larry Elmore had published a book with the complete story! I went out, bought it, read it, loved it, showed it to my mom, and then ended up giving it to her because SHE Loved it. TSS!
So finally after hitting the Convention circuit, I saw Larry Elmore, but delayed purchase of the book until last week. At last it has arrived in all its comical glory. Ah... How happy I am!)
Posted by Marc Gunn on Thursday, June 05, 2003 |
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Aww, Stop complaining!Ahh... Refreshed. I finally quit beaching about recording stuff and got off my arse and did some stuff. No, not new recordings, but I did what I've been putting off, remixing.
One of the big problems I have with some of my MP3.com recordings is the quality of the recordings. Some songs there's a lot of white noise, others you'll hear the creaking of the autoharp strap. Just lots of probs that bug me and make me think of it as just a demo.
So last night, on arriving home from the Austin Celtic Association Meeting, I told myself I would some complaining about not having money or time to get stuff done and just do it. No more excuses about the "sound not being just right". I would mix, balance the levels with other songs, and consider it DONE! And that's what I did.
I went through six songs last night, remixed them, and reuploaded them to MP3.com in the higher 192kbps format. I even started transferring songs from my 4-Track to my computer and messing with a bunch of those (which are the main culprits of noise probs).
After another meeting tonight, I'm gonna go and do some more songs. I was even transferring a copy of "Angel's Lament" I had started on. Who knows, this may be the version that'll end up on The Bards filk music CD?
I'm very happy with the results. I know my recording gear much, much better. So hopefully I'll have something soon.
 For that matter, I even started working on new CD insert material and the new CD cover. I got a little bit o'feedback from a few friends and picked one that I think people will like, but... I still need a CD name. Think ye can help? Post your suggestions in the forum. Thanks!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Thursday, June 05, 2003 |
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Recording schedule changedWell, due to lack of finances, it is official, I won't be able to head out to San Diego to record my solo CD my friend Johannes. I was hoping he would produce my CD, but I'm finally getting caught up financially, it's too early to run myself back into the ground with debt when I should be able to start saving for the first time in, well, ever!!!
So production must continue at home. To some degree, I already have a large portion of the album complete. A lot of it is just a matter of remixing some songs that came out poorly or don't fit my thoughts on the album. But boy was I looking forward to adding a little cello by Johannes to the recordings. Ah well, back to the drawing board.
Ye know, one of the big delays is just deciding on a "sound". I know it sounds funny (no pun intended), but I'd really like to capture a unique sound in my recordings. So things like, "How much reverb? and Compression?" keep popping up, and I just haven't made any final decision. Or rather, I make a decision, then come back a couple days later to decide I don't like it.
At some point, ye have to draw a line, and I guess that time is now. Especially considering Andrew's anxious to get started on the Scottish CD. So guess I'll start pinning that stuff down. Hopefully, I'll have some new recordings in the next couple o'weeks.
Oh, speaking of which, I re-recorded, "My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose" for a Clan Gunn CD a while back. That CD is almost complete. Should be ready for the Texas Scottish Festival this weekend, but you can listen to a lofi recording of it here.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 |
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How do I hate AOL? Let me count the ways...Man, I detest that bloody ISP. Not only is over-priced, just about every email I send to a crappy AOL address gets rejected!
Do me, every other ezine publisher, and all your friends a favor and ditch AOL. It's a waste of our time. Thanks!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 |
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Thanks for ListeningI feel it once again coursing through me...the desire to escape. I've been an escapist all my life. I really related to Luke in "Empire Strikes Back" when Yoda said, "Always looking away. Never wear you are!" Or something like that.
Course I've been trying hard to stay focused. But too many things get in the way. I love travelling, but right now, it's not even travelling, it's escaping. Next weekend, we're going to Texas Scottish Festival in DFW, but it's not enough, it seems.
Plus, there's so much I want to do. I want to make my arts my life. But it always comes back to money. I'm just not making enough right now on my own. And I haven't figured out yet how to change that.
Well, not entirely true. I have a few good ideas, but I just can't seem to get them off the ground. Take photography for instance. How I'd LOVE to sell my photos! But I haven't found a good way to do that yet, nor can I afford to print them let alone do much else. Guess I could see about submitting them to magazines, but I feel swamped as it is.
Need to promote our CD release and still want to record. It's funny though. Last night, I got home, had a few plans, but I could barely get out and do them. Just was too exhausted. I wanted to pass out more than anything.
Course I also didn't get much sleep the night before. How I wish I could stay up all the time and never have to sleep, but I can't. As soon as I try, I get another sinus infection.
So it's a never-ending trial, but you know what the real kicker is? I have a few projects that could probably make me a decent income, but the problem is I won't get off my arse and complete them! It's as if my subconcious is longing for a life of mediocrity. Just when I'm on the brink of accomplishing big goals, I take a step back, and it all disappears. Some self-defeating mechanism of mine.
That's the reason I have an intern for the Brobdingnagian Bards. I have a LOT to do, but in order for me to reach some of these goals, I haven't yet learned how to do it alone, and yet, I don't like to ask for help. Fortunately, the intern idea was someone elses, and it just made sense.
Heck, one of the reasons I decided to ask Johannes to produce my album was so that I could get it done, and now, I don't even think I can afford to hook up with him, not unless I can raise a good $300 before the end of the month? Not likely.
Course, I am trying to book another gig at Cafe Mundi, and if I had six CDs of my own to sell... WHOA! I could do fairly well at Cafe Mundi. I sold a bunch of CDs at my last show, but the prob is that I don't have six CDs. That is all Bard Income. Which brings me back to my photography.
Guess, I could always rent my photo services. Anyone wanting out here wanting some fantastic shots of you or someone you know? Bard photographer (or would that make me a Bard Flasher?) for hire: $150 photo shoot, get a nice CD full of great shots of you? Anyone? Okay, maybe not.
Ah well, I guess it's time to find some folks with discriminating ears to come hang out while I record? Meantime, I'll see if I can make any of this possible. Thanks for listening...
Posted by Marc Gunn on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 |
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Well
if you have any questions, I'd be happy
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Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers
