There’s never enough time in the day.
I got through the first thing I needed to record just in time. I was editing when the ventilator system in the block decided to go full on demonic and make a consistent loud rattle. The location of the sound really felt like the building was trolling me. I tried to get the maintenance guy out but he had clocked off early. It was egregious enough that I could let myself patternmatch a belief that he was watching me through the CCTV and cranked up the aircon when he realised I was recording then pretended to clock off so he could laugh at my distress. More likely the burst of heat that was released when I left my hotbox oven studio and pulled up the curtains to air it – that hit some sort of thermostat sensor and caused all the building fans to go into overdrive. It was cold air vented in from everywhere and something isn’t screwed in properly.
Almost always in these cases, the random reality bites harder than anything targeted. I was unlucky. I was under time pressure and feeling it and things outside my control weren’t perfect. Perhaps I should have started earlier but I wanted a lie in. As a result I didn’t have enough time to overcome the unexpected. That’s why we start early.
Still… I’ve got something done. I’ve done what I set out to do. It isn’t perfect and I want it to be perfect but art is messy and I am pretty sure the guy has enough to work with now.
Back at home and Brian cooked tortillas which was an unexpected delight and very welcome. I’m post prandial, happy of a day of work even if it didn’t go according to plan. My own stupid fault for not checking for edits. I’ll have a hot bath and an early bed. That sort of behaviour is habit forming.
I’m starting to properly understand my little soundoven now. It is functional and works very well in shifts. I spent too long on ladders looking for a thermostat control to stop the rattle, but as Lou says I just need to wear very little when I’m recording. I have wrapped the thing in fucking velvet now, stapled soundproofing to the outside of it, it’s good and I keep getting better at it. Should’ve made it years ago but never had the space. Long cold winter ahead. Unless they have noisy heating in that building it’s gonna be the best place to be. I’ll have to come up with some projects around my Santa commitments.
