40th Avenue

754 40th Avenue is the house that I remember as my childhood home. We did move around a lot when I was growing up: 10 houses in 17 years. But this was the house where I spent most of my childhood years. Roughly 10 years between the ages of 4 and 16. During those years, we did leave Lachine and went to live in England. Not once, but twice. Both times we returned to 754 in Lachine. We left that house in 1973 just after my father had died.

Directly across the street from 754 is Carignan Park. What I found most surprising about the park was that nothing, and I mean nothing, had changed. From the outbuildings to the benches, every detail of the park was unchanged from when I first moved to 754 nearly 49 years ago.

The home we lived in was on a 35-foot wide lot. The house offered about 900 square feet of living space — smaller than the 1,200 square foot upper level garage in my current house. The carport that my father had built about 40 years ago still stands. And the driveway is paved. When we lived there we had a crushed rock driveway. A bit of pain to clear during the winter months.

The neighborhood is much, much smaller than I remembered. But I could find my way around Lachine instinctively even after all this time had passed. When I was growing up in this city, I walked or rode virtually every street from 11th to 55th and from the lakeshore to the 2 and 20. As we roamed the streets of Lachine, I had no need for the GPS. It was as if I had gone back in time. And in a way, I had.

The Church is Dying

“The church is dying.”

So said the organist of St. Paul’s Anglican Church. St. Paul’s, located in Lachine, Quebec, was the church of my youth. And it is an example of how quickly and dramatically the church has declined in just one generation.

St. Paul’s played a major role in my life as a child. Sunday services where I served in the choir and as an altar boy. Scouts. Youth Group. Worship bands. Confirmation. An active church community of well over 500 people.

St. Paul’s was also the church where my father’s memorial service was held. As I wandered through the church sanctuary, memories from that day entered my mind. I had just turned sixteen.

I remembered that just before the funeral service, while we were still at the funeral home, and while no one was looking, I placed a small wooden cross into my dead father’s casket. This cross was given to me by the Reverend of St. Paul’s on the day of my confirmation. My hope was that this cross would somehow help my father. That there would be a physical and ongoing link between him and I even though he was dead.

The lesson of the cross is for the living — not for the dead.

And perhaps the cross was removed before the casket made its way to St. Paul’s. I will never know. But the memory of that day still grips me with sadness and despair.

St. Paul’s was built in 1964. And the church sanctuary looks exactly as it did when I was there over 40 years ago. I have included a few photos that I took of the church earlier today.

As I was shooting the interior of the church, the organist came over and talked with me. What had once been a healthy and vibrant community of believers 40 years ago was now a community of fewer than 30 people. And, once they have passed away, there is no one to lead the next generation of believers at St. Paul’s.

Lachine

Heading out to Montreal this morning. A trip down memory lane. We will be heading out to Lachine — my old home town.

It has been quite some time since I last visited Lachine. Over 20 years. Depending on the weather today and the length of our stay, we may also work our way through Dorval.

I still remember the address of where I was born and raised: 754 40th Avenue. Across the street from Carignan Park.

Home Theater Updated

The new projector for the home theater came in on Friday. The unit, a Panasonic PT-AE3000U, was remarkably easy to install. I had it up and running on Friday evening after only two hours or so of work. Here is an overview of my current system:

Video Components

• Goo Systems Screen — 120 inch diagonal screen created with paint and trim.
• Panasonic PT-AE3000U Projector — new
• Sony BDPS360 Blu-Ray Player
• Microsoft XBOX360 — third one as the first two experienced the dreaded Red Ring of Death

Audio Components

• Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH Audio Video Receiver
• B&W 683 Towers
• B&W HTM61 Center
• SVS PB-13 Ultra Subwoofer — awesome sub!
• Tannoy PBM 6.5 surrounds — next on the upgrade list

Other

• High quality HDMI and speaker cables
• Harmony Universal Remote

Although not a high end room like this one, we have a space in our home that easily rivals the local cineplex. The screen is not as large but the image and sound quality is exceptional. With two recliners in the viewing sweetspot, it is an experience that is hard to beat when watching movies.

I am really pleased with the image quality of the Panasonic PT-AE3000U. With very little calibration, the unit puts out an amazing image right out of the box.

One Year

It has been a year since I retired from the bank and taken on a new challenge here in Kingston.

So much change in such a relatively short period of time. New home. New community. New role. New company. New colleagues. New friends. New church.

How would I describe the change? In a word: awesome.

Selecting a Recording Studio

As part of the preproduction process outlined in this post, I needed to arrange for studio time.

Developing a high-quality independent release is challenging work. For many independent artists, there are significant challenges related to budget. The quality of the recording often suffers when the reality sets in that it takes time, money and talent to produce a good result. Time and talent is often easier to find than money.

With the proliferation of home recording gear, there is a view that high quality results can be obtained on a PC with a sound card, some software and a couple of mics. Unfortunately, the skills necessary to effectively engineer, mix and master a project are often missing from the project. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to review hundreds of submissions for industry awards and it is all to easy to hear the difference between professionally produced recordings and inexperienced productions.

Having said that, it is entirely possible to establish a high-quality project studio at home. The cost to build a such a facility at home is significant. However, as with most things, it is not just about the room and the gear. Talent and experience matter.

Over the past ten years, I have generally produced and engineered projects in my own project studio. Since making the move away from the Toronto area, I am now in the midst of rebuilding a new studio. We finished up the conceptual drawings last week. Construction will not start until early 2010. I can handle overdubs as well as mix activities in my temporary mix room. But for this current project, I had no choice but to use outside facilities for tracking.

A typical independent release might use a week in a high-end studio for tracking basics, two weeks to track overdubs in a lower-cost studio. Mixes might take a week and could be accomplished in a lower-cost studio or a project studio. Mastering is generally a day.

What I look for in a studio is fairly simple:

• A comfortable and professional environment
• Well designed acoustic space(s)
• Great gear (primarily mics, preamps, cue system and monitors)
• A competitive lockout rate

As I do my own engineering, I also need a strong assistant on the session.

I picked Phase One because they satisfied all the above criteria. Class A facilities — at least in the Toronto area — are roughly $1,000 a day. Some budgets cannot justify this level of spend. Once you drift below $500 a day, it is very difficult to find studios with well designed acoustic spaces, great gear and a nice, professional environment.

Charleston Sound

Charleston Sound is a high-end studio located in Charleston, South Carolina. The studio was designed by Wes Lachot Design. The control room features a custom API recording and mixing console that features 56 API 500 series slots, 32 channels of API equalization, 32 API microphone preamps, 40 mix down inputs, and extensive patchbay and routing capabilities.

What Kind of Company is Microsoft?

Microsoft’s past conduct demonstrates its ability and willingness to engage in unlawful acts to the detriment of consumers, and awareness of its history is valuable today in understanding Microsoft’s ongoing business practices and strategies.

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), part of the European Commission, produced a white paper which outlines Microsoft’s monopolistic and unlawful conduct:

For more than two decades, Microsoft has engaged in a carefully designed and extremely successful campaign to protect and extend its monopolies. Microsoft has repeatedly made market allocation proposals to its competitors and has used a broad range of other anticompetitive and unlawful tactics to eliminate potential rivals, including tying, predatory product design, and intentional deception.

The paper, which you can download here, was passed over to me by a friend. My view of Microsoft has changed over the years as the company became fixated on total domination of the market at any cost. Microsoft’s behavior was focused not on delivering better products but on eliminating competitors. The result has been poor quality products for consumers culminating in bloatware like the multiple versions of Windows Vista.

Reading the history of Microsoft’s anticompetitive behavior and the harm it created for consumers highlighted that the values of the company were flawed from the very beginning.

Taking Care of Business

Another tough day at the office.