Mark and I are sitting together at a table far back, drinking our juices and watching people sing songs; very few of them suck - alot of these people don't make me cringe and are very entertaining to watch. Some of the girls are intimidating!!! I started off with "Disarm" but I didn't even attempt a Billy Corgan impression... I used my natural voice and even did some sarcastic pop dancing during the breaks - I had maybe three people compliment me afterwords and yeah if I was in a better mood perhaps I would've talked to one of them and possibily had something fun to do after the bar (if you know what I mean) - Mark sang Bruce Springsteen's "The River" which was very good - there were quite a few parts where he really really sounded like he was The Boss. Then some random kid came up to me for no apparent reason and invited me to "take a walk" I get up and Mark is like "Where are you going" and I'm all like "I DONT KNOW!!!" So this guy named Clifford smokes half a blunt with me and I pay lip service to him while he talks about some crazy girl who he's friends with. We go back in and we part, never to speak again. So now Mark and I are back to watching people, wondering if we'll ever sing again. I'm almost done my second drink; Mark gets up and orders his third; I'm really stoned and tired and parinoid and then they call me. Of course I don't notice, and Mark has to nudge me in the arm before I go up. I have sung so many songs at this place but for the first time I was not into it... I slowly drag myself onto the stage and I grab the mic and sit down on a chair and I say "I can't believe this is happening This seemed like a good idea at the time and I don't know how this is going to go all I want is to go home and fall asleep - I sit down and the karaoke guy is like "are you ok man?" and I reply something to the effect of "yeah whatever just do it I accept my fate" and a silence comes on the ten people in the audience. This silence is broken by a deep, broken voice that laments: "OH SHIT" - To be more accurate it sounded like my morning telephone voice. The screen said Parinoid Android! I WAS FUCKED!
ow long is an acceptable duration of a non-paid internship? When is enough is enough? After you've registered your business, at what point is it acceptable to hire an unpaid worker under the pretense of an "internship"? Can gizmotron recording service get an "intern"?
In other news, it is my fault that Sputnik will no longer hold the open jam on tuesday. The best drummer ever "his name is Renascance" showed up really really late (as usual) so for the last jam. I think it's kinda cool because this doesn't give people a chance to get sick of him... He's really impressive so it's cool to only get a short taste of it. Especially after a night of absolute amateur drummers playing with one cymbal (including me) Anyway I was playing guitar for the thing before that but I refused to put it down cause previously I only played bass with Renascance - so this acoustic guitar guy from chicago named josh (who had a new tiny puppy) started us off and twenty minutes later I'm doing a drunken feedback solo, (it seemed like a good idea at the time and at the time I believed it was appropriate and well-timed) and the cops supposedly showed up outside because there were complaints - and the bar got fined. So we all stopped and it got worse when it was announced "open jam is OVER!" "for good?" "FOR GOOD!". Well at least it was fun!
I will be home wednesday night. I don't know anything other than that. I may go straight to either philly or camden. Anyone who attempts to intercept me will probably be stuck in traffic.
The internship did not need my service today, so I gave Nolan a $600 check for November's rent and explained to him my finances and I must be leaving. Within an hour later I had an ad up on craigslist and all but the essentials packed into my car. I moved everything over and I'm back now. The contents of the red room are as follows:
A Bike Computer Drapes ElectricLamp FoldoutBed Guitar Handbag I
Now I'm off to sputnik for open blues jam - this will be the last one due to lack of attention. Unless if there's more than five people watching us tonite I will be back to not having any band to play with.
I invented an alternate tuning a few weeks ago and suggested it to a client (I asked how the new songs were and he said there weren't any) and he got a new song out of it. Guitar World here I come!!!
In other news, I am in a fight with some kid I don't know because I took a microphone out of Stefan and Jared's basement and the singer for Jared's band is claiming that it belongs to him. This microphone is one of a three piece set that I personally purchased during the Standmedown days so that ammar brandon and myself each had a mic. One mic had no switch, two had switches and I had memorized the brand name and model numbers of each. One is definetly lost for good, I believe brandon has one in his room, and another was left in the basement. Joe Magee, the singer for Jared's band (one or two years ago) was using it at the time. The mic (and the attached mic cord) got covered with red tape. In between now and then (six months?) I removed the mic cord with red tape and I have that too. This is the exact look and brand of the mic I pulled out of the basement. Jared tells me the kid wants me to MAIL it back to them!!! So he gave me his email address and the conversation is as follows:
michael britt
do you remember where you purchased that mic?
On Nov 9, 2004, at 7:43 PM, Chris Hasenauer wrote:
If I'm correct in my memory I believe I got it at "fairport music", it's a music store that closed in Fairport NY, near Rochester upstate.
My Reply:
nice try, kiddo but I purchased that mic in a buy one get two free deal at sam ash about two years ago and it's been in jared's basement ever since. If I could find where the other two were I would've taken them too. (they are either down there or someone else took them home) If you ever see one of them please let me know!
I'm coming back this weekend so I'll let you have the mic back because i understand it's the only one you can use but the next time I need to record someone I'll probably take it back again. If you're serious about singing for a band I highly suggest you buy a mic (get something better than that mic - it's not really that great) and keep it with you at all times. Carve your name into for chrisake - If I did that I would probably still have all three of those mics, but now I only have one. And once I get it back I get some guy I never met before trying to tell me it belongs to him.
How about you tell me your story about the red tape! Although it won't help you much I would like to hear your story - I'm still open to being convinced.
mike
[message two]
do you even know what brand it was?
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still waiting for a reply on these. even though you only know MY side of the story, who do YOU think is right, and how could this situation be resolved?
I got home from school and my roommate hands me his cellphone. The guy on the other line asks if I know anything about sound. He invites me in exchange for two slices of pizza to meet them in times square and hold a boom mic and operate a camera. I say yes.
Forty minutes later, I'm in times square for the first time walking around with equiptment alongside four artsy film looking students. I ask ok what the fuck are we doing is it going to be out in the cold how long will this take oh an interview who the fuck are we interviewing
So one of them had to go meet this "famous person" outside of mtv and they came back after we had set everything up. It was some ghetto thugged out white boy, who claimed to not being able to get a job from his new-found fame. He woke up one day and literally overnight he was famous. What does he like? Money! What does he not like? "This shit" he says, pointing at us and the cameras. We all laughed.
After he was gone they interviewed me. I told them all about gizmotron and my plans for dominating the starving artists market and I shot back at every question with a fast and long answer. Finally she asked if I was a musician or if I have any musical background and I was like, "no".
The interview was over.
On the way back, I see Mark sitting outside of sputnik. This was the first time I've seen him in two weeks, and I had to know everything. He tells me he just moved in somewhere today, and his two new roommates are inside sputnik. I go inside and we hang out, and eventually go back to the place.
I will "sleep on their couch" (they have no couch I'm bringing a fold out bed) and although I have not as much privacy as they do, I'm paying for internet and utilities. If I don't take up this offer I will be back to paying $600 for a room plus internet and utilities.
If the room is too quiet to have sex in, what's the use of privacy?
Besides, I have only $1600 in my account to last me until the next loan payment in february (that's right I spent $4400 in two and a half months plus whatever the fuck I put on the credit card) so this new situation is quite optimal for me plus I live with Mark and two crazy people.
Now I'm back in the red room wondering how I will fit what into my car and move it silently in the night, and most importantly, is this change really enough to save myself from getting a job until february?
Tommorow night I will once again go to the internship. If I don't do something new this time, I will declare myself "bored" and critize my "employers" for not being as motivated about moving their business forward as I am. If this does not result in some motion, I will add this experience to my resume and continue my search in finding a studio that could benifit most from my services at the cost of nothing. Repeating this over the course of the following weeks will surely result in a real job of some sort. I just need to convince the right person that I am a good asset, and then deprive them of my services. The only way I come back is for money? Is there no quick fix in solving my slowly moving career problem?!?!? (anyone who says "start your own business" will be automatically deleted)
Ok so last thursday I met a girl named kyle. Last night I was supposed to meet her and some other people at this place called Galapagos for karaoke (which scared me because sometimes alexia goes there on sunday nights) I started off with no doubt's "dont speak" then later I did fiona apple's "criminal".
At the end of my first black russian, the sound shuts off and all you hear is a buzzing noise and everyone going "boooO!!!!". The karaoke soundguy runs around trying everything he can think of while I sat and watched, knowing this guy would eventually solve the problem. After a few minutes everyone started to get restless, thinking "oh no the night is over"... which would have been true.
A desperate cry of: "Is anyone here a sound guy?!!?!" - this was my cue. I step up and unbutton my shirt, pointing to the words: "INSTITUTE OF AUDIO RESEARCH NEW YORK CITY" and I politely ask the man to step aside. At some point a girl hands me a cellphone and says it's the house sound-man. The disappointment in his voice suggests me this sort of thing happens frequently; he tells me he's on his way. Within five minutes he gets called back and told not to bother. Because Mike Britt had saved the day.
I got my second black russian for free, and sung "when love came to town" using two different "voices" and microphones for BB-king and Bono.
I am going to turn 35, then I will run as a third party. My thing will be ultra conservative right wing; I'll be anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-drugs, pro-war, pro-taxcutsforupperclass, pro-tradition, pro-religion, and whatever else you can think of that holds us back from real progress.
Then I will get 3% of the vote, which could possibily cost the election for the republican in a close race. Then the next term all sorts of people will be urging me to not run because I'll be "stealing votes". Don't throw your vote away on Mike Britt! A vote for Britt is a vote for democracy!
My next bright idea is to split america into two countries, but not in the physical sense, only on paper. It's kinda like how two people who live next door to each other can be subscribers of two different phone companies but be using the same phone lines.
Do we really need the south/midwest? If we split up we can have a more accurate code of ideals and laws. This way, we can have our gay marriages and our abortions and our economy and they can have their religion and family values and war! Deal?
It was just like any other day I did not realize this as I stepped off the G-train and onto the L but all of that changed when I sat down and caught the stench of death. I believe I sat across from a rotting corpse. Has this happened to anyone else?