Jim Alfredson

A day off. Yay!

A nice review of THEO in English. http://progmeister.com/theo-the-game-of-ouroboros

A night off in Toledo. Party time. Excellent. Ok, not really.

A quick note to all the musicians I've played with and befriended over the years, local and otherwise: Keep on keepin' on. The world needs more creative people. I love and appreciate you all.

A terrible thing has now happened to religion. Except in the places where it can still enforce itself by fear superimposed on ignorance, it has become one opinion among many. It is forced to compete in the free market of ideas and, even when it strives to retain the old advantage of inculcating its teachings into children (for reasons that are too obvious to need underlining), it has to stand up in open debate and submit to free inquiry. Christopher Hitchens

About to hit at Cliff Bells with Dirty Fingers. 9:30!

About to hit at Libby's. 8pm. Yes the road out front is all dug up but you can still come out!!!

About to hit at SPACE in Evanston, IL. Rock it!

About to hit at the Belly Up in Aspen, CO. Where are you? Get in here!

About to hit at the Harrisburg Art Festival 3:30pm.

About to hit at the One Trick Pony with organissimo. 8pm.

AES was intense today. Saw friends John Whynot, Ben Lindvall, David Bryce, and many others. Off to dinner and then to an after-party. What up, NYC?

After I finished "People's History of the United States" (which should be this weekend), what should I pick up next? I've got a bunch of stuff on my wishlist. A book on tax reform, a couple on quantum physics, a few on astro-physics, the Inquisition, some novels, Civil War history, the Twain autobiography, and some good ol' Dawkins classics like The Selfish Gene. Suggestions?

After several days off, get to PLAY tonight! Performing at the sponsorship party for the Blues In Hell festival in Norway. About to head to soundcheck, which is always fun (what keyboards do I get today?)

Ah, Herman Cain. Proof positive that business and government are two separate things (for good reasons). And that acumen in one doesn't automatically mean proficiency in the other. Oh, and don't sexually harass people if you want to become president.

Ah, hotel breakfast bar: Loaded with salt and food dyes so you hopefully won't realize it's the cheapest, nastiest shit possible.

Ah, nothing gets me in the holiday spirit quite like Babs singing "I'll Be Home For Christmas" replete with a gloriously cheesy 80's synthesized "harmonica" solo. Santa, bring me a DX7!

Ah, pasta salad... summertime! Just made some with elbow macaroni, hardboiled eggs, black beans, celery, carrots, tuna, & onion with a little mayonnaise and mustard. So yummy.

Ah, technology. I just saw my new laptop, which I bought about three months ago, on sale at Staples for $400 less than I paid. >:/ Oh well. I'm still enjoying this computer!

Ah, the unfollow button. How I love thee.

Alberta Rose Theater in Portland OR tonight!

All my musician friends who are praising the Thicke/Pharrell vs Gaye decision: Be careful what you wish for.

All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

All right audio nerds, here's one: When performing a null phase test on rendered mixes, one rendered in real time and the other not, the only thing that doesn't cancel out is the reverb plugin. So the reverb is being processed differently (or delayed differently) depending on the method of render? This happened in both ProTools and Cubase. The reverb plugin in question is the Valhalla Vintage Verb. Remove the reverb and the null test results in no sound, just like it should. Thoughts?

All right, it's come down to this: Kindle, Nook, or other? I've read about a dozen books in the last few months and though I'm still not convinced an e-reader will replace the feeling of a real book in your hands, I gotta do something. I brought two brand-new, never read books with me on this trip and finished them both yesterday, with six days left on this trip (including an 8 hour place ride home).