Friday, March 30, 2007
Last night we went to the studio; left at quarter to three, got back at quarter to 11 or so. We couldn't bring the bass in the car so we brought my electric bass and Nathan was going to play that for the guide track, then come in later with the upright bass and put his track down over it. All was well, after a few mistakes that caused us to have to restart the recording, until the string on the bass popped! I've never broken a string on it and I've never changed them. They must have been 7-10 years old, so I'm not really that surprised. So we did the rest of the guide track without the bass and Nathan will still have to come in later and record his bass part.
For those of you who may be wondering what a guide track is: We go into the studio with all of our instruments that we'll be using and all of the vocals. Then, playing into one or two mics we play through the entire song at the speed we're going to record at with any cues counted out loud or clapped. Then we go back into the studio one at a time, generally beginning with the rhythm or bass, and record each instrument separately while listening in the headphones to the guide track. Then each individual track is put together and mixed down.
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I found a bodyfat calculator online. I don't think it can be as accurate as calipers, but seeing as I don't have any calipers I think it might be an acceptable substitute - at least to record changes overall. I won't tell you where I came in ;)
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Six Hairific Months Without Shampoo (their title, not mine). Basically a woman stopped overwashing her hair :P Really, I think a lot of people over wash. Six months might be a little long, but seriously I know people who wash once a week or so and have beautiful hair. Think of how the body reacts to being dried out. It, being the well designed body it is, tries to compensate for that by producing more oils (unless you have a deficiency). So if you're washing your hair with shampoos (that all pretty much have two cleansers in them, a derivative of lauryl sulfate. Check out the cheap and expensive shampoos, almost every one is based on that) every day, you're going to dry out your scalp which in turn is going to produce more oil to replace what you've been stripping off your hair. I've gone through periods where I washed my hair with conditioner only every 3-4 days and my hair was just fine. Now I'm using shampoo because of the lack of an abundance of water on the bus and I really feel like I have to wash every other day. Ok ok! No more hair talk. For today :D
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And today I have two recipes and two pictures!
Whole Wheat Bread
4 - 4 1/3 C whole wheat flour
2 packages yeast (I used 3 teaspoons)
1 3/4 C milk (I used water)
1/3 C brown sugar (I used 3 tablespoons)
2 T. butter
2 tsp salt
Now for this variation I made, I soaked about 1/2 cup of wheat grains overnight in hot water (just pour hot water over them and cover overnight). Then after I kneaded the bread I kneaded in the seeds.
Mix together 2 cups flour with the yeast in a big bowl. Mix together milk (or water), brown sugar, salt, and butter together and heat till just warm. Then mix this mixture in with the flour and yeast, beat for about a minute, then add enough flour by hand to make a moderately stiff dough (not too stiff). If it's sticky add a little flour while you're kneading. Knead it for 10-15 minutes, or until it stretches fairly thin when stretched between your thumbs and index fingers. Let rise until doubled (about an hour and a half). Punch down, let rest 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. Form into loaf and place in pan. Bake 30-35 minutes (I tried 32 minutes and it got a little browner than I wanted it.) Remove from pan a cool a little before slicing.
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Muffins! I made up the dry ingredients the night before and then mixed the wet ingredients in the next morning. This recipe makes 24. Don't think I'm stating the obvious, but if you cut it in half it makes 12 :D
Chocolate Chip Muffins
2 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour (or you can use 100% white flour, or more whole wheat.)
1 C sugar
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
Mix together dry ingredients and if you want to make this up ahead of time, put in a bag or a container and put a piece of paper in with the following ingredients to add:
2 eggs
2 cups water (or milk)
1 stick butter, melted
1 - 1 1/2 C chocolate chips (I didn't measure, I just chopped up a few leftover bars of dark chocolate and mixed them in, more or less to your taste)
Mix together until just mixed. Spoon into greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes (I didn't time them, the book I got the recipe from that I altered said 20-25 minutes but I don't want you to burn them either.) Immediately remove from muffin tins and try to eat warm (they're always better warm!).
For those of you who may be wondering what a guide track is: We go into the studio with all of our instruments that we'll be using and all of the vocals. Then, playing into one or two mics we play through the entire song at the speed we're going to record at with any cues counted out loud or clapped. Then we go back into the studio one at a time, generally beginning with the rhythm or bass, and record each instrument separately while listening in the headphones to the guide track. Then each individual track is put together and mixed down.
__________________________
I found a bodyfat calculator online. I don't think it can be as accurate as calipers, but seeing as I don't have any calipers I think it might be an acceptable substitute - at least to record changes overall. I won't tell you where I came in ;)
__________________________
Six Hairific Months Without Shampoo (their title, not mine). Basically a woman stopped overwashing her hair :P Really, I think a lot of people over wash. Six months might be a little long, but seriously I know people who wash once a week or so and have beautiful hair. Think of how the body reacts to being dried out. It, being the well designed body it is, tries to compensate for that by producing more oils (unless you have a deficiency). So if you're washing your hair with shampoos (that all pretty much have two cleansers in them, a derivative of lauryl sulfate. Check out the cheap and expensive shampoos, almost every one is based on that) every day, you're going to dry out your scalp which in turn is going to produce more oil to replace what you've been stripping off your hair. I've gone through periods where I washed my hair with conditioner only every 3-4 days and my hair was just fine. Now I'm using shampoo because of the lack of an abundance of water on the bus and I really feel like I have to wash every other day. Ok ok! No more hair talk. For today :D
___________________________________
And today I have two recipes and two pictures!
Whole Wheat Bread
4 - 4 1/3 C whole wheat flour
2 packages yeast (I used 3 teaspoons)
1 3/4 C milk (I used water)
1/3 C brown sugar (I used 3 tablespoons)
2 T. butter
2 tsp salt
Now for this variation I made, I soaked about 1/2 cup of wheat grains overnight in hot water (just pour hot water over them and cover overnight). Then after I kneaded the bread I kneaded in the seeds.
Mix together 2 cups flour with the yeast in a big bowl. Mix together milk (or water), brown sugar, salt, and butter together and heat till just warm. Then mix this mixture in with the flour and yeast, beat for about a minute, then add enough flour by hand to make a moderately stiff dough (not too stiff). If it's sticky add a little flour while you're kneading. Knead it for 10-15 minutes, or until it stretches fairly thin when stretched between your thumbs and index fingers. Let rise until doubled (about an hour and a half). Punch down, let rest 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. Form into loaf and place in pan. Bake 30-35 minutes (I tried 32 minutes and it got a little browner than I wanted it.) Remove from pan a cool a little before slicing.
____________________________
Muffins! I made up the dry ingredients the night before and then mixed the wet ingredients in the next morning. This recipe makes 24. Don't think I'm stating the obvious, but if you cut it in half it makes 12 :D
Chocolate Chip Muffins
2 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour (or you can use 100% white flour, or more whole wheat.)
1 C sugar
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
Mix together dry ingredients and if you want to make this up ahead of time, put in a bag or a container and put a piece of paper in with the following ingredients to add:
2 eggs
2 cups water (or milk)
1 stick butter, melted
1 - 1 1/2 C chocolate chips (I didn't measure, I just chopped up a few leftover bars of dark chocolate and mixed them in, more or less to your taste)
Mix together until just mixed. Spoon into greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes (I didn't time them, the book I got the recipe from that I altered said 20-25 minutes but I don't want you to burn them either.) Immediately remove from muffin tins and try to eat warm (they're always better warm!).
Labels: exercise, music, recipes
