Now, my trip to Chicago... hmm, where to start. It's been a while so my memory of the exact chronology of events is a little fuzzy. I've got pictures in order though, so maybe I can reconstruct, very roughly, the events that transpired while I was there.
Well this was the first picture I had so it must have happened right after I got there, which was a couple of days before Christmas, as I recall. That's Chun Liang, of course, who must have been so horrified to see me he made like an ostrich and buried his head under a table in the pc lab at the music dapartment of his university. Huh.
Well it looks like he finally came to terms with the fact that I was really there and he'd have to put up with me for the next three days or so, came out from under the table, and started pointing at me. Maybe he was saying things like "Look, it's Bernerd".
Ah, this I remember. He called it the Harry Potter staircase, because it goes nowhere. That's an exxageration, of course, but note that in order to get to the hall in the background of the picture from where we were, you had to go down the stairs then up the stairs again.
This is the studio where we made the mp3s I posted earlier. It had a bunch of equipment I knew nothing about and a Macintosh. It was one of those new cool Macs, and he used something called Logic Platinum to do the recording and mixing. The big grey room behind the Mac is where the action takes place. It's semi-sound proof so that people outside don't have to put up with your singing if they don't want to.
These must have been a couple of dogs who were sitting outside while we were recording in the studio. Dogs have really good hearing, so they probably heard everything through the soundproof walls. They do look fairly stunned, as in "What was that awful wailing? Put that animal out of it's misery, for goodness' sake!" stunned.
"Hear! Hear!" said the Christmas Tree in CCL's apartment building lobby in response. At least I think that's what it said. I don't remember what the dogs thought about that. What was this picture doing in my camera?
"Today's show was brought to you by the letters Kappa, Gamma, and the number 701". I guess after the recording at the studio was all done, CCL took it upon himself to explain to me how Sesame Street jumped the shark back in the 90s.
... After which I must have decided to take a pee. Note how there are no working lights in this bathroom except for the little desk light that CCL propped up on the towel rack. Such squalid living conditions!
"... and the number 205 too." CCL wasn't quite done, apparently. Sigh, bring back the old Sesame Street! Kill Elmo!!!!!
And then suddenly, all these people showed up and said "Let's all be in a picture!" What the!!! They even invited us into their house and everything. People in big cities sure are strange. I was pretty shocked by all this weirdness of course; note the glazed look in my eyes.
Aah... one last picture in the studio, this time with the "mood lighting" on. That's really what CCL called it. He said it helps some people perform better. I think it just makes the place look dark and kinda shady, but we used it anyway. Whatever placebo works for them.
Then I must have said bye, or something, because that's the last picture I have. Anyway, it was tons of fun hanging out with CCL, though I did catch a cold the day after I got there. It wasn't very smart trying to sing when I knew I would be getting a sore throat real soon, but hey, I wasn't get that opportunity again anytime soon. I might try to visit CCL again before he graduates, and then maybe we can get some really respectable recordings done. This Christmas maybe? I might bring a diary too next time, so I don't have to rely on pictures and my swiss cheese memory to piece events together.
Next: Dayton, Ohio