From: metlay@netcom.com (metlay)
Subject: Road Trip
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 17:17:27 GMT
Organization: Atomic City
Summary: Typical long Metlay post. Hit 'n' now.



Wow, what a trip. I've never been to California before, and this made 
for an interesting introduction, let me tell you.....

Flight from Pgh to Chicago, Chicago to Oakland uneventful. Got the AirBART
van to the Oakland Coliseum BART station. Walked in, suit and tie, bags
in hand, and found myself surrounded by literally hundreds of teenagers in
leather outfits with long stringy hair and various pierced body parts. I'm
not sure, but I *think* that the Coliseum was hosting GnR and Metallica
that night. Got many dirty looks as I made my way to the train. 

Was finishing unpacking when David Elliott arrived. Went down to the Triple
Rock microbrewery on Shattuck and got plowed on Red Rock Ale while sharing
opinions on workstations, General MIDI, old gear, and various other matters.
Was told that I should get to know Gregory Taylor better. Heard all sorts
of dirt about infamous Elliott/Salzman/Boutin/Apedaile trip to Tahoe last
year. Great fun had all around; must work with Elliott in studio someday.

Went up the mountain to LBL next morning. Lovely view; otherwise your basic
scientific establishment. Couldn't get away long enough to visit Lon Amerman,
alas. Came back from work after dinner (godawful Chinese restaurant near
Shattuck Square; was castigated by crochety old physics farts ("my betters")
for being unimpressed with utterly bland "spicy" food) and found cryptic
note in my box: "D'Cuckoo playing DNA lounge tonight. Will be there with
shark earring on. Zak." Hopped BART to Powell station, got propositioned
by five panhandlers, two hookers and a Jesus freak while trying to flag
down a cab. Initial impression of downtown SF on Friday night: Manhattan
on Quaaludes.

Arrived at DNA club appx. 45 minutes before showtime. Walked around staring
at men's earlobes for a half hour, getting some very strange looks. Finally
spotted purple shark earring on dude getting three wedges of lime and more
tequila than I'd ever seen in my life from barkeep. "Scuse me. Zak?" sez I.
"Uh, yeah," sez he. "Do I know you?" "We've never met," sez I with a grin.
He looks me over, suddenly sees lapel pin with stylized atom. "Metlay...?"

Spent evening visiting with Zak and some of his acquaintances, caught the
D'Cuckoo concert (about which more in separate concert review later). Was
introduced to the band after the show, while standing around feeling like
saying loudly "Hi there, you don't know me and it's unlikely that you'd
care to, but I was invited to stand around and watch you eat salad and
drink mineral water so here I am." Conversation was uninspiring.

Me: "You guys were great. I haven't had that much fun in years."
Bean Blaine: "Oh, thanks very much. Friend of Zak's, huh. You into VR?"
Me: "Virtual Reality? Um, no. I'm a nuclear physicist."
Bean: (after a pause, not sure if her leg is being pulled) "Really?"
Me: "I'm afraid so."
(conversation peters out rapidly after that)

Had a bit better luck with Candice Pacheco, though. Great visit; talked
to Zak about journalism, new technology, video, and so on. Was told that
I should really get to know Gregory Taylor. Got interesting dirt on the
Tahoe trip, again. Caught last train to Berkeley at midnight, dog tired.

Workshop at LBL concluded just before dinner on Saturday. Was invited to
"really great fish place" by same crochety farts who picked vomit-launch
restaurant previous night; begged off. Got a shower and change, sat in 
lobby and waited. People began filing in by ones and twos almost immediately;
Jim Hurley, whom I hadn't seen in 22 years, and Craig Latta, followed in
rapid succession by Paul Boutin, Steve Verity, Ed and Sharon Fleschute,
and Jim Smith. Jon Drukman never showed, the bum. Probably wrecked after
running all-night rave previous night. While waiting for Jon and Zak, 
had long chat with all concerned in Shattuck Hotel lobby-- crochety farts
came through after dinner looking bilious from "really great fish." Moved
to Spats and had Borneo Fogcutters (rum nasty with dry ice to provide
smoke-machine effect) and food, and jawed all night about really old 
synths, newer synths, the computer industry, selfemployment, the battle
between the sexes, etc. Was told I MUST get to know Gregory Taylor. Heard
even MORE dirt on the Tahoe trip. Staggered back to the Shattuck and
played tapes for all concerned; listened to Hurley's modular and ESQ-1
excursions, Smith's exquisite music for stage play of "Dracula," and forced
everyone to listen to "Bandwidth" and my copy of the "Beta Test" and
"Saturnalia" tracks. Was loudly told by all concerned that (a) I was
a total bastard for not having BW out on CD before this and (b) The tracks
on BT/S were worthy of release as well. (The -50dB S/N of the tape deck
probably helped.) Shook hands all around (got to hug Sharon goodbye, an
experience I highly recommend) and thanked everyone for coming out.
Fell into a coma until 5 AM when I had to catch my flight home.

On flight from Oakland to Chicago, was told by pilot that we were overflying
Madison. Thought about calling Gregory Taylor from my airphone, but dismissed
the idea as being too silly; settled for waving instead. He didn't wave back.
(Randy Jones did, though.)

General conclusions: everyone on r.m.s in the Bay Area that I met on this
short trip are interesting, fun, opinionated people that I had a blast 
interacting with (special thanx to Paul, who was the only one to tell me
to shut up all evening) and would like to work with someday. I thank them
all heartily and hope to be out to see them again soon. 

Back to work,

-- 
metlay                    | 
                          | General MIDI is God's way of saying "Duh."
                          | 
metlay@netcom.netcom.com  |