Poser geek

Well not really…but sort of.

When we bought the new house, one of the things I really wanted was a studio in the basement.  Just a small room for me and my “stuff” to go when I need to get away from everything.  The house we found had a perfect room.  Listed technically as a “bedroom” (we later found out that the existence of a window and closet constituted a bedroom), the previous owners had this perfect room (complete with built in shelving on two sides and a small, blocked off doggy door) into a nice office.  I was overwhelmed with excitement at the very thought of turning this room into a studio.  I envisioned the walls painted black, my mannequin heads in the window, a Macbook Pro on a desk, my guitars placed strategically around, stacks and stacks of CDs arranged in alphabetical order in addition to the spools of loose CDs and the cases of CDs that are out of their cases.  I’d have a cool light on the back wall and I could really let loose and make some rock’n’roll.

It’s now been several months since we’ve moved in, and while I realize that we’ll be here at least a year if not two before we REALLY get things completely unpacked and in places that we want, it’s hard to ignore how much we’ve actually been able to accomplish in this small amount of time, putting together a house that I’m proud to call my home.  But where are we on that studio?

The walls haven’t been painted, and to be honest, they probably won’t ever be that way.  After seeing what a pain it was to paint the bedroom, I’m in no hurry to paint another room.  I have 2 mannequin heads in the window, and I love them, although Erin says they are creepy.  I have a computer on the desk, and while it isn’t the Macbook Pro i wanted, it is a super nice PowerMac G4 with dual monitors that looks mega cool on our old dining room table that acts as my desk.  All of my guitars are in here…None on the wall or even on display, just leaning up against the wall beside each other, each of them still getting played regularly.  And the CDs?  All in their box still.  Though I’ve heavily considered arranging them this afternoon.

So what does this have to do with being a poser geek?  Up until now, my studio has just been a room with my crap in it.  It has served no purpose really because you usually work on stuff in a studio and thus far, nothing of value has been created here.  I decided to change that today.  Working on a surprise for someone, I hooked up Erin’s old VCR to a DA-MAX+ video converter my boss gave me at work.  The VCR runs RCA out and into the back of the converter, which then goes out via 6 pin Firewire into the G4.  With this setup, one should be able to use Apple Final Cut Pro to capture video from a VHS tape.  I even bought a new 500 GB external hard drive to act solely as the capture scratch for my endeavor.  And then…the VCR takes in a tape…and eats it.  I repair it, and put it back.  This time the VCR ignores it.  I take it out, put it back and it gets eaten again.  Pissed at the VCR, I decide to just see if I can get Final Cut to recognize the media converter…And it’s not.  I’m not doing something right, but I’m mad at myself for not being able to figure it out.  Much like I am with this phantom 3rd monitor my computer swears is here somewhere and even sends information to somehow…

I think I’m a geek, but the truth is, I’m just a poser.  My desk does look super cool now, though :-)

Enjoy today’s haiku:

Sit in studio
And listen as Erin sings
Classics to Trudy