Before & After, part II

Before packing it in for the night, I should point out that another side project very dear to my heart is also drawing to a close. As many of you know, I am happily the member of a band comprised of my high school friends who went on to pursue careers in music.

In addition to playing shows of varying quality (and attendance), we have been undertaking a major recording effort for the past two years. We have recorded albums together twice before...

Once in our drummer, Dan's, garage, in the earliest years of our band (not a particularly good album)...

And once at a recording studio (a slightly better but still not great album).

This, however, is a different undertaking entirely, and it's one that I'm really excited to share with all of you as soon as possible. Like I said, we've been working on it for two years, and it is really, really exciting! We recorded the bulk of the tracks during the summer of 2008. The father of our lead singer, Dave, loaned his entire house to us for over a week, and we set up shop.

With the help of Tom, a college friend of Dave's, who is now chief engineer at a studio in Woodstock, NY, we experimented with the different acoustic properties of each room and recorded some really gorgeous/interesting/unique/weird tracks and songs.

Then, we (and especially Dave) spent well over a year dissecting every second of every track numerous times, and basically being very picky. In the end, the sound was almost to the point that we wanted, with the exception of one minor detail...string ensembles to record tricky string parts on many of the songs! We had hit a bit of a roadblock.

However, circumstances changed. Dave was admitted to graduate school (largely on the basis of this album) and Ryan, our keyboardist, headed to graduate school at Indiana University. Access to capable string musicians was no longer an issue! In total, 3 string and wind ensembles of various sizes were hired to record the additional tracks.

And so, well over 2 years after our first rehearsals of the songs that will be on this new album ("In a Bubble"), I got to attend what will be the final string recording session this Tuesday.

These songs have truly become the soundtrack of my life. It is amazing to think not only how many times I've listened to and practiced them, but also how many huge changes my life has undergone since the first time I played these songs. And after it all, I am still just as thrilled to still have people who will let me play music with them, and just as eager to share this big part of my life with all of you soon, hopefully! In the meantime, Happy November, and keep warm!

Before & After, part I

Since this semester is getting very busy, I'm going to take a quick break from relaying stories about my travels to Denmark to share 2 updates on my side projects you may have heard about. First, I think I mentioned that our apartment here in White Plains was being converted to a Belgian monastery (at least in terms of brewing). Well, the transformation is complete (and successful)!

In case you forgot, this is what things looked like at the outset...

Following the excitement of our brewing evening, many boring weeks of fermentation followed, and they generally looked like this:

Pretty boring, right? It was exciting to see the bubbles produced from the fermentation process as they escaped from the airlock (at least when compared to the level of excitement contained in the cases we were reading simultaneously). In any event, it was soon time for bottling, so Dan and I temporarily re-prioritized use of our dishwasher (see photo)...

...and then we neatly bottled everything in our hygienically superior, monastery-like brewery (office closet).

Actually, it's not quite accurate to say that we bottled everything. There is actually a fair amount of stuff that you don't want to imbibe, as evidenced by the following photo (warning: the following photograph contains graphic depictions of deceased yeast. Not suitable for all viewers)...

Thankfully, none of the Ghostbusters-esque gloop escapes the notice of the resident brew monks, who suffered through some interim quality control checks before allowing the beer to bottle condition and carbonate for a further 2 weeks.

In the end, it was most definitely worth the effort, sweat, and tears (it's not easy to wash 100 billion of your yeast friends down the tub, after all). Look at our gorgeous Trappist ale (*technically, only a few monasteries in the world can produce actual Trappist Ale, so this is actually just Trappist style). Note the wonderful little champagne bubbles produced by the bottle conditioning process...you won't find many beers like this! All in all, we're very happy with our initial foray into an unknown hobby, and time permitting, we will probably be back at it soon!

The journey continues

In case you were wondering, there was more to my trip to Denmark that you haven't seen yet. As we've established so far, I had the opportunity to see a wonderful art museum and explore the Danish countryside around Kolding for a couple days.

However, more of Denmark remained to be explored, and so Charlotte, Charlotte's grandparents, and I set off to their home on the island of Laeso for a few days. On the way, we made a couple stops. The first was at a very old Danish church, so that I could get a sense of what these churches appear like on the inside. It was very interesting to see the ornate wood and stonework dating from many centuries prior.

Then, we drove a little while longer until we reached the home of Charlotte's uncle, aunt, and two cousins. They have a wonderful house, a friendly dog, and they provided a very tasty lunch to carry us the rest of the way along our journey.

After a while longer on the road, we reached the northern tip of Denmark, from which point we caught a ferry to take us over to the small island of Laeso, where their second home is located. Despite the small size of the island, the crossing traverses open water and takes about 1.5 hours to complete, so the ferry was very spacious and comfortable.

We passed many things, including some more of my favorite sights in Denmark! They're everywhere-there's apparently a reason that people call Denmark one of the leaders in the renewable power movement.

Anyway, after riding the ferry for a while, we reached Laeso! I'm getting a bit sleepy, but in the meantime, you can take a gander at the cozy place I was able to call home for a few wonderful, relaxing days.

I'll be back to update you on the fun adventures I got to have on the island soon! In the meantime, bundle up! We just had our first snowfall of the season today!

Denmark (part 1)

Under ideal conditions, I would post more pictures from my wonderful trip to Denmark this past August and provide some great explanations to accompany every photograph of what I'm showing you. However, things are getting busy, so I think I'd rather just be sure that at least some of my photos are making it up here. I was in Denmark with Charlotte for about 11 days in total, and so I will present my travel in a few parts. In my quick break today, I'll share some of the first sights I got to see after arriving in Denmark. I was encouraged to leave my jet lag at the airport and quickly whisked away by Charlotte's grandparents, who took us to the Louisiana Art Museum, which was really quite gorgeous.

The visit was made even cooler by the fact that they were featuring a major exhibition on the theme of green design, so there were lots of thought-provoking exhibits. Here, for example, is a sculpture that can decay at a controlled rate (showing a technology that could be used to build temporary buildings, such as sports arenas for the Olympics, rather than constructing structures that will quickly become unnecessary).

And here is a sculpture that generates electricity through solar panels and by converting the oscillations generated by people who walk on it!

After touring the museum, it was time to head back to Fiskenaes, which is the tranquil home of Charlotte's grandparents, and the location of her grandfather's studio (he's a goldsmith). As you can see, it was very pretty, and with a wonderful view of open land and a lake, it was a tranquil place to read and relax.

The next day, after some good sleep, we hit the ground running. Charlotte showed me around the Fiskenaes property, and introduced me to some of the friendly neighbors!

Then, in the afternoon, we went to the nearby town of Kolding. Note that the town's name has an "old" in it-this is because much of the town is very old in comparison to American standards!

The town was gorgeous, but perhaps even more so was the castle therein! It was beautiful on the outside...

...and even more so within!

Anyway, I need to get a little sleep here, so this is all you get for today! When time permits again, I'll put up some more pictures, but in the meantime, look out the window and see if your leaves are beginning to get as pretty as ours are starting to! We have a long way to go until peak foliage here in White Plains, but it's definitely on its way.

Greetings from White Plains!

Well, since it's been a long time since I last updated this, I suppose I should begin by wishing you a happy fall! I still have a healthy dose of photographs from my travels to Denmark to post, but since it's been a while since I've provided an update, I think I will first give you a glimpse into the storied life of a second-year law student, which I'm currently experiencing. What happens during this mysterious time of learning?

Well, basically, I sit here (my desk at my apartment) and read lots of pages of books. It doesn't make for great journalism, so just imagine me doing that every day, and we'll just leave it at that!

Fortunately, I do have time for the occasional outside endeavor. One of my favorites (sleeping) involves spending a few hours in this (my bed). As you can see, my apartment is a good deal more welcoming than my dorm room was last year. If you never saw my dorm room last year, please just believe me that this apartment is several orders of magnitude better.

I should also note that my roommate (Dan) and I are currently attempting to brew a Belgian, Trappist-style ale. If successful, this will represent the first skill that I have learned completely from research on the Internet (and about 90% from YouTube). It is amazing just how much you can learn from sources that were frowned upon (and didn't even exist) until recently!

This will be a topic that I will update as we progress, but we successfully completed the "brew" phase, and we are now into the first of three fermentation phases (first in one bucket, then in a glass carboy, and finally in the individual bottles). It is a nice break from the one-track thinking of law school, since this requires lots of different skills. We need to carefully time and measure the phases and components, and we have to keep everything very sterile (Dan and I can now iodine scrub with the best of the Red Cross staffers).

So far, everything is looking good.

I will also conclude by pointing out that another favorite pastime here in our apartment in White Plains is, thankfully, playing music. My roommates Dan (left) and Emily (duh) are both great musicians, so here is yet another reason this living situation is a great improvement from last year!

And with that, I'll stop for now. Hopefully you can see that all is cozy and well here in White Plains, and I'll aim to post some photographs from the wonderful trip I had to Denmark, as well (time permitting). Until then, enjoy the beautiful fall weather!