Leaning Toward Wisdom

A week or so ago Emily Hearn released her new album, Hourglass. Emily hit my music radar a few years ago when she released a song entitled, Rooftop. I have a strong affinity for great female vocalist and Emily has joined the ranks of Regina Spektor, Adele, Eliza Doolittle, Aimee Mann, Eva Cassidy, Ashley Cleveland, Brandi Carlile […]

I first learned of Jason Isbell when he was with the Drive By Truckers. It was somewhere around 2004. I paid closer attention to him in 2007 when he ventured out on a solo career. He was one of the darker artists, writing about heavy things. And I know they’re not popular things, but like John […]

New Year’s Day 1974. That’s when Bantam Books published this book. I can’t be sure when I bought it, but it was in 1974 – the year I still maintain was one of the best years for music. That plain paper, which was once notebook paper with lines on it (look closely at the holes […]

“You and I always go together…you make summertime last until December.” Happy at home is the message of the song by Martin Sexton’s song, You (My Mind Is Woo). “It’s a crazy kind of clarity when my mind is on you.” In episode 4053 I talked about love. Go back and give it a listen […]

Just this morning Demilked, the design, art and photography website posted a series of pictures in a posted entitled, In Love For More Than 50 Years: Couples Pose For Heartwarming Photo Series. Here’s what Demilked wrote about the author and photographer Lauren Fleishman… When you’re about 20 years old, it’s hard to imagine couples that stayed […]

Until he recorded this song about her, I’d never heard of her. Not surprising since I’m hardly an expert on British novelists. Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge died almost 5 years ago. One year after her death she was given special recognition by the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, a UK award given to the best novel written and […]

Walter White never read a book about business models. Jesse Pinkman probably never read a book of any kind. It didn’t matter, they stumbled their way into a profitable – albeit criminal – business model. The other day I spent a day in front of the computer doing some website work, and other computer related […]

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”  -Abraham Lincoln That’s one of my all-time favorite quotes. I know it assumes that some day will come, but I tend to believe some day does come. Not everybody sees it or knows what to do with it, but I do think it comes. It’s […]

Lewis Black is an angry man. Really. And really angry. I can relate. He wasn’t always old. Neither was I. But now we both are. Black was angry when he was young though. You could argue that it’s his bit, his schtick. But I think it’s more than that. While I don’t approve of his […]

Welcome Inside The Yellow Studio. It's yellow because it's yellow. Duh.

Truth is, I love yellow, orange, red and hunter green. Those are among my favorite colors. I don't have just one.

A 15-year-old version of me and the pickup

When I was 15 - yes, people, when I was young, living in Louisiana...you could get your driver's license at 15 - I had a 1954 GMC pickup truck. It was an old truck some farmer had abandoned in a field.

My maternal grandfather bought it for $150 and got it running, then paid somebody a little bit to recover the seat in new vinyl. It was a "3-on-the-tree" transmission and I drove it back from Oklahoma, where my grandparents lived, all the way back to Louisiana.

No air conditioning. No radio. Bare bones classic truck in faded hunter green.

I loved it. So much that when I got it home a buddy and I painted it hunter green with orange fender flares. With a brush! And it looked good. Of course, it looked better if you were standing a few feet away. ;)

During high school I had great fun with that truck. My first "real" car was a Pontiac Lemans. It was "Sundance Orange" - that's what GM called it. So orange was always a big player for me. So, why not The Orange Studio?

I never considered walls being orange. Frankly, it just seemed too dark and I wanted something lighter. I had a moment of clarity when the TV show HOUSE aired. His boss, Cuddy, had yellow walls in her office. Mustard yellow. The moment I saw Cuddy's office I told my wife, "That's the color I want to paint the walls." She and Dena, a close friend, painted it after finding the right shade of yellow. So that's how the name came to be.

Cuddy's office walls inspired The Yellow Studio

Here are some details about the actual physical space:

- It's a room about 13' x 14.5'.

- There's an adjoining bathroom.

- It has a small closet, filled with too many cables and other audio paraphernalia.

- It has 2 large windows with wooden slat shutters on the inside.

- It has an overhead florescent light, which rarely gets turned on.

- I have a 19" Chinese lantern with an LED bulb inside that hangs overhead and serves as a poor man's video light.

- There are 4 full height bookcases behind my desk (out of seen most of the time) filled with books.

- There are 3 other 5' high bookcases in the studio, also filled with books.

- There is one 4' high bookcase filled with books, and a Polk Audio HD clock radio, plus a 3 monkeys lamp (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil).

- There is a CD carousel in the corner that houses 2000 CD's with more stashed here and there.

- There's one Hon 2-drawer lowboy filing cabinet (lateral files or regular - it can configured either way).

- There's 3 chairs that can sit around the "broadcast table" which is actually a conference table.

- The floor is carpeted with a light green low plush carpet.

- The ceiling has popcorn texture circa 1980's (yeah, I hate it but it's a royal pain and major mess to change it).

- The room has one HVAC vent without a vent fixture to prevent any rattling. Air just drops into the room.

Here's a list of the cool stuff (these are not affiliate links; I do have an affiliate list for most of my resources here):

• Herman Miller Mirra chair

• Apple iMac 27" with i7 processor (16GB RAM / 1TB Hard Drive)

• Apple iPad Air (128GB with ATT capability)

• Ambrosia Wiretap Studio ($69  - I love it, but it doesn't work on the latest Mac OS and you can't get support, so do not buy it)

• Audio Hijack Pro by Rogue Amoeba

• Twisted Wave (my DAW of choice)