I recently returned from a trip to Boston to visit the fabulous Kate McKinnon. I hadn’t been to the east coast since early 2002 when I went on a tour of the eastern seaboard with David J’s Cabaret Oscuro. That was post 9-11 and there was a lot of tension in the air, much like now but without quite as much meanness. It was such a treat to be able to relax and explore whenever and however I wanted. The weather was lovely and so were the sights. Since I started working a “day job” 7 years ago my creative life has taken a dive and it is starting to make me feel a little untethered. It doesn’t help that we moved from our home near the beach to the desert which, I love BTW. It’s just that picking up and moving 18 years of my life was something that I don’t want to do again anytime soon and when I do, I hope my load is a little lighter.
The move required packing up my studio of glass, ceramic tools and supplies along with musical instruments and equipment. I also meant unloading a large portion of my record collection which we’ve been moving for the past 40 years in order to raise some cash. There was some great stuff sold but still a lot of good stuff left. The turntable has been getting a lot of use. Meanwhile, all of these changes have left me without access to some of my favorite toys. Thankfully my cello is nearby but she has been temperamental since moving to the dry zone. A humidifier is in the case at all times so she still sounds good and plays well. I dabble with beads, yarn, a little sewing here and there and cooking but I really miss the torch and my kilns. So many things that I want to do and try. One of my missions these days is to release all of the music I’ve ever made into the world. This mission was made even more urgent after I got home from Boston. I had taken my laptop with me which contained music software and my music files. Just before I left for the airport, I powered off the computer for flight as I usually do. When I returned home and powered on again, the computer would not boot up. I spent the next 4 days trying to restore the hard disc to no avail. At that point the reality hit that I had possibly lost everything, music, photos, business records, etc… I started to panic and then got really sad. What an idiot for not backing up!
Finally, an appointment at the Apple store. I left my computer for the afternoon while they attempted to revive my 2011 MacBook Pro. While they were able to revive the disc, most of my data was gone. It seems that there was a software upgrade happening at the time I shut down the computer (High Sierra) so when I started up again the disc was locked in a kind of limbo cycle. The disc had to be erased and the operating system re-installed. Luckily enough I had backed up my desktop to the cloud and I have been piecing together my data. The worst part is that my old Abelton and Reason softwares were eliminated along with all their pertinent files. I won’t be able to reload them because they are older versions that won’t work in the new OS. Looks like I’ll have to upgrade my music softs at some point, probably when I get a new computer. For now I am compiling audio files of anything that I have made in the past 15 years. I will probably upload everything to a music service and leave it at that so I can move forward with new music. I will also be sure to back up and never make that stupid mistake again. Wish me luck as I scrape together data files.