Or Marshall adjacent like Soldano or Friedman. There’s several Marshall amps on amalgam and want to see what everyone’s opinions were. I’m looking to boost with a TS9 or SD1… Thrash/Death Metal/Black Metal stuff. No IR just straight into fx loop of my amp. Thanks!
Freelance life. Okay, we all work on multiple jobs at once. I'm in a position where I need to be aggressive in getting work and getting paid to support my family (like many of you), and most of the time I'm working two gigs at once. I hammer out the easy stuff in the morning for one job, and then around noon, switch over to the other job and drive that home til end of day. And of course, hop back and forth.
I find my limit is 2 but anything more than 2, I'm risking one of them falling short or having to phone it in on two and the third gets all the attention. And it can be stressful but most of the time I am so fast I can handle 2 jobs at the same time.
I'm on dual projects right now but a third one came in and I'm tempted because I really fucking need a new machine, my current set up is slowly dying and it's keeping me down. My plan was to take this third project on to help fund a new machine.
Yes, I am flirting with disaster and possible burnout.
Should I just bite the bullet and get a new machine, regardless of what is on my plate because I am busy as hell? And throw it on the credit card and pay it off over time? I weirdly need stranger validation right now.
Thanks
Anyone else find it so satisfying when you play those parts up to speed and accurate? I’m talking of course about the finger-twister Slayer riffs like the breakdown part in Angel of Death. When you totally nail it, you feel like a goddamn unstoppable assassin! There’s so many demented turns in old Slayer songs… like I just was riffing on Post Mortem and that whole intro leading up the verse is so damn fun to play. What Slayer riffs do you find are the most fun to play? Jeff Hanneman was such a genius.
I gotta rant. I'm sure this subject has been beaten to death, but who else can't stand looking through all the new Jackson models and seeing so much satin? Who asked for this? I can maybe understand the appeal, but I can't tell you how many times I am enticed by a certain Jackson model only to look closer and go "ahhh fuck, matte finish only"...
And a side note. It also becomes this twisted game where you can't "have it all":
- Guitar will have headstock binding, but only satin finish
- Guitar will be glossy and have headstock binding, but no glossy neck and weird gray sharkfins
- Guitar will have proper sharkfins but no headstock binding
- Guitar will have proper sharkfins, headstock binding, glossy finish but new costs $1500+ and made in China
- Guitar will have proper sharkfins, headstock binding, glossy finish but it's a JS series with not-so-great hardware, pickups, trem, etc.
(I will say though, that for the money the JS series is amazing, but it's so funny how if you go one level up to the present day X series it's like they start removing things!)
Why can't we have the 2010's Indo made X series with headstock binding, emg's, gloss finish? why is that too much to ask for?
Don't get me started on how awesome the import Japan stuff was in the 90s and 00's...
I know times have changed and prices have changed, but goddamn. The older models are hard to find in the wild at a decent price and if you do find one for sale, there's the gamble of buying online and winding up with some honky shit going on with the trem or something else because they are 15, 20, 30 years old.
Rant #4,581
Is there anything more degrading than having to take a skills test for employment? (Trick question, there is an ocean of degrading stuff potential employers do)
I refuse to partake in this type of crap unless they pay me for the test, but I just did a paid one last week as part of the interview process for a long-term gig. They said once they send me the test, I have 48 hours to send the results. lol, ok
They also told me it would take me "4 hours" but I finished it in under 2 hours because it was hilariously easy. Sent it over and got a quick reply back: "Yeah we'll let you know, etc. send us an invoice for the skills test" I sent the invoice right away... and then crickets. It's been a week now. Followed up. Nothing. Would I be surprised if I never see that check in the mail? No.
Hey - If you're going to put some stupid time limit on when I need to return your test, maybe there should be a time limit on you to follow up on next steps??
"We need people to start right away" = "We'll take our sweet time getting back to you"
"We need you to take a skills test" = "We're too incompetent to judge someone's skill set based on their reel"
I wish I had it in front of me (it’s in a box somewhere), but back in April 2000 I saw Slipknot play at the Warfield in San Francisco. After the show ended, my brother and I were approached by a guy in a hoodie who handed us backstage passes and so we went backstage. Saw Joey, didn’t approach him but I remember he was wearing a Motley Crue shirt. Met Corey and he was super nice. What I remember most is talking about comics with him and that whole conversation started because I was wearing a Johnny The Homicidal Maniac tshirt.
Back in those days there was no unmasked pictures. The only way I knew it was him was the tattoo on his neck!
Anyway, he signed my ticket with just an “8” inside a circle which I thought was cool. I’ve seen this signature online on some pieces of memorabilia like posters and stuff but no tickets.
I don’t know what the point of this story is, just wanted to share!
Now that I think about it… the random guy who gave us the backstage passes may have been Shawn? Can’t know for sure because it was 26 years ago and my memory is fuzzy. Hard to see his face, but he had a beard, loose black clothes, and a black jacket and hoodie, like a shadowy homeless renegade from the future…. Lol
Anyone else got an “8” autograph? I’d love to hear your story!
I’m in an empty house for who knows how long. Wife wants us separated. Nothing I can do about it. What should I watch? I just saw “Maternal Instinct” on Netflix last night and it was disturbing as hell.
Dad gave it to me. No authentication. He won it in a golf tournament sometime in the 90s or 2000s. That’s all I got.
I've been seeing a lot of posts recently touching on this subject. I have lamented about it before so forgive me if this is beating a dead horse.
I have 20+ years in motion design, mostly spent at in-house roles. 8+ of which were in leadership, motion + art direction. Top media, entertainment and tech client work. Solid reel. Awards. I have a solid network of people I have worked with along the way and who I consider friends and I live in a major US city.
After getting laid off last year from the media company I worked for, I dove into the freelance game, did some agency work for an ultra top-tier tech company, then bounced around a little bit to a couple other agencies. Just working non-stop, but at the same time I was trying to line up leads for other stuff.
I kept it rolling for a good year but at this point... I have exhausted all my connections and leads in my inner-circle and now I'm branching out and sending emails to studios and agencies all around and spreading the word. Also applying to jobs, but I don't expect much from that. Updated my reel, resume, etc
I find myself in a tough situation (like a lot of you here), finding it very difficult to line up a new gig. The hard truth is that if I don't land something else soon, I'm not sure what I will do. I have a family and young kids to support, rent, bills, etc. High overhead you could say. Nothing to fall back on, no one helping me out. It's very stressful.
Besides all the networking and other tactics that are adjacent, what else can I be doing? I have tried before connecting with recruiters but never once has that panned out. I feel like I have the chops and a stellar track record but I'm not making the new connections I need to get work asap.
Or is the market just really shitty right now and we're all feeling the pain? I know summer always kinda sucks for finding stuff and then it picks up in the Fall. But my mantra is persistence and not letting my foot off the gas, because I have no choice!
Just putting this out into the universe.