The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Digeum Mix Session 01L

On a quiet Monday morning on my last full day in Milwaukee, I looked out the window, plugged in my gear, and spun up a set of lovely tracks for Eric & Betsy. I really got into a nice groove and, while there were a couple of spots I wish I could do over, I found myself deep in the groove. Some of my favorite tracks are in this mix.

I also learned that it is possible to record a mix session with no external monitors. I brought a pair of small Maxell foldable speakers that I got at MacWorld Expo with me, but there was only one plugin on the desk. That left me dancing around to the music in a silent room on my headphones. This is also the first time I’ve thrown the Vestax into my carry-on bag and did a DJ set outside of my own studio.

Eric, my brother, it was such a beautiful ceremony and your new wife, Betsy, is a lovely, wonderful person. I’m so thrilled for both of you. I wish you both an eternity of happiness, love, health, and success. I hope you enjoy listening to this recording as much as I enjoyed making it for you. Mad love to you both.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Lima. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on Monday, October 27, 2008. Running time: 2:01:35.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

10 Favorite Moments from My 2008 Wisconsin Trip

My friend, Eric, invited me to his wedding in Milwaukee and, after some hemming and hawing, I decided that I could certainly not miss my man’s wedding. For most of the six days, I was free to wander at large around the greater Milwaukee area. I rented a car, stayed at a hotel near the airport, and saw the sights.

Rather than recap in detail the whole trip, I thought I’d list the ten things I did in Milwaukee this time around that made my trip awesome.

10 Favorite Moments from My Recent Trip to Wisconsin

1. Witnessing Eric and Betsy get married in a beautiful ceremony at Scottish Rites Masonic Center
2. Hanging out with friends I haven’t seen since the last time I went to Milwaukee eight years ago, including (but not limited to): NF, Bowen, Dave, Beth, and Penny.
3. Ripping up the dancefloor at the reception and scaring the bridesmaids, attending families, and even the DJs. THIS IS HOW WE DO IT, WEST COAST-STYLE, BABY!
4. Meeting Courtney. What an amazingly positive, funny, witty, charming woman you are. I hope our paths cross again soon.
5. Meeting K is for Kooky in Madison and hanging out until an embarrassingly small hour in the morning. You are funny and awesome.
6. Catching a really good gypsy swing band in Madison with my friend, Laura, who just published a new book, Tea Shop Girls. It’s always fun to hang out with you.
7. Meeting Miss Erika Jean after the wedding and brunching with her and Joe the next day.
8. Meeting the Bronze Fonz. Ayyy! Why isn’t this in your Church of Fonz, Peter Griffin?
9. Meeting Joe, Damien, William, Jacob, Amanda, and all the other awesome people I got to hang out with at the wedding reception and at Mayan dinner the night before I left.
10. Wandering around a pretty city, finding a statue of Robert Burns, hanging out with friends in small out-of-the-way taverns, and eating really well.

I also discovered that I can pack my Vestax, laptop, and sound card into my carryon bag, along with three sets of headphones, foldable speakers, and my PSP. I thought they were gonna make me check it at Northwest, but my bag easily fit in the box and, thus, under the seat in front of me. I can spin Digeum Mix Sessions anywhere. In fact, I’ll be posting later about 01L, my first set outside of Sunnyvale.

Milwaukee’s a beautiful city that I’d love to explore more. Every time I’m in Wisconsin, though, it’s either October or November. I think I’ll try to come around in June next time. Ahh…nice and warm.

Thanks, everyone, for a fun time. Congratulations, Eric & Betsy.

Digeum Mix Session 01K

Jay Def volleys right back with a beautiful set of electro-house grooves that give back to the community for a solid 82 minutes. His mixing is right on the money and he debuts his new track, “Get Outta This Place” about 15 minutes in. His meticulous preparation lends to beautiful sets that belong on your iPod.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Kilo. Mixed by Jay Def in Boise, Idaho, USA, on Monday, October 20, 2008. Running time: 1:22:31.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 01J

In trying not to rely on so many vocal house anthems, I put together a set of tracks that I added to an iTunes playlist called @mixbin with 40 or so songs in it. Doing prep work made it easier to pick from those, rather than sift through the 2000 high resolution songs I have in my smart playlist (Genre: House. Length: 1:30 to 15:00 long. Bitrate: over 128 kbps). The mix is pretty smooth and I’m pleased with this one. This is probably my best set to date.

I still haven’t figured out how to voice over with a microphone. I used a “female” robot voice for this mix intro. Soon, I hope to be able to do voiceovers, play instruments on top of tracks (especially mine), and weave other things into the mix. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel like I’m making progress.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Juliet. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. Running time: 1:32:49.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 01I

Jay Def comes back at us with a new mix with a beautifully mixed set of electro and tech-house gems. I love listening to Jay’s sets. He spends a lot of time selecting his tracks and segues from one to the next very smoothly. He also picks out tunes that keep me guessing—many of which I am compelled to find after hearing them in his mix sets.

Good to have you back in the mix, brother.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session India. Mixed by Jay Def in Boise, Idaho, USA, on Wednesday, October 08, 2008. Running time: 1:22:56.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 01H

I ran a contest a week ago on GTI that asked people to predict the number of points the Dow Jones Industrial Average would close down. I guessed the closest, but in second place, was FiZ. Today, I finally got around to closing the studio door and getting a mix done.

While the mix sounded wonky while I was spinning, on later review it sounds pretty good. There are a few spots where the beat matching is off, primarily due to the fact that I generally have no idea what I’m playing next until the track that’s playing has 90 seconds left. Unlike my colleague, Jay Def, I do no preparatory work, other than creating the robot voice intro. He, on the other hand, lays out his tracks in advance, tests them in Traktor to make sure they’ll play, and makes sure they all work together. This is how a real DJ gets ready for his set.

I just fly by the seat of my pants, often asking internet friends to guess numbers between 1 and 1967 (the number of tracks in my high resolution directory now), and picking one of the appropriately numbered tracks (I can sort about 9 different ways, so I have a variety of choices for track 1234, for example). Sometimes, I have to punt a particular track that someone guessed, because Traktor miscalculates the tempo and my fear of thumping the house makes it difficult for me to hear the studio monitors. Sounds like it’s time for some sound proofing in my studio.

Next time, I’m going to try to create a playlist in advance, so my mix can sound a little more focused and tight, like Jay Def’s do. But, for now, I feel like I’m improving, although I should shift my schedule so I create a mix session on every CrossFit rest day (since I don’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts between working out and spinning music).

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Hotel. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Monday, October 06, 2008. Running time: 1:26:06.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think. I hope you like it.

Digeum Mix Session 01G

Today’s a workout rest day, so I decided to use it to get another mix done for Digeum, my fifth this month. My housemate is sick, so I didn’t bump the Alesis monitors very hard, turning my sound card down to about 1 of 10 and playing primarily through my headphones.

There were a couple of troublesome spots in this mix, but I nailed almost of the transitions. Traktor miscalculated the tempo on one of them about 45 minutes into the mix (the Soldiers of Twilight track) and I found it difficult to mix it accurately. I really need to get better at paying more attention to my ears than the indicators on Traktor. I’m pretty happy with this mix. I got into a mellow vocal groove and tried to veer into more instrumental territory. The sexy vocals dragged me back, though, and I found myself trying to sing along quietly enough that I couldn’t be heard in other rooms. This’ll be a good bunch of thumps for my Friday at work.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Golf. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Thursday, September 25, 2008. Running time: 1:36:42.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think. I hope you like it.

Digeum Mix Session 01F

Last night, I played my fourth mix session for Digeum. After reediting one of Jay Def‘s new tracks, I pulled the tempo slider back to 120 bpm and played a fairly laid back set of house tracks from my high resolution rips.

Now that I’ve listened all the way through it, it’s pretty clear that I’m getting better with my mixdowns with each passing session. This one is undoubtedly the best mix I’ve put together so far. There’s a little tempo slider stumble when I’m transitioning from a Lawnchair Generals track (I was cuing a Hesohi cut and forgot which side I was actually playing and which side I was cuing) and a few minor trips here and there. But, I’m pretty proud of this one. It’s much more listenable and the errors are pretty slight most of the time. Most importantly, I had a good time playing this set. I really need to get that microphone working soon, though, so I can voiceover, play a live instrument over my own tracks (once I recover and remix/rerip them), and maybe even sing if I hate everyone sufficiently to abuse my listeners like that (heh).

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 01, Session Foxtrot. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Sunday, September 21, 2008. Running time: 1:37:45.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think. I hope you like it.

One Year of CrossFit

One year ago, I did my first CrossFit workout of the day (WOD). Since then, I’ve tracked my progress in a log book and, for a while, was recapping my workouts here. I stopped posting them on this site primarily because it bored me even to write them, so it must have been excruciating to sift through all those jock entries to get to the mediocre stuff you both read occasionally (heh).

In the year that I’ve been working out this way, though, I’ve made a bunch of progress. My 5 km run time is almost 6 minutes faster now than it was when I first started. I got my first kipping pullup in late November and did 120 pullups in one workout in August in less than 20 minutes (without even tearing my hands to shreds). I’m stronger, faster, more agile, meaner, and leaner than I was a year ago.

Lately, I’m also lazier. In contrast with the winter, when I was more religious about my working out, I’ve been blowing off a ton of workouts lately. This isn’t the way to progress. I didn’t miss any prescribed WODs from September to December, completing sixty-six in a row before the 400 meter walking lunge kicked my narrow ass hard enough to make me take an extra rest day. It took 5 months to reach 100 WODs, but I still haven’t reached 160 yet (almost 7 months later). I really have to knuckle back down and go for another 60 in a row.

I have to say, though, that CrossFit has taught me that I can do absolutely anything. If I can do 120 pullups on a chilly evening and manage not to rip my calluses off, what could possibly stand in my way as an obstacle to accomplishing anything? It’s time to refocus on my fitness and not squander my momentum.

Now, to save up the money to attend a Level I Certification.

Thanks, Coach Glassman, for your program. The last time I was in this kind of shape, I got there because a big asshole with stripes on his arm, a big brown saucer on his head, and a big loud voice chased me around and made me do pushups until Missouri was below sea level. Imagine what I’ll do to myself in my second year of CrossFit, without even having to come to parade rest for anybody. Hu-a!

Reamed by T-Mobile

So, this afternoon, I decided to wander into the T-Mobile store to square away my bill. I bought a new iPhone about six weeks ago, after I read that T-Mobile was reducing their early termination fee from $200 to $100 for customers whose contracts expire within 180 days.

Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I found that the $200 early termination fee was still in place. They decided to charge me this because I had not made any changes to my contract after June 28. I find this completely dishonest and the fine print on the T-Mobile website that I looked at should have made this more clear.

I tried to talk to the representative on the phone, but they’re not going to budge. I was a T-Mobile customer for more than 5 years, but they don’t care. They just want to sell their crappy service and also-ran cellphones. I understand that.

So, if you’re a T-Mobile customer considering getting an iPhone, you’re probably going to want to wait, unless you’re ready to take a $200 thrust right in the brown ring. Had I known about this, I’d have waiting until January for a new iPhone.

Is there a class action lawsuit in progress? I’ll join!

Color me pissed. I could have spent that extra $200 on disco and condoms.