Ah, there’s one thing about this time of year in Southern California… It means an influx of crickets and black widows. Oh the joy. Especially in a studio where extraneous noise is a major downside to getting good quality recordings. As the story goes about a famous band with the word crickets in their title (Buddy Holly and the Crickets), they were recording in a garage and of course had a cricket in the walls that would hamper the recordings. Don’t know if it’s true, but it sounds plausible.
The idea of black widows hanging around is enough to make some people a little queasy. The males which are the smaller of the species tend to be a bit more visible than their female counter parts. The females are often much larger. I know there’s a couple spots outside my house where they tend to hang out. As much as I like to co-exist with other creatures, I don’t like to take chances around black widows. I’ve known a fiend or two who have been bitten by one and it doesn’t look like fun. Thus I’ll do what I can to reduce the population of them.
Which is why the exterminator who was here only a week ago is making a return. It seems that the last trip didn’t do a whole lot to cut the population down. Then again, I have to contend with my neighbors who probably don’t give a rat’s ass about the crickets or the black widows.
Now compound that with a neighbor who has begun letting their cats roam the neighborhood freely. They’ve replicated and multiplied. About 10 days ago that neighbor was carted away. Some of the cats were rounded up and taken as well. However, a few have escaped from being rounded up and have taken residence around my property.
I don’t hate cats. Though at this time, I don’t want to own any cats. I don’t want cats around either. They bother the neighbors dog. They crap in the flower beds around my house and stink it up. Thus I have to continue looking into methods of getting rid of them. I suppose I’ll have to ask the exterminator if there is a way to trap them and get them to the pound.
While the studio gets soused with cricket and black widow juice I will take some time to go shoot some little white balls around a course with a friend. In the meantime, I leave you with the former band of a member of an older band that has now released a comeback CD. Of course I showcased that band a week ago – Extreme.
Nuno was also the mastermind behind Mourning Widows. This song has a ridiculously long intro. Which builds so much anticipation that it’s sorta like chasing these pests off my property. The bonus is, once the song gets going into the words and the core of the song, it’s more enjoyable to listen to than crickets or cats.
Of course the playing is stellar. Why shouldn’t it be? Nuno is a kick ass musician and obviously has many talented musicians that would kill or die to work with him. Now if he’d only allow a producer to produce what he does.
Go get your rock on!