#when really i just want to try out different comps to see what we'd like to go with

[la-appel-du-vide]

01•23•21

I've been wanting to try snowmobiling for awhile now, but when my family went without me, I became even more desperate to try - I was so jealous. It worked out, because then Dad could recommend the rental shop, and have me copy all the details.

Beach, Logan, Brayden and I went, and because Beach worked the night shift that night, we had to do the morning rental schedule. Meaning, we had to be in Heber, before 8 AM on a Saturday, after driving in a snowstorm! We left around 5:45 AM, which was brutal - sucks to leave earlier on a weekend than a weekday - but we made it up there in one piece and on-time. The only hurdle? Brayden had told Logan we didn't need to be there until 8:30. We called him on the way up to correct the error, but he still didn't get there until 8:30, so we already lost half an hour of rental time. Unfortunate.

We made it up to the trailhead, and the employee gave us the rundown on how snowmobiles work, and how to get out of trouble, etc. Then we were off. I drove first, and immediately realized that driving it would be more difficult than I thought. I was expecting it to be just like driving a wave runner... but no. There had been almost a foot of fresh snow overnight, and maybe that makes a difference, because my family had no issues??? But likely, immediately, we couldn't hardly make turns, we nearly tipped over several times, and it was all around rough. On top of that, my helmet visor fogged so quick, and then the fog froze over in the cold temperatures. So I COULDN'T SEE A THING. But if I opened my visor, then I was getting pelted in the eyeballs by snowflakes and it was so painful. We watched Beach and Logan tip a couple of times, but they got up and back out just fine. Then Brayden and I switched, so he was driving, and things went downhill quick hahah. He'll deny it, but he drove into a trail marker, and then into a snowbank, tipping us over. My leg got trapped underneath it, but it wasn't a big deal - just had to dig out of it. It's nice to fall into snow, because it doesn't hurt! The problem was, our snowmobile was on an incline, so we couldn't easily get the heavy thing dug out of the deep snow and upside right. We worked on it until Logan and Beach came back to check on us. When we felt like it was in a good enough of a position to try to turn it on and reverse out of there, we attempted to start it with the pull cord (like a lawn mower). It didn't work, so we assumed the engine was flooded (which they told us would happen, and to just wait 10 minutes or so, and try again). Only, Logan wasn't really up for waiting. He just kept pulling, and eventually pulled so hard that the entire pull cord came out and didn't retract back in. Instant regret. We called the company to ask them what to do, and they said that if we were experienced, we could start it by popping the clutch manually. Well... it was our first time. So they said they'd send search and rescue out to take a look, or switch us machines if they couldn't get it. We were immediately nervous about being charged for the damages, and for the $110 an hour they charge for search and rescue labor. But what can you do, right?

In the meantime, there was no need for all four of us to just sit and wait, so we told Beach and Logan to go ride around a bit and enjoy the time so it wasn't wasted. Beach felt bad and wanted to stay, so Logan ended up taking it out solo. The three of us sat there for about 45 minutes in the blizzarding snow. Brayden's phone died before he could send a pin of our location to the search and rescue team, my phone had no service, and as time went on, we wondered whether or not anyone was actually coming to help us. We also wondered what in the world was going on with Logan - we didn't expect him to be gone so long. Either he was just hogging it, or something bad had happened. What a weird, helpless time. But eventually, search and rescue did show up! They traded us machines, and told us we should probably head back down the mountain since our rental time was running out. Only now, we had three people and a two-seater snowmobile. We figured we'd better go look for Logan and see if he needed help, and then bring him back for the third person. It ended up being Beach and I going together, and Brayden waiting there for us. We made it a few minutes up the mountain before search and rescue caught up to us and reminded us that we should turn around. We explained that we didn't know where Logan had gone, but that he had been gone awhile and that we were worried he'd ran into trouble. They said they'd go look for him and that we should head back so that we didn't have to pay a late fee for both machines. I asked about Brayden, and they said to tell him to stay near the trail and someone would give him a ride on the way back down. It felt weird leaving him standing all alone on the mountain, in a blizzard. But that's what happened haha.

Beach and I killed it on the way down. I still couldn't see, which was frustrating (next time, I'm wearing goggles instead!), but our driving and leaning went 100 times better. We didn't ever fall, and we made it back down in time! And it was actually super fun. Sucked to turn it in right as we were getting the hang of things.

When we got down, we realized Brayden had the keys. Also unfortunate. It would have been so nice to go get in a nice warm car, but instead, we just had to stand in the parking lot. As the minutes passed, it was surreal to not know if Logan was ok, if they'd found him, if Brayden was still standing all alone.... scary haha. They didn't make it down for another 50 minutes! That's a lot of time to worry! But they did make it down.

Apparently, Logan had tipped over several times, and digging himself out was exhausting. Then he slid off the trail and ran into a tree, and by the time he pulled himself back to the trail, he was so turned around and didn't know which way to go. Big yikes.

We drove back to the rental shop to take care of the damages, and we were scared. Us doing the math, we figured it was $110 for being late, another $220 for search and rescue time, and then whatever the parts/labor was for the damage. But in the end, they comped us time for the broken pull cord machine, as that's not supposed to happen and really cut into our time. So Logan only had to pay $230 for parts. Not bad, we've definitely seen worse!

Overall, what a DAY. I do want to try again though, because I really do think it could be so fun... I love trying all the new things. Even if it means I have to be in the snow! (;

[darapnerd]

G33k HQ Presents: MC Front-A-Lot Interview

Interview Questions From G33K-HQ & Darealwordsound (Wordy): Nerdcore Interview Collaboration Questions

MC Front: Thank you for bearing with me! So sorry to continually drop the ball on this. Here you go.

Wordy: What was your first creative outlet? MC Front: I seem to remember kindergarten involving a lot of drawing. First and second grade had poetry exercises sometimes. But the way we played D&D between 2nd and 6th grades was how my imagination really got fired up. We didn\'t like dice and maps that much. We\'d take turns DMing and just sort of freestyle the stories to each other at recess. Wordy:  What was the first rap album you ever purchased? MC Front: It was also my first CD. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, He\'s the DJ, I\'m the Rapper. Wordy: Who are your biggest music inspirations?

  MC Front: Tom Waits, Public Enemy, Bjork

Wordy: Describe your studio to us.

  MC Front: I have an Ikea desk that\'s been out of print for 10 years so I get fussy when anyone leans on it. Creaky, cheap old thing. It\'s the only one where you can bolt the rotating side shelves at any height. Perfect for the near-field monitors and re-aiming them for any version of the stereo field. I mix there in my bedroom which isn\'t treated, but I\'ve been in there so long that I can work around most of the room effects. I have a coat closet fully treated, very dead and dry, for vocals. I keep some buttons in there to engineer myself, but everything\'s still happening on the studio computer. My pre-amp and mics and monitors are satisfactory. I could use a better ADC/DAC.

  I will record occasional hand percussion, etc, in that closet booth, but very little fits in there. For other acoustic capture, I\'ll rent time at a real studio (any time I\'m tracking my drummers) or I\'ll go field-record strings at someone\'s apartment.

  A solid two thirds of the non-vocal sound on the albums is electronic, and I can get keyboard performances or work on drum machine material in the project studio without worrying about the ambient noises of Brooklyn.

  Wordy: Describe your ideal home studio if money wasn\'t a problem.

  MC Front: A proper treatment of the mixing room would be great. I guess I\'d have twenty of these Avalon pre-amps and a little drum room, as well as a booth big enough for upright bass or cello. There is almost unlimited fanciness available in the hardware market... I guess I\'d have to make a hobby out of shopping. I\'d still use Reaper as my DAW, though -- the least expensive version of that kind of software, and also the best. I could probably spend sixty grand on plugins.

Wordy: What is your creative process for writing and or producing a song?

MC Front: Baddd Spellah, my Canadian beatsmithing partner, has been kind enough to work on grooves with me for the last fifteen years. Usually I will start with something he\'s been kicking around, or he\'ll take a pass at some live drum that I\'ve been chopping up, and we\'ll add keyboard material from Gm7 (Gaby Alter), my longtime music co-writer. When there is a verse-appropriate groove that is in pretty good shape, I\'ll leave it on loop and write. Once in a while, I\'ll write a hook over a groove that feels like a chorus, and start from there. After I\'ve got most of a lyric, I\'ll put down a scratch vocal so that Spellah and I can build a full song arrangement. Then I\'ll record too many takes of the final vocal, and spend too many months dicking around with the comp, the mix, and all the instrumental details. Finally I\'ll listen to it on as many different devices as I can, fine-tune the mix, and stay up for a week and a half making increasingly bad decisions about everything on the album, leading up to the mastering appointment I foolishly committed to several months prior.

  Wordy: What is your happiest On-Stage Moment?

  MC Front: I think a PAX crowd demanded a second encore once. That makes you feel like a superstar.

Wordy: What was your favorite song to write or record?

  MC Front: Maybe Stoop Sale? But that might be because the video came out so well. For the most part, my happiness with the process relies entirely on the result: it makes me happy to listen to a track if I don\'t just hear a barrage of fuckups that it\'s too late to go back and fix. But there aren\'t very many of those. Of all my lyrics, I\'m probably proudest of Two Dreamers from the Question Bedtime album. I feel like I worked out every bit of the story and then obscured it just enough that the listener\'s careful attention is rewarded.

Wordy: What advice do you have for aspiring artists?

  MC Front: Practice a lot, develop your talent. Get the skills you need to properly communicate with whoever your creative partners are. Take the craft seriously but give yourself a break for not having mastered it -- that is a lifelong process with no actual end goal.

Wordy: What project do you feel best describes you as an artist?

  MC Front: The Nerdcore Rising documentary probably says more about me and the band than I\'d ever be able to, and in kinder words. Of my own projects, I like the Zero Day and Solved albums as a window into whatever it is I\'m trying to say about nerdcore.

Wordy: How do you feel about the disconnect between \"Nerdcore\" and \"HipHop\"?

  MC Front: Well, hip-hop is a cultural movement with very specific origins and elements. Rap is a formal music style that emerged from hip-hop. Any \'variation\' or \'new perspective\' that someone brings to rap is fine -- if meaningless. It might matter that you came up with a new thing to say, but the fact that you chose an unusual form for your expression should be the least interesting thing about it. You can write a march for your peace movement, even if marches come from military music, because the march itself is just a formal style of composition. You\'d be smart to note the ironic relationship there, or you\'d be dumb to suggest that there isn\'t one, or that your choice to use a march as an expression of pacifism somehow reaches backward and affects the origin of the form. Anyone who thinks they\'re \'expanding\' or \'liberating\' hip-hop from its roots by rapping about things that haven\'t been rapped about traditionally is probably an idiot. 

  My idea about hip-hop was only to observe that it was cool. Like, it was the coolest thing happening in American culture when I was a kid, and it probably still is. Breakdancers were the coolest kids on the playground. Graffiti kids were the coolest outlaws in fourth grade. And rappers were the coolest possible composers of verse.

  To want to compose and perform verse in that formal style without having any direct connection to hip-hop, and without being cool, is the sort of desire nerd kids might express by themselves, away from arbiters of hipness, and share only with other uncool kids. The idea of nerdcore went no deeper than that, originally. I\'m glad that a lot of other DIY rappers have found that resonant enough to expand upon.

  Wordy: Do you feel more \"Nerdcore\" rappers should know about its roots in \"HipHop\"?

  MC Front: Definitely. I remember trying to write a Villanelle in a college poetry class. First, we had to read and dissect a sheaf of them. The professor was of the opinion that we would all flounder in the assignment, because there had been only a handful of good Villanelles ever written. I\'m sure none of us wrote one of lasting value. The point was to learn how formal composition connects works, and to appreciate the complications. You can always just do it anyway. But knowing where it comes from and how it\'s been attempted before teaches you how to try to do it well. I think anyone who wants to compose lyrics within the rap genre should know all they can about how raps have been composed so far.

  That doesn\'t even begin to address the cultural issue. Some artists misidentify nerdcore as comedy music, and worse yet, think the joke is \"it\'s rap, but white kids are doing it.\" I think that outlook leads to the weakest possible songs, and is generally disrespectful of hip-hop in a way that concerns me and offends anyone who cares about American culture. Of course, not all of the nerdcore rappers are white, but all of the schticky ones are. I wonder if a delve into hip-hop\'s history would cure them of that impulse, or at least afford them the humility to hush it up.

Wordy: Are you involved in any philanthropy in your local communities or abroad?

  MC Front: I try to do something in support of Child\'s Play every year. I\'m going to contribute to the upcoming Worldbuilders album project.

Wordy: Can you freestyle? Meaning rap off the top of the head? If so, can we see you drop a few bars next time live?

  MC Front: I never do this! I think I\'ve conditioned myself into a certain kind of vanity. Almost everything on the albums is rapped in complete sentences, with rhymes that I\'ve never used previously. Freestyling doesn\'t work that way. I\'m too ashamed to let anyone see me freestyling about the frog, on a log, in a bog, who got sog-gy.

Wordy: Do you consider yourself a “GEEK”?

  MC Front: Of course.

Wordy: In your own words, describe what the word “GEEK” means to you?

MC Front: I decided at some point a long time ago that geeks are all direct descendants of the side-show geek, whose job was biting heads off of chickens. They weren\'t special in any way, except that they were willing and able to do that thing, and it was a fairly extreme thing to do. But because nobody else at the carnival was willing to go to that extreme, the geekery came to seem like a highly specialized skill.

  That\'s why you can be a geek about anything. You just need a topic where your knowledge or expertise is so specialized that it seems distastefully extreme to non-geeks. You can geek out about fantasy novels or about robot AIs. But you can also geek out about car engines or cooking. You don\'t have to be a nerd to geek out.

  Nerds are almost always geeks, and their subjects of geekery are often recognizably nerdy. But a nerd is something else, a person who was already too weird or too smart, and felt alienated, and embraced geekery as an alternative to whatever broader pursuits the cool kids enjoyed.

  Wordy: What is your earliest geek memory?

  MC Front: I was a Star Wars geek starting at age three and a half when the first one came out. It was the only thing I wanted to do. I made adults take me to see it 11 times before Empire came out (I kept careful count). I collected the Kenner figures obsessively until they stopped making new ones a year or two after Jedi.

  Wordy: What is your \"Geek\" hobby? Do you collect comic books? Anime? Video games?

  MC Front: I do still love comics, but I own too many. Video games take up less space. I spend more time gaming than I do working on music, occasionally 70 or 80 hours in a week. It\'s as much an emotional self-medication as it is a hobby.

Wordy: Who are your Top 5 emcees dead or alive?

  MC Front: In no order: Busdriver, MF Doom, Del, Q-Tip, Chuck D

Wordy: When is your next show or tour?

  MC Front: When I get the dang old album done! Maybe spring 2017 for tour. PAX South is the soonest lone show.

Wordy: Do you have a new album coming out?

  MC Front: It\'s called INTERNET SUCKS, and it is going to have a heavy \'get off my lawn\' vibe. Everyone will be mad at me, yet secretly agree with every word on the record. Watch for it to take your feeds by storm.

  http://frontalot.com

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