In a good book with many chapters there are twists and turns in the story line and sometimes unexpected or likely endings – but always at some point the story concludes. The characters in the plot acquire friends, families, community relationships, jobs, possessions, reputations and ultimately a legacy that’s left behind. This past week our family experienced the latter pages of a closing chapter. It was with satisfaction and yet some sadness that the book was again briefly reviewed, some pages appended with final notes, some marked for additional perusal at a later time, and still others just left tucked inside on the shelf of memory.

As I look around my life – whether it’s to see the many, many signatures on the signed walls of the studio, reflect on current and past people who have made countless recordings here, see stacks of old equipment that need a new home or removal, or hand off a piece of gear to a much younger generation who with excitement put it to a new use, I’m being more reminded that we’re all penning our individual transcription. The pages are being written, the pictures drawn, the captions affixed. As Scripture admonishes us to do, may we each finish well so the story read by others today and tomorrow has a place of proper esteem on the mantel of their lives.

With the hot summer days winding down it’s still kind of hard to reckon with another year moving well past the midway mark. It’s been of course a very trying year in a lot of aspects and that has affected even recording sessions. One of the most unusual aspects is the need for masks and sanitizing all the common surfaces. So this brings us to a second round of recording a Christmas compilation with Tom Tomoser. Each family member is involved either singing, videoing or overseeing/arranging the music. It began this year with a keyboard recording (and that’s a lot of surface to clean) and then adding sax parts and flute. Vocals will round out this collection of a dozen mostly traditional Christmas tunes – but presented in fresh ways. It won’t be long before we’re wishing all a “Merry Christmas”.

Here we are at the end of July with the season of summer well on its way. We continue to live in a very confused and unusual world, and yet many things continue as they always have. Flowers still bloom, family and friends still stay connected through whatever means they can, and along with other weekly production work is the ongoing attention we’re giving to The Phantom of the Opera. This original musical being produced by One For All Musical Theater is still slated for next spring and we’re busy at work on more of the elements for that show. Much of the time is being spent creating the sound effects that will be heard during the performance. When I can’t find exactly what is needed in my multiple libraries, I resort to the old-fashioned “foley” method and record my own. So it was that we needed some light chain/beads/metal clanking for the final element in the monumental effect of the opera house chandelier crashing to the floor. So a gathering of various necklaces from my wife’s collection were brought into the studio and clinked, clanked and drug across various surfaces to get those sounds. I had to explain to my wife where the rest of her adornments were for a moment, but they’re all back in place and the recorded sounds are as well. There can even be heard the scraunching and squealing of a dry wall lift recorded about 19 years ago in Cleveland when my friend Jon was building his studio. Much more to be done.