The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2002

Week 18: Turned Around

5-19-2002

I went home on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Tim, Leslie, and I headed off to AMC Mercado to watch STAR WARS! We got there before 10:00 (for an 11:45 showing) and I was expecting there to be a big line for seating. It turned out that seating had already started! So I had Tim and Leslie go inside and save some seats while I waited outside for Ben. He arrived a little after 10:00, and we went inside the theatre with some fairly good seats and waited for what was the longest hour and forty-five minutes of my life. Finally, the lights dimmed, and the screen expanded itself to its full 2.35 to 1 aspect ratio. There was a good trailer for Minority Report and a bunch of other crappy trailers for lame-looking movies. I was angered that they didn’t show the Matrix sequel trailers.

Anyway, the movie was awesome, but I have to see it again to catch all the things, it was so full of information. At the Yoda fight I was so excited I could hardly watch or breathe. WOW!!!

On Saturday I had worship practice with Ben, who was filling in for Shirley this week. Then at night we had a massive recording session; I thought we were going to record live but we were actually doing individual track layers. It took a really long time just to set down the drums, and then the keyboard tracks, since we had nothing to reference against. After that it was a little easier, but still time consuming because each performer had to listen to the track at least once, and then record, and the track was five and a half minutes. The song we were doing, “Glory Come Down,” was pretty much finished a little after 11:00 (we started at 6:00). That was all for one song. Lots of work, that one.

Sunday was cool, thought I still felt kind of crappy (I got pretty sick the day before); worship went well, there was a Mongolia meeting, and I kind of hung around at home feeling queasy until Dad drove me to Leon’s house and from there Jean drove us to Berkeley. I’m tired and still feeling ill, so I’m going to bed now.

5-20-2002

I forgot to mention that last Wednesday we had our second PSP meeting of this semester (third, if you count the one during spring break that I didn’t go to). We stayed out on the lawn of Westminister House on one of Huaiming’s blanket things. Leon, Elliot, and Mariann were also there. We were there so long that I got sunburned.

I woke up early today (probably because I went to bed early last night) and went to eat breakfast. Then I goofed around for a long time until eating lunch with Leon. Then I goofed around some more, but still got a little bit of studying done; mostly reading over the film list and trying to memorize the directors and release dates from them. At 7:30 I went down to the DC and arrived about two minutes after they closed and they were just putting things away but they let me in anyway, WITHOUT swiping me! A free meal! I got the rice and shrimp sauce stuff just as they were putting it away, but of course, the salad bar was already cleaned up, as well as the fruits, and everything else... but the cereal was still there! And some weird cream pie thing! So I ate that stuff.

I watched Ghost World. Ahh, what a good movie.

5-21-2002

I woke up this morning pretty early to meet with the landlord of that apartment with Leon. I don’t think I gave a very good impression because I looked sick and a little grody, but at least we got the paperwork done and everything.

Again, I spent a lot of the day goofing around and reading over more film musical facts for the final. Tomorrow I will start going over the readings so I can better understand the BS when it turns up on the exam.

I saw Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back today. Boy, ever since I downloaded Kazaa the other day (I’ve decided the spyware is worth it) I’ve been able to download tons of stuff. After all, this is the last week that I’ll have this great connection. I’ve also downloaded a screener bootleg of AOTC as well as the first three Star Wars movies (widescreen!).

Tomorrow I will most likely go to Jonny’s house to record, and not be able to write. Not that there’s anything interesting happening these days anyway. Oh, I was going to watch The Matrix today with Meti (since she came to our room a couple of weeks ago with Bernadette and Vanessa and I tried to keep them entertained while Danny ignored them, directing all his attention to the game of Black & White he was playing; she said she would come back some other time and expect to be fully entertained), but we didn’t because she had to write some sort of thing, and it was late anyway. I’ll have to find some time to watch it.

Oh there was a fire alarm today. Again.

5-24-2002

I went to Jonny’s house on Wednesday to record a bunch of stuff for the CD. I did a TON of keyboard tracks for “The Heart of Worship” until I finally did one that was on beat. It is hard to keep with the metronome and all the other instruments (although for that song, the keyboards and drums were the only ones). I also did the vocal track and a backup vocal track for it. We also did a lot of vocal recordings for other songs, with Tiffany, Vicki, and Tony. Leedah did “Undignified,” which sounded pretty good. In addition, I did MANY “History Maker” keyboard tracks with lots of cool stuff in it but always slightly out of sync at one time or another. I stayed at Jonny’s house. I forgot my contacts at school so I couldn’t see anything the next day.

On Thursday morning I re-recorded the “Heart of Worship” vocals and added a third echo vocal track. Most of the day was spent trying unsuccessfully to record a decent acoustic guitar track for “History Maker;” Cindy, Leedah, and Andrew all gave it a go but it was too long and tiring and it got sloppy after a while, it all clashed with the keyboard, bass, and drums. Nothing worked. Tim came later and did some electric guitar for “History Maker” and “Undignified.” Tiffany and Tony also came again to do some more vocals. I was supposed to go back to Berkeley that night but on the way Leedah said (he was driving me to the BART) “You might as well eat at Jonny’s house and save some money.” So I reluctantly agreed, but he drove to HIS OWN house and got some stuff or something, I don’t know. Then we were driving back to Jonny’s house when I remembered that I wanted to get a subwoofer. So he TURNED AROUND, went back to his house, got the sub, and we left again. I said just to take me to the BART but he went back to Jonny’s house. It was already dark by then so I just decided to stay at his house again.

Grant came later, at the end of the day, late at night; only Tim was there now. We decided to toss all the old “History Maker” tracks and start all over. In only two takes, Tim finally recorded a great acoustic guitar track for it, setting a base reference for the rest of the instruments. Instead of doing piano, Grant suggested that I only do the little “da-da-da” that goes on during the verse with a strings synth or something. So I went through the song using only the “warm strings” synth. Grant added a really cool electric, and it all sound great together. Then I added a piano part without any fancy stuff; in fact, most of the time I didn’t even play. The only thing I added was the cool stuff from my previous tries: the COOL syncopation thing in between verses, the “Phantom of the Opera” bass line, and the Parasite Eve type thing at the end. It was all so RAD.

This morning I just recorded a backup vocal for “History Maker,” then Jonny took me to the BART. I came back to school and “studied” for this Film 108 final.

The studying was totally useless because there was no multiple choice section as she had stated in the review sheet; the facts that I was supposed to memorize for the multiple choice section were not needed. The ENTIRE exam was interpretive bullshitting, and studying didn’t help that one bit. I didn’t have enough time to do a high quality job, but at least I finished everything, sort of. AND I got my paper back, and it was an A/A-! I couldn’t believe it. Oh yeah, I met Danny (the Fremont one) when I was buying a blue book for the final.

It is Suzy’s birthday on Monday so at night we went out to celebrate it. We went to this place called “I House” (whatever the herr that is) and everybody basically got herra drunk... except me of course. I was CONTROLLED, man. I took a bunch of pictures and got to see lots of people do strange things. It was actually pretty fun. I should probably get ready to go to bed so I can get up tomorrow.