Balancing Work and Play

So today i spent about 12 hours mixing (and taking phone calls and various other distractions), but i also spent several hours tonight having a social life. I've been trying hard to do that. This week was difficult. I'm way behind on my workload, not because i'm a slacker, but because i just have too much work. i know. Poor me. Believe me I'm not complaining. I seem to perpetually have too much work, but usually i find a way to stay on top of it. I'm struggling right now and working my staff to death at the same time. Those guys are troopers though, and they've been pulling some long hours with me helping me stay on course. Cooper spent the day pitch correcting vocals and prepping a couple songs for me to mix. Brent went into the city in the 98 Degrees heat to pick me up another song in the Nick of time to mix, (subtle hints dropped there) which he then spent the day prepping. The song is amazing and it features the London Symphony Orchestra. I LOVE recording orchestral sections, i love mixing them too. For Mariah Carey i recorded 22 Strings, for David Byrne it was a double string Quartet (8 strings) with english horn and 2 oboe's. Lenny Kravitz was a quartet but sounded like a full section (listen on my main page). Biggest section I've ever recorded was 56 pieces. WHAT A RUSH!!!!! ok ok ok, see, I get so wrapped up in my work sometimes that i can't shut up about it.
I went to see Tim Burton's "Willy Wonka" tonight. That guy is a genius. The story wasn't the greatest, and it was a bit disturbing, as all Tim Burton stuff is. but visually it was classic Tim Burton art, along with all of the odd quirks you'd expect. Go see it. or not. I came back to the studio afterwards and mixed for several hours and now I'm blogging, with a glass of wine next to me. I hated wine when i was a youngster, now i love it (i'm 35 now by the way). I think in a moment i'm going to go home and fire up TIVO and watch some CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) which has been my favorite show for a while. I like CSI Miami and CSI New York, but the regular CSI is my running favorite, and TIVO is wonderful for people like me who cant begin to predict their schedule, and who'd rather spend time mixing than sitting thru commercials. Anyway, i hope TIVO caught me a good episode to end the night with. Its very nice to pretend i have a balance between work and play. I mean doesnt everyone work 80 and 90 hour weeks? OK, time to go pretend some more. Lets see what crimes Grissom will solve tonight.
-Ken