Rocafuerte in the studio... and many more books.

On Tuesday, January 20th, the band entered a studio in the foothills of Harlem, near Washington Heights to record two songs for their debut EP. The recording environment, located in City College and manned by seniors majoring in audio engineering, was a high-tech and excellent quality studio. We recorded drums from a recital hall on the ground floor while watching from a spy camera-like interface in the recording hub. The mixing system was intricate and the band recorded using Pro Tools for Mac. From the hours of (roughly) 6PM to 4AM, we toiled away and successfully laid all the tracks for both songs, "Terminara" and "Vuelo Letal." I'm very proud of the work we've done so far and can't wait for these songs to be mixed and mastered! This will be the first big near-professional job we've done and we ensured that it would be of the best quality. Below, I've got some pictures and videos of the recording in progress for your enjoyment!

Studio Session 1/20

In other news, Metallica is playing at Nassau Coliseum tomorrow! I'm so amped about this, as this will be the third time I've seen them live. The new music is great (imo) and I can't wait to hear it in person. The Guitar Hero: Metallica game will be out two months to the date after that, with an amazing set list. This makes me very happy and I can't wait to break my wrists (lol) when the game releases.

On Saturday, I will be moving to a new residence. I hate moving. All the heavy lifting and transporting back and forth is just a big pain to me. Alas, it must be done, and I hope that one day soon I will find a permanent residence (i.e. house or condo or something) so that I won't ever have to move again!

More on the games front, I've been occupied with playing Prince of Persia, the recent release for Xbox 360. I'm really enjoying the game, perhaps because I've never played the Sands of Time trilogy much. I think I put about 3 hours into the original Sands of Time, but never played Warrior Within or Two Thrones. The acrobatics are fun and haven't gotten stale after about 4-5 hours of play. The dialogue is witty; the prince is extremely sarcastic and even cynical at times, which makes his conversations with Elika (his ally) humorous and entertaining. The graphics are wonderful; it's cel-shaded, but the high resolution (I'm playing on 1080p) makes things look Disney-esque. It's a joy on the eyes.

Next month is "Bad Ass Brawlers" month! I will be playing six games (and hopefully finishing them!) in this short month that feature pugilists, ninja and swordsmen of the most high. Ryu Hayabusa will be featured in both his Ninja Gaiden games for Xbox 360. Kratos will have a stab at his fellows in God of War II for PS2, while Gene knocks foes into the sky in God Hand. Sieg Wahrheit battles "hideous monsters" in Chaos Legion. Joe returns to cel-shaded, quirky action in the sequel to the previously completed Viewtiful Joe. Details to come soon!

And the new year rolls on

Happy new year, reader(s)! Yes, I'm lazy. Yes, I'm busy. No, I still don't have any videos to post. Eventually, I will. Maybe I'll grab videos from my grandfather who has recorded me play (terribly, in my opinion) at church over the holidays just to sate your appetites. In any case, videos will come one way or another...

Oh, the New York Jets. It looks like the season ended right about in the middle. No 1-15 record, no 15-1 record, but a rather impressive 9-7 record (compared to last year). Maybe the Madden curse took it's toll this year on Brett Favre. He is indeed injured, but not like previous Madden cover artists - he and his torn biceps tendon roughed it out for the entire 17 weeks, really showing some terrible play in the last 5 games, 4 of which were big "L's." Yeah, they should have benched him. I guess that's why Señor Head Coach Mangini got the big "F" right after week 17's loss against the (now Division leader) Dolphins. Who led that team to the playoffs? None other than "Ol' Chaddy Boy" Pennington, the ex-Jet QB who was a part of a 4-12 record last year and who brought the Dolphins from 1-15 in '07 to 10-6 this year. Que será, será.

2009 will hopefully be the year Roca Fuerte comes out of the dark recesses of the studio and rises to the top of the world. I'm working hard along with the other talented members of this group to make this music sound better than anything we've worked on before! We should be recording our EP within one to two month's time and once that is done, I'll have some more content on the blog. Solo takes, anyone? :) Wish us the best!

2009 will also be the year I make some big dents in my gaming backlog. In '08 I finished a grand total of 11 games, starting in July. I finished one game so far since the new year; I had actually been 1 hour or so away from its full completion since about 2004... how shameful! I am going to set up a gadget on the sidebar to show a tally just for kicks. See it? Love it!

So now I'm off to start my new year of music, gaming and makin' that cheddar. I just wanna give a couple of shout-outs before I go, though. All my love goes out to God for making everything possible and blessing us with our talents. Big ups to my fiance E'vy, my mom and dad, local family (grandparents/aunts/uncles), my best friend Sonzer and his wife and twins, the band, MrCHUP0N and NYCShogun. Finally, I wanna give a big shout out to Barack Obama, our new President starting January 20th. I believe that we're all headed for a world of positive change in the coming years.

Until next we meet!