Fall 2012 - This fall's been a feast of awesome mastering projects. A few highlights: The Cotton Floppy EP for Boston's Occurrence, featuring found vocal sounds from yard sale cassettes; a new record of Irish tunes for Chris Byrne's (Black 47) new band The Lost Tribe of Donegal; the debut album of Turkish metal band Gökböri; and another brilliant album of piano improvisations from the inimitable Boyd Lee Dunlop. Oh yeah, and then I had a baby. Welcome Margot Rosemary, born October 23!

One thing I love about our new Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker: when the rice is done, it plays a chimey little song that sounds just like the Beastie Boys' Girls. It also makes fantastic rice.

I've had a string of excellent subway music encounters that warrant sharing: A melancholy, yearning, embellished cover of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive played on the marimba at the 7th Ave F stop in Brooklyn.

Not the theme to Laura, but something very close, very Hollywood, played on an erhu at the downtown Prince Street R stop in Manhattan.

A middle aged guy in a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and loafers, enthusiastically and unabashedly playing air guitar AND air drums, including kick, to whatever was on his iPod, somewhere on the uptown N train.