Andrew's Place of Employment, Magic and Fun!

On Saturday morning after our big Dbacks night we left town for Los Angeles. You see, we had decided just a couple of days before that we were going to meet our kids there. Amy and Andrew already live there (well, in the San Fernando Valley) and Kevin had just a week or two before he was going to leave Omaha, Nebraska and move to Meridian, Mississippi for his first job since leaving the Air Force. And because it had been over a year since we'd seen him, we talked him into flying to L.A. to spend the weekend with us. He also agreed to take us all to Disneyland as a sort of late birthday/Christmas present. (Isn't that sweet of him?). More on that in another post.

Anyway, Terry and I drove about 6 hours from Phoenix straight to LAX to pick up Kevin from the airport. Unfortunately, Terry missed an exit for I-10, which is so easy to do in L.A. so we ended up taking surface streets through part of the city. It was fine. We still got to Kevin within just a few minutes of when he landed. If you've never been to L.A. you can see by this photo of the freeway at midday Saturday, that it's a bit intimidating, especially for a newcomer.

Did you know that they have massive billboards on the sides of buildings for TV shows there? I don't think I've noticed that anywhere else in the country (or am I just missing it?).

After picking Kevin up we found out that Andrew had gone into work and would be able to give us a tour of the recording/mixing studio that he works at. Now I'm not allowed to say the name of the studio or the name of his boss in this post and you're not allowed to guess who it is online. Because if you guess it correctly then I'd have to kill you. If you want to know the next time I see you or via email, I can do that. Just not online. It's kept very hush hush.

I will tell you that we drove to a very nondescript smallish light industrial type building in a very average looking part of the San Fernando Valley and that's where Andrew's workplace is. (Hope that doesn't give anything away.)

Once we started touring the place, to our surprise, the building was actually quite roomy and very eclectic inside. It still had kind of an 80's feel with the wood paneling and dark colors, but also had some fun surprises and so much to look at and enjoy.

This yellow lucite chair was one of the first things I noticed.

Then we rounded a corner and I saw this huge aqua banquette. I took the picture just so Linda could see it's magnificence.

The restroom that I visited was filled with Rolling Stones paraphernalia and this amazing mirrored dresser. I saw some similar pieces this weekend at Pier 1 Imports. I love that look!

It was really like a mini museum with all sorts of autographed memorabilia from the bands that had come thru the doors to work on their records, as well as dozens of other items that Andrew's boss had probably just picked up here or there. Do you remember the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghost Busters?

The walls were filled with framed albums, cds, awards and more tokens of appreciation and accomplishments for the work that had been done there.

The actual working rooms were pretty impressive too, even for someone like me who has no idea what any of it is. Look at these control boards below. They were probably 10 feet across! Wow! What does someone do with all those buttons and knobs.

The coolest thing is that Andrew is working with the team of this well known engineer and learning the ins and outs of the record business...and he LOVES it! From what I hear, his team is extremely happy with his work as well. Go Andrew! His name is even on the latest Green Day album. Did I say too much? You can see him here working his magic.

Oh, by the way, those boring looking amplifiers in the picture at the bottom... Those are Marshall stacks! From what I remember, those are pretty awesome for an electric guitar player. Just thought I'd impress you with my musical knowledge. Ha Ha! I have a feeling they may be a little outdated, but I'm not sure.

And here's our daughter (his wife) Amy, looking all proud of her husband for the awesome job that he has. We're proud of him too!

Thanks for the tour, Andrew! We loved it!