Spring Snow

I was up before dawn today. I went down cellar to do my morning exercise and have breakfast and just generally get the ball rolling after having a crappy nights sleep last night.

As I was wrapping things up and getting ready to go back upstairs to start the work day, I happened to catch a glimpse through the little cellar window that is near my desk. The view looked weird… odd, even. Why? Everything was white. Wait a second, I thought… is it… snowing?

Yes. Yes it was snowing. Snow. It is March 23rd, three days into the Spring and it was snowing in the Merrimack Valley of Eastern Massachusetts.

Bite me, mother nature. Kiss my fat ass.

There wasn’t a lot of snow. There was enough to cover the ground, but it wasn’t deep enough to bury the grass… if that makes sense. It was just a dusting, but it was a sticky dusting. By the time we got to my lunch break it had all melted away, even though the temperature is only in the mid-30’s. It’s cold but still above the freezing point.

That’s not the point though. The point is that it is Spring and we can still get snow. Just because the calendar says winter is over, it does not mean that winter is actually over. I expect we’ll get another storm or two before it all ends for real, and I expect one of those mythical storms to be fairly significant. I am basing this prediction on nothing beyond experience from previous winter/spring transitions, but I betcha I’m right. I hope I am wrong, but I am pretty sure I won’t be.

Winter sucks. Here is a photograph of a cat, Robin, making a rude gesture to artistically depict where my thinking lies on this the 23rd day of March in the year 2026. Bite me.

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Messing With This Site

I am going to be messing around with this site a bit. There are going to be a bunch of password protected posts that are no one’s business but my own. I am also (hopefully) going to stop sending emails with new posts… for a while… I think… I hope. Just until I finish messing around with stuff.

This is just me being the last American Blogging Nerd. You’ve been warned.

Musical Epic Urges

I have this weird musical urge right now and I don’t think I will be able to stop myself from trying to make it happen.

I have this urge to write a song that runs for at least 20 minutes.

  • Introduction is slow and quiet. Maybe just a cleanish electric guitar soloing over an electric piano. The intro needs to be long… very long.
  • Next we have basically a 4-5 minute uptempo, noisy rock song. Preferably in an odd time signature with shouty vocals in the chorus.
  • Another instrumental break. Change key and time signature and tempo and jam for a while. Maybe have a guitar and a sax trade off.
  • Another stand alone kind of song section. Slower, quieter, less shouty.
  • Come up with a riff. Something long and drawn out. Maybe a full eight bars without repeating anything. Start quiet and slowly but steadily get louder, just repeating the same phrase. Get louder and heavier and more intense. I’m thinking something like Whaling Song by Procol Harem. Something that just builds on itself over a long stretch of time.
  • Return to the second section. Different key maybe. Not a full repeat, but bring back the same changes and phrases in a new arrangement. Sort of like a coda section.
  • Return to the introduction but not nearly as long.

What do we think, universe? Do I suddenly have a new musical project to sink my untalented musical teeth into?

Will it run for 20 minutes?

We’ll see.

2026 RPM Challenge Day 28/28

Done. Finished. Complete. Success. 15 years in a row, babie. Every year since 2012 has seen me successfully complete the RPM Challenge (and the FAWM too).

The album is called The Great American Road trip because it was mixed during the great american road trip. Duh. The official home is my alonetone page, right here. The unofficial home is on my hearthis.at page which only exists because it plays nicely with wordpress.com.

I ended up with 16 songs and dropped six of them from the final project. My overall reaction to this year’s batch of new songs is… meh. I don’t care. That’s not the point of this thing. They didn’t exist and now they do and that is a good thing, even if the songs themselves are not good things. Dig it?

2026 RPM Challenge Day 27/28

We are home from our week long epic road trip. I was expecting to get home tomorrow but we made it back a little early.

I mixed one song today. I’m not sharing it because it is terrible and I should have left it unfinished. That leaves me with one song left to mix, then I have to pick the running order and make some cover art and then I’m done.

I would do more tonight but I am utterly exhausted and I want to flake a little before I fall asleep.

I’ll wrap all of this stuff up tomorrow.