2026 50/90 Challenge Day 20/90

20 days down, 70 to go. It feels like it should be a big deal, but this year it really isn’t. Maybe I am ahead of my usual pace, but this time around I am not feeling day 20 stress. Weird.

I put rhythm guitars on song number 18. That was the only song that was ready for a guitar part. Everything else in the pipeline already had the rhythm guitars. I could have done more, but there was nothing left to do.

Other than that, I mixed two songs. I’m up to 12 songs finished now. I mixed this one and this one. Neither of them are terribly good (just like everything else I’ve ever written in my entire life) but they exist now and that’s the important part of this little game.

The state of the project after 20 days is:

12 songs finished.
Two songs have lyrics written and are ready for me to record vocals
Four songs have the rhythm section finished and are ready for me to write lyrics

Pain

I have a toothache. The pain is all consuming.

This sucks.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 19/90

I have songs ready to mix but I didn’t mix anything yesterday. Why not? What’s wrong with me?

Nothing.

Instead I put rhythm guitars onto two songs, wrote lyrics and melodies for two other songs, and programmed the bass and drums for a new song. I’m up to 18 now.

So I didn’t mix anything, but I still did okay for a work day. I’ll take it.

Dinner Scene

Six days until the Rush show. Six long days. It feels like an eternity.

Tonight I was sitting in the living room working on the 50 songs in 90 days thing. My wife and my step daughter were out running errands. When they came home my wife asked if we could watch the dinner scene from the Rush Beyond the Lighted Stage documentary.

My wife and my step daughter are going to the Rush show too. They are starting to get psyched too. We are all getting psyched. It’s only six days. So close, yet so far.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 18/90

Day 18’s progress was exactly the same as day 17. I started a new song and got it far enough along that it is ready for rhythm guitars. It is the 17th song started and it is another in a lifelong series of attempt to write something in 3/4 time that is worthy of head banging. It’s probably going to suck, but I’ll have fun with it while it lasts.

Other than that, I mixed a song. Of the 17 songs in the pipeline, 10 are now finished with a reasonably not-terrible mix of a demo. If my math is correct, 10 songs complete out of a the goal of 50 puts me at 20% done with this year’s project. Given that 90 days is approximately three months, I need to be at about 33.3% complete by the end of July. How many songs is that? Doing the math again, 50/3=16.67. Round up you get to 17. Huh. If about one third of the project is 17 songs… how many songs did I say I had in progress? Heh heh.

Quiet Day

It has been a quiet Tuesday, apart from the huge thunderstorm that rolled through this afternoon and almost drown the entire state. There was some minor flooding on route 128 during my drive home. Just the odd lane that had a couple of inches of standing water. Just enough to make you think you were going to hydroplane your way right off the road.

Other than that, work was okay. The Red Sox 14 game winning streak is safe for the day as they were rained out. Bummer. I worked on some music for the 50 songs in 90 Days Challenge.

Mostly I am just starting to get psyched up for next week. I took the week off. Partly so we could go see Rush in New York, but that is only a couple of days. The rest of the time is just because my company has a max on the amount of Personal Time Off you can carry and I was just about to hit that max. Use it or lose it, you know? I’ve already worked my two days in the office so the last three days before my time off will all be working from home. I like the sound of that.

So for the most part, today has just been a kinda nothing day in a good way. Here’s hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 17/90

Day 17 was a Monday where I had to work in the office. There wasn’t a lot of time for anything other than work, but I got a few things done.

First, while sitting in the car in the parking lot before starting the work day, I came up with a couple of bass guitar riffs on my iPhone. I labeled them song number 16 and then went inside to start my day.

After I got home I was sitting in the living room watching the tube with my wife and my step daughter and I just casually slipped on a pair of headphones and mixed another song. That brings me up to nine songs complete. For the record, I define “complete” as a fully arranged demo with a not-too-terrible mix.

After that I spent a little time messing with the riffs I started that morning. I came up with a song structure and usable bass and drum tracks using software instruments in GarageBand. Nothing special, but it’s ready to add some guitars now.

The current state of the project has nine songs finished, three songs ready to mix, three songs have rhythm guitars and need lyrics and vocals, and one that is ready for rhythm guitars. Doing the math… yes, that’s 16 songs.

Eight Days Away

Eight days. Just eight more days to go.

Eight days from now I will see Rush. I have seen them 25 times dating back to December of 1987. It has been 11 years since my last show. 11 years since Neil Peart first retired, effectively ending the band, and then passed away, seemingly definitely ending the band. I said at that time that I wanted them to stay finished. No Neil, no Rush.

Then last year Geddy and Alex let it be known that they were getting together on their own and jamming. Then they let it be known that they had started jamming on Rush tunes. Then they let it be known that they had started jamming with a drummer, Anika Nilles, and then they announced a tour.

I surprised myself by going from no Neil, no Rush to OH MY GOD I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THEM AGAIN in the amount of time it took me to read through the tour announcement. They didn’t announce any shows in Boston, but they did announce four in New York and we were able to snag some tickets. Of course they did eventually announce Boston dates but we will be in California those days. There are still two shows in Connecticut though. They are sold out and the resale prices are absurd. We’ll see how they look in October though.

Oh, and there is a rumor of a residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas. If that happens… we might have to be there for it. Just one show, that’s all.

Vegas and Connecticut are questions for future me. Current me just has to make it through the next eight days without spontaneously combusting with glee. You might be able to tell from reading through this blog, but music is really important to me and since 1981 (when I was all of 10 years old) no music has been as important to me as Rush. To my musical soul they have always been the beginning and end of it all. It is going to be different without Neil Peart, but it is still going to be amazing. I just have to get through eight more days.

Cannot.

Wait.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 16/90

I got a nice chunk of work done, but it was a lot less than I wanted to do. Chalk it up to laziness, I guess.

I mixed one song. That brings the finished song count up to eight. Hey, eight out of 50 is 16%… I am 16% done on day 16. What does that mean? Nothing. It means nothing.

I wanted to mix another song or two but instead I started working on new ideas. I ended up with two new songs. I worked out the structures, finished the MIDI instruments (bass and drums) and added the rhythm guitars. That brings the total count up to 15.

That’s all. I mean, two new songs with the guitar tracks done is a pretty good haul for a Sunday in July. I should be pleased, but I also feel like I should have mixed another song or two at least.

Oh well. Let’s just move on.

The Charles

Two weeks ago I took a bag full of cameras to Boston to shoot some film for the Frugal Film Project. I got half way though things and had to leave to go home for something. It was the day after the 4th of July and I wanted to walk along the Charles River by the Esplanade.

Today I went back. I also stopped at Acorn Street and wandered around Arlington and Berkeley Streets near where I used to go to school. I shot a roll of Kentmere 100 in my Lubitel for the Frugal Film thing. I also had most of a roll in my Nikon N90. I loaded it at Sail Boston last week and only shot a few pics before it was too dark for film. Finally, I had a roll in my dad’s Pentax K1000 that I loaded in… April? May? I don’t remember. I finished all three rolls.

When I got home I took those three rolls and three other rolls that I finished over the last two weeks and sent them off to get developed.

While I was in town I also shot a bunch of stuff with my Digital camera. My Nikon Z5. Here come some highlights.