Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend has arrived. Today is the first day of a three day weekend.

I had to take one of the cats to the Vet. She was just getting a vaccine booster shot, that’s all. The appointment was at 11:00. I was at the Vet’s office for almost two hours. Two. Hours. 

Now that I have started writing this literary tome I have come to realize that I have nothing to write about.

I played guitar today. Just for a little while. I played poorly. Very poorly. I was mad but being mad playing guitar is better than most other things in life.

I wife and step daughter played a trivia game tonight. They mopped the floor with me. It was fun despite my terrible performance. My step daughter is going to stay at her dad’s for the next week. The week after that she moves to California. As it works out, it means today is the last full day that we have her here before she moves away. The trivia game was part of that. So is movie night. 

It’s a good night.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 63/90

Day 63’s update was exactly the same as day 62. I added one new song. It is all MIDI at this point but all of the parts have been written including the melody and the lyrics. I just have to replace the MIDI guitar with real guitars and replace the MIDI electric piano with vocals and then improv some lead guitar and we’re set.

Spoiler alert, day 64 has been fun. It would have been more fun if I didn’t suck at guitar so badly. I’ll probably bitch and moan about that tomorrow. Or not. We’ll find out tomorrow.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 62/90

Day 62 (yesterday) was another day that felt pretty light on progress. Similar to day 61, I started a new song (number 52) and wrote the whole thing, lyrics and all. I didn’t record any real instruments yet. The whole thing is just MIDI “software instruments” (as GarageBand likes to call them), but everything is there just waiting for me to replace the fake guitars with real guitars and all of that fun stuff.

That’s all. I was hoping for more, but I am really just trying to set myself up for a big weekend. That’s the plan at least.

One More Day

This work week has been nuts. Certifiably nuts.

Fortunately there is a long weekend on the horizon. Labor Day sucks because it means that summer is over, but it’s still a three day weekend and those are glorious by definition.

We just have to get through one more work day. One long, painful work day.

This weekend’s plans include a vet appointment, a visit to the in-laws, and hopefully lots of music and maybe some sunrise photography.

Just hang in there, folks. We’re almost there. Three Day Weekend, here we come!

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 61/90

In yesterdays recap post I started thinking about redefining the 50 songs in 90 days challenge into a slightly different project. I’m thinking maybe 60 songs in 90 days? The most I’ve ever done in one of these things was 57 songs in 2024. I should at least try to top that.

My musical noodlings on day 61 started me down that path. I started the day with 50 songs in the project. 45 were complete, three were ready for vocal tracking, and two were waiting for lyrics and a melody. I wrote the lyrics and melody for one of those two songs and I should have worked on the second song as well. I did not though. Instead I added song number 51. It’s completely written with MIDI bass and drums finished, a MIDI guitar track that will act as a guide for when I record the actual guitars, the melody was recorded with a MIDI piano to act as a guide for when I record the vocals, and the lyrics are all written. Everything is done besides recording the real human stuff. One step beyond the 50 songs goal and one step closer to the new 60 song goal.

That’s all I managed yesterday. I hope to get more than that done tonight (day 62), but there is a new episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds out today and it might get in the way. We’ll see.

That Would Be Nice

Wanna know what would be nice?

Getting more than five hours of sleep a night. That would be sweet.

Wanna know what else would be nice? If the traffic during the morning rush didn’t go from bad to epically awful the minute the calendar switches to September. That would be great. I wasn’t late to work today but it was close.

Wanna know what else would be nice? Going on a week long trip to California. That would be awesome. I think I’ll do exactly that. Maybe the week after next. Sounds like a plan to this red head.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 60/90

Welcome to September. Day 60. We are 2/3 of the way through the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. In the home stretch, sort of. In the endgame, kind of.

45 songs finished, five still in progress. I looked back through my playlists on alonetone.com and I have finished this challenge four times. In 2014 I had exactly 50 songs. In 2020 I had 52. In 2021 I had 53. In 2024 I had a whopping 57.

I guess its time to redefine this year’s goal. First and foremost I want to finish the five remaining songs and hit 50. That’s the primary goal, of course. Beyond that… the RPM Challenge rules define an album as 10 songs… can I do a September album in a month? 10 songs started and finished within the month of September on top of the 45 + 5 I already have for 50/90… is 60 songs in 90 days possible?

Yes.

Will I actually do it?

I don’t know.

As for day number 60 itself, I wrote a melody and lyrics for two songs. That’s it. Of the five remaining songs, three have lyrics and are ready for vocal tracking. The other two are still waiting on lyrics and the recordings only consist of the rhythm section.

I’m hoping to record the vocals for all five of these puppies over the weekend. I guess I should also start coming up with some more riffs if I want to make 60 songs a thing.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 59/90

Day 59 was the last day of August. After this there is only one month to go.

After the humongous amount of progress over the weekend I had told myself that I was taking Monday off. Then I didn’t. I am definitely a little brain fried, musically speaking, so I wasn’t able to get much done but I did work on one song. I added lyrics and a melody to one of the five remaining songs. That was it. I tried to pick off another song but I just couldn’t get my tiny little brain to function properly and I called it a day.

One month to go and only five songs left before I hit the goal. 50 songs in 90 days and I have 45 songs done and five more partially done and I still have a whole month to go. Cool.