Month: February 2017

Finished with 90 Minutes to Spare — #RPM2017

My 2017 RPM Challenge album is finished and submitted. Done, done, and done.

I mixed nine songs tonight and they all sound like cow dung, which is to be expected. Of the 14 songs completed (yeah, I won FAWM too) I dropped two. One was kind of annoying (and I think I forgot to include the lead guitar in the mix… oh well). The other wasn’t a bad song, it just sounded kinda blah and crummy. I could probably do it again and pull it off, but for now it gets the axe.

All in all it’s not a good album, even by RPM’s reduced standards. It’s kinda crappy. I don’t care. I finished on time for the sixth year in a row, once again staving off failure.

Now it’s bed time. G’night, everyone!

#RPM2017 Day 28/28 — PANIC

This morning, I posted the following on my blog over at the RPM Challenge website:

Let’s take stock of the situation…

14 songs.

All of the tracking is done as of about 8:30 last night. I cranked out seven songs worth of lead guitars at a frenzied pace that pretty much guarantees I played the same solo on every song. Who cares, it’s done.

Five songs are mixed. Poorly. I want to have a mix of every song so that I can have my RPM album and a decent recording for fawm.org for anything that gets cut. Unfortunately I don’t think there will be time to listen back to everything and actually edit the sequence. I know one song is probably going to get dropped from the album, but will I decide to drop others? I should, but I don’t know if I will. The running order is probably going to be the order I finish the mixes. Just like the old days.

I get out of work at 5:30 tonight, if I am lucky. My commute home is a little more than an hour. I will end up having from about 7:00pm to midnight to finish mixing between five and nine songs.

I’ll probably work right up until midnight and then check myself off as done at the last possible minute. After that, just make sure I get a decent burial and all will be well.

Thanks, RPM folks!

Five Down, Nine to Go #RPM2017

I finished the tracking tonight with a marathon lead guitar recording session. Now I have one day to mix everything that is still unmixed. That’s a grand total of nine songs, after I managed to mix two tonight.

This one might be my favorite of the bunch this year, although I literally fell asleep while mixing it (long, long day) so who knows if it sounds okay.

And Then There Were Three… #RPM2017

The lyrics to this song were partly inspired by the following tweet:

#RPM2017 — Proof I Haven’t Bailed

Just to prove to everyone who is(isn’t) reading these stupid RPM Challenge posts that I haven’t given up on the project (the way I told the RPM website I was), here is the first mixed song.

It sounds like dog shit in every measurable way.

RPM Challenge — Day 25/28 #RPM2017

On Thursday I resigned myself to the fact that for the first time since 2011 I was not going to complete the RPM Challenge. Two days later, not only am I sure to have something to turn in for RPM, I will have 14 songs for FAWM as well.

I cut a lot of corners. The biggest one being that I don’t care if all the lyrics read the same. They are almost all written about the same thing. At best it hits the same topic from a few different angles, and at worst I probably re-used entire lines. I don’t care at all. I just want this thing done.

The second corner I cut was no harmony vocals and no doubling. Just one vocal track per song. I was kind of considering that as an option even before February started. I have felt like I keep doing the same thing over and over. Doubled vocals and two part harmonies everywhere. The decision not to do that was definitely made in an attempt to save oodles of time and energy, but it could have been more than that.

I haven’t started mixing anything yet, though I do have a few songs that are ready. I expect the mixes will be quick and dirty just like the vocals, but that is sort of fitting for this year’s pile of crap. Some of the songs are almost decent, but I am doing a really shitty job of putting it all together. I’m wondering if the troubles I’ve had are the universe’s way of telling me that this is my last RPM. Could be.

Press Pass

I am thinking of declaring this blog as a legitimate news service. Once done I will submit for access to the White House press conferences. I won’t be mainstream media, so in theory they will look favorably upon my request and grant me access.

After a few stories from me those fascist pieces of shit will learn what a negative bias is. CNN and the New York Times will look like Trump’s best buddies when I get through with them.

The Trump Fascist Regime thinks the courts are wrong when they do their Constitutional job in checking the Executive Branch. Yeah, okay. The Trump Fascist Regime thinks that the free press is wrong when they exercise our Constitutional right to a free press. Still though, his supporters drop to their knees, give the fascist salute, and open wide over everything he does and says. Read the Constitution. Go on. I dare you.

Now all we need is for the Legislature to actually do their Constitutional job and act as a check on the Executive branch, but we all know those fascist collaborators are on their knees with the rest of the them.

Long Weekend

After two straight foot-plus snow falls we limped into the three day President’s Day weekend. I’d wish you a happy President’s day, but the current president is a fascist and I’d rather not wish anything related to him upon anyone.

My goals for the weekend were simple. Clean the bedroom, do all the laundry, and work on RPM. Simple enough, right? I thought so too, until I walked down cellar to put that first load of laundry into the dryer and my basement was underwater. Yeah, thanks washing machine. I had to run a second load in order to figure out where the problem was. It’s not the washer or any of the hoses. It’s the pipe the outflow hose drains into. There’s a clog in there somewhere and it backed up something fierce. Calls to the plumber have been made.

So my wet vac and I rekindled our old friendship and I carried about a thousand gallons of water (give or take a few) out the cellar bulkhead. Granted, I had to shovel out the cellar bulkhead first, which just added insult to injury. My back is not thanking me at all. Clearly I wasn’t going to finish the bedroom on Saturday, and I was just too sore from all the liftin’ on Sunday. I’m working on it today, a little at a time.

I took all of our remaining laundry to a laundromat with a wash/dry/fold service. It’s way too expensive, but it makes my life a little easier today. I also get to help out a small local business, which is nice once in a while.

I did some RPM work, but not enough. I still don’t have any lyrics and I only have eight days. There are 14 songs and all the rhythm guitars are done. Vocals next… I just have to write the parts. I’m not giving up though, just in case you were wondering. Onward and upward.

I am a little disappointed in myself. Politically, I should be doing more. There was a rally in Boston yesterday demonstrating against anti-science. Now that on the surface just sounds friggin’ ridiculous… as if science, the search for truth, could ever be attacked. Well, when you live in a fascist state you have to do some weird, crazy shit. Rallying in support of science is one of them

I didn’t go. I could have. I should have. Actually, I couldn’t have. I had too many other things going on. That’s not the point. I feel like I need to do more. I need to say more. I need to speak louder and more confidently to a larger audience. I rant on twitter a bit. I get some responses from both sides, but it’s pretty impotent when you come to think of it. I don’t rant enough on Facebook. I should do more there. My wife is amazing. She lets Facebook have it with both barrels. No holding back at all on her part. I wish I had the stones to do that. She’s been my hero since the day we met and this is just another example.

I don’t know. I feel like I have to get my voice into the growing crowd of people who are fed up with the fascist bullshit. He’s only been in office one month and already the country is spiraling out of control. The President declared the media an enemy of the people? Does he know that the press is protected by the constitution? He rails against the courts. Does he know that the constitution created the courts specifically as a check against the president and the legislature? Does he even realize that the constitution exists? If he does, does he care?

I need to do more. I want to do more. I don’t know if I am physically capable of doing more, but I want to. Maybe come March I’ll start keeping a closer eye on the goings on in Boston and maybe try and add my tiny voice to the growing chorus. I have to do something. If we want this fascist nightmare to end, we all have to do something.

One month down, 47 to go.