New Songs

After I finished recording guitars this morning I was left with four songs that were ready to mix down and mark as finished. I have mixed two of them.

Oddly, the two songs, which were kicked off within just a few days of each other are creepily similar. The tempos are different and one has a bunch of key changes that sort of mask some of the similarities but they are close. Particularly the outros. Those are nearly identical.

But you know, it’s an internet based song writing challenge and they don’t ask how they only ask how many so… yeah. I never claimed to be original. I also never claimed to be any good at this shit. I just do it because I enjoy it.

Here’s one. This is actually the second song that was written but the first of the two that was finished.

And here’s the other. Again, the tempos are different and the vibe is different but the riffs are oh so very similar.

Challenge Completed

Well, today is the big day. On September 1st of last year I kicked off my fifth consecutive photo a day for a year project. With today being the last day of August that means that taking some random pointless photo today will wrap up the current instance of the challenge. Success, again!

But what should the subject be? I’ve already posted pictures of one of my guitars today. Should that be the official project-completing snap? Naw.

I went out to run errands today and took one pic. Should that be the winner?

Naw, that’s not the one. What about cats? Most of this years photos have been of cats. How about this one I took of Robin?

That could be a good choice, especially since she slept through it the way she sleeps through almost everything. No…. I can do better, I think.

Yeah… that’s the winner. Miss Lily. Photo number 366 of 365. The winner. Success, yet again.

The sixth consecutive photo a day project will likely start tomorrow. I can see how excited you all are. Especially the cats… they are both asleep again.

Guitars

I have once again run out of songs to add guitar tracks to. This morning I put both rhythm and lead guitars onto one song, and lead guitars onto three other songs. That’s it. I have three songs ready for vocals. I need to get those done, and then after that I just have to write eight more songs from scratch. I have 35 songs finished, four ready to mix, and three ready for vocals. I am so far ahead of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge minimum pace this year that it is crazy. Just crazy.

Here are guitar pictures. I decided to change guitars today. I think the next time I play I might change up the pedal board a little bit too. We’ll see.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 58/90

Why do I feel like the count of days in the title of this post is wrong? I don’t think it is, but I think it is, you know?

I have already written about everything I did yesterday but I’ll do it again in summary because that’s somehow been part of the workflow this year and I’d feel like I was missing something if I didn’t.

I put vocals on four songs. That’s all. Given that I haven’t been getting much time for car music during the work week I have to say I am really pleased with this occurrence.

That was yesterday. Today, day 59, will hopefully include a blitz of guitar tracking and mixing as it’s the last day of August. Best of luck to all of my fellow participants.

Planning

We went over some plans for the funeral service. We also wrote out an obituary. For the service it feels like there are more things to do than we have people to do them. It’s frustrating. As always, I want to make everyone happy and I just can’t.

There was some talk of my father’s will tonight. that weirded me out in a major way. I’m sure there will be more to come, but it’s something I never wanted to think about and now that it has begun, I want it even less.

Miss Robin tried to make me feel better. She’s fluffy and cute so that’s something she’s good at.

As for tomorrow? No idea. I want to spend time with my wife. I want to spend time with music. I want to go grocery shopping. I want to jump into the car with Jen and run away and not come back for days. So… the usual Saturday thinking.

Flowers

Ordering funeral flowers

Sad.

Friday Ramblings

Is ramblings the right word? Should I have called this masterpiece of literary genius “Friday Mumblings” instead? We may never know.

Has anyone else found that they have become chemically depended on GPS apps while driving anywhere? We have a meeting scheduled for 4:00 today at the funeral home to start going over the arrangements. I know where this place is. I grew up less than a mile from it (Google maps tells me it is 0.8 miles from the house I grew up in) and I could probably find it with my eyes closed in the middle of a blizzard. Why then did I just email the address to myself so that I can plug it into a GPS app on my phone when I head over there in about 80 minutes? Why can’t I just… ya know… go? Why do I need a bunch of satellites in orbit of the Earth to tell me when the next turn is coming up? What did I do to my brain?

A year and a half ago, when my mother passed away, we had a similar meeting with the funeral director booked and we all went into it without the faintest clue of what we were in store for. Now? Today? We know exactly what’s coming and somehow that makes this whole experience more depressing. It’s a little less stressful and a lot less intimidating, but it is so much more depressing. Of all the things to be pro’s at… yeah, this shouldn’t be one of them.

Complete and total change of subject… When the forth and final season of The Umbrella Academy came out a couple of weeks ago I jumped right into it. It was only six episodes (the previous three seasons were all 10 each) and as I was watching the fifth episode I declared to myself (and no one else because why would anyone else care) that when I finished the finale I was going to immediately go back and watch the whole series from start to finish.

I did exactly that, and I finished it yesterday. Just in time for new seasons of Rings of Power and Only Murders in the Building to launch. I watched the first episode of each show (there are two more Rings of Power episodes available and I’ll get to them shortly). While I was waiting for Rings of Power to come back I started reading The Silmarillion and woah babie, is that puppy a slog. I’m on chapter 19 and so far the entire book has been 100% exposition. It’s like a textbook only less interesting. I know at some point it’s going to tie into the Lord of the Rings at least a little bit, but good heavens is it tough to get through. Maybe had Tolkien lived to finish it himself it might have been more readable… then again, maybe not. Yikes.

I’ll tell you what though, Rings of Power is making me want to grab the third Lord of the Rings book and read the appendixes. I’m sure I’ve made it through them at least once before, but maybe I should pay closer attention. It’s tough to read through a couple of hundred (or however long the appendix is) pages of a book that come after the book ended, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

What else should I write about before my lunch break ends and I get back to work for an hour before leaving early to go to the funeral home? I don’t know. Retail therapy… that might be a thing. All of the sadness and stress of the last few weeks. It’s possible that some new camera gear, or a new guitar, or a trip to Manhattan or the mountains might be the only things that can straighten me out. Just a thought, you know? The punchline to this joke is that I am not joking. I’m being serious. Oh well… it will be okay. We’ll get through this together. My father would not have wanted any of us to be all sad. He’d want us to focus on the good rather than stress over the bad. Although having said that, he was an Olympic level, world class worrier himself so… yeah. I love you, dad.

Photo a Day (not) Complete (Yet)

Today is day 365 of this year’s Photo a Day Challenge! I’m finished now, right?

Nope.

2024 is a leap year. One more day to go. Today’s photo will be labeled 365/365. Tomorrow’s will be labeled 366/365. It makes sense to me, but then again… I am a little warped, mentally speaking.

Huh… wordpress.com seems to have changed the way Flickr links embed in the editor and it’s not giving me the space to put a caption. That’s not any fun.

Anyway, I took this while driving home from a partially successful pre-work car music. I put vocals on four songs. I had seven songs ready to go, but I only got to four. At least it means I have some songs that are ready for guitar parts now. I’ll get to ’em. I promise.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 57/90

What did I do? I can’t remember. Let me think…

First I added lyrics and melody to one song. Next I started a brand new song and finished the form and the MIDI (ie fake) bass and drums. Then I did something unusual as far as my assembly line is concerned. I wrote the melody and the lyrics for this new song. I usually wait on that until the rhythm guitars are done, but what the hell, right? Later that night I put a MIDI (ie fake) guitar track down to use as a guide. Then I mixed the one song I had left that was ready to mix. That brings the finished song count up to 35. The 50 songs in 90 days challenge is now 70% complete and there is still a month and two days left to go.