Today is day seven so I need to write up yesterday’s progress. Day six. Unfortunately the days are sort of running together. What the hell did I do yesterday?
When I got up yesterday morning I had a riff buzzing in my head. It was in an awkward sort of time. I think it was trying to be in 10/8. I picked up my iPhone and played it into GarageBand for iOS in 4/4 with an absurdly fast tempo. The program doesn’t give you the ability to work in wacky time signatures so that was the best I could do. There wasn’t much to it, but let’s call it song number eight.
About an hour or so later there was this:
I put rhythm guitars on the simple little thing I had come up with the night before, song number seven, and onto song number two. That’s all I had time for. I had a meeting at 9:00am and it was getting a little late. Not too late though, I finished my morning routine and logged in to work on time.
Later still, while sitting up in bed shortly before falling asleep for the night, I added some new things to the song I started when I woke up. I tried changing the time signature to 10/8 but that made the GarageBand drummer go super weird and I couldn’t follow what it was doing. I kept losing “the one”… if you’re a musician you know what that means. I switched it back to 4/4 with the tempo set to double time and then set the drummer function to play in half time. It all came out in the end.
When that was done and I was just about ready to fall asleep… I wrote a melody and lyrics for song number one. The first lyrics of the project. I’m hoping to get a couple more done tonight so that I can record some vocals early tomorrow morning. We’ll have to see about that though.
And that is what I accomplished on day six. I fear things are going to be light today and day seven’s update will be uneventful. I’ll let you know tomorrow.
Scroll back a few days and read about how day two was a bust and I only managed to noodle a couple of bass lines. Yesterday was day five and it was better than that, but only just.
I had a super busy work day that included time commuting to and from the office. There wasn’t really time for any music. Just before I went to sleep I managed to sneak in a little work sitting up in bed with my laptop and my little USB piano keyboard thingie.
Let’s call it song number seven. It is overly simple but it’s in 7/8 time so by definition it is cool. You may also call it groovy if you want, but groovy often implies dance-ability and 7/8 makes even the best dancers trip over their own feet (hey, where did that last eighth note go?). It has the bass and drums and the song form all finished and a guide for when I get around to recording the real guitar tracks (spoiler alert, I did that this morning).
So as of bed time last night we are up to seven songs in the production pipeline. No lyrics yet. I need to get cracking on those so I can track some vocals this weekend.
Ever since our honeymoon in 2009 I have told anyone who would listen (whether they want to or not) that if I ever was forced to leave greater Boston my first choice for a new home would be San Diego, CA.
I have been to San Diego three times. On our honeymoon in 2009, once in 2011, and then again in 2012. I have not been back since. I keep trying to find an excuse to return but it just hasn’t happened.
Until this coming fall.
We’re not going for vacation. It’s going to be a working trip. I am not going to say what we’ll be working on yet but come September I am going to be in my second favorite city. We haven’t booked flights yet but that’s okay.
Day four was a busy day for real life stuff but I managed to sneak in two music breaks. First, before work, I put rhythm guitars onto two songs. One of which was the nightmare song that’s in 5/8 time. What the hell was I thinking? Later, shortly before bed, I started song idea number six on my MacBook. The song form is done and the MID Bass and Drums are done. That’s all. Weirdly, it is in 4/4 time. GarageBand for iOS only gives 4/4, 3/4, and 6/8 as options where the Mac version lets you use pretty much any time signature. Often when I work on the Mac I’ll try to use something that doesn’t work on the iPhone or iPad simply because I can. Not this time. This time it was plain old boring 4/4.
That’s all for day four. Right now there are six songs in progress. Three have rhythm guitars. One of those has a melody. Everything else just has bass and drums. That is the state of the challenge as of falling asleep last night.
I feel like I owe the universe a detailed post discussing all of the things I did today. Things like picking my step daughter up at the train station after she traveled home from Baltimore.
Instead, I will share a clue as to something that took up a little less than 1/24th of my calendar day:
When I was working on music yesterday, during the brief window of time when I was free to do so, I thought I ended up with a much more impressive amount of progress. Looking back on it now… meh. It was okay, given how busy I was otherwise, and it was WAY better than day two, but over all? Meh.
I took the two bass riffs that made up my entire haul from day two and added a few new bits and worked out the full song form. I then added two new songs. Both had a full song form and MIDI bass and drums along with a MIDI guitar to act as a guide for when I record the real guitars. Song four also has a melody track played on a MIDI electric piano. I didn’t have a chance to add any lyrics. Also, just to note, song number five is in 7/8 time (which is proggy and cool) but song number four is in 5/8 time which is just nuts. I originally had an idea that was in 7/8 but I fucked it up on my first pass at recording the bass line and my screw up worked in 5/8 and I just ran with it. It’s going to be an absolute nightmare to record the guitars and vocals… but watch me turn 5/8 into a theme this year.
Three days in and I am up to five songs in the production pipeline.
Day two was basically a bust. Home owner plumbing emergencies will do that to a guy. I started one idea, song number three, but it was just a couple of short bass riffs on my iPhone. That’s all.
Spoiler alert, day three will be a little bit better. Not much, but a little bit.
I am typing this post on a MacBook Pro using a Windows keyboard which means the keyboard shortcut for copy and paste is different than I am used to, which means that I am going to screw things up left and right. Enjoy.
The Frugal Film Project Lives. My second attempt at shooting a roll of (relatively) inexpensive film through a camera I spent less than $50 on each month for a year. I tried it last year and failed after four months. This year I am trying it again. I started in May. This post covers June. July’s edition is 50% shot but nothing has been developed yet. It’s only July 6th, give me a break, okay?
As stated in the May edition of the blog posts, I am trying to do this twice this year. One attempt is shooting Kodak Gold 200 through my Lomo Lubitell 166 Universal. The other is the same camera shooting Kentmere 100.
First, we’ll look at the Kodak Gold images. There should be 12 but because I suck at life there are 11. The camera needs to be manually wound. There is a little red window on the back that lets you see the back of the film as you wind it. You’re supposed to wind it until you see the number 1 in the little window and then stop. That spot will be your first photo. Makes sense, right? Numbnutz over here wound too far and had to start on number 2. Idiot.
So here come the 11 shots. First we have a sunrise at Hampton Beach in Hampton Beach, NH. I took these on June 14, 2026.
Seagulls
Here Comes the Sun
Fishin’
I suck at photography, part 1
After a short drive to the North…
I want to say I like the lens flare but… maybe not
Okay, we’re done with Hampton Beach. Now we move on to the Newburyport Harborwalk Rail Trail in Newburyport, MA.
I had a feeling the sun was going to be too much for this really slow camera and sure enough…
That’s a little better
I feel like I am learning a lesson here
Boats Boats Boats
The bad photography continues
With that, our color experience comes to an end. There should be 12 photos but I am an idiot and there are only 11. Project 2A is complete. Now we move on to project 2B and everything is in black and white. These pics are also from the Harborwalk Rail Trail and they also have problems with too much sun… because I suck.
Water, right?
I mean, at least I wasn’t looking directly at the sun, right?
I suck at photography, part 2
Do I actually like this one? If so, why?
How do you spell buoy?
A bridge too far, or something
I suck at photography, part 3
Yup, I suck at photography, part 4
That’s a little better
Chairs. I feel like I could have composed this better
What was I thinking?
Fun with Flags
There we have it. Frugal Film Project 2B has been shared. Next time I will avoid shooting into the sun when it’s high and overpowering like this. Oh well.
I said the July edition of the project is half done. I shot the roll of Kodak Gold yesterday (July 5th) in Boston. I was planning on shooting the Kentmere roll too but I got pulled away. I will have to go out and shoot one more time this month in order to stay on track. I mean, I can’t have a project go bust faster than last year, right?
Also, in closing… I feel like a putz for missing a shot on the first roll. I’ll share one more pic. This was taken one week later, July 21st, on Harman Phoenix II, which I have officially moved to the “never buy this film again” list. I just don’t like it. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of it in my film stash. Crap. This one is the Concord River in Lowell, MA. It sucks, but at least it brings this masterpiece of a blog post up to 24 photos.
Bonus
PS: As I was posting these pics I was blowing them up pretty huge on my big gigantic monitor. These are medium format photos and even though they really suck ass, after viewing them… I get it. The medium format thing. I get it. The resolution is just… I don’t know. It’s something though. I get it.
I tried to make today a photography fun day. Early in the morning at least. I went to Boston thinking I could shoot a couple of rolls of film on Beacon Hill and along the Charles River by the Esplanade where they had the 4th of July spectacular yesterday.
I got through one roll of 120 and one roll of 35mm and was starting to think of what to load up next when I got called home. I guess that means I have to go back soon, right?
When I got home it was time to start cleaning out the closet where the plumber needs to work tomorrow. We also went to IKEA and another furniture store. Tomorrow, after the plumber leaves (assuming he fixes the problem) I will be putting together a Swedish dresser.
We also picked up an order of a couple of rolls of bread from a bakery that Jen’s high school friend is running out of his house with his husband. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve had some of their baked goods before oh my goodness…
I think I am going to have a piece of bread now and then I am going to go to sleep because I am freakin’ exhausted.
You know it is summer when that red haired doofus in Massachusetts starts talking about writing 50 songs in 90 days. Day one was yesterday, July 4th. How did I do?
I started work on two songs. The first one started ridiculously early in the morning and it started with guitar, while most songs (including song number two) start with MIDI bass and drums. So two songs with the complete song form and bass and drums and one of the two has the rhythm guitars. That’s it.
