Good Kitty

She’s a good kitty for sitting on the kitty shelf, but… Umm… Cat? Try looking out the window. The cool stuff is going on out there.

A Music Update to Bore You All

I know how popular these music project updates are, and I know you’re dying to know what I did yesterday. Here you go! A music project update!!

50/90, or fiftyninety as the twitter hash tags say, has seen 10 songs completely completed. There are six more on top of that. One is ready to mix. Three need vocals. Two need guitars and vocals. If you look at 50/90 in terms of monthly projects, you would need to have two months with 17 songs each, and one with 16. It’s only been two weeks and I’m already at the 16 mark.

Why did I push so hard out of the gate? Well, because it’s a whole ton of fun for musical nerds like me. Also, on top of that, is the little fact that there is going to be a week plus in July where I am going away. That starts as soon as I get off work tonight. I’ll have my iPad with me, so I can still make progress by creating bass riffs and drum grooves and what not, and I should probably have my old MacBook Pro too which means we might even see that one song that’s ready to mix get itself finished during the trip as well. Not likely though.

More likely is that I won’t do anything at all until we come home. Hopefully a little time off will recharge my creative batteries (hehe, as if I had creative batteries) and I’ll come home guns blazin’ and crank out ideas as fast as I did during the first weekend. Probably not, we’ll see. For all I know, I might lose interest entirely.

Like I said (like, two sentences ago), we’ll see.

Simple Reward

The sunset tonight is our reward for three straight days of ridiculous stormy weather.

10 Down, 40 to Go

There was a post on the 50/90 forum where one user questioned the artistic integrity of everyone else, saying that none of the songs he heard were pushing any artistic boundaries.

My response was, how do you know? Why do you think the pushing of boundaries is going to be audible for anyone? Take me for example. I’m actually letting people listen to my god awful singing voice. I’m writing lyrics! Every once in a while I actually try to express an opinion or, even worse, a feeling! Hell, I am a Gibson guy playing a Strat! Is there any bigger artistic wall to climb than that?

Not that I consider the garbage I write and record to be anything even resembling art. I’m not that self deluded. You get the idea though. I record all of this crap because it’s fun, but that doesn’t mean sharing it is easy. I mean, there is a reason I wait for the house to be empty before I record myself singing, you know?

Nine Down, 41 to Go

Tonight’s entry in the 50/90 post pile is a schmaltzy little sucker with lyrics inspired by the Red Sox cutting A.J. Pierzynsky.

Yup, I sure can come up with those groovy ideas, eh?

Friends

I had some friends waiting for me by my car when I left work.

10 Years

Today was my first day at work as a 10 year employee. No one noticed. Thankfully.

When I was in Junior High I started a part time, under the table job. I stayed in that job until I was in my mid-twenties. 13 years, if memory serves. That was the longest I ever stuck with anything. Through most of my younger adult life I had a short shelf life. A few years doing something and I lost the ability to continue. I had to go do something else. Staying in a job for 10 years now seems like a monumental achievement. I’m still waiting to hit the proverbial wall though.

Getting married changed the thought process a little. I can gladly, gleefully, commit the rest of my life to my wife, but that is easy. I love her so much that being with her comes naturally. It would be wrong to not be with her, which is the opposite of how I am going to feel professionally when the wall comes. I don’t know how to explain it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, work makes me feel old.

Eight Down, 42 to Go

The first idea I had for 50/90 turned out really heavy. So heavy that I haven’t really felt like coming up with a vocal and finishing it off. In reaction to Mr Heavy Song, the second idea I came up with was this goofy little funk fest.

Even a redhead like me wants to get funky now and then. All of the guitars here are the ES 335.

Yet Another App for Guitars

Back in February of 2012 I bought a thing called a Jam that let me plug my guitar, or microphone into my iPad. I’ve been using the hell out of it since April and in the last week it’s started acting kinda screwy. I found myself at the Apple store in Salem, NH yesterday so I bought a replacement.

It’s called a Sonic Port and it’s made by Line 6.

The package mentioned that it can be used with a Line 6 Pod app. Oh the memories! Prior to figuring out GarageBand I used a Line 6 Pod for all of my recordings. All of those failed RPMs that I did on my ADAT used the Pod. Even that 2012 RPM I did on the iPad used it (only because I hadn’t taken the time to check into the amplifier simulations built into GarageBand). Most importantly, the Pod app interfaces with GarageBand the way the Amplitube apps do.

I hooked in and checked it out tonight. The 50/90 song currently known as Song #14 was written and recorded on it.

I’m a little cheesed to see that it lacks an overdrive pedal. What’s the deal with that? Anyway, earlier this morning I noodled together Song #13 using the midi guitar sound built into GarageBand. When I recorded the real guitars tonight I figured I’d stay on the guitar app theme so I used the Amplitube Fender app. Just for schnitzengiggles.