Before we get to the main story, how about a couple of photos?
First, our house was painted! Doesn’t it look all clean and freshly painted? The doors getting a coat of white paint was… a surprise.
Second, there are wild fires in Canada that are spewing smoke into the atmosphere that are blocking out the sun and turning the sky in Massachusetts into a weird, hazy, orange/yellow kinda thing. It is making our sky look like a Mad Max movie.
Okay, now that that is out of the way I can tell you the story of how dumb I was yesterday.
I have two pairs of glasses. One is a set of progressive lenses. The top half of each lens is for distance and the bottom half is for up close and reading. I wear those glasses most of the time, especially when driving.
The second pair of glasses splits the difference between the two halves of the progressive lenses. They are middle distance glasses. They are perfect for sitting at a computer and working. I wear those glasses while I am working.
When I work in the office I take both pairs of glasses with me. I wear the main specs while driving in, then swap them for the computer glasses, then at the end of the day I swap back to drive home. I put the progressives into a case and put the case in my desk.
Sometimes, rarely, I forget to swap back at the end of the day and I leave my desk with my computer glasses on. Once I made it as far as the car before I realized my error and felt pretty dumb going back to the fourth floor to return to my desk.
Can you see where this is going?
Yesterday I made it all the way home before I realized I had the wrong glasses on. I have no idea how I managed to drive with the middle distance glasses on. I think the traffic was really bad so I never had to look further than the car in front of me and that car was close enough that it wasn’t blurry. I guess?
I felt like a total moron. I drove for an hour and 10 minutes without noticing. What a schmuck! I didn’t want to risk it a second time so I had to dig out my old pair of progressives, which I replaced a couple of years ago. They got the job done, but still… what an idiot.
I did not make the same mistake when I left work today. I am wearing the correct glasses. Moron.
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.
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:
I am probably going to get my two songs finished for the month of June. File it under the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge. Yesterday I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish a song or two, but I had a decent day music wise and now I am in good shape.
Last night before bed I wrote lyrics and melodies for the two songs that got guitar tracks earlier in the day (see the previous post). This morning I cut my exercise short and used the time to record vocals. Both songs were cranked out quickly and poorly. Tonight after dinner I was able to sneak back into the cellar and record lead guitars for both songs. I did so on a guitar with old and dead strings and with a left hand that is 100% free from calluses because I don’t play enough these days.
Oh my goodness, do my finger tips hurt right now. Oh the pain. Oh the horrible icky pain. Ouch-town, population: Me, bro.
I’ll mix the two songs tomorrow night after work. Probably while sitting up in bed wishing I was asleep. You know how it is.
Enjoy tonight’s crappy photos that are basically the same as the crappy photos on last night’s post except I am wearing a work-appropriate collared shirt today where I was wearing an awesome Rush Snakes and Arrows Live t-shirt yesterday.
I told myself I was going to write and record an album’s worth of music this month. 10 songs or 35 minutes. That was the plan.
I have failed, epically.
I started working on seven songs. As of this morning they were only midi bass and drums tracks with a midi guitar track acting as a guide for when I record the actual guitars.
It has been two weeks since I did anything musical at all. Yeah, the 10 song plan isn’t happening and the seven songs are going to mostly fail as well. Last month I wrote and recorded two songs. That’s my new goal. Call it a single. One song for the A-side and another for the B-side.
I put rhythm guitars onto two of the songs today. That’s good. I’m still probably going to fail though because now I have to write lyrics and a melody for both songs, then I have to record the vocals, then I have to record the lead guitars, then I have to mix the two songs and I only have two days left in the month. Most of my recording time takes place in the morning before work, and one of the two remaining days is not only a work in the office day, but its a work in the Foxborough office day and Foxborough is super far away from home so I won’t have any before work time.
So before I sleep tonight I have to write the lyrics and the melodies, and then tomorrow before work I have to record the vocals. Then probably after work I will have to record the leads. Then I can mix after work tomorrow.
Before any of that happens though, I have to have a watch-a-movie-on-the-living-room-couch with my beautiful wife. We’re watching Project Hail Mary again. Know that it is a great movie that is made better by a series of t-shirts with science jokes on them. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. Then once you’ve seen it you should write a song or two.
Triumph’s 50th anniversary tour, the Rock and Roll Machine Reloaded. My first Triumph show in almost 40 years.
It was pretty cool. I must admit. Rik Emmett used to have the highest voice in the universe. He most definitely does not have the highest voice in the universe anymore. He’s 72 years old, that is expected.
Back when I was in high school and playing in a cover band, two of the four band members were Triumph fans so naturally we wanted to play one of their songs. Emmett’s voice was so ridiculously high that no mere male mortal could ever pull them off. Fortunately, Triumph had two lead singers. Gil Moore, the drummer, sang lead on about half of the songs. None of the hits, mind you, but there was plenty to choose from. If we couldn’t sing the high voice songs, we could pull off the low voice songs, right?
Gil Moore’s voice was drastically deeper than Rik Emmett’s. That is a scientific fact. Unfortunately, there was some weird psycho-acoustic kind of thing going on where when you listened to the two of them singing side by side, Moore sounded like a normal range voice. However, when you removed Emmett’s voice from the equation you realized that Moore’s voice was also ridiculously high and very few mere male mortals could hit his high notes. He sounded normal in comparison but the truth was we couldn’t sing his songs either.
Now? 40 years later? Mr Moore’s voice is no longer ridiculously high. Suffice to say when either of the original band members were singing, the songs were played in lower keys and the melodies were adjusted so that the highest high notes were avoided. That’s just biology. It happens to all of us.
My issue was with the songs they didn’t sing. I was worried that with three new members on stage it was going to feel a little like a tribute band. For most of the show it did not, though watching Rik Emmett sit back and play rhythm guitar while Phil X absolutely shredded through a solo that was originally Rik’s… well that felt weird. Especially because it seems that Emmett’s guitar playing, unlike his voice, is every bit as good as it was 40 years ago. The dude was on fire all night. He just played nicely and let Phil X shine as well (not to imply that Rik’s singing wasn’t excellent, it was. It was just different, that’s all).
When Phil X or Todd Kerns took a lead vocal though… that felt wrong. I would have an instant where my brain would think to itself, this isn’t what I signed up for, then I would get over myself and just enjoy the song. Both of them were excellent, even though they both often had to break into falsetto to hit the high notes. I’m trying to think if either of them sang an Emmett song… I’m not sure. They both song Moore songs. Huh… maybe they’ll release a live record down the road somewhere and I’ll be able to revisit it.
So there were tribute band-esque moments. Absolutely. On the whole though, it was a really fun show. No explosions on stage like the old days, but lots of cool visuals and lots of lights.
The set list was pretty expansive too. When I saw them in 1986 that was my one complaint. There were no surprises other than not hitting the Never Surrender album at all, and leaving off a few songs that I thought would have been staples. That was not the case this time. I think every record except the crappy Surveillance album that was made after things came unglued and the 90’s attempt at a comeback, Edge of Excess, was represented. Let’s see…
Spoiler alert if you have tickets to one of the 2–3 remaining shows and don’t want to know what’s coming. Stop reading now. Otherwise…
They played Blinding Light show and one other thing from the first album. They played the Joe Walsh cover and the title song from Rock and Roll Machine. They played both of the hits from Just a Game, Lay it on the Line and Hold On. Must to my surprise, they played I Live for the Weekend, one of the two strong cuts from their not-so-good Progressions of Power record. They played the two obligatory songs from Allied Forces, Magic Power and Fight the Good Fight, as well as the title song. They played When the Lights go Down and Never Surrender from the Never Surrender album, two songs I sorely missed back in ’86. They played the two hits from Thunder Seven, Spellbound and Follow Your Heart. Side note, the video for Follow Your Heart was shot at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI and I’m pretty sure my future drummer, Bob from Break Even, was there. They played their biggest hit single, Somebody’s Out There from The Sport of Kings. Ironically it was the second song in the set and it was the second song in the set back in 1986. Silly, but I noticed. I’m sure I missed a song or two, but that’s most of what they played. Just don’t ask me to list them in order.
All that’s left of note is the photos. I took my little point and shoot camera. The one Jen got me for xmas. I took it out during the opening band’s set to see how it would work and it crashed on me. It just died. I was zooming in and the lens just stopped moving and then the LCD screen when black and that was it. I kept trying to reboot but nothing I did had any effect. The camera was dead, Jim. I took a few pics with my iPhone and they came out fine. Strangely, as the show was ending I tried one more time to reboot the point and shoot and it worked. I guess 30th time was the charm? I haven’t tried to use it today to see if it will work. I’m too scared. Oh well. Here are a few iPhone pics.
Of course I took most of the pics while Rik was playing a double neck. Is that a Dave Grohl signature that Phil is playing? I think so.
Gil and Rik. The double neck only came out for Blinding Light Show
Sparks
Gil and Rik
The whole back wall was one giant video screen
And there you have it, folks. My second Triumph concert and my first in almost 40 years. It was a really fun show. All that was missing was Mike Levine and my Uncle Johnny.
It is 3:30pm and it is already the longest day in the history of the universe.
I went to sleep at about 10:30pm last night. Later than I would have liked, but earlier than most days over the past month or so. I woke up at about 2:15am needing to go to the bathroom. I’m old. It happens. Deal with it. When I was done I fell right back to sleep.
Then at 3:51am my phone rang. It was work. The overnight staff were dealing with a customer issue that was causing the customer a lot of stress. I knew what the issue was but I wasn’t sure how to find the process that was causing it. Fortunately the overnight guy I was on the phone with mentioned one little detail which set off a trigger in my teeny tiny little mostly still asleep brain and I knew where I had to go to set things right. By 4:15 I was off the call. I took a few minutes to write a message to all of my staff members who would be involved in the follow up during normal business hours and I went to bed. I didn’t sleep much before my alarm went off at 5:30am, but I did manage to snooze a little.
All of that was not fun. Not fun at all. It was a lot less catastrophic than it could have been, but it is never fun having work call in the middle of the night. I’m just glad I was able to help. Even though the situation was not fun, I felt pretty good about myself when it was over.
By 6:00 I was out of bed and starting the day. By 6:15 I was in the cellar starting my daily exercise. The ball was rolling. An hour later the fun part of the day was starting. Guitars, babie!
On Monday I wrote two new songs and started recording demos. Bass and drums were MIDI instruments, rhythm guitars were the real thing, the melody was sketched out on a keyboard and lyrics were written stream of consciousness style to fit the melody. Yesterday before work my laptop and I drove to an empty parking lot in town and I recorded the vocal tracks for both songs. Today before work I recorded the lead guitar parts. Normally the lead guitars are my favorite part of the song demo process but right now I am so out of playing shape that there are no calluses on my finger tips and playing for more than a few minutes hurts. The strings start to feel like razor blades, especially when you play like I do and you bend strings all over the place. Ouch.
Still, despite the pain, I was able to finish tracking both new songs. Now all I have to do is mix them so that they are somewhat listenable (relatively speaking, of course) and then they are done. A few years ago I was writing 10+ songs each month over the course of the whole year. Last year I did the RPM Challenge in February (write and record an album’s worth of music all within the month of February) and then nothing for the rest of the year. This year was starting to look the same. I finished RPM in February and then it wasn’t until Memorial Day weekend that I even thought about doing anything more. Now that I am feeling like I am back in the saddle again, or some horse shit like that (get it? Saddle? Horse shit? Oh, come on!) I am thinking about trying to write a bunch in June and then do the fifty ninety challenge over the summer (that challenge is to write 50 songs in 90 days between July 4th and October 1st). We’ll see if I can stick to that.
So on this fine Friday in May, in fact the last Friday in May, the day started off not fun, and then for a little blast of time it was fun, and then it was just the usual… right up until about an hour after lunch when the lack of sleep caught up with me and now I am completely out of gas with 93 minutes left in my work day.
Happy new camera day, everyone! I bought a Nikon N90 35mm film camera from eBay about a week ago and it was delivered today.
The last two cameras I bought from eBay were broken (a Nikon F-401 with a broken aperture dial and a little Nikon Coolpix S7000 point and shoot that every image comes out blurry) so I was nervous about this one. Would it work? Would it show up in pieces? Who could really say?
Fortunately it seems to be in good shape. It’s practically mint condition, which feels weird to me. It had batteries in it already, which made me a little nervous, and all of the functionality I know how to test seems to be working fine. When I change the aperture or the shutter speed the light meter display changes. When I set it to a slow shutter speed it takes a lot longer for the shutter to close than when I use a fast shutter speed. I can set the ISO and the metering. Most important, with the first of the two lenses I’ve tested, the autofocus works. That sound you hear is my huge sigh of relief.
I won’t truly know if the camera is okay until I shoot a roll of film and get it developed and scanned and see the results. For now though, so far so good. I put a roll of film in it and took a few pics in the back yard. One of these days I’ll take it out in town and finish off the roll. I might go for two test rolls. One with the 70–200mm f4–5.6 lens and one with the 50mm f1.8 lens. I already had an AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 and this new lens is the same name and the same specs but the physical lens itself is a little different. One is probably a minor update of the other. We’ll see how it works.
I have been wanting a camera like this for a while now, but it was the addition of the zoom lens that drew me in and made me pull the trigger. The lens is in really great shape. Like… how is it in this good of a shape? This kit is at least 30 years old. Was it stored in a safe or something?
I don’t know what the back story is. I just know that for now at least I am feeling good about all of this.
In our house, the cats are not allowed in the cellar. No. No kitties in the cellar, damn it!
Today, this little monster…
Lily… the gremlin… the queen of personality… she broke the law. Jen was coming up the cellar stairs and when she opened to door to come out, Lily darted past her and ran down the stairs.
That’s not the point of this post, I just wanted to share with the universe that Lily was a bad kitty today. Bad kitty!
Now for the actual topic I wanted to write a short (mercifully) post about tonight. The Boston Bruins are down in their first round playoff series. They trail the Buffalo Sabers three games to one. Tonight is game five.
Does the series, and by extension the season, come to an end tonight? It sure looks that way. I mean, I hope not but after the way they got the snot kicked out of them in game four it sure feels that way.
I have to say that I am still pretty pissed off at the entire NHL. Granted, only the players from team USA were involved, but the way they figuratively dropped to their knees and figuratively chugged down the nazi orange ass clown’s spooge (figuratively speaking)… it made me fucking sick and it made me kinda want to see the entire league lose. I hate feeling this way about my favorite game but what can I do? Fascists are evil and these fuckers lined up to be counted among them.
Damn it. Now Lily is asleep on the otoman… otaman… How the hell do you spell that anyway? Ottoman. There, that’s right. Thanks spell check. What was I saying? Oh yeah, Lily is asleep on the ottoman and she is so cute it’s ridiculous. I guess I can forgive her for going down cellar. I don’t know if I can forgive the NHL for being full of nazi ass wipes though.
Inside the Red Head's Head 