Category: Uncategorized

Ragnarök

The word on the street is that the Viking calendar predicts that the world will end this weekend.  What a bummer, eh?

My first thought is that they miscalculated. What the calendar really predicts is the epic battle between team Sweden and team Finland in the Olympic hockey tournament yesterday. Sure they were off by a day, but it was quite the (hockey) war.

My second thought is that I guess I ain’t finishing RPM after all. That’s disappointing, huh?

RPM Challenge – Day 22

We are going for a drive today in the hopes of getting desks and desk chairs for the kids.  When we woke up we had a very small window of time for anything other than getting ready to go.  I used that time wisely and recorded the leads for song #5.  It was far from perfect, but far from my usual terrible.  What was weird was that I nailed each part on the first take.  Woah!  I must be in the groove.  (that is sarcasm, the groove and I never see eye to eye, let alone meet up)

Even weirder is that I recorded a 16 bar guitar riff that will become song #15.  Now that is weird!  Here I am convinced I won’t have time to finish 14 songs and I go and start a 15th.  Somebody stop me!

RPM Challenge – Day 21

I sort of lost count. I did either two or three lead guitar parts this morning. I think it was two. This evening I mixed one of those songs. The first four bars have been in my head for ages, but I’ve never found them a home until now. The lyrics were sort of inspired by the @floridaman twitter account. I went there looking for ridiculous stories and instead found two reports of utterly senseless violence.

http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/overreaction.mp3%20

I hope to get some more guitar soloing in before we go to IKEA in the morning. We can discuss that later.

Olympic Hockey – USA vs Canada

I’ve had three heart attacks so far. There is no score in the first, but Canada is going onto the power play. We’re only nine minutes into the game and it’s already the most stress I’ve felt since the Cup Finals last year.

My step kids just started a spontaneous, USA USA USA chant.

RPM Challenge + Olympic Hockey = A Full Morning

So far this morning I have recorded the lead guitar parts for three songs. There is so much going on that I’ve taken to a Google Drive Doc to keep track of which song is at what stage. Here’s my summary:

Summary
Three finished.
Three ready to mix
Two need leads
Two have lyrics but no vocals
Four have no lyrics

1 – Small – Finished
2 – No lyrics
3 – Confidence – Finished
4 – Overreaction – Ready to mix
5 – UFO – No leads
6 – Bridget and John – No leads
7 – No lyrics
8 – No lyrics
9 – Lyrics, no vocals
10 – No lyrics
11 – Lyrics, no vocals
12 – Not in this Lifetime – Finished
13 – Not if I see You First – Read to mix
14 – Forced – Ready to mix

I should be able to finish the leads on all of the songs that have vocals today, and probably the two that don’t have final vocal takes as well. The plan now is to do more singing in the car, when I can. On Sunday I will have a chance while my step daughter is at winter softball practice. I will have a big parking lot to hide in. I hope to at least get the two that are written but not recorded finished by then. After that, the four remaining songs will need to be dealt with. I am still hell bent on finishing all 14, but I have them prioritized right now… all though song #14 is pretty awful.

While doing all of this this morning, as well as setting up my new (used) computer (more on that later) I have been watching the first of the two semifinal games in the men’s hockey tournament in Socchi. Sweden just beat Finland a few minutes ago. I was sort of rooting for Finland. Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was supposed to start today, but apparently he woke up with the flu. The final was 2-1. I don’t think Rask being out affected the outcome much at all. I was distracted through most of the game, but from what I saw it was a pretty good game. Sweden will play for the gold against the winner of this afternoon’s Canada vs USA game. Finland will play for the bronze against the loser.

I have already informed the kids that starting at noon the television is mine.

USA!
USA!
USA!

RPM Challenge – Day 20

I just recorded two songs worth of vocals…

While sitting in the front seat of my car, waiting to get the kids from karate class.

I think this is the theme of the remainder of the project.

Three songs complete, five songs with finished vocals, two songs with lyrics written but not recorded, four songs that still need lyrics.