My crappy RPM CD is in the mail.  I went over to the post office in Framingham at lunch today and sent it off.  I’m not sure what comes next.  There was a forum post on the RPM site saying that we’ll also have to mail mp3s somewhere.  Not sure why, but it’s fine with me.  I think there is also supposed to be a way to mark myself as finished on my profile.  I’ll figure it out.  The package has a 2/27 postmark.  It’s on the road with two days to spare. 

So now we can turn our attention to other things.  Want to know what I did last night?  I read a book!  Can you believe it?

The NHL trade deadline is today at 3:00pm Eastern time.  No hints at what the Bruins may or may not be doing, but they could seriously use a forward or two.  One goal scorer and one defensive specialist would do.  That would make up for Horton and Peverley.  Their next game is Tuesday against Ottawa.  Hopefully there will be some positive developments in the roster within the next 70 minutes that will help open a little distance between us and Ottawa in the standings.  Hopefully.  (Rick Nash??)

The Red Sox announced this weekend that they are banning beer on certain occasions.  I think that is the funniest thing ever.  They are telling a bunch of spoiled brat jock millionaires that they can’t have beer.

Yeah, right.

RPM is over (for me)… now it’s back to all of the other things that interest me.

The RPM CD I burned last night/this morning is in an addressed envelope, all sealed up and ready to be mailed.  It’s just waiting on a stamp.  (snail mail, how quaint?)

Now what?

I’ve got all of this musical momentum and I need to find a place to direct it.  I just quit my band, so it’s not going there.  I no longer have any interest in being in a band.  That might change again somewhere down the road, but for know writing songs in the cellar and bombarding the poor unfortunate souls at alonetone is more than enough of an outlet for me.

Maybe I’ll dig around and finish off all of the still unfinished songs from prior projects.  There are two unfinished RPMs, a couple of songs from a couple of aborted National Solo Album Months.  There are a couple of failed attempts at songfight.org submissions.  There are also a few songs that just exist outside of other projects that could use a home upon completion.

I think that will be the next project.  I’ll do it on a mac and not on the iPad.  The iPad was convenient, but things definitely sound better using GarageBand proper.

Yeah, I’ll start chipping away at all of that stuff.  That will be fun.  I won’t impose any deadlines though.  I’ll do it at a more leisurely, not-album-in-a-month pace.

After that there is always the 50/90 challenge.  {gulp}

I finished!  It’s done!  After failing to finish an RPM Challenge on time in four attempts between 2008 and 2011 (2007 I didn’t actually try the album-in-a-month thing until April, so that doesn’t count) I have finally finished one on time!

I dropped two songs.  One because it sucked, and one because it didn’t come out very good.  I’m sad about that one because it was the only lovey song in the bunch, and because it was full of saxophone, but it really didn’t stand up to the others.  That’s saying something given how bad the others are!

Here is the playlist from alonetone.com

Here is the playlist from soundcloud.com
 Showdown at Canobie Lake Park (2012 RPM Challenge) by Robertjames1971

I greatly prefer alonetone as the community there is fantastic.  The embedded playlist from soundcloud might work better though, and it probably looks better too.

All that’s left to do is burn the CD, print out the cheesy front/back covers I made, and mail it off to RPM headquarters.  I can do all of that on Sunday and be finished with three days to spare.

All that’s left after that is…

What writing/recording project do I work on next?

I’m officially a FAWM Winner!

WOOHOO!!

We went to Best Buy today. Before we walked in the door my beloved wife made the following statement:

We are not leaving this store without a surround sound system.

Now a few hours later, the four of us are sitting in the living room watching Star Wars on blu ray with the audio cranking out of our new sound system.

Awesome.

I can’t wait to listen to the 5.1 mix of Moving Pictures. I guess it also means that I need to pick up the Sector box sets for the 5.1 mixes of Fly By Night, A Farewell to Kings, and Signals.

Rush in surround sound, for the win.