Category: Uncategorized

Bruins, RPM, FAWM, and Dentists

For the first time this year the Bruins came back to win a game that they were trailing after two periods. It was also a rare event where they won in a shoot out. They beat the Maple Leafs on the road last night 4-3. Click here for the highlight video.

The first half of the season (as denoted by the all-star break) has come to a close and the Bruins are tied with the San Jose Sharks for the most points in the NHL with 73. Boston has played two more games, so the Sharks winning percentage is better… but still… tops in the NHL at the all-star break. I am, of course, stunned. What a year! Let’s hope the break will give them time to heal up some of the injuries so they can come back strong in the second half and continue to stun me.

February is right around the corner. Less than two weeks away. That means it’s time for me to start thinking about writing music again. For the last couple of years I’ve tried and failed to complete the RPM Challenge. That challenge is to record an album within the month of February. It doesn’t have to be perfect or anything, all that matters is that on January 31st it doesn’t exist and by March 1st it does. There is also another songwriting event that happens in February called FAWM, which is short for February is Album Writing Month. The idea there is to write 14 songs within the 28 days of February.

There once was a time when I could have hammered out both of those things easily. When I was in college (the last time… the seven year time) I twice made up challenges for myself to write and record one song per day during spring break. I nailed it both times I tried it. 1999 and 2001. Five days off, five new songs. It wasn’t quite easy, but it was definitely doable.

I first heard of RPM in 2007, just after it started. I was very far from being in good playing shape so I decided to take the challenge once using old songs, and then after I had my chops back I would do it again with new songs. I ended up with 10 new recordings of old songs, and 7 unfinished recordings of 7 new unfinished songs.

In 2008 I was playing okay, but I had a girlfriend in the first time in… well… forever and ever, and I was much more interested in being with her than doing anything else. I had planned to work on the project on any evenings I didn’t spend with Jen, and on the nights I did spend with her I would work on the project after our dates (we weren’t living together then and I was still going home at night). When it was over I had 3 unfinished recordings of 3 unfinished songs. None of the total of 10 new songs has had any more work done on them since the respective challenges ended.

I also took a shot at a different challenge this year called November is Solo Album Month, which challenges you to write and record a complete album by yourself during the month of November. That one ended with one unfinished recording of one unfinished song.

This year I am waffling between wanting to try RPM again and not giving a shit. I don’t have time to do it, it’s that simple. I leave for work a little after seven in the morning and I get home a little before seven in the evening. When I am home I have no interest in doing anything other than spending my time with Jen and the kids. That’s it. I’ll do anything, any time, so long as Jen is doing it with me, and if it’s a kid night I want the kids doing it with us too. Weekends are the same. I want to spend as much time as possible with Jen and the kids. If something comes up that keeps us away from each other for a while that is okay, so long as we spend as much of our free time together as humanly possible. I can’t help it. I’m in love with Jen and I love her kids as if they were my own. So that pretty much eliminates my chances of completing any songwriting challenge goofiness unless I take time off of work.

But this year I thought I came up with a good angle on it. If not during the day, and if not during the evenings… what about the morning? What if, instead of getting up at six in the morning, I got up at 5 and spent an hour a day working on music? I’d have to stick to a headphones only set up so as not to disturb the neighbors, and that would probably mean I’d take a vacation day or two to do anything that makes actual noise, (aka singing)… but I could do it.

I decided I would spend January getting up early a couple of days a week and working on those unfinished old songs (there are the 11 already mentioned as well as 3 or 4 more that came up on their own) in order to get into playing shape, and get used to getting up early. Then come February I would do it as often as my sleep schedule would allow. I would also set my arrangement goals a tad lower and spend less time futzing with my drum machine, and maybe try to keep my horrible lyric writing at a minimum and leave a few songs as instrumentals. It seemed like a good plan. I was all ready to give it a shot.

And then January came… it is now January 22nd and I haven’t gotten up early once.

There is still time, and I could always just start cold on February 1st. I really want to… but I also really don’t want to. Who knows. We’ll have to see if I can get my motivation up and try something. I’ll keep you posted.

One more thing before I post. This morning I woke up with a song stuck in my head. It is a song I honestly haven’t heard in years. It’s from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It’s the little theme song that gets sung at the end of the Lemming of the B.D.A sketch. I can’t even begin to imagine what it was that caused that particular little song to get stuck in my particular little noggin on this particular little day. The only thing I can think of is that I must have been having nightmares about Dentists. (notice I said nightmare, not dream. I can’t imagine anyone anywhere ever having a dream about Dentists that isn’t a horrifying nightmare.)

Here’s the sketch. Enjoy.

“There. Poor Flopsy’s dead, and never called me Mother.”

The Day After

Yesterday I was sitting at work listening to a CBS Radio stream. I had a couple of sites open that were streaming video of the Inauguration, but my office’s network wasn’t quite up to it and the results were terribly choppy. The radio feed was working nicely though.

During Rick Warren’s invocation, just as he was starting the Our Father I lost the stream. I had a couple of live blog pages open too and I lost those. I lost the CNN/Facebook page. I lost the Internet. So did everyone else in the building. So did everyone else in a total of three of our buildings.

Jen was wonderful. She was working from home due to a power outage in her office building so she turned on the TV to NBC and DVR’d the entire ceremony.

I got to put my fantastic little iPhone to work by checking Twitter and Facebook to see what people were saying. It didn’t quite make up for missing the speech live though.

The Internet never came back at work, so when I got home Jen and I watched the entire thing together. I felt something that I haven’t felt at all since the mid-90’s. At least since the first time I heard of people named Lewinski and Trip. Something I hadn’t felt since the mid term election in 1994. I felt proud of my country. I felt my political cynicism melting away. I felt like maybe this time, we as a nation may have done the right thing.

The best part of the whole experience was the same as the best parts of all new experiences for me. All new experiences since April 5, 2007 at least. I shared it with Jen. The best part of everything in my life now is sharing it with Jen. I told her that the world we are married in will be a different world than the one we were engaged in. That thought fills both of us with hope. Thank you Jennifer. I love you.

You can read President Obama’s Inaugural address in it’s entirety at this site.

I have listened to it and read through it a couple of times and thought I’d end this by just quoting some of the moments that impressed me, or touched me, or moved me the most. He didn’t sugar coat anything. He didn’t talk down to us. He gave it to us straight. Things in the United States of America are not terribly good right now, but there is no reason why we as a people have to settle for it. We can rise above our current struggles and restore our greatness. For today at least, I agree with him.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works

a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

the world has changed, and we must change with it.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

Inauguration Day!

Oh Happy Day!

The peel a page calendar Jen got me last year that counts down the days until the end of the Bush Regime says, “THE END IS HERE!” Oh joy oh rapture today is the day we remove him from office!

Although, according to CNN the Bush family has actually been out of the White House for some time.

If you’re like me you’re probably going to be keeping an eye on the news today so allow me to help you all out.

First, for those of us who live in Boston and prefer our news local, the Boston Globe’s coverage is here. The Boston Herald’s coverage is here.

For fans of national news, or fellow Bostonians who like to see what people in other cities are saying, CNN’s coverage is here. The Washington Post’s coverage is here, and the Los Angeles Time’s coverage is here. I’m sure if I looked a little harder I could find something like this one for every news outlet, but MSNBC is going to be streaming video coverage here.

I will probably spend a few minutes at each of those sites, but the one I am going to hit most often will definitely be this one. Starting at 11:00am Eastern Time that site will be streaming video of the swearing in ceremony. Until then you can go to this site to get even more news.

Today is one of the ultimate American news junkie days (probably second only to the Presidential election) and I hope you will all join me in wearing out your web browser’s refresh button to follow along with all of the events.

Happy Inauguration Day!

Happy Hey-George-Don’t-Let-The-Door-Hit-You-On-The-Ass-As-You-Leave Day!

Can I get a WOOHOO?

WOOHOO!