Oh no! Why didn’t anyone tell me today was Friday the 13th! I needed to prepare myself for the calendar date having no effect on the universe or anyone in it at all!
Okay. After listening to a playlist of all of David Gilmour’s solo records in reverse order yesterday, I created a playlist of all Pink Floyd records in reverse order to listen to today. The Endless River is rolling along.
Vacation is seven hours and 56 minutes away.
Vocals for two songs. Rhythm guitars for one. Lead guitars for one. That’s all.
I have next week off from work with no set plans. I wonder if I could have this whole thing wrapped up by the end of next week. Further… what if I try to sneak in an album in a day thing while I’m on vacation. That would be just crazy.
When we came home from vacation in… June? May? Early June, I think, we immediately planned another trip for the early fall. We were going to go to San Diego for a few days and then go to Los Angeles for a day or so and then come home. Just a massively huge, yet very short trip. We both booked time off from work and then right afterwards cancelled the whole thing in favor of another Florida trip in January.
We kept the vacation time on the books though. We thought maybe we’d go on a short trip somewhere closer to home. New York or the mountains in New Hampshire or something. Then as we got closer and closer to the start of the vacation time we started thinking about cancelling the time off and just waiting for the next big trip after the new year.
Then my father went into the hospital. Then my father passed away. Then we had the wake and the funeral. Now we’re down to one more work day before the start of the time off and there is no more talk of cancelling, despite having taken time off for my father. No. We’re going to have a staycation. We’re going to spend a week flaking on the living room couch watching Star Wars movies (Jen’s idea, not mine, I swear) and just ignoring civilization for a week.
I speak for myself when I say this, but I know Jen feels the same. I am not taking this time off from work because I want it. I am taking it because I need it. Physically and mentally. I need to shut down for a bit. I need to recharge my battery. I need to recover from the last month or so.
I have one work day left. Tomorrow is Friday. After that? One week’s worth of staycation. I am so ready for it. Give it to me, now.
This morning as I was starting the work day I made a playlist of David Gilmour solo records. First the five studio records in reverse order of release, then the two live records also in reverse order.
I have spent the entire work day listening to this playlist. I am on the 4th from last song on the first of the two live records (the Pompeii one). As I type this, David is wailing on Sorrow. It’s just friggin’ epic.
Listening to this guy play makes me want to play more. It makes me want to play better. It doesn’t quite make me feel young, but it’s weirdly in that ball park.
All of this and I haven’t listened to a single Pink Floyd record. Imagine how inspired I’d feel today if I was actually listening to the band that he’s famous for. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.
He is touring to support his new record. Sort of. There are US shows in Los Angeles and in New York. I looked into tickets for some of the Madison Square Garden shows. The best I saw were a smidge under $900 a ticket. Yikes! There are tickets for Hollywood Bowl shows for $99 a pop, but they would involve actually traveling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and that will jack up the total price.
I think Mr Gilmour and I are going to miss each other on this trip. Sorry, David. I’ve seen him twice before. Both with post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd. The first of the two shows was the night of my Junior Prom. Yeah, I will never, ever regret skipping that prom experience to go and see Floyd. I mean, talk about no brainers.
I tell you what, if I hit the lottery this weekend I’ll take Jen and the kids (Harry is a big Pink Floyd fan) to shows at both Madison Square Garden in New York and The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. You know, to celebrate winning the lottery and stuff. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I opened the windows near my desk so the cats have been joining me here and there today.
Lily just crashed a video conference call a minute ago. No one complained. Obviously.
I played some guitar this morning. Judging by the above screen shot from my Apple Watch, I may have changed up the recording workflow a smidge.
Oh yes, yes I did.
I played through a speaker. Instead of using my Fender Bassbreaker 15 and my Vox MV50 Clean amps with their direct line outputs and speaker cabinet emulation functionality, I plugged into my Fender Deluxe Reverb. In the next photo you can see that the power light is on and it is glorious.
I then did the craziest thing ever. I took the volume knob and turned it up. Way up. It wasn’t full blast, but it was close enough for a Thursday morning. In the next photo you will see proof.
The volume was a smidge under nine. Again, glorious. Spectacular. I had an overdrive pedal boosting the input signal as well and it was distorting nicely. Tube amps are just the best things ever. I should have actually brought the volume down a little as the signal was over compressing to the point of being a squashed, squirely mess, but that’s okay. I’m just making demoes, right?
I played my SG because it was out of the case and sitting on the stand next to my desk. I probably should have played my Les Paul Custom, but this was fine with me. I ended up adding rhythm guitars to one song and leads to another. Oh, and I also added vocals to two songs. Fun. I probably could have snuck in a little more 50/90 challenge work, but I had to get ready for work and didn’t want to risk being late.
The one question that remains to be asked: Are my ears still ringing (about an hour after I stopped playing)?
Why yes, yes they are.
Glorious
70 days feels like a milestone. It also feels like THE END IS NIGH!
I’m so far ahead of things this year that I shouldn’t panic, but I also wouldn’t be me if I weren’t panicked over something stupid, right?
Yesterday I added two new song forms. Just bass and drums (both MIDI) and that puts the pipeline over 50. 51 to be exact. I also wrote lyrics and melodies for two songs. Progress was adequate for a work-in-the-office day.
It’s casual snuggle time for Miss Lily.
What you looking at, red head?
At some point earlier today my wife was able to drop a bowl on top of our little home invading mouse house guest.
When I got home I was able to slide the bowl and its contents on top of a piece of paper, flip it over, and carry it outside where I could set our mouse house guest free. It squeaked a lot as I was trying to pick it up, but when I tipped it out of the bowl outside in the yard it didn’t move at all. It just sat there on the ground. It was clearly alive, just shocked out of its brain.
I figured it was too embarrassed by the whole experience to make any kind of move while I was watching so I left it to its own thing and started walking back to the house. As I was walking through the door I distinctly heard the tiniest, faintest squeak that sounded exactly like a mouse version of William Wallace in Braveheart shouting, “FREEDOM!”
I’m totally serious about that last part. Totally. I mean, would I lie to you about something like that?
Obligatory I’m-in-the-office-today-so-I’d-best-snap-some-photos-before-I-leave-the-house pics, which are by definition either cat pictures or guitar rig pictures. This time around it’s guitar rig pictures. Variety is the spice of life and shit.
Still very pleased with my cheap-o third party lens, but I really need to go outside and do a photo-takin’ walk around somewhere to really put it through its paces to know if I got a really good deal or just a regular good deal. Next week we are on vacation but are just staying home (a staycation, as it were) so I hope to have a few opportunities for photo walks. I’ll let you know.
Inside the Red Head's Head 