All Fixed Up

I can’t wait to play this guitar with the band again. It’s been ages and ages.

Welcome home, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro!

There is a new pot under that volume knob even though you can’t see it because it’s under the knob

My Guitar is Home

I just got home from picking up my Gibson ES-335 from the guitar shop. I played it a little while I was there and my happy is happy.

I’ll post pictures later. I don’t have time to take any right now. Happy New Frets/Bridge/Nut/Volume Pot day!

Driving Out to Car Music

I don’t think I’ve ever used Flickr to host a video here. Does it work? I had this idea of a post about me driving somewhere for some early morning car music today but then I didn’t post it until I got home after finishing the car music. Oh well.

I put vocals on four songs today. That means there are only five songs left to write and record the vocal parts for. 15 songs have their vocal tracks finished. Excellent!

No pics of the clock downtown today. I didn’t take the long way home, I took the fastest route possible. There are tons of things going on today and I didn’t want to delay my return home for even a minute or two.

Things unrelated to music projects that were in the planning, semi-hypothetical stage 24 hours ago have ramped up to the imminent and stressful stage. Bring it on! Roll with the changes, as the song goes.

Drink Up

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite drink?

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As with all food related daily prompt questions there are two answers to this. One from before I had gastric bypass surgery and one from after.

Is the implication here that the answer is an alcoholic beverage? Am I just reading into it because I live in a booze friendly society? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll just state for the record that my answers do not involve alcohol because I don’t drink. I never have. My Uncle was an alcoholic and I’ve always assumed that was the hidden reason for my complete and total lack of desire to ever get drunk. I’m 52 years old and I have never been drunk. Never. Somehow though, I don’t think my Uncle is the reason for my disinterest in the bottle. I think I just don’t like the idea of losing self control. I don’t know. Maybe I should talk to a shrink about it. One of the post-gastric bypass diet restrictions is never drinking alcohol again. Many patients struggle with that. I don’t. Nothing changed for me.

Okay, back to the question. Post surgery, my favorite drink is probably water mixed with Crystal Light sugar free lemonade mix. Most days see me drinking at least 64 ounces of it. It is my go-to drink in these crazy new world times.

Prior to the surgery there was one clear favorite. One undeniable winner in the beverage sweepstakes, unfortunately for me. It was Coca~Cola, babie. I drank it by the truck load. I bought it by the gross (no I didn’t, but it often felt that way). Seeing me without a can or bottle of coke was a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, I have the mangled, screwed up teeth to prove it. Oops, I guess. In later years, as my weight problem spiraled out of control, I switched to diet cola. I preferred Diet Pepsi to Diet Coke. It was the only Pepsi product that I preferred to the Coca~Cola analog. I never loved it the way I loved coke though. It was there for me when I needed it, but it never spoke to my soul the way my caramel colored, caffeinated, carbonated drug of choice did.

Do I miss drinking coke? A little. Caffeine and carbonated drinks are also on the post surgical no fly list so unless I am willing to risk getting sick I will never dabble again. I am okay with that. I will continue to be okay with that for the rest of my days. I lost 220 pounds. The sacrifice is more than worth it.

Hey Gemini, or whatever you’re calling your bad self these days, generate an image of a Jedi Knight enjoying a tasty beverage.

Happy Panic Day

Today is February 20th. For me, personally, in RPM Challenge terms, the 20th is officially the day that I start to panic. Enjoy!

The 20th is the day where the end suddenly feels very close. We get an extra day this year, thank you leap year, so it’s not quite as bad as usual, but I definitely feel a sudden need to get off my ass and get shit done. I have nine days left after today. I need to get busy.

I put rhythm guitars onto one song and lead guitars onto another this morning before work. My playing was terrible. Absolutely awful. I am so rusty it’s silly, and what playing I have done in the last couple of weeks has not been enough to shake off any of that rust. I feel like I am getting worse… probably because I am.

Where do we stand with the album in a month project as a whole? There are 20 songs in the pipeline. I have not mixed anything yet, so no songs are 100% finished. Six have been completely recorded and are ready to mix. Five have their vocals done and are ready for lead guitars. Two have lyrics and melodies written and are ready for vocals. Five have rhythm guitars done and are ready for lyrics and melodies. Finally, two have their song forms worked out and are ready for rhythm guitars. In addition, the song that I put the rhythm guitar tracks on this morning needs to have the bass guitar (MIDI) rewritten because the bass and the guitar don’t really work well together. I need to change something so they lock in. That sort of goes against the RPM Challenge ethos (is that the right word?) as I don’t like going back and redoing anything. It takes time that I don’t have. In this case though, it sounds worse than dog shit so I have to change the bass.

There you have it. The state of the RPM Challenge project at this point in time. The minimum goal is 10 songs or 35 minutes of music. I am shooting for 20 songs, and then I’ll pick the 10 best and use them as the album I “submit” to the RPM website. Just as a heads up for the future, I really don’t think there are any good songs this year. The best of the best is very much meh. This is not going to be a good album. It’s feeling like my worst ever. Blah, indeed.

Logically I think I am an a good place to finish everything off by midnight on March 1st. Logic does not really apply here though, so my feeling is that I am currently buried under an avalanche of things still to finish. Oh good.

Anyway, here are a few pics that I took as I was listening to a playback of a terrible sounding guitar solo this morning. Ugh.

I’ve used my Les Paul Custom for every note of guitar that I have recorded this month. There’s a good chance that everything I put down after I get home from the guitar shop tomorrow will be played on my ES-335. We’ll see. I might sneak my Les Paul Standard into a few things too, if I can.

It is Ready

I heard from the guitar shop. My guitar is ready. I am going to pick it up tomorrow during my lunch break.

Can I get a, WOOHOO people?

WOOHOO!

Back to Work

My long weekend is over. I am back to work. Today is Tuesday but it totally feels like Monday. Bring on the confusion!

I have a coworker here at my work from home desk. She’s a little bit of a distraction, but she sleeps pretty much all day long so I won’t be distracted for long.

My Favs

Daily writing prompt

Who are your favorite people to be around?

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I’m not going to complain about how familiar today’s daily writing prompt feels. Nope. I’m just moving on with my life.

There’s Jen, my wife.

There’s Bellana, my step daughter.

There’s Harry, my step son.

They are the A list. There is also a group of friends, family, bandmates, co-workers, and acquaintances who rate mention too, but the honest answer is The Big Three. My family. The people I love the most. Literally my favorite people.