2023 50/90 Challenge Day 6/90

I got a lot done today. Not nearly as much as I was hoping to get done, but still a pretty good haul.

I put rhythm guitars onto five songs. I wrote lyrics and melody for the only two of those five songs that didn’t have them already. Then I came up with lyrics and melody for two additional songs. Finally, I came up with a new idea from scratch that includes (you guessed it) lyrics and melody. This last one is in a time signature I’ve never used before. It’s in 9/4.

There are two song writing ideas that I am trying to include this year. One is to use time signatures I’ve never played in before. The other is to try and write pre choruses. I usually just go verse/chorus repeated forever. Sometimes I sneak a bridge in or something. This time I am trying to consistently bridge between the verses and choruses. In other words, a pre chorus. I think. Sounds like a challenge, right?

I haven’t made a works-in-progress playlist yet. Not sure if I am going to, but maybe I will. If I do, I’ll post it here. Probably.

Guitar Tracks

I spent about two hours recording guitars today. I finished five of the 10 songs that are currently in the fifty-songs-in-90-days-challenge pipeline. Including the song that is in 13/8 time, and the song that is in 15/8 time. First time I have ever knowingly played guitar in either of those time signatures. Milestones, babie!

I used direct input into the USB audio interface for all of the tracks, including using two amps at a time. I took the obligatory pictures, but Flickr is being a dick today and won’t let me upload PNG files, or any files for that matter, on the web. I had to dumb these down to JPGs and share them onto my iPhone and upload them from the Flickr app. I am thusly annoyed.

312/365
312/365

What is My Favorite Genre of Music?

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite genre of music?
View all responses

I could write a multi-volume encyclopedia out of this prompt.

I don’t remember a time when music wasn’t more or less the most important thing in the universe for me. So much of my life has revolved around it. I don’t think I can pin down one particular favorite genre of music as my favorite. I can give a list of genres of various specificity, I guess. How’s this, in no particular order…

  • Classic Rock
  • English Blues Rock
  • Progressive Rock
  • Chicago Blues
  • Jazz Rock Fusion
  • Acid Rock
  • Grunge Rock
  • Alternative Rock
  • Jam Bands
  • Bebop Jazz
  • Romantic Period Orchestral music
  • Classical Period Orchestral music

Okay… this list is getting silly. Let me try to consolidate it into something easier to understand. How’s this…

  • Rock and Roll
  • Blues
  • Jazz
  • Classical

Yup, that’s easier to follow. I can dig it.

Reality vs 90210

My beloved wife is binge watching the shit out of Beverly Hills 90210. Since I am such a good husband, I am watching it with her. In season four there is a story line that does not line up to my personal experiences. Allow me to explain.

For three years I was a college radio DJ. 2002-2004 or so. Something like that. Maybe 2001-2004? Whatever. I had a show on UMass Lowell’s radio station. Once a week on Tuesday afternoons. It was a great time.

On the show, one of the 90210 gang also has a college radio show of his own. Outside of that, things aren’t really similar. For me, there was never a time when I opened a random desk and found a packet of crystal meth just sitting there. That literally never happened. I never even found a packet of sugar in a desk. Maybe it was just a California vs Massachusetts thing, but David 90210 and I had vastly different college radio experiences.

2023 50/90 Challenge Day 5/90

It’s not even 8:00pm but I think I’m calling it a musical day. I didn’t play guitar at all today but I did do a lot of work on the project. I had four song ideas that were just a couple of riffs. I worked all four of those ideas into a full song form. I then added two more songs, both with the full song form. One of them is my first attempt at 15/8 time. I am out of control.

I now have 10 songs in the pipeline. They are all still just midi tracks, though three of them have melodies and lyrics. Here’s hoping I get a chance to add a ton of guitar tracks tomorrow, and maybe some vocal tracks on Monday morning.

Oh, and band practice is on for Thursday. We just have to avoid earthquakes or natural disasters, or follow up plagues between now and then.

Not Feeling Great

I don’t feel so hot today. I got up at a decent hour, planning to stick to my daily exercise routine, but my wife wasn’t feeling so hot when we woke up and we went to see a doctor. No problems, all is well. She just has a bug.

When we got home I was feeling kinda run down. Tired and a little foggy headed. It wasn’t too bad so I got to work filling up the dumpster I posted a picture of yesterday. I broke for lunch and felt even more out of it an hour and a half later when I got back to work. Now I am calling it a day. I just don’t feel so good. It’s not bad, but it’s enough. I haven’t done any of my exercise yet today so I am calling that one too. I am going to miss it today. It’s okay, I won’t ruin my life by missing a day.

I am going to have a protein snack in a few minutes and then try to have a late dinner a couple of hours from now. After that? Maybe just go to bed early? Seems like a waste of a Saturday, but it’s okay. I am old. Early to bed is normal for old people.

The good news is that it’s looking like there will be a band practice after work on Thursday. We still need to nail down a few details, and I am going to need to re-learn a bunch of songs!

Oh Please, Let it Happen

There is a discussion underway. One I’ve been hoping would happen for literally years.

The four members of my band have not been in the same room together to play music (or for any other reason) since a few weeks before Covid-19 came to the US.

We are trying to set something up for next week.

Keep your fingers crossed, kids. There might be a band practice in the near future. Oh please, let it happen!

Nazi Hunting on Threads

So Meta/facebook/Instagram just launched a new Twitter clone called Threads. I created an account and then immediately regretted it. I don’t want to do anything to support Meta and it’s subsidiaries anymore. I still use Instagram but it’s a terrible place. I still use Facebook, barely. I just go there for the bariatric surgery support groups. That’s about it. If I see pictures of my niece and nephews I’ll check them out, but other than that I’ve moved on.

Why then did I open a Threads account? One part curiosity, one part being that it just takes your existing instagram account and rolls it into the new service. Mostly because I am still pretty much the same social media whore who started blogging on MySpace all those years ago.

I’ve only posted on Threads once and it’s basically just my Bluesky user name. Thumbing my nose and all that. I may have found a use to justify the account though.

There is a topic getting a ton of attention on Bluesky today where people are reporting extreme right (call them what they are, nazi) accounts for spewing hate speech only to have the content moderation allow the hate speech to stay… because Meta is as nazi as the rest of them.

My purpose for having a Threads account therefore is to find examples of hate speech and report them so that everyone can see that hate speech is acceptable to the Meta folks and maybe that will bring about some sort of public backlash. Doubtful, but it’s worth a shot.

Fucking nazis.