April 1st

Oh shit… it’s April Fools Day. Never have I ever had less interest in playing along with this bullshit. The fascist states of america is already filled to bursting with fools and idiots and pure, unadulterated evil. Why anyone would think fake stories on the internet is entertaining during times like these… I just don’t get it.

Change of subject. The Red Sox are off today. We will be spared the slaughter and the constant strike outs. In five games thus far this season the team has struck out 123644258686134 times with about 86358629357 being Devers alone. Unfortunately, the Bruins are not off tonight. They will be annihilated by the Capitals. Times are tough in Boston sports-land these days. Why not? Times are tough everywhere.

Change of subject again. When was the original Star Trek given the Star Wars Special Edition treatment? After finally getting through Star Trek the Animated Series the other day, I decided to watch the original show all the way through. I’m through the two pilots and up to episode five now. I just watched Sulu take on the bridge with a sword while the Irish guy sings badly over the ship’s PA. I’m a little put off by most, if not all, of the exterior shots of the Enterprise being replaced by CGI. When did that happen? It doesn’t affect the episodes at all, but I still kinda don’t like it. I want my 1960’s models back. I want the pure form of the show back, even if it is less impressive and cheesy looking.

Change of subject again, again. Sticking with television, what is the deal with the month of April? We have the start of new seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, Andor, The Last of Us, and Doctor Who. We’ll also see the last two episodes of Yellowjackets this month. This feels like collusion. This feels like the television industry conspiring to keep me from sleeping for the foreseeable future.

Again with the change of subjects again, again. I did not participate in the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month thing. I wanted to. I was going to. I just didn’t. I’m thinking of maybe compensating for my failure by trying to do an April album in a month instead. Write and record 35 minutes worth of new music before the month ends. Will I be able to muster up the motivation? Probably not, but let’s give it a shot, eh?

Okay. Time to go and get ready for work. Welcome to April. Stay away from those damn April Fools jokes. It’s going to be a long and painful day on the ol’ internets. Good luck, everyone.

10 Songs

I mentioned earlier that I put guitars onto six songs this morning. I’ve spent the afternoon mixing and have finished three songs. That brings the total up to 10. That means 50/90 is 20% complete. It also means I have an RPM Challenge rules (10 songs or 35 minutes) album in a month for July. Nice

I wanted to share one of the songs, just because that’s how I usually do this… but all three songs are pretty shitty over all and none of them are worth posting at all. They are just bad.

I’ll share this one though because it’s in 15/8 time so it at least has that going for it, I guess.

Binge Watchin’ Fool

My X-Files rewatch is in season three. Deep Space Nine is still in season two. Strange New Worlds is almost done. Before all of this started I rewatched The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. I recently rewatched Rebels. Over the last week I rewatched Andor (best Star Wars Disney+ show by miles and miles) and two nights ago I started rewatching Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I don’t want to stop with the two non-Star Wars shows, but I am really feeling the ol’ Galaxy Far Far Away vibes right now. Three more episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and I’ll be out of live action shows on Disney+. Does this mean I am going to have to watch The Clone Wars from start to finish? That would include both seasons of The Bad Batch as that is really just The Clone Wars part two, right? Clone Wars has episodes with Jar Jar though… do I really want to go through that again? On the other hand, it would be a good prep for Ahsoka, which comes out in August.

On an unrelated note, I restarted another thing from last year this morning. The Great Spider Hunt of 2023 is on like Donkey Kong. While running in place this morning (yogging) I saw a HUGE sucker crawling up the wall behind my desk. I removed him/her from the equation with extreme prejudice. I expect there to be hundreds more to follow over the next couple of seasons.

On another unrelated note I haven’t played my guitar yet this month. I have a bunch of little song ideas, mostly just riffs, in progress, but I only have one song form sketched out and I haven’t plugged the guitar in at all. I still haven’t played through the King of Tone pedal after 5+ years on the wait list. Sigh of frustration. I’ll figure it out.

Okay. Time to go shower and get ready for work. Happy Tuesday, said the ancient 52 year old.

Projects are Hard

I said I was going to start an album-in-a-month on September 1st (yesterday) and I did. I came up with bass lines that will eventually be song #1. I wanted to work on it last night. You know, come up with a song form, tweak the percussion so it fits better, and a guitar part. Stuff like that. Recording nerd stuff.

Instead of doing that, I spent an hour and a half trying and failing to eat about five ounces of chicken (I stopped at about 3.5 oz) and then went to bed early.

So there is that, and there is also a new/continuing photo-a-day thing. I started yesterday and all is well. Today though… let’s just say that in the past three years I was just snapping whatever I saw with my iPhone. Over the last couple of months I’ve put the camera phone away in favor of one of my actual cameras. Does that mean I am no longer willing to consider just any old pic good enough for the photo-a-day thing? That might be the case today. I might need to stage a photo that is better than just a random cat or something. I’m also guessing that within a day or two I will be back to all cat all the time. Just a thought.

I am also getting the urge to get my two 1970’s guitars worked on. Frets, wiring, maybe pickups. I can’t afford any of that, and planned on selling my Stratocaster to fund the work. I just haven’t done anything with the whole selling thing. I think this weekend I might give craigslist.com a shot. If for no other reason that it will require me to take a couple of pictures of that guitar. Heh heh heh. Ain’t I a stinker?

I also want to do some camera walk time this weekend. Andover center, downtown Lowell, Boston/Cambridge. I want to do something. Unfortunately for the camera walk stuff, I also want to clean the house and rearrange the living room and hang out with my wife doing nuttin’. So… the projects are likely to take a back seat.

Where’s my camera… and where’s my cat?

It’s Almost September

Tomorrow is the last day of August. That means two of my daily projects are about to come to an end… sort of.

On September 1, 2019 I started a photo a day thing on Flickr. I successfully completed it on August 31, 2020. On September 1, 2020 I started again and finished successfully on August 31, 2021. Can you guess what happened on September 1, 2021? You guessed it. I started another 365 project. It ends tomorrow. The Flickr album has 364 pictures in it. Tomorrow it will have a full year. Exciting, eh? I wonder what is going to happen on September 1st?

I also started two selfie a day things on September 1, 2021. I found two apps that did it and couldn’t decide which one to go with so I started two. On May 4, 2022 I stopped one of them and restarted it with the post-surgery theme. You’ll see the results of that on May 4, 2023. The other one is still going, though I have missed a number of days along the way. There are 351 photos in it right now. 352 will be tomorrow and that will be it. I’ll make a video out of it and post it and never think of it again.

Or will I?

I’m thinking that on September 1st I’ll delete all of the photos from before May 4, 2022 and turn it into another post-surgery thing. The current post-surgery thing is all photos taken in the door mirror in our bathroom. You can see my entire 6’4″. The one that ends tomorrow is just my face. It might be fun to have a full year of face to go along with the full year of gut. I think I’ll do that.

Also on September 1st (which is Thursday, two days from now if you’re curious) I am planning to start working on some new music. There will be an album in a month to make myself feel better about not playing very much and almost completely blowing off 50/90. I’m planning on using RPM Challenge rules that define an album as 10 songs or 35 minutes, and I am thinking of doing a double album as sort of penance for the 50/90 thing.

And that is the plan for September. How exciting!

October Music – Finished

October’s album in a month project is complete. That means nine months in a row I’ve managed at least 10 songs. That is nuts. That is crazy.

This one isn’t really meant to be songs. It’s more like little rhythm exercises, or little harmony exercises. It feels more like a music theory class than actual songs. The first three are okay listens, I think, but the rest are pretty dull, and the last song is a complete turd. You’re welcome.

Here’s the official alonetone playlist link because we all know the hearthis.at thing embedded in the post isn’t actually going to play more than the first song.

Now I have a few days to mix the last five re-recorded songs. Quarantine Tunes Volume 2 will be completed, then next month we do National Solo Album Month again. Something different… an album in a month challenge.

Dig it.

Killing Time and Mixes

Just killing time waiting for AMC to run the not-so-good Walking Dead spin offs tonight and I added another October Music mix. Lots of fuzzy guitarmonies and some backward vocals.

October Music

When I mentioned that the songs for October’s album in a month weren’t so much songs as technical exercises, this is what I meant:

Polyrhythms. One guitar, the bass, and the drums are in one time signature. The other guitar is in a different time signature. Dig?

All of the tracking for October is finished, and now the first mix down is finished too. Happy Halloween.

Car Music

I finished the vocals for October. Done and done. Just short little one line thingies. I added lots of harmony to some of them to make it more interesting.

I was joined in the movie theater parking lot by not one but two student drivers. One with an actual auto school and the other just learning on their own.

I just need to add some additional guitars to a few of the October songs and then all the tracking will be done. I also started mixing a re-recording yesterday but still have some work to do.

The last week of October will be very musical. Everything needs to be done before The Mandolorian season two debuts next weekend.

This is the way.

Getting There

As of 20 minutes ago, all of the rhythm guitar parts are done for what is passing for an October album in a month this month. I’ve got four songs with vocals (barely) and six to go. Two of the songs already have lead guitars too. Sort of. I guess.