Tag: Music

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?

Am I Ready for a Concert?

Covid-19… our house might be the most locked down house in America at this point, even though we’re not really that locked down anymore. We’re still trying to do the right thing.

I just found out that Jeff Beck is playing in Boston in October. Tickets aren’t on sale yet, and they are probably too expensive for me with two kids in college, but… oh boy. He’s 78 years old and he’s the only person left on my “you need to see him before he/you die(s)” list.

When I first made that list, probably back in 1988 or so, I had already seen Rush so they weren’t included. The list was Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, and Steve Hackett. I saw Clapton in 1990 and again in 2004. I saw Page in 1988. I saw Howe in 1989 and again in 1991. I saw Hackett in 2019. Jeff Beck is the only one left.

The clock is ticking. There won’t be many more opportunities. Like I said, the guy is 78. I would really like to go, but even if I did have money to burn I don’t know if I would. I don’t know if I am ready to go to a concert, or an indoor sporting event, or anything like that yet. We’re going to Disney World in January, but that feels like a long way off. It feels like a full universe away. A concert in a 1500-2000 seat venue? Less than two months from now? I don’t know if I can wrap my tiny brain around that. I want to, but… friggin’ pandemic.

Fails Galore

Yesterday I said I was going to do car music today before work. Did I? Of course not. Fail. Tomorrow seems unlikely because I’ll be all jazzed up to weigh in and won’t want to go out. Thursday? Maybe. We’ll see.

I said yesterday I wanted to try and take some pictures of stars. I couldn’t last night because of the clouds, but I am still thinking I might pass. I won’t be able to keep the shutter open long enough to get a really good star trail and I really don’t have the energy to learn how to stack pictures. I don’t know. Also, I live in light pollution central. It’s not as bad as a big city around here, but it’s really bad. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Last night I watched a video of a group of folks going on a photowalk together in Cambridge, MA. It wasn’t anyplace I recognized, but that’s not the point. I think that would be fun. Just get together with a few nerdy folks, pick a neighborhood and just be camera geeks together. I think the group in the video was actually a photography class, and I don’t want that. Just some friends going for a dorky walk. I wonder if I need to subtly convince Jen and Harry that they want new cameras. Insert maniacal laughter here. Heh heh heh.

I just ate some scrambled eggs for breakfast. I ate it too fast. My stomach is a little disappointed with me at the moment. I expect lots of loud, powerful burping in the near future. I really need to stop doing this to myself.

I did something completely insane this morning. I was doing my 30 minute walk, which I now call my walkies, and instead of just walking in place for half an hour, I made a small change. When the timer hit 29 minutes I… prepare to be shocked… ran in place for one minute. Me. Robert. Ran. I am still alive. I wonder if I should try two minutes tomorrow.

My insanity is reminiscent of hulkamania… It’s running wild.*

*No, I am not a wrestling fan. I dabbled when I was like 12 years old, but that’s it. I also grew up in the 80’s, so even if I had never given wrestling even a minute of my time, I’d still know what hulkamania was. You kinda couldn’t avoid it. The dude even hosted Saturday Night Live once, I mean come on. I think they even had a Saturday morning cartoon. So don’t come at me with wrestling stuff, it was a historical reference not a fake sports reference. End rant.

Play

I need to play guitar. That’s my lunchtime truth-bomb for the day. I need to play guitar.

I haven’t played in weeks. I have been focusing on screwing around with cameras so much lately that I have completely neglected music and that needs to stop. I need to find a balance between work, sleep, spending time with my family, goofing off with cameras, and goofing off with music.

I have a few songs queued up for car vocals and I think I want to try and get to them tomorrow, then I can add more guitar parts to the songs. That’s my entry way into getting off of my fat, quasi-musical ass. I also want to swap an overdrive pedal off of the pedal board and I want to put the attenuator back onto my amplifier and after I see how all of that works together, I want to play. I also want to play with the band, but at this point I just want to freakin’ play!

Fifty songs in ninety days is no longer in place, but an album in a month for September? That could happen. Then back into the re-recording project. Also The Lizardfish. There are things to do and things to work toward but I just have to play. I need to play guitar.

Clown Costume

I only own two pairs of pants right now. One was in the laundry waiting for the next wash and the other was on me. Then I took out the trash. The trash bag had some really, seriously, major league gross semi-liquid something in it that just so happened to leak onto my jeans. Gross.

I am supposed to leave to visit my mother in 90 minutes. What to do?

I took the jeans that were in the hamper and put them into the washing machine on quick-wash mode. 25 minutes and they’ll be cleaner. Clean completely? Maybe. Clean-ish? Yeah, sure. Quick wash time plus a round in the dryer means they should be finished at just about the time I need to leave.

The freshly grossed jeans will go into the washing machine on the heavy duty wash setting because ick. That needs to wait for the quickie to finish first though. So what do I do while I wait for the quickie wash/dry to finish?

When I was bagging up all of my too-big clothes to donate somewhere, Jen suggested I save one pair of jeans. That way a year from now I can put them on and see how big they look and we can all have a good laugh. That sounded like a plan.

I am wearing that pair of jeans right now. They are probably 5-6 sizes too big. I feel like a hobbo. I look like a clown. It’s pretty funny today, just think of how funny I will look in nine more months.

I’m pretty sad about the whole gross experience though so I just threw on some Rush (Signals, to be precise) to cheer me up. It’s working.

You move me
You move me
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me
You move me
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me
You call me

Spinning Media

Lunchtime photo shoot. I took two pics of a spinning record (Rush – A Farwell to Kings. Side two, track four. Cygnus X-1) with the digital camera and then tried to take the same pic with a film camera. Someday in the distant future I may be able to compare the results.

DSC_0004
Spinning media and a blurred background? WOOHOO!

Monday Monday

Monday morning, back at work. The day’s exercise is done, breakfast is done, I’m punched in. All is underway.

I failed to do car music again. I think we can assume that the faux 50 songs in 90 days project ain’t happening this year. I’ll try to keep picking away at it, but there’s zero chance of me hitting 50 songs. I will try car music again tomorrow. We’ll see.

I forgot to fill my pill caddie yesterday. It’s totally empty. I had to take this morning’s vitamins/antacid pills the old fashioned way, straight from the bottle. Let’s not make a habit of that, shall we?

Okay, that’s all for this life update. I need to get busy with work now.

Until later….

Evening Drive

Harry and Jen and I just drove up to the ocean and back while listening to Pink Floyd. It was epic.

The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon all the way through.

Epic.

We all needed to get out of the house. You know how it is when you’re 2.5 years into a pandemic. Sometimes you just need to get out of the house…

…and sometimes you need to blast The Floyd while you’re toolin’ up route 495 North.