A few changes, should eventually help improve live and recorded audio.
A few changes from the last post in my old text blog. First, I purchased Yamaha's S90ES "performance synth." The main piano sound on the ES simply has no comparison in any keyboard I've tried; maybe a $50,000 Steinway compares, but not like I've played enough of those to know. I've made a start, but still have a lot to learn to take advantage of 90% of the S90's capabilities. Should, eventually, though, improve at least the home-studio recordings, if not my live performances also. The Korg SP200 was OK, but has now moved to California with daughter Laurel.
2nd, the home studio has moved to the "big room" vacated by Laurel. More space, slightly different layout, and some improvement in acoustics. The former music studio will become Deb's writing/art/crafts studio, as soon as I get the new flooring laid. And that will finish most of the major remodeling on the house, at least the part I'll do by my own labor. All I've got to do then is settle in to the new studio and get some songwriting done!
1/29/07 - New songs
New Song! "Don't Need to Be So Tired"
Well, I don't need to be so tired today, it's only Monday, and it feels like Friday already.
New Song! "Don't Need to Be So Tired." The first verse pretty well says it all, as far as my thoughts when I wrote the song. Yeah, Monday.
1/30/07 - New Songs
New Song! "Put Y'Self in a Boat"
Yo, ho! Put y'self in a boat, and you'll have a story by'n'by.
New Song! "Put Y'Self in a Boat." Not much original in the music, kind of a standard sailor/drinking ditty, but I think you'll find the chorus rings very true if you've ever owned a boat. As for me, I wouldn't have much of a story repertoire without the sailing stories. Yes, I need to check the facts on some vaguely remembered stories, and probably more verses to be added, both more boating stories from books and some personal ones if I can fit the music. And here's a verse you can pass around and maybe get something started:
Put your yacht club in their boats And put their stories in this song. You can send them all to me, And I will pass them all along. Yo, ho! put y'self in a boat, And you'll have a story by'n'by. Yo, ho! put y'self in a boat, And we'll have a story by'n'by.
2/13/07 - New Songs
New Song! - "About Me, About You"
Some people are a little bit confused, about me, about you.
New Song!, a couple of snippets that may develop into something later, and this one: "About Me, About You." Not my best lyrics, but playing with some things on the keyboards and GarageBand that may make it come out OK Not much else, working on a few chord sheets at lunch or when I'm too tired to really get into the music, and added some background images here and there on the website (Yea, right, I'm no graphic artist - does it show?). When I do play, making some, but slow, progress on understanding how to work with the S90ES. The sounds are awesome though, even if I'm not up to speed on everything it can do.
2/15/07 - New Songs
New Song! - "Lonely Songs"
Why do lonely songs always sound so good to a lonely heart...
New Song!, Added verses and a chorus to complete one of the snippets mentioned above: "Lonely Songs." Nothing really to do with my life at the moment, but loneliness is always a good sentiment for a song, isn't it?
2/16/07 - New Songs
New Song! - What Do You Mean?
What do you mean He healed the sick and raised the dead? And you tell me He's the Savior for me?
New Song! - What Do You Mean?. Another quick little ditty from the morning commute.
2/20/07 - Website
Google Checkout
Getting Google Checkout set up for sheet music purchases
After some fits and starts getting the account set up, I've now got Google Checkout working as an alternative payment to Paypal - almost. I tried uploading a couple of test files with it; the shopping cart works fine, gives you an option of either Paypal or Google Checkout, but then the "Buy Now" buttons default to Google Checkout without a Paypal option. So, back to editing html tomorrow; I have to add an extra button for Google and set the old Buy Now buttons back to Paypal. When I'm finished setting it up, you can have either a Google or Paypal account, either of which is a free signup, to purchase sheet music off the site. Also will be looking at other options with Payloadz/Paypal that may let you pay by credit card without having either account, though. Now all I need is to get the content heading toward where I want it -- more songs finished!
Small but unexpected blessing - I got my first royalty check from CCLI! Like I said, it's small, but I wasn't aware that any activity at all was going on with my CCLI catalog. Apparently some church somewhere is using at least one song! Unexpected but encouraging. I also still need to get things going with the "Song-Select" portal at CCLI, which lets people download lyrics, lead sheets, and chord sheets directly from CCLI - when I get them provided.
2/22/07 - New Songs
New Song! - Roll Away Your Stone
Roll Away Your Stone and other new stuff
New Song! -- "Roll Away Your Stone." Started humming a bluesy riff in the truck on the morning commute, and the words just seemed to flow into it. After what seemed to be a long dry spell, finally getting some inspiration! I feel like this one has a real anointing on it; if I can get the piano part worked out right, it should be more of a song than the little ditties I've been getting since the first of the year.
Other "new" songs -- I keep a recorder in the truck, so when I get some inspired thought I can sing it onto tape, otherwise I'll forget it by the end of the day. I was going through the tape a couple of weeks ago and found a couple of ditties I hadn't bothered to write the words down to at the time. The lyrics for both are now posted, but haven't done much on the music with either.
"
Fast Loading Gun" is - I don't know, folksy, country, maybe just corny;
Buy sheet music with Google Checkout, Paypal, or credit card
Got both Google Checkout and Paypal links working, then when I was checking some of the links, I found out that Paypal will now let you check out with a credit card, without having to have a Paypal account. And that's all handled on their end, not something else I had to set up on my part! One trial purchase worked fine :).
It was still a good chance to meet some other musicians, but on a weeknight I couldn't stay late enough to hear more than Sean (folksy guitarist-songwriter), Brad (aspiring rocker), and Benny (guitar and harmonica, blues, ZZTop and Marshall Tucker covers). [Brad's assuredly not the first one to do it, but the first one I've seen use an idea I've had for a long time - put your backing tracks onto an iPod plugged into the sound system. Seems pretty much like a no-brainer thing to do, especially since you should be able to find a used iPod pretty cheap now; it really doesn't need the latest model. Now I just need to produce some backing tracks...].
Sean and Brad run a couple of open mics; and they told me about Josal's Open Mic, which is reportedly pretty awesome on Saturday nights, info www.myspace.com/josalmusic. Probably not much chance I'll make another night until after the wedding, though.
Comment 8/28/08/BC - Sean and Brad no longer run open mics, as far as I know.
3/1/07 - Audio/Recording
Audio plug pulled for now
Listen to this -or - don't!
The "Listening Post" and other audio links have been disconnected for the time being. I just wasn't quite happy with the overall quality, didn't have most of my best songs up, and didn't feel like the posted audio really represented the best I can sound lately. I'll -try- to post new audio "real soon now" when I can find time to get things recorded with new software and equipment.
Please forgive me for any inconvenience, and if you heard the old stuff - forgive me for those, too! If you have a great desire to hear how a particular song sounds, please send me an email
and I'll try to provide you with some kind of recording, no guarantee of the quality. (Note to the technically savvy: the mp3 files are still there, just no direct clickable links to them. But don't say I didn't warn you.)
3/6/07 - New Songs
New Song! - I Know You
Romans 1 and commuting
New Song! -- "I Know You (You Are the One Who Made Me)." I've started re-reading the New Testament epistles, and the first chapter of Romans always seems to stir up my spirit. So once again, on the morning commute, I was singing some jazzy little nonsense riff as I often do, and wondered, gee, would some idea out of Romans 1 fit this? And it did. And, for the first time in a --long-- time, I actually got some songwriting, as in music notes, done! Almost have "Lord, Your Temple" updated to Finale on the Mac to replace the scanned, hand-written score (which I found some mistakes in; aaargh!); maybe one or two evenings more work. And I came home with "I Know You" (above) and started putting it into Finale and Garage Band immediately - a habit I need to get back to!
3/7/07 - New Songs
New Song! You Paid a Price
Amazing what simple things can trigger a song...
New Song! -- "You Paid a Price (Gettin' All the Things You Want)." Wow! This is turning out like an incredible period about Oct-Dec 2005 when I was getting a continual blessing of fresh song ideas. I get in this mode, and it's amazing what simple things can trigger a song - like a 30-second view of a woman's face in my rear-view mirror. This is the eighth song since the first of the year, after a pretty dry period nearly all of 2006 - not that they're all great songs, but sometimes the simplest little ditty turns out to be what people like to hear, if it strikes home with them.
3/14/07 - Website
Using actual blog software
OK, we'll try this for awhile.
Obviously, if you're looking at this, you've found I'm now using an actual blogging software instead of a text/html blog. I've put the 2007 "News and Progress" entries into the blog; older stuff is still archived in 2006, 2005, and 2004 html files. The software is pMachine, php-driven, free from my website host; it does blogging and some other site management stuff I may eventually use. Now, if you please, you can leave comments for me and others to see. Don't feel limited to commenting on the specific blog subject if you just want to leave a general comment concerning the music, lyrics, etc. I left on the option to sign up as a "member" on a trial basis. I'm not sure what benefits might accrue to you from being a member, may figure something out later, like maybe permission to post comments directly. Right now, I've got it set up where I review all comments before they're actually posted. Like I've said all along, though, I started this more to encourage myself by (hopefully) recording progress to look back on later, rather than news I actually expect anyone else to care about. But if the last post here is more than a month old, please send me a kick-in-the-pants email to keep me going!
3/15/07 - Audio/Recording
Listening Post Re-instated
The "Listening Post" at jbcmusic.com has been re-instated.
The "Listening Post" at jbcmusic.com has been re-instated. I took another listen, decided some of the recordings were awful, others not that bad, so I decided to just reinstate the index for all of them, but include my own self-critique of what I thought of each recording. Take a listen, and post me back some comments here. Recording decent audio seems to be one of the things I'm having the most trouble getting accomplished; even when I'm having a great practice session, I push "Record" ... and everything falls to pieces - I make mistakes I've never made before - or the vocals didn't come through - or the feed's too loud and everything gets clipped - or, or, or - it's always something. I'm beginning to think the people who charge for producing demo's really are worth their price (but no, don't email me offers - I've got a wedding to pay for right now, and I still haven't played with GarageBand enough to get a whole song done).
Thought for the week: It's more important to live life AS the church than to live life AT the church. Recovering from a bad couple of weeks; I was, or allowed myself to be, knocked way off kilter spiritually, left me angry at God and reacting selfishly. I'm just starting to feel recovered to a place of grace, and had my first decent practice session in a long time last night. The amazing thing about getting angry at God, misplaced as it is, is that His grace does eventually shine through and bring a clarity of vision and hearing. I've been seeking the Lord in respect to getting more involved in worship, and a part of me still wants to, but the very strong leading I'm getting now is - no; He's going to get me OUT of the four walls of the church and more involved in MUSIC. If that opens a back door to "Christian" music, so be it. The priority for the next 6 weeks is our daughter's wedding. After that, I'll be looking for open mics, open doors, and open hearts come the summer.
4/7/07 - Sailing
Good Friday sailing
Blustery, cool day, took a sail with the main reefed, no jib, which made the boat very slow, but we were both tired and not feeling like sitting the rail and fighting the sheets. Warmer weather and warmer water, I have no doubt we would have enjoyed the wind with the jib up. Quite happy with the way our little boat handles 2-3 foot waves though, even slogging along under reduced sail.
Daughter Laurel's wedding in Tucson was fantastic. Basically 6 days of parties and FOOD between meeting Stephen's extended family, shower (for the women, sports bar for the guys), rehearsal dinner, wedding & reception, and post-wedding brunch. Many thanks to Stephen's family for hosting much more than normally expected from the groom's side! Tucson - La Posada Lodge and Casitas (motel) - great, lovely, highly recommend it. El Charro, Court St. location (rehearsal dinner) - very good, handled a large crowd on the patio quite well. Anthony's in the Catalinas (wedding and reception) - fantastic, incredible setting, great food, terrific service. La Paloma (spa treatment for the girls, Sunday brunch) - choices on the brunch so overwhelming you had to find something you liked, beautiful facilities, but Elizabeth Arden spa vastly overrated. Ambrosia (cake lady) - beautiful, unique and delicious! Wedding and reception music - String quartet and Anthony's jazz trio were excellent; Cuban jazz band the best I've heard. I'm not remembering the names at the moment, can get them if anyone is interested.
Trip out - normal motels; avoid the Holiday Inn Express in Lordsburg, NM - everything's broken! including the pool. Trip back - Tombstone, AZ - great shops, bought silver jewelry and cowboy hats; treated to premiere run of OK Corral drama expanded from previous "shootout", expected kitsch but actually quite good. Lucked into a night's stay at Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park (Fort Davis, Texas), awesomely beautiful and quiet place; wanted to stay longer but all booked up the next night. Swam with the fishes at Balmorrhea State Park, a colossal natural spring made into a huge limestone-lined swimming pool by the CCC in the 1930's. They've covered part of the limestone with concrete in the shallow end now, but the deep part is still as originally built. The last 2 places relived part of my childhood - attended Scout Camp 2 or 3 years at nearby Buffalo Springs. Passed through Fredericksburg and Hill Country just ahead of torrential rain and flooding.
Music (mine) - May, I played one song in worship service, Lord, Magnify Your Light (A Candle Burns). Ok, but had some problems with the sound system. Stephen's Aunt Yvette had a very out-of-tune grand piano, but I did 3-4 songs for the family anyway. Other than that, not much chance to do much with the music. But now - back to songwriting, I hope!
6/1/07 - Performance
Open mic - missed again!
Sad to hear that Brad and Sean (SAABO) will no longer be hosting open mics! I had hoped to make their final night at Woodlake Pub last Wednesday, but stayed a little late at work, then got stuck in traffic in the rain, got home very late and it would have been at least an hour to turn around with my equipment, and I still had to go to work the next morning. Sorry I missed you, guys! I'll keep looking for open mic opportunities, but weekdays are very hard for me to make. I know about Josal's, but if anyone else knows of other weekend open mics, I'd like to hear about it! Thanks.
6/22/07 - Performance
June 2007 update
June 2007 - First, the last post above (June 1) isn't quite right; SAABO is continuing to host Open Mics (and a contest) at R&R Sports Bar once a month, through next spring at least. I posted Brad's latest notice of what's going on here. I was offshore on the BP Atlantis platform the 14th; hope to hit it at least some of the upcoming months. Second, sailing - AARGH! It's thunderstormed and rained almost every weekend we've had available to sail. Frustrating! Hope to get back to it this weekend. Finally, songwriting. A while back, years ago, I think, I made myself a schedule and pasted it on the Mac "Stickies" notepad, distributing songwriting, recording, practice, and other necessary stuff like finances, house and yard work, to different evenings and the weekend. I actually pretty well kept that schedule the last week and intend to do better at keeping it now. Got some work done on the score for "How Much More;" not as far as I'd like but a start.
Comment 8/26/08/BC - SAABO's MySpace page has disappeared, and they are apparently no longer hosting open mic's (as a group, anyway).
7/9/07 - Home and such
Pond
About 2 years ago, I bought Deb a small pond liner/kit for her birthday. It sat in a box for quite a while, then sometime this past winter, we were "given" a bunch of rocks from a local nursery going out of business (yeah-"given" for only nine pickup-loads of labor split between us and a couple of neighbors). The rocks sat in a pile, and the pond kit still sat in the box, until this spring when I finally decided to do something with them. The pond came together amazingly quickly - just two afternoons to dig the hole (nice, sandy soil), drop in the liner, and arrange large sandstone chunks around the perimeter, big rounded river rocks around the edge, then line the bottom with smaller river rocks. The hole didn't turn out quite as deep as I'd like because we put it near a big pine tree and hit a huge root that I didn't want to cut about a foot down, so we ended up with a shallow end past the root and a deeper end near the patio. We filled it up with water and trekked off to a local water garden place and got some plants, a "star" plant with tall shoots sticking up, a "Creeping Jenny" that kind of sits at the top of the water, and another plant that grows mostly under the surface and is supposed to help filter the water. Overall, the pond came out very pleasing - quite beautiful, I think.
We waited a couple of weeks and noticed there was considerable string algae starting to grow, so off to the local Petco to see if there was a fish that might eat it. The guy there suggested a few fish called platys; we got a couple of different varieties, 4 gold with black tails and 2 kind of plain brown. We introduced them into the pond, and except for one mortality of one of the brown ones, they seem to be absolutley thriving - they've grown in size themselves, and we already have babies! There are 2 tiny little gold ones I've seen, and I don't know how many brown ones - at least 8 or 10. The brown ones like to school together, but the gold ones seem pretty independent. The plants are thriving too, including the string algae, which we've taken to collecting on a broom - literally sweeping the pond bottom. The filter plant (can't remember the name) frequently has small white flowers on it, and is doing so well we'll have to start trimming it back before it takes over the entire pond!
The fish were apparently able to live off the string algae and whatever else they could find in the pond, but I bought some seaweed flakes anyway, which they seem to love. In fact, I've now got them trained - I had noticed they hide under the filter plant most of the day, but get quite active just at and shortly after sunset. Now, just after dark, I turn on the patio spotlight, sit down on a rock, and sprinkle in a few seaweed flakes. They learned the pattern pretty quickly; after a couple of days, they started swimming up to me as soon as I sat down on the rock. Now they've gone one step further - when I turn on the light, I find at least a couple of them already waiting by the rock I normally sit on to feed them! Pretty smart, though - one day the cat poked his head over another rock near me, and they quickly scurried back under the plant. Anyway, I guess I'm starting to see the attraction people have for aquariums and such. Debbie and I both love just sitting by the pond, listening to the sound of the little green hippo squirting water into the pond (we try to run the pump every evening to keep the water aerated), and watching the fish. I had never imagined a few little fish could be so entertaining.
7/9/07 - Performance
July Music
More rain
Musically, I spent most time I had the last 2 weeks practicing my "secular" set. I had intended to make an open mic at Woodlake Pub on Friday, but more rain came Friday, and I was tired enough I didn't really want to load equipment, drive on wet roads, potentially have more rain trying to unload the equipment, then load up and drive home late in potentially more rain. That seems to be the theme for this summer - more rain, more rain, more rain! My wife's accused me of causing it in the past - seems like every time I play "Lord, Don't Float My House Away," it rains! But I swear, this time, I've hardly played that song!
7/9/07 - Sailing
July Sailing
Rain, Rain, go away
This has been the rainiest, stormiest spring and June I've ever seen. We had one short sail with the main reefed, and I pulled out an old jib sail from a 15-foot boat as a "storm" sail for our 19-footer. I have no doubt the boat would have handled more sail under the conditions, but we were both pretty tired and not too sure what kind of gusts might hit us out on the lake. After only about 30 minutes on the water, some bad-looking clouds started building up, so we made our way back to the marina. The clouds passed over after we'd tied up with only about 3 pretty strong gusts, that's all, but by then we had everything stowed, so headed back home. The next weekend, we enjoyed the CRBA 4th-of-July picnic; looked like there was perfect wind for sailing all during the picnic, then the rain came just as we were picking things up. The rain passed shortly, but afterwards, the air just hung absolutely still, hot, sticky, and heavy.
We just did a Google search for SAABOCrew and lo and behold your website came up. I want to thank you for putting us out on your blog site. We're having our 3rd competition this Thursday night and we'd love to see you there. The first 2 competitions have been really great! Our PA at R&R is first class and our sound guy Todd is a virtuoso at running sound. Everyone sounds like a million bucks. If you can make it our we'd love for you to get up and jam a bit. Thanks again for putting us on your website and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Take care Brother!!
Sean & Amber - The "S" and first "A" in SAABO!!!
Comment 8/26/08/BC - SAABO's MySpace page has disappeared, and they are apparently no longer hosting open mic's (as a group, anyway).
7/27/07 - Performance
Late July - Music
July catch-up 2007
I had 3-4 songs really polished up and was ready to head to the Open Mic/contest mentioned July 10. Like I've said, though, weeknights are just bad for me - Thursday came, and I was simply too tired and brain-dead to do justice to the songs, didn't want to play them badly just for the sake of showing up. Maybe next month.
7/27/07 - Home and such
Late July - Pond
Still enjoying it immensely. More babies! The previous crop is about half-grown now, and there's a new batch of tiny little fish you don't even really see unless it's night and a light's shining on the pond, then you can follow the shadows moving on the rocks and see the little ones. Now the five adults and at least four or five of the "teenagers" are waiting for me when I turn on the patio light and sit down to feed them. They've all developed voracious appetites for the seaweed flakes, but I'm actually feeding them less, hoping they'll turn their appetites to mosquito larvae and algae. We're going to have to trim back the filter plant and find something else to help control the string algae - any suggestions that won't harm the fish?
7/27/07 - Sailing
Late July - Sailing
Finally had a mostly clear day Sunday when we could make it to the lake. Had a good sail out past the Olympic Circle buoys then upwind toward Wolf Creek, light winds but fairly steady speed, though the direction was shifting all over the compass. The GPS track looked like a drunken sailor in charge of the boat, but that was just beating upwind in the shifts. Then clouds started to build up to the north and east, so we turned downwind just as the wind absolutely died. Had a very slow sail back toward the marina with apprehensive looks over our shoulders as the clouds built up and were quickly overtaking us, but then the wind picked up some and we made the point to turn into the marina. As we were docking and stowing sails, we could see one cloud dumping heavy rain south of us near the dam, then the clouds that had been trailing us went crashing and booming past a cove or two north of us. We could hear the thunder and see the lightning over the ridge, but none in the marina cove; a good thing when you're working around metal spars and rigging!
8/8/07 - Sailing
August bake sail
August bake sail (uh, yeah, it's a pun)
Finally had a good day sailing Sunday afternoon, August 5th. At least no rain or thunderstorms, although there were clouds looking like they could almost build into thunderstorms. They ended up just making the wind flukey, though -- at various times we were either moving right along or dead in the water, baking in the sun. We managed to make a big circle around most of the lake below Pine Island though, by actually following the edge of a small cloud - as long as we were nearly under the cloud, we had wind; if I tried to steer away from it, no wind. I've also made it to West Marine and bought what I needed to install the winches and spinnaker we got from fellow sailors, plus some genoa track so Debbie doesn't have to sit on the cabin with her foot on the jib sheet in heavy air. It's been either too rainy or too hot to get it all installed, but hopefully I'll find some time to do it before the fall racing season. Watch out, "Easy Goin'"! This may be the season we beat ya!
8/8/07 - Home and such
Babies!
Pond - Lots of baby fish! They're mostly gold this time; the last batch were mostly the plain brown variety. A toad of some sort has also taken up residence in and around the pond. I didn't know toads liked actually swimming like a frog, but I've seen it now. At least I think it's a toad instead of a frog, but I'm no expert on the difference. There was a big clump of eggs in the filter plant one day (three times bigger than any of our fish, so I don't think it was them) and I was afraid we were about to be overrun by tadpoles, but apparently there either wasn't a male toad around to fertilize them, or the fish got hungry and ate them all! Anyway, the eggs seem to have disappeared and I haven't seen any tadpoles if they're there.
Comment 8/21/07/BC - OK, so there are a few tadpoles swimming around; I guess a few eggs survived after all. Not near as many as the tiny gold fish, though - there must be 50 or 60 of those! My solution to the tadpole problem, before we get 20 or more toads/frogs/whatever croaking away in the back yard, is simple - a net, minnow bucket and fishing pole! They just have to get a little bigger, still mere specks right now.
Comment 5/9/08/BC - See the eventual outcome of the tadpoles (a continuing story, actually) - Toad Hunting!
8/10/07 - Performance
Mid-August music update
SAABO hosted their third monthly contest/open mic at R&R last night, Aug. 9th. Again, I wanted to make it, but just tired enough that I could have made it there, played OK - then driving home late would have been a problem, not to mention making it to work today. I'm going to PLAN on making it September, which will probably mean taking some time off work that Thursday and Friday. I've changed the wording on "Won't You Come Drive With Me," headed out to AUSTIN instead of Vegas in the first verse. Just makes more sense for a TEXAS songwriter (and the rest of the verses). I had downloaded a program called Sysex Librarian a couple of years ago and could never make it work quite right with the Korg digital piano and PSR keyboard. I finally decided to re-try with the Yamaha S90 and found it works beautifully, letting you download the voice or performance settings you're currently working with to the computer.
Then you can reload an individual voice or performance to whatever slot you want to on the keyboard (The S90 itself has some capability to do the same thing to a USB flash drive, but it's not as easy. The PSR only has a mass dump/reload of everything). So I've mostly spent some time backing up some of the factory settings I might use and didn't want to lose, but it should be easier to create, store, and recall the settings for my own songs now, and rearrange the factory settings so they make more sense! (Why do both Korg and Yamaha load the factory performances willy-nilly with no logical sequence or grouping to them, anyway??)
Comment 8/26/08/BC - SAABO's MySpace page has disappeared, and they are apparently no longer hosting open mic's (as a group, anyway).
Posted two new chord sheets -- "Clap Your Hands and Sing / Jehovah Rises" - the first in the "Five for Israel" series mentioned above, Aug. 17. I do have an OK, not great (a bit rushed) recording of it posted. The second's an update of a previously posted chord sheet - "I Know You (You Are the One Who Made Me)." I originally wrote it with the verses shown here, then added another verse, now I've gone back to the original. Sorry, no recording or sheet music yet.
9/5/07 - Songwriting
Progress
A few bars here, a phrase there.
Making some, slow, progress with song-WRITING. Have worked on scores for the "Five for Israel" songs -
I've barely gotten into using my notation software since upgrading from Allegro to Finale; it had been awhile since I used Allegro and there's a few changes with Finale and the new keyboard, so it's taking me awhile to develop a workflow that works best for me. So, progress, nothing as far as I'd like it to be, but a few bars a night is better progress than I've made in long while. Check back.
9/10/07 - Sheet music, lyrics
Grand Procession - Chord Sheet
Posted a new chord sheet for Grand Procession, another of the "Five for Israel" series. Have made some, slow progress on the score. Right now, my accompaniment plays too much of the melody, which I'm trying to improve as I write the score, then I'll try to put what I end up with in Garageband and get some audio posted. Check back later.
9/10/07 - Performance
Open Mic - See Ya There!
Open Mic R&R Sports Bar Thursday Sept 13th
OK, THIS TIME I really do PLAN to make it to SAABO's open mic/contest; I've even taken time off work Thursday and Friday. Planned songs(?) - Come Drive With Me and Sing Out the Blues; more if I stick around for Open Mic. Thursday, September 13th, 8:00 PM - R&R Sports Bar and Grill - 1840 Barker Cypress Rd. - Houston, TX 77084 - 281-578-2704 See ya there!
Comment 8/26/08/BC - SAABO's MySpace page has disappeared, and they are apparently no longer hosting open mic's (as a group, anyway).
9/14/07 - Performance
Open Mic September 13th
Good Times at R&R
Open Mic at R&R was great! Lots of fun, great music, made connections with people I hope to be seeing again. Not that my part of it was that great (didn't win the contest - oh, well! The winners deserved it!). To start with, I'm more used to churches and coffee shops than the smoky environment of a bar, and I couldn't get my voice in gear and in tune the first half of the first song. I guess because I was concentrating on my voice, my brain fuzzed out and I started mixing verses on "Come Drive With Me," not that anyone knew the song to notice, but I backtracked and redid the two verses anyway. And then there's the little keyboard bobbles in places you've never made them before, which I guess separates the professionals from amateurs like me. By the time I got to "Sing Out the Blues" I'd settled in some and did much better. In spite of the little mistakes, both songs seemed very well received.
For the "Open Mic" portion, I had settled down even more and actually did much better playing "About You Blue" and "Dog Go Howl." By that time, people were milling about more, talking, leaving or getting ready to leave, but those who listened seemed to like the songs.
It was also good to reconnect with Brad, Sean and Oscar of SAABO, and meet Amber and Andy (the two A's in SAABO). Thanks for hosting these things, guys, great job! Overall, a very good night, lots of fun, lots of good music, definitely worth the trip!
Comment 8/26/08/BC - SAABO's MySpace page has disappeared, and they are apparently no longer hosting open mic's (as a group, anyway).
10/18/07 - Sailing
Fall Sailing
Busy, busy
Busy fall - what with installing spinnaker hardware, racing, cleaning the boat bottom, the Marina Street Dance coming up this weekend, and probably volunteering to work on the docks the week after, I'll have been at the marina for seven straight Saturdays. The good news is, the spinnaker works great, just need to install something to hold the pole down. We've had it up for two fall races, which would be the third and fourth times I've ever flown a spinnaker. We're learning. Thanks to Chuck for some of the hardware and pole, Bobby for the spinnaker, my dear wife for adding a panel in the sail, and to Chuck again for the old spinnaker we used for additional material. Cleaning the bottom and centerboard also helped a lot. Thanks to Howard for loaning us his boat lift and power washer. And we still haven't mentioned the ghost ship incident to anyone, Howard. Oops...until now. The last 2 fall race days were some of the better we've seen on Lake Livingston.
The first race of the series was abysmal - no wind, one very slow race. I guess that's where my new song, No-Wind Summer, came from. The second day was something else - a nice breeze out to the starting buoy, then as soon as the starting countdown started - nothing. We were less than thirty yards from the starting line and took 15 minutes to get across! We did finally make it across, though, then the wind slowly started building into a very nice breeze again. And for once, we were actually close enough to other boats at the buoys to use tactics! Woo Hoo! And we actually didn't come in last! Second race, the wind held, but not our finish. We weren't that far behind, though. The third race day, Oct. 13, was absolutely perfect sailing weather - a nice breeze, but light enough to keep the bigger genoa up and use the spinnaker. First race, I had trouble with the spinnaker twisting and the lines crossed, finally gave up and sailed with about a third of the sail wrapped around the forestay. That got us downwind, but really didn't help keep up with the bigger boats. Hey, if the America's Cup boats can mess up a spinnaker launch in the finals, I don't feel that bad.
Second race, I picked the left side of the course upwind based on the first race winds. Everyone else picked the right side, which seemed to work out better this race. Even though we were making good progress, we watched everyone else round the first buoy in front of us, and even though I managed to launch and stow the spinnaker darned near perfectly, being the smallest, slowest boat, there wasn't much hope of catching up after that . Again, though, we ended up not that far behind - a huge improvement over last year! Debbie's now manning the tiller while I handle the sails and sheets, which is how we should have been sailing all along. When I steer, I still get involved with the sail trim and lose focus on the steering, and if a sheet gets hung up tacking, I can reach it a lot easier than she can. As far as handling the spinnaker and jib on the foredeck - we'd be trading off, anyway. With her at the helm, our tacks have become so smooth we've decided to do more of them, then when the wind dies as it often does on this lake, maybe we won't be so far from the next buoy. And the spinnaker definitely helps downwind, even though I'm not quite sure I've got it trimmed right half the time. We're looking forward to next year's racing!
10/19/07 - New Songs
New ditties, Scandal and Sailing
Posted lyrics to two new little ditties, Old Turner Left and No-Wind Summer. The first developed from who-knows-where? on the drive to work this week. Absolutely nothing autobiographical, just started out as a vague word-play in my head (turn-er left, get it?). The second is very much autobiographical. Sailing on Lake Livingston can be terrific in the fall, scary in the spring, cold enough to avoid it most of the winter, and absolutely maddening in the summer. I woke up with the verse in the middle of the night, and the chorus just seemed the natural reply. More than anything, I think it was a prayer for the last race day of the fall, which turned out with a very nice breeze, thank you. May never develop the music for either of these that much, just a couple of those fun little things that pop up once in awhile.
10/23/07 - New songs
New Song! "All My Hungry Moods"
And I may look at things, or a girl or two, but all my hungry moods keep swingin' back to you.
Here are the lyrics to a song that's been developing over a few months. One of a short list of my songs that definitely needs a country sound, as opposed to folk/blues/light rock/who knows? The second verse may need work, and I really feel like it needs a third verse (or more), which I haven't come up with yet. Collaborators? Leave a comment or email me (updated 10/25 below).
10/25/07 - New songs
Update: All My Hungry Moods
But all my hungry moods keep swingin' back to you.
Came up with a third verse and changed the second verse some, revised lyrics posted. Played with it some on the keyboard and have the basic chord structure worked out (E-flat major), so I'm pretty happy with the song now, but might still consider contributions for a 4th verse.
11/28/07 - Website, Sailing
Website & Sailing
Fall sailing excursion on Lake Livingston
I've been corresponding quite a bit with David McFate, owner of a Blackwatch sailboat who's hoping to spearhead a 30th! anniversary get-together of Blackwatch owners. I've uploaded some of the pictures and info he's provided, and some pictures I had, to update the Bluewater Boatworks page. I've also updated the picture galleries on our Starwind page. If you're a sailor and haven't checked out these pages, please follow the links above and do so. After the last marina work day I could make it to, it looked like a bad storm was about to blow in just as the work party picked up everything and left. Debbie had gone into town and I was waiting for her on the boat when the clouds just seemingly miraculously dissipated and it turned into a gorgeous fall evening. When she got back, we decided it was just too nice not to go out. We left the marina about 4:30 for a half-hour sail. Yeah, right...
After about 20 minutes of sailing in a light but consistent wind, I picked a stump off in the distance to go around and head back to the marina. We were still about 100 yards away from the stump when the wind completely died, so we turned around and headed back in - or so we thought. I left Debbie at the helm and went about checking the running lights as it got dark. The wind filled back in again and we were making good progress toward some lights on the shore we thought were the subdivisions south of our marina. I guess we were considerably further north of Pine Island than we thought we were, and complicating things were first, my GPS unit is in for repairs - last trip out, it had gotten sqeezed between me and some fitting on the mast, resulting in a broken LCD screen, and second, they've built an entirely new subdivision north of our marina! We had seen a new road and signs heading in off the highway, but we had no idea there were already so many occupied new houses, with lights a-blazing, along the waterfront. We would figure out later that the Wolf Creek Park lights opposite our subdivision we normally use a landmark were off that night, but one of the new houses has lights that look a lot like them from a distance. And Debbie was heading toward a blinking red light, and you can only see our marina's blinking entry lights from the south and east
In short, we got confused enough to head north when we should have headed south, said this doesn't look right, headed south, then said no, this doesn't look right. To add to the confusion, some optical illusion made the lights along the dam look really close, reinforcing the thought we were south of where we wanted to be, and when I finally shined a flashlight on the (unlighted) compass, it said we were heading west along the shore when I thought we were heading south. That really had me confused where we were; heading west from where I thought we were, we should be running straight into the shore instead of along it. Still thinking we were too far south,we turned around and headed back up the shoreline.
It's not that we were panicking or even terribly concerned through all of this. It was an absolutely gorgeous night; no moon but clear skies and enough starlight we could have seen any obstructions we were approaching. The wind had filled in enough to keep us moving smartly along without heeling all that much. We saw only one other boat on the lake, a small fishing boat trolling along the shore. Cool enough that we both fetched sweat-shirts we had onboard and were quite comfortable. We were absolutely enjoying the night and the sailing...and we happened to be a little bit lost.
We finally sailed past the blinking red light and realized that wasn't our marina and kept heading north, thinking that any minute now we should be reaching the northern extent of the houses south of us. Well, no, we've sailed along the south stretch numerous times in the dark; the houses stretched much further than they should have, and none of the lights looked familiar. And one more thing; you know how hard it is to find an unlighted island on a lake surrounded by lights on a dark night? You look toward the far shore and really can't tell if that blank spot in the lights is the island, or if that blank spot is? If we were absolutely sure where the island was, we'd have just sailed even with it and turned west. But again, our eyes were apparently fooled into picking the wrong blank spot as the island, still thinking we were considerably further south than we were. We finally figured it out when, looking back south, the dam lights now looked really far away, and looking north, holy crap! that's the Highway 190 causeway stretching across a lot closer than we've ever been to it, at least at night.
So we finally got our heads together, headed south again, figured out the long stretch of lights was the "old" Holiday Shores subdivision to the north (that we've sailed off of in the day, but not at night), and that there are a lot of new lights between us and them. Bottom line: our "half-hour" sail got us back in the slip about 4 hours later, at 8:30 PM. Yeah, OK, we're idiots. But like I said, we never really felt in any danger or panicked at all, just happened to be a bit lost while enjoying a very nice sail (and covering a lot of ground for our boat). And of course you're never that lost on a lake; you can always put into shore somewhere then figure out where you are. I guess that's why we like lake sailing and aren't too concerned if we never go ocean sailing. Freedom's not always measured by the distance you go, but sometimes by the spontaneity of just being able to get in the boat and enjoy a wonderful sail.
About 2 years ago, I bought Deb a small pond liner/kit for her birthday. It sat in a box for quite a while, then sometime this past winter, we were "given" a bunch of rocks from a local nursery going out of business (yeah-"given" for only nine pickup-loads of labor split between us and a couple of neighbors). The rocks sat in a pile, and the pond kit still sat in the box, until this spring when I finally decided to do something with them. The pond came together amazingly quickly - just two afternoons to dig the hole (nice, sandy soil), drop in the liner, and arrange large sandstone chunks around the perimeter, big rounded river rocks around the edge, then line the bottom with smaller river rocks. The hole didn't turn out quite as deep as I'd like because we put it near a big pine tree and hit a huge root that I didn't want to cut about a foot down, so we ended up with a shallow end past the root and a deeper end near the patio. We filled it up with water and trekked off to a local water garden place and got some plants, a "star" plant with tall shoots sticking up, a "Creeping Jenny" that kind of sits at the top of the water, and another plant that grows mostly under the surface and is supposed to help filter the water. Overall, the pond came out very pleasing - quite beautiful, I think.