Things I want to buy…. yes….  a topic I think about an awful lot.  Browsing sites, book marking, pricing, reading reviews, drooling, covetting….you get the idea.  Do need all these things….?   most likely the answer is no…  would they be cool to have?  Boy howdy would they!

I just want to make a list to get it out there..throw it into the universe, there were times when I would just write in my little red and black dollar store notebook that I would carry around all the things I “needed” to get.

But this is the 21st century.  And if I can’t have a flying car or jetpack….  this will be one of the perks.

in no particular order…..  

1.  A Roland sonic cell…… it’s a sound module that can play midi files and mp3s (for live solo shows with backing tracks.), it’s also an audio interface….   and it’s a cool looking thing… think a cool keyboard rack meets the monolith from 2001.  (I did say 21st century…right?)

2.  replacement necks for a few of my guitars…..  I have a strat with what I consider to be a half cut broom handle, a tele with the most beautiful, unplayable neck I’ve ever come across, and a charvel that I ..well, let’s say, I didn’t really understand how a truss rod worked.   So..warmoth.com, look out.

3.  clothes…. not really my thing normally, but I’m still wearing stuff from who knows how many years ago, and I really need some snazzy gig stuff.  no idea what I want..but I want some hipster doofus clothes.   I may need help.

4.  a music pad pro…  a digital music stand..so I don’t have lug around this binder full of lyrics….and waste all this paper.  (back to the 21st century thing..right?).  we can put a man on the moon, but we can’t have a digital tablet that can hold all your charts and lyrics…., they have that?  very cool…. enter music pad pro plus,….and they are out of stock of their own product.   (GREAT planning and thinking guys….. )

5.  a new amp.  I’m done with solid state..and although I love my tech 21 trademark 60…(hey, Les Paul used it for his weekly new york gigs.), I want tubes..sweet, sweet tubes….that I can over ride and pump some sweet stomp boxes in….

6.  some sweet stomp boxes.  Kidding….I have enough right now. 

7. (or really 6 if you’re picky..but we’ll move on.)  a big ass Tv.  like…some in the 50 inchers.  something flat…..  something that gives off heat.  I’m thinking an LG or an Aquos.  we’ll see.

8.  a new computer… sorry, not a mac.  But a really ridiculously fast pc, with a huge hard drive that I’ll never fill up, but can always think “wow, that’s a big hard drive”

9.  I can’t think of anything more right now….and I have to make dinner.  sigh. 

….no..no..9.  a new scanner…..

 

 

It’s about 5 am.  I’ve been up for a couple of hours recording…and need to take a break.

I woke up about 2:30…. and usually I just go back to sleep, but I started thinking.  And even then usually I can go back to sleep…but I had an idea in my mind, and it got me thinking too much.

I had a George Harrison song in my head…..(Fab.)  I started thinking about getting older, missing ol’ George…and thinking how long Paul McCartney will tour and be able to give that energy.  Started thinking about what he’ll look like…….then started thinking about Gene Simmons….. I mean, let’s face it…. KISS as it is…is almost done….not yet, but getting there.  And I got thinking….. and I’m hoping it’ll happen…. when Gene will get a younger version of KISS to play.  all the same characters…but young dudes.  I mean, you go to Phantom of the opera, and there’s a different guy playing it.. (Paul Stanley no less..right?)  .

so I”m thinking…get these young cats to play the parts in KISS….new energy…amp up the show…really play up the characters….. AND they don’t let you know who they are again… all makeup. 

Who is behind the makeup?  We won’t tell you….. like Buckethead…but with hits.

anyway… I’m up and recording…. really hungry actually.  not for the rock and roll…but for like eggs….  or something.  I’m hungry. 

but for now…. I’ll have to do with some more guitar tracks…..  and diet coke.

Took a three day break from guitar, recording….music in general.  Not bad…… (getting the feeling back in my finger tips again…).  Had a nice trip out to Cape Breton.  Saw where I used to live in 1978, went to Fort Louisbourg…..I’ll have to sift through some pictures. 

Today back at it….going to do some drum tracks.

spent today working on a song called Blue to Black.  Got the acoustic beds done…and went downstairs to do some laundry….started singing another song…. thought it sounded familar.  noticed that two of my songs have pretty much the exact same chorus…  I mean, different words, but same chords and melody. 

so…after a quick erase and rewrite…. started over.  At least I was at least ripping off one of my own songs, because that really would have sucked if it was a Beatles tune or something….and to be honest, I’m enjoying the reworked chorus of this one, and it forced me to make a new into, which was more interesting that the one from before.

I also can’t get too into recording tonight, because I have to remember to pick up Lynn at the airport.  I’m hoping for no construction or traffic, but I think I better leave early just to be safe.

ok.. a couple more tracks, and I’m out of here.

ok. 

I will admit to this….but I don’t want to.

so today I started to record another song. …. and to be honest, it didn’t sound right. 

let me back up.  I had a gig yesterday…I needed an extra XLR cable…and grabbed one from the studio.

ok. so I put everything back together this morning..and started recording…. and something sounded…odd to me.

ok..maybe i’m missing something…. the weather, I moved the mic…I don’t know.

anyway.. just a little bit more ‘room’ in the sound.   Fine…it souns fine…let’s not over thing all this.

7 acoustic tracks later I realize the mic has somehow gotten turned around…..

so… at least I know what I want to play….. as I record them over again.

I had bought a bottle of wine for Lynn and I when she gets home….

 

….. it’s being opened.

 

sonofabitch.

but..oddly…….funny.

 

ok…. let’s get back at it.

bored and drawing….

The house is empty….got some stuff done today.  I actually have a run till….next wed.   No one here….

I wrote this song (Just Like Sleeping) back in 2007…. while on a cruise ship gig…. deck 4, where I went to relax, read and write.  I wrote it with no guitar… which I normally don’t do. 

anyway….finally found a guitar part that I liked for it.  Did some work on it today….

my bed tracks have about 7 acoustic tracks on them…not sure if that’s excessive…but it doesn’t sound bad….  (lot’s of doubling….)

anyway… things are coming along. 

on a none studio tip… (…..can I say ‘tip’?  doesn’t feel natural…   I think they (they being the tv..people), should make a new show kind of copying a 60’s or 50’s show.  (leave it to beaver meets dick van dyke meets i dream of genie. )  … it should be placed in modern times, but with the same vibe…

ok..so if that happens…maybe I can get some bread….

 

anyway…. looking forward to adding the fun guitar stuff on.  (let’s face it, I’m not really an acoustic guy for the most part…. )

Mike is in town for a few days…so we’ve been having fun doing some touristy things, and just kicking around. I did a gig yesterday and Mike came along…. played ‘A Day In The Life’ and got to use Mike for the last big piano chord at the end….. made all the difference in the world.

Feeling a little guilty that I was too tired last night to head out to the Black Pearl with him…. so I sent my guest out to a bar at 11:30…..

now I think I know what my parents feel like when I stay out late.

Right now I’m watching a show on Johnny Cash….. goes without saying, he’s so amazing.

And it works out great I get to put my name, Mike’s name, and Mr. Cash’s all in the same tag lines.

I was just reading one of Derek Siver’s blogs (http://sivers.org/freedom), and it got me asking myself some questions and thinking. The question that stuck in my mind….well, the final one I sort of landed on after a bit of thinking.  (One thought or question, leading to another one, and another one, and another one….and not really thinking too hard on one question or another…). 

Anyway….I stopped sort of short when I came to this one:

“What do I want to do then?”

And….I’m not sure I have a real answer anymore.  Or a realistic one is maybe a better way to say it?  It feels like when I was a kid, and someone would ask you what you wanted to be, and you’d say things like cowboy, astronaut, rock star…. and the older you get, the more absurd those things sound coming out of your mouth. (Unless you really want to be a cowboy and look into going to work on a farm…..sort of thing)

…I really have to say, I’m not sure if this is going to make any sense.

Anyway….rockstar, the idea of that say, even into my 20’s was a ridiculous thing to think.  It wasn’t solid. So I started thinking…. working musician….ok, that made more sense.   Even then….. That is a broad type of thing.  “working musician”.  

It’s late…I’m not sure I know what I’m talking about here.

What do I want to do?

What I started thinking was….I should really start thinking about this, call it meditating, call it creative visualization…. something.  I have a foggy view of the whole thing.  It’s become more than musician.  That in a way, is an easy goal… (That is to say…it’s easy to sort of visualize, if that makes sense.)  But I’m not sure I want to be just a musician.  (Not ‘just’ a musician…..maybe I mean, solely and only a musician.)

And here’s another part of it.  It’s kind of terrifying…  this sort of, jumping into life, and thinking or maintaining that yah, I don’t want to have a ‘job’.  (Not that I don’t want to work….I just don’t want to really work for someone else.)   But even that’s not totally true….I’m done with companies……or perhaps the greed.  The never ending want. 

I think it’s that greed and want that makes me sort of doubt what I want to do now.  It’s hard to just live your life simply when everything around you, and almost all of your upbringing tells you that you have to make as much money as possible, smell like this, dress like that, buy this…buy that…. just buy stuff. 

A lot of the musicians I know don’t seem interested in actually playing their music to people…. but more concerned with where they’re playing their music, and on what day and how much money their making. 

Don’t get me wrong….I like making money, and I like buying stuff… (Ask my girlfriend…she will tell you that I like buying stuff…much to her dismay.)

So getting back to the what do I want to do….?  I don’t seem to have a single sort of simple answer to give anymore.  And I don’t think I want one either.  Maybe that’s it….  Q: What do you want to do?  A: a LOT of things. 

I started writing a lot of creative things….but I think I would put in a lot of interesting things. 

Interesting to me I guess anyways.

So anyway…right now, what I have is this fuzzy sort of image of what I want to be doing….and it’s driving me nuts trying to clear it up and get there.

cleaning up around here…… organizing all the blank cds I have around….. found one with songs on it… a mixed tape, if you will… not sure around what time I made it..but this is what’s on it.

we’ve only just begun
sheeps go to heaven
going the distance
erase and rewind
short skirt long jacket
chet atkins type thing
let me down easy
linus and lucy
maybelline
sci fi wasabi
cruisin
crush
Dave Brubeck
un ho down
dave matthews doing ain’t it funny how time slips away
major tom
dido
train
what I am
i got you (split endz)
are you going to be my girl

 …..weird mix ?  

going to get back to recording next week…. looking forward to it.  time is kind of running out, cuz I’m most likely going on to play on a cruise ship in january for 5 months…..  would like it done by then.  I have a feeling there will be an out pour of music after this album…..  like…my censor hat will be taken off after this one….