Category: Music

New-ish song (“Grateful”)

Early in a city morning
there’s a moment that is soft and still
then far off, you can hear a dog bark
farther off a car alarm trill
and the overcast has cleared
and the stars seem near
as childhood recollection
and now I am old
and the stars are far away
and still I feel the same connection

And yes I am so grateful
for the stars so far away
for knowledge is an ocean of stars
… let’s go swimming today, let’s go swimming today

There’s a moment early in a love affair
When you really want to make time stop
and if you’re foolish you hold tightly
and if you’re wise you let it drop
for that love will still be there
throughout all of time
by the standard that I use to measure
I do not rifle through the past for love
for it is an eternal treasure

And yes I am so grateful
for the love along my way
for love is an ocean of stars
… let’s go swimming today, let’s go swimming today

There’s a moment early in a project
when you think you’ve gone completely mad
the best you have is mediocre
and the rest of it is really bad
So you step out for some air
and try not to care
How you got stuck in this rutted canyon
And the stars, serene, as ever they have been
will be the staunchest of companions

And yes I am so grateful
for the work that’s come my way
for work is an ocean of stars
… let’s go swimming today, let’s go swimming today

 

And while I’m dreaming, fetch me some lobster

I have a dream. I want to create “The On Call Brass Band” which can be flashmobbed to show up and play one of several tunes.  eg When the Saints, O Canada, The Pompous Ass March, Liberty Bell, Un Canadien Errant, Deutschland Uber Alles, I Will Survive, and Electric Avenue.  That way no matter what event they show up at, they’ll have something appropriate to play.  What, no Freebird?  (Full Disclosure, the PAM is my composition, very sprightly and cheery and nobody hearing it would realize it’s a poke in the eye).

Patricia and Damian get married.

My friend Patricia married her sweetie Damian last night on the rooftop of the Loden hotel.  The bride was radiant in a simple cream gown, the groom beaming with happiness, the weather was glorious, the bar was open (I drank two tiny glasses of champagne and three beers over 6 hours; by the time I got to Edmonds Station I was ), the om nom noms were choice (including a blowout of Levnichocolate.com, OMG, as the proprietor Paul Dincer was an attendee), and it was an Australian-Canadian dance-off with the best wedding DJ I’ve ever heard. Dude could sync beats like a shaman.  Folks from Melbourne sure know how to party!  And the dresses!  Damian’s sister was wearing the most brilliantly coloured and celebratory dress evah.  I got to sing the couple “The Happily Married Song” which I have sung for a number of couples now, (they asked me for the lyrics, w00t!) I danced like a fool, and the civil ceremony was so touching, and so mercifully brief, that those raised on Irish Catholic weddings were all “yes, this.”  Two families were blended in what I will recollect as being the most auspicious start to married life I’ve ever witnessed. Mazel tov!

Note to self

February 7 2010, what was I doing?  Well, apparently, according to my computer I completed the lyrics for and the accompaniment for a song of my composition (circa 2008) called “Mythical”.

I completely lost any recollection of the song until I was reviewing what I had recorded in Garageband many many months later and then I had one of the more classic WTFs of my adult life.

I had NO RECOLLECTION of having recorded it.  Just to screw myself twice over I performed the song in a D open tuning and so could not determine what the chords where which accompanied it.

I tuned Smokey into a open D mode and then just spent an agonizing hour trying to recreate the song.  If I had just had the brains to write out tabs OR ANYTHING I could have saved myself the irritation.

I have recovered the song and am pleased with how amazing Smokey sounds in that tuning (and he really does too) but appalled that this song and many others could have just vanished because I’m so careless of my prodigal song writing output that it just never occurred to me that what I was doing needed additional notation.  However I think I’ve learned my lesson.  I’ve written out a cheat cheet.

 

Dead Can Dance

The concert was wonderful.  As opening night for a world tour, one could expect glitches and there were same.  Almost all of it was new to me, and it was all really good.  I was particularly impressed by the stage lighting, which used some very modern technology (multicoloured LEDs) in a huge collapsible webbing for some very interesting effects.

David Kuckhermann opened – he has THREE hang drums, which is like have three Mona Lisas, the damned things are so rare.  It wasn’t even an instrument prior to 2000.  I learned of it in 2003 and have wanted one ever since, so I was drooling from a great height….  Hm, he has on line lessons, including for cajon, an instrument that’s already in the house…. nice.

The Orpheum is a lovely venue.

A mad wor(l)d my masters

Snoop Dogg went to JaMAIca and came back a Rasta.  He now goes by Snoop Lion and his next album will be entirely reggae.  Tis fabulous news!  Hope he covers at least one Sublime tune…

OMG  I just spent two hours reading RADFem and Transfem blogs and the hate and bigotry are so tiresome and frightening that I went to a Men’s Rights blog for a while to help me get my bearings.

Unclear on the concept – private company tries to trademark Anonymous.

Paul’s back from Ontario, brown as a walnut and sporting a rather luxurious multicolored beard.  He poked his head in briefly last night and it was good to see him in such good spirits!  Then he had to go to work….

Eddie haz a sad.  He hates it when Jeff is gone for any length of time.

Had brekky with the lovely and everblooming Sue, and how good it was to spend some time with her.

Now, back to work.  I have learned that when you’re writing trombone lines, you need lots of places for players to take breaths, as they need more air than any other brass instrument.

 

 

Up early

… like, really early.  Finally around 5 am Jeff was up too and we did our shopping.  Then I made buckwheat pancakes for breakfast and boiled up a bunch of spuds so I’ve got home fries ready to go from the freezer at a moment’s notice.

I realized I’d double parked some of my songs – same song, different names – AND had some song names in there where I Knew I wrote a Song but didn’t actually memorize it or anything useful like that.  Since I’m never going to write it down, off it comes – list is now at 180 songs.  I have started cleanup so I have a match for each tune – the lyrics, the notation – and I’m trying to delete all the multiple versions of various things, including lyrics, and notations.  It’s really fussy and I’m hating it.

Spoke to Katie, she’s doing fine.  Mike’s bday partay didn’t happen, all hell and then some broke loose in his personal life.

Back to the grind….

Sundry and various

DARWIN’S BEARD!!! Have any of you seen the sheet music for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody?

A.  It whipsaws back and forth between 4/4 and 5/4 time. Cazart!

B.  It uses guitar chords so hard to play that only somebody with a left hand like the Incredible Hulk and the speed of the Flash could even attempt them, let alone play ’em in close order drill like that. Cue me swearing like a dockside bawd.

C.  Crawling away now with my various inadequacies breaking trail.

Phew, Imagine is much easier, played slower, and still interesting musically.

If anybody’s wondering I’m working my way through MTV’s 100 best pop songs looking to challenge myself with new chord progressions and possibly ‘Songs I may attempt to learn at some point.’

Oh, thank the Zimmermans for Dylan, the worst chord for Tangled Up In Blue is F#m, which is a bar chord so simple even I can play it.

Mike’s 45th bday today at Garry Point Park.  Jeff and I plan to go for a couple of hours.

Jeff and I did the lawn yesterday which improved the appearance of the place markedly.  I had a horrible experience getting the gas for the lawnmower earlier this week but I’m not going to complain about it as I have calmed down somewhat.  Life is full of sad realizations.  Including the sad realization that whoever owns the place across the alley has now spent thousands of dollars on renovations to that house, only to once again rent it to what appears to be the same ilk of person who trashed the place the last time.  IE smokers with big dogs and a relaxed attitude toward garbage in the yard.

Can’t get hold of Katie, she keeps leaving her phone at home.

I should really get back to backing stuff up before my 5 year old hard drive quits.  Jeff has been quite diligent about reminding me and I’ve been a slug.

Jeff came up with a really interesting mapping idea this morning.  I will be messaging Coz Gerald to find out just how hard it would be to for cartographic newbies.

Google and Jeff’s cellular provider have finally fixed their handshaking problems regarding the calendar in Google.  This was a real issue as the push notifications to the phone were broken for like a month, and it’s hard to run a business when your appointments keep disappearing.  The two of us are considering getting new phones, but I’m kind of inclined to keep the Blackberry until the keyboard softsides up.

Dead Can Dance concert in August, so looking forward to it.

Okay, back to work….