After work today, I went to check out the studio I’ll be taking acting lessons at and pay my first hundred dollar installment on the total cost. The studio was pretty nice and actually had some cool celebrities to boast as having graduated there. Unfortunately, the hyper lady giving me the tour talked so quickly that I don’t remember any of them. Anyhow, I’m pretty excited about taking lessons and I’m not nearly as nervous about it as I thought I may be. Turns out there will only be six to eight people in my class and they’ll all be “newbies” or “neophytes”, as the hyper lady called them, so we’ll all be in the same, ignorant boat. I start next Tuesday night at six o’clock and I’ll be taking lessons for seven more weeks, every Tuesday, from then until about July 30 or something.

After I came back uptown this evening, my buddy (the Monopoly addict) came over and he, my roommate and I played a game. This one was lop-sided from the beginning as I managed to secure two monopolies early and then strategically built them up rather quickly. It had nothing to do with my skill at the game, rather the dice were kind and so were the cards. Anyway, the game ended up lasting about two hours, although we all pretty much knew what the outcome would be after about the first twenty minutes. We were all right.

I worked some more on Tommy today–I wrote the guitar part for the bridge and polished the whole song up a bit–and I’m hoping to record it by the weekend. It’s a little different than what I usually write (although I’m not sure it’s fair to claim that I usually write anything) in that it has a catchy, repeated chorus and well-defined verses. At any rate, I like it a lot and I’m excited to hear what it sounds like when I record it.

Well, I’m writing during a commercial break and Dave will be back on in a minute along with Chris Rock, so I better get back to the floor in front of the tele. Artichokes are totally overrated.

New music

I just finished writing a new song called Tommy. It’s about the value of wisdom in a strong-willed world. Actually, I say I’ve finished it, but that isn’t true: I haven’t written the guitar part for the bridge yet. In fact I haven’t even begun thinking about it yet. But, the song is pretty much done. It’s very simple–the verse is only two chords played in a muted, syncopated rhythm and the chorus is just open chords–but I like the thought in it more than the sound of it. Anyway, here’re the lyrics:

Tommy

Tommy ran.
Three bullies called his name.
They called him a coward,
But he ran just the same.

They chased him long
Every day after school
And he kept running.
That Tommy was no fool.

Chorus:
And Tommy lives
’cause he’s so much smarter than those guys.
And Tommy gives
inspiration through my eyes.

Tommy’s twenty.
He grew up long time ago
And he’s done running,
but he’s running his own show.

Chorus:
And Tommy lives
’cause he’s so much smarter than those guys.
And Tommy gives
inspiration through my eyes.

Now Tommy’s bullies
Have their own stories to tell.
All are sad
And none of them are well.

Bully one,
been in a coma for six weeks.
He tried his hand
at tryin’ cops on an off beat.

Chorus:
And Tommy lives
’cause he’s so much smarter than those guys.
And Tommy gives
inspiration through my eyes.

Bully two
is strugglin’ to make the ends meet.
He’s got two kids
and three ex-wives to feed each week.

Bridge:
And these stories just depress some folks.
Even Tommy can’t stand their pain,
But this is the path that they chose
And he can’t help them off their runaway train.

Bully three
Is locked up tight in block four.
Turns out drugs sell well
To cops in plain shirts.

Chorus:
And Tommy lives
’cause he’s so much smarter than those guys.
And Tommy gives
inspiration through my eyes.
And as his father
I know that with their pain
A little part of him dies.
And it made me proud
to see him run when he should.
May not have been trendy,
but it seemed to do him good.

As always, any feedback is welcome–especially constructive criticism.

Kids Today on FTP server

Well, I finally got a chance to record the song I’ve been working on for a few days now. I don’t really even know what I think about it. It ended up sounding quite a bit different in the actual recording than it did when I was writing it. For one thing, my voice sounds like my “old voice” as a friend put it–it’s more “throaty” and less clean sounding. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it just is. Also, my little impromptu jam just before the last section was probably a bad idea, simply because I was under the pressure of trying to get the recording done well and I shouldn’t have distracted myself with trying to improvise right in the middle of a song. I think that about half way through the song, I convinced myself it was getting monotonous and I needed to break it up a bit. And break it up I did. Ultimately, I think I’m alright with it as it sounds different than anything else I’ve recorded (at least to me it does) and I like the fact that it’s about society rather than myself or whatever.

Feedback is welcome, particularly in the form of constructive criticism.

New song lyrics

Yesterday, I wrote that I’d composed the skeleton for a song having rhythmic similarities to Dave Matthews’ writing style and melodic similarities to the sound of Cake. Well, this evening, I wrote the actual lyrics to the song. It turned out to be a social commentary questioning the legitimacy of the older generation’s claim that our generation is a bunch of trouble making, videogame playing hoodlums. I hope to record the song tomorrow and subsequently post it on my weblog, but for now, here are the lyrics:

Kids Today

All this blame bein’ passed around
“These kids are out of control.”
Fingers pointing every direction,
But I’ve heard the stories they told.

Chorus:
And they didn’t see this comin’
When they were givin’ free love every day.
I’ll bet they thought they were bad then,
But listening now, they’ve forgotten their ways.

So what’s that you say is our problem?
All this violence on TV?
Video games polluting our brains?
And we choose then to break the peace.

Chorus:
But you thrive on capitalism,
Making a profit (and exploiting) on destroying our minds.
And then you condemn us to
The land of misfit kids and kin.

But isn’t that where they used to live?
Banished by those that came before?
And didn’t they riot to protect their rights?
What now if we all protested war?

Chorus:
You’d have a hissy fit
And blame us for all the problems today.
Let me tell you though, it’s not all our fault–
We’re just responding to how we were raised.

But we’re better than that
Molds are made to be broken
I say we give it a shot
Throw us back in their face

Chorus:
And I think we can be dif’rent,
Show the oldies we won’t go their way.
If we start changing things now
We can ensure our futures won’t be the same.

NOTE: When “Chorus:” is written, it’s merely an indication that those lyrics are sung with the “chorus” lick of the song. There really isn’t a singular chorus, rather there are two main guitar parts to the song. I should probably mention that I’m considering making the last section a whole different melody and rhythm altogether. I’ll have to see how that pans out.

Cake meets The Dave Matthews Band

Didn’t see that comin’. So, I just sat down and decided to write a song–I already had the basic idea for the guitar part in my head–and I started playing and a few minutes later I had a progression that I was pleased with. Once I wrote the progression, I decided to take a break–meaning put the guitar down and go wander around the house aimlessly–and think through how I wanted the melody to sound. Well, I decided on a melody that seemed to compliment the guitar part pretty well and I sat back down and started playing and singing–simply making up words as I went along, a technique I’ve employed often in my song writing–and the whole thing felt very familiar. I couldn’t place it, but what I was singing and playing reminded me of something. Turns out, the guitar lick reminds me of Dave Matthews writing style–lots of sliding and some syncopation along with pretty consistent flat-picking on eighth-notes–and the melody reminds me of Cake, in general. Now, the Dave Matthews similarity doesn’t surprise me at all because his music is probably the single-largest influence on mine. But, the Cake similarity shocked me because I can’t remember the last time I listened to anything by them. I’m not saying I don’t like their music–I do–I’m just saying I don’t listen to it often.

I’ve heard of repressed memories, but repressed musical influences? Next thing I know, I’ll be sounding like Hammer or something.

New-old song on the FTP server

Yeah, that’s right. I went diggin’ around in the ol’ cyber-attic and dug out an oldie–Mirror, it’s called. I had actually completely forgotten that I ever wrote this song and I have no idea how to play it (although it sounds simple enough). Anyway, I thought I’d put it up for kicks. I also found the lyrics and guitar track from another song I wrote, but that one’s significantly more personal, so I’ll have to consider whether I want everyone reading it. Anyway, welcome to the old school….

New ditty on FTP server

I just wrote a little lick called One At A Time. It’s not meant to be a complete song so much as an exercise, or “short” if you will. I was specifically working on adding licks between chord changes in a syncopated time. The frustrating thing was that I had good ideas at first, but by the time I could actually play them “in time” (even if I did have to sort of fudge a bar after one of the licks), my hands were dead and I couldn’t get a good, clean sound on the guitar. I also managed to develop a nice little blister on my ring finger, picking hand. That eventually got pretty painful and I had to call it quits before I had a recording I was pleased with (after 50 takes).

Anyway, it’s there, more for me than anyone else. But I figure if even one person gets a kick outta’ hearing my cruddy little ditty, then I might as well have it up on the FTP. I’m going to re-record Jazz Lick pretty soon too, because I can do a much better job with the harmonic lick than I did at the time of the original recording.

That’s all for now. The Lakers are getting worked and I feel like I need to be cheering Sacramento on–not because I’m a Sacramento fan, but because I’m an anti-Shaq fan.

I’ve got at FTP server up and running and I’ve put most of my music on it.

There’s a link at the left side of the page on the bottom, just above the hit counter. Take a listen if you’re interested, pass it by if you’re not.

Here are the lyrics to my most recently completed song:

Letting Go

When you can’t hold the line
And it’s slipped for the last time
The whole rig’s heading out to sea
And your head is spinning in defeat

That’s because nothin’ ever changes
And life’s a ring of endless stages
You’ll never change a thing
Just follow your ring to the end of your life.

Cry a river from your soul
You think emotions make you whole
Band-aids can’t heal gaping wounds
And you’ll soon see Band-aids never helped me.

That’s because you hope in strangers
And hope in man is completely useless
They’ll never change a thing
Just follow your ring to the end of your life.

And when hope has left your eyes
Everything’s coated in little white lies
You can count on me.

So when you can’t hold the line
And it’s slipped for the last time
Just turn and run to the light.
I don’t know where that is,
I just know that’s what I did.
And we’ll go on together.

That’s because I’m not a stranger
And we’ve got connections to far away places
You’ll never change a thing
Just follow this ring to the end of your life.

I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to say two things: First, I don’t claim to necessarily know what my songs mean. Second, I don’t necessarily claim to agree with what my songs say. I’ll wite more about it later, but I’ll summarize by saying that the word “I” in a song doesn’t necessarily mean me. Even if a song is in the first-person, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with me.

Any feedback on anything either on my weblog or on the FTP server is always welcome.

The past 24 hours has been very productive

Here’s a list of what I’ve done:

• Wrote a guitar lick with which I am very pleased, save the fact that it sounds like I stole it directly from Dave Matthews
• Wrote lyrics that I’m planning on singing over the aforementioned guitar lick (see end of this post)
• Decided to try my hand at acting
• Wrote an outline for a screenplay I may work on (2000 words)
• Sent the screenplay outline to three people for critiquing
• Worked out for about an hour

That’s right, not only did I decide to try my hand at acting, I came up with an idea for a film script. I decided my best bet at acting might be if I can write a screenplay that’s marketable and then demand that I play the lead role. My expectations aren’t very high, but my hopes are. I don’t expect that anyone will like the idea I’ve penned, but I hope everyone that reads it thinks it’s spectacular. I like the idea and if it doesn’t ever come to fruition, at least I know I tried.

Here are the lyrics to the song, which I’ve currently got titled Happy Times. I don’t know if that, or the lyrics for that matter, will stick.

Happy Times

Verse 1:

A boy, wand’ring through the woods.
Cracked glass and sharp stone all around.
Eyes pan and feet treat to walk
so slowly in the wrong direction.

But stop he can’t and trudge he does,
in need of a compass or a tender hand of love.
His problem isn’t motivation or ambition,
it’s ignorance and uncertainty.

Chorus:

“Carry me,” he cries, “to my hopes.”
“Pick me up and push me to my life.”
It doesn’t matter if he’s lost or beaten
as long as he’s moving to somewhere.

This new place–he can picture it well–
is happy and he’s comfortable there, but
the wind blows and life’s passing by
while he wonders here, beneath the glim’ring sky.

Verse 2:

It all looks the same to him and he knows where he wants to be, but
his bloodied, beaten feet can’t be useful, see.
he walks the wrong way to the sun.

He’s walking still, his mind adrift.
All these paths converge to everywhere.
The wind is pushing, but this way feels wrong
and the birds are hov’ring, wings in mid-flap.

Bridge:

“Why am I the only one and why is it so
cold up here?” “Where’s this warm place?”
But his cuts are healing so others can be made
and his feet are grinding to nowhere near.

Also, if I’ve done the math correctly, I think I’ve written over 4000 words in the past 24 hours as well. That sure is a lot of words to say the little bit that I’ve said. I’m not sure if I feel like I’m making progress or spinning my wheels in a big puddle of alphabet soup.

New song on the FTP server:

I’ve just added a new song to the FTP server. It’s not a super song, but it wasn’t intended to be. I would suggest reading the “AboutMonotony” text file to see why the song sounds so awful, but maybe wait to read the text file after having listened to it for the first time. There’s a link to the server on the left side of this page at the bottom, just above the hit counter.

I need sleep.