Where did my goals go? Oh yeah, recording.

Things got nebulous for a second. They always do that when I don’t bother to set goals. The only thing that’s been keeping me focused is this recording thing. I sat down last night, though, and came up with 8 main goals to accomplish by the end of December. Then I taped them to my fridge so I can cross them off when I accomplish them. ^^

And, yes, recording is one of them. 4 tracks pretty well stabbed at, now. “Half-Decent” is hard to record because I alternately yell, then don’t. >.< That’s the price of having a personality.

Another main one is this website. I was investigating everything... thinking about how I could just do wordpress, like everyone else... but, you know, I hate doing what everyone else does. So I might just try to make my own site and learn some CSS, XML, and javascript as I go (I already have HTML skilllllz, yes, beyond the b, i, and u tags, thankyaverymuch).

It’ll probably take a bunch of time to learn, but honestly, any time you can invest in bolstering your computa skills is time well spent, if every job I’ve held has taught me anything...

Christmas in October

There are always, always, always, excuses. Mary Oliver probably puts it best in her poem, Kookaburras: "In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator." She goes on to say, though, "In every heart there is a god of flowers, just waiting / to stride out of a cloud and lift its wings."

Her poem has a strong and stern message: Do not choose the former of the two, if you can possibly avoid it.

See, there are things in life, balances to be struck, bargains to be made. People answer this question - what's more important today? - while ignoring this question - what's more important for my life?

Yesterday, a group of us (incl. Battleshy Youths, Paper Janes, and various folks) chose to answer the second question in complete and utter defiance of the first.

And it was rockin'.

A lot of what's real and good in life makes no sense on the surface. Looking from the outside, you'd have seen a group of young people who have homework and school and jobs and obligations; you'd have seen them temporarily discard most of their obligations, including the forfeit of sleep; one of them has a recording studio in the basement, for some reason; his folks are somehow okay with about 20 people making use of all but a few rooms in the house for practicing, collaborating, eating, and hanging out; the house, by midnight, is littered with coffee mugs and bowls of chili; musicians climb in and out of the studio with a menagerie of instruments, some loud and obnoxious; and the last few stragglers finally leave the house at 3 AM to dodge herds of deer as they navigate through rural Pennsylvania to capture a few precious hours of sleep.

I know a number of people who would NOT be okay with this happening in or around their house.

So what's under the surface that makes it all worth it?

Friends, new ones and old ones. The practicing of creativity and generosity. Giving help, accepting help, asking for help. Encouragement to make full use of the special and unique gifts given to each of us.

Also, we possibly recorded some sweet tunes somewhere in there.

What a day.

'Nother great open mic (and sundry other things)

We had another open mic right here at my place. It was really snazzy, and it made me feel awesomely about the human race. Or at least, the humans I know personally who play music up in this here part of the world. It's not really an open mic... it's a gathering of friends and friendly people who just wanna play music and support other people playing music. The balance can be tricky since I think we had somewhere from 8-10 people who wanted to play, and I want everyone to be able to play as many songs as they want, but it never works out that way. I'm convinced we need to just take a camping trip in the wilderness and play music all weekend.

Honestly, though. I've never been a huge fan of TV and it actually kind of irritates me. Groucho Marx has a quote that resonates deeply with me: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." I have been convinced for a long time that when people hang out together by watching television, they're actually not. Their consciousnesses are suspended inside the television or some other realm entirely. Time spent watching television, generally, is time... lost. In my own humble opinion. I just felt like people desiring to spend time together should actually spend time together, like playing games, talking, eating, or musicking. And last night was a really rich time of hanging out and connecting.

Oh, anyway. Other things that are going on...worship, and writing. I think I'm about to embark on a tune-writing voyage. Last Sunday, someone prayed for me and they said I'd be hearing a lot from God and pushing it out in song form. I already hear from God a lot (I actually have a book that I write down stuff I hear, which this person had no clue) so it's just a matter of opening myself up to obey. And honestly, I think that means fasting from... music in the car, music on youtube, etc. Because I'm always listening too loud or just getting absorbed (my consciousness is in the music, so to speak), and really, when you think about it - driving in the car is the perfect time to just sing whatever. Write songs out loud. So... I'll try it. I'll try it. That's all I can do.

(It's not bad to listen to music, obviously - there are times to absorb and times to release music, and I think I need to focus on releasing instead of absorbing, if that makes sense.)

I might sign up for 50/90, an offshoot of FAWM, just so I can see how much I'll write in this time. I do not anticipate actually writing 50 songs in 90 days, but why not see how far I can go? That's how I started with FAWM...

Been doing some worship with Wilmington church, and that's awesome. I also went to a sweet worship kinship that they set up at church, and had a blast 'cause it's a safe place to try out using the banjo with worship tunes (I know, banjo in CHURCH?!) I'm looking forward to seeing what God's gonna do with that.

Lessons are starting up again in a week... looking forward to that, too.

I need to be getting my butt in gear about recording, but Shane gave me some good advice and I'm still meditating on it. He said, write too many songs and then choose from those. Problem is I don't think I have "too many songs" yet. And then, I don't know if I need to record just nature songs, just folk songs, or some odd amalgamation of the two. It could be nice to focus them that way. Blargh, I dunno.

I'm gonna go hang some laundry and go to sleep. Got church in the morning ^^

"You're My Home," by Billy Joel, on Youtube.

I guess I forgot to blog about Gillian and myself recording a cover of Billy Joel's "You're My Home."

Well, we did!

The story behind it: Gil wanted to surprise my brother with a song at their wedding. It had to be Billy Joel. So, as I started to learn this song, I realized... that I hated all the arrangements that I could find. Good thing I can do my own arrangements. ^^



I was convinced we needed to record this puppy and get it on youtube, and their apartment recently exploded which means that they're stuck at my parents' house for a little while. So it alllllllll worked out. ^^

There's also a little bonus at the end where we just got... wacky. ^^