Music Music I Hear Music

1-20-2023 

I have so many songs in the works right now. I have to finish them. I don’t want to settle and just finish them if it doesn’t feel right, but I don’t want them to just sit there unfinished either. I think they are good ideas, so I need to get at least a couple of those finished soon.

One song, What Else Can I Do, I want to work with 49th Vibration on (April and Robbie), because I think it would fit that band, and I want it to be a collaboration, so I don’t want to just present it to them as a complete song. I really want their input.
 

The CCCT project (Chad, Chad, Chris) has some songs in the works as well. Chris’s song, Bad Days, was built off of a couple of riffs he had, then I wrote some lyrics/melodies, and even threw in a riff of my own, so that’s a true collaboration. That song is just about done. I am really enjoying that process. I like that he had some ideas and I worked on melodies on my own, which I don’t think I could have done right on the spot. But then we jammed on it as a band and more parts and ideas came from everyone. So that will be a true “band” composition. Love it. 

I have another song, Follow Our/Your Heart, that I just love the chorus, but I’m not 100% sold on the verse melody. I started to record parts, so that’s a start, but I have to lock down the verse. I do like what I have for the verse, I’m just not sure that there’s not something better. I even have a bridge idea, so that one could be close.

I also sent a riff to Doug to see if it’s something he’s interested in jamming on. That would probably be an instrumental Jazzy Fusion type of thing. That’s fun to think about where that could go.

Productivity

The older I get, the more I get satisfaction from accomplishing things. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but even though the level of satisfaction correlates with my perceived level of importance to the task, which is also obvious, I guess when I was younger I didn’t get satisfaction or recognize the positive feeling of accomplishing even from the smallest of tasks.

If I create a new song, or work on a new song and write a verse or something, I get a huge amount of satisfaction from that. If I fix something on my car, complete a project at work, or a freelance project, etc. I get a great feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, etc. out of those things. With those things, there’s ego, money, etc. involved. The value of those things are very easy to recognize.

What’s different now is that I get a similar feeling (not the same, but similar) from taking out the trash, doing laundry, etc. Don’t get me wrong, those things are not enjoyable, and the don’t advance anything… I don’t learn anything, I don’t get any financial reward, it didn’t effect my health, relationships, etc. It’s just things that need be done. But even besides the fact that it’s things that maintain the household, it also make me feel productive. Yes, a day of pure relaxation is nice. I like not having to do anything sometimes. But even those days, there’s a point where I want to do some exercise, play my guitar, take a Spanish lesson, etc. I still want to feel like I accomplished something. You could make the argument that a day of nothing helps recharge you mentally and physically, so that is accomplishing something, and those things are important, but my brain needs activity.

Turkey Day

Gained 2 lbs from Thanksgiving meal. Worth it. I can work that off. But, now I have a couple of days worth of leftovers of the same food that put those 2 lbs on. And I'm hungry right now. I know the answer. Keep the turkey, throw out the rolls, yams, mac n cheese, stuffing.

On a brighter note, I ran the North Texas Turkey Trot 5K in Frisco on Thanksgiving morning. It rained the whole time, but thankfully the temperature was not too cold. 

I had a great pace (for me) going until just about halfway when I hit a wall. I pretty much coasted the rest of the way. I'm interested to see my official time. I know it won't be great, but I wonder how much the fast first half had on my overall time. A normal 3 mile run for me would be around 34 minutes. I've settled in to a 11 minute mile pace in recent years. 

New Tune!

New tune in the works with the CCCT (Chris, Chad, Chad, Troy) gang. Chris came up with a couple of tasty riffs, and I am putting lyrics to them. This is super fun stuff. The creation/collaboration process is magical.

I have so many ideas and songs, and ideas about collaborations with friends, that it's almost overwhelming. I sure like it when it comes to fruition. Well, it's coming to fruition. I hope it gets there.

I want to complete a new song with Damaged Faith.

I want to record songs and/or a solo album with my musician friends (Doug, Harbour, Chad, Neil, Mike, etc. etc.).

I want to record another 49th Vibration album.

And so much more.....

Spanish Learning

417 days of learning Spanish with Duolingo.

Man, Duolingo says I know 1,460 words. I feel like I know about 100, but half of those I can't seem to recognize when they fly out of a Spanish speaker's mouth.

Now, let me try saying all that in Spanish. I don't know how to say "fly out" and I guessed at "recognize/recognocer" and "speaker/hablador".

"tipo, Duolingo dice yo se 1,460 plabras. Yo siente yo se sobre 100, pero mieda de esos yo no puedo recognocer cuando ellos [fly out] de un hablador de espanol boca."

So here's what Google Translate says, that I just said:

"Dude, Duolingo says I know 1,460 words. I feel like I know about 100, but I'm afraid of those I can't recognize when they [fly out] from their mouths."

Wow, way better than I thought. I said "mieda" instead of "media", but that was a typo, as I do know the word "media/half". Of course, if I ever forget that word I think of Rebecca and Jose Mediaceja. Wrong verb conjugation for "siente". Should have been "siento", and should have been "me siento". I know those things, but I tried not to thing too long and just go with what came to mind.

That statement might come through to a Spanish speaker as a mangled mess, but I think they would know what I was trying to say....maybe. "I'm afraid of those I can't recognize..." would be very confusing. lol.

Cracklins/Chicharrones

Growing up in south Louisiana we ate Cracklins all the time. They are like pork skins/rinds but with some meat and fat on the skin. Mexico has something very similar called Chicharrones. These come in different forms. I've seen them in the grocery store where they are similar to pork skins, which is just the fried skin. Those are good, like most pork skins. But I recently found the ones that are more similar to cracklins. They have the meat and fat on them. I found a place close by my house called La Super and they have them, so I am set. I even was able to practice a little Spanish when ordering.

The Cleverly's at Billy Bobs

We went see the Cleverly's at Billy Bob's in Ft Worth. Great show and fun place. We stayed the night and enjoyed the Stockyards the next day. It had been probably over 10 years since I had been there. It's as massive and country as I remember. We had a great night. 

The band was entertaining. Their schtick is hilarious, but don't think these guys are not legit musicians. They are the real deal. 

We had some great Mexican food at Esperanza's the next day.