Cycling Through Mistakes

Sometimes you have to make the same mistake multiple times before you figure things out. I've gone through a couple of cycles of one particularly stupid mistake since February or so. Not constantly, but once every couple of weeks or months.

It all starts with sleep, or lack thereof. Because I didn't get enough sleep, I cut out my morning meditation and/or yoga because I need the sleep more. Because I cut out my morning meditation and/or yoga, I don't feel as emotionally balanced, and I make foolish mistakes. Then I either can't sleep because I'm thinking about those foolish mistakes, or the foolish mistake is just deciding to stay up later to get something done, causing me to repeat the cycle. Stupid, I know, but for some reason, it's very easy for me to fall into this particular trap. And the cure for the cycle is simply to get enough sleep to return to my routine.

So, note to self: get enough sleep (or return to getting enough sleep ASAP, if something messes up my sleep cycle) and maintain my routine to stay mentally/emotionally centered!

Housecleaning

Wife and I have been doing some serious cleaning up around our house over the last month or so. Most of the rooms in the house are now cleaner than they've been since we first bought the place. We still have some heavy duty outdoor work to do since Hurricane Irene passed through and took down three of our trees, but we now have the worst of that removed from the yard and it won't be much longer before the yard goes dormant for the fall.

Then our attention can turn to the remaining interior work, which is down to one room on our main floor plus the basement, and I'd already started on the basement in bits and pieces before this major focus began.

The cost of all of this has been that my creative work has come to a virtual standstill for the last month, which hasn't been good for my state of mind. By this time next year, though, I may actually have more time available and a better living environment to boot because we will have simplified our living area as well as cleaning it.

Splunge - 9/4

Missed writing about a session involving Nick, Sal, and myself without Jason from a couple of weeks ago. Nothing special about that one, really, apart from that we did a great job collectively holding ourselves together, even without a drummer.

So on to today's session... Jason is back on entirely acoustic drums, having decided to trade his electronic drums for someone else's acoustic kit, as their respective needs have changed. Volume, surprisingly, wasn't really a problem. Each of us (except for Jason) took a stroll out in front, and things sounded quite good there, if not as good back where our amplifiers were. I should stop mentioning that the group as a whole has tightened up, as that change seems to have permanently stuck, for the better.

Nick's confidence in his vocals continues to improve, though he's still the slowest of us at learning songs, which is hardly surprising in light of his relative inexperience. He is now singing lead on just a shade over a third of the material. Harmonies are still a problem unless someone else is singing lead and I'm singing harmony.

No special standout songs this time, except for "Help Me Rhonda" being spectacularly bad again because Nick has trouble sticking to the harmony part. "Losing My Religion" has stabilized now that I'm singing lead on it, though that's cost us the harmony part I was singing. I'll teach it to Nick once he is more certain of his guitar part on it. "Surrender" was new for this session, and okay for a first try, though I really miss the harmonies on it. Nick will be taking over lead on it so I can sing a harmony part to make it sound more like it should. And lest any readers think I'm unnecessarily busting on Nick, he's doing a consistently good job on the new group favorite "Celluloid Heroes", and it was Jason's idea to have Nick sing lead on "Surrender" because he thinks Nick's voice suits it better.

We're at 29 songs after having added "Surrender" and "Space Oddity" and dropping "Once Bitten Twice Shy". No particular group goal in sight, and honestly, I'm getting bored of playing the same songs. I'm not getting instrumentally challenged, and can't be very much as long as I'm singing so much lead. I've been writing original songs, some of which has some interest from the group, so that's a possible avenue to keep me involved. It's ironic that even as the group has hit a new level of collective skill, my interest has waned for the moment.

Splunge Hiatus

Hadn't realized that it'd been quite so long since my last entry. It's not as though I haven't had things to say lately, so there may be several entries here while I catch up.

Splunge is on hiatus for now. I'll skip going into personal business of individuals, but essentially, three of the four of us all had a particularly busy time at the same time. We're trying to get something scheduled, but I suspect it's going to be a while before we get all four of us together in the same place at the same time again.

More later as things develop...

Four Man Splunge - 6/12 Session

Jason, Nick, Sal, and myself - Jason ran very late, so we got another late start. We also tried another set up, with Sal, Jason, Nick and myself from stage left to stage right. It was almost the same as our old standard set up, except for Nick and I trading positions. This was the guitarists' idea. In all honesty, I couldn't hear as well as I usually can, but I think the others could hear better, so I decided to just deal with it.

The much improved tightness of the last session continued into this one. I was concerned that we may have just had one particularly good session (not to mention that it had been a month between sessions), but we seem to have finally improved to the next level as a group.

This session also stood out in terms of new material, with the Kinks' "Low Budget" and "Celluloid Heroes" being added to the list along with the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" and "Help Me Rhonda". Nick had worked on "Low Budget" in advance, but for the most part, we had agreed up front to just wing these at the session to see if it was worth putting more time into them.

"Low Budget" went really well, once we got past the intro. "Celluloid Heroes" hadn't been agreed on in advance, but Sal brought copies of the lyrics/chords for everybody, and Nick was familiar enough with it to do a great job singing it right out of the gate.

"Little Deuce Coupe" worked right away as well. "Help Me Rhonda" was epic fail, however. We agreed to work on it and take another shot at it next time.

Jason struggled with his electronic kit throughout the session, getting some unexpected sounds. He said he'll probably go to some kind of hybrid set, mostly acoustic with a few electronic drums for effect.

We're still having a hard time with "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" after all this time. Somebody always seems to miss the cue for the group riff. We can play "Losing My Religion" well enough, but nobody seems to be able to sing lead on it because the vocal is a very different rhythm than the instruments. I'm going to put some work into it, and if I can't pull it off, we might have to drop it.

Steampunk World's Fair 2011

Wife and I went to the Steampunk World's Fair this past Friday, since she's doing a steampunk-themed Halloween party at work this year, and was looking for props and ideas for props.

The major activity of a steampunk convention is dressing up in costume and buying items to build your next costume. This is more interesting than it sounds, since the idea is to make a cooler costume than the next guy and the next guy is, in fact, very creative.

Music is a surprisingly large part of the festivities, though there doesn't seem to be any consensus on what steampunk music should be. That might actually be a Good Thing, since there was so much variety in the music. Quality was mixed, to be honest, from a trio called Not Waving But Drowning that was good, to a guy who shall remain nameless who was so bad that we left after a song and a half. He just couldn't seem to stay on key, and the songs themselves were absolutely bland. To be fair about his singing, I suspect he was having a problem hearing himself through the sound system.

We spent an hour in a seminar on "statuing", which is basically standing still for a long time wearing a costume that will allow you to be mistaken for a statue. I seriously doubt I could do it, personally. The women presenting this got into some really gritty aspects of busking as a statue, including the difficulties of removing all of your make-up, dealing with difficult people, and what sort of clothing plausibly works for a statue.

I would've liked to have attended the Mad Tea Party, but with luck they'll have another next year. We do plan to go again next year, probably for more than one day.

Four Person Splunge - New Balance

Jason, Sal, Nick, and myself in attendance (not to mention Sal's personal roadie Anthony). We stayed with the practice set up from last time, with the addition of drums, of course. So the view from the middle of the room toward the "stage", left to right, was Jason (drums), Scott (bass), Nick (guitar), Sal (guitar). Also, Jason was using an electronic drum kit plus real cymbals. Weird group set up, but it really paid off. We could hear each other far better than usual and were very tight for the first half of the session. However, as confidence increased, so did volume, and fatigue became a factor late in the session, even for me, so we slipped badly during the last half dozen songs or so.

Highlights: The tightness of the first half or so of the session, which covers a lot of songs. I'm not usually happy with my own voice, but I'd been really working on keeping my allergies at bay all week, so I was as clear as I ever am. I wish we'd recorded this session, but Jason didn't want to deal with the recorder and the electronic drums, and I can't say I blame him.

Lowlights: We still had some problems staying in sync in the latter part of the session, and harmonies remain an issue. Both Nick and Sal made attempts at the lead vocal on "Losing My Religion" and it didn't go well for either of them. But the new singers are trying, and will improve with time.

Very encouraging session. For about half a dozen songs, I wished we'd had an audience!

Three Person Splunge - No Drummer This Time

Only Nick, Sal, and I in attendance this time out. Jason was home with a monster headache, so we did what we could with the remaining three of us. There was little sign of our usual problem of holding the band together, and I suspect that the main reason for that is that the absence of a drummer forced everybody to really listen to each other. "Wonderful Tonight" was still rhythmically flawed, but not much else. We also experimented with a modified set up that should make it easier for Sal to hear the rest of us, and it did seem to help. We'll know more when we bring drums into it.

Highlights: Sal as more of a harmony presence, building on prior sessions. He is still finding his way, but progress is progress. I think Jason will be pleasantly surprised when he hears how "Orange Crush" comes together, since we sorted out the vocal parts for that one this time, with Sal as a major part of it. Nick will be taking the lead on "Peaceful Easy Feeling", giving him another lead vocal and freeing me to sing harmony on it.

Lowlights: Everybody else still getting tired before I do. How does that happen when I'm the old man of the group? And rock is a lot more fun to play with a drummer.

Four Man Splunge - Power Outage

Attendees: Sal, Nick, Jason, and myself. We lost power at the house before the session even started. Not good for an electric band! Sal made it to the session about 45 minutes late due to bad weather and traffic. So we got everybody set up and went out to an early dinner. It was good to have a little time to talk about nothing in particular.

So once we got started, the guitars were noticably more powerful this time between Sal's return and Nick's new amp. Vocals were still nicely clear and audible, and I'd made sure I'd taken my allergy meds this week, so it was one of my better sessions in terms of vocal performance. Nobody had a time limit, so in spite of the late start, we played every song on our list including a stab at "Losing My Religion", except for "Science Fiction Double Feature" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling", more because the majority of the group wasn't in the mood for them than for lack of time.

Highlights: I was happy with my own vocals for a change. "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" with the group guitar riff in full force sounded good and came together well, for the most part. Jason still needs to sort out a drum bit toward the end, but this song is much stronger than it was two sessions ago. The second time through "Psycho Killer" was one of our best performances of that song. Harmonies on "The Kids are Alright" were good. "Dani California" still isn't stageworthy, but keeps tightening up just a little bit each time.

Lowlights: Everybody else still seems to tire out before I do, resulting in a lot of sloppy playing and general testiness after a certain point in the session. "Sherry Darling" doesn't seem to work, and we'll probably drop it in favor of another Springsteen song. I've gotten it down fairly well, but nobody else does, partially because the only recorded versions of it are live, and it's hard to hear instrument specific details well enough for the others to pick them up.

I tried constructing our song list a bit differently this time, with most of the songs that needed serious work scheduled for the beginning of the session and the stuff we know cold bunched together at the end. This didn't work out well, as it seemed to destroy morale at the beginning of the session. It took longer to reach the point where we got sloppy, and we weren't as sloppy as usual once we got there, but I had the feeling that everybody enjoyed the session less because of the damage to their confidence. I'll have to try something different again next time.

Nick will be trying to pick up the lead vocals for "Losing My Religion" and "Orange Crush", both by REM, for the next session. That would get him up to 7 songs out of 25. Not bad, but I'd really like to get him up to singing lead on about a third of the material.

Bruce Springsteen: London Calling

I've never been that much of fan of Springsteen's music, but I've often heard how impressive he was as a performer, so I wanted to see him in full concert action. I wasn't disappointed.

The first thing that impressed me was the immediate intensity of the entire band's performance from the beginning of the opening song. No easing into the set here! Band members weren't necessarily jumping around; they were just obviously fully engaged in what they were doing. They all looked as though they were having the time of their lives. Bruce himself was soaked in sweat by the third or fourth song.

The other thing that struck me was how he moved the spotlight around to the other band members. Springsteen makes sure that every band member who wants spotlight time gets it. The only band member who didn't seem to get front time was the bass player, and judging by his persona, he was just as happy to stay in back of everyone else. The shifting focus kept the show from getting dull, and meant that Bruce didn't have to try to carry 100% of the audience's attention every moment. And yet there was no question of who the band leader was, even if you'd never seen or heard of Springsteen before. He moved the spotlight around, but it was always clearly his spotlight to move.

Downtime between songs was rare. As soon as one finished, he was already counting out the beginning of the next. And every band member knew exactly what was happening next at all times.

I suspect that Springsteen's role model for stagecraft is evangelist preachers, and I believe this was a very conscious choice. Bruce plays the working man part well, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he is actually a whole lot more intelligent than his stage persona reflects.

Would-be professional musicians should watch this concert and take notes. There are good reasons this man is called the Boss.