Hmmm... I Can't Think of a Good Title...
I said last time that I would post photos of my dining room if the painting job came out good. The painting did come out good, but the room isn't quite photo-ready yet. We purchased the wrong size blinds for one of the windows (three windows in the room -- two different sizes... go figure), and the curtains need to be shortened (we found great curtains for the room at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and they were on sale and too long). I will post photos. The room really looks a hell of a lot better.
Currently, I am in bed. I am enjoying the heated mattress pad, which is on the second level of heating. I believe there are nine or ten levels. I am feeling quite cozily warm on level two and can't imagine what it would feel like if I cranked it up to the highest level. I'm sure it would burn the house down.
I'm listening to WEXT 97.7. Right now, Echoes is on. It's a mellow, mostly instrumental segment. It's very relaxing and, as it turns out, great to blog to. So, is the heated mattress pad.
Unfortunately, I'm feeling quite uninspired. I'm not sure why. It just sort of hit me today. I want to write and play, but I just don't have the oomph (whatever that is) to pick up my guitar and go for it. I was writing some lyrics and melodies in my head on the car ride home from buying curtains and such, but I just don't care to write them down. They don't seem important.
I'm worried that I'm in some kind of creative rut. Like, the excitement of writing and playing has worn off and its become duldrum or something. I was thinking a few weeks ago of setting up some gigs for the spring going into summer, but then I thought, "why bother? I'll be playing the same stuff I always play to less people than there are at open mic." And it's true. Most of the time, it's just not worth carting all the equipment and setting it up and tearing it down and packing it in the car just to play to a few people.
Thus, the uninspiration.
However, while I was typing all of that I thought about a time when I played at Jitters last summer or the one before and there were about three people there. They clapped after every song and left me a five dollar tip. The clapping and the tip and the compliment that one of them gave me made me feel quite good -- I remember. Maybe I should get some gigs... I might get the inspiration back.
Anyways, as you can tell I have a good amount of time to blog right now. I don't usually drag on about my feelings... I usually just have enough time to get down some music related whatever and hit publish. Maybe this Echoes program is inspiring me to blog... (too bad it's not inspiring me to write down those song lyrics I came up with earlier today).
So, this past Thursday (Open Mic)... I didn't go. I intended to. Here is what happened: I came home from work. It wasn't a particularly hard day of work or anything like that, but I had been pretty worn out from the late nights of home improvement projects that didn't according to plan. I had had two cups of coffee earlier in the day! (something I NEVER do, I rarely drink one cup coffee, let alone two). Granted, the first cup was WAY watered down (Thank you very little Dunkin Donuts)... Anyways, I came home from work and was a little tired; a little zoned out. I walked up the stairs with the intention of putting on jeans and a cool shirt before grabbing my guitar and a bite to eat and heading to Caffe Lena. I entered the bedroom and saw my blankets all askew (I never make my bed). One blanket was folded up in such a way that it was creating a little cave... a little inviting cave... a little comfortably soft and warmly inviting cave. I crawled in (work clothes, scarf, glasses). I woke up with a sticky mouth and a patch of a drooly substance at the corner of my lips. My eyes barely opened enough as I searched for the truck that, I was more than certain, had just hit me. I found the clock at the side of my bed and it said seven o'clock. My mind struggled with the math and the inevitable steadily became apparent. It takes 45 minutes to get to Saratoga and the drawing of the names for the list of performers would start in 30 minutes. I wasn't going to make it to open mic.
I still can't believe I fell asleep and stayed asleep at that time of the day...
Friday, I played Rock Band with my "band." At the end of the night, I played bass and sang at the same time. I sang on the "hard" level and played bass on the "medium" level. I felt pretty talented doing that.
This weekend, my brother, his wife, and their friends came over for a visit. The purpose of the visit was a baby shower for their other friends who, obviously are having a baby. We all went out to dinner Saturday night. We were at the restaurant for quite a while telling jokes and sharing stories and things. My brother and his friends have a great dynamic. They get each other going and encourage each other and it's just a blast. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.
Since I missed open mic this past week, I should write about the week before. I didn't do that yet thanks to starting the painting project. Caffe Lena was PACKED! We had a list of 32 performers, which is quite high. 16-22 is the typical range, some times dropping lower, sometimes going higher. I tried to make it a two song night, but that would have taken us into the next day easily. So, we did two songs for a couple hours and had the people toward the end only do one song. I felt bad doing it, but it had to be done.
Dan Goodspeed, who is the host of the Moon and River Cafe's Rockstar open mic and webmaster, designer, creator, what-have-you of rkstar.com the online music 'zine for the area, and a bunch of Rockstar open mikers invaded Lena's. It was kind of cool to have their group there. I've got to get a group to invade their open mic some time. It's cool for networking and sharing the music scene. And they were all wonderfully pleasant people and talented musicians.
I have come to a point where I feel like I have rambled enough about myself. Which means I should probably stop blogging for a bit. Before I do, however, I wanted to write a little about press that I've been getting over the video series and how that is affecting me.
Overall, the attention is wonderful. Who doesn't like attention? Plus, viewership -- according to YouTube -- is steadily climbing at a faster rate than it was previous to the press. There was a big jump in unique visitors to my website after the Gazette article and a slight jump after the Leader-Herald article. In general, visits to the site have been up since before the articles. (I suppose a "welcome" to the new visitors is in order... Welcome!!!). I hope the attention continues and the video project keeps getting new viewers. If it does, then the project will continue to achieve its purpose, which is to draw attention to great local songwriters (... and me -- after all, my name is attached to the project and the press).
The attention is a little unnerving in ways, however. For instance, since the articles came out in the papers, I have been a little paranoid when I catch a person glimpsing at me. I wonder if they recognize me and think that my video project, music, and face are incredibly stupid, and with the exception of my face, are a complete waste of time. I also wonder if they think my fedora is silly. I have this unending need to please everyone that I come into contact with and worry that, for whatever reason, someone will find me to be a complete idiot and will hate me for that fact.
On the upside, I have made new friends and contacts through the articles and even seen the beginnings of new opportunities, which thoroughly blows my mind. Maybe this craziness of dreaming about being a musician/songwriter/film producer/etc. isn't so crazy after all.
Currently, I am in bed. I am enjoying the heated mattress pad, which is on the second level of heating. I believe there are nine or ten levels. I am feeling quite cozily warm on level two and can't imagine what it would feel like if I cranked it up to the highest level. I'm sure it would burn the house down.
I'm listening to WEXT 97.7. Right now, Echoes is on. It's a mellow, mostly instrumental segment. It's very relaxing and, as it turns out, great to blog to. So, is the heated mattress pad.
Unfortunately, I'm feeling quite uninspired. I'm not sure why. It just sort of hit me today. I want to write and play, but I just don't have the oomph (whatever that is) to pick up my guitar and go for it. I was writing some lyrics and melodies in my head on the car ride home from buying curtains and such, but I just don't care to write them down. They don't seem important.
I'm worried that I'm in some kind of creative rut. Like, the excitement of writing and playing has worn off and its become duldrum or something. I was thinking a few weeks ago of setting up some gigs for the spring going into summer, but then I thought, "why bother? I'll be playing the same stuff I always play to less people than there are at open mic." And it's true. Most of the time, it's just not worth carting all the equipment and setting it up and tearing it down and packing it in the car just to play to a few people.
Thus, the uninspiration.
However, while I was typing all of that I thought about a time when I played at Jitters last summer or the one before and there were about three people there. They clapped after every song and left me a five dollar tip. The clapping and the tip and the compliment that one of them gave me made me feel quite good -- I remember. Maybe I should get some gigs... I might get the inspiration back.
Anyways, as you can tell I have a good amount of time to blog right now. I don't usually drag on about my feelings... I usually just have enough time to get down some music related whatever and hit publish. Maybe this Echoes program is inspiring me to blog... (too bad it's not inspiring me to write down those song lyrics I came up with earlier today).
So, this past Thursday (Open Mic)... I didn't go. I intended to. Here is what happened: I came home from work. It wasn't a particularly hard day of work or anything like that, but I had been pretty worn out from the late nights of home improvement projects that didn't according to plan. I had had two cups of coffee earlier in the day! (something I NEVER do, I rarely drink one cup coffee, let alone two). Granted, the first cup was WAY watered down (Thank you very little Dunkin Donuts)... Anyways, I came home from work and was a little tired; a little zoned out. I walked up the stairs with the intention of putting on jeans and a cool shirt before grabbing my guitar and a bite to eat and heading to Caffe Lena. I entered the bedroom and saw my blankets all askew (I never make my bed). One blanket was folded up in such a way that it was creating a little cave... a little inviting cave... a little comfortably soft and warmly inviting cave. I crawled in (work clothes, scarf, glasses). I woke up with a sticky mouth and a patch of a drooly substance at the corner of my lips. My eyes barely opened enough as I searched for the truck that, I was more than certain, had just hit me. I found the clock at the side of my bed and it said seven o'clock. My mind struggled with the math and the inevitable steadily became apparent. It takes 45 minutes to get to Saratoga and the drawing of the names for the list of performers would start in 30 minutes. I wasn't going to make it to open mic.
I still can't believe I fell asleep and stayed asleep at that time of the day...
Friday, I played Rock Band with my "band." At the end of the night, I played bass and sang at the same time. I sang on the "hard" level and played bass on the "medium" level. I felt pretty talented doing that.
This weekend, my brother, his wife, and their friends came over for a visit. The purpose of the visit was a baby shower for their other friends who, obviously are having a baby. We all went out to dinner Saturday night. We were at the restaurant for quite a while telling jokes and sharing stories and things. My brother and his friends have a great dynamic. They get each other going and encourage each other and it's just a blast. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.
Since I missed open mic this past week, I should write about the week before. I didn't do that yet thanks to starting the painting project. Caffe Lena was PACKED! We had a list of 32 performers, which is quite high. 16-22 is the typical range, some times dropping lower, sometimes going higher. I tried to make it a two song night, but that would have taken us into the next day easily. So, we did two songs for a couple hours and had the people toward the end only do one song. I felt bad doing it, but it had to be done.
Dan Goodspeed, who is the host of the Moon and River Cafe's Rockstar open mic and webmaster, designer, creator, what-have-you of rkstar.com the online music 'zine for the area, and a bunch of Rockstar open mikers invaded Lena's. It was kind of cool to have their group there. I've got to get a group to invade their open mic some time. It's cool for networking and sharing the music scene. And they were all wonderfully pleasant people and talented musicians.
I have come to a point where I feel like I have rambled enough about myself. Which means I should probably stop blogging for a bit. Before I do, however, I wanted to write a little about press that I've been getting over the video series and how that is affecting me.
Overall, the attention is wonderful. Who doesn't like attention? Plus, viewership -- according to YouTube -- is steadily climbing at a faster rate than it was previous to the press. There was a big jump in unique visitors to my website after the Gazette article and a slight jump after the Leader-Herald article. In general, visits to the site have been up since before the articles. (I suppose a "welcome" to the new visitors is in order... Welcome!!!). I hope the attention continues and the video project keeps getting new viewers. If it does, then the project will continue to achieve its purpose, which is to draw attention to great local songwriters (... and me -- after all, my name is attached to the project and the press).
The attention is a little unnerving in ways, however. For instance, since the articles came out in the papers, I have been a little paranoid when I catch a person glimpsing at me. I wonder if they recognize me and think that my video project, music, and face are incredibly stupid, and with the exception of my face, are a complete waste of time. I also wonder if they think my fedora is silly. I have this unending need to please everyone that I come into contact with and worry that, for whatever reason, someone will find me to be a complete idiot and will hate me for that fact.
On the upside, I have made new friends and contacts through the articles and even seen the beginnings of new opportunities, which thoroughly blows my mind. Maybe this craziness of dreaming about being a musician/songwriter/film producer/etc. isn't so crazy after all.