August 31, 2007

[EmbersOfAutumn]

Hey all, and good morning/day/afternoon/evening/end of month/etc...

Got to work a little early this morning, time to enjoy my coffee and actual breakfast (a real treat for someone like myself). I've got a HECK of a schedule today, work and personal-wise. And on top of that, tomorrow I'm supposed to get with my friend to lay down drum tracks for this weeks fight. I'm gonna be needing the rest come Monday (Labor Day, Yay!)

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback for "Thank God For Memphis", much more so than usual, despite the fact that I wrote, composed, recorded... everything in about an hour and a half. I guess it was just one of those things that came to me one early weekend morning and I said--"Hey, I bet this would work". (It was the day before submission before i even started). It's weird that I got alright reviews for a song I spent nil time on, but other projects of mine come out crap (not just to others, but to me too) after spending hours of planning and recording, takes and takes. I'm really the same way at public speaking. Give me a week to prepare a little 3 minute speech and it comes out crap. Give me 5 minutes to deliver a 10 minute discourse and it's pure gold. I just happen to be a thinker-on-my-feet type of person.

Question of the Day - In general, do projects (music or otherwise) turn out better for you if you plan it out or if you have very little time to do it?

[The Weakest Suit]

Question of the Day - In general, do projects (music or otherwise) turn out better for you if you plan it out or if you have very little time to do it?

actually, frank herbert (the dune author) wrote a very good book about this basic premise. his theory was that humans can only really reach their full potential under the most extreme stress (i.e. very little time to do it). it's called Destination: Void.

for me, planning usually leads to a result i'm disappointed with, but if i just have to do it, i'm usually pleased with what i've achieved.

[jimtyrrell]

Another work day. Tonight I'm back up at The Balsams for a two-night stint. Then it's back to the hometown of Campton for a Sunday show at a local campground, and Monday is a Labor Day block party in Newton, NH.

QotD: It's good to have a plan, but you can't let it get in the way of what you're going to do. If that makes any sense...

[Paco Del Stinko]

It certainly helps to have at least an idea of what you'd like to do before you do it, regardless of time frames. Being flexible will help you whether being pressed or strolling along.

Watch those speed limits, Jim.

[king_arthur]

May be delivering several more computers to Wesley Center this afternoon, or may be holding onto them and trying to figure out why the online version of the Rosetta Stone language learning program (shockwave, I think) is having choppy audio, and if I can figure that out, fixing it on all the systems. It may just be 'cause we're trying to view it on W98, and even though we meet all the other "system requirements" at the RS site, they do say W2K is a minimum... discovered last night that floppy disks now cost about 6x as much as CD-R blanks, and that if you buy one box of floppies at Walgreens, they are now out of stock... but I had been testing the floppy drives with old floppies from my first digital camera (3+ years old) and I needed to get some new ones to find out if the failures were disk problems or drive problems - it looks like it's the disks.

There was a QotD a while back about which songfighter we would like to see star in a reality show, and I didn't say it at the time, but I would watch "The Jim Tyrrell Show," just to see how somebody works at getting a music career going, gets gigs, etc. It wouldn't be as fun as "The Redmons," but I'd watch...

Charles (KA)

[Billy's Little Trip]

QOTD:
I have a bad habit of never getting started if I try to plan it out too much.
It's much better for me to jump in with both feet and just get started. Once I start, there's no stopping me. I know this about myself, so that's the approach I take. Plus, I tend to be much more creative when I'm totally into something.

[roymond]

QofD: As always, it depends on the job, the inspiration and the collaborators. And just life stuff. Musically I go both ways. Some songs need nurturing and some are just challenging and need to be planned out. Others are more spontaneous and still others simply drive themselves with me tagging along to capture it.

In life, "a little planning goes a long way" for anything substantial. Vacations even, where planning ahead helps relieve the "I can't believe we were a mile away from that awesome chocolate shop and didn't even know it!" syndrome. Or "they're closed on Wednesdays! WTF?"

Work stuff often starts out scattered (because clients never have requirements), but most of what I do requires intense planning and management so, go figure.

[Billy's Little Trip]

QOTD follow up:
I should also say, that by jumping in on a song and just getting started, I tend to stumble onto things that are actually more inspiring than my original motive for starting in the first place.

[The Sleestak]

QofD: I generally find I get better results from a Ready-Shoot-Aim approach than I do from a Ready-Aim-Shoot. I do much better when under the pressure of a deadline (although that could be my procrastination talking for if I have two months before a deadline I generally wait until day 28 of month two) the most recent exception to this would be my first side fight (Velvet Underground) which I actually recorded way ahead of schedule.

[Hoblit]

Question of the Day - In general, do projects (music or otherwise) turn out better for you if you plan it out or if you have very little time to do it?

for me, planning usually leads to a result i'm disappointed with, but if i just have to do it, i'm usually pleased with what i've achieved.

This.

I find that if I make a big production in my head of what I am trying to do in detail...I hardly ever (read: almost never) achieve that vision.

However, (as long as I have my studio set up in proper manner) I can go lay down something at a moment of inspiration and it'll turn out way better than I had originally planned. I become pleasantly surprised if you will.

[fodroy]

QOTD: I have no idea. I'm working on something all the time, usually poetry or short stories. I always go back and forth between projects. I have to write a creative nonfiction essay by Monday, so we'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to write about trying to convince my mom to join the church of satan.

As far as music goes, I've always written and recorded songs all at once. I don't like starting something and then coming back to it. I like to work on it while the idea is still fresh and interesting to me. Otherwise I lack motivation to work on it some more.

[blue]

musically, nothing beats practice.

[sausage boy]

Depends what kind of a project it is.

Generally anything musical I do has no, or a very thin, plan. I enjoy seeing where different ideas take me.

Now, in my other life, the life that sausage boy shares with some poor, wretched, broken young man from the southern suburbs, planned projects feature more. While still accomodating room to move, these projects usually have a specific outcome in mind, and so some kind of outline is drawn up. It is much easier to get to where you want to go if you figure out which roads you are taking to get there. Man, that metaphore sucked.

In other news, I was out shopping with Legs today, and my pants fell down. I really need to buy a new belt.

[wages]

QOTD: No planning. I literally sit down and say, "I want to write a song", then I do so. It is usually lyrics first, but I find the songs that just "come out" while I'm doing other stuff (spontaneous singing) have the best melodies, but this rarely happens.

Here's an exercise in my songwriting process (thinking)... oh there are some smilies to the left of my screen....

send your smilies without reservation
I get your (wink), and I get your (laugh) <--scratch that

SMILIES & MASTURBATION (made up for SF right now)
send your smilies without reservation
I'm more worried about your masturbation
keep that shit off of my floor
take it to the bathroom, but close the door

Yeah, um, it helps to have better inspiration. The above is something I would just save and never look at again. But then I get (what I consider to be) good stuff like this:
IN THE FUTURE (written 8/15/2007)
VERSE 1
I'm going to get out of bed early
I'm going to see the sunrise
and I'll wipe the sleep off from my eyes
oh ...in the future
I'm going to conserve energy
I'm going to live life to the fullest
and I'm going to do it, ...do it all
...in the future

CHORUS
but right now I'm...
indisposed at the moment
and right now I can't...
be bothered to jump on it
but I want it -
I wanna take it -
but I just don't wanna do it-
...till the future

VERSE 2
I'm going to hold truth to the evidence
it will be time that's very well spent
whenever I get off of this bench...
...in the future
I'm seeing the use of change
even thought I voted for the plan
and I'll be doing all that I can
...in the future

CHORUS

BRIDGE
don't bother me with all your deadlines
I'm tired of tripping on the thin lines
I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for opportunity
<knock>
Go away, I'm busy with my own ways

..cause... CHORUS

And sometimes I am "pre-inspired", usually by some emotional event:
WHEN THERE IS NOTHING TO SAY (written as an apology to my wife on 8/18/2007)
when you're down and depressed
I feel it too
your feelings feel under arrest
if only I knew

you can't shake these things
you can't share these things
and I just hate the things
that make you blue
and its true

but I am learning,
to fight my yearning
cause I don't know the question
so pull back; do not mention
despite the burning
sen-sation --
to speak my mind --
when there is nothing to say
nothing to say

If you wanna hear my progress on those tunes, PM me.