Editin' and Giggin'

Lunch Lady: Tater Tots of Love, the musical I wrote, will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a couple of weeks. I spent the last couple of days doing some final requested edits on the accompaniment tracks, adding pick-ups to songs that start with no cue (tough on a singer if the music is prerecorded.) I tried adding pick-ups by recording a simple piano note, but that sounded bad because it is a different piano than the studio grand used to record the tracks in the first place. So what I had to do was find little piano fills in the existing tracks, cut them out, copy them, remove other instruments, tack them to the front of the music, and cross-fade for extra buttery smoothness. It was a tedious process, but an interesting challenge.

So I've not played out, solo, in a long long time. I've worked up a handful of songs in case the opportunity presents itself, but I've not sought the opportunities. (I'm not including the Yipee Jesus band I'm in. I'm talking solo piano/vox.) The whole family is traveling across many states to visit Roderick and clan very soon, and he's lined up a gig for us and some folks he knows. Yoikes, but yippee, too.

Then he sends me a list of songs they know, and it's, like, this endless, enormous spreadsheet. Double yoikes. No fair, Roderick! You guys are for real! Little casual gig my butt.

Looking forward to it, though.

Checking in:

The most creative thing I've done since the last entry:
Mostly I've been practicing piano.

The least creative thing I've done since the last entry:
Bought junk on ebay, mostly for my kids. Actually, mostly for daughter, cuz I am bribing her to clean her room and do her summer reading: Pride and Prejudice DVD for $1.25 (that's 50 cents per vice, plus 25 cents for Keira Knightly.) (Although I think my daughter's interest in the film leans a bit more toward the guy who plays Darcy. She, daughter, is of a certain charming pre-teen age.) Jailhouse Rock for daughter (Whodathunk an 11-year-old could dig Elvis in 2008?), a Jailhouse Rock poster, and, for me, two movies I really like though they are generally considered to be awful: Daredevil, the directors cut (see previous post. $1.04!) and A.I. (99 cents!). I love A.I. I tend to like big beautiful messes by brilliant directors. Julie Taymor's Titus comes to mind as well.

Hmmm . . . have to check that one out on eBay.

Stuff that helped:
Time. It's summer, and I have time to play the piano. The other night, I had the house to myself for the first time in forever. I figured I would play the piano for about fifteen minutes, and then check email, and then clean the kitchen. So I played for a little while, and then checked email, and suddenly everyone was home again. The fifteen minutes at the piano was actually three hours. LOVE THAT!

Stuff that hindered:
eBay is frickin' FUN, baby.

Current project:
Learning tunes for the Roderick gig.

Next project:
Stalled on BIG PROJECT and BIG IDEA, despite encouraging emails from several readers. Will return, perhaps as leaves change.

Guitar?:
Diddley. As in squat, not Bo.

What I should be reading these days:
Nothin'. Can't only read what's good for you. I'm committed to junk for a while. After the current book (see below), I want to read a good stack of comics.

Oh, crap. But I also what to read stuff highly recommended by friends, including Free Play, for my creative self, and A Brief History of Everything, for my philosophical self, and The Universe Next Door for my arguing - about - the - nature - of - existence - with - a - friend - with - whom - I - disagree - a - lot - and - he - keeps - referring - to - this - book - so - I - need - to - read - it - to - keep - up self.


What I'm actually reading these days:
Summer is a time for reading for fun. I'm halfway through The Book of Air and Shadows, and it isn't nearly as good as the first few chapters were. It's lost it's sense of humor, and the main character is misogynistic (and incredibly strong!), so we've waded into stereotypical territory. It's basically a thriller mystery in the genre of DaVinci Code, with more witty twists (in plot and structure) and much better writing.

Today I recommend:
This, but I don't know why. It came to me via a reader.