As of this moment, I’ve lived in California for exactly ten years. If I haven’t moved to San Francisco before now, I’m never going to. Every time I contemplate the idea, I think of one reason I’d want to and 20 reasons I wouldn’t. Obviously, I don’t belong in the city. And I’m now sort of done apologizing for that fact.
Somebody’s got to be the disco freak of the Valley anyway, right?
Jun 01, 05:50PM PDT | 1 cheer | 3 comments
I set a New Year’s goal in 2008 to write 52 Tracks in 52 Weeks. As of October 8, I’ve posted 39 to my music blog. I’ve got 13 more to go and there are 12 weeks left in the year.
Surprisingly, a staggering majority of the tracks are improvised ambient compositions at about 40 beats per minute. Creating these slow, lethargic, sleepy time pieces tunes my ear to mix issues that I wouldn’t notice if the tempo was higher. Plus, it gets me in the practice of trusting my musical skill enough to play music while the record button is on, with no idea where I’m going with this.
It also gives me the realization that not every track I write has to be great for me to let the world have it. Of the 36 ambient tracks I’ve written so far this year, I doubt very many of them are amazing. The point is that musical output often looks like a bell curve, with a small number of As, a bigger number of Bs, a great number of Cs, a few Ds, and a smattering of Fs. Even if your favorite artist can do no wrong, we never hear the army of turds they wrote to get to their greatest hits. Even some of the songs on Stevie Wonder’s albums are filler (Cs).
Onward!
Oct 13, 2008, 10:00AM PDT | 2 cheers | 0 comments
I’ve found a couple of places online where I can get a bar and 300 pounds of rubber bumpers for under $750. I have room in my garage, provided I shift things around. I could get 750 pounds of iron plates and a barbell used for $120 around here (lots of people buy exercise equipment, use it once, and sell it), but I want rubber bumpers. With iron, if you start to fail, you still have to lower the weight to the ground.
With bumpers, you reach lock out and you drop the bar. Since I always work out alone (although I’ve invited my housemate to join me), having equipment that doesn’t require a spotter is key. With bumpers I can put them in the back of my new car with a barbell, drive to the park and do Fran as RXed.
(Fran = 3 rounds for time (21, 15, and 9 reps) of: 95 pound thrusters, pullups)
I’ve been using dumbbells and kettlebells. Time to raise my game.
Jul 07, 2008, 04:34PM PDT | 1 cheer | 1 comment