Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Me, sixth grade, reading the sheet music for ELO's Face the Music during inside recess:
Teacher: That's a great album!
Me: Yes, I like their stuff.
Teacher: Do you know what 'face the music' means?
Me: ...standing in front of a stereo?
Teacher: ...

Actually, I knew what the phrase meant by that time. I just couldn't pass up a good, painful joke. :)


So yes, music. There was a LOT of it this past week. Lots of new albums released that I couldn't wait to download. Interpol's El Pintor, Robert Plant's Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar, Sloan's Commonwealth, and my friend Dae's Digital Scars (under her new band AnaDaenia--seriously, go check it out), for starters. And of course the surprise release of U2's Songs of Innocence, which I think is probably my favorite of the lot so far. [And amusingly enough, I recreated two further new releases--the Icon collections of John Lennon and Ringo Starr--via the mp3s I already have!] I also grabbed a earlier releases via eMusic, such as the Scruffy the Cat anthology.

And speaking of 80s-90s Boston bands, I made the mistake of ordering a few used cds from a third party vendor through Amazon. I grabbed two Raindogs cds from 1990-91 I've been looking for, and two Cavedogs cds (more on that in a second), plus a few non-Boston early 90s releases. The mistake lies in the fact that Round3 has to be the worst third-party vendor I've ever used...cracked jewel cases, a wrong cd in the case (one Cavedogs album had a Bobby Fuller greatest hits in it instead), lack of tracking, and missing another cd I'd ordered, which they said "oh, it got lost in the mail", which I'm pretty sure is bullshit. Ah well...lesson learned.

In other music news, yay, I finally figured out (sort of) how to play the "Dear Prudence" riff! Okay, I'm nowhere near playing it exactly like John does, but still...I've at least figured out a variation of the chord fingering! The trick now is to teach myself the fingerpicking style. It's gonna be hard because it's definitely not the style I'm used to. Some fingers are plucking the low notes while the others are plucking the highs as a counterpoint. This will take a bit of time, I fear.

In writing news...currently working on the second chapter of Two Thousand. It's a bit of a chore because I'm still not entirely sure where this particular scene is going. That's not to say I'm making it up as I go along...more that I have a very vague idea of what I want the chapter to do, but I currently have no roadmap on how I'm going to get there. I'm pretty sure this is going to cause problems down the road, so I think what I'll do is what I did with the trilogy, and map ahead a few scenes and/or chapters, just so I know where I'm going. Yeah, I know, this is Novel Writing 101 and why didn't I do this already, yada yada. But this is often how I start novels: the first chapter or so spills out and is completed, just to set the mood and get the plot rolling, and only then do I sit down and preplan the rest of it.

So! Busy weekend awaits! Hope everyone has a relaxing time! :)

Hmm. Interesting track, this. Post-Noel Oasis, now known as Beady Eye. They've got a new album coming out at the end of this month. Amusingly, it's titled Different Gear, Still Speeding.

1) Yeah, I kind of agree with the comments on the YouTube site...very similar to John Lennon's "Instant Karma!", though I can forgive them that. Liam (and Noel, for that matter) has never made a secret of his Beatles obsession. Speaking of which, they certainly have Rubber Soul haircuts here, don't they?

2) I'm quite liking this, as this is very reminiscent of Oasis' Heathen Chemistry from 2002, in my opinion their most mature and melodic album, and my favorite of theirs. I'm curious to see what the rest of the album sounds like.

Just found out from Dave Kendall on Sirius XM's 'Classic Alt Rock' channel that The Godfathers are in the studio finishing up an album.

WOOOHOOO!! :D :D

Monday I did a marathon writing session lasting four and a half hours...had to finish off an article for Vision, an online writing zine (check it out at www.lazette.net/Vision ). And after that I continued working on my latest story for another few hours...all in all I hit a record high of 2304 words. Damn, I'm good. ;)

Okay, so you're wondering--why do we writers count words, rather than pages? Well, it's a habit we get into because publishers ask for word count, not page count when you submit to them. More on this later, as it entails a long-winded explanation.

Speaking of writing--I highly suggest y'all check out www.fmwriters.com ...this site was originally started by SF/F writer Holly Lisle, who has since moved on to concentrate more on real life and other works...still, it's a great place to hang out, whether you're a professional or just starting out.

End of shameless plug.

In other news...Check out these new CDs. They kick major butt.

Elbow, Cast of Thousands
Explosions In the Sky, The World Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Air, Talkie Walkie
Starsailor, Silence Is Easy
The Church, Forget Yourself