Spent about 5 days in the high desert near Palmdale, CA while Natasha was shooting nights on a movie. I took time to experiment with my new camera, the Sanyo Xacti HD1010.

This song is called “Your Grace” You might not be able to hear the words so well because of the wind. But it was fun to shoot in the middle of nowhere. I used the 320×240 “web” setting.

It’s gig time!! I’m jamming on Sunday, Oct 12 from 9am til 1pm on the path of the Long Beach Marathon. My job is to keep the runners energized. It’s up in the air who’s going to be playing bass and drums. Just like Sarah Palin says “I’ll hafta get back to ya on that one”

It’s going to be an early load in – 5am – because the roads get closed off for the marathon. The day will be a good one. I’ll try and shoot some video or audio. The runners will be running and I’ll be melting in the sun. Time for this vampire to get to the beach.

I’m indulging my filmmaker side again. Indeed, the script has begun. I can’t help but think of story ideas. It must be because of doing so many songs for picture over the years.

I love recording the songs. But I’m longing to put together a bigger puzzle. Now I’m not talking about a multi-million dollar affair. More like the micro budget indie type of movie. I love that stuff. Always have. My friends have made indies over the years and I’ve participated to varying degrees. The thing is it all comes down to the writing. Not so different than music in that respect. I’ve written some scripts but something always keeps me from pulling the trigger on going into production. Story problem. Unreliable people problem. Not following through so the momentum is lost. Though usually it’s something about the story that keeps me from directing my first movie.

There’s more constraints for the microbudgets. No airplanes, nuclear explosions, or even normal looking locations with 40 extras. You gotta write with what you have. And it’s gotta feel like spending 45 minutes in a coffeehouse is the most natural thing in the world, not cause you couldn’t get any more locations.

In my case I gotta wrap a story around a middle age guy that includes my music. In a natural way. And I’d like to officially introduce my wife, Natasha, to Wednesday’s Song. She’s an actress. You guessed it. She’s in the movie, too with her darling, slight eastern European accent. She’s an ingenue type. That’s sounds like a natural doesn’t it? Well, I think I’ve got my brain working on a good scenario. I wrote 21 pages since last week. I’ve been stewing on the idea for quite a while but there was a moment driving around where I met the characters. More to come on that.

As of now, Wednesday’s Song, is about the movie inspired by the songs.

I’m still rocking in the real world, too. As promised, here’s a tune from the gig at Nocturnal at the start of March. I suck cause I didn’t practice. But Anna Rosales on bass and Alexa Brinkschulte on drums are really rocking ladies. Just in case you didn’t read the earlier post, they learned the set by listening to mp3 from this site. We met at the club just as it was time to play. Quick setup. Countoff 1…2…3….4…. Rock on. My new band is awesome. I was so focused on the Durango Songwriters Workshop I didn’t really practice. This recording will prove it

Nocturnal_SheWalks.mp3

It was a fun three days in Santa Ynez at the Durango Songwriters Expo. Several folks I already know were there which made it even more cool. I’ve got a coupl new contacts for my future songwriting success. There wasn’t much brain juice left after listening to at least a hundred songs and networking all day.  I joined Songsalive. It’s a non-profit that’s for songwriters to network and develop better songs.  Here’s me with Songsalive co-founder Gilli Moon.

I’m all set up at home with a little home rig. The studio is in a 10×10 storage unit. Man, I’m just glidin’ along. It’s the first time I haven’t had to worry about a studio since 1991. I can’t work this way for too long. But for now it’s a blast being at home.  I’m finally trying a demo of Amplitube. Pretty darn cool. I’m going to have to take a pic of my new rig and post it!  

It’s a good feeling knowing the next song is in the can. Last night I stayed up pretty late and finished a couple of days early. Yay!

House concerts are on my mind. I wanna play ‘em. I listened to the cdbaby podcast about them and thought that sounds really fun. Maybe I’ll start making some acoustic Wednesday’s Songs so it sounds a little closer to that vibe. Idle thoughts. That’s what happens when you spend too much time in a room with no windows. I call it the studio coma.

It’s going to be another poetry setting for the upcoming WS. It’s already set to music. Lots of fun these Englsh poets. Early rock stars, I believe.

It’s a Monday. I was sure to catch up on all things undone. But then there was the voiceover session I forgot about. And getting a really cool job doing a Christmas song for a network. All the old stuff didn’t even get looked at. Time management is my Achilles Heel. Anyone else have that same kind of problem or are you all up to date on the details and sitting there at perfectly clean desks?

What a weird day. I felt terrible and did little. But I needed to pick up drums from the studio for 2 days of sideline work that’ll keep away from recording. I was thinking it’s going to be darn hard to do a song by Wed. Boom. out came a tribute to my hometown. It’s written. Still need to record before Wed midnite.

Halloween is all taken care of. I’ve bought a killer black studded polyester Elvis suit with a cape. My Elvis and Carl Perkins fascination has taken an active turn. The studs are guitar unfriendly, tho. There’s got to be a way to protect the guitar’s back from being scratched to pieces. A hunka hunka ; – )