/home/todd

I recorded the guitar track for this over the summer.  It was the first piece I recorded in Cubase that I was really happy with, but somehow I got distracted from recording the vocal track and left it alone for a couple of days.  By the time I came back to it, my computer’s monitor had died a tragic death, just a few months shy of the warranty expiration.  Kudos to Viewsonic for promptly shipping a replacement, but it didn’t arrive until I’d left for a two-week trip to visit family in Detroit.  The day I returned to Corvallis was moving day… I spent the next month living out of a suitcase, and by the time I finally had my own place again, Twinkle was sick and I was in no mood for recording.  So this has been sitting on my hard drive for months, waiting for the inspiration to come back and finish it.

Last night I went out with Erica and her friends to catch a bluegrass show at Fireworks, and by the end of their first number I had my inspiration back.  How that woman could sing!  This evening I finally loaded up the old project and finished it off.  The original Tom Waits demo of this tune is one of my favorite songs, and I know I can’t do the original any proper justice, but I think it’s an appropriate tribute to the man whose music inspired me to really focus on song-crafting again.

Ol’ 55- MP3 download

Last week Eric posted about memorization, and our culture’s general lack of it.  He was specifically referring to storytelling and poetry.  I only had to memorize a couple of [very short] poems in high school, but I recall even that was nearly beyond me, I had a terrible time of it.  I do really well with plot lines; the general series of events in a film or novel or history book  stick with me for ages, but the specifics never do.  Unlike some people, I have no idea when the Treaty of Ghent was signed.  I’ve often wished for a mind able to trap these details and hold onto them until they become useful, but I’m afraid that’s not my lot.

Music, however, is a different story.  It seems to be the combination of words and melody that does it for me… I’m no good at recalling either until I’ve memorized both, but that usually only takes listening to a tune a couple of times.  Seeing lyrics written by themselves doesn’t help me at all, they slide right through my mind.  Melodies, by themselves, are the same way.  When I was playing classical guitar, I had lots of trouble memorizing pieces for performances.  Once I even got halfway through performing a piece before realizing I had no idea what came next, and just stopped (this actually happened twice: the same song, at the same spot, at the same competition.  Tres embarrassing.).  Once you combine the music and lyrics, however, I’m fine.  I’ve recently been playing a lot of tunes that I learned 5 or 10 years ago and haven’t even thought of in years… remarkably, they’re all still up there.

I’m not sure why I have an easy time memorizing these two concurrent vectors when simply one vector alone is very difficult, though I suspect it has something to do with the music reminding of associated lyrics, and vice-versa.  No complaints, though.  It’s allowed me to build a formidable repertoire of cover tunes which, some day, will be as useful (to me) as knowing the signing date for the Treaty of Ghent.

[Just to be clear, that last bit isn't sarcastic.  Chris got a great laugh out of an audience by mentioning that little tidbit, which I'd say is pretty awesome.]

Amazing how time flies when you’re traveling.  Suddenly it’s Friday, yet part of my head is still back on Sunday-time, getting excited for the week nearly over.  In fairness, it was a pretty awesome week (sort of).  After making up my mind to ask a severely cute barista on a date (but not now, I’ll do it later!), I went to run some errands, sort of hoping to bump into her at the Co-Op (which has happened before).  So I’m nearly done with my shopping, trying to pick out a case of beer, when all of a sudden there’s her familiar voice… but it’s asking if she can help me find anything, sir, and I do a double-take before realizing it’s really her.  Chalk one up for two sort of awkward senses of humor.  After some babbling on my part, I must have eventually gotten English words out in the right order, because she seemed excited at the prospect of dinner the next night.

So we went out for drinks and some dinner and chatted for a few hours.  I was pretty shocked by how closely our personalities seemed to match, my thoughts constantly oscillating between that and things like, “OMG her smile is so cute!”… so yeah.  It seemed to go well, and I was in a pretty good mood.

The next night the two of us went to a party my friends were hosting.  She seemed a bit more distant this time, though it may have been the overwhelming numbers of new people… I usually get pretty shy in that sort of situation, too.  Less ambiguous was when, on the ride home, she said that she wasn’t really looking a relationship at this point in her life.  Fair enough (and possibly open to interpretation, but I think it was her way of saying she wasn’t interested).  We hugged and parted ways for a couple of weeks (I flew back to Detroit the next morning), but I’m still hoping to hang out with her some more (and maybe even meet her friends!) when I get back to town.

Wednesday was a busy day of shuffling from Corvallis to Portland to Minneapolis to Detroit to Rochester Hills, and combined with the time-loss flying from the west to east coast, was over before I even knew what was happening.  At least I scored a fantastic martini to pass the time in MSP.

And today… today has been weird.  The last time I was home, I was introducing it all to Twinkle.  I’m still catching myself looking around for her when I head upstairs, or wondering if she’d like a cup of tea, too.  I’d finally gotten over this in Corvallis; I didn’t realize I’d have to do it all  again in Detroit.  On the upside, my mom took me and Kyle shopping for the evening and I snagged a fabulous old-school Detroit Tigers t-shirt and some new Doc Martins.  Still searching for that ever-elusive pea-coat (the one that will actually fit me) but there’s plenty more time to continue that adventure over the next week and a half…

I’ve been working on the final project for my OpenGL course since 9am today, and I have absolutely nothing new to show for it*.  Argh!

In happier news, on Friday night a burlesque troupe passed through Corvallis. Tim and I went out and caught the show, which was surprisingly good.  Maybe not in the same league as the Apocalypse in Coney Island show Twinkle and I saw at Bumbershoot (nowhere near the same theatrics), but better than anticipated.  Then I spent yesterday catching up with an old friend from Detroit who recently moved to Portland.  We went out to a bar near his place, then headed over to Rontom’s for Simone’s farewell party.  I’d brought my camera all the way for Corvallis, then forgot it in the trunk of my car when we left his apartment, so one photo from my phone is all I have from the night:

Phil (right) and his roommate Dom

[*: Except for a decreased tolerance for OpenGL in general, and increased respect for the people who use it well.]