It's been forever and two days

Since I last wrote in here.  Everything is changing.  And some things are going back to the way they were with a new twist.  Life is a crazy journey. I'm always traveling.  I got an uneasy feeling that wouldn't go away about 2 weeks ago. Then I realized that I was going stir-crazy because I have lived here in Cleona for over 3 months now. Nothing if you've lived in the same place your whole life. An eternity if you haven't ever called a place home.  Touring will be probably be good for me if it ever materializes.  I have also discovered that I am a very 'mood influenced' person. For example, I just lost the motivation to finish this post. I'll post some more tomorrow.

New York, New York : Delanco, New Jersey

Tonite:  My 3rd featured performance at a CMC Live.  On the set list: 

 'Smile' =1 sad acoustic song by me

'Black Fish' = 1 sad electronica/ Radiohead-ish song by me

'Bleed it Out'  = by Linkin Park featuring Siggy! on guest rap vox.

'Killing in the Name Of' = by Rage Against the Machine featuring me swearing my guts out to a room crowded with Christians (including me).  

Love it.

Tomorrow:

LEAVE FOR NYC.

• 2 1/2 days of Freedom, Fun and Tourism.
  
• 2 days of Meetings and Serious-ness
  
• One afternoon on MTV TRL from Times Square...
  

     I don't know whether to be excited or disgusted by this last one, haha.

Ok I admit it I'm excited in a super nerdy way.

At least I'm already disillusioned with MTV and the media. ;)

March 20th:

• Take the train to Delanco, NJ  to see Sarah for spring break!

I Can't Wait for any of it.

...This also means I will have phone reception for the next 2 weeks ! Amazing!

So my friends, until after the 23rd, I say, Adieu.

Pressing On

We're about half way through the semester now.  Its only 1 1/2 weeks to our road trip to New York City.  Our professors keep telling us life is about to kick into high gear here.  Things are supposed to get more intense than ever before.  I'm admittedly excited to be ridiculously stressed and strung out for the next 6 weeks.  The reasons for this continue to evade me, really, but I guess that's alright.  At the moment I just wish I could get over this stupid head cold thats been invading my life for about a week now.  I'm sure most of the other students here would enjoy relief from that as well.  A good 70% of us are sick with some sort of illness at the moment. 

I think my songwriting is improving, slowly but surely.  I usually can't tell if its just dumb luck or some sort of skill developing when I end up writing a verse or a a chorus or even a whole song that actually has some sort of quality to it.  I ended up writing a Radiohead-ish song for this last Monday, which was weird for me.  It's not too shabby of a song though.  Not sure if it fits my intended genre really, but thats not the most important thing in the world for me right now.

Tom has opened my eyes in the last couple of weeks to a whole area of music that I've been neglecting in my listening.  I can't believe how I was able to ignore The Who and The Doors and Led Zeppelin for my teenage years.  I feel like I have a right to be angry at my parents for neglecting and abusing me as a child by not playing these records at the home.  I'm pretty sure they are what I am going to raise my kids on.  So, if you read this, and you don't listen to those bands, go buy 'Tommy' by The Who.  

"It will set you free."

2nd CMC LIVE

A week ago today I think I gave the best live performance of my life.  Definitely as far as theatrics are concerned.  I still need to go get the pictures and video from the computers in the Lodge onto my own computer so I can put them up.  Some of them are pretty cool.  I wore all purple and black with a purple bandana around my neck haha.  Oh, and I straightened my hair so I could shake it around.  I had an awesome time.  It helped me to confirm that this is what I want to do. 

I don't have much else to say. A.I.R.'s play tonight.  I don't have to do anything so it should be quite relaxing for me.  I hear its supposed to be a 'coffee shop' atmosphere, so I may be in charge of the coffee, but thats pretty easy. 

Peace

The Rain.

So my thoughts about coming out of the rainstorm were certainly premature when looking back at the last few days.  We certainly went through a lot of trauma and soul searching here on the island.  There were quite a few extremely low points.  Morale was low and there was a general funk over the whole place.  Most of our time in Boston was spent individually worrying about all the time we were wasting instead of practicing while collectively trying to fake having fun with everyone else.

Today we had basically 4 hours of talks with everyone and the professors about what the different problems are and just trying to get to the bottom of issues.  There were a lot of different issues that needed to be addressed and they finally were brought up.  

I feel a lot better about a lot of things.

Tomorrow, however, may be a completely different story.  

I know that my set is not as ready as it should be. 

 Sigh.

Surviving Masters

I realize its been a little while since I last updated in this hurr thang.  My apologies.  

However, I'm not sorry.  Apologies are a formality.

Anyway,  we had to make 'official' recordings for this last Monday.  They're called masters although its only one song. (Mastering usually refers to a whole album). 

 So, we all spent a huge load of time in the recording studios tracking and mixing and all that jazz.  It was amazingly stressful.  Fun, but stressful considering the short amount of time we had to get everything done.

I had about 5 total hours to track everything with no rehearsals beforehand.  Then I was up for ever trying to mix it.  That didn't work out so well.

The next morning I turned it in with all the others and we listened to them in class while the professors made comments about how bad they were.

They shredded them to pieces.

It was rather depressing.

Then we took the last two days to regroup ourselves basically.

I'm still fired up about music.  Or rather, re-fired.  It was being rained on for a little while, but I think the flame is growing again.

Trip to Boston coming up on Friday.  I'm excited to be off this island.

Peace.

Post First Show

Well, its over and we survived.  I think for a first performance it was actually pretty good.  I definitely didn't like the way my screaming was mic'd, and there were some other technical difficulties, but I think the band did its part quite well.  I've discovered I stand basically the exact same during an entire performance, which I should probably mix up.  My face also isn't very emotional when I scream, apparently (from watching the video of the show).

I'd really like it if I could have a mic with a cord so I could play around with it.  (Yeah, mics are for singing AND swinging.) I hate singing into a mic stand.  It makes you feel stuck and I think I should be moving around quite a bit since my music is (hopefully) energetic. 

I'm definitely growing.  By the end of the semester I probably won't recognize myself on stage.

Here are some pics ya'll. (There'd be more but they won't loooooaaad).