Saturday means Opeth

At least this Saturday it does. I’ll be seeing them tonight at the Pavilion in Irving. One of my preferred venues all things considered - drive, parking, venue. The opener is Graveyard, haven’t heard of them but I assume they’re appropriately heavy. I’ll follow my typical practice and depart about thirty minutes before doors, 7:00 pm in this case. It’s been a fairly long time since my last concert, at least by my standards. Unless I’m forgetting something, Iron Maiden in September was the last show I attended. Over five months is a long time compared to my concert frequency for the past ten years or so. I’ve actually been enjoying the break and foresaw a decrease as preferable. As luck would have it though, there are several can’t miss shows this year - The Who (actually rescheduled from last September), the Rolling Stones in May, and Roger Waters in October.

The Who and Stones are two long time bucket list bands that I want to see at least once and I should be satisfied. Roger Waters is someone that I can’t imagine has too many tours left in him, but he keeps a pretty steady pace so there’s no telling and I’ll probably go see him whenever I can. That goes for a few bands like Steven Wilson and Opeth as well. I also got tickets for GnR at the new baseball stadium, and although this goes against my normal conventions, there is a pit and I’ve found that makes the gen pop experience much more tolerable. GnR isn’t necessarily a bucket list band since I saw them in 1988, but I was way back and it was hard to really take in that whole show. I’ve said before I thought Slash with Myles Kennedy was more enjoyable and I’m doubtful this will change my mind, but it’s another one-off I wanted to see.

Primus managed to pull a few nostalgic strings when they announced a tour in which they’ll play all of “A Farewell to Kings” followed by a regular Primus set. I haven’t listened to Primus that much, but I’ve been aware of their association with Rush (and Geddy has given his blessing for this tour) and so this seems like a worthwhile show to see. It’ll definitely be the first time I’ve seen the title track, Cygnus X-1 (full version), Madrigal and Cinderella Man played live, even if it’s Primusized. I’ve seen Rush play Xanadu and Closer to the Heart a few times. I also got tickets to Jason Isbell in August and will attend along with the Garrett boys and few old high school friends that I haven’t seen in thirty years - Tom Harris and Jamey Warneke.

I tried out the Nintendo Ring Fit yesterday, and I can say that it’s possible to get a decent workout, at least for my fat ass. They have enough variety so you’re exercising most major muscle groups - arms/shoulders, legs, core muscles as well as some cardio to boot. I’ve got some mild muscle soreness this morning but not as bad as expected. I assume my normal elliptical and running workouts, as well as the various instruments I play, haven’t allowed total muscle atrophy. I’ll probably continue using this program, maybe every other day or at least a few days a week. The limitations of the apple watch are evident with this program because I know I was demonstrably more “worked out” at the end of a thirty-minute session compared to my normal 45-50 minutes on the elliptical. That being said, my calories burnt was about half what I normally achieve on an elliptical workout.

Yesterday was otherwise a decent day. I DTD for the most part, although some elbow soreness made me skip bass practice. There are times where even if I have the mental motivation, I’ll decide it’s a better decision to rest if my old friend the repetitive strain injury is waking back up. I’ve been in a period of decreased severity with the symptoms, which has been nice and has afforded more practice time, but the symptoms have never completely gone away. They mostly manifest with guitar and bass, and so when I do practice I’m often stopping after thirty minutes when the symptoms start to kick in more severely. I’ve come to accept that I just won’t be able to put in several hour sessions on guitar/bass as long as it remains like it has been for the past few years. I try to pay more attention to fatigue and pain signals and I’ve also tried to notice anything I can change ergonomically to mitigate the issues as well.

Friday Fishday

At least I remember that being a thing in my early elementary school years. Probably not today, though. Yesterday was a relatively successful day. DTD (did the disciplines) - drums, vocals, guitar, Korean study, drawing, but unintentionally skipped anything writing related to include this journal, classes, or developmental reading. I did read another chapter in Dracula and I’m enjoying the elliptical or tangential narrative, even though the final outcome was spoiled long ago.

I’m curious as to how many of the original readers would have picked up on Dracula’s nature and how many would still be naive up to my current progress through chapter eight, after Dracula had already arrived in England and was just about to occupy his new estate. It all seems obvious to me now, but I imagine back then when vampire stories were still relatively obscure that many readers wouldn’t have deduced his nature yet. I think Stoker’s technique and prose are compelling and effective here, definitely something from which to draw inspiration.

I got the Nintendo Switch installed in the home theater and made some changes to my setup, moving the turntable to outside the rack and on top, what for the easier access. So far, so good. I’ve got the ring fit ready to roll out later this morning when I exercise, although I probably will have some calibration to perform at the beginning. I don’t think this will replace or supercede my elliptical machine and treadmill, but it will be good to try and work some long neglected upper body and core muscles.

I’m still on my gradual and very incremental progress in the various disciplines. I can slowly notice small things becoming slightly easier. My goal of a complete band cover is still a high priority. This is probably counter-intuitive and not necessarily what I really need on these various instruments, but my favorite bands are a large part in why I play an instrument and even if these projects don’t make me a more well rounded player, they are satisfying a long held desire as a musician and fan. As before, my first planned song is “Anthem”, mostly based on the idea that the drums will be an “easier” entry point into the world of Neil Peart. I can already say that there are techniques in that song that are new to me and it’s going to be raising my drum game to a level higher than most typical rock players.

I think I’m not far on the bass and guitar parts, although I need to groove those and get them completely under my fingers and I’ve yet to look at the guitar solo. I haven’t even toyed with the idea of the vocal and I may just record this as an instrumental although I have given thought to how I might adapt Geddy’s part down a few octaves to fit my voice. We’ll see. I need to nail the instruments first before I turn my thoughts that direction.

It's Saturday, do you know where your journal entry is?

I’m still endeavoring to make this a daily habit, despite a few hiccups along the way. I have a tendency to get a little task or project stuck in my head that I’m compelled to finish and it ends up commandeering my time to the exclusion of a few normal daily tasks. Yesterday it started with importing the new Metheny album and Rush’s “All the World’s a Stage”, which I finally got on CD after all these years. My sister Dianna had bought the vinyl for me years ago and I still have that, but I didn’t have a version in my digital library. Well, as often happens I noticed a few omissions in the library, which is a “feature” of iTunes I’ve come to notice in the past few years.

Random albums and songs will just disappear from your library for no apparent reason. When you have a library as big as mine, it’s easy to miss for a long time. When I do notice it, and I’m at my computer, I try to rectify the problem right then. I think I’m going to just keep a running log when I notice discrepancies and then fix the omissions when I get time. All that to say, I spent a bit of time yesterday re-importing some albums I’ve had for thirty years, e.g. most of my R.E.M. albums were just missing, no idea why. I’ve also had an issue with my external CD drive where it has an audio drop out on the first imported track of any given album and you get the pleasant digital click, the musical version of nails on chalkboard. I fixed a few of those errors too, but there are still some lingering that I’ll have to deal with as I notice them again. I think I figured out the solution, which is just to skip the auto import function and manually hit the import button on iTunes. I don’t understand why that would make a difference, but it seems to be working.

These sorts of issues can tend to distract, but there are just certain areas of my life that I don’t like to tolerate errors or disorder. It’s funny in that some of my favorite stories involve chaos and disorder, such as Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” and “The Courts of Chaos” or Michael Moorcock’s “Multiverse”, which I’ve been re-visiting via Elric here lately. Some of the best story fodder is just the sort of thing that I can’t stand in my personal life. I don’t consider myself a control freak when it comes to others, I’d just as soon not get involved, but when it comes to my own life I don’t abide others who try to manipulate or control.

That aside, yesterday was a decent day overall. I ticked most of the boxes - exercised, walked the dogs, practiced drums, vocals, guitar, studied Korean and did some drawing in the Ink course. I attempted to make Pizza from scratch (mainly the dough, I didn’t make the other ingredients) and it was marginally successful. The dough rose as expected and the texture was okay, a bit chewy since I used regular flour. I’ve learned that bread flour is necessary for the more crunchy type crust. The other demerit would be for flavor. I think it needed more salt and sugar, it just tasted a bit bland to me. I’m going to experiment with various sauces and toppings in the future. The basic approach to making the dough is straightforward enough and it reminded me of my Mr Jim’s days.

The only negative from yesterday is I didn’t devote much time to writing (again). I’m not deliberately avoiding it, I think I’m still trying to find the ideal daily rhythm that capitalizes on the best time for a certain type of headspace. There’s a general level of mental energy and creative motivation that crosses all those different disciplines, but each has its own unique set of mental, physical, and spiritual (no, I’m not waxing religious here) demands. I find it easy enough to journal this early in the morning because I don’t need to have a particular analytical or methodical mindset, it’s more stream of consciousness than anything. I understand that first story drafts are often written this way as well, and it may eventually become my habit to write earlier in the day. I’ve also got to consider as the warm weather returns to Texas, one big portion of my day (at least an hour-ish) for exercising and walking the dogs must take place in the earlier morning hours. It becomes prohibitively hot after 9 am for a large swathe of the year, generally May to October.

I feel like I’m sort of languishing on guitar here of late. I subscribed to the “Cracking the Code” website, run by Troy Grady who I interviewed a few years ago for a class. Like many of my other classes, I just need to devote the time.

On drums I’ve been starting my practice sessions with the heel-toe kick pedal technique that many metal drummers use, and it’s slowly coming along. Getting the pedals setup just right is an important first step, and I think I’ve got them setup fairly well. At present I’ve just been practicing one foot at a time, and unsurprisingly, the right foot has come along quicker than the left, no doubt due to the left foot being mostly ignored in the time I’ve been playing drums.

I had a brief go at playing both feet together, and there for just a bit I was able to get it running smoothly and suddenly I was starting to sound like a speed metal drummer. It was fun to reach that plateau and realize that progress is being made. I’ve still got a long way to go before this is really under my feet so to speak. I need to be able to quickly transition between this double stroke and the single stroke and to incorporate it into songs as opposed to just isolated practice drills which is where I spend most of my time.

I’ve also slowly been practicing parts of “Anthem” by Rush, and it’s also gradually coming along. Although these milestones are often far away, I look forward to being able to master the entire tune on all three instruments and record a video of my performance. This is what it’s all about, even if purely for my own entertainment. I also hope to incorporate these learned techniques into my own songs. Anywho, enough of my yapping.

Dateline, 17 February 2020

I’m probably not going to continue with that title, but maybe just this once. Yesterday was a decent day. I exercised, walked the dogs, did some laundry, made burritos for lunch, practiced drums, vocals, and guitar. I also studied some Korean (TTMIK lesson 7) and spent some time drawing a lesson from a Udemy course I’ve been slowly working through. What’s missing is any substantial writing study or practice. I tried to resume the James Hynes course but was getting distracted with other thoughts (nothing important, probably my plan to move my RAID drive a bit lower to reduce the noise) so I abandoned that plan and went ahead and exercised.

In the afternoon after I had finished everything, I sat down to read, resuming “Inside the Victorian Home”, by Judith Flanders. This was one of my books purchased in service of research for “Luma” (working title), my planned epic fantasy trilogy. To paraphrase Professor Tolkien, “the research grew in the reading”, and I’ve given myself months if not years of future study. Not a bad problem to have, since I love the subjects and the learning, regardless if I plan to put them to good use in the future. Anywho, I didn’t get very far before I started drowsing off, so I abandoned that plan and resumed watching “The Expanse”, a great Science Fiction series based on James S. A. Corey’s novels. This had started on the SyFy channel but was picked up by Amazon after three seasons when SyFy canceled it. It worked out well in the end because the video quality is better and there are no commercials.

All that to say I’ve been setting myself up for failure slightly by waiting to read until late afternoon. I either need to change my time to maybe late morning (pre-lunch) or at least have myself a cup of coffee before setting down to read. I want to devote some time every day for “productive” reading (research, etc.) as well as my more light reading. I’ve got a huge TBR (to be read) collection of books and I’m not making much progress at this rate.

Overall, yesterday was a successful day. I’m gradually making progress at my musical disciplines. The passing of Neil Peart got me reoriented into studying his style and I’ve decided to try and approach it from the beginning of his Rush discography (Fly By Night), assuming the difficulty level will be marginally lower than the later albums. Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time futzing with the drum pedals, I still haven’t quite got the configuration the way I want. I’ve been starting to learn the heel-toe technique in service of faster bass drum playing (more for metal than Neil) and while I think the right foot is coming along okay, I’ve been having more difficulty with the left foot. This may be largely due to the left foot being mostly neglected in comparison to the right since I started playing about five years ago. I think part of it is due to the particular pedal setup I’m currently using. I bought this DW combo double bass drum and hi-hat pedal setup that’s all connected and I think for most applications it works well, but not heel-toe. I’m looking at eventually buying these pedals by a company called “Trick Drums”, as they have a very clever design that’s much easier to adjust and they look rock-solid in construction.

On guitar, I spent most of my practice time continuing to work on getting that intro riff to “The Spirit of Radio” correct after many years of playing it wrong. This is in service of gradually learning the song on drums and bass as well for the full song cover as discussed in the regular blog. I should be devoting more practice time to the other components of musicianship (ear training, theory, technique, etc.) and I need to start setting aside that time during each practice session. One of the great challenges of managing so many disciplines is not lapsing into auto-pilot when the overall weight of time required each day can start to overwhelm your more organized/planning mind.