Late evening weekend

I've done some more work on the song that I've been writing. I got some more verse material, perhaps a chorus/middle eight, which is much like the verse, and some other ideas to develop. I'm going to make a pass at recording sung vocals tomorrow (Saturday) to give me a sense of melodic ideas for both the vocal line and possible music. If I can get some basic guitar backing, I'll probably record an acoustic demo.

I think this is turning into a mid tempo song. I'd be curious to see if I can make it into something a bit faster or rockier, but I don't know if that would be forcing it into shoes it can't wear. I'll fill you all in on how it goes after I do some recording tomorrow.

I bet you're wondering what I've been reading. I'm reading "Will In The World," a biography of Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt, a Harvard professor and an expert on Shakespeare. I'm about a quarter of the way through the book, and it's quite interesting. Because so little is actually known of Shakespeare's life, the book is a reconstruction of the Elizabethan era, and how Shakespeare's plays and other writings may show some details of his history. Speculative, certainly, but interesting nonetheless.

I think that's going to be it for now. I'm getting tired, and will probably go off to bed soon.

NP: Pete Townshend, "Song Is Over," from Lifehouse Demos

Watch the Skies...

Yesterday evening, Joe Johnston and myself did our "So What's The Deal With Alien Abduction" presentation over in another residence hall on Dartmouth's campus, where I work. In fact, it was in the cluster I used to oversee, back in the 2001-2003 time frame.

We had an audience of about 25 students, and Joe and I regaled them for a little over an hour about the "history" of alien interaction, mainly during the 20th century. The students seemed interested, although there were less questions than I thought there would be.

Joe and I also determined that if we're ever to do this again, we're going to try to cut our blather down to about 30-40 minutes, in order to give more time for questions at the end. We both thought that while people were interested in the topic, members of the audience probably just felt beat down by the end of the talk.

All in all, it was a fun way to spend an evening. Joe and I afterwards watched some Babylon 5 commentaries from the 5th season of the show, which since they were sans Jerry Doyle, were actually filled with content and merryment.

We also have an idea to record our own commentaries on B5, which we can do with Joe's home audio recording set up. I'm sure we'll do this over time, it should be fun...

I am now sleepy, so it's off to bed for me. But first, notice the new link at the top of the right hand column of links. I have finally created a personal website! It's very basic right now, but watch for actual content as time goes on...

NP: Silence

The Aristocrats

I just got back from seeing the movie, "The Aristocrats," with one of my co-workers. It's a film about probably one of the dirtiest jokes ever told. It's an in crowd comedian thing, people looking to top each other in how elaborate, and quite frankly, gross the joke can get. If you're into comedy, and don't mind being offended, and/or hearing disgusting humor, then this film is for you.

I love comedy. I have a lot of comedy albums, that I enjoy listening to repeatedly (as long as the act is funny, of course). People have asked me how I can listen to the routines over again, when I know what the jokes are. For me, it's about the construction of the joke, the word choice, the pacing, the release, and all else that is involved with the telling of a great routine. This movie gets at that, in showing how different comedians put their spin, and analyze, this old vaudeville joke...

George Carlin's telling of the joke, perhaps because it's one of the first, or because I'm such a big Carlin fan, is one of the best. Gilbert Gottfried's is also fantastic. It's also told in mime, through a card trick, and in fake German. Go see this film!

On another track entirely, I have finally started my own personal presence on the web. It's pretty basic right now, with no content, but it will grow... Check it out.

Tomorrow, Joe J. and I will be doing our Alien Presentation here at Dartmouth in my old Residential Cluster. The fun never stops!

NP: The Daily Show

Writing Process

Yesterday, I talked about writing a new song, based on the idea that some people just can't stand being alone at all. They'd rather be in a bad relationship than no relationship at all.

Tonight, I took my first real stab at the poem/lyrics. I tend to fall into an A-B-C-B rhyme scheme fairly easily, and I didn't fight it tonight. What follows is a first pass rough draft at writing this. I don't know if I like it yet, but getting the ideas down on paper will get the ideas started. Here it is:

The moment you enter my life
Is the moment I know I'm complete
Our life and love magnify
I'm ready to come in from the street.

And when you finally turn on me
Like I knew you would always do
In a moment I've found the next one
The next one I'm certain is true

I want someone to complete me
Or at least to take up my time
With you I've got half the deal
I know you really don't mind

I give you all that I have
As much as I'll give to the next
You know that I'll love you truly
As much as I loved all the rest

I have this need inside me
I can never be left alone
As much as I can love you
My heart's really only on loan.

Copyright 2005 Mike Lord-Mars Central

Already, even typing this out, I have some ideas for revision, but I'll keep those to myself for now. It's a little sing-songy, but it's not bad for 10 minutes of work.

This is also the first time that I've written words with music on in the background. I didn't think that it would be good, but I could actually tune out the stimulus of the music pretty easily.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this song as it develops. I'd like to have a stable set of lyrics in the next few days, perhaps by the weekend. By then, I may have some chords to go along with the words.

In other non-music related comments, my present reading is Will In The World, a biography of Shakespeare. It's fascinating to read a biography about someone we don't really know much about. There's a lot more about the context of the times than about Shakespeare's particular life right now, but I'm only 40 pages into it. Perhaps that will change as I get deeper into it. However, there aren't a lot of primary sources about Shakespeare's life from his era. It'll be a good interesting read, I'm sure.

Soon, it'll be off to bed for me.

NP: Radiohead, Climbing Up The Walls