Now that I've seen Moana, I want to record a mashup of "You're Welcome" with Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Maui Hawaiian Sup'pa Man".

Today I dug up my old, long-aborted recording of a cover of Ookla the Mok's "Super Powers" and redid it basically from scratch. I kept the drums. But I re-recorded everything else. I think it came out pretty good, but I'm probably gonna keep working on it for a while.

And yes, before you ask why I'm doing all this recording, I am working on another album. Doctor, Captain, Dovakiin, Chief is done except for cover art, and that will be done soon. I'm working on the next one, The B.A.M.F.s.

I ended up doing some additional recording and editing on "25 or 6 to 4" today, and I think it makes the first verse pop a bit more. I also did some editing and mixing on "Grinning Joker". Feeling pretty good about both of them. Probably still have more work to do, though.

This morning, I got up and started noodling around with an arrangement for Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4", and I liked it, so I fired up GarageBand and started to record parts of it. I ended up finishing it about 8 o'clock this evening. Then I went and recorded a second song, "Grinning Joker", which went much more quickly—I finished around 10:30.

So ... yeah. Two songs recorded in one day. Not bad.

The purpose of these idea logs is to make my brain "sweat". That is, to give it a good workout, just like a physical workout, so that my problem-solving, brainstorming, and creative skills become easier. These ideas, loosely related to some kind of theme for each list, are supposed to only be ideas where I know what the first step is. I might not know anything past that, but if I know what Step 1 is, then it's something that I can feasibly do.

So, to that end, here's today's Idea Log:

Ten Eight* Unfinished Projects that I Can Finish This Year

1. Publish UnCommon Women

   I actually already took the first step on this one. Yesterday, I looked through all of the photography I've done to date and identified the ones that I can definitely include, the ones that I might need to get an updated model release for, and the ones where I have no model release at all (yeah, yeah, I know, but hey, I was a talented amateur—didn't always remember all the niggling little details, ya know?). The next step is to contact as many models in the second two categories as I can.

2. Move my office into the front room

   My office used to be in the second bedroom. Then Caleb moved in, and it became his bedroom, and I moved all of the stuff into other parts of the house. The front room is currently a storage area. So the first step is to get everything out of the front room, figure out where it really goes, and then put it there.

3. Finish the first draft of my novel

   This is a daunting one. Writing the end of this book scares me. But I need to do it. And the next step is dead simple: just sit down and write. As one author put it: "Two steps to being a novelist: 1) Have a great idea for a novel; 2) Butt in chair and write!"

4. Doctor, Captain, Dovakiin, Chief

   Next steps: finish recordings of "Smells Like Beam Rifle", "The Too Much Skyrim Blues", "O'Brian's Mongolian Barbecue", and "The Old Dun Cow"; finish editing other tracks, doing spot re-records as necessary.

5. Won't You Scatter My Ashes?

   This is In My Humble Opinion's story album. Next steps: edit tracks, doing spot re-records as necessary; record all dialogue and background.

6. Put up foam on walls in studio

   Ideally, I should do this before I do any more recording. First step: cut foam into manageable pieces.

7. Get filing in order

   Next step: gather all files in one place.

8. Sod it!

   My yard, that is . . . . Next step: kill existing grass, weeds, and scrub with black tarpaulin.

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*Yep, brain ran out of steam at eight. But hey, better than not doing it at all.

Sunday afternoon at ConDor, my band, In My Humble Opinion, performed our story-set "Won't You Scatter My Ashes" for a crowd of about twenty people.

We rocked the house!

Seriously, I think it was one of the best shows I've ever participated in. Everything came together perfectly. The sound was dialed in exactly right (by awesome sound man Greg Gross), the audience was engaged and enthusiastic, and the band was in the zone. Everyone had a wonderful time, and the experience has renewed my excitement about this whole musical endeavor called I.M.H.O. We made nearly $100 in sales, and nearly the same amount was donated to Superpiggie to fund the album.

Yes, indeed, I.M.H.O. is going to record this story-set as an album! We hope we'll have something by the time we perform our next show, which at this point looks like ConJecture/ConChord in October. Also, the whole show was recorded on video, so there will be new videos up on YouTube in the near future! :D

This show is very much what I needed to get me feeling good about performing again. I had almost given up hope. I know that some of that was neurochemical in nature, but today I am happy. Here's to feeling happy tomorrow, too, and for many days after.

I posted this poll originally as part of a previous entry, but it seems that folks haven't really seen it, as I have only three people voting so far (and one of them is ME). So, if you can, please make your selections below. Thanks! :)

REMEMBER: "Spoilers", "The Man Dressed In Brown", "Too Much Skyrim Blues", and "Smells Like Beam Rifle" are already going to be on it, which is why they are not listed in the poll.

Taking advantage of the momentum from Tuesday night, last night I spent most of the evening in the home studio recording "Spoilers". I'm just as pleased with it as I am with "Getting Geeky". I came up with some chorus harmonies that I like very much. It still needs some tweaking, but mostly it just needs mixing and mastering.

Perhaps tonight I'll start recording "The Man Dressed In Brown".

Last night, I spent most of the evening recording parts for a 'studio' version of "Getting Geeky" (a live performance video of which is here—beware, the video starts automatically). It's coming along really well! I've still got to work on the ending and the instrumental bridge a bit, but I should have a workable draft done fairly soon.

The recording will be going onto my next album, Doctor, Captain, Dovahkiin, Chief, along with "Spoilers", "The Man Dressed In Brown", "Too Much Skyrim Blues", "Smells Like Beam Rifle" (not one of mine, rather written by the inestimable John Kovalic of Dork Tower fame), and seven to ten other songs.

In fact, of the songs I have yet to record that could potentially go onto the album, which ones do you think they should be?

Video Newsletter Idea

I was thinking the other day that, while I send a monthly e-mail newsletter to the 600 or so people who are signed up on my mailing list, I don't do anything like it for the 2,200+ people who subscribe to my YouTube channel. I used to do a video blog—which I tried to make weekly, but it never quite got there—but ever since the surgery to put my broken foot back together in 2009, I haven't done one. So I thought of the idea of doing a video version of the monthly newsletter for the YouTube channel.

It would probably take a similar format as the old video blogs, but also include relevant information about upcoming shows and other such events. And I'd try to jazz it up a bit, too. Make it more exciting. Not quite sure how, but I'll work on it. Does this sound like something that you think would be effective? Appropriate? Fun?

Delay on the "Deadly Ever After" Video

I promised several people that I'd have the "Deadly Ever After"* video up by this past weekend, but time kinda got away from me. However, I will try to put it up this evening. I still need to edit up some titles. My sweetie came up with a really cool idea for the opening titles, but I might have to save it for a later version just because of how long it would take.

And I still haven't heard back from Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) as to whether she's listened to the recording I gave her, and what she thinks of it. However, as she is usually ridiculously busy**, it's probably not a bad assumption that she either a) hasn't had time to listen to it yet, or b) hasn't had time or spare brainmeats to write to me. Which, frankly, I'm totally fine with. The woman is the second most productive writer I know personally (the first being Keith R.A. kradical DeCandido), and I would feel bad if I got in the way of that productivity.

Going to LosCon 40

For the fifth year running, I am attending LosCon. As usual, Allison caprine Lonsdale and I will be doing a show together—it's at 2:35 in the Meridian room. However, two things will be happening for the first time this year:

The first is that my band, In My Humble Opinion (I.M.H.O.), will be presenting our story-set Won't You Scatter My Ashes at 5:30 on Saturday evening (also in Meridian). This is the same set that we performed at Conjecture/ConChord in October, and we're very excited to be able to perform it again. In fact, we're so excited that we're in the process of recording it! It unfortunately won't be done in time to sell at the con, but it it definitely happening! We are quite happy about this.

The second is that I will be a panel participant for the first time at a LosCon. The panels I'm on are: "Budget Costuming" (Friday 4pm Dallas), "How to Write Good Dialogue" (Friday 5:30pm Chicago), and "History Is a Goldmine" (Sunday 2:30 Marquis 3).

General Update

I am feeling better today than I was for most of last week. Thank you to everyone who offered kind words and support. Radical honesty is, I think, still the best way for me to deal with some of my issues, especially since I have a strong tendency towards fear-based self-deception. By not trying to hide anything, from myself or others, I free myself to feel what I feel and deal with what I need to deal with. It's not easy, but it's becoming easier. And I feel much better for it.

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*"Deadly Ever After" being the title I finally chose for the song based on Seanan McGuire's Kindle serial Indexing—which, by the way, is SERIOUSLY AWESOME! If you have a Kindle, go buy it! If you don't have a Kindle, the paperback edition is available for pre-order and will ship in January.

**Seriously! In just a little over six years, she has published sixteen novels (twelve as Seanan McGuire and four as Mira Grant) and 44 pieces of short fiction. And then there are the seven professionally published essays (not including her LJ blog, which is amazing all by itself), the eight professionally published poems, and the five CDs! If I had half her talent and a quarter her energy, I'd be touring the country by now!