Yep, there were a million things that I could have been doing yesterday and I didn’t really do any of them.  Well, that is probably not true, but I could certainly have been more productive.  I did meet the new neighbors, well one of them anyway.  I don’t remember her name (not that I would post it), but I believe that she is a student at one of the schools here in Salt Lake, and she is either married or is living with her boyfriend.  To me, she seemed young to be married, but this is Utah after all.

What I really did yesterday was fiddle around with making a recording of me playing guitar and singing.  I am not really sure what inspired me other than it was a nice day and my mother woke me up with a phone call to tell me that it was National Hamburger Day, whatever that means.  I don’t think the phone call was really inspiration other than getting me out of bed.  I am sure the neighbors would have accomplished that though with the moving in and such.

So, what song did I work on?  The great traditional folk tune, Shenandoah.  I laid down two guitar parts, one on 6-string played capo-five and one on the 12-string played open.  I also laid down a “drum” track by just banging away on the back side of the 12-string.  It was actually pretty effective.  On top of that I laid in a few vocal tracks and played around with all the effects that Garage Band has built in.  It was pretty cool.  I think that I even came out with something that I like.  It is no professional recording, but it is nice.

There are a couple little mistakes that I made, but I felt like they were small enough to just leave in.  I did make a whole bunch of takes on both guitar tracks to get where I am and, to be honest, I just didn’t feel like going back again.  Last summer my brother, a camper, and I performed an arrangement of this song.  Maybe I can get them to lay in the parts that they played, specifically mandolin and harmonica.  On top of that I have a friend who plays and makes indian flutes who might be interested in collaborating.

In any event, I am looking forward to the summer and playing and singing a lot again.  I am sure that I have mentioned that before on my blog.  It is a lot of fun to do.  As always, comments and critiques are always welcome!

This post is inspired by the number one prompt this week from Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop: “Write about an experience you have had with a celebrity.”

My father works in broadcast television.  Something like 17 years ago, he and one of his friends founded a company called VideoLink.  VideoLink provides satellite and fiber-optic transmission services for live TV production (that is a gross over-simplification, but it is not important to the post).  They started with one little, hole-in-the-wall studio in Watertown, MA (just outside of Boston) and have now grown to having facilities in Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia along with four satellite trucks.  In the early days, I used to work for my father almost every weekend, then as the company grew I got replaced more and more.  Then I got old enough that I was useful again every now and then.  In any event, working for my father allowed me to meet some pretty interesting people.

This story is from 2001.  If my memory and wikipedia are correct, it was March 6 to be exact.  Well, it all really started the day before.  It was a relatively normal day except that my father was staying a little late at the office.  He called me and asked me to find him a nice photo of a beach.  So I hopped on the computer (I don’t remember if we were still on dial-up or not at that point) and started searching for beach photos.  At the same time it was snowing like crazy outside.  I had no idea what the photo was for, but when I found one I emailed it off to him and that was that.

When my father finally got home that night I think we had already known that there was not going to be any school the next day.  My father got in and asked if I would come to work with him the next day to take some still photos of the shoot that they would be doing.  He also told me what was going on, Aerosmith was going to be in the studio doing promotion for the release of their album: Just Push Play.  They were scheduled to be live on TRL on MTV with Carson Daily, but the snow storm closed the airports and they couldn’t fly out of Boston.

Since the band was stuck in Boston they would still go live on TRL but  from boston.  The beach photo was going to be green screened in behind the band and they lounged around and then Carson would ask them about the release of the album.  At this point they ran outside and got on a dogsled and sledded to a record store to deliver the albums.

Well, for starters, Boston is under quite a bit of snow now so everything is closed.  They had to call all over the city to find a record store that was willing to open to do the shoot.  Then we had to call as many people as we could so that there would be a crowd of fans at the record store and at the studio for when they left on the dogsled.  Of course they also needed to find a dogsled as well.  It is quite amazing what you can do on short notice.  It was all organized by the morning!

So, I spent the day following Aerosmith around and dogsledding with them.  The photos I took do exist somewhere, probably in the archives at VideoLink.  At the time I was shooting on film, so I don’t have access to files right now.  While we were shooting one of the dogsled scenes I actually got to talk to Steven Tyler.  I don’t really remember what he said to me.  after that though, they almost ran over my dad with the dogsled and he ended up with a pretty good gash in his leg.

In all, it was probably one of the best snow days that I have ever had.  I mean, I got to meet Aerosmith.  I know that I have an autographed CD back at my parent’s house.  Pretty cool.

It has been a while since I have done a music post on Monday.  Last night I pulled out my guitar to play for a while as I was feeling inspired by the nice weather.  I like playing the guitar, and I am looking forward to the summer and being back at camp and doing a bunch of playing.  There is definitely something about the nice weather of the summer that makes me want to do more playing.

Last summer, my brother and I played together at camp.  Unfortunately he won’t be there this summer as he finally has got a “real” job.  Last year we tried to do a tour of 90′s music every week at campfire.  Though we did throw in a couple other folk songs like “Shenandoah.”  I also brought back some favorites of the kids and staff like “Freshmen” by the Verve Pipe.  Hey, does anyone else remember that song?  I have always been surprised by how many of the kids who were born well after that song was recorded know it and ask for it!

So this year I need new music to bring to camp.  I am always up for some classic rock and I have a couple songs that I had started working out last summer but never played.  I also thought that maybe I could bring some newer music to the summer.  I am pretty sure that I will find the opportunity to play “Fireflies” by Owl City.  I bet that the kids will know it and be able to sing along.  I like getting the kids involved.  I am also sure that I will be asked to learn a bunch of songs on short notice to play for services at FA.  I like doing that as I get a few newer songs in my repertoire.

This summer I also have the added bonus of heading off to camp with Ruth, who also likes to sing.  I know that she has some ideas for songs to do which means that I will have some new material there.  She keeps telling me that we should learn some Nora Jones.  I can do that, we just need to pick some songs to focus on.  I am looking forward to a music filled summer!

So, if anyone has some suggestions of songs to learn for the summer, please, let me know!

Finally, after quite a long week at the theatre I got to have a day off today.  I got to sleep in!  Today I just got to relax and it was pretty amazing.  Sure, tomorrow I have to go back to the wind and grind for what will be a very long week, but that makes having a great day off all the better.

The irony of my day off is that I still managed to go to the theatre.  I didn’t go to my theatre, but I went to a show by the University Theatre Department.  The show, Thaed, was really great.  It was a very interesting and moving exploration of a troubled mind.  The cast did a great job with the material and the book was pretty good.  It was written by one of the students and directed by a student as well.  I think that the book needs a little bit of work to tighten up the themes and flesh out some of the characters, but overall, I thought it was very good.

Of course, today was also a beautiful day.  I was really surprised at how warm it was outside.  It is kinda of fun to be able to have some time to have even a little time to enjoy that.  After having dinner with Ruth before her show I came home and was pretty darn happy.  Just in a good mood.  The neighbor (who I have mentioned before) was plucking away on the guitar which inspired me.  I pulled out my guitar and started playing as well.  I think that the fact that I can actually play annoyed him.  I sorta hate to say it, but that was kinda what I was aiming for.  It was fun too.  I should play more in general.

So, time off, huzzah!  Spring is here, awesome.  That’s about all I’ve got for today.