#rpm2024 — Public Fediverse posts

The IKEA kitchen deliveries are happening on Monday and Tuesday. A few boxes on Monday and almost 200 on Tuesday. The plumber is coming to disconnect everything on Monday. Demolition of the current kitchen is Friday and installation of the new kitchen is Saturday. They are telling us they only need one day to install but that seems crazy to me. The plumbing hookups, electrical work, and the addition of the backsplash all happen at some point after the install. When? We don’t know yet.

Both of my step kids are going on trips over spring break. They are coming home the week after the kitchen install. I have to take a day off to drive them both to the airport. We have Harry’s flight information already but not Bellana’s. Not yet at least. The following week we’ll pick them back up at the airport but as of now it doesn’t look like I’ll need to take time off from work for that.

I also have five days to finish the RPM Challenge. I have three songs finished, six ready to mix, six ready for lead guitars, and five waiting for vocals. Two of those five have lyrics and a melody written. I did those earlier today. I am hoping to get to the other three before I sleep tonight so I can get them all recorded tomorrow morning. If I can’t get through it all tomorrow I’ll have to finish up before work on Monday. Then I just have a ton of lead guitars to record and multiple tons of mixing to do. I can get to it all, but it’s going to be tough. I have some late nights and early mornings in my near future.

There are so many things to do in the coming weeks. So very, very many things. It’s going to be pretty crazy around these parts. I’ll post lots of pictures as things progress.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/24/upcoming-stuff/

#Guitar #homeImprovement #homeOwner #IKEA #kitchen #kitchenRenovation #Music #Recording #renovations #RpmChallenge #rpm2024 #SongWriting #upgrades

I don’t think I’ve ever used Flickr to host a video here. Does it work? I had this idea of a post about me driving somewhere for some early morning car music today but then I didn’t post it until I got home after finishing the car music. Oh well.

I put vocals on four songs today. That means there are only five songs left to write and record the vocal parts for. 15 songs have their vocal tracks finished. Excellent!

No pics of the clock downtown today. I didn’t take the long way home, I took the fastest route possible. There are tons of things going on today and I didn’t want to delay my return home for even a minute or two.

Things unrelated to music projects that were in the planning, semi-hypothetical stage 24 hours ago have ramped up to the imminent and stressful stage. Bring it on! Roll with the changes, as the song goes.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/21/driving-out-to-car-music/

#carMusic #carVocals #iphoneography #Music #Recording #RpmChallenge #rpm2024 #SongWriting #super8

Two days in a row. I’ve played guitar two days in a row. It feels good, except for my very sore, callus-free fingers. Ouch, babie.

I worked on four songs. I put rhythm tracks onto two songs and leads onto two others. All of that plus the four vocals this morning makes it a pretty good day, RPM Challenge wise. I have a lot more that I need to get to today though. With tomorrow being a vacation day for me, I want to do more vocals in the car in the morning. I don’t have any songs that are ready for that yet, so I want to try and write lyrics for 3-4 songs before bed.

In closing, the obligatory pics. This time with Hipstamatic and shake-to-shuffle.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/18/my-finger-tips-hurt-again/

#Guitar #Hipstamatic #iphoneography #Music #photography #Recording #RpmChallenge #rpm2024 #shakeToShuffle #SongWriting

I did some RPM Challenge work this morning after finishing my exercise and my breakfast and my daily writing prompt. What did I do? Vocals. I drove off to an empty parking lot in town and recorded the vocal tracks for four songs while sitting out in the cold. I really wish I wasn’t so shy about recording myself singing. It would be so much easier to just do this at home. The negative then would be all the noise I make and how annoying it would be to my wife, rather than me just being a wimp who is too shy to sing when other people can hear me. I’m fine singing with the band, but in those cases there is enough noise that I can trick myself into thinking I am hiding behind it. Also, I am playing guitar at the same time and for some illogical reason that makes a difference. Why? Who knows.

The only interesting thing about today’s car music is that I only had three songs prepared with a melody and lyrics. After I cranked out the vocal tracks for those three songs I wrote the lyrics and melody to the fourth song while I was recording. I wouldn’t say I improvised the vocal parts, but they are lame enough that you might think they were improvised. Who cares. I sure don’t. This means I have 11 songs with vocals, and the RPM Challenge definition of an album is 10 songs or 35 minutes… which means that even if I don’t record another vocal track for the rest of the month, I can still finish a full album. Nice.

Here are some pics from my “studio” for today.

Can you guess where the snowplows dump the snow when they clear the mall parking lot? I can.

Also, here’s the obligatory down town clock, because reasons…

Also, because I can’t resist, I happened to catch the cats sitting together on the old cat tree just before I left the house, so you get that picture too.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/18/like-some-kind-of-lame-canary/

#365 #365Challenge #carMusic #carVocals #Cat #Family #iphoneography #Kitty #lily #Music #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography #Recording #robin #RpmChallenge #rpm2024 #SongWriting

I promised myself I was going to do it on Thursday and then failed to do it. I did not fail on Friday though. I played guitar this morning. I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. Breath that sigh of relief!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/16/friday-morning-guitars/

#365 #365Challenge #GibsonLesPaul #GibsonLesPaulCustom #Guitar #LesPaul #lesPaulCustom #Music #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography #Recording #RpmChallenge #rpm2024 #SongWriting #z5

Well… I sent a message to the guitar shop that put new frets on my 1978 Les Paul. I said I have a 1979 ES-335 that probably needs new frets as well but also might need new wiring and maybe kinda might need to have the neck joint re-glued.

Yesterday I was excited about this. Now I’m terrified again. Uh oh.

Note on the photo, I already replaced the missing knob. In fact, I replaced all four knobs. That’s about the extent of what I am willing to do myself as far as mods or repairs to any of my guitars.

Unrelated musical note… The RPM Challenge starts in eight hours and 14 minutes. My goal is to write and record either 10 new songs or 35 minutes of music entirely during the month of February. Actually, I am going to shoot for 20 songs or 70 minutes because double albums are fun (looking at you, The White Album and you, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) so why not go for it?

It’s almost time to start. Will I start at midnight tonight? Don’t be silly, I will start tomorrow morning. I am way too old and feeble to stay up until after midnight on a school night. What do you think I am, young?

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/01/31/it-begins-5/

#Guitar #guitarMods #guitarRepairs #guitarShop #luthier #Music #Nikon #photography #RpmChallenge #rpm2024