...and the show's about to begin!

I've been trying to set up a recording session to start Let It Rain but have not yet coordinated everyone's schedule. I had a window available at the studio for tomorrow night but key members of the team were not available then.

So I decided to book the session anyway and start that project that I meant to start in 2007 but hadn't got around to it yet - a remake of Magician's Plea. (See Come, let me show you my tricks)

My original version of Magician's Plea is some eight minutes long and has some long instrumental passages. My thoughts for the remake are to shorten some of the long instrumentals to the more standard 8 bar instrumental. However, I think some of those instrumental passages that I wrote are interesting so I'm not throwing them away completely. Instead I'll spawn them off into a few side projects - stand alone instrumental-only songs, along the lines of the instrumental version I made of The Great Escape in 2006. (See Should I change the name?) So the result I am envisioning is a collection that I think of as Magician's Suite, featuring a redux of the original song plus a couple of new instrumentals.

Opening the floodgates

After taking a bit of a summer break from my recording project (see Recording vocals), I am starting to move the ball forward again.

I met with Steve O tonight in an offline rehearsal to work out an arrangement for Let It Rain. This song is both simple and complex. It is simple in that it uses only about four chords, has a simple melody, and has only four lines of lyrics and three of those four are the same line repeated. It is complex in that it has potential for rich harmonies and textures and dynamics.

Because the song is so repetitive I wasn't sure how to structure the arrangement. How many times to repeat the verse? Where should it build and where should it come down? How many times should the verse repeat before the instrumental break, and for how many cycles should the instrumental repeat?

Steve O found a chord chart on the CCLI website. I learned that the chord progression is not as repetitive as I thought - there are some minor variations from verse to verse.

So now I'm clear how I want to approach this in the studio. To put down bed tracks, I'd like to invite Steve O to play acoustic guitar, David (who played guitar on Thank You and How Can I Keep From Singing...) to play bass, and Cindy to play keyboard, and I will do guide vocals. Once the bed tracks are done, I will have a second session to add layers and textures and to build the dynamics.

In the meantime I ponder... could all the thunderstorms we've been having this summer have anything to do with all the times that I've been singing this song? Let it rain, let it rain, open the floodgates of heaven, let it rain.

How dating is like football

So without going down to the level of crudity, here is how I see the Dating Game as being like football.

The Dating Game is like football except I have an unlimited number of downs to make touchdown - I am not limited to three or four downs before I lose possession of the ball.

There is no opposing team to tackle me. I may fall or fumble the ball. If I fall it is not because someone has tackled me, it is simply because I fell. Maybe my shoelaces were untied and I tripped over them - I get up, retie my shoelaces and try again. Maybe the most I can run is six yards at a time so I advance the ball as far as I can before I stumble, then get up and move the ball the next six yards. I challenge and stretch myself so that I reach the point where I advance seven yards at a time.

I never lose possession of the ball. When I stumble I might drop the ball and lose track of where the ball is. I find the ball then continue my next play from there.

When the pond is dry I cast my line in another pond. I haven't figured out a football analogy for this one yet so I am murphing my mixaphors.

Shaking the tree

One of the commitments I made at my recent Twenty First Century Leadership retreat (see Rebuild, reimagine, renivent) was to become proactive, and learn what steps I can take to accelerate the process of finding a match to be my Little Brother. I have been waiting for a match for a long time now (see The Big Brother waiting game).

Since returning from Seattle, I've started shaking the tree - I've made several follow up calls and have made some progress. I've learned that the lady who took my application last year is no longer with BBBST. I've learned who has taken over my case file. I now have an appointment set up for an interview with the new case worker.

As far as my leadership commitments go, I am on track with this one. I think I may actually have a match by the end of the month, and I'm getting excited about this new adventure and about writing this new chapter of my life.

Feet back on home ground, mind is miles above

I've been back home from Seattle for over a week now. My feet are back on home ground now, but my mind is miles above.

One thing I took away with me from my 21CL experience this year was a detailed plan to complete a first draft of a book by the end of November. That sounds like an aggressive schedule, considering that I've been working on Mission: Dawn for some four years now. I've learned some things about organizing myself to write a book during those years, and I think my schedule is doable.

This book is not Mission: Dawn, but I think that by following my plan I will gain the experience to finish Mission: Dawn.

This book is about four men who transform their lives when they become involved in a men's organization. I am creating a fictional organization for the book, but am modeling it after the real world Mens Division that I belong to. I have plenty of real life experience to draw on for creating this story - unlike my science fiction novel, for which I work a lot more in order to "discover the story".

The first milestone in my schedule is to write Character Biographies, Character Interviews, and Character Arcs, by August 3. That's just a few days away - I already have most of my Character Bio's done, but I'll have to get motoring to get everything else done by the 3rd.