Rambles that are fluffy, by fluffy
As part of the Fediwave Artists Streaming Series, I have a concert scheduled for Tuesday, August 13 at 3 PM Pacific Daylight Time (GMT-0700). To watch, join my personal Owncast server. I’ll be playing acoustic versions of a bunch of my songs, and answering some Q&A as we go! And maybe sharing previews from my upcoming album!
Stuff’s going on as usual. Here’s some of it.
Woke up today in considerable pain, but I did some of my physical therapy stretches and some of the stretches that Castiel showed me on Wednesday and that helped somewhat. I also spent 10 minutes on my vibration plate which helped as well.
Mowed the lawn.
Went down to the studio and started working on the album version of Valley Highway, because it feels like as good a place to start as any (even though it’s going to be the last track) and decided to take the opportunity to define the overall sound for the album, which mostly meant cycling through a bunch of microphones until I found the right one for the vocals, and also cycling through a bunch of guitars until I decided that my favorite one (an Ovation Elite TX) is the one I’ll use. Because it’s my favorite one to play, so, why wouldn’t I use it on the album? Plus I think it has the nicest tone of my three acoustic 6-strings.
The downside to the Elite is that it doesn’t have a traditional soundhole, so I can’t use my preferred pickup (a Seymour Duncan Woody) on it, but the Ovation’s built-in pickup is pretty good, and I record it in conjunction with a mic anyway.
I also recorded a bunch of guitar and drum takes and got annoyed at a few things so for now I’m using Logic’s AI drummer. I hope to rerecord it with real drums though. I’m just having trouble keeping steady time; my drumming is fine for live sets but studio albums call for a bit more precision than I can muster right now. Also my cheap nylon brushes started to fall apart even though I’ve barely used them. Meh. So I ordered some proper metal ones which should arrive tomorrow. I also finally got around to ordering a better drum throne, too, because the one which came with my kit is driving me absolutely nuts.
Also, not all of the songs on the album will use drums.
For strings I’m using NI Cremona Quartet as usual, although for some parts I’ll probably rerecord the cello using my actual cello, and some of the songs need some cello articulations which Cremona Quartet doesn’t provide so for those I’ll definitely be playing the real thing. I might even try to record some of the violin and viola parts with physical instruments but as much as I enjoy playing them, I’m really not all that good, and I want this album to sound as good as possible.
Anyway after all that I went to another VR yoga class.
Also I’ve had too much caffeine today and am feeling hyper and rambly, so, here’s some rambling about my musical instruments.
I got back from Denver very late last night, and boy were my arms tired. And legs. And body.
Lesson learned: if you have the option to take a much earlier flight and it only costs $50, take it. That is much better than wandering around the Denver airport for 8 hours. Or, failing that, the $79 to get an admiral lounge day pass isn’t really all that bad either.
Anyway. Today was mostly a day of recuperation, and I was in extreme pain in my back and right shoulder. I was supposed to go to the STANCE annual meeting but I was way too tired and in too much pain to attend. I did at least virtually attend a yoga session to work on my shoulder a bit and it helped somewhat, and the instructor also gave me some good stretches specific to the pain I was feeling, so, that was super helpful.
Having an in-person, actually-live show was such a great thing for my psyche.
I came to Denver wondering what the hell I was doing, like I was coming out of obligation rather than for something I actually wanted to do. But having had two nights of great performances and camaraderie, which was much needed and sorely missing from the last few years' worth of online-only shows, has made me feel so much better.
I haven’t posted here in a while so I figured I should do that, just to keep folks informed of my continued existence.
I’m still experiencing substantial post-COVID symptoms. This cough is persisting, and it’s made my vertigo way worse, to the point that I am having trouble driving anywhere. I also have a new fun symptom where every time I cough I get a flash headache on the right side of my head and sometimes that includes dizziness! Fun times. I hope this doesn’t presage an aneurysm or something.
Anyway in a couple days I’ll be flying to Denver for Song Fight! Live, the first time we’ve done it in person since 2019. I’ve missed doing this so much. Unfortunately my vertigo situation means I will not be renting a car and will relying heavily on Lyft and mass transit.
For folks in the area, my performances (Sockpuppet and Octothorpe) will be Friday the 19th at Buntport Theater, with the show starting at 5 PM. I will also be accompanying some folks on Saturday the 20th on drums, and of course that day is also the “live fight” when we all debut a song written in a hurry for a title that’s given sometime this week.
I mean, assuming I’m not about to die of some major brain hemmorhage or something.
Meanwhile I’m also trying to get more VRChat performance opportunities. Stuff is slowly fermenting in that space and hopefully it leads somewhere good. Unfortunately most scheduled VRChat performance stuff all happens in clumps where I already have other stuff going on too. Maybe I should just start making my own concerts and see what happens.
Hey y'all! My birthday is tomorrow, June 14! I will be turning 0x2E. Or 0b101110 if that’s your preference.
Anyway. Normally I’d use that as a reason to have a huge karaoke blowout on VRChat Friday evening, but I have a big choral show on Saturday and some of the pieces need my full vocal range, so I’m not going to risk fucking up my voice for Saturday.
So instead I’ll have birthday karaoke in VRChat Saturday evening! I’m thinking it’ll start at, say, 7 PM Pacific Time. You can join off me if you have me friended or I’ll be posting an instance link on my discord.
Also, to help with the celebrations, I’ve thrown together a party hat.
It’s really unfortunate how I’m stuck in the hinterland between being too disabled to work but being too abled to get on disability (at least not easily). Dealing with Social Security has been super frustrating and I’m not expecting to get a full hearing or determination any time soon, so in the meantime I could really use some sort of part-time income. Not to mention having things to do that other people care about.
I am way too burned out on software engineering to do that anymore (I barely even want to write code for my own projects), but I would be super willing to do things like:
Anyway, here’s my resume.
I’m willing and able to work part-time in Seattle (remote-focused hybrid preferred) or remotely.
I have a whole bunch of stuff going on right now and most of it involves things that people can come see me at!
With Seattle Center on Contemporary Art I am one of eight artists in a show featuring transgender artists, entitled Taking Up Space. Its opening reception is this Thursday from 5-9 PM at the CoCA gallery (114 Third Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104).
Sunday afternoon I am performing in the Trans Academy Trans Pride VR talent show, which is from 12:30 - 3 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) in VRChat. See the announcement video for more information, and of course there’s plenty on the community Discord and on X.
Next Saturday (June 15, 2024) I’ll be performing with STANCE at the Museum of Flight for Sally Ride Day, at around 12 PM.
The Friday and Saturday after (June 21 and 22, 2024) I’ll be again performing with STANCE for our Pride concert series, at 7:30 PM on the 21st at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church and 3 PM on the 22nd at Seattle First Baptist.
Some Wednesday evening in July I’ll be performing a full set of my own music at Trans Academy’s concert series, Moonlit Academy. More information as it becomes available.
And then on July 19 and 20th I’ll be performing with Song Fight! Live at the Buntport Theater in Denver, Colorado, actual show times yet to be determined.
I am, as always, a busy bee.
In my last post about Logic I saw a lot of potential in the chord track but found that the UX was pretty lacking. Since then I’ve seen a few Logic-related videos that have found some better ways of interacting with it:
I’m still not totally thrilled with it and wish there were a live recording option, but it’s actually pretty workable as it is.
This video was particularly helpful (and also has a really nice defense of the AI creation tools in it, including several points which I have always agreed with):
The UX could definitely be better-documented, though, and I wonder how many other little things are there which just aren’t explained anywhere.
Also there’s a few other UX papercuts which still exist, like keyboard focus is weird while on the chord track. But things will improve over time, as I said before.
