Longing for the day ...

What have I been up to?

This blog has been dominated by sport stuff lately, but the tagline points out how wrong that its ... especially when I'm doing music full-time for the first time.

So, what's doing? Well, right now I'm working on Bun' Ber E's third CD. Got the setlist down to 12 probables, recorded the beds live quite some time ago. Have over-dubbed the guitars, nearly all of the bass and the key vocals. Yesterday I started on cleaning up the piano parts.

I'd have finished the bass parts by now except that my shoulder is broken (see picture below). It's a little more uncomfortable than I'd like, so I thought I'd stop cause the rotation that aggravates it for a while ... do some less stressful things for a bit.

My PhD has been "provisionally" approved - they want a bit more detail on the nuts and bolts. This means that I can start to approach people I want to be involved in The Genre Benders, which I have done. The target is to produce both albums by October ...

So, plenty of things musical going on. The football just keeps me sane and gounded ...

Oh, well ...

Darn ... ripped off at the last gasp! Still, so close!

But I gotta say, I thought we didn't play well enough to win. With all that possession and all those opportunities, the Italians down to 10 men for most of the second half and we still couldn't score? Guus Hiddink said as much after the match when he talked about missed opportunities. And Ned Zelic thought we were too slow to counter - chipping the ball around in the back field when the defence was stretched instead of pressing forward quickly.

I also noticed that too often the last pass was wayward and/or picked off by the Italians' defence. They seemed to be a little more ... precise ... in that aspect, and hence generated more opportunities with the limited ball they got. If we'd been better they would never have had the chance to win at the death. Give credit to their defence, it was awesome!

Still, the boys have now been there and know what it takes. If we can build and develop from there, we'll be more of a force next time. However, I won't be involved much in that. The Socceroos did well and I'm proud of them but I just don't get the game and I can't support a game that allows arbitrary refereeing decisions to dominate results the way we have seen in the World Cup. It doesn't make sense to me.

Next week, back to the State of Origin and Tri Nations Rugby. I'll see the Socceroos in four years.

E-excellent, Socceroos.

Just when I thought the sporting stars were leaving nasty trails, the boys came through. Funny sort of game, though. I mean, I don't really understand soccer at all but some of those decisions had me totally gazumped.

The boys looked a little wobbly in a few places - not least of all Zeljko Kalac, but the result was what we needed.

Bring on the Italians ...

The stars ARE aligned ...

What a win, Queensland! Well done, boys. Came out hard and kept in the Blues' faces for the entire 80 minutes. Willie Mason never got a look in. So much for Danny Buderus's dynasty.

The only fault I could find was that they let the Blues in at all. It would have been better to have absolutely gutted them by keeping them off the scoreboard - give them something to think about for next time. But, they are quality opposition after all and their talent could not be denied. Bring on the next one in Melbourne for more of ths same!

The stars and planets (and everything else) must be in sporting alignment right now. The Wobblies, the Socceroos, now the Maroons ... let's hope it lasts to the end of the Tri-series.

Awesome Socceroos!

Well done, boys. Never give in, never give up! Superb comeback and great result in the end. It seemed to me (not that I know anything about the finer points of soccer that we had by far the better of the game but just couldn't finish ... but we kept trying.

The planets must be in alignment for this Aussie sporting fan. The Wobblies, the Socceroos ... let's hope they stay there on Wednesday night!

Go Maroons!

Well done, Wobblies, come on Socceroos!

Excellent result for effort last night, boys. Just what we fans were looking for.

Much improved in the scrum (though still some work to do there), excellent lineout, brillint front-on defence and great scrambling. Shame about the last-pass handling, but I'm sure that will come with time ... give the Pommy defence credit for putting pressure on.

How good was George Gregan's tackle over the line? No other halfback in the world would have made that play. George has his problems (his pass was still too slow last night) but his leadership is beyond question. What a champion! Good to see Rodzilla score on debut ... even if he is a seagulling prop!

Gotta do it again next weekend, boys. You know you can.

Over to the Socceroos for tonight. The preparation has been good, the expectations are high. I don't understand the finer points of soccer, so I'm not going to analyse their game - I'm just a mug punter who wants them to do well.

Go Socceroos!!

Somebody heard me!

Just had a delivery guy here who heard me on Triple M the other week. He was a Blues supporter, but that's OK.

He said it was hard to hear the words, though he was listening in his truck, but he liked the music and the idea. What a blast!

What a waste of a day

Spent most of yesterday arguing with Pro Tools. I was trying to loop the bagpipe drone samples, and had to kill the pops at the joins. Pro Tools has a really cool device called a crossover that does this neatly, but whenever I tried to put on in, it didn't display right in the dialogue box and didn't work.

I read and re-read the manual, combed it for what I might not have considered, cursed, swore and tore my hair out in frustration. I even downloaded the latest manual so I could be sure I had the right advice.

Eventually I consulted Google in the hope that someone else had previously solved the same problem. Guess what? It's a known software fault and an a free installed update fixed it. So I upgraded to Pro Tools LE 7.1.1 and had the job done by bedtime.

So, for the benefit of anyone else with this problem:

Pro Tools LE7.0 running on Windows XP Home. The crossover dialogue window does not display correctly and the crossover does not work. The fix is to download and install version LE 7.1.1 from the Digidesign website. Apparently, this problem also exists in the Mac version.

It takes more than two ...

I was forced, by my family's insistence and the complete lack of alternatives, to watch the second half of Channel 7's It Takes Two last night. I'm astonished that anyone bothers to watch it ...

It hardly seems fair to pit singers of the quality of Guy Sebastian, Glenn Shorrock and Karen Knowles against Dave Gleeson and Troy Cassar-Daley. Don't get me wrong, I have immense respect for Dave (the Jets are one of my earliest, all-time favourite bands) and Troy, but these guys are very limited in their singing abilty to what they do (and do well). This kind of bland TV mush requires a singer to have great range and versatility, which is not these guys' strength ...

It's also revealing that I've never heard of a lot of these "celebrities" (though I'm not sure what it reveals). I think the over-reliance on Home and Away "stars" (I'm never sat through an episode) and the show's Melbourne-centricity limit its appeal greatly. Perhaps I get out too much ...

Still, it's worth watching the show just to hear the band cookin'. Once again, the background performers are the real stars of TV music. [sigh]

Long for the Day (take 2)

Re-wrote this one after getting some songwriting advice from Jimmy Webb and Sammy Cahn. The original version is here. Also re-recorded it (MP3, 3MB - streaming version here) for a presentation to QUT. I think it's better but still has a way to go - got some feedback on phrasing that I'll build in for the next version.

Update: If you feel generous you can now buy the version of this song released on The Genre Benders' debut CD "I am leaving! I am leaving!" from iTunes, or GroupieTunes, or Payplay.FM. If you have a different favourite online store, search for it there and if it's not there, let me know so I can put it there.

LONG FOR THE DAY

A
I get up. I face the day unfolding before me.
E
And oh, I feel down when I think about a nine-to-five grind.
A
Well I don't need to feed my ego with money.
E
So I try to look around:
E7
Try to find reason,
I'm waiting for the season,
E D
I'll finally reap what I have sown.

Got a girl who thinks there's something special about me.
Hey we get down and forget about the nine-to-five grind.
Got some friends who sing a song to brighten their night-time.
So we all got the blues,
Guitars at 20 paces,
A sea of smiling faces,
I'm paying my dues.
E D C
And I long for the day when that?s all I have to do.

G#7
No more traffic, no more tools
No more fixin' for fools
No more Yes Sir or Ma'am!
Gonna be who I am

G#7/D
I just wanna play
Wanna give this work away
They ain't got a clue
I'll bid them Adieu
D C
Yeah, I long for the day, when that's all I have to do.

Got a dream that some day I'll be somebody special.
Yeah I got a plan to get me out to make my way.
But it's so hard. A helping hand can make it seem easy.
So we all play along,
Laughing and writing,
Loving and fighting,
Singing our song,
And I long for the day when that's all I have to do.

Oh Yeah! Said I -

How 'bout you? I know I -

Chorus x 3

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Please note: This song is APRA registered: Work Id GW33369808; ISWC T-060669720-4. You can copy, reproduce and distribute any part of these lyrics and chords for any non-commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge its source. I'm interested in your feedback, comments, suggestions. If you make something good out of it, let me know and I'll consider adding it to the site.

If you perform it or broadcast it for any purpose, please let APRA know.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License