"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Today was a good day. For starters, my order of the Deluxe Edition of Tori Amos's Boys For Pele came in the mail. That would have been enough for me today, but secondly, we're headed out for a bit of the weekend in Dubuque (Thursday night thru sometime on Saturday), and while the Mrs. is meeting up with some people, I get to go look at instruments and play guitar at the hotel.  The truly awesome part about that for me is that it happens right at the start of December, so it gives me a bit of a chance to really sit down and plan out how I would like the month to go.  Aside from looking at instruments, that's the part of the next couple of days I'm looking forward to the most. I've already started setting aside what I'm taking with me, and while it's probably too much, it will let me have enough resources at my disposal to really dive into my hopes for December and beyond.  Should be a fun couple of days.

So, I finished off my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo tonight, and in that precise moment, I felt this huge weight lift off of my shoulders.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing that every November, but for the last couple of weeks I have really been missing the time I would normally get to spend in the studio.  With NaNo mostly out of the way for at least another eleven months, I can get back to transcribing the ideas on my recording gear in December, with an eye toward starting some serious writing and recording come the first of the year. There wasn't a whole lot of time tonight, but the work I did in other areas just served to clear out my schedule, so I'm pretty sure that there will be a lot more time coming very, very soon.

New issue of Guitar World came in the mail today.  I didn't take a whole lot of time to really dive into it yet, though, for the same reason as last night.  I spent most of the day focused on NaNoWriMo, and while I didn't quite finish my word count for the month (thereby freeing up most of my brain for music once again), I did put in a really solid day, and I should be able to finish the thing tomorrow if all goes well. That said, I spent a few minutes at the end of the day hanging out in the studio, doing a little bit of playing and reading/studying; and that time was good, productive time.  Considering the amount of time I haven't gotten to spend in the studio in the month of November, I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm sitting in regards to next month and the lead in to next year. It's definitely going to be an adventure from now until the end of the year, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can get done.

I finally got started on hauling my finds from the trip up to MN down to the studio.  I managed to get all of the books brought down and put away.  It's just the couple of CD's I picked up that still need to be brought downstairs.  That can happen tomorrow, though. I tried to get some good work in tonight, I really did.  I started reading the book I just picked up on over coming songwriter's block, and I'm thinking that it's going to have some really good stuff in it. I picked up a guitar for a few minutes tonight, too, and didn't hit anything that truly inspired me. Honestly, the biggest problem I have right now is that I'm less than 5,000 words from meeting my goal for NaNoWriMo, and I have finally reached that point where I can't seem to think about anything else.  If all goes really, really well, I might be able to finish it off tomorrow and be able to refocus on the studio, where I know I have a lot of work to do and a lot of decisions to make...

Well, we're home.  No new instrument yet, we ran out of time for shopping.  I'll put it off at least until next weekend, when we'll be back in Dubuque, and I can stop at Uncle Ike's to see if they have the guitar I'm looking for.  That will also give me another week to do some looking around at my options. We did , however, stop at a Half Price Books on the way home.  I found some good stuff, including: Foo Fighters by Mick Wall Do Not Sell At Any Price by Amanda Petrusich Beating Songwriter's Block by Gary Ewer All good reads, all music related.  I also snagged a Pavement record and another disc that I can't recall at the moment.  Either way, it was a pretty great day for picking up new stuff.  I'm looking forward to the next two days, when I can actually be home and make some progress in the studio. 

Well, we're back up in the cities tonight, because my sister in law flies back to Colorado tomorrow afternoon.  We did our customary Black Friday shopping, only this time at the Mall of America, and the one thing I was really looking for, the two-disc deluxe reissue of Tori Amos' Boys For Pele , I had to special order. I also picked up the new Ron Howard film on The Beatles, because that seemed like a very good idea.  I'm hoping that, while we are still in the cities tomorrow morning/afternoon, I'll be able to seek out a guitar shop and take a look at an acoustic or two, just to see if I can't find lightning in a bottle and come home with whatever the new instrument will be.  Secretly, I'm also looking for a Telecaster, but I've pretty well resigned myself to the fact that I won't be able to get such a great deal that I can bring them both back home with me. Should be a fun adventure either way, though.  Can't wait to get home tomorrow and spend ...

So much of the day in music was about sitting up late and talking with my brother about my plans for the end of the year and the start of 2017. Sometimes just bouncing ideas and hopes back and forth is exactly what I need. It was a great time catching up with family, and a great day overall.