fun on the fringes
I’ve mentioned how I entered the RNZ Write an original Christmas song competition. The results are in – and my entry is out! Not a winner.
There was an amazing array of entries, all very different and most of them sounded really well recorded and produced.
Mine was one of 250 or so entered, so it least it was in good company. I might post the song a bit later.
Found these when digging in the ashes of some previous sessions.
Short tracks, silly ditties and auto-generated songs. Which is your favourite?
You can find more over at Soundcloud
Time is moving quickly – in just two months I will start a year out of the office. And you may ask yourself, In the style of Talking Heads, well, how did I get here?
There has been plenty, of letting the days go by, and a fair bit of same as it ever was… but there’s also been a lot of change in the eight years since we left Christchurch. It took some years to get our house repair completed, another couple to settle into our new house, plus a couple more of renovation and painting after that. It’s been a time of consolidating after some pretty big upheavals.
When we moved here, there were things we wanted to change – mainly working to live, not living to work. Having a bit more time to do things we enjoy. Previously we were both working full time, with a child under 5. When we moved we wanted to change that. Not the having a child bit, but the having time to ourselves.
We’ve managed that to some degree – I did a radio show for a couple of years, took guitar and singing lessons, and have trained as an English Language tutor with ELP. Kathy has retrained not once, but twice since we have been here. From October she’ll move into full-time work. We started doing some saving. Little by little we’ve built up a few other things to help us in the year ahead. So soon it’s have a bit of a breather and a look around.
Yes, I am a lucky man. It truly is Once in a Lifetime.
I write a bit – often in fits and starts. But today I finished something.
Radio New Zealand are running a competition to write a Christmas song. When I first heard about it I was on leave, driving down the east coast.
I got the first lines reasonably quickly, mulled the rest for a bit. Had enough for a couple of minutes. Spent a day or so recording it, then left it for a bit.
Then I did something unusual. I let people hear it. Played it to a colleague who loves Christmas and another couple of friends. People said good and constructive things.
I added some verses, re-arranged things; added instruments, even some quiet harmonies and twiddly bits. Ended up at 2:31. I mixed, listened on couple of sets of speakers. Found out my amp is only working on one channel.
And then, at 5pm, I sent it off. Time will tell what happens, but I’m happy to have it done. The hat is in the ring!
benign, Adj, from the Old French benigne, who nicked it off the Latin beningus, it means kind, gentle and mild.
You can check it at wordnik
Perhaps it’s the early onset old-timers, perhaps it’s the desire for a new set of references, or a new routine. Perhaps it’s time to be kind with the future in mind.
Maybe it’s the gradual realisation that those twenty good summers I’ve got left might be more, or might be less.
Maybe I’m deciding to be deliberately different, obdurately original; maybe I just can’t decide. But I’ve always liked the idea that to be different, you have to actually be different.
As the population’s getting older and older, more of us are going to be working longer and longer, then a gap year seems like a good idea.
Doesn’t it?
Starting again, for the umpteenth time.
