137: Complain! Complain! Go Away!

The funk is over. Hopefully. My last treatment was on the 21st, and aside from an odd bit of dizziness yesterday, it went off without a hitch. Now we play the waiting game. On July 20, I go in for a checkup and we schedule another PET scan. And then we make sure that all of the offensive armies have been quelled.

It's been an interesting few days. I've lumbered around aimlessly. I had the opportunity to do some tubing on a lake in Michigan. My arms are still sore. I've been given more responsibility. I responded by forcefully taking a 3 hour nap. Woke up and realized that i had left an important something somewhere so i watched Alton Brown quip about puff pastry and i sauteed up some shrooms in my new Emeril pan (birthday gift). I ate and went to sleep. This morning, I'm a new man. Refreshed and ready for action. Bring it on.

A quick note about the songs that went up on Monday. I designed it so that all 6 fit together into one big coherent piece. I also made the decision to not call them jingles. They are mini-songs. Until I decide on something else.

Here is the full 7+ minute 6 part opus, not so cleverly titled:
Hi, Treacherous Virgin Sasquatch. Liberal Decay

and separately (coincidentally mastered differently as well):

Hi: mp3 / shirt

Not So Treacherous Waters: mp3 / shirt

Oh My Virgin Eye: mp3 / shirt

Sasquatch Redux Peace Out: mp3 / shirt

1984 Gran Hermano Vs. El Liberal: mp3 / shirt

Decay: mp3 / shirt

Gathering and documenting and saving all of these mini-songs has proven to be a logistical nightmare. I don't deal well with clutter, and after 30 years of being one of the messiest, unorganized punks I know, it's time to take charge and get it together. I may not be able to blog everyday, but dammit, i'm going to churn out 6 or so mini-songs every week as long as i can press record. You hear me? So i have to figure out a way to organize and effectively present each ditty. This is going to take some scrap paper. Or maybe a legal pad. And probably math. Possibly physics.

136: It's My Birthday And I'll Blog If I Want To

Last night, I went out for some drinks with Ross and friends to celebrate his birthday, which was yesterday. When I got home, there were balloons adorning my door and a cake in my room! Aw, that's great! Gifts, too. Haven't opened em yet. I'll wait until tonight. Otherwise, i'm pretty tired this morning. I'm also pretty 31. It's all just a side effect one way or another....

A quick note about the songs and then i'm off! They made me do TEN songs last week, and since it all corresponded with the relaunch of the new Threadless site design, no one even realizes that the songs are there. Heck, the web honchos even put a little Bob-player on each product page. Maybe no one can find em. Maybe emotions are still running high given the sale and the bug fixin'. I dunno. But anyway...

Blueprint : mp3 / shirt

This may be my favorite song of the batch. Kinda feels like it could be a real song one of these days. I obviously started with the idea of Fugazi's "Blueprint"... hence the opening lyrics of "I'm not playing with you" and the tempo. This was also my favorite shirt of the week. The details are just so clever and hilarious. I think people agree. It's completely sold out.

Geology : mp3 / shirt

We actually bought a cake specifically for this picture. It was delicious, but after one piece it felt like your teeth were going to just fall out. There is actually a wooden stake in the stacked cake in the photo... to keep it upright. It still fell over a few times. This is like DVD commentary or something. As for the song, the only earthen thing i could possibly rhyme with "rumbling stomach" was "crumbling pommace" so i had to do a little research to be absolutely certain that pommace can actually crumble. It can.

Classic Grills : mp3 / shirt

Um. I secretly taped people hanging out on the back porch. Most prominently is Meaghan Conroy talking about some hip hop song. Total coincidence. I laughed out loud at "straight outta dayton."

Impossible Love : mp3 / shirt

This song definitely took the most time. Probably the 10th vocal take. I tried it so many ways, including one drunk take which sounded great that night but terrible the next morning.

Clouds Are People Too : mp3 / shirt

Garageband can make even the shittiest of guitars sound decent.

Cheese : mp3 / shirt

Thankfully, I didn't go with my original idea to somehow incorporate every variety of cheese. That would have been too cheesy. Ay-yo! Literally. Instead I went for the picture taking angle.

Death : mp3 / shirt

Finally I can make a song like i've always wanted. That's Julia Goolia in the photo! You may remember her from the City On Film album artwork. Unless you downloaded the record. You fucking bastard.

Selfless : mp3 / shirt

This is a great lookin' shirt. I don't think it's selling too well though. I suppose if you have to advertise your selflessness it kinda defeats the purpose.

Help From The Deep End : mp3 / shirt

I'm reading what I wrote at the Tilly And The Wall and then singing over it a la The Books.

Love*Rain : mp3 / shirt

Hey that's my roommate in the photo! It's 100% certain that she had a hand in this cake to my left. Did i mention that the cake is filled with gumballs?

And now i have to get to work. Big sale. Extra hours. And stuff.

135: Wrap it Up

Up early yet again and this time it was a fight. I have a feeling the walls and floors and ceilings in my new apartment are paper thin. If that's the case, I apologize to whomever was awakened by my alarm. I snoozed it 7 times which means it was going off for over an hour at 9 minute intervals. Annoying.

6/6/6 has come and passed and I talked about some of my favorite records that came out yesterday on the Skinnycorp podcast. Get it while it's still up to date! If the Anathallo record really came out yesterday then why did it come out in February? Anyway, i don't even mention it and that's why. That would've been my favorite release by far but instead I went with Alexi Murdoch's Time Without Consequence. Specifically the song "Song For You" is one Nick Drake-esque smooth jam. Good morning song. Not this morning, though. I'm beat.

Went to the Abbey Pub last night to see my good friend David, formerly of Jet By Day, who was playing bass for David Dondero, who was opening up for Tilly And The Wall. Great show, but i was in a terrible mood for some reason. For most of the night I sat at a table facing a wall writing lyrics on a receipt for curry fries. The lyrics include the lines: "When will i ever learn to not order a draft beer from a shitty pub? If i wanted to lick a dirty metal bar, i'd just head to the playground." Not sure how that's going to fit into a song.

I did songs for the shirts on Monday. Yeah!

* Fahrenheit 451 : mp3 / shirt

Probably my favorite of this bunch. Solely because i've been planning on writing some sort of song about how i need to just burn all of my old notebooks and... get over it. The funny thing is now that i've spearheaded the shirt song operation, i'll be able to actually maybe use all of that junk. So i won't burn it after all.

* I Hate Stripes : mp3 / shirt

I actually painted red stripes on the Threadless garage for this picture. Hopefully no one will be that upset about it. That's my tag. Red stripes. What can you do? I made the song about a hockey referee. I sorta wish baseball umps wore stripes so i could've said "i don't care if they're unaware of who's callin' the balls and the strikes."

* Unicorns Eat Children : mp3 / shirt

Probably my favorite shirt of this bunch. I stayed away from all of the usual unicorn cliches on this one. Um. Do any unicorn cliches exist?

* Exotica : mp3 / shirt

Um.