I've been working on this song, on and off, for about a week now. Soon after posting Song #1 ("49 Days"), I realized there were a lot of things I could write songs about, and the chorus to this song leapt out at me, and the rest of it I had to write and rewrite for it to scan correctly. And on a final note, I apologize for straining for the high notes and messing up some of the words, but hey, that's what you do on a single take in a darkish room, hunched over a guitar on a comfy couch. Thank goodness for post processing and the wonder that is Soundbooth CS3.
I've known Rhonda for near on eight years now, and have been privileged enough to be one of her first readers when she opened up her story of her adoption process. Through her blog, I have managed to read and "get to know" some of her blogging friends. Though not all of them are adopting in the same country, there is one thing that is similar in all of them: the wait.
I am constantly amazed at this community's patience in spite of the (in many cases) years-long wait for their children. No, I'm not kidding. We're looking at a total wait time of three to four years for many of these families, a time which just causes my jaw to drop and my heart to ache for these people.
So, here is my take on their stories. Rhonda, I'm thinking of you! For all those in the adoption community that are still waiting for their referrals - keep up the hope. We're rooting for you. (Okay, I'm rooting for you.)
Oh yeah, and I know that there are more words that rhyme with "life" than... well, "life," but I was trying to work things out and it just so happened that it worked out best for me to just repeat the word. Darn that rhyming thing.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
#1 - 49 Days
This originally started as a song about nothing. I was driving home from work on Friday evening, wondering what I was going to write about, and I realized about half way home that I really had nothing to write about. So, in a fit of pique, I decided to write a song about nothing. After all, writing a lot of junk basically means writing a lot about nothing until you find something to write about.
So I began humming in the car, and words started coming... something about forty-nine days-
Suddenly, I knew what I was singing, and why. My father had requested that Andy and I head down to go visit the next day to pay respect to my grandmother. He mentioned something about how the 49th day was special - it was, after all, seven weeks of seven days. I got home, madly scribbled in a notebook and trying to figure out the chord progressions I'd had in my head, and this is what I came up with.
Please note that this is all in rough draft format. I'm ambivalent about the tiny herds of horses, but I think this is probably a 3/5.
So I began humming in the car, and words started coming... something about forty-nine days-
Suddenly, I knew what I was singing, and why. My father had requested that Andy and I head down to go visit the next day to pay respect to my grandmother. He mentioned something about how the 49th day was special - it was, after all, seven weeks of seven days. I got home, madly scribbled in a notebook and trying to figure out the chord progressions I'd had in my head, and this is what I came up with.
Please note that this is all in rough draft format. I'm ambivalent about the tiny herds of horses, but I think this is probably a 3/5.
Title of This Song
This is a tribute to the four men of Da Vinci's Notebook. Actually, it isn't, but I thought it would be interesting to at least mention them once during the course of this blog. I find it interesting, however, that two of their members, Paul and Storm, have been touring with Jonathan Coulton - but I get ahead of myself.
I first heard of Coulton sometime last year when this YouTube video made its viral way into my inbox. Of course I laughed, admired his clever lyrics, and looked him up on the Internet. What impressed me most about this particular song was not necessarily the cheerful singability of the song, but instead was the fact that it was a part of a project he entitled "Thing A Week." This feed was incredibly simple; it was a song or something every week for a year.
No, seriously.
I contemplated this for a brief moment, and then laughed it off. After all, I had greater fish to fry - in 2007, I finished my masters, trained for my second degree black belt, and got married. (And then went to Tahiti, but that's a different story.)
But it really bothered me. Until I began teaching in 2003, I was a veritable fount of songs. I sat in front of a piano, a guitar, whatever, and just made music. I wrote two full musicals two years in a row. The third year, I wrote probably the strongest play in my repertoire.
And then... nothing.
I'm not absolutely sure, but I think "Surviving Cain" released in summer 2002, which, coincidentally, was the summer I got laid off. After a number of depressing months trying to find tech work, I was suddenly surprised by a position teaching at a local Christian school. Sure, I thought to myself. I should have the time to write.
What I didn't know at the time was that teaching, particularly at this school, was an all-consuming job. I spent all my time with my students or thinking about my students. I was so busy that summers were spent working summer school and basically recovering from my exhaustion. It didn't help that I was teaching four or five courses (no, I'm not kidding you - not just 4-5 classes, 4-5 courses) every year.
Then I left the position, got another position back in high tech, promptly met a man who two years later became my husband, and spent two years doing stuff that had nothing to do with writing.
This brings us to a couple of weeks ago. We just shipped our software a few weeks before, and I had spent a lot of time since then cleaning house and being exhausted just in general. The husband got a new laptop and handed the old one off to me. I took it with me to begin my Next New Novel (or at least a short story).
I spent about fifteen minutes staring at a blank document before I realized I was dry. No ideas. Nothing. Blank. I panicked. Before, I was just too tired to write. And now that I wasn't too tired, I had nothing to say.
That's when I came to my big epiphany: if I wanted to write and make a practice at it, I had to write, period. I had to write about things large and small, and I had to be willing to write crap to be able to find something that was good.
This brings us back to Jonathan Coulton. This idea of committing to write once a week is somewhat daunting, but it would force my creative juices to flow. I wanted to share that with some people, and that brings us here to this project. I really do hope I can follow through with it.
And because I've named the blog after one of their songs, here is a link to the genius that is Da Vinci's Notebook:
Title of This Song
I first heard of Coulton sometime last year when this YouTube video made its viral way into my inbox. Of course I laughed, admired his clever lyrics, and looked him up on the Internet. What impressed me most about this particular song was not necessarily the cheerful singability of the song, but instead was the fact that it was a part of a project he entitled "Thing A Week." This feed was incredibly simple; it was a song or something every week for a year.
No, seriously.
I contemplated this for a brief moment, and then laughed it off. After all, I had greater fish to fry - in 2007, I finished my masters, trained for my second degree black belt, and got married. (And then went to Tahiti, but that's a different story.)
But it really bothered me. Until I began teaching in 2003, I was a veritable fount of songs. I sat in front of a piano, a guitar, whatever, and just made music. I wrote two full musicals two years in a row. The third year, I wrote probably the strongest play in my repertoire.
And then... nothing.
I'm not absolutely sure, but I think "Surviving Cain" released in summer 2002, which, coincidentally, was the summer I got laid off. After a number of depressing months trying to find tech work, I was suddenly surprised by a position teaching at a local Christian school. Sure, I thought to myself. I should have the time to write.
What I didn't know at the time was that teaching, particularly at this school, was an all-consuming job. I spent all my time with my students or thinking about my students. I was so busy that summers were spent working summer school and basically recovering from my exhaustion. It didn't help that I was teaching four or five courses (no, I'm not kidding you - not just 4-5 classes, 4-5 courses) every year.
Then I left the position, got another position back in high tech, promptly met a man who two years later became my husband, and spent two years doing stuff that had nothing to do with writing.
This brings us to a couple of weeks ago. We just shipped our software a few weeks before, and I had spent a lot of time since then cleaning house and being exhausted just in general. The husband got a new laptop and handed the old one off to me. I took it with me to begin my Next New Novel (or at least a short story).
I spent about fifteen minutes staring at a blank document before I realized I was dry. No ideas. Nothing. Blank. I panicked. Before, I was just too tired to write. And now that I wasn't too tired, I had nothing to say.
That's when I came to my big epiphany: if I wanted to write and make a practice at it, I had to write, period. I had to write about things large and small, and I had to be willing to write crap to be able to find something that was good.
This brings us back to Jonathan Coulton. This idea of committing to write once a week is somewhat daunting, but it would force my creative juices to flow. I wanted to share that with some people, and that brings us here to this project. I really do hope I can follow through with it.
And because I've named the blog after one of their songs, here is a link to the genius that is Da Vinci's Notebook:
Title of This Song
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