Thing A Week 2014 #9

Reaching back to the days of The Sucky Young Muffins. My wife hates this song, but it's not about her. I'm a better listener now, but only barely...

Thing A Week 2014 #8

I've had Master Shakespeare in my head of late. Today, this song popped up on my ipod as I was driving to New Britain to do a repair on the set of "The Tempest". I had written the music for this many years ago for a friend's wedding. I had always meant it to be a two person, Everly Brothers type thing, but I ended up singing it solo at the wedding. Here's what it sounds like with my impression of Phil and Don!

Thing A Week 2014 #7

A few years ago, I had played with the idea of doing an edit of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". I wasn't sure how much I wanted to change, but when I spoke with my old friend, Scott Auden (who wrote the book for my first musical), he thought a complete update was the way to go. We'd use the story line of Shakespeare's original, but modernize the language and alter some of the characters. The idea was to have it set in a radio studio in the 1940's, and that the Duke was actually a crooner doing a live broadcast. As things tend to go with me when I'm writing, I found other things to concentrate on and abandoned the project. I came across this recording the other day. It was my first attempt at writing a crooner type song with both Shakespeare's words and Scott's lyrics. It's such an odd progression - lots of chromatic weirdness, but I dig it.

Thing A Week 2014 #6

The news I have to report is that there's no news. Or new blog entry. The idea of trying to type a lengthy blog entry on my phone makes me feel a little sick. I'm in London this week with my family and a friend. I had this idea that I'd post a new monologue I have, but I've just found out that it hasn't been looked at yet by my publisher for inclusion in a monologue compilation. It may still be rejected,  but I didn't want to post it before that decision was made. When I have access again to a real computer, I'll make up for this non-entry.
Cheerio!
Captain Crunch!

Thing A Week 2014 #5

I've always got a musical that I'm working on. This song is FAR from finished, but I was able to flesh out how the vocals would be arranged (which was key on this one) No drums, but I feel like they'd sound crappy if I used my ancient machine or (heaven forbid) I tried to drum it myself. I can play a lot of instruments passably, but drums ain't one of them!

Thing A Week 2014 #4

I really do enjoy Ben Folds as a musician and as a composer. But, he definitely has certain stylistic niches he's comfortable in. I decided to make fun of one of those niches. I kid because I love...

Thing A Week 2014 #3

I've been a fan of Stephen King's writing for ages. But, for whatever reason, I only ever knew his novels for the longest time. I somehow missed his short stories. In college, I had a theatre class called "Oral Interpretation", and we'd get up and read things dramatically and get judged by the rest of the class (and the professor, of course) I usually wrote my own stuff, or if I used something else, it was generally pretty off-beat. (I did a dramatic reading of "The Sick Bed Of Cuchuliann" by The Pogues once just to drop the F-bomb) There was a woman in the class who wasn't a theatre major, but had a really good grasp on reading aloud for dramatic effect. One day, she told me that she was going to "one up" me, and she proceeded to read King's "Real Survivor Type". It was gross, and funny, and the rest of the class was shocked, I think. I LOVED it. I immediately sought out King's short story collections and devoured them in one night. I love the protagonist in this story - he is a real scumbag and what he ends up doing to himself isn't so much as tragic as POETIC.

I wrote the lyrics a week ago and have been playing around with progressions and arrangements. I think the smooth jazz/blues does the best job for the lyrics.
Real Survivor Type

Thing A Week 2014 #2

Last Saturday, an old friend passed away suddenly. We had worked together at Hole in the Wall Theater for quite a while. Doug and I weren't close, especially, but I always knew that his heart was in the right place and that he had a passion for HITW and a desire to help wherever and however he could.

In many ways, Doug reminded me of Clarence from the film, "It's A Wonderful Life": slightly eccentric, but a good person trying to do good things. Doug would sometimes get frustrated when he felt people weren't taking him seriously. In the past year or so, I made a concerted effort to say "thank you, sir" to him when he'd come to the theater for workcalls. I saw him the day before he died and my last words to him were, "Thank you". I wish I could have said it more. I hope that he knows that he WAS appreciated and loved.

Thing a Week 2014 #1

I wrote this song a few weeks back without finishing the lyrics or putting in the bass track. Did both of those tonight. Thought I'd start off with something super intellectual just to set the bar at the appropriate height.

Gotta start somewhere

I'm still of the belief that January 1st is an arbitrary distinction insofar as milestones are concerned. Just the same, it's as good a time as any to set a new path or make a promise to oneself that needs to be fulfilled. I think that I will take a page from Jonathan Coulton and create a "Thing a Week". Every week, I'm going to do my best to have a new song, play, monologue, whatever to show for that week. I've been looking at playwriting competitions and have decided that I don't have nearly enough material to send out if people want unproduced and unpublished works. I'm gonna change that in 2014. I'm saying it here because I'll bail on it, otherwise.