Create52: #7 -- Getting it Right

(image from pixabay)

In my last Create52 post, I talked about the fun of creating impromptu things, and I shared some music and writing that I'd made on the spur of the moment.  But for this post, I'm going in the opposite direction:

Sometimes it's worth taking the time to get it right.

Building a watch requires that each gear has to mesh perfectly in order for it to function. This type of work is hard to do on an impromptu basis -- you have to have a solid plan to make each gear and to know where each component goes. You can't just improvise your way through the process. 

Some creative efforts are that way, too.

But before I go any further, let me offer another reminder of what I'm doing in this Create52 post:

This is the seventh of what I hope is a year-long series of 52 posts under my self-imposed 2105 blogging initiative -- to create something new and share it here on my blog each and every Monday.

If you'd like, you can get a little more background about my Create52 goal HERE, in my first Create52 post of 2015.

Now let's get to some examples of what I was talking about at the beginning of this post:


Getting it Right #1: Git Right On Wit It 


Recently, I took another very cool wikiloops jam I'd found and added two quick guitar tracks. I called it "Git On Wit It". As another off-the-cuff jam, it was certainly fun to do, and my rhythm and lead guitar tracks weren't completely terrible. In many cases, I'd have called it "good enough" and moved on, perhaps even sharing the piece here.

But the more I listened to the finished track, the less I liked it. 
 
The underlying jam I'd used was excellent -- the intricate layers of drums (by "Baer" and "MrAdamOnDrums"), xylophone ("Fred"), upright bass (wikiloops founder "Dick"), and saxophone ("MrSnuts") had come together really well, but my loose improvised guitar on top just didn't do the jam justice.

So I called a do-over. 

I took the time to really listen to that jam track, learning and documenting each section a little better ("Ah hah! There's only 14 bars in this part -- not 16!"). Then I added not two, but eleven distinct guitar parts, with several takes until I was happy with each one.

All that time and effort paid off, I think. I call the revamped version, "Git Right On Wit It" and I invite you to check it out by clicking on the pictures on either side, or by clicking HERE. 

It's still not perfect (the tone I chose for one of the lead tracks ended up really making it really buried in the mix, for one thing), but I do think it is WAY better than my earlier thrown-together version.

Improvisation is fun and magical when it works out, but some things are worth taking the time to get right. I think this jam was one of them.


Getting It Right #2: No Imagination

As much fun as it is writing something on the fly in response to prompt words, that is actually not my normal mode of operation.  A big reason why my writing output remains so low is that I am a horrendous self-critic and in my 'serious' writing, I typically nitpick every word until I'm satisfied.

Here's a brief example.  

This is a piece I submitted back at the end of December to the site, 50-Word Stories -- one of two I'd sent in.  The other piece ("I'm Alive") was accepted and posted on the site, but this one was not.

Yet this is the one that I worked the longest on, and actually the one I thought was the 'better' piece. I had edited and revised it many times in the weeks leading up to its submission. It's kind of funny to think that a story consisting of all of 50 words goes through a lot of editing, but in this case, it did.

The story may not have been accepted at 50-Word Stories, but I still think it is the stronger piece, and it was worth the time to get it right. 

See what you think -- I call it "No Imagination":

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No Imagination

I imagine us together.

I imagine you committing. I picture us making plans.

But you can't see it.

Instead, you tell me to get off your porch. Then you slam the door.

So I take my Acme Vacuums sales kit and leave, hoping your neighbor has a much better imagination.

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So do you think these pieces of music and writing were worth taking the time to get right?  Do you tend to lean that way in general? Which do you prefer -- In-the-moment creation, or meticulous editing and revision?

Thank you so much for visiting!  See you next week for another Create52 post!

Create52: #4 -- Can't Stop the Rain

This is the fourth Monday of 2015, and the last one in January -- which means that my Create52 goal has made it through the entire first month!

This has been a fun thing to do and now I'm fully committed. In fact, I can't stop doing this any more than I can stop the rain from falling. So let's use that as a theme for today's Create52 entry.

But first, if you're a new visitor to my blog, let me say "welcome!" and explain what I'm doing here. This is another entry in my 2105 blogging initiative -- to create something new and offer it here on my blog each and every Monday of 2015.  You can get a little more background about my Create52 goal HERE, in my first Create52 post of 2015, if you'd like.

Can't Stop the Rain #1

This is another piece of music I put together for the wonderful jam site, wikiloops.com. I found a fabulous track originally done  with keys by the user Marceys, then added to with drums by Jaymny and bass by OB-Lix. The original track was called "Can't Stop the Rain" by Marceys, so I stayed with that name.

You can take a listen by clicking on the images to the left or right or on this link: Can't Stop the Rain.

For this tune, I added a clean rhythm guitar track and a echo-y, distorted lead guitar track.  I tried to keep my playing to a minimum during the "verse" sections to allow the beautiful piano and bass playing to come through. During the "chorus" sections, I stayed close to the chord progression in my lead for most of the song, although I stretched out a bit at the end.  

But other than taking time to learn the progression and changes for my rhythm, this still ended up being a bit of a "jam" piece in that my lead is a first-pass recording. I definitely hear some things that can be improved, but overall, I think it worked out pretty well.  I enjoy the wistful feel of the song that Marceys put together and it was fun to play over.

Thank you very much for listening!

Can't Stop the Rain #2

I was also inspired by the title and music to come up with another 50-word story. I haven't heard back* on the last two stories I submitted (mentioned in my Create52 post #1) to Tim Sevenhuysen at FiftyWordStories.com, so I'm not sure if I'm going to submit this one. Actually, since I'm sharing it here, I probably won't, and will send Tim two different pieces a little later in February.

But I hope you still enjoy it:

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Can't Stop the Rain

The rain falls, and I'm forced to remember.
 

Watching through the rivulets streaming down the window as you left that morning, I had no idea that you'd never return.
 

Still, I've tried to move on.
 

On sunny days, I've even stopped thinking of you.
 

But I can't stop the rain.

==========

*NOTE: 1/29/2015 update: Since originally writing this, I have heard back from Tim on one of the two stories ("I'm Alive"), and Tim published it at FiftyWordStories.com today!  I'll have more to say about this in Monday's Create52 post, but in the meantime you can check out this 50-word sci-fi story HERE.

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking part in my ongoing Create52 effort.  I really appreciate it!

"The Sound of Forgetting" is Published!

"The Sound of Forgetting"*

My 50-word bit of micro-flash-fiction "The Sound of Forgetting" has been published at Fifty-Word Stories.

I invite you to check it out by clicking on the link:  "The Sound of Forgetting" By Chris J. Fries.

For anyone who may not know, a 50-word story is a bit of micro-flash fiction using exactly 50 words.  I find it a fun challenge to my normal long-winded writing style to pare a "story" down to only 50 words.  The website is run by Tim Sevenhuysen and I've been lucky enough to have had a few stories published there before. 

And as a side note -- Tim is currently seeking submissions of 50-word stories for a Spring Story Contest.  If you feel like writing some 50-word stories of your own, now is great time to give it a shot.

Thank you for reading my story -- I hope you enjoyed it!



*Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Keep It Short...

 

Wow -- it's been a month since my last blog post update!?!?  I'm really sorry about that.  Clearly I was right in pulling back as I mentioned in my last posts...

But I also do want to keep this blog alive, so in the interest of quickly interjecting some new content, I will post a couple of short offerings.  One writing and one musical.  I will also promise to try and get a little more content on here, on a little more regular basis. 

But in the meantime, here's this:


A Short Writing Snippet:

I've recently made another submission to 50-Word Stories, and I'm optimistic that the owner of the site Tim Sevenhuysen will like it and that it'll get published on the site.  But who knows?  So rather than wait, I'm also going to go ahead and share it here, too.  To refresh your memory, a 50-word story has -- you guessed it -- 50 words.  Not one word more; not one word less.  It's fun to try and get as much emotional impact and story 'arc' as you can into only 50 words.

I hope you like this one. I call this micro-flash story, "The Sound of Forgetting:"

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The Sound of Forgetting
 
I heard your old rocker creak and for a moment, I forgot.

It might have been a stray breeze, or maybe just the cat brushing against it -- a remnant from all the years he rubbed contentedly against your legs.

But in my heart it was you, home once again.

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A Short Musical Interlude:

At Wikiloops, I continue to periodically add new tracks to all the great stuff that's there.  One recent thing I did was add a couple of quick guitars to a short, moody keyboard piece ("Through the Eyes of the Defeated") by a user named "GhostFish".  I thought the feel was very cool with an epic build, and so I added a couple of quick guitar tracks.  I started with mellower clean guitar, and then switched to a more raucous, screamin' lead as the track intensity climbs.  This is one of those short, off-the-cuff things that I ended up liking how it turned out.  I wish I could embed it here, but unless I upload it to SoundCloud, I can't.  So please click below and see what you think of this short musical piece:

Before The Storm

Also, feel free to check out the "My Tracks" tab of My Wikiloops Profile page if you're interested in hearing any of the other stuff I've uploaded there.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and listen!  I hope you thought it it was a short time spent well...

BOTB 12/15/13 Results and a 50-Word Story

Today the winner of my first Battle of the Bands post is announced!

In that post, I offered three instrumental versions of the song Christmas Time is Here -- the original song by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, a cover by John Zorn, and one by guitarist Steve Vai (you can refer back to the post to listen to each if you'd like).  Today I reveal the winner.

OK -- if you've been following my running tally in the comments, then this isn't going to be much of a surprise, but I liked adding to the taley with each vote.  Besides, if you were dying to know in advance, you could just as easily have counted the votes yourself.

However, you might be interested in my own thoughts and vote, so I'll share those too.

First, let me comment on the voting -- I don't think there was a "wrong vote." Each of these versions has a lot to like, I think. But you know what?  Even if I HATED one of the versions, you still have every right to like it yourself.  Music -- like all art -- is a subjective experience. Why does anyone have a more significant opinion as to whether a certain combination of sounds is "good" or "bad" or "better" or "worse"?  Each person likes what they like, and that's really what it comes down to.  So if in any BOTB post I ever start to sound too opinionated or judgemental or insulting about any kind of music you might like, I apologize.  Call me out on it and I'll come to my senses and remember this.

So my thoughts on this BOTB:  I am not a traditionalist in all things, but I can certainly see the value of tradition.  It provides a concrete link to the past and to the people who have come before us. I love Christmas, partly for all the nostalgia and memories it evokes, and the way it rekindles family traditions is a big part of why I love it.

Still, I enjoy new things and innovative ways of approaching what is old and familiar.  I really like John Zorn's cover of this tune (and am kind of surprised he didn't even get a vote).  There is a great arrangement, some excellent playing, and I thought the "spacy" intro was kind of cool.  I also greatly respect Steve Vai and my jaw drops at his incredible playing. His version is also awesome and I can easily see why people voted for him.

But in this contest, I have to join the traditionalists.

From the opening ostinato bass, to the smooth brush work on the drums, to the wonderfully wistful piano playing, Vince Guaraldi's version is simply superb. Yes, a big part of it is probably nostalgia -- I've been watching A Charlie Brown's Christmas since it was first aired in 1965. I was five years old and saw it in living black and white on our old console TV.

So even without my vote, it was not very close.  Vince Guaraldi wins it with 8 votes.  Steve Vai takes second with 3 votes. And John Zorn comes in third with nary a vote at all (well, he's actually 4th, if you count "None of the above," which received one vote).

Thank you for taking part on my first BOTB post!  I will be having my second on on 1/1/14 -- New Year's Day!

I will also be posting on December 24th with a Fifty States of Pray post, and I hope to see you then (although my post will be pre-scheduled and it may be late in the day before I get a chance to blog).

But in the meantime, let me leave you with the last of my 50-word stories with a prehistoric theme.  This is also one I submitted to "The Prehistoric Week" contest at Tim Sevenhuysen's 50-Word Stories, although it did not make it into the winners group.  It is another dinosaur adventure with Bob and Barney -- and probably the last of their adventures:

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The Cretaceous–Paleogene Impact Event

Barney and Bob were relaxing with the other dinosaurs.

Barney lay in the sun, his eyes closed. 

"She's really not that bad," he said. "Even after the divorce we get along."

"No, Dude," Bob said, staring at the asteroid growing in the sky. "I didn't say, 'your ex stinks'."

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Thanks for reading, and see you on Christmas Eve!  But if not, I hope you have a wonderful holiday!!!

Pray, Pay, Display, Play, and Sunday

Today's post is meant to touch on a variety of things -- I want to give you a head's up on some blogging and writing events taking place, share an update on some writing I'd submitted, offer another snippet of music, and invite you to stop back for a another blog series I'm going to be joining.  Let me break it down for ya:

Pray

A Blogging Head's Up:   On December 24th -- Christmas Eve! -- Mark Koopmans is hosting the  Fifty States of Pray blog event.  Mark says the idea behind it came to him as, "Why not set aside a moment to reflect on the year that was and share some hopes for the next year?" Well, why not? Mark hopes to get a blogging representative from every state in the U.S., and as many international bloggers as possible.

I think it's a great idea, and I will be posting as a representative from Indiana.  However, I have to say that my post will almost certainly be scheduled in advance -- Christmas Eve is a big family time for me, and I may not have much time to surf the blogosphere.  Still, if you get a chance over the holidays, I would welcome your visit, and I'll also invite you to use the link to also visit some of Mark's other participants. The link to the sign-up list for the blogging participants is HERE.

Pay

A Writing Head's Up:  David List is using KickStarter to try and fund the artwork, editing, and publishing for his upcoming fantasy novel, "A Sawmill's Hope."  I know David from WRiTE Club at DL Hammons' blog and I think his book has tremendous potential.  I would encourage you to check out the thought, time, and effort David has put into this project, and to make an offering to support it.  Pay whatever you can spare. David's KickStarter project is HERE.

Display

A Writing Update:  A while ago, I posted that I'd submitted two entries to "The Prehistoric Week" at Tim Sevenhuysen's 50-Word Stories.  Well, if you were paying attention, you probably noticed that the week came and went and that my stories were never published.

There's a possibility that Tim may still use one or both of them at some point in the future, but I thought I'd go ahead and post them here.  They're not more Og and Oona stories -- these two instead visit some dinosaur dilemmas. I'll display one here today, and save the second one for next week.  Today's is something I call "Emily's Extinct Fan".  I hope you enjoy it!

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Emily's Extinct Fan

The meeting of the dinosaur book club degenerated into raging argument.

"'Wuthering Heights' is the greatest novel ever written," Dino screamed at Barney. "You're an idiot if you can't see it!"

Rex tried to intervene. "Settle down, Dino. We can have differing opinions. Don't be such a Bronte sore ass."

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Play


A Musical Offering:  I haven't posted a musical selection in a long time, so I think I need to get another one out.  I have a couple of new things I'm working on at the moment (normal hectic Christmas schedule notwithstanding), that I'll share with you once they're done.  But for now, I'll offer another piece I added some guitar to on the Jam site Wikiloops.  This is an electronic piece started by wikiloops user Dogbass originally called "Electrohive".  User tron12 added some bass, then I added two guitar tracks, and called it "Zonin' in the Hive,"  because it was kind of some trancy, zoning playing against this 'hive' track.

Unfortunately, I mistyped the name when I uploaded it and it's displayed as "Zonin' in the Hie."  I didn't realize it until it was already all uploaded.  Then I thought about it. "Hie" is an old word meaning to go fast or 'hasten' and I said, 'what the Heck?' The track is kind of fast and so it sort of fits.

My playing on this is not what I'd consider my best, but it was done as a 'jam' with two "as-close-to-live-as-possible" tracks, recorded in one sitting and then given some psycho fading.  One guitar is some spacy background (zonin') and the other one's an edgier up-front guitar (hie?). All in all, I think it worked out OK, and it at least shows another side of my musical experimentation.

You can listen to it HERE.  And, of course, you can always check out all of musical offerings under the "My Music" tab at the top of the page above.  Thanks for listening!

Sunday

Joining Another Blog Series:  This Sunday is the fifteenth and I will be posting my first entry in the blog series, "The Battle of the Bands".  This is a series started by Stephen T. McCarthy and FarAwayEyes in August of this year, and now has several other bloggers who take part, including Arlee Bird and Robin (even Ninja Captain Alex Cavanaugh takes part occasionally).

The blog event occurs on the first and the fifteenth of each month and features posts with two (and sometimes more) recorded versions of the same song.  The blog readers then get to vote to decide which performer did a better version of the song. 

I think it's a lot of fun and have decided to take part, so Sunday will be my first offering.  Since it is the Christmas season, I am going to feature a couple of versions of one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs.

I hope you will come visit and vote for your favorite!

Well, that's it for this hodge-podge of a post.  Thank you very much for reading!  Feel free to offer whatever thoughts you might have on the above because, after the Pray, Pay, Display, Play, and Sunday, it's now time for your Say!

OK?  ;)

Rejection, Writin', and Reggae

A while ago, I made a post and mentioned that I'd submitted my science-fiction short story "Apologies" for consideration of publication.  Well, as happens to virtually all writers at some point, my story was rejected.  I didn't get a lot of details -- just a form e-mail that essentially said it just "wasn't right for us at this time."  I confess that it's frustrating, but at least their turn-around time was relatively quick.

(image from Wikimedia Commons)

I could take it personally, or choose to feel dejected, or decide that it means that I am a complete failure as a writer.  But I don't think any of those would do me any good.  Rejection is part of a writer's life. And it's certainly not the first time it's happened to me. Nor will it be the last.

Because I choose to keep on writing.  "Apologies" is going back out again to another potential publisher, and I'm (slowly) working on several other writing projects, including an idea for a novel that won't go away, no matter how hard I try to convince it that I simply don't have the time.

But in the spirit of "keep on writing." I also have another Prehistoric 50-word story to share.  I really appreciate all the kind words of support in the comments from my last post where I talked about submitting two micro stories to Tim Sevenhuysen's 50-Word Stories for the upcoming Prehistory Contest.  So I thought you might like to see another one. Here's a second story that didn't make the cut -- a visit once again with Oona and Og: 

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The Birth of Literacy

Oona found Og gouging the cave wall with a rock.

Exasperated, she sighed. "What are you doing?"

"I call it 'writing'," Og said. "Each symbol represents something. Now mankind's greatest thoughts can be preserved for millennia."

"Uh-huh. So what's this squiggly one?"

"I call that a 'LOLcat'. Isn't it cute?"

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(image from wikiloops.com)

And finally, since I haven't made a musical post in a while, let me offer you a piece from wikiloops where I added two guitar tracks to a reggae jam. The original drums were done by the user "nofish," keyboards were then added by user "rastafari", and the user "Carpenter" added bass.  I added a rhythm guitar track and a lead track.  I called it "Rasta Reggae Redux" since the previous version of the Jam was called "Rasta Reggae." You can listen to it HERE or click on the icon.

Because the jam was so structured and full, I didn't want to clog it up with too much guitar. And the horn fills in the middle break were so cool, I wanted to complement them instead of overpower them.  So this is a track that shows that I don't have to layer tons of improvised guitars to a piece, that a coherent part designed to be part of a tune can also be a lot of fun to do, and that many times -- just like in writing -- less is more.

Thank you very much for reading and for listening -- I really appreciate it!

Prehistoric Brevity

(Image by Chris J. Fries)

One of the first (OK, one of the ONLY) places I've had some of my writing accepted is at 50-Word Stories, a site created by Tim Sevenhuysen that features daily doses of micro-fiction.  Specifically, fifty-word stories, as you might have guessed from the name of the site.

Over the time I've been an off-again-on-again struggling writer-in-development, I've really liked working in the very-limited space a fifty-word story gives. Maybe I'm weird (OK, there's no "maybe" about it), but I find that limitations and constraints often-times tend to actually help spark my creativity.

Although I haven't lately, in the past I had written many pieces and submitted several for consideration of publication, with some success: My entry "A Trashy Story" was one of the winners of a 50-word contest Tim hosted at GeekingOutAbout.com; I've submitted entries for past "Pirate Week" events (HERE and HERE); and my story "Expectations" remains as one of the top-ten rated stories on Tim's site.

Well, guess what?  Tim's having a new contest -- A Prehistory Contest.  And I've been playing around with a few 50-word stories and am submitting two.  I wrote several, but two is the maximum that a single writer can submit.  The contest is accepting entries up until November 23rd (so if you're interested yourself, you need to be quick about it). I'll let you know how my entries do.

But in the meantime, I can also offer you one of the stories that I didn't think was quite as good as the two I actually am submitting:

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Log Potato

Oona was disgusted. 

Og sat transfixed, mouth agape, staring at the flickering sparks. He'd been there all afternoon.

"So where's our meat for dinner, oh great hunter?" Oona asked. "And our new furs?"

Og just grunted.

Oona shook her head. She was starting to wish that she'd never discovered fire.

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Thanks for reading!