..:: Written .:. Off ::..

The weather has finally changed. At the beginning of the week I was wearing a winter jacket and today, I could have probably gone out without a jacket. It was 70 and sunny today and tomorrow is supposed to be 76! I have to say that Spring is my favorite time of year. Not too hot or cold, it’s just right! My day started off really bad today but I was able to fend off my blah mood with a combination of music, editing and exposure to the nice weather.

I worked on the 25th chapter of my book and I’m feeling really good about it (today). Most of the errors that I’m encountering are technical. The later chapters are messy but my writing had somewhat improved by that point so things are not too bad. There’s a lot of action in these chapters and I’m working hard to make sure that it moves along at a fast pace. The other challenge is dealing with a lot of characters performing actions during the same time. The hardest thing for me is making sure that I don’t forget about X character during some of the fight sequences. This is very easy to do when you are dealing with 6-8 characters. I have roughly 14 more chapters to edit and I should be finished. The next step is to send it to a professional editor, who will no doubt find lots of things wrong with it. That’s fine with me. If I paid someone to edit this book and they found very little wrong, I would probably question their skills.

Have any of you ever worked with a professional proof reader? I will probably look for one soon.

Have a great weekend!

Courtesy of Brave Words, Bare Knuckles, by way of Spin Magazine:

Read it Here!

The Mule wrote a post about how a station called Rock 101 was doing a “Guitar Gods Weekend”. Needless to say, he was a bit disappointed in who this station chose as Guitar Gods. I made my own list of guitar players that are my favorite. Some of these players, you will know, while others probably don’t get the recognition that they deserve. Also, I have included some dual guitar combos that I like. Here we go:

1. Frank Zappa: Zappa is one of the most underrated guitar players. When journalists write about the 70s, they tend to point to Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Zappa not only played in a unique style, he was technically superior to most of these players. Just check out “Shut Up and Play Your Guitar”.

2. Denis “Piggy” D’amour (Voivod): Denis was by far one of the most unique metal guitar players of all time. He used chords that no one would even dream of using. I seen him play live a few times and his playing was effortless. You could just stand there and watch him burn up his guitar all night.

3. Trey (Morbid Angel): Trey’s leads and riffs can only be described as other worldly. His playing can sometimes be overshadowed by the notoriety of his band, but if you listen to his work on Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, you will hear some of the sickest guitar work this side of Death Metal.

4. Adrian Smith and Dave Murray (Iron Maiden): The twin guitar combo that brought Iron Maiden their unique sound. These guys always worked well together and I never got the sense that they were trying to outdo each other. Instead, they worked together as a guitar team and created a unique sound.

5. Bill Steer and Mike Amott (Carcass): The work that these two did on Necrotism is mind blowing. Both the riffs and the leads on this classic CD are memorable and melodic. I still hear new things when I listen to this album even though I’ve heard it a million times. (Pictured Above)

6. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath): Tony would probably appear on any journalists list of great guitar players but his influence on music and his sheer riffage (is that a word?) can not be denied. This guy is still considered to be the RiffMaster. I only wish that he would dump Ozzy, since there is little chance of a new Sabbath CD, hook back up with Dio.

7. Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp (King Crimson): These guys have been together in King Crimson for years. Both of them play completely different styles. Fripp’s playing veers between trace like and twisted while Belew is like a caged elephant that is on a rampage.

8. Phil Campbell (Motorhead): No flash, no bullshit. Phil has been THE guitar player for Motorhead for a long time now, even though some consider him still to be the new guy. This guy is a straight rock and roll player who can keep up with the best of them.

9. Ivar Bjornson (Enslaved): This guy is slowly becoming one of my favorite guitar players. He can move between blinding metal solos to proggy Gilmour-esque leads. His slower solos creep up on you and before you know it, your just shaking your head in wonder.

10. Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu and 10,000 other side projects): Broadrick was the guitar wizard behind Godflesh. He is not the kind of player know for flashy leads, in fact, I don’t know if ever played a lead on any Godflesh CD. Justin is more of a innovator. He can take a note and loop it and layer it until it becomes something else completely. He playing is so off the wall, that it’s hard to describe. I have heard him do more with feedback than most guitar players can do after watching 100 Joe Satriani instructional videos.

11. Steven O’Malley and Greg Anderson (Sunn(o))): The robed trolls of the doom/drone band Sunn(o)). These guys create valleys of doom with their ultra slow tuned down riffs. They can take one riff and slow it down to the point where the bowels of the earth begin to shake. Their playing is not for everyone but, if anything, they are innovators.

I don’t need anyone sabotaging my work, I can do it all by myself, thanks.

If you remember, last year, I wrote 20,000 words of a novel. I never split the document into chapters so I essentially had one file. I did have multiple copies of that document but when the original got corrupt, all that I did was manage to make several back ups of a corrupt document. This resulted in me losing my work.

Since then, I got smart and started breaking up my novel into multiple documents by chapter. Somewhere along the line, I started to password protect my chapters since I was carrying them around on a USB drive and working on them at work. I didn’t want some nosy co-worker reading my book (they can buy it like everyone else, lol).

Yesterday, I was about to edit Chapter 23 when the password prompt came up after I opened the document. I tried my normal password and it didn’t work. For the next half hour, I tried every variation of my password. None of them worked. I started getting nervous. I thought that I removed the password from all of my docs months ago. I then opened all of my files to make sure. I found the password protection on some of the documents but I was able to open them with my normal password.

I went back to Chapter 23 and still could not open it. Shit! The next step was to go out onto the internet and find a password cracking too. I found several but all of these products are demos and cost anywhere from $30-$50. While I was glad to see that I had the option of using a tool, I really didn’t want to spend money until I was sure that I could not remember the password.

So, I’m sitting there entering password after password, when finally, my brain kicked in and I remembered the password. It was a password that I had only used for a short period of time. I typed it in and the document opened.

Why I didn’t just write this password down somewhere is beyond me. Another lesson learned.

Metal Mark at Heavy Metal Time Machine recently put up a post asking readers what musical releases or events they were looking forward to. I’m stealing that idea and posting my list here:

1. New Voivod - Voivod are one of my favorite bands of all time. Since the death of their guitar player, they were able to construct a new album with tracks that he recorded on his PC. The whole project is bittersweet but I’m sure that it will be great tribute to their departed guitar player. The Mule recently posted about meeting the band at his site, Difficult Music. Check it out!

2. New Rush - New CD? New tour? I’m there!

3. New Iron Maiden - I think that I’m in the minority when I say that I liked the last Maiden CD. I don’t know, it sounded great to me. I loved the song The Rainmaker.

4. New Enslaved - I recently heard a promo of this CD and it’s another great release from Enslaved. I love this band!

5. Iron Maiden/Death on the Road DVD: This may or may not be out already in the states. I will pick it up as soon as I can.

6. New Celtic Frost (pictured above) - This is the big one for me. Celtic Frost are one of the most influential bands in underground metal. This is their first new release in 15 years and according to the band they have been recording this for 4 years now. You never know what you will get when listen to new CF record.

7. Genesis Reunion: David Amulet spoke of rumors of a Genesis reunion at his site. The reunion would consist of both Gabriel and Hackett! I hope this is true.

8. Pavement Reunion: This is just something that I hope will happen some day. Steve Malkmus has been playing some Pavement songs live during his solo shows. Could be a good sign!

What are you looking forward to?

I didn’t realize how long it had been since I posted until Susie sent me a comment that said:

where are you freddddddddddddd
where are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I kind of fell into the black hole of normal life. I had to get some things taken care of for my wife’s birthday. I also started looking for a new job which can be very stressful and time consuming. Next thing I knew, it was Sunday night. Oh, I have recently become addicted to a computer role playing game called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on the Xbox360. I used to be a big computer game player until I started writing. Nowadays, I really don’t have much time for it. I always feel like I’m wasting my time playing so when I do find a game that I like, I usually will play in my limited spare time (1/2 hour a night).

Even though I had a very chaotic week, I managed to do lots of writing. I wrote about 5 chapters of my new book by the end of the week and I’m really happy with my progress. I hit a few walls by the end of the 5th chapter, so now I’m going to take a step back and think about how things should proceed. This week, I plan to get back to editing my fantasy novel while I thinking things through for the new book.

I really enjoyed reading all of your comments about your worst jobs. I think that every one has had at least one and we have all worked for a psycho manager at some point. You can have the best job in the word, but if your manager is a nutter, then look out!

I hope that all of you had a great weekend.

I get some crossover traffic here from my writing site but there are still some of you who only read this blog. This blog is about music. Recently, my love of music and writing have merged. I finished writing a fantasy novel that I have been working on for a long time and just started my next project.

I’m writing a fiction novel about a group of kids in a metal band. The story is based around the relationship between two life long friends who are in the band together. When the story starts they have had a falling out and the main character has been fired. The band manager calls him a month later and tells then that they want him back because they got the opening slot at a major festival. The story proceeds from there.

The novel is meant to be a tribute to both metal music and the hardships of being in a band that will probably never make tons of money. The kids in the band are doing what they believe in. The story is sort of a mix of the movie Clerks and Spinal Tap but on a much smaller level.

I had to pick a genre for the band and decided on Stoner/Doom since I love this genre so much and it’s probably the most “mainstream” of many of the metal genres. I have written about 4 chapters so far. The last chapter that I wrote was a mock interview between the main character and a fictional metal magazine.

Some of you who read this blog have ties to the music business. If any of you have any knowledge about touring and how bands work with promotors to book a tour, I would love your help. I’ll even put you in the book, lol.

On other news, I recently aquired a few new CDs. I have really been on a stoner/doom/drone kick. Well, more so than usual. I just got some Boris CDs and the new Nebula. Metal Mark also has me excited about the new Witchcraft CD. I can’t wait to get that!

What have you been listening to?

I just finished writing Chapter 2 which deals with the main character at his job. I worked some interesting jobs in my life but nothing compares to 2 weeks that I spent working at one of those convenience store/Gas stations. I worked at a place called AM/PM for a short period while I was out of work when I was around 18. What a place that was! The store was located in the heart of South Philly, near the famed Melrose Diner. I worked there for only two weeks so that I would have some money for Christmas. You would meet all kinds of strange folks working in one of those places. Some guy actually tried to pay for gas with weed. One night, the late shift guys didn’t show up so my friend and I had to pull the over night shift after working all day. You can’t even imagine the stuff that goes on in the city at 3:00AM. I’m still scarred. One guy paid for gas and proceeded to pour it all over his engine block. Crazy.

I was nice (sadistic) enough to make this job the profession of the main character in the story. It was fun writing that chapter because it brought back memories of all of the crappy jobs that I had.

What was the worst job that you ever worked?

I reread the first chapter of my new novel last night and it was nowhere near as dismal as my brain had made it out to be. I actually quite liked it. I cleaned up some mistakes and added a sentence at the end of the chapter.

This morning, I boarded the train with intentions of sleeping. I popped on my headphones, put on some music (Stephen Malkmus - Pig Lib) and shut my eyes. That was when the flood of ideas came. I was overwhelmed with ideas, not just for this book but how to promote it and create interest. By the time I got off the train (I couldn’t sleep) I was really excited about the book.

The funny thing about writing is that, no matter how you try to explain your idea, it never sounds that great when you talk about it. It’s so hard to convey to another person everything that is in your head and why your story is special. I know that I can’t do it.

I have decided not to be as secretive about this novel as I was with my first. Too much of my own experience will be embedded within in so that even if some lurker decided to write something similar, that person could never replicate what I’m writing.

I’ve said in previous posts that I am writing a fiction novel about music. I hope to capture what it’s like to be a young and in a band. I did the whole band thing when I was in my 20s and all that I can say is that it was a lot of hard work. The toughest thing about being in a band is working with the other personalities within the band. If your going to be successful, you have to run the band like a business which means maybe firing a friend who is not pulling his weight or telling another member that the song he slaved over isn’t really any good. I personally had to deal with a member who was making copies of our demo tape, selling them behind our back and pocketing the cash. You have to deal with jealously, the repetition of practicing the same songs over and over while trying not to lose the spark of that song when you play it live.

I have a whole story worked out that revolves around a band that is about to get a major break professionally at a time when the band is almost completely torn apart due to internal strife. And I want it to be funny too.

There’s lots of work to be done!

Yes, it’s true. This purveyor of music that emodies all things evil is asking the big man upstairs for help! Why this sudden change of events? Am I a hypocrite? Didn’t I just write a scathing post about Christian Rock? Before you write me off completely and think that I’m about to order a butt-load of Petra CDs, hear me out.

I just spent $124 for concert 3 tickets.

Am I going to some huge metal festival?

No.

Then I must be going to see Kiss in New York at MSG, right?

No.

Dinosaur Jr. reunion?

Nope.

Well, fuck, I must be going to see something brilliant right? Some one in a lifetime thing, right?

Nope.

I just spent $124 to take my daughter to see Dora The Explorer’s Pirate Adventure Live. That bossy little girl and her friggin monkey are the most devious cash registers known to man.

God help me.