Tag / Music

by Greg

Smoke On The Water… Sort Of.

Tonight on the way home from our Wal-Mart Supercenter, there was the normal amount of noise coming from our very full back seats, but I noticed a recognizable melody rising over the din. It was our one-year old, singing the famous guitar riff to “Smoke On The Water”, correct rhythm and melody!

A little background.

During the hockey playoffs, there was an automobile commercial that featured that song, and the boys picked up on it and really liked it. So I bought it for them from iTunes, and they always love when it comes up in the shuffle of the day.

Well, recently, after a picnic lunch outside, we were cleaning up and heard Ian singing the tune with a variation on the name of a friend of ours:

Mis-sus Shimp, Mis-sus uh-Shimp…
Mis-sus Shimp, Mis-sus…

Of course we were laughing, and then complimented our boys on their creativity, and then e-mailed our friend to let her know she was the source of inspiration for a new song. She loved it!

Well the song has not stopped. A few other people have crept into the lyrics…

Mis-ter Tones, Mis-ter uh-Tones….
Mis-ter Tones, Mis-ter…

But the melody remains the same.

Fast forward again to the ride home tonight. All the kids are talking, singing, playing in the back. Jen and I are talking in the front. In the middle of a conversation with Jen I clearly hear, “Uh, uh, UH-uh…” FROM OUR ONE-YEAR-OLD! I immediately interrupted Jen and said, “Did she just sing Smoke On The Water??!?!” Jen asked her to sing it again, and sure enough… SHE DID!

HILARIOUS!!!!

So, as the bedtime routine has been underway tonight, every once in a while, Julia busts out that famous riff, in her cutest one-year-old voice…

“Uh, uh, uhhh… uh, uh, UH-uh…” 🙂

SHE CAN’T EVEN TALK YET!

Oh my goodness. Had to share that one!
Friends coming to spend the day with us tomorrow… eating chicken wings, hamburgers, lots of sweet tea, and even making home made ice cream! Should be a blast!

Wonder if Joodles will sing her song? 🙂

by Greg

iTunes "Releases" Music

iTunes StoreiTunes has announced today the beginning of their move to DRM-free music (meaning, no copy protection… which has been really annoying to digital music purchasers for quite some time). This also means that people who don’t have iPods can purchase stuff from iTunes and just put the song right on their non-Apple MP3 player now. (I still recommend iPods though…) 🙂

Read the linked article for more.

They also announced they have added Paul McCartney’s catalog (I believe DRM-free?) to the store. Another first. The Beatles have been scarce to say the least at the iTunes store. But more will be coming.

So, just wanted to let you know… click over to iTunes and have a look!
iTunes Music Store (iTunes link)

by Greg

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Flag
(Flags hung on the front of our house… Soon to be unfurled again!)

It’s Memorial Day Weekend! We’re planning to get together with Jen’s family, and my sister and family this Sunday over in Buffalo. It’s the official start of summer! But it’s also a time to remember the people who selflessly have given their lives for our country, and our freedom, and for us.

I wrote a song about Memorial Day a few years back now, and posted it to the blog here. If you’d care to have a listen, and/or read the lyrics, please click here.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

by Greg

Musicality

Greg & Jen - basic - Making MusicIt’s been a long time since we have done a “real” basic gig. Well, we did do one retreat weekend in early February, and before that we did 8 or 9 Christmas concerts… but I can’t actually remember the last time we just did a concert of our music.

Tonight we’re going to be doing that. I’ve actually had to practice a few songs this week… as some of them are beginning to escape my internal song bank. 🙂 We’re singing at Impact Theatre. It’s a free venue for Christian performers. Mostly music, but dance, drama, comedy also. Neat place… usually 75-100 people there? (I’m a bad crowd guesser, so… dunno…)

I decided last night that I should probably change the strings on my guitar. They were sounding really dull… not staying in tune very well. I think this pack of strings has more than done its job. Whereas I used to change strings at least twice a month (sometimes weekly), this pack has been on my guitar for WELL OVER A YEAR.

Now that’s longevity! 🙂

So, I broke out the tools this morning, and rummaged through my bag of strings, hoping to find a complete pack. I pulled out one that looked that way and began the process. I loosened and removed all six strings. Then got out a cloth and shined up my poor, neglected Taylor guitar. I started pulling the strings out of the pack – one at a time – and got to the 3rd string and… it was not there. 🙁

It’s not so good to start stringing a guitar – especially one that has not been restrung in over a year – and just abruptly stop, leaving it missing a string or two. The tension difference can play with your tuning after that…

So, I looked up a local music store, and decided to head out. I needed to get this fixed asap. I took the boys and we had fun checking out a new music store. It’s only about 5 or 6 miles from our house. That’s neat. We had fun, but I had a mission (and Mom needed the van…) so we headed back.

Now the craziest part was, once I restrung the guitar – well, even AS I was restringING the guitar – I was immediately blasted back to the past. I used to do this ALL THE TIME. It was a strangely cool (and strong) nostalgic experience. I don’t miss doing all the shows we used to do… but I don’t mind that we did that. They are (mostly) all good memories. So, it was crazy doing what I used to do for a morning.

And an evening. Tonight should be more of that same thing. I just hope I remember how the songs go… 😉

If you are free, and near Palmyra, NY… please join us tonight for what is now a quite rare occurance. 7:30pm till about 9:15pm. Stop by their website for details…

See ya out there!

by Greg

Tuesday Tidbits

  • NFL Draft
    This past weekend was the NFL draft, as I mentioned here previously. This year, the crazy part was the Bills drafted pretty much as they were expected to! How crazy is that? Last year everyone was flipping out over the insane picks the Bills made… this year, everyone is much happier. (Last year, all the picks made the team, and made significant contributions to the team… what does that mean for this year?) 🙂 Anyhoo… I wrote an overview of it yesterday at my Buffalo Bills Review site. (It’s also on the Bills website, but that’s a crazier link… you can get there from the BBR site…) (PLUS, there are some fun videos on the BBR site…) 🙂
  • Sabres Update
    The Buffalo Sabres lost in double overtime on Sunday. We almost missed it due to the confusing side of TiVo. Long story. But, thankfully we did not. 🙂 Well, sorta thankfully… Game four is tonight… look for the Sabres to take a commanding 3-1 lead heading back to Buffalo for Game 5 Friday night.
  • Macs
    Lots of interest in Macs lately. Been seeing lots of folks who previously have had no interest in the Mac OS switching over to the wonderful world of Apple. If you’re tired of spyware, virus protection, strange error messages, and would like to just enjoy using your computer – Apple has a great section of their site you can check out: apple.com/getamac. It has tons of reasons to buy a Mac, and answers to questions about switching. AND, all those fun commercials with Justin Long and John Hodgman. 🙂

    If you’re interested, I would love to help you pick out the best computer for you. I can even get some discounts too, so definitely let me know if you’re interested. If you don’t need discounts, just click here: bwd-graphics.com/apple. Just enter my Agent ID at checkout. Thanks! 🙂

  • BEAUTIFUL weather
    I don’t really like summer… at all. But, I am loving the recent couple days. Beautiful blue sky, sunny days, green grass, budding flowers… and only in the 60s!! That’s perfect, if you ask me. 🙂
  • Visits
    Grammy & Grandpa are coming to visit this weekend (that would be my parents). We’re looking forward to it. Have lots planned for the short three day visit. Grandma & Grandpa W (Jen’s parents) might be joining us for Friday night too. The boys play baseball on Friday. That would be so fun to have both grandparents there! 🙂 We’re looking forward to seeing them again…
  • Busy…
    I’m feeling busy, but not seeing the return in $$$ at the moment. That is a frustrating place to be. Hopefully that will change in the month of May. Lots of new business on the horizon… perhaps I’ll have to start nudging this week. 🙂
  • Vacation!
    One more thing on my mind of late… VACATION! We already have a week of vacation planned in California in late October – JUST ME AND JEN! But my parents have graciously offered to help us have a family vacation also this year, and the only time we can do that is THIS MONTH. 🙂 I’m not complaining! We’ll be vacating to a favorite vacation destination in the Poconos two weeks from Saturday! Can’t wait! 🙂
  • We’re Still Singing…
    Because of that newly scheduled vacation… we had to REschedule a concert we are doing this month. They were gracious enough to move the date out one week, and we’re looking forward to our evening with them. Now you can hear us at Impact Theater here in Palmyra on May 25th, at 7:30pm. It’s free, but you have to make reservations.

    So…. we’ll see ya out there! 🙂

by Greg

So Far, So Good

I may have mentioned here, but I know I have mentioned elsewhere, that this week is going to be totally insane. I have lots of open projects for Basic Web Design & Graphics, and we are also doing a Christmas Concert Blitz this week! Concerts every night from Tues-Friday, and then two on Saturday! Fun!

Last night we sang at Fairport Village Coffee. The first time we sang there was Christmas of maybe 1999? Could it be?? Whoa. Seems like so long ago. There were only a few people there when we got started, but several more came throughout the night, including Jen’s brother! We hardly ever get to see him and his family, so that was great. It was a nice relaxed visit (we got to chat in between songs, sets, and even during a song or two! Ha!) and definitely a highlight of the evening. We also got to chat with several other folks about anything from Apple computers to life with God and his church.

And, they liked the music, to boot. 🙂

Tonight was much of the same. Though, tonight the people working there didn’t know we were coming! Ha! That’s always funny. 🙂 We sang at Earthtones Coffee House in Webster tonight. Another place we have played quite often, and for a long time. Jen’s mom came over this afternoon and stayed with the kids, so even though we were “working”, with the 40 minute drive and set up time and the two hours of singing… it’s a nice evening with my wife. We also stopped for a late-night snack at McDonald’s on our way home. Quite nice.

This time, no one came that we knew, but that allowed for some nice conversations with several people who were there. The music was well received again (one lady, whose favorite song is O Holy Night, had many compliments for Jen’s rendition of the Christmas classic! That was awesome!) and we even sold several CDs and a book! Quite nice.

One of the workers tonight came over to the table after we had been singing a while, and was checking out my There’s The Steeple… Here’s The Church book. When we finished the song, she asked a question about it, and we ended up talking at length (actually, throughout the rest of the night, too) about church, and God, and life lived with him. Neato! Then, at the end of the night, we met another musician from the area and got to chat with him a bit about music and gigging and all. It was a great night, I’d say.

So, I actually started this with the intention of writing it during the second half of Superman Returns, which I started last night… but… that wasn’t happening. 🙂 The movie’s over now, so I can finish this.

I think I just did.