Category Archives: personal

A little about hearing

Posted on by
Reply

Some might have heard me talking about this before, but I find this kind of fascinating because I’m 99% certain I have auditory processing disorder. I haven’t been diagnosed by a doctor about it, but I would not be surprised if they agree. This short does kind of explain it a bit:

Now, I can hear you say: ‘wait, you, the person obsessed with listening to music, have a hearing problem?’ Well, it’s not a hearing problem. It’s a processing problem. I put it this way: if we’re in a crowded and noisy restaurant, it’s not that I’m deaf and can’t hear you. It’s that I can hear you. And the couple next to us. And the sound system that’s playing the music just a bit too loud. And the TV down the way that’s playing the game. And the bros constantly cheering at it. And if you’re not facing me while you speak, I lose the clarity of your voice. I hear all of it at the same levels, and my issue is that I have trouble filtering it so I can focus only on what you’re saying. [It’s also why I can’t wear a radio earbud at work, because I’d be too distracted by all the chatter on top of all the other noise within the store. I just use the radio the old fashioned way.]

I also often say I have shockingly sharp spatial hearing. I can easily tell which direction a noise originated no matter what direction I’m facing. It’s part of why I love music so much, especially if it’s a well-produced stereo mix. I’m sure if I had a surround-sound system it would be bliss, but also highly distracting. But it does have its plusses, in that I’m often more aware of my surroundings than other people are, that is if I’m not inundated by multiple other noises.

So yeah, I’m quite proud of being the age I’m at and still having relatively decent hearing, but APD does have its own drawbacks. I’ve just learned to work around it.

The guitars are back out!

Posted on by
Reply

After multiple weeks of keeping the guitars safe and sound in their carry bags within the office closet, we’ve finally created enough room where I can put out the two electrics again! My Gretsch (which is in dire need of cleaning and retuning, seems like) is now parked right next to my desk where I can pick it up and noodle around on it whenever I feel the need. My Fender P-Bass is nearby in front of one of the other bookcases.

I don’t remember if I’d mentioned it here before, but I’m thinking of getting rid of my two acoustics as they acquired more dust than play during the Spare Oom years. I enjoyed playing them, I just never found enough time for it. I’m thinking of selling them to Tall Toad up in Petaluma (where I bought my Gretsch), though whether for cash or store credit is up in the air. I doubt I’ll buy another guitar, but I could probably use the credit for recording hardware or something like that. We shall see.

Still, it’s great to see them out in the open again, and I’m looking forward to playing them again. After I give them a good cleaning, of course.

Brian Wilson RIP

Posted on by
Reply

The Beach Boys were a band that took me a long time to appreciate. I’d hear “Good Vibrations” and “Kokomo” and a few other big singles on classic rock radio as a kid but at that point I was a full-on Beatles nerd so I didn’t quite get what they were about. It wasn’t until the early 2010s that I finally decided to do a deep dive into their discography and finally figured it all out.

It’s far more than just the nerdy surf and car tunes and the easy laid-back pop. Brian Wilson was one of those rare songwriters that didn’t just write brilliant songs, he understood the math of them, as I like to say. Well-crafted songwriting to me isn’t just about a catchy riff or a singalong chorus; I see it similar to writing a novel. There are several moving pieces that need some kind of focus, and Wilson was a natural at hearing all those pieces in his head. Unfortunately sometimes the musical mathematics in one’s head doesn’t translate to reality and that can be absolutely infuriating (John Lennon often had the same problem), but he came extremely close with shocking frequency.

And there’s definitely a Beatles-Beach Boys connection there, because if it wasn’t for this wonderful piece of music (my favorite of theirs)…

….there wouldn’t be this song that was inspired by it.

(Not to mention Paul’s continuing love for the band a few years later when he did “Back in the USSR” as a Wilson pastiche.)

Which connection I should cut

Posted on by
Reply

Yes, it’s come to that. I’ve finally admitted to myself that perhaps I should cull some of my digital music library, as it’s become unwieldy. As I’d recently mentioned to my friends on our Discord channel: I might keep the backups on the secondary external (which itself is getting a bit full), but I can definitely see where I have some tracks and albums that I haven’t listened to in way too long. I most likely downloaded some of this stuff because I’m a completist that’s obsessed with full discographies. Or I may have acquired it out of curiosity and it just never resonated with me. Or I heard a track on KEXP or elsewhere and thought I’d give the rest of the album a try.

Part of this was my lingering worry that the music on our Plex server is nigh on impossible to navigate because I have so much on there. But more importantly, I’ve long been at the point where music has stopped resonating so closely with me because I haven’t allowed it to get close. If I’m not listening to it more than a few times by next Friday when the new releases come out, some of it falls by the wayside to be forgotten. And that’s been happening for the last couple of years.

Mind you, it’s weird getting rid of things you no longer listen to when your music library is 100% digital. It’s not as if you can bring them to the local record store for cash or store credit. You just simply…select and delete. Like I said — I’m not completely deleting it, I’m just taking it off my main music external, so I’m not wasting money or anything. Just that I need to give myself time to become attached to the things I like and what resonates with me.

This is most likely going to be a long term culling project that I’ll do in increments over a long stretch of time. And hopefully out of all of this, I’ll reacquire that love for music that’s been eluding me for far too long.

Fly-by: where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a busy couple of months here, and I suppose it’s finally time to reveal why I’ve been MIA here at the blogs. The short version? We’re moving!

The slightly longer version is that said moving has involved all sorts of paperwork, banking, thinning out of stuff we no longer want, packing stuff we want to keep, setting appointments to get utilities up and running, more paperwork, and shopping, all while working the Day Job, and that’s left me with not that much time to work on writing, let alone posting blog entries or even getting any daily stuff done on 750Words. [There’s also the fact that I just happened to pack away my journals as well, so those haven’t been updated for some time either.]

It’s going to take a bit longer before I’m back up and running again, alas. I’ve been sneaking in some editing of A Division of Souls when I can just so I don’t fall behind on my planned ‘remaster’ release schedule, but that’s about all I can muster at this point.

So yes, I’m still here! Hopefully within a few more weeks things will be back to normal. Thanks for your patience!

A day in the life

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a whirlwind of a morning between our internet completely crapping out for some reason and having to reboot it…and receiving some incredibly awesome personal news a short time later! So yeah, I’m a bit behind on things right now and it may stay that way for a few more weeks. More on that later!

In the meantime, the above song popped up on KEXP this morning and I still say that playing that final chord on one of the original pianos in Studio One at Abbey Road is one of the coolest and most mind-blowing things I’ve ever done in my life. Today comes close, but this still tops it. 😉

It’s that time of year again…plus recent listens

Posted on by
Reply

Believe it or not I did not listen to Revolver this time out while I did our taxes! Just…didn’t feel in the mood, I guess. But yes, everything is done and away until next year. Who knows what they’re going to look like then?

In the meantime, I’ve been revisiting some music from 2001-2002 — the Belfry Years, specifically the albums that were on heavy rotation during the writing of A Division of Souls, which I’m currently ‘remastering’. [Long story short if you don’t follow my writing blog: It’s been ten years this September since I first self-published the book, so I thought I’d do a tenth anniversary special edition. I’m currently doing a bit of revision and clean-up where needed, fixing up the cover a bit, and perhaps adding some extra bonus things. And yes, I will most likely be doing this for The Persistence of Memories and The Balance of Light as well.]

So what’s popped up that I’m enjoying once more?

I’d forgotten how much I loved Zero 7’s Simple Things! It’s a lovely record that feels a bit like Morcheeba with a hint of Air and “Destiny” is just a wonderful track.

The Chameleons UK shows up on my playlists partly because I love the track “Swamp Thing” so much, but this 2001 album was an amazing return to form after a long hiatus for the group. Highly recommended.

Big Wreck has always been one of my unsung favorites. They’re one of those bands that are absolutely amazing yet have never had a huge following. Loud and extremely melodic, they’re definitely not alt-metal, but they’re not just another 90s alt-rock band either. I highly recommend checking out all their work.

I kinda sorta liked Coldplay’s “Yellow” when it came out, but I wasn’t completely sold on their lighter sound. I even passed up picking up their second album A Rush of Blood to the Head until I heard them do “Politik” live on the Grammys in early 2003. That’s when I realized just how amazing “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” is, and how this band has a lot more going on than just radio friendly fare.

More to come!

Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye

Posted on by
Reply

It occurred to me the other day that it’s been twenty years since I’d moved away from my hometown in Massachusetts. For some people that might be just another life event, but for me it was something pretty big. Until that day in March 2005 (the 6th, to be exact) I’d always lived in MA, five years of them in Boston, then spending just shy of ten years back at the family house getting my affairs, finances and creativity in some semblance of order. All of that changed near the end of 2004 when I started going out with A. in a long distance relationship, then turning that into frequent road trips down to New Jersey (a little over two hundred miles one way) to spend the weekend. It was a three hour drive but it was totally worth it.

All of that changed in early 2005 when we finally made the decision for me to move down there with her and her roommates. We both felt it was something I’d needed to do, and a long time in coming. I was ready for it, and had been looking to moving on for quite some time. The plan was to move down to NJ and eventually find a place somewhere near her workplace, but that ended up going in an altogether different direction later that summer.

It was a year of a lot of major life changes for me, so I allowed my writing to fall by the wayside for a bit. To wit: moving out of my old hometown, moving away from family, moving in with said girlfriend, springing the question and eventually marrying said girlfriend shortly after, visiting another country (that was not Canada, and which included acquiring a passport and flying on a commercial airline for the first time), doing office work instead of warehouse or retail for the Day Job, and eventually moving to the west coast where we’ve been ever since.

I made the above mixtape the night before I left, even though I dated it to the day I got in the car and drove away. I listened to it a few times on the way down to Jersey along with the other mixes I’d made around that time. The themes of the mix were moving out, moving on, escaping, feeling free, and looking toward the future. Little did I know just how much my life would change in just a few months, but I wasn’t going to complain.

You burrowed like a summer tick

Posted on by
Reply

I was just thinking earlier yesterday about how some of my music listening habits tend to be on the fleeting side these days, and how that sometimes bothers me as it feels like don’t allow myself to resonate with these songs as I once did.

It’s definitely not that I’m just not into anything new these days, far from it. My obsessive listening to KEXP (both online and its local terrestrial outlets) has me latching onto new bands and songs all the damn time. No, it’s the sheer volume of it all that distracts me from letting it burrow deep and stay in my head for months at a time. My music brain can only work one way or the other, it seems.

During my ongoing review of my Bridgetown Trilogy playlist, I noticed that may just be the case, especially when it comes to the mixtapes I made at the time. Many of the songs on those tapes from nearly a quarter century ago still play crystal clear in my mind. And why is that? Because this was stuff that got a high amount of repeat play.

It wasn’t just during my writing sessions in the Belfry, either. It was also on my commutes to and from work at Yankee Candle — an almost exact thirty-minute drive from driveway to parking lot meaning I could listen to most of side one of a mixtape or a full album on cassette. It was also during my weekend road trips around New England, whether it was my weekly visits to Boston, local bookstores, or just driving around the back roads in central Massachusetts.

Alas, this is something I haven’t really been able to do all that much these days. Mind you, I am certainly not complaining that my current commute is ten minutes/eight blocks on foot (and shorter if I take the car or bus), but that doesn’t leave me time to listen to my mixtapes or albums I want to listen to.

Instead I’ve been trying to retrain myself to latch onto songs that capture my attention and keep them there for a while. I’m essentially relearning how to listen to the music I love so much, and it’s turning into an interesting experience, to be honest. Not everything completely clicks, but a lot of it is starting to burrow in there like I hope it will.

A weekly visit

Posted on by
Reply

In going through the early years of ‘the Bridgetown soundtrack’ (as I’ve been calling it), specifically from 2000 onwards after I’d left HMV, I’ve been of course thinking of the Newbury Comics that used to be in downtown Amherst, just off the common and across the street from the town hall.

I’d been going there off and on since 1995 or so, but this one became my go-to on Wednesdays when I did my comic book/new music release runs after work once I started working at Yankee Candle. It became one of my favorite things to do: drive down 116 from Deerfield to the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, stop at Showcase Comics to pick up my subscriptions and check out some new titles, then drive up to Amherst Common to spend an hour or so at Newbury and pick up new releases there. I remember my old HMV boss, Tom, had become a district manager for the chain and I’d run into him every now and again. I set a weekly budget of $70 to spend there, which quite often ended up being around five CDs, given the store’s ridiculously low sale prices, often hovering around eight to nine dollars per title.

Given my work schedule by that time — 6am to 2pm — I could get this shopping out of the way and get home in time to chill for a bit, have dinner with the family, then start my nightly writing session around 6pm, where I’d work for about two hours. It was a perfect schedule for me, one I’d keep for the next several years. When I started working at my current store here in SF, I’d offered to be an opener for this exact reason: getting off shift by early afternoon provides me not only with recharge time but also enough for a productive writing session.

When I moved away from Massachusetts in March of 2005, this Newbury Comics was the last place I stopped on my way out. I figured one more time for old times’ sake was worth it. I bought cd copies of two favorite titles I’d owned on vinyl for years: Blood Sweat & Tears’ 1969 self-titled record (the one with “Spinning Wheel” on it) and Boston’s classic 1976 debut. I also bought some snacks and Pocky (that store had been my source of the addictive chocolate sticks for years) and headed out one last time on my way down to New Jersey.

The store moved to downtown Northampton a few years later if I recall, and it’s still there to this day. We’ll stop in every now and again during our visits back east, and although I don’t buy nearly as much physical music as I used to, I’ll still surf through the bins to look for interesting things.