Globex Corporation Newsletter

I'm teaching tomorrow at the high school. I much prefer that to middle school which I did earlier this week. I can handle an eighth grader one on one, put twenty of them in a room and it's pretty hard for me to deal with. Not that high school students are a picnic, but they've got a better handle on what they're supposed to do and what's expected of them. In addition to being at the high school, which I prefer, I'm also teaching English which I prefer over math. I actually do OK at middle school math, math was never my strong suit, the last decent math grade I got was in ninth grade. No, I'm a lot more comfortable with English. That's not to say that I'm infallable at it. I have to sometimes have a kid explain what they're doing in an English class to jog my memory a bit. It usually comes back, though.

Got together with TSA and Mike Reardon today at the Twelve String Compound. Played for a couple of hours. Mike's a good teacher, and I'm getting those backup singing chops back into shape. Funny, but a few months ago I wasn't sure if I'd be able to sing lead after singing backup for so long, now it's the other way around. I never lost the harp, though. Man do I love to just play harp behind someone singing and playing guitar. I like playing guitar. I like singing lead. I love playing harmonica. When I just get to create lines, when I'm completely comfortable with what the guitarists are going to do next, it's just the best. I'm learning the instrument a little more every time I play it.

We worked on some stuff we'd done before and some new stuff. I trotted out the Presidents song, and it has real possibilities. I think our version will be even goofier than the original, that's a good thing. We had played "Walk on the Ocean" at Dunn Bros. last night, but worked it up even more today. I really like the backup vocals on that, just doing a simple harmony on the chorus. We added a little twist where I go a little higher the last time through. We're getting pretty close to how high I can go, but the range is there and unless I just finished a particularly nasty version of "Mojo" I can maintain it. Then we worked on the Eagles' "Hotel California." I never realized what an odd song it is musically. It's this strangely chromatic thing that's unlike most pop tunes. A lot of noodling has got me able to do a decent harp part on it, but we've pretty much dropped the harp in favor of me doing backing vocals throughout. Mike was schooling Andy on some really cool guitar runs. The whole thing came together really nicely. Finally we worked on Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." Gabriel's "So" album was one of my favorites when I was in college. While everyone was into "Sledgehammer," which is a really great song, I was digging "In Your Eyes." It's a pretty easy thing to play, with only two sections in the song. It does switch keys in the middle, but the change coincides with a change to second position on harp, so I can keep the same harp, I just have to be careful and remember the change. The best part for me was the chorus, singing a low "in your eyes" with Andy while Mike is doing a lead vocal, getting stronger and stronger as the song goes on. So a couple of hours and we've got two new songs we can do, with some improvements on a third.

Mike is playing a Democratic fundraiser tomorrow. He asked TSA and me to play. I don't know if Andy will be able to make it, but I should be able to. It could be fun, though I'll have to be careful with the "Blind Orange" Julius references among politically active people. BOJ has a life other than that of blog writer and musician, and some of these people may have seen my, for lack of a better term "Digital Political Cartoons." I'm proud to say I've been attacked by members of both political parties for some of my work. Apparently I'm too liberal and too conservative. If I'm pissing off both sides, I'd say I'm being fair. I'm not really affraid of anyone finding out who I am, I just really like the annonymity. Kind of interesting that I'm writing about people finding out who I really am on a blog where I don't use my real name......

BOJ