Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Day in the Life of an Unemployed Bassist

I went ahead and decided to do a post about a day of my life to sort of give people an introduction into what it is like to be an unemployed bassist, as I have been for the last couple of months. So, I picked a day and went for it. Surprisingly, it turned out somewhat more interesting than I thought it would. Note: In picking a day, I felt it made the most sense to start when the day actually starts so I started the post at 12 AM.


12:00 AM, 02/23/09 – Watching Cowboy Bebop with girlfriend (Black Dog Serenade for all you Space Cowboys out there).

12:30 AM – Go to sleep after watching Cowboy Bebop with girlfriend.

8 something AM – Girlfriend gets up to go to class. I don’t notice.

10:49 AM – Wake up.

10:51 AM – Surf internets. Start writing this post.

11:30 AM – Get a call for a job offer. Hey hey, things are starting out good today. I’ll be starting a new job in a couple of days!

11:31 AM – Immediately go back to surfing the web, spending most of my time on Digg, Fark, and Reddit.

12:00 PM – Clean out and move my cat's litter box. I do this because the box is under the sink that the plumber who is coming in today needs to fix.

12:18 PM – Play Guitar Hero 3. Five Starred Knights of Cydonia by Muse on expert. Snap!

1:06 PM – I beat DragonForce’s Operation Ground and Pound on expert! Eat it whores!

1:07 PM – Hand hurts after playing that seven fucking minute song, move onto Call of Duty 4.

2:13 PM – Make lunch. Mmm… Hot dogs and a banana…

2:40 PM – The plumber shows up to fix my bathroom sink.

2:45 PM – The stop valves don’t work on the sink, so he will have to take it apart to fix it. This requires him to shut off the water to the whole building, since he can’t just shut off the water to my room as it is an old building. I secretly hope my neighbors are trying to take showers. Then the plumber says he needs to go pick up some parts to fix the sink, will be back in 20.

2:46 PM – Much to my dismay, he turns the water back on in the building before leaving.

3:11 PM – I decide to make the most of it by putting on some tea and continue writing this blog post. Still no plumber.

3:26 PM – Plumber returns with new part. I watch and help… by turning the water on and off for him…

3:43 PM – Plumber is still working on the sink. The stock market closes at its lowest level since 1997. Plumber is unimpressed by this news. I now start calling him “Joe” the Plumber. This does not impress him either.

4:00 PM – “Joe” has to go and get more parts as the stop valve was only half the problem. The washer on the inside of the hot water knob is also broken.

4:13 PM – A friend of mine shows up to play some Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 at my apartment.

4:54 PM – “Joe” has fixed my sink. I am surprised and impressed. My friend and I decide that this is cause for celebration. We make a beer run to corner store down the street.

7:47 PM – Eat Dinner. Frozen pizza and High Life, the default diet for a bass player. Halo playing is resumed immediately after.

11:00 PM – Friend leaves because he has to work tomorrow. I keep playing CoD.

11:42 PM – I decide to practice a little bass and eat some Mandarin oranges.

12:00 AM – I take break from practicing to reflect on my day. I realized a few things: 1.) I never ate breakfast. 2.) I played approximately 8-9 hours of video games today. This impresses me. Gosu runs in my blood. 3.) It only took “Joe” about two hours to fix my sink (despite having to go for parts twice), and now it works perfectly. For an unlicensed plumber, he did a damn fine job.

Update 12:29 PM, 2/24/09: I just remembered something important I left out of my reflection...

4.) I got a job... somehow.
..

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Is it common to fly so swiftly?

The wall was covered in a thick plaster that had cracked over time from the changing seasons. The building was old, although not so old as to be historic, merely rundown. Through the cracks in the plaster you could see brick and, occasionally, the old mortar of the wall. The swift clung to one such sliver of mortar, his stubby legs swaying slightly in the early morning wind.

The sun was only just rising and soon he would spread his wings, release his grasp on the wall, and tumble, accelerating rapidly as the ground rushed up, passing windows as he went, one, two, three, appearing to anyone looking out those windows like some kind of speeding silver slicked insanity, crazily falling to his certain death, until he would finally lift himself skyward. He always felt more comfortable in the air, where he spent most of his time, gliding on the current searching for any bug to feast upon, butterflies and beetles, with their sticky sweet juices.

It was not quite autumn yet, still several months until he had to begin his long journey to South Africa, him and his companions that is, their migration. For now he could enjoy the rising buildings and bustling streets of this temperate place, watching the trains race by in his fair weather home. Oh, how he wished he could stay here just a little while longer this time, just a little while, but alas different worlds won't overlap.

Finally, as the sun rose up from behind the buildings to the east the bird lifted itself up and flew skyward. He circled around the rooftops effortlessly riding the flow of air beneath him as he joined other birds, more and more as the seconds passed. The swirling mass glided together in an intricate dance, whiskey in their blood, weaving and twisting in a maze of wings. Their motions were chopping the air as they flew, slowly building a cacophony of sound. There they were, composing for the whole world to hear, these common swifts.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Plea for Help

So, I had wanted my first post on the blog to read something like this:

FIIIRSTT WHOOOOOOo!!!!

Alas...this was not to be. So, here comes the anticlimactic second try.

A Plea for Help

At the latest band practice (2.15.09) something of moderate importance occurred. I have been burdened with the enormous duties of "Official Band Pun-master," and I must admit - I'm doubting my abilities already. I mean, really wondering if I'm up to the job - it's a pretty tall order...I was given the title after suggesting a song title for our concept album about a forest and all of its woodland glory*. Who wouldn't listen to a song about the Common Swift keys player named 'Fungi?'

*not actually planned.

So, band super-fans (who must be combing through the archives, if reading this - seing as how our readership at the moment consists of us), if you have any pun ideas, let me know and I'll subtly work them in at rehearsal.

Anyway, I've got to get back to freaking out about the symphony rehearsal in Beloit tonight.

-Jf

UPDATE: rehearsal was fine - shouldn't have been so worried. We'll see if the next concert is any worse.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Rocking Face Since 2008

As a means of popping this blog's cherry, a brief introduction. I'm Dusty, the drummer, or as the rest of the band refers to me, "the loud one." That much said, here's what I think. Loudly.

Common Swift is a band dedicated to the ideal that rock 'n' roll can simultaneously melt face and produce an irresistable urge to flail one's arms and legs about in a physical expression of its sheer awesomeness... or something like that. The band was founded in a leaky, moldy basement in Madison sometime in 2008 by guitar player Brian Strutt, Bassist Clinton Bader and me. We could play a soft jazz cover of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" all the way through -- Forty minutes of glory. It was pretty bitchin'.

As Alissa Stormont was kind of hanging around a lot for some reason, we got her to pick up a flute and play a few tunes with us. Then we put her up front and made her sing 'cuz she's a lot prettier than the rest of us. She hasn't forgiven us yet.

Jeff Ingebritsen and Parker Reynolds joined our ranks as keys players, vocalists and dancers extraordinaire not long after, and we became Common Swift. As members of the band, we are called "swifts" individually, but when our powers combine, we are Common Swift.

After playing a few shows for fun last autumn, we went underground to compose some more original tunes and work on a demo disk. That disk is now nearing completion, and the band is champing at the bit to get back in front of a live crowd. It's guaranteed to be epic.