It’s time for winter break. Good thing too, I’ve been working real hard and have been feeling increasingly low energy the last few weeks with all the cold and darkness. A week ago we had a big onsite event at work, with everyone on our team showing up from all over the country to the new NYC office for a day of planning and strategizing, followed by a dinner outing. The next day we reconvened in Yonkers for more, followed by our office Christmas party. All very fun and productive, and I must say I feel pretty good about our team and the time ahead, the usual existential uncertainty notwithstanding, but it sure was a bunch of long days. Then on top this we had a bunch of year-end deadlines and the usual last-minute scrambling.
We had a big snow a week ago, wet and heavy, lots of shoveling. But then it turned warm and rainy on Friday and it all melted. Today is the first day off I’ve had in a long time, easily filled up with random tasks and trying to find a more relaxed pace, even if only for a little while. I felt somewhat refreshed and did a full weightlifting workout, and it seemed less of struggle than it’s been of late. I also managed to go on two bike rides in December, but only five miles each time. It still seems harder than twice that distance then the weather is warm. The good news is yesterday was the solstice so the days are gonna start to get longer again.
The big event here is Lizzy and Josh got engaged over the weekend. They were visiting New York City and he proposed to her on the ice of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Very romantic moment. Lizzy has been guessing that Josh would propose for a while now, and is over the moon now that it’s happened. Josh is very relieved that it all went according to plan. Jeannie and Michelle and I were told ahead of time so went into the city to see the magic moment. Afterwards we met them for dinner along with Josh’s parents. Very nice people, looking forward to getting to know them better. Jeannie and I are very pleased about all this, and think Josh is great, and can see that the two of them are very happy together. They’re already starting to talk about planning the wedding.
In music world, my jazz group Spacecats is going to try and record our second album in the new year. With the drums and mics and audio interface all proved out, we’re all set to make the record here in my home studio. We have more than enough material for an album, maybe almost enough for two. Last record we made we recorded the whole thing in one long day, which was pretty exhausting by the end. This time, I’m thinking of doing it over several sessions, but still doing everything live in the studio since it’s a jazz record. For the first session I want to pick songs that Josh (different Josh) can play on the keyboard or synthesizer to eliminate one set of variables. My grand piano is upstairs in the living room and the drums and downstairs in the studio. So I figure start in the studio and see if we can get a good sound on everything there before we add an acoustic piano the mix.
My song Frozen Ocean for the Spellbound project is coming along. I tracked the lead and backing vocals, and am learning Martin’s guitar solos so I can lay down the lead guitar track. Spent some time tonight working on getting the right sound. I’ve also been listening closer to Martin’s original rhythm guitar part and am thinking of re-recording that with some different voicings closer to his original part. There’s some ninth chords in there that I didn’t pick up on first time around. Lastly, Rick is going to come over sometime during the break to check out the drum recording setup, and has agreed to play drums on the Spellbound project if I can’t get the drum parts together myself. More on that as it progresses.