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Utopian Turtletop. Monsieur Croche's BĂȘte Noire. Contact: turtletop [at] hotmail [dot] com

Monday, December 04, 2006

First Sunday of Advent yesterday; we broke out the Christmas music and started decorating the house. Heard some Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving, and my sensibility revolted -- too soon! Went with the spouse & kid to hear Christmas caroling downtown Friday night, and enjoyed that -- several groups scattered over a several-square-block area, singing arrangements ranging in complexity from all-unison to thickly-chorded jazzy to classical. Enjoyed it very much, and admired the singers for going up against the noisy traffic.


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I signed up for National Solo Album Month for November, but early in the month I realized I was unlikely to finish, because, while I was happy with what I was writing, I realized that most of it would work better for band rather than solo, and I have no interest in recording one-person-band-style via overdubbing right now. So I slacked off and only finished writing two or maybe three songs, plus three or maybe four "frameworks for improvisation,"* and have another two songs under way. Grateful to the NaSoAlMo organizer for getting me to kick-start some writing. My goal this year -- unlike the last two years -- is to keep writing, and not wait for November to roll around to work on new songs. I had been out of the practice of writing much in the last few years, and right now I'm enjoying it again. I never posted last year's album, so I hope to put that up before too long.

*A "framework for improvisation" is a set of procedures and a mood for making a particular piece of improvised music. I started making music that way for the first NaSoAlMo in '04, and recorded a few of them last year, which I hope to post soon.


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Today is my beloved spouse's birthday. Our coming-on-four-year-old son had a number of ideas for improved merriment. Can't wait for everybody to wake up this morning!


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Image: Inchworm, by the coming-on-four-year-old. The letters across the top -- in case you're curious -- say "Nat Flo and John" -- our names -- and "Inchworm" and "1 2 3 4 5 6," which is repeated at the bottom.

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