UNDERDOG of PERFECTION

This is where a musical project gets rough. Especially when you’ve got some rigid plans for the final product, and you’re running out of steam.

The fundamental problem and challenge of my RPM album this year is that the number of tracks, and their sequence, was established from the outset. And given the nature of the concept, there is absolutely no room for changes. The exact style and duration of each track was certainly negotiable, but in order for the concept to work, there had to be 13 tracks, and they had to appear in a specific order (with the exception of the songs whose titles start with N, O, S and T, as there are two of each of them).

Here’s the track listing. Songs in bold are completed as of right now.

1. Scantest Rondo
2. Candor Stetson
3. Orcas Don Tents
4. Tornado Scents
5. Tartness Condo
6. Actor Sends Not
7. Narcs Tote Dons
8. Dancers on Tots
9. Enact Rod’s Snot
10. Radon Contests
11. Sorta Contends
12. Oats Tend Corns
13. Notated Scorns*

* I think I’m done with “Notated Scorns,” but I might change my mind.

It’s down to three tracks. They have to have the titles they do, and they have to appear in the order that they do. Sure, “Sorta Contends” and “Scantest Rondo” could trade places, but the imagery the titles evoke suggests that they be in the order here.

I’ve got a fairly good idea of what I want to do with each of these tracks, but the execution has been lacking. “Scantest Rondo” needs to be a musical rondo (i.e. a “round” — think “Row Row Row Your Boat”), and a short one at that. “Radon Contests” is going to be an electronica thing. “Sorta Contends” is the one that’s giving me the most grief. It really feels like it should be acoustic guitar-driven, kind of folky almost. I even have a chord progression for it. But aside from the fact that it’s extremely derivative of a pair of songs by The Decemberists, I’m just not getting the sound I want.

Now I’m leaving for a 3-day weekend. I’m taking my 2-octave MIDI keyboard along, and my laptop. I really… really… want to finish these last three tracks while I’m gone. But that pretty much eliminates the acoustic guitar from the equation. But I have too much “real” work to do to be preoccupied with RPM much longer. It has to happen this weekend.

But am I putting too much pressure on myself, and on the project?

Yes, I am annoyed with the fundamentally stupid concept of the Cupcake in Bloom. And the guy in the Qwest ads, in the words of one reader, “just screams of d-bag.” But perhaps nothing in in the world of advertising, circa early 2009, is as ubiquitous or incomprehensible as Pepsi’s hideous new logo.

It’s even more hideous when you discover the full hogwash design pseudo-philosophy behind its creation. To that end, Brand New is here to help.

I think this really sums it up though. And no, you are not alone if you think it bears a striking resemblance to Strong Sad.

Then again, now more than ever there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and this whole thing has gotten me thinking a lot more about Pepsi than I ever would have otherwise. But I’ll still only drink it when there’s no Coke products in the soda fountain.

Repetition plays a role in my annoyance with advertising. In downtown Minneapolis right now there’s a new set of Qwest ads that are almost as ubiquitous as the previously-ranted-about Cupcake in Bloom from 1-800-Flowers.

There are a pair of these, both annoying, but the dude in this one is just begging to be punched in the face. I would be happy to oblige.

I am in utter disbelief at the audacious lies of Sen. Lindsay Graham, who dared the other day to claim President Obama has been “AWOL” on the matter of the economic stimulus plan. He’s been all over trying to make this thing happen, and now he’s using the Internet (finally, a president who gets it) to help make his case:

Yes, our new president is using YouTube to get his message out. Power to the people!

I suspected this might happen once I released RegisTrap to the public. I had four new spam user registrations on my site when I checked it today (having last checked it maybe two or three days ago). Previously I’d only see about one a week with RegisTrap running.

It was bound to happen. The rules RegisTrap employs are fairly simple, and the “bots” are constantly being modified. I have no idea how many registrations RegisTrap has blocked in the time it’s been running — perhaps my next step in developing it is to add a logging feature. If there were only four (or even maybe a dozen or so) spam attempts on my site during this time period, then RegisTrap seems pretty ineffectual. But if it actually blocked a ton (metaphorically speaking) of spam registrations, then four sneaking through doesn’t seem so bad.

If anyone out there is using RegisTrap and cares to comment on ways I could improve it, let me know! Meanwhile, as time allows I am going to pursue the logging functionality, if only for my own edification. As valuable as the logging feature would be, it goes against the spirit of simplicity inherent in the plugin. I really don’t want to write anything to the database or filesystem.