My synesthesia’s BFF: Les Paul + TriplePlay pickup
Once again it’s drab, cold, and grey outside. Perfect weather to sit down in front of the computer and make some new blip-bleep music with my trusty Fishman Tripleplay MIDI pickup-equipped Les Paul. This magical little device seems to have become my equivalent to a bear hibernating – last winter I made 13 tunes on the thing (click here to get to most of them) and as soon as the first sign of warm weather came ’round the TriplePlay was barely touched, the poor thing. It’s nice to be using it again. I’ve also been preoccupied this year with learning how to use Logic for recording. This year I switched over from using PC to using a Mac and it’s been pretty smooth with the exception of one thing, of course the most important thing for me as far as computers go: Recording. I’d used a recording program called Sonar for a good 15 or so years, and unfortunately Sonar is not made for Mac. I started using Logic on the Mac in hopes of collaborating with other Logic users (mainly my brother Chuck and homeboy Timm – dudes, if you’re reading this it WILL happen some day). Logic did anything but live up to its name for me – it’s been tough to break my Sonar muscle memory and learn a new DAW but I feel like I’ve finally got a pretty firm grasp on it, especially after making this new tune entitled “Bridgewalker”. It has been a couple of days of serious recording boot camp as far as learning how to do what I did in Sonar in Logic is concerned.
*******
I toadilly know the feeling.
Okay, enough of the nerd talk. Back to the fun topic of winter: Last winter I was starting to feel like I was living in the movie Groundhog Day and it was turning me into a zombie.
Wake up. Go to work. Come home. Veg out on sofa. Draw daily punny. Go to bed. Repeat.
On February 2nd I just couldn’t take it anymore. It was about 3 in the afternoon and I’d just heard on the TV at work that NYC was about to get nailed with another snowstorm. I’m pretty hardcore with getting daily exercise so would usually ride my bike to work and at that point I was about 2 months in and counting of taking the subway every day due to it being too cold, windy, and icy to bike the 14 mile there-and-back route. Heck if I was going to let a damn snowstorm keep me locked up on trains and indoors anymore. I decided right then and there that the snow could go f*&k itself… If I couldn’t bike home I was walking home, and that I did.
Much to my surprise I absolutely loved it. It took an hour and a half to walk vs. 45 minutes by train or bike, but I didn’t care. Snow = 0, Me = 1. It was the first time I’d really ever experienced the Manhattan Bridge – when I’m biking over it I’m too busy focusing on getting it over with to take in any scenery.. the first half is basically 3/4 mile of biking up a steady incline and it’s not the most fun thing to do. The way down on the other half is a blast, but too fast to really stop and smell the flowers, not to mention there aren’t any to smell. This is a pic from my first walk across the bridge, an archway about 1/4 of the way across:
Um, yes please.
I thought it was a little crazy to spend all of that time walking 7 miles and that it was such a lonnnnng walk, and boy did my legs and feet feel it, but after a while it started to seem like nothing. After that first walk I thought Hmm.. I what if I woke up an hour early and tried walking to work? and gave it a shot the next week. I liked it so much that since then have walked to work at least 4 out of 5 days if not all 5 of ’em.
My favorite part of the trip by far is walking over the Manhattan Bridge. I work so early that I pretty much have the bridge to myself other than a couple of runners and people pushing carts of empty cans and bottles over to recycle in Brooklyn. It’s the one stretch of the walk that I usually just take out my earbuds and exist… No worrying about bumping into anyone else around me or paying attention for cars – just 1.3 miles of empty sidewalk with some of the most bitchin’ scenery New York has to offer, all as the sun is just starting to rise. Even when there’s no scenery it’s great… One morning in May it was so foggy that I could only see maybe 100′ in front of me. Usually I see all of lower Manhattan on the other side of the bridge, but that morning all I saw was nothing:
I couldn’t even see the river when I looked down – it was all just white fog. That was so rad!
The inspiration behind the first TriplePlay tune of this winter is walking across the Manhattan Bridge. It’s the highlight of my morning and both physically and mentally a much better way to start off the work day than standing in the subway like a zombie. By the time I get to work I’m firing on all cylinders, or as many cylinders as one can fire on at 7:30AM. Usually I train on the way home because 7 miles one way is a bit of a hike to do twice in a day, but some days I’ll ditch the train and walk home, too. My bike has had the majority of the year off as far as commuting goes – if I have the time to walk somewhere that one would typically train or cab to, I usually do it. It’s amazing to actually get to see the city rather than miss it all traveling underneath it on the Q train. For what it costs to live here it would be silly not to want to be able to drink up as much of the scenery as possible. You can see the same thing here a hundred times but every time it seems like it’s different.
(ps – FUN FACT: Due to a left hand index finger injury I made this entire tune with my F.U., ring, and pinky fingers on said hand!)
