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Second performance down. I'll be glad when this show is over. Not that I dislike the show, but I'm still struggling with a bad cold, there's still a big mess from the building fire, and the heavy seasonal rains are upon us (at least things have temporarily slowed down at work -- but every day I take off is a day I don't get paid for).

But I wouldn't be me if I wasn't also writing a novel and trying to record a song.

Finally got through my epic theme-and-concept session and am back to writing text. Daunting, though. Basically the third part is about discovering what it means to be Greek, and Athenian. Of which I am neither. Nor is my protagonist, so yes, there's the specter of Mighty Whitey here. (And yeah it may be an oldie but might be worth name-dropping Never on Sunday which has a visiting Classics prof lecturing the locals on how they are letting the side down with their modern Greek ways).

So, yeah, at least I can Commander Data it (the running gag in Star Trek, the Next Generation was that the android would read five hundred books on the subject, only to -- of course -- continue to miss the point.) Which is why I'm reading about more recent Greek history now, Greece under Ottoman and Venetian rule, and eventually some Captain Michalis and other literature.

The songing is going slowly. I started documenting the process of developing a cover but realized the piece I was taking screen shots for was one I wanted to try a different approach on  (instead of MIDI mockups, I want to try recording stand-in tracks on the actual instruments I mean to record with).

And it turns out I was in the wrong octaves on Uncharted Worlds. It's a basic problem with MIDI; there's little agreement on whether to use C3 or C4 as Middle C. Worse, some instruments are essentially transposing; that is, the bass in a software synthesizer might play an octave or three below where it is notated. So I did a spot-by-spot check on voicing against the OST (Original Sound Track recording) and adjusted. Played that back and didn't like it. So now I'm up in the air about what ranges I'll actually be using. And I've become sensitized to elements of the original arrangement that I now am struggling to try to include in my cover.

After a much-needed nap I recorded the bass part as warm-up, then tried a new shot at the Mini-Hoo part. Turns out the next part is almost playable on the new uke so I'm strongly tempted to keep practicing until I can actually do it cleanly enough to record. Otherwise, it is dropping to 75% tempo and recording at that...which is probably going to be necessary for the much faster "B" section.

In a totally different direction, messed around with a cover of the titles to Otherworld, an obscure and short-lived television series of the 1980's. Different instrumentation challenges on this one so was fun to play around with for a bit.