Happiness comes in small portions

It's true.

Today I sat in cafe de Beurs again, playing the piano.

And I stopped, as always at nine. At that time a man stood next to me putting a small tip on the piano for me. When I suddenly stopped playing he said 'You're stopping already?'

I said I had already played for two hours.

He replied; 'That's a shame, I really enjoyed it.'

Then he walked away.


These small things totally make my day.

Songs recorded. Song found

We recorded six songs yesterday via my laptop and my microphone (which is a really neat thing. I bought it more than a year ago, never used. The past year it served it's purpose multiple times).

The recording went quite well, it's not good enough to post anywhere yet, but it's nice having something solid. At the same time I'm really eager on knowing when we are going to perform these songs outside our safe bunker.

We also stayed at my place afterward, eating chocolate cake with M&M's and whip cream, watching a really bad American comedy. I enjoyed it.

Today I found an old song I recorded more than a month ago; Mind You. I really really like it, and it's me and it's the piano and it's personal and it's not perfect, but it comes close. It's one of those songs you listen to and when it ends you wonder where the time has been. And if you listen to it closely you can hear someone singing about his life. Which I haven't done before, I always make songs about concepts or ideas. Turning my own personal life and adventures had always resulted in bad songs, so I just didn't try it after a while.

And then you find this. Which is all about me and about what I am. It kind of shocks me to know I had this song and I haven't found it earlier. It would fit so well with everyone. I'm going to fight for this song to remain the same. I want it like this.

This week has been insane. I have had time but my head is full and I messed up things I normally don't, it was my birthday (which was nice, though the real parties are next week), I played with Anna-Mae, and with Roemer. The whole week is filled with stuff to do, it's really really nice. Also really really chaotic for me.

But it's good fun.

Musical dilemma

While I'm sitting on my bed, with a snoring cat from the neighbors next to me, I can't help but think I'm really enjoying everything. I played with Anna-Mae, which was a blast. After half an hour we couldn't focus any longer, so we just played random things, I played the drums, we sang stupid songs and just messed around. It was good fun.

We did finish one song and started another. There are eleven songs for the musical, four of which are already finished (one is a cover, the other three are songs I made some time ago and just changed them a little bit). The fifth is already half way done, and I've got some piano tunes we can use. I finished the lyrics of the eleventh song yesterday, while deciding there should be something like an ending song with the lights turned out which would give everything a warm feeling. Instead of turning the lights on and just bowing to the audience.

Now the band is something I still don't know what to do with. I like playing with them, yet I feel like I miss things/people. This is something I found after I played with Anna-Mae. I miss the opportunity to just play and have fun, yet be serious about it. The connection is gone, at least for me. I'll give it time.

I can't find teachers who can teach me to play the cello. I really want to start it now, or else I won't do it. I also need to look for a student who can help me develop my classic piano skills.

Now I have to excuse myself, the cat want to get out and so do I.


Cheers,



Note to self: Need to buy camera for adding pictures.

Got driver's license + busy

Well I've got my driver's license (hurray!). I burst into tears when he (the exam dude) said I passed. I honestly couldn't believe it. I cried because I was so nervous (I've never ever been so nervous for something in my life. I also haven't felt that relieved when I heard I passed). I just stood up, after shaking his hand and shaking the hand of my driving instructor (who rocks. She's been so nice to me, has taught me in a way which really helped me and I haven't even thanked her for everything. Stupid), and wobbled outside finding my dad and telling him I passed still crying, feeling quite awkward because of the fact I just couldn't stop crying. I didn't know how I felt; relieved, sad, etc. The only thing I knew was that I couldn't believe I passed; I thought I sucked and it went so awful. According to my driving instructor I did very well and drove without showing nervosity. If only she could look inside my head...

And now I can drive home this Friday. I'm a bit scared, it's odd I can't stop thinking about not being able to drive anymore. It's just stupid.

I've also driven the motorcycle of my dad, which was a blast. It's really heavy at first, but when you hit thirty or more it just drives really nice.

Anyway.

Because of those things occurring, I didn't work on the musical at all. Which is a shame, but alas, I couldn't get a grip on myself. This week I will try to write at least one song. Unfortunately we'll only have one meeting and the drummer can't play. It'll work out itself though. I'm positive.

Roemer, the drummer of my band Above the Attic (hence the name Above the Attic's Diary) wants to have six songs ready within ten weeks. We discovered we already have one song completely finished (Mr.Immovable), and two songs almost finished (Wake up! and Nameless). Of the remaining three songs we have a skeleton; a basic idea or a tune without vocals and or real structure. Besides those six we've got loads and loads of idea's, riffs on the guitar, lyrics, and so forth. So six songs shouldn't be a problem.

Just now I've also finished selecting photographs with Roemer, which we will use for flyers and other things.


Here's one of them. I just like the fact that everything is black because of the clothing and the lighting. And the composition is really nice.







Picture by Roemer




Cheers,

Toy Band

Last week was wonderful. I helped with the introduction week of the school. The newcomers could choose from several projects. I had developed the Toy Band with a teacher. The challenge was to make a song with instruments made for children. We had Casio Keyboards, a plastic guitar, my pots and pans, and more. I helped them with two others seniors. We called them Our Children and always asked other friends of us (who were also helping freshman with a project) how it went with their children.

It was a lot of fun. I had to play too because one of the people from my Toy Band got sick. We made a Keytar out of an old Casio Sampler, duck tape, and a guitar strap. This was the first time I performed in ages, and I enjoyed every second of it! It was just fun, fooling around with those toy instruments and the drumkit which we made from my pots and pans. I'll post the youtube video here when it's uploaded.

The other good thing that happened to me; I got myself a team for the musical I've written. We will have a meeting next week in which we will talk about what and how. It's great and a bit scary knowing that I am the person in charge. I'm really looking forward to it though.

But I'm sick now, unfortunately; my stomach hurts and I can't breath that easily. Coughing up mucilage while my throat feels like someone has thrown razorblades inside. I hope it'll wear off soon. Then I can really put all my energy in the musical (and in getting my driver's license).

Cheers,