I can’t believe its already the last day of September! I’ll keep it short since I have to write my monthly review still, but at least I have the energy for a song review for today.
Here are some songs that stood out to me today:
New Songs Attempted
Purple Rain – Prince
Breathe – Pink Floyd
In a Big Country – Big Country
Works in Progress
AJR – A Dog Song
AJR – God is Really Real
Wild Wood – Paul Weller
Learned Songs Revisited
Sowing the Seeds of Love – Tears for Fears
Rhythm of the Ocean – Hawaiian Style Band
Rooster – Alice in Chains
Song of the Day: If You Could Only See – Tonic
A viewer mentioned this song, and it was another one of those like, I almost knew it even though I hadn’t heard it in years and only ever heard it on the radio. Ah the radio, from that era where they played mostly decent music most of the time. Anyway, the song was super easy to pick up, so even though I’ve really only played it a few times it already feels pretty natural. Funny how that works.
Well, it’s been quite a time recently. I lost most of last week due to travel, and haven’t been keeping up on blog updates because that really drained my energy. It also drained my motivation a bit, to be back on Oahu and be reminded of all the things I used to do when I was healthy. I manage to do ok in my little room and routines, but its actually very difficult to do anything resembling normal people activities. Being forced to go outside and see the world working, and be reminded of the times when I was a part of it was not the most pleasant thing for me. Its much easier for me to not think about it when it’s not in my face. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Then, Hurricane Nolo came. Luckily damage wasn’t too great, but my area lost electricity and internet again. For the entire weekend. So, I didn’t have my usual stream of games and anime to keep me distracted from thinking thoughts about myself and my situation. Even now I don’t want to write about it too much because it’ll just bring me down. But I do want to continue making these post stream reviews to keep an honest record of this journey. It’s way to easy for me to decide its not worth it and do nothing instead, so I need to try make it an automatic habit. Just like when it comes to practicing, a little bit is better than nothing at all. So here we are.
Another headache day, I hoped it would go away if I noodled for long enough, but it didn’t, and I had to take the migraine medication. Here’s hoping it doesn’t turn into a full on episode tonight. Gonna take a pill and call it, sorry no stream summary today.
Did I miss (3)? It’s been kind of a tough week for me. I wasn’t feeling well enough for my normal voice lesson today either, and I probably won’t be able to do next week’s one either because of medical stuff. I started today off with a bunch of noodling, and actually had a new guy come and hang out and chat for most of the day, which was pretty cool. Also ended the day with the realization that I could play a bunch of songs from the musical Grease, and I had just never tried it before. Who’d have thought.
Here are some songs that stood out to me today:
New Songs Attempted
Greased Lightning – Grease
Sandy – Grease
867-5309 / Jenny – Tommy Tutone
Works in Progress
Superfast Jellyfish – Gorillaz
Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
Wake me up when September Ends – Green Day
Learned Songs Revisited
You can Get it if you really want – Jimmy Cliff
Welcome Home – Coheed and Cambria
Long Gone Day – Mad Season
Song of the Day: Bi-Polar – Assemblage 23
You can get it if you really want is my proper theme song, but when I’m feeling down, this track by A23 is my anti-theme song. I do feel this way often, but don’t usually want it to be part of my public persona. If I’m out in front of people, I want to be focused on the good vibes, right? Well, not always. Sometimes gotta let them know how I really feel.
I crashed after the stream yesterday, and then stayed up late watching anime because I napped through the evening, and then woke up feeling not so great today. So I kept it chill and decided to play random roulette with my Hawaiian / Island Style Set. Turns out, I can play 3 hours of local music. Some songs still definitely need work, but I even had a good handful of tunes leftover that I didn’t get around to playing. I still can’t do the proper “Hawaiian” style strumming, but I think the songs still sound pretty fine when I just strum my style.
Here are some songs that stood out to me today:
Works in Progress
Hanalei Moon
Ulupalakua
Na Ka Pueo
Hawaii Aloha
Learned Songs Revisited
Cool Down – Kalohe Kai
Opihi Man – Ka’au Crater Boys
Maui, Hawaiian Superman – Iz
Song of the Day: Roots Rockin – Mana’o Company
I had learned this song a long time ago, and it was on my list so I gave it a go… and it turns out I still remembered how to play this song purely from memory! Its kind of interesting when a whole song comes out of the brain that I didn’t have actively in mind. Pretty fun.
I’m super exhausted from dealing with medical stuff all day, so I’m not gonna do the full review. We played some modern pop, and noodled for a while. As much as I love the my Sparrow and electric ukulele Mondays, this one was still pretty rough.
I made it through the week! It was kind of a tough day, I was up all night learning about “Spiky-Leaky Syndrome” and then spent most of the morning comparing my experience to the description. There does seem to be some overlap, but the alignment isn’t perfect. Then again, the paper describing the syndrome was only released two years ago, so this really is cutting edge medicine.
Anyway, the music was fun. It’s cool to find people who like the same music that I do, and then to sing for them. I’m really enjoying that part of the gig, though my confidence and self-esteem is still
Here are some songs that stood out to me today:
New Songs Attempted
A Whole New World – Aladdin
Arabian Nights – Aladdin
Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
Works in Progress
Friend Like Me – Aladdin
Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
Learned Songs Revisited
I don’t wanna be me – Type O Negative
Breezeblocks – Alt-J
Where is my Mind – Pixies
Song of the Day: Autumn Leaves
It’s too early for autumn leaves to be falling, but I remembered that I had learned this song a while back, and I was quite happy with how it came out when it resurfaced. Always nice when that happens!
It was a busy day, and a fun day. Started with a voice lesson where I learned yet another new thing about singing that I get to start practicing. Then I had an appointment with a CFS leak specialist doctor who instructed me to look in to “spiky CSF leaks” which in my brief investigation does sound somewhat relevant. He wants me to go to Oahu for more imaging, so I guess that’s the direction that is heading.
Finally on today’s stream we had a bunch of new people stop by. Opened up with playing through my set of 9 songs by The Strokes, and then had a nice long chat with a new viewer who got me to attempt a handful of AJR songs. I’d never heard of the band or the songs, but I attempted them. It’s always fun to see how different my version reading off the chart alone is from the actual song. I liked the lyrics a lot, so I’ll definitely be looking into that band more. And, further failing at “quality over quantity” – 8 new songs to learn got added to the set today XD
Here are some songs that stood out to me today:
New Songs Attempted
The Big Goodbye – AJR
God is Really Real – AJR
A Dog Song – AJR
Works in Progress
Free Bird – Lynard Skynard
Heart Beats in its Cage – The Strokes
The Next Episode – Dr. Dre
Learned Songs Revisited
Wanderlust King – Gogol Bordello
Coin Operated Boy – Dresden Dolls
Is this it? – The Strokes
Song of the Day: Ode to the Mets – The Strokes
Someone who joined the Uke Tribe Discord introduced me to this song because they wanted to play it, and I really liked it. I still don’t really know what it means, and don’t know how it relates to the Mets, but who cares the song is good. I am assuming the Mets are the baseball team right? Well, further proof that you don’t actually need to understand a song to enjoy it.