30 to Live

Okay, it's been well established now that we're right in the thick of "March Madness".  And this madness, particularly of the basketball variety, is well documented.  I know I felt it myself last weekend big time (during the "Elite 8"), when I didn't pick a single game right (note - I still can't believe that Florida, tied with Butler, with 30 seconds *and* the ball, wasn't able to score and close it out)...

But on another level, I think the phrase "March Madness" must go back much farther than this tournament! Because to me, it seems to also evoke that feeling/experience of being *so* ready for spring to finally arrive.  And yet there's maddening swings between warm, thawy weather and the unmistakable snow and cold of winter.  Definitely maddening at times...

And on a personal level, I've seen yet another manifestation of this madness of March.  Lately, one of our digital tape recorders has gone all batty, and it's taking a while to be fixed.  So, for the last few weeks, I've basically been stalled on 1 song struggling with these machines to be working again.

However, one unexpected positive side-effect of this surfaced last Saturday.  Since I couldn't record, I decided to go downtown and watch a band I'm friends with (on Myspace anyway!). And before doing so, I'd hit on the idea of possibly giving the Rox's soundman (Jeremy) a demo CD with selected live recordings (Note that I didn't do actually do this)...

And in order to choose the songs, I listened to 2 disks of 1-man-band live recordings from my parents' basement last summer.  While doing this, it occurred to me that quite a few songs didn't quite measure up in the actual sound-stage of the real world!  And so, in one lucid evening, I trimmed down my "keeper" songs from 25 to 13. In the same spirit, I also pruned my covers list from 28 to 13. (Note - a couple days later I amended it to 15 each, yielding the "30" above.)  Good times!

In any case, I'm certain it will be a major improvement over this!  And hopefully these two "lucky 15" sets will work together and be the birth of me!  At the very least, they'll give the best possible chance of sounding (and feeling) good while attempting it....