Writing Music Again

With my wife and daughter out of town for the weekend, I finally got around to writing, recording, and mixing music again; something I haven't done for a very long time.  I've always loved doing it, but with work and school and family it just has been near impossible to do.  So!  Here they are.  The two songs that I wrote, recorded, and mixed this weekend:  Corridors of Stone, and Fairways and Greens.

Corridors of Stone
Jake Garrett - 7.28.13

I'm living with fear
that it's here when I wake
Tell me does that mean
I'm becoming just like them?
Paranoid, and seeing what?
It's these visions in my head
That toss and turn me now
I let them grind me down
Oh how they grind me down

If I lose them they will find me
Confuse them but they bind me
Let down; criticise me
Refusing to let go
If it's not one thing than another
Call me when it's over
Pull the strings that make me sing
Then leave me in the corner

So I'll swim for the present
And hope for a future
Of empty dreams and darkened sleep
Void of any color
As the green fields wither
Preparing for winter
I'll store away the season
That I let them grind me down
Oh how they grind me down

If I lose them they will find me
Confuse them but they bind me
Let down; criticise me
Refusing to let go
If it's not one thing than another
Call me when it's over
Pull the strings that make me sing
Then leave me in the corner

Still waiting when I rise
In the corridors of stone
Beckon me forward into the gray unknown
Rotating eyes; the glass disguise
If it keeps safe the unsafe
That dwell inside
If it keeps safe the unsafe
That dwell inside

If I lose them they will find me
Confuse them but they bind me
Let down; criticise me
Refusing to let go
If it's not one thing than another
Restart it when it's over
Pull the strings to make me sing
Then leave me in the corner

If it keeps safe the unsafe
That dwell inside
If it keeps safe the unsafe
That dwell inside



Fairways and Greens
Jake Garrett 7.27.13

In Memory of Richard Bruce Garrett 1937~2004

Memories of fairways and greens
A breath; photograph
All I keep
The leaves changed
and so have we
We aged and moved away
What would you say?

What would you say,
If you could say anything?
Isn't she beautiful this little girl of mine?
The way she would have laughed at you
I can only imagine

I can't say I blame you
Who hasn't made mistakes?
Maybe you knew
And you did it anyway
I know you had regrets
But we're now all that's left of you

What would you say,
If you could say anything?
Isn't she beautiful this little girl of mine?
The way she would have laughed at you
I can only imagine

Going on ten years now
I'm taller; a father
I'm imperfect but stronger
Than the boy you left behind
Torn up inside
Hoping you'd see this day
Wondered what you'd say

What would you say,
If you could say anything?
Isn't she beautiful this little girl of mine?
The way she would have laughed at you
I can only imagine
The way she would have laughed at you
I can only imagine

So memories of fairways and greens
A breath; and a photograph
Are all I keep
After the leaves have changed
And so have we
We aged and moved away
What would you say?
What would you say,
If you could see her now?
See her now?
What would you say?
Can you see her now?
Can you see her now?

I Should Have Been A Weatherman.

I was just looking at the weather and according to weather.com, it says it is currently 91 degrees but it "feels like 90." I wonder how much the person gets paid to say what they think the weather "feels like".  I could do that job, "Whooo, man, it feels like really hot out here tonight, I'm gonna guess based solely on how much I'm sweating, it's gotta be at least 100 degrees." 


Money in the bank. 


But then I thought to myself, do I really wanna be the guy who disagrees over one degree? "Yeah Bob, I see that the thermometer says 91, but it just ain't that hot out tonight. I'm gonna go ahead and say it feels like 90, because come on, 91?  There is just no way.  I've felt 91 countless times in my life, and this? This just isn't a 91 kinda heat." 

I guess it depends on how much they're paying me to be a jerk for a living.

I wonder how a job interview for that position would go? I imagine it to go something like this:

"What makes you qualified to feel weather?"
"I don't know, ever since I was a kid I just kind of had a knack for it, you know?"  
"I thought I felt something just now...do you know what that was?"
"That was probably indigestion."
"Very good..."

Then they would test the candidate's ability to feel things by blindfolding them and having them touch random stuff.  

"This feels like a dead rat."  
"That is correct.  And this?"
"Definitely a shoe string dipped in peanut butter and...sprinkled with oregano."
"That is also correct. And this?" 
"The object with which you slapped me across the face was a live herring."
"Gooooood..."

The weird thing is you know that that person probably has a masters or doctorate degree in something.  

So I browsed around on the website for a little longer, and saw this thing that says "15 Minute Details."  And you know what?  I'm not so sure that I want this job anymore.  The Feels-Like weatherperson has a grueling job!  Every fifteen minutes he/she has to be confrontational.  Right now, for example, science is declaring that the temperature has dropped down to 83 degrees,  but it "feels like" 81 degrees.  "Yeah Bob, I know it says 83, but I have an instinctive habit, a Pavlov's dog, if you will, that I put on a light wind breaker at 82.  I have put on my windbreaker, and I wouldn't do that if it didn't feel like it was sub 82.  I have zipped it halfway and put my hands part way in my pockets, which means it's gotta be an 81 right now, Bob."  Man, I would hate working with someone like that.

Predicting weather is kind of a sham anyway. It's been less than 100 years since meteorologists have been tracking weather patterns that could influence chance of rain. Since they don't have that much to go on, it's still a work in progress.  That's why when they say there's a 10% chance of precipitation and I plan on a big outing outside, it rains like crazy all day and I have to stay inside.  And with global warming becoming more and more of an issue, that's gonna throw some crazy outlier wrenches into the cogs of statistics.  What they should do, is the "Feels-Like" weatherperson could wear two hats, if he/she has time, and be the guesser for rain.  "It feels like 50 degrees, and maybe some rain, I don't know.  That's a funnel cloud over there.  I just felt a small cat strike the side of my head, I'm thinking a tornado.  Ok, there is definitely going to be some crazy stuff going on, so don't get out the barbeque just yet."

Ok, I guess maybe I don't want to be a weatherman.  Being confrontational every 15 minutes and getting struck by flying felines would just bring me down.  Plus I'd have to go through all that extra school, too. 

I can't help but feel bad for Bob, too.