I have been getting progressively more excited about NaSoAlMo this year. Last year I was excited, but under the circumstances I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to complete since I had plenty of time to write but very little time to record while away from my little home studio for most of that November. I didn't end up completing my album last year, though I did end up with some songs I really like, some of which will actually finally surface on the album I've been working on for a couple months now.

Last night I almost wanted to jump the gun and start working. Instead, so as not to let myself cheat, I started a new Sonar file for each of the planned songs and created the usual tracks I use in most of my songs. (That is guitar, vocals, drums, bass and strings.) I'm sure I won't necessarily stick to that arrangement for every song, but having the basics in place for each song will save me some time. I haven't written a note or word or recorded a sound, so I think I'm still following the rules.

I do have a plan for the album as well. I know there will be twelve songs, because I am planning to write one song for each state in what the Census Bureau officially calls the Midwestern United States. I don't know the degree to which the songs will actually have anything to do with the states they "represent," and knowing my own writing style I suspect most of them will only have a vague connection if any, but it is still a convenient way to create a little "starting point" for each song. Just having something concrete as a placeholder for each unwritten song will save me a lot of the writer's block that settles in when you have a number of songs to finish and no idea what you want to do.

My experience with the Midwest will likely make up the bulk of what I write about. Which is to say I imagine most of the songs will be about something that took place as best I can recall in that area. I actually have spent very little time in that part of the country and really only on road trips. My pops' immediate family is from Ohio, but they're from the eastern part of the state which is actually more like Pennsylvania than the "proper Midwest." I am notoriously lazy when it comes to reading about history, so I will probably not go that route when writing "about" a specific state. Other than being aware of how I work, I really have no idea what I'll be creating. That in itself makes the whole thing feel like it's going to be a lot of fun.

If you're wondering, the idea came from the fact that I've had a few recent conversations about the prospect of eliminating the Midwest geographically from the U.S. For those of you not in the know, I'm in a long distance relationship with a woman who lives in Brooklyn, NY almost 3000 miles away from my home here in Portland. My friend Chris suggested that I fold up the Midwest like the back page of Mad magazine, and he also suggested that it could be crunched up. My girlfriend recently referred to the crumpling up of the Midwest as "American Origami." Anyway, that's why the Midwest has been on my mind lately. That, and the fact that I was recently in Michigan and Ohio on my last little vacation. So there you go.

I am still looking for a job, and I have just started hearing back from folks who have received my resume, so I'm hoping I'll start working again in November too. With luck, I'll still be able to do the album thing even with the disturbance of starting a new job. I'm pretty confident I will be able to pull it off. Please wish me luck or say a little prayer or whatever it is you like doing to indirectly help someone else succeed in a personal pursuit.

Also, if anyone out there has a wah pedal they wouldn't mind loaning me for all or part of November, please get in touch. The only wah I have is weird and kind of hard to use in the "traditional wah approach," and I'd really like to see if I can get a new song to come out by messing around with a more "standard" wah pedal. I've also been debating buying one for some time now, and I kind of want to mess with a few before I drop the cash on another guitar pedal.

what's on:
"Our Way to Fall" (Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out)