Posts tagged thingamonth
Hey, I made something. (Taken with instagram)
Things I learned yesterday
Practice helps.
Sewing aggravates my carpal tunnel.
Sewing corners is hard.
So I’ve been thinking
I might stop using this sub-Tumblr and move my thingamonth posts over to my main site and just tag them with thingamonth. I feel like I’m not paying much attention to this site as I’m wrapped up in actually doing the things rather than writing about them. Thoughts?
Thank you to everyone for the advice re sewing last night. I’m (very, very, very) slowly getting the hang of it.
It’s February, so it’s on to the next thing
One of the (many, many) skills that I’m lacking is the ability to sew. I can re-attach a button, given enough time, but other than that, I’m useless with a needle and thread.
Part of the reason is because my mother and my aunt are both skilled seamstresses. Another part is that I’m lazy.
So to remedy my lack of sewing skills, I am going to make between five and 10 pocket squares this month.
I’m going to work from this tutorial, and I’m going to use old shirts that I don’t wear anymore, but aren’t in good enough shape to give to a charity. I’m planning to make at least two by hand and then christen the sewing machine Emily and I got for our wedding (four and a half years ago!) and do the rest by machine.
By the time February is over, I should have at least one pocket square for each work day, and I’ll start wearing them to work in my jacket pocket.
For this month’s thing: Jamie learns to sew OR There Will Be Blood.
So here it is: My thing for January.
I covered Warren Zevon’s “My Ride’s Here.” I was going for a more rock feel than either the album version or Bruce Springsteen’s (perhaps better known) live cover, so I upped the speed. Zevon was a studio musician at heart and a hell of a producer, so the original has the slick sound you’d expect from him, and the Springsteen cover is clearly a live piece. I wanted to take a middle way. I thought just playing the guitar and singing would be too simple for this project, so I added the keys and drums. I hope the ghost of Warren Zevon doesn’t haunt me for ruining one of his songs.
The Good: My vocals are pretty much in tune, and I created everything except the drum track myself. I used a loop for that because 1) I don’t have a drum set and 2) I can’t play the drums, hence my not owning a drum set.
The Less Good: My vocal tone/timbre and guitar playing are pretty weak these days. Lack of use will kill proficiency. I can still make the chord shapes and everything, but I’m 10 years removed from daily practice and that makes a difference. The key/synth sounds are a bit cheesier than I’d like. That’s mostly because I don’t have a keyboard, so I had to enter the notes by hand into a sequencer, which made them less expressive than I was hoping for.
I want to write up a few of the things I learned this month, and then it’s on to the next thing!
So here we are. My first thing is finished. Onward!
Reblogging this for the evening/night crowd who might not have seen it. That’s the last of my shameless self-promotion for a while, I promise.
So here it is: My thing for January.
I covered Warren Zevon’s “My Ride’s Here.” I was going for a more rock feel than either the album version or Bruce Springsteen’s (perhaps better known) live cover, so I upped the speed. Zevon was a studio musician at heart and a hell of a producer, so the original has the slick sound you’d expect from him, and the Springsteen cover is clearly a live piece. I wanted to take a middle way. I thought just playing the guitar and singing would be too simple for this project, so I added the keys and drums. I hope the ghost of Warren Zevon doesn’t haunt me for ruining one of his songs.
The Good: My vocals are pretty much in tune, and I created everything except the drum track myself. I used a loop for that because 1) I don’t have a drum set and 2) I can’t play the drums, hence my not owning a drum set.
The Less Good: My vocal tone/timbre and guitar playing are pretty weak these days. Lack of use will kill proficiency. I can still make the chord shapes and everything, but I’m 10 years removed from daily practice and that makes a difference. The key/synth sounds are a bit cheesier than I’d like. That’s mostly because I don’t have a keyboard, so I had to enter the notes by hand into a sequencer, which made them less expressive than I was hoping for.
I want to write up a few of the things I learned this month, and then it’s on to the next thing!
So here we are. My first thing is finished. Onward!
Some early lessons from this month
Things have been hectic at Chez OTAM, but I have all the tracks laid down. I’m likely going to re-record the vocals tonight, then mix it and should post it soon. But I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned. I don’t think everything we do teaches us a lesson, but I have gotten a few out of this month.
1) I’m not sure how to blog about the progress I make on a single thing without becoming repetitive. If I decide to build or sew something, it’s easy to mark progress. But writing: “Still recording vocals” or “On my nth draft” doesn’t sound very interesting.
2) Ironic distance and creativity don’t mix very well. As I posted yesterday, you have to commit to something, and holding it at arm’s length doesn’t work. That is hardly a unique idea, but one I need to bear in mind.
3) I don’t know that I’ll ever be happy with the things I make. I’ve tried to make the song as good as I can—not easy, I’m a so-so musician at best—and I think that’s a start.
4) Sometimes I feel like this resolution was really on to re-wire my brain so I can focus on things other than work and sitting on the couch. We’re 22 days into the year and not one has passed where I haven’t at least thought about this project. And I’ve been busy at work, as well.
So we’re starting into the home stretch of my first project. And I seemed to have learned a few things.
Tell me about your thing
So I’m hoping that some of you will come along on this ride, and if you’d like to let others know about the cool things you’re doing, well, I just made that easier for you.
So I’m getting serious over at my other home.
More rules
I wanted to add some more rules for my project, in service of keeping me honest.
- Kits are cool, but they don’t count. This is a project to make things that have never existed before, not follow instructions. Building things is fine, but they need to expand on their designed use.
- Learning skills is part of this project, but not an end in itself. Learning to weld so I can make a sculpture is a thing, just learning to weld isn’t.
- This is not a project about buying things, so the cost for each project will be nominal. I’m not sure how I’m defining nominal right now, but I won’t be buying something for each thing I make.
I would love for this to be a community project. I’ve enable submissions and am going to track the tag #thingamonth so please join in.
So I’m committed to my New Year’s Resolution of making one thing a month. Will you join me?
