Dave Short

New Album in Works

11/02/2003

Current Listening: Drag the River: "Forgiveness" My daddy preached to me Everyday for years The day that he died I swallowed my tears The tip of the bottle And a wish you were here I'd trade forgiveness for a beer

Wow. Somebody threw strands of toilet paper through the trees in front of Jesse. In its own way, it's really pretty. Like streamers of garland. That are supposed to wipe asses.



I was a Ninja for Halloween. Black pants, a black t-shirt, and another black t-shirt to make into my mask. There was this other guy in a ninja costume, but he was wearing a long sleeve shirt (with a logo!) and a bandana for a mask. I was so much sweeter than he. We did Trick or Eating, which meant we went to the Davidsons College and got a route, then went door-to-door collecting canned food. We got two bags full, which is a decent amount. Then we watched a late-night screening of The Shining. Interesting flick. So much so that I want to read the book.



I got some books at the library, thanks to Carrie. an Amiri Baraka treasury, Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys (A Very Short Book), and Stephen King's autobiography/work about writing, On Writing. I'm about thirty pages into each.



So I'm slowly collecting another album's worth of material. If all goes well, I should record it over the Thanksgiving break. This album will be my most acoustic yet: acoustic guitar, piano, and few electric guitars. It has some of my strongest stuff yet, though (I think). "Starting a Religion", a slow, hymnal number; "Double Take", an offbeat song about the similarty of the two 'opposite' political parties, and "Danse Macabre", a visual, piano-driven piece.



Left Hanging

Nobody wants to explore anymore.

All we want is a copy of National Geographic and

a bologna sandwich, preferably with Super-Size Fries.

Can you blame us? Who’d want to leave

the serenity of a newspaper floor, our own feces

floating in a water dish, and pretty, shiny bars?



Thank God for the bars. If we squint and look

with what little imagination we’ve got,

we just might see a menacing cat staring us down.

He’s got mange, he’s missing an eye,

and a gleam in his good eye like a madman’s watch.



Watching the birds outside the window, we laugh nervously,

dismissing what we fear most. Let them live on the edge each day,

just outside the cat’s cracked paws. Let them live.



At least they don’t have to read old issues of National Geographic until they die.

Update

07/23/2003

I worked Monday. Same guy as before. He's moving, so we hauled furniture into his U-Haul, then down to a storage unit. NWI is playing at the Poetry Slam on Friday, as well as (maybe) the FMZ. If any of us practice. I'm in the most recent production of Lab Rats, onstage this time -- as Watson. Thursday I'm going to see Laurel's dance thingie. I was gonna bring Maggie, but I just don't think she'd enjoy it. I'll take her someplace else this summer -- maybe to the play at the playhouse.



I'm finally finishing my pop-punk (real pop-punk, like Queers and Screeching Weasel) record from my band The Suckers. All it needs is backup vocals.

Update

04/22/2003

All is well. My tummy kind of hurts. My new solo record is almost complete; I just have a few more tracks to lay down.



Peace.

Update on New Album

04/09/2003

Blatantly Liberal Link of the Update

The ABC's of War

Well, I wrote Misanthropomorphic. It's your standard rock song. Sequenced the drum tracks. It looks like my solo will have seventeen or eighteen tracks. I've been working on tracks for other NWI tracks, as well. Hopefully I can get 3 or 4 new NWI songs on tape this weekend for the rest of the band.

Solo Album Update

04/07/2003

Inspirational Song Quote of the update:

"The old men march slowly, all bent stiff and sore

The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war

And the young men ask, 'what are they marchign for?'

And I ask myself the same question"

-- Eric Bogle, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

This weekend was all about my solo album. I got all the electric guitar parts done (including a bitching blues song, "The Waiting.") I borrowed Chris's bass, his 5-string, which was fun. I managed to incorporate that low B string into a few songs (no super-poopy-low nu-metal songs, though). I got some of the vocals done, too. I think I might call the record "Misanthropomorphic" and write a title song for it this week, depending.



Tonight I did a 4-page paper for my British Lit class in about an hour and a half. To be fair, I marked the novel (Heart of Darkness by Conrad, which I did read for Senior English) as I read to get good passages for my thesis. I actually think this paper is pretty good.



Anyway, gotta get up in two hours, but my paper's done, so I don't have to scurry to work on it. Good night.

The Beard

03/30/2003

Wow. It's almost April. How the time does fly!



I'm almost finished tracking the songs for my next album. All I need are a couple of parts, all the basslines and all the vocals. So I'm not almost finished. More like halfway.



I am growing a beard, but I'm debating whether or not to shave it off. On the plus side, it's basically the only 'new look' thing I've ever done, except for shaving my head my sophomore year (a horrid look immortalized on my driver's liscence until I turn 21) and getting glasses in eighth grade. On the downside, it isn't fully grown and right now it just makes me look mega-lazy.