Well, dear readers, here we are heading straight towards 2026 with nary a moment’s pause. Can you even believe it? Where did 2025 go? Who knows? Who cares? One of the strangest years for me personally ever for a whole slew of reasons. But enough about me and enough about slew. Currently listening to Sir Charles Grove’s wonderful Walton Shakespeare scores for Olivier. Some of the greatest movie music ever written, if you ask me, and you did. I did go down a slight rabbit hole just now, which is why these here notes are going up late, but I’ll keep them short or try to. So, yesterday I got between seven and eight hours of sleep. I had a really interesting dream and when I woke from it, I had the thought it would make a good young adult book, and I started thinking of what it would be – I made no notes and some of it has faded by now but the general idea and the opening has stuck in my mind. Might be something for the future. I got up at ten, had an English muffin and took pills, then I rested until it was time to mosey on over to finesse vocals and mixes and record a song. I had no idea what my voice would be like, but as soon as I arrived, I just said, “Let’s do it and see what happens.” I went and did a take, knew much of it was bad, and I think the engineer was a bit worried that was the best it was going to be, but I did a second take right away and it was a bit better and certainly okay on certain lines. The issue was because I don’t have the control I normally have over my voice and where I place things and the tone I like, I had to adjust the interpretation of the song to suit what my voice was capable of. After take two, just to show the engineer we could at least make a vocal out of it, we comped the two takes and listened – we both felt it was fine except for about seven lines, so I went in and did each of those until we had one, we could live with. We then comped those in, listened, I replaced one more word and that was that. Of course, Guy Haines, who was supposed to sing it, will still be credited because he’d harm me if he wasn’t.
Then we finessed the vocals from the week before. That went pretty quickly. I just swapped out a few lines here and there for different takes and that was that and they’re very good. Then we finessed those mixes, which left us four we hadn’t finessed and we did those – again, they went quickly because the basic mix he’d done was fine – I just occasionally asked for a little more of this or that. So, now he finalizes everything and sends me the hi-rez files. I spent the latter part of the evening doing a first pass at a brand-new sequence for the album – only one song remains where it was on the original album, and frankly, I may move it just so nothing matches. So, when I get the tracks, I’ll put them in that order and see how it feels. It was a bit tricky because there are more ballads than ups, but I know it’s way better than what the twerps did with the original album. We’re getting closer, and Doug is designing the cover now and I’ve begun doing notes and credits and all the packaging copy. I came right home afterwards (the whole thing took three hours and twenty minutes), ordered orange chicken and honey barbecue spareribs appetizer from my usual jernt and it arrived pretty quickly. The orange chicken wasn’t quite up to par but still okay, and the ribs were pretty tasty. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and finished watching Selling Superman’s final two episodes, which were both longer than the first two episodes.
It’s an interesting documentary, and I know it’s meant to be moving in regard to the dysfunctional family involved, but the only truly moving moments both have nothing to do with the family but are separate anecdotes from comic book folks. One involves a podcaster whose two-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with cancerous tumors on her eyes (she’s fine now), and I won’t give away more, but it made me weepy, as did a reminiscence by the well-known owner of Mile High Comics in New York. Anyway, if you’re a comic book fan, you’ll find it interesting. Then I began doing stuff for the album and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by ten again, I’ll shave and shower, and then I’m meeting a friend for lunch at noon o’clock. After that, I’ll go to the mail place and see what’s what – I’m hoping the two important envelopes get there early – then I’ll come home, begin the liner notes for the album, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I have to get up at ten AGAIN for an eleven-thirty lunch meeting. After that, I’m comin’ home and relaxing. Wednesday, I’ll go shopping for the little New Year’s Day get-together I always do in the late afternoon, then we have our Annual Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Bash and we’ll watch all sorts of balls drop, I’ll do my usual contemplation although this year it will be quick because for all of it I did last year, not much of my wishes for the New Year actually happened. Then I’ll have my usual sip of champagne as we ring in the New Year, 2026, and the next morning I’ll begin a new book.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example be up by ten, shave and shower, meet a friend for lunch, visit the mail place and see what’s what, write some liner notes, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finished finessing and recording the new vocals for the new incarnation of an old album.