This show is a little bit harder than the last two, and the ways in which it is more difficult are kinda interesting to me.

First of all, this show is gonna be entirely guitar based, and that lends to some complications. The guitar is a lot like the piano in that everyone thinks they can play it, but almost no-one can play it well. On “Lost” last week, that hobbit dude played piano in that wretched way that non-pianist play, with fingers rigid, sticking up and wrists collapsed. I should know, I’m a terrible pianist.

But the guitar is unlike the piano in that there are keys and positions that lend themselves to the guitar, and there are keys that are just really hard. The flat keys are much harder to play on the guitar, to play in Eb or Bb is tough compared to playing in E or A (which are both sharp keys).

What that means is that we will have less, or actually *no* flexibility when it comes to casting the vocal parts. The singer is gonna have to be able to sing the song that I wrote.

But that’s not what makes it harder on me. The difficulty is that this show is gonna be have to have several flat out rock songs, and those songs are far less complicated than the songs I wrote for Fleet Week. This also means they are way more naked. I tend to lean on false cadences when I get the chance, I will set up patterns and then move keys and stuff, just to keep the music active.

Think of the song “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner. Or “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Motley Crue. I mean, it’s amazing to me that I’m writing a show that borrows heavily from 80s pop music, but it isn’t the Cure or The Smiths, it’s “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult.

Plus, as you loyal readers saw yesterday, we’re trying to get our house finished in time for the inspection on the re-fi. It’s a helluva day at sea, sir.

I took this picture and sent it to my family because they all, collectively, got me everything you see here. The only things I bought myself were the electric guitar and the desk, and both of those were back in ’93. On MTV’s Cribs, the bedroom is always introduced as “where the magic happens” and the home studio is always like “yeah, I had this built.”

Fuckers. I’m willing to bet that the bedroom is mostly just sex, sleeping and watching TV, that’s all that happens in my bedroom. If I had a home studio…

One of these days, baby. Fluff and Fold.

So, I’ve been working on our show for next summer and our house for, um, well next time we have people over. We’ve tiled the floor of the kitchen and we’ve tiled the backsplash. We’re pretty psyched about the musical, we’re far more psyched about the house. Every once in a while the house takes a big step forward, and this weekend it took another limping leap. Here’s our kitchen.

Actually, that’s just the backsplash and the new stuff, we also did the floor.

Jordana’s mom is always worrying about her wearing a mask.

All right. We’re also tiling the front entryway, but we’re not done with that, so no pictures.

Look, I’ll get back to ranting as soon as I have spare time. Right now, I’m making up for all those years of sitting around talking about stuff. I know I don’t update this enough, I’ll get to it. The new music is actually really hard, much harder than Fleet Week.

Here’s what the kitchen looked like before we started kicking its ass.

Hilarious that my brother Ian would post his fears about ADHD at the same time as I realize I have a blog that I never write in. My battles with ADHD have led to a number of problems, not the least of which is how long I go without shaving.

Also, I said I’d been sick, but so has everyone else. My mom’s latest trip was basically this

And Jordana’s been doing nothing but this….

You’ll notice, Jordana’s never too sick to have a box of oreos next to her.

We were at a play the other day and one of the characters in the play was talking about how much she likes “snacks”. I sorta nudged Jordana to tease her, and then, two rows in front of us, our friend Lindsay turned around to laugh at Jordana. So fantastic.

Here’s a fun look at the show we wrote last month…

And the show we’re writing now…

We’re really very busy…

I’ve eaten two sandwiches and a bowl of oatmeal in the last six days. Before that it was the studio, the Christmas, so I can’t really apologize for the lack of writing. My fever is now under control, hovering just under 100, but I’m still sweating through anything I wear and soaking anything I’m lying on.

I talk a lot about the fact that I don’t get sick, and any time I get a little sniffle or if I feel like I have to go to sleep at 10 PM some night, I get kidded about saying I don’t get sick. But I don’t get sick very much, once a year or so. This kind of illness I’m going through now, the kind of sickness that leads to me losing about 20 pounds in a week, hasn’t happened very often at all.

Mac called and I started talking shit, before I realized I didn’t know what I was talking about.

So. I will write more, this entry sucks, I know, so let me find some pictures that are fun.

There is no way to show the sheer insanity of ten people living in a two bedroom apartment in New York, but I can tell you the funnest thing about Christmas was having everyone together and our local deli are really depressed that this group of “good eaters” isn’t buying 27 sandwiches a day from them.

Jordana is nervous about having kids, and I totally understand that. But seeing her with Lucy is just amazing.