July 30
A Year Older
I’m glad that my post on “Sincerity in Songwriting” got some dialogue going. As always, I got a response from Jeff and I got a comment from Ryan Schmidt that I accidentally marked as ’spam’ so I had to re-post it on my own. I think it’s interesting and not at all clean cut and I think it’s something that I will continue to think about for the rest of my life without ever coming to any sort of definitive resolution.
My birthday was on Monday and I celebrated by doing…nothing. It was a boring day. I’ve been busting to finish training for a new job that I start in late August as and SAT-Prep teacher and working on the album. That means playing the songs a ton and learning them in and out and seeing what sticks and what doesn’t stick. It looks like we’ll have a perfect split on the song list for new songs vs. old songs:
Old Songs- Anna, Tell My Story, Sisters, Gracie, Have Heart
New Songs- Missing, I Promise You Relief, Somewhere, Hanging Around, Let Me In
I think it’ll be a good balance of rockers (Hanging Around, I Promise You Relief), ’single’ types of songs (Tell My Story, Anna, Missing), and deeper ‘cuts’ (Somewhere, Have Heart) and I’m really into each song so that’s good.
I think it’s funny but definitely a pain in the ass to mention that I was both a victim of identity theft last week and I was also audited by the government for the year 2006. I think it’s going to be more of a hassle for the government than it’s worth. I was still a college student and I didn’t claim something like $3500 in college shows over the course of a year but at the same time, I definitely spent more than double that on my music so it’s going to be a wash but I think I just hit the lottery and was picked for an audit. I don’t think that I raise much of a red flag with my income (it was like $900 dollars owed) but I still have to deal with it and I know it’s a pain on both sides of the coin.
I appreciate all the birthday wishes from everyone. It was nice to be thought of during such a mundane day.
I played Faneuil Hall yesterday and once again, it was dead…but that’s how it goes this summer.
Go economy! Go!
Wow, I was actually audited too. For money that I use to pay my tuition with, they tell me I didn’t pay taxes on it…but I did. Crazy government.
I’m glad you had a good birthday, even if you didn’t do much.
I’m back in 11 days (!!!!!) so I will be down to Faneuil Hall to see you as soon as I get back! I am quite excited to hear the new songs, although Tell My Story is my favourite. Yea, I added the U in the word…I’m so British now.