I Miss Song Fight

[Andy Balham]

My personal favourite is this little beauty, Yalumba Colombard Chardonnay in the 2-litre goon-bag. Roughly US$7 for 2 litres - it stays down a little longer than most and does the job good and proper. Not too much oak flavour - so it is suitable for early morning drinking before work. Discerning palettes will move onto something more fully-bodied around morning-tea time.

When it comes to a spot of outdoor drinking, I take my lead from the experts, tramps, hobos, gentlemen of the road call them what you will. More often than not, their weapon of choice is cider. This is not to be confused with the apple juice that our American brethren are familiar with. No, this is 7.5% by volume and you get a lot of volume for your hard-earned. Best of all of these 'supers' is Frosty Jacks - The Champagne of Tramp Juice.

[king_arthur]

i still owe jim tyrrell a bottle of 2 buck chuck. i haven't forgotten how lame i am.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about that! There's a Trader Joe's down on the NH/MA border. I wonder if they've got any. Two bottles of Two Buck Chuck would probably make for a good Four Buck Upchuck.

...actually, according to that link of yours, the stuff is award-winning. Wow!

If you're going wine shopping at TJs, my favorite thing they have is Authentique, a French table wine. YMMV, obviously, but I'm also a fan of syrahs and zinfandels, and I really like the Authentique.

I also miss songfight, but I am, like, two trips to campus short of finishing my BA in "Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance" at ASU and I have two projects to finish up for that.

And I am also (originally) from Rochester NY (I think that was some other thread), but, unlike Chuck Mangione, it doesn't seem to have made me cool. Oh, well.

Charles

[jute gyte]

Not too much oak flavour - so it is suitable for early morning drinking before work.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

[HeuristicsInc]

And I am also (originally) from Rochester NY (I think that was some other thread), but, unlike Chuck Mangione, it doesn't seem to have made me cool.

No way, Charles, you are totally cool, even cooler than Mangione.
Even cooler now that I know you are from Rochester!
-bill

[anti-m]

If you're going wine shopping at TJs, my favorite thing they have is Authentique, a French table wine. YMMV, obviously, but I'm also a fan of syrahs and zinfandels, and I really like the Authentique.

Ah! Cool! The trick with TJs is that they don't always carry the same wine stock at all their stores. I prefer "La Boca" Cab to the 2 buck chuck... (and it only costs $1 more!) but it seems that not all the stores across US carry it. I'll check if our PDX outpost carries Authentique. If yup, I'll give 'er a whirl.

Luke, any mah-roon can find tasty expensive wine! It's finding the good cheap stuff that separates the wine men from the whine men.

For your edification (or perhaps derision) I present a very handy site dedicated to cheap old wine -lovin' bastards like the rest of us:

http://www.bestcellars.com/

This dude is on "The Splendid Table" all the time and I love his attitude. And, Luke! He's in NYC! Start developing your collection of cheap hooch now!



--Em

[WeaselSlayer]

I'm gonna go drink some tequila mixed with limeade now and call it a margarita. L8rz.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'm gonna go drink some tequila mixed with limeade now and call it a margarita. L8rz.

Totally confuse your brain and put sugar on the rim and call it salt. 8)

[Edge of LA]

I miss it too. It's a good thing that I have this to listen to this holiday season:

http://www.songfight.org/music/merry_ch ... tle_mc.mp3

[Lunkhead]

I'd like to SongFight! more, too. Hopefully I'll do so after the holidays. On the wine topic, I prefer bum wine.

[glennny]

I have 2 jobs, a wife and daughter. Sure my entrries suffer a bit, but it's really a great outlet for music for me. There's no way I could be in a "real band" these days with 2 or 3 practices a week and gigging etc. But one night a week I get to jam at Martys (Zipline) and the whole fam get's in on the home recordings (Phillipso, Older Brothers, etc). Most of my guitar solos are recorded with a one year old crawling all over me, usually fretting above where I'm fretting. It's ridiculous, but fun. And you've all heard the baby crys leak onto many of my entries. I also get my wife involved adding female vox or lyrical ideas. It's like anything else, just do it.

BTW I do know who Jim of Seattle is, at least in a Songfight way.

[fodroy]

I think the moral is don't have kids and a family. Or a full-time job. And avoid college. Then you can songfight every week.

Jolly Roger, you have it good right now.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

A lot of stuff calling Jim and Dan-O out on their lack of production.

Just wait son, it get's a lot harder once they're out of diapers.

[glennny]

Dan-O & Jim,

Hey man I apologize, after reading your reaction I re-read my post and saw how it might be taken offensively. Listen, I've raised my little sister since she was six and she's going off to college next fall. I know alot about many of the worries you mentioned, though not all to be sure.

My "just do it" comments were more directed at the self critic many artists and musicians have, that keep them from producing art because they don't feel they have time to do it "right". I like you and your music too. I was just trying to say I'd like to hear what you can squeeze out if you have any time. Even though I'm sure all of us would like that record deal that paid all of our bills and gave us a full year in a nice studio.

I was trying to be encouraging, and came off as a Jack-Ass. Sorry man!

Glen

[WeaselSlayer]

You didn't even mention them, Dan-O's just sensitive.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

I think it's more frustration than my being overly sensitive, but you're right Luke, the latter was true as well hence the edited post. As far as Glenn not specifically naming anyone, Jim and I both had written about the challenges of balancing family life with this kind of extracurricular activity. Glenn's post speaks of being in the same boat with a little one at home and how you should "Just do it", so who else should I have assumed it was directed at?

I just didn't take it in the positive fashion Glenn meant it. I can see now that his intent was to inspire, and not tear anyone down for making "excuses". And I think he defintely hit the nail on the head for me, because I often feel like it's not so much not having the time, but not having the time to do it right.

[Leaf]

Sometimes I miss my old band Bonafide...back when we were young enough to be arrogant and think we were going to be video stars... played tons of gigs, had fans, had a following, packed out houses all over Vancouver Island... got too big for our britches... I had to choose between staying home with my wife, 1 year old daughter and son (two months after my wedding) and going on tour across Canada to attempt to make it.


Thing is, sure I miss it. I miss what it could have been.



But I would have missed Dana and Drayja and Nathan more. WAY more.

So the moral isn't stay single. It's figure out what's important to you, and then don't waste your time with regrets about what could have been, or what you could have done.

I think Jim is a decent guy who gets hacked on for reasons well beyond my understanding ... but having intentions and unfullfilled dreams eat you up to the point of feeling motivated to say "I miss songfight"...
it's nice you miss it. I miss writing songfight tunes too!

But everytime I do a SF track... I get only 2 hours sleep... dont' see any family for days... it's a fuckin commitment. So instead I bide my time hangin on the boards.... waiting for that moment when a title, inspiration and time management align so that I can rise again to place 3rd or 4th on a good day.


ahhhh.....memories.


No, the moral is either do songfight, or don't. But lamenting?? Nah.


I still listen to Ants Invisible tracks. Wacky.


Of course, everything I just typed is absolute fact, and in no way is it merely opinion. [/sarcasm emoticon...still waiting for one]

[jute gyte]

And I think he defintely hit the nail on the head for me, because I often feel like it's not so much not having the time, but not having the time to do it right.

In these kind of situations the AAD motto "A bad song is better than no song" comes in handy. Even a song you end up hating exercises your creativity and ability, and you may even end up liking it at some point. A win-win.

[obscurity]

From my perspective, no song is better than a bad song. If you wrote it and you think it sucks, please don't submit it. Does anyone here want a weekly fight to contain 5 good songs and 323 crappy ones? 'Cos that's where that path leads.

[glennny]

I just don't think it's an absolute. I think it's good to go for it, and judge whether you want to submit it, the morning it's due. I think it's valuable to go for it, even if you don't feel you have the time to do it "right".

The other problem with that, at least for me personally, is I am the worst judge of my own music especially after I've been working on it. Things I've loved have been panned, things I've hated have been loved, things tediously worked on have been rejected as failures, things thrown togther have been adored. I for the most part just don't know.

[obscurity]

I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to get a song done if you're not sure you have the time, just that if you try and fail, and you know you have, then please just keep it to yourself instead of submitting it.

Also, I fully sympathise with the 'I can't even tell if this is good or bad anymore' feeling about a song you've written. I get that too. But sometimes I know that what I've come up with isn't up to scratch, and those times, I don't send it in. That's all.

[jute gyte]

Obscurity: To clarify, I wasn't advising people to submit bad songs, just suggesting that making a song is always a good choice because, however it turns out, it will exercise their creativity and help get them back into a songwriting rhythm. I've rejected my fair share of possible Songfight entries.

However, that said, I would love to be able to hear several Songfighter's rejected tunes.

[Lunkhead]

You could always post your song to the review thread if you finish it but don't think it's fight-worthy.