Cartoons used to be special
“Hi Spidey Fans!”
Remember that?
No?
Saturday morning cartoons, “Spiderman and his Amazing Friends”. Stan Lee would narrate an opening and I would watch mesmerized.
Spider Friends Intro Narrated by Stan Lee [1]
I was easy to please back then. I thought A-Team and Knight Rider had the most riveting plot TV could deliver. And saturday mornings was a child’s mecca. I would get up at an hour parents cringe at. Armed with a mini-pizza, I’d plant myself at the heat register (it’s cold in winter and I don’t think my parents liked to have the heat above freezing) and I’d be set for the next five hours.
My children are currently watching saturday morning cartoons. We don’t have cable, so the phenomenon of cartoons only on one day isn’t completely lost on them.
See, now you have crazy channels like Treehouse, which serves you cartoons 24/7. Day or night, it’s the equivalent of having an intravenous hooked up to your eye. Cartoons are no longer a special treat to be cherished and celebrated like two young roes which feed among the lilies [2].
Now any child raised in the age of entitlement can whine, scream, and kick until they get their fix.
Not that I was any better as a child.
And I would have probably slaughtered a small furry animal for the opportunity to have a little portable video console. Like a DS. A nintendo DS. For those of you not in the know, that is a little gameboy machine that let’s you play video games. I was at a party and I met this girl-
Wait… hold on there. That sounds like the opening line of that boor of guy who is friends with your friend and you can’t get him to stop talking about how hot he is with the ladies.
Trust me, that’s not me. I’m the boor of a guy who is a friend of your friend and you can’t get me to stop talking about role playing games and starcraft.
Hmmph… at least the former guy is hot. I have computer gut, myself.
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yes. I was at a party. My wife’s party in fact. And I was talking to a friend of my cousin’s, and my cousin, who is practicing her dental techniques on me in the most uncomfortable way possible, mentions I should bring my DS because I may have long periods of waiting during the appointment.
Her friend asks, “What’s a DS?”
I respond, “A Nintendo Gameboy.”
She then says, “You mean… what children play with?”
I say, “Um… yes.”
With skills like mine, how on earth did I get a babe?
This reminds me of a time in university. Do you ever work out scenarios in your head for when you meet that person whom you have a crush on (and yes, they didn’t call it ‘crush’ in university, but hey, call it like it is) and you come up with a variety of conversations and what you would reply so that it would eventually lead to a result where you could possibly, maybe, if she wants, hang out with her?
See… I wasn’t that good with the ladies. Some of you guys can go up to a girl and say, “Hey. You’re hot. So am I. Why aren’t we together?” And bam, the next thing you know, the girl I was talking to is suddenly dancing with some guy and I go home and play Warcraft.
Anyway, one day, I was with this girl, and one of those choose-your-own-adventure-paths I envisioned actually worked out. The conversation actually led to where she said, “Oh, you’d like to go for a walk?”
And I, in my confident and cool manner replied, “Oh! Uh. Er. No. I just said it would be nice… for a walk. Heh … heh…”
And there you have it. It ended.
Someone could have branded a huge “L” on my buttocks and I would have endured it because they would have been right.
She would also borrow my computer when I lived in dorm. It was only one bedroom and I was a lazy guy, sleeping in until 11. I’m sure when she was working away, I would be letting miasmic gasses rip during my sleep.
Of course, I’m not getting much sleep as it is. Thursday was October 1st. I have committed myself for October to write a children’s CD, as well as work on Nelson’s Children’s musical. And what did I do on Thursday night? I went to bed at 9pm because I was exhausted.
During July, August, and September, there is this challenge called 50/90: you write 50 songs in 90 days. Now, there was no way I could do this. I already do its parent challenge, FAWM (February Album Writing Month) and my wife would not be able to handle me being away for another 3 months.
But I did agree to collab with people on a few songs, and one of them I like enough for the children’s CD, and another got on BoingBoing.net! That was my ten minutes of fame on the geek internets. I was a happy boy.
So I didn’t get much sleep that week, and it caught up with me on Thursday. I couldn’t stay awake and fell fast asleep.
And I wanted to write a song. And blog about it.
That’s the real purpose of this post, believe it or not. It’s to chronicle my process on making the music for this children’s play. That way, Nelson can be sure I’m actually working on it.
I’m hesitant to say the name, because it may change. Let’s just call it the Princess and Pirate Musical.
I worked on a song last night called, “Sharing is Caring”. It’s almost done. The basic structure of the song and words are done. I just have to fix the instrumentation. I’m planning on a small orchestral arrangement for it.
I was given words for the song, but I changed them. Of course, I always do that. For those of you who have never collabed with me, let it be known I change things to fit my nefarious and twisted mind.
I chose this song first, because it’s not tied to any other song. I see themes between the other songs, so that means they can share a common tune, but this one stands alone. So I started on that.
But I don’t have a way to let you guys listen to it because the main singer is a princess, and I’ve conscripted Debs to sing that and she’s off touring the states. I”m still debating whether I should sing all the parts, or pull someone else in. I’ll figure that out.
However, all these songs are going on my children’s CD.
So that’s what you’ll be getting for this month. Blog posts about me writing songs.
I apologize in advance for that.
REFERENCE
[1] http://www.spider-friends.com/BuenaVista/StanLeeNarrations.html
[2] Song of Solomon 4:5
