Friday, February 5, 2010

Sorry..I'm late

Between following the FAWM postings, replying to messages in the forums, and facecrap, I forgot to update this. My first song is up. Here's that link again:

http://fawm.org/fawmers/armstid/

This is definitely fun. I'm WAY outside my happy place when it comes to recording. It's been fun listening to all the other fawmers out there. There's some pretty decent stuff out there. Just go the jukebok and shuffle in the background of your mind and see what people can put out in 2 days. Very interesting.

I'm thinking all is well. The month is crazy because I also have to do my usual things besides writing songs. I wish we all did this. If everyone in the world participated in FAWM and NANOWRIMO and all the other creative challenges we'd all be given many national holidays (paid) in order to create.

I'm going to bring that up at my next Hall of Justice meeting.

And then I'll kill Aquaman.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

to hold, receive, take

I am Tennis.

Tomorrow I begin. I have had much fun running my fingers through old letters full of charcoal drawings ten years old and flowers which still feel alive. Thank you friends for the emails, facecraps, and old old letters. 'this will be fun' i keep saying. If people keep messaging me with lines and memories, it should be a piece of cake. A piece of cake that makes no sense.

some of my favorites thusfar:
* of the three approaching men, Ramon wears a monster truck tshirt. Which means he's obviously the coolest.
* my punch comes from the heart
* I'm a phenomenal jumper
* condos and aqueducts

More to follow.

Check me out at:

http://fawm.org/fawmers/armstid/

I will be posting real music either tomorrow or the next.

Gotta get to work

b

Thursday, January 28, 2010

3 days away

do you know where your children are?

People have been asking where they will find these songs. I will be posting them both on facecrap and fawm.org. Search for Tennis under fawmers and you will find me there. Wherever there is injustice, you will find me there. Wherever there is suffering, you will find me there. Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find....Tennis! Really?! Wherever. This should be pronounced "Ware Ver". Right? We shouldn't be allowed to write wherever.

In honor of the right Reverend Doctor J.D. Salinger I will be writing a song about bananafish and call it "ariena pisci" which would show how smart I am for remembering a few conjugations and random words from 9 years of Latin studies. Or just "smushfruit finswimmer".

loves all...keep the lines coming. People are coming out of the woodwork after my major facecrap overhaul. i'm happy with my final cuts. Except for one of you.

Hold! Receive! Take!
Ben

Monday, January 25, 2010

FAWM begins...I am Tennis

I have decided to take part in FAWM this year. February Album Writing Month. 28 days 14 songs(edit: 1 a day---thanks to jordan the canuck). As I am presently recording songs that I wrote more than 10 years ago (and this is about my average songwriting turn around time), I am daunted by this task.

I had a dream last week in which I found the perfect band name for my project. In my dream, my mother and I were playing a pleasant game of tennis at Wimbledon. During our match, I had a an epiphany and told my mom that "Tennis" was going to my band name. As I must learn to accept my inspiration quickly for the month of February, I am going with this so as not to waste too much brain space.

This made me think of Bill Callahan's words

"I fell back asleep some time later on
And I dreamed the perfect song
It held all the answers, like hands laid on

I woke halfway and scribbled it down
And in the morning what I wrote I read
It was hard to read at first but here's what it said

Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah"

I am Tennis.

Etymology of the word:

1345, most likely from Anglo-Fr. tenetz "hold! receive! take!," from O.Fr. tenez, imperative of tenir "to hold, receive, take," which was used as a call from the server to his opponent.

I am begging all of you for your help. If you have any one-liners or 2-liners or even 50-liners that you care to donate to my cause, please feel free. I have already begun pulling out past letters, lyrics, and dream fragments that fell by the way side to help me out. This'll be fun.

Good luck to others attempting this and thanks to Spike for inspiring me while watching him write a novel for nanowrimo.