Got the bass out, and thoughts on social networking

Hello everybody, how are you all?

I'm on a day off, but still got up at a relatively early time.  Things to do and all that, plus there's something about getting plenty of time still that I enjoy.  Then again, I still tend to spend most of it online when Louise is at work, so getting up early to do more stuff is a bit of a moot point really.

I've videoed myself playing bass for what's called the Behind The Mask Project, which is a music video really.  Because Michael Jackson died, those in charge of his estate have signed a contract to release a lot of songs from Michael over so many years (I think I heard it was seven albums in total).  The first album, Michael, came out at the tail end of last year, and now they're wanting to make a video for the song Behind The Mask, so they're asking people to video themselves doing various things, and the makers will go through all of the footage and use as much of it as they can for the official video.  I'm not really sure how I feel about that, but I've still videoed myself playing the song.  Not happy with my footage though as it's just me playing the bass to the song sat on the sofa at home.

The site suggests that you don't have to play the proper notes but just show feeling, and you don't have to play a real instrument either, they suggested cutting one out of cardboard or anything else if necessary.  I'm not happy with these suggestions, because I like the idea that whoever is in a video for a song playing an instrument should be able to actually play the bloody thing.

The song itself has an interesting history, which I was sort of unaware of until recently.  If you have a couple of minutes you could have a look at the wikipedia page for the official story of the song, written by Chris Mosdell and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and is a tangled web of a story.  I found it interesting, but that's because I'm sad and geeky.

I'm now not sure if I want to do the video now, although I am thinking of doing a cover of the song now for the Recovery project I'm working on.  I already have my versions of Band On The Run and Never Tear Us Apart, and have been looking at various other songs as well.  I just can't seem to find the time at the moment, especially considering that this place is so small and the walls are surprisingly thin, so noise travels.  This means that I only record when Louise is out, because I don't really care about the neighbours so much because they are always noisy, leaving doors to bang behind them, and incredibly loud music (I can't even turn my television loud enough to hear it when they have their music on).

I loved getting the bass out yesterday, but it's been so long since I've played a 5-string bass that I kept accidentally hitting the bottom B string when I was slapping the E-string (doh).  I think I'll have to get it out again more often, because I was embarrassed by that, even though I was on my own there.  It was still embarrassing to me.  After putting it away, I started playing the acoustic bass, and started playing a bit as I always do when I get an instrument out.  I even played a couple of Shadowplay/Jewel songs including Down :-)

I had another blog that I was going to put up yesterday, but decided at the last minute not to bother with it.  It was about the fact that there are bosses of firms keeping tabs on their employee's social networking and blogs, and I was basically wondering why they haven't got anything better to do?  I know that if I was a boss that I wouldn't be bothered at all.  Everyone gets pissed off from time to time, even them. I think that so long as they're not naming names or who they work for, then why should it matter?  I'm not going to be forced to stop doing my blog or keeping in touch with my family through Facebook, or even my other favourite Twitter.  If you don't realise, I prefer Twitter to Facebook, because I find Facebook a bit heavy going for someone that just wants to get online, see how things are, and get off relatively quickly.  All the extra stuff on Facebook makes it cumbersome and makes you spend longer than you initially intend to, but that's just me.  It has been very helpful to me as well, because I've been able to do so much based on my being on Facebook, including making friends with people who I haven't seen in many many years.

It also helps me to keep in touch with friends who I miss from the music scene around Mansfield, Ashfield, Retford, Worksop, and all those other areas.  So I love Facebook for that reason.

Anyway, I think I'll leave it there for now.  I have so many things to do today, as it is pay day (paid monthly), but work have rung already which is irritating considering that it's a day off.  I ignored it because I don't want to work today, although I suppose that it could be some other reason, but I doubt it.  I'll see what they want later, after I've paid bills, and all the other things I need to do.  I'll be getting to Mansfield soon to pay what I owe for the recording session the other week as well, which is something that is foremost on my mind.

Take care everybody.  Thank you for reading, I hope it wasn't too boring.

Marv - 15th March 2011 (40 years, 3 months, and 17 days old)