The site I composed music for has gone live at last. Head over to http://inyourdaydreams.com and bring some much needed time-wastage to your otherwise productive workday. The site was written by Heather Apple, designed and built by Tofer Moran and Callie Peck, and creepy-whispered over by this moi. It’s tough to really describe this site. You just need to experience it for yourself.
ANDREW SHOEMAKER - “DAYDREAMS SITE MUSIC (song version)”
As I mentioned last week, I have been commissioned to produce some music for a website that my girlfriend Heather Apple and Tofer Moran (of In the Circuit of the Sun) are building. The site isn’t live yet, so I can’t really go into detail on what it is or why the music was designed this way. As soon as the site is up, I will be sure to link to it and discuss it in more detail.
This version is not the one that you will hear on the site, at least, not quite. It is an earlier version that I was very happy with but which Heather and Tofer had some minor problems with. I made the changes they requested, but I want to go ahead and share this version as it is.
I don’t like people who gloat. I think it’s something that was ground into my subconsciousness after years of being picked on by smug bullies in the public school system. I tend to define arrogance or egotism as a character flaw. Call me crazy.
So it is not without a tremendous amount of internal conflict that I discuss the unbelievable success I have had in my fantasy football league this season. I play every year with a group of my best friends, including Matt Hardigree, Galen, and Dan, all of whom I’ve discussed in this blog at one time or another. I won the league in my first year (the 2008-09 season) despite a terrible draft in which I really still didn’t understand how the game worked. But a good GM knows how to manage a team, and I made necessary cuts, worked the waiver wire, and got lucky enough to scoot into the playoffs. My luck extended further when my opponent in the first round (who dominated the season) failed to set his team. I then won a close final against the league commissioner (the perpetually dangerous Dan), and claimed the crown. Beginner’s luck.
My second season was not so successful. We switched to a PPR scoring system, and I hadn’t really adjusted from the previous season in which the RB ranks were much deeper. My scoring suffered, and the lack of depth at a number of positions (besides TE) made it difficult to catch up. Needless to say, I did not make the playoffs.
This season has been an entirely different story. I managed to win a ridiculously low scoring first game (71-63), but then lost the second in a close game despite scoring over 50 more points. Since that week 2 loss, however, I have gone on an improbable and astounding 8 win streak. I say improbable not only because I haven’t seen it before, but also because my draft was so terrible I expected to be at the low end of the rankings.
Allow me to explain. I got the 7th pick in the draft which I used to claim Andre
Johnson, who has missed a game and failed to show up for a couple more, but has had enough monster performances thus far to justify himself as the only solid pick I made this season. My second pick? Packers RB Ryan Grants. Yes, that guy. The one who went on the IR in week 1. But here’s where it gets interesting. I was forced to find a quality back-up immediately, so I jumped when I saw Darren McFadden had a 20 pt first game. The guy who went undrafted in my 10 team league has gone on to be one of the most valuable players of the season. But the bad draft luck didn’t end with Grant; I also picked Kevin Kolb as my starting QB. And when he went down in week 1, I snatched Michael Vick off the wire. You know, AS A HANDCUFF (no pun intended). If you pay attention to football at all, I don’t need to tell you how fortuitous this pick-up was. My third round pick was spent on Dallas Clark who suffered a rare and season-ending arm injury a few weeks ago. To be honest, I haven’t been as lucky with the TE position this year. I did draft Chris Cooley who has had great value as a backup, but as a starter he’s been somewhat lacking. Other wire pick-ups this year have included Ben Roethlisberger (who filled in well during Vick’s rib injury), Oakland’s kicker Sebastian Janikowski (the leader at his position), Peyton Hillis, and, for a few weeks, the Tennessee Titans defense. I had a few draft bright spots, too, like Mike Wallace, who literally won the game for me in dramatic Monday night fashion in week 9.
This weekend is a huge game for me against Dan, who has lost a couple close games and deserves to be higher in the rankings than he is. Despite his 6-4 record, he is right on my heels in terms of total points. He’s also the only person to beat me this season. So, Dan, while I may have sung at your wedding, I will dance on your fantasy football grave. Game on!
When I lived in North Carolina, Heather worked with this guy Tofer, and occasionally she would come home from work and say, “You should really get together with him sometime and play music.” My response was always something dismissive and self-deprecating. I knew how hard it was to find someone with whom you really connect aesthetically from many past failed attempts. But one day Heather came home and said that Tofer and some other guys were going to head out into downtown Durham, NC and busk. I found the offer too tempting to resist, and after an evening of being hassled by Segway rent-a-cops, we walked with nearly $100 and a lot of encouragement to start a proper band. We called the band Proud Valletta (after an absurdly long name search), and played a few shows around Durham and Chapel Hill last fall. Unfortunately, as it often does, life changed our plans for us, and Tofer moved to San Francisco and we moved to New York. We still communicate and provide each other feedback. He’s a great person and a tremendously talented musician (and graphic designer). He currently writes under the monicker In the Circuit of the Sun. 2009 work comprises the material he wrote for Proud Valletta.
Heather caught the actual wedding performance of The Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love” from the Lance-Laugharn wedding in Austin, October 9, 2010. I am playing guitar, and Galen is singing lead. My guitar skills are passable, but not great. I’m under no delusions, here. We’re just all great friends, and we were definitely honored to be asked to perform for this ceremony.
ANDREW SHOEMAKER - ‘THE BOOK OF LOVE’ (The Magnetic Fields cover)
One of my best and oldest friends is getting married in a week or so, and he asked me and our other mutual friend to sing The Magnetic Fields’ ‘The Book of Love’ during the ceremony. Since the friend I’ll be singing with doesn’t live nearby, I decided to make a recording of the song for him to use for practice. After building the karaoke version with my back-up vocals, I went a little nuts and built a complete cover of my own in which I sang all the parts. This is not what the wedding performance will sound like, but it was a fun project. It’s my first cover, and it’s decidedly different from most of my other work.
