{"id":284,"date":"2006-12-07T05:50:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-07T05:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/?p=284"},"modified":"2015-10-29T22:47:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T05:47:27","slug":"iraq-study-group-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/2006\/12\/07\/iraq-study-group-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq Study Group Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iraq<\/p>\n

I’ve been working with a new tuning on guitar and it’s promising but I’m not there, yet.<\/p>\n

That has not prevented me, mind you, from posting the results of those modest efforts about a week or so ago (“My Second Mistake”).<\/p>\n

Earlier today, I’d finished some vexing work and I’d sat down with the notion of feeding the gaping maw of A Year of Songs with a little recording… but I was having a heck of a lot of trouble getting going.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Internet Archive page for this recording<\/a><\/p>\n

Every time it seemed like I got a little momentum, I’d stumble over the finger picking or some basic left hand move. And my overall timing was enough to give a listener heart arrhythmia.<\/p>\n

I took a quick break and while I was washing my face I had the radio on. I realized that National Public Radio was doing an hour news special on the release of the Iraq Study Group report and I’d meant to listen.<\/p>\n

So when I got back to the computer, I clicked on my desk icon for the live Internet stream from my local NPR station. Since the stream is delayed by 20 or 30 seconds, I didn’t actually miss anything.<\/p>\n

I listened attentively but idly picked up my nearby guitar — a typical move when I’m listening to public affairs or news on the radio.<\/p>\n

When I noticed absently that my playing sounded a lot better now, I decided to pop the radio stream into my headphones and off the speakers so I could record and listen to the news special at the same time. In fact, while I often do, I didn’t even put my guitar in the headphones, since it just made it a little harder to hear the radio stream.<\/p>\n

I recorded one not quite 3 minute improv and thought it sounded okay — but found out I couldn’t listen to it and pay sufficient attention to the radio to follow the story — which I was still intent on.<\/p>\n

So I put it aside. As I was listening to NPR, I got the itch again and quickly hit the red button, playing for a little under two and a half minutes.<\/p>\n

I’d barely paid attention to my playing and it was my perception that it was probably worse than the first. I put it aside too.<\/p>\n

When the show was over I listened to the tracks. The first was indeed much, much better than I’d been doing earlier but it was still disappointing. But the second was almost acceptable.<\/p>\n

So <\/span>almost-acceptable that, with the notion that the theoretically interesting back story might just be enough to make it briefly interesting, I’ve posted it here in today’s entry.<\/p>\n

If you listen carefully, you’ll likely hear the mosquito buzz of the news special in my headphones as I listen to it while improvising the single guitar.<\/p>\n

With regard to the story and comprehension (as we used to say in my 7th grade speed reading class)… I’d say I’d get a 90 or better on a tough quiz.<\/p>\n

download<\/a> [ 3.3 mb] 192 kbps<\/span>
\nplay<\/a> [broadband]
\nAYoS radio<\/a> [broadband]<\/p>\n

Internet Archive page for this recording<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been working with a new tuning on guitar and it’s promising but I’m not there, yet. That has not prevented me, mind you, from posting the results of those modest efforts about a week or so ago (“My Second Mistake”). Earlier today, I’d finished some vexing work and I’d sat down with the notion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,148,67,7],"tags":[173,170,775,171,172,169],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1813,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}