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Instead of hanging out at the Jersey Shore this weekend, I am stuck here in Bucks County, Pa., because I didn’t want to risk driving my car long distances until I have the wheel bearing replaced Tuesday night.

Fortunately, with my MIDI setup working again, I decided to use this long weekend to try to write some new songs…and quality ones…not like the “foolin’ around” stuff I have been doing lately. Well, I think I came up with a good one today. I just started playing the verse and the parts just came naturally. Now, I just have to write some lyrics for it. For now, enjoy this latest untitled demo:

Untitled 05-27-06 (no vocals)

OK, I’ll start with the bad news.

I got my car back today…the transmission problem was fixed for a surprisingly minimal expense, which would have been great news…EXCEPT…something else was found. Apparently, I have a wheel bearing that needs replacing and that’s going to cost $360. I’m getting that done Tuesday.

The good news?

I managed to get my wi-fi connection restarted…and my MIDI adapter is working again.

UPDATE (5/26/06): And since my MIDI adapter is working again, here is my latest song idea with the bridge included…I doubt anything is going to come of this idea, but I figured I would post it anyway just so it appears I’m at least trying to be creative.

Untitled 2006-05-20 Demo (instr.)

Well, over the weekend, it was the MIDI adapter that stopped working.

Tuesday morning, my wi-fi Internet connection crapped out.

So, of course, what happens Wednesday? Yup, the car again.

I noticed the ol’ VUE making a weird noise while driving it early Saturday morning from the train station after the Apple Store adventure.

I kept hearing the noise this week while driving to and from work and decided to get it checked out. Well, apparently, I brought it in just in time as the service guy who took it around the block to replicate the noise nearly didn’t make it back. The car pretty much died.

As I suspected, the problem has something to do with the transmission, which REALLY sucks…and my car had to stay overnight.

Crappity, crap-crap-crap.

…my Airport Base Station isn’t allowing me to wirelessly connect to the Internet for a reason I haven’t stumbled across yet.

As noted in the previous post, I woke up this morning and my PowerBook could not connect to the Internet. I even hooked it up via the Ethernet cable (rather than using the wi-fi connection) and it still didn’t work. However, while I was troubleshooting the problem this evening, I realized I needed to configure the network preferences on my PowerBook to get onto the Internet through an Ethernet connection.

So I am back online…just not wirelessly. Whew!

In my previous post, I talked about my MIDI interface suddenly crapping out on me over the weekend.

Well, this morning I woke up and my Internet connection isn’t working. I’ve tried all my usual tactics to kick-start it, but none are working.

I’m “borrowing” a wi-fi signal in my complex to post this.

Ugh…looks like I’ll be making a prolonged call to Earthlink this evening.

Crap.

While I dealt with a slight infection of my right eye the day after my Apple Store adventure, I hooked my synthesizer up to my steadily deteriorating PowerBook and recorded what could be a song in the making.

But I got stuck on a bridge so I put it to rest for the night. I woke up and played around with some ideas late Sunday morning. I finally came across something I liked and went to insert it into the GarageBand recording I worked on Saturday. Unfortunately, I discovered that either the MIDI cable I have hooked up between my MIDI interface and my keyboard is bad, or the interface itself has crapped out on me. This happened a couple of months ago, but it was resolved when I just happened to switch out my USB cables as a last resort. This time, though, that didn’t do the trick. Since the cable doesn’t look bad (i.e., no kinks, no exposed wiring), I suspect it is the MIDI interface (which was a generous gift from my friend, Jason).

So…since any future recording won’t be done until I get around to replacing the MIDI interface (unless it suddenly springs back to life), I give to you this very incomplete song idea that, in my mind, was influenced by Keane (since I love their new single so much):

Untitled 05-20-2006

Here are some photos I took at Friday night’s Grand Opening of the Apple Store Fifth Avenue in New York City.

A couple of shots of the glass cube entrance to the underground store…

One of the friends Katie made while in the queue to get into the store uses a new black MacBook while waiting outside…

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (with “friend” Robert Smigel) makes fun of the Apple geeks in front of the entrance to the store. To get into a Triumph mindset for a moment, I will say that I love Mac OS X Tiger, but Windows XP is also a good operating system…FOR ME TO POOP ON!

Katie reacts to news from an Apple Store staffer that the free T-shirts being given out to the first 2,500 people in the store should still be around by the time we got inside.

A shot of the sprial, glass staircase and the Jetsons-like elevator in the middle of it…

Looking up through the cube from the sales floor of the Apple Store to the General Motors Building above…

Some pics of the Apple Store itself…

Film director/writer/producer/actor Spike Lee does some shopping…

Actor James Woods, who starred in one of my all-time favorite movies, “True Believer,” talks to Spike Lee on the staircase…

Katie tells a guy with a camera about how she nearly elbowed James Woods in the head while walking down the staircase into the store…

John Legend, winner of this year’s Grammy Award for Best New Artist and University of Pennsylvania alumnus, picks up some Apple gear…

NOTE: Not pictured are SNL cast member Finesse Mitchell and hip hop/rap/R&B superstar Kanye West. Katie actually bumped into Finesse and told him she thinks he’s funny. Meanwhile, Kanye descended down the glass staircase escorted by about a dozen Apple employees after I had put my camera away. By the time I turned my camera back on, Kanye was mobbed by gawkers and whisked away to what I assume is a VIP room (since I also saw Spike Lee go in there at one point).

Two shots of the Apple Store entrance at night…

My Apple Store T-shirt…

And here is a pic of Katie and me with the fellow Macheads she made friends with while waiting for NJ Transit to finally get me to NYC…

Almost there!

The glass-cube entrance to the Apple Store, Fifth Avenue, the new flagship store in New York City celebrating its grand opening tomorrow night at 6 p.m. It will be the first Apple Store to be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

This place looks freakin’ awesome. I’m going up to NYC for the opening. If I have to wait until 2 a.m. to get through the doors of the Great Cube of Jobs, I will do so. Besides, there is incentive…the store is giving away a new MacBook each hour for 24 straight hours to celebrate the opening.

Here are more pics from AppleInsider.com:

I became a big fan of Keane as soon as I heard the single “Somewhere Only We Know” from the 2004 CD “Hopes and Fears.” My fandom reached new heights when I saw them perform at Philly’s Electric Factory on Feb. 4, 2005—just two days before the Eagles played…and lost…in the Super Bowl. (By the way, that was one of the best shows I have ever seen because it’s rare when you get one decent opening act, let alone two…and this show featured two outstanding openers in The Zutons and The Redwalls.)

However, when I first heard “Is It Any Wonder?” from Keane’s upcoming “Under the Iron Sea” CD, I wasn’t thrilled with it. I told Katie just the other day that the song just didn’t do anything for me.

Well, a couple of days later and I can’t get the damn song out of my head (which could be the result of that “earworm” intro). I love it…so here’s the video, courtesy of YouTube:

YouTube – Keane – Is it any wonder