Monday, April 27, 2020

The Dunning-Kruger Effect



Wow! Been a while!

Since I last posted, I retired from my job (been off for a year) and released my first new solo CD in almost 10 years: I DON'T KNOW TOMORROW.

Our lease at the Gower house was ending last March, and Sharon and I had been seriously looking to pull up stakes for a move to the Oregon Coast. We looked at several houses but none of them were right, and after Sharon's job at Vintage ended, there was some uncertainty about her work situation.

I finished I DON'T KNOW last November, and it took my friend Greg a few weeks to deliver the Artwork, which is wonderful. As soon as I was done, I started packing up my music gear, thinking I wouldn't be able to start a new project until after the move. I was sad, because putting out a new CD really got my fire roaring again, and I already had the outline for the follow up: "The Dunning-Kruger Effect." And the next two after!

Anyway, Sharon DID get a new, permanent job, and we didn't find anything close to the perfect house, so we made the tough but reasonable choice to stay here at least one more year. Of course I immediately resumed work on my music and have been cranking away much faster, having ironed out many of the kinks last year.

Even though retired, I also did a few days a month for my friend Mike Wilhoit at Westwind Post in Burbank, which was just enough to keep my skills sharp. Even before the pandemic, the work there dried up and I don't see anything else happening until possibly next year.

But it's amazing to me how things worked out for our family. I cannot even imagine what it would have been like to be moving right now, with the added pressure of masks and social distancing and with so many businesses closed. Another thing that happened was that Sharon's Mom got very sick just about the time we would have been leaving, and though she recovered, it would have been quite stressful not to be nearby.

Today I am about 70% finished with Dunning-Kruger. I am dealing with a boring pass of micro-editing that many artists wouldn't even bother with (but they probably play better than me, so...) and then it's time for drums, vocals, and final mixing.

My friend Greg, when he turned over the artwork for I DON'T KNOW, kind of laughingly said: "Slow down! I may not have time for the next one!" However, like most of us he wound up at home with more free time than expected. He just wrote and told me he had three out of four mockups ready, which really put a bullet in my butt. People are gonna actually hear this thing! I wanna make it good, but frankly this music will be a lot more challenging and there may be fewer nice emails after it goes out. But so far, I'm very happy with it.