New Gear's Resolutions (ha!)

Being a new year and all, I thought it would be appropriate to recap my personal New Year's Resolutions here, especially since several of them relate to my musical hobbies...

1) Jennifer and I will finish recording our Conundrum CD, even if it means I have to hold her captive in the basement for 2 weeks - We started recording in fall of 2008 and managed to get 10 songs done in time for Christmas. For the entire year of 2009 we kept talking about finishing the CD (recording a few more songs, putting final touches on the mixing/mastering) but never did anything. So in 2010 we want to finish the CD for real and get the tracks available on iTunes.

2) I will get back into teaching - Not related to G.A.S., but I used to teach college business classes at night, and recently got connected with a new college and new teaching opportunities. I'll be starting mid-January.

3) In order to do something productive with photography, I want to have 12 killer pictures by the end of 2010 to make a 2011 calendar - Ok, it's not musical G.A.S., but photographic G.A.S. is almost as dangerous. Last year I picked up a new digital SLR camera (Nikon D90) and several new lenses (Nikon 16-85mmVR, Nikon 70-300mm VR, Nikon 85mm macro); in 2010 I plan to put all that gear to good use.

4) Get more proactive about taking advantage of the cultural stuff Cinci has to offer and making plans with friends, hopefully both at once - Um, perhaps this means spending less time in the studio...

5) To "get good" at all the random stringed instruments I've been accumulating over the years... mandolin, banjo, lap steel, violin - Yeah, for those of you who have followed the blog for a while, I think this was my resolution in 2007 as well (and I was too lazy to make resolutions in 2008). What's different this time? For starters, I've actually been listening to a bit more country / bluegrass music, so I'm a bit more inspired. I've picked up a few new instruments including a Dean Backwoods 6-string banjo, a Dobro Hound Dog resonator, a Silver Creek violin, and a Peavey Power Slide lap steel. Finally, I've loaded up my Netflix queue and Amazon wish list with all sorts of instructional DVD's and books. So maybe I won't "get good" at all of the above, but hopefully at least I can "get better".

6) To get my bike and rollerblades cleaned/fixed up and actually start using them when the weather stops sucking - Uh oh... this also means spending less time in the studio...

7) And finally, not make more New Year's Resolutions than I can reasonably keep in 2010

And, of course, not a true resolution, I guess, but I am making a concerted effort to blog more regularly and not get so behind on posts/videos. We'll see how that goes...

--B