It's June, whatya doin' ?

Caught a bad cold, had a terrible night. It feels like my nose was abused by a rabid Rhinozeros. Ah well, today is slightly better...

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Just music, gardening, beach, live performances with band etc, etc... Busy but happy time.

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Been (over-)thinking my Wikiloops activities these past couple of days instead of actually doing something interesting.

I`m spending way more time on tracks as compared to a year ago. Tweaking sounds, doing takes over and over again until they sound halfway decent and simply letting tracks `mature` is time-consuming but well worth the effort. Plus, the more time I spend on recording the more time I spend on mixing.

Does that smell of ambition? Yes and no. Certainly an ambition to be able to be able to produce what`s in my head and make it sound decent. But anything more than that? No. Last year I was asked if I wanted to contribute some keys for the new album of a rather well known german rock group. While the actual composing and recording part would have appealed to me I just didn`t want to get involved with any serious commercial undertaking (even only in a part-time guest role). Mind you, in the back of my mind it would probably been a case of giving my best, only for it not to be used and replaced with a tambourine. Would I make the same decision again today? Don`t know. The appeal of creating something is there - how else can I justify that I have 100+ Wikiloops tracks on my watchlist :o

How to save money with Wikiloops: Next time you`re invited for dinner, why not bring a personalized copy of your latest Wikiloops album instead of a bottle of wine?

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Well, today was a holiday in Germany, Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi), jokingly Germans translate it to "happy cadavers day" when asked by foreigners what it means. Anyways, the past few days I was feeling like a walking cadaver myself, had a bad bad man cold. But today, I had a near religious experience myself. I felt better, so I went into my man cave (Mrs Gee is away for the weekend) and spend 7 hours reassembling my 1969 BSA motorcycle engine. I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!! I had all the parts I needed ordered weeks ago, plus I have a heap of parts from a similar one I took apart 40 years ago (see, it turns out hoarding these parts all these years was not a bad idea after all :D ). And one or two things I managed to improvise using my tiny but well equipped workshop. Did I mention I had fun? Can't wait to get it finished soon :)

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TeeGee attached the following image:

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Edited by TeeGee on 20 juin 2025 à 01:29

Ah...la spiritualité au service de la joie🙏

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June 20, 2025

Overthinking things part 2

Last year I started to turn some entries from my diary into music. I have always jotted down my thoughts on things concerning my kids, be it something on their development, important events or just everyday observations. The idea of turning these impressions and thoughts into a sort of audiobook with a bit of storytelling and a musical interpretation was one of the reasons to pick making music again (also of course sheer creative boredom).

So now I have tons of tracks, mostly with just me playing and some from Wikiloops collaborations (which I've never uploaded).

Long story short...looking over the credits I started to become annoyed. "Leftin2021" or "f#*%er of riffs" is not something I want to read on the sleave of an album that will at the end of the day be a gift to my kids when I'm no more. So I've started to weed out tracks from this particular playlist that contain former or inactive musicians. Once I get around to finishing the albums (there'll be several), I want them to be as good as possible, soundwise and presentationwise and that includes clear names in the credit list. Weird to be thinking of these things for something of which only two copies will ever exist, but there you go.

So the entry for this june diary should read: Struck 4 tracks from the legacy list yesterday and have no idea yet on how to replace them.

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This idea of an audio book with your thoughts, observations and music is a great idea. 🌝 What consistency to do that for years! Impressive.

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21st June.

The longest day for some, the shortest day for others.
I watched the crowds gather at Stonehenge to see the Sun rise this morning but it was disappointing to see that people left so much litter strewn around. The Summer solstice is a very spiritual event spoiled in many ways by disrespect and thoughtlessness.

I think there is a feeling by many people that if they leave mess, someone will always pick it up ; it's a case of 'out of sight, out of mind' Every day on my walk, I find someone has left a bad of Doggie-do hanging on a tree .... emptied their car rubbish into the road .... last week someone threw plastic bottles and food trays over my wall and into my garden.

We are polluting Earth in so many ways. Very few people realise how humans contaminate rivers and oceans especially. I'm not sure we are always considering the consequences for our descendants, some folk say they don't care what happens after they're gone but maybe D Day is approaching faster that they expected, it's a very fine line between survival and obliteration.

Now to finish on a lighter note, I finally finished my 'ditty' song after 2 previous ideas went belly up. I will have to be careful what I ask for in future. Happy day <3

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Hello!

I made a return to Wikiloops after a short break. I don't know if there was extra anger left inside me, because I returned by playing loudly. (I was angry because I couldn't record songs for two months).

I admit that the loudness might also be due to not having fully recovered my hearing. :D



Happy Midsummer! (even though it was yesterday). It's time to get a bit depressed, as Christmas is soon here. Well, let's try to enjoy the summer and not sulk unnecessarily.

I haven't written in my diary for a long time, but on the other hand, there hasn't been anything to write about, but maybe i write about small things now:
I bought an ab wheel today and I'm probably going to regret my purchase since I have no strength in my abdominal muscles. Yeah, I know that I'll probably start training in a too difficult way again. :D

I promise to share more about my struggles later.



HYVÄÄ JUHANNUSTA TEILLE KAIKILLE!

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Monday 23rd Jun.

The thing about wikiloops for me is that I never know what I'm coming away with. For example, today I saw a drum template with the title "Mild Euthanasia" and it sent me off in a direction I didn't really want to go.... assisted dying is not a good topic for a song... but I never heard one before. A couple of weeks back there was a lyrics thread about prostate cancer, again, not a fun subject but I just wanted a challenge.

I just finished making a video for a song I wrote called "Boringly Interesting or Interestingly boring" all about Punks and Goths and also ordinary but quirky people. Unfortunately, after I published it I found that I'd spelled 'tattoo' with one t... so I had to remove it.... there's always one spoiler for me.

I'm not happy with the state of my house at the moment, not a single room is tidy and organised. Unfortunately because I pulled down the fitted wardrobes I have nowhere to store all the junk that came out. Will I never learn that the joy of ripping things out will always end in tears :):(

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Had my oldest son come visit for the weekend. Put me in quite an emotional state seeing him now and thinking that man (26 years old) was just a baby a short while back. Shared a couple of glasses of champagne sitting on the bank of the Elbe river watching anything from small sailing boats to gigantic container ships navigating into the port of Hamburg.

Musicwise I feel strangely uninspired at the moment to simply add something to tracks just because I can or just because I have an idea that would fit. Lacking a band or recording project with a defined goal, I`m starting to revisit old recordings and working out how to improve them. There`s some stuff where I like the I ideas I had at the time but lacked the right sounds or just made sloppy recordings.

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June 26, 2025

Dear Wikiloopiverse, you will need to be very brave and strong, tough times are coming.

Had a long chat with my next door neighbour yesterday. Turns out he`s got he`s got a complete PA stored in his garage, powerful enough for outdoor gigs for 4000 people. Even better, he offered me the use of a big 48 channel console he`s got laying around.

I know that many of you will now be afraid that this means that I`ll use 1 channel for the templates and 47 channels for even more keyboard carpeting. And you know what...you`re exactly right :D

But wait, things may get even better (or worse, depending on your perspective). Apparently, his neighbour is a professional audio engineer who runs a fully equipped studio in his house. (I always wondered why there were so many different cars in his driveway).

Anyway, we`ve decided to hold a working meeting (barbeque and beer) one of the coming weekends to get to know each other and see what musical mischief we can come up with. (I already see you cowering in the corner, begging for mercy).

The really noteworthy thing about all this is is that it shouldn`t have happened. We of the hanseatic persuasion don`t normally interact with neighbours. We ackowledge their existance, may even enquire sincerely about their well-being when we meet them and on rare occasions just might give them a friendly nod with the head if we see them on the street. It`s not arrogance but a deeply embedded sense of privacy. Keeping your distance out of respect probably describes it best. So, a neighbourhood barbeque is really unheared of. It`ll probably make it unto the news.

(But just wait `til I get those 48 channels going)

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June's highlight, on the musical side, has been finding a local guitar repair shop. Met the owner earlier in the week and dropped off my workhorse Harley Benton guitar. he cleaned it up for me and got rid of some buzzing and pickup/switch issues. we talked a little shop, glad to hear he likes metal and rock, so the next guitar to go into his shop will be my Fender HM Strat. hoping he can do some magic on the tremolo and just get it dialed in for me.

Cheers!

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Good for you, can't wait to hear more about this. I had to comment on your neighbour situation,this is EXACTLY like I operate. I live here for over 20 years in this village, but I keep a polite and friendly distance. When I pass anyone, they get a friendly greeting for sure. I have reasons for that, privacy is one, and reducing the possibility of emotion laden neighbor conflicts. Works for me!

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I was supposed to be on holiday driving Jeeps in the mountains with my old gang, sort of a celebration for us reaching 60 years. For unforeseen matters the trip was postponed until next year. Bummer.

On the other hand this allows me to participate in a 5.4 Km run in the town center where 10000 others are participating. It's quite fun, its a company run, so I meet a few People from other companies, do the running and have some beers afterwards.

As I am not in the under 60 catogory I have a good chance to be in the top 15 - however there are a few really skinny old b****** that run really fast :D

I will be going on my bike, as access with a car is a nightmare. I managed to spot a place last year where I can do a small illegal maneuver and put the bike really near the start. I have it all fed into the navigation, lets see if it works B)

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Will you be taking a short cut using your bike instead of running ? I hope you beat the old guys.... the other old guys I mean :D

The nice thing about music is the ability to express your feelings with plausible deniability. You can curse and slander, you can be rude or mean or you can open your heart and share your secrets but then you can say "It's just a song you know"

Today I directed some frustration into lyrics about my poor equipment and lack of technology. My response to PC problems is usually to press everything available, cross my fingers and hope it's just a question of "Switch it off and switch it on again"

Have a good weekend folk <3

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Hmmm there were 215 in my age group of 60-65, and I came in 46. Not happy... what happened is that I forgot to bring my sports watch with me, I use it to pace myself and then pick up the speed once I am past the half way line. The result was that I was jogging along, and suddenly I saw the 4 km sign :O So I picked up the pace but it was a bit too late to get a good time. Ah well, next time. As my favourite footballer said: Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

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Just chillin' with my front yard friends on this last Saturday in June
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/pTtsy7yd/FRONT-YARD-FRIENDS.jpg[/img]

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What a lovely picture Gerry.

Sunday 29 June.

I think many people are suffering from the heat right now, it's hard to know how to enjoy it - too hot to go out and too stuffy to stay in.
People I speak to in America are always surprised that in England we don't have air con in ordinary homes, just public places. US friends are also quite shocked that we mostly had manual gear change in cars.

I guess I know much more about the States than I do about countries much closer to home, that's because of the language differences and translations. Having said that, I think it would be cool if wikiloops had an on site translater instead of us having to log in somewhere else. Lately I find many more non English song titles popping up and I always want to understand them.

This diary has remained active for 6 months now but I find I have less to talk about, I seem to have developed the habit of putting my 'diary' thought into song.... maybe that's why so many of my lyrics are rather glum lately.

In conclusion I think I'll not start a July issue.... however if someone else wants to set something up for July, I will always read and contribute if I can. :W

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This year has been a cool summer. Well, actually, this has been nice because our house has a brick wall that is heated by the heat. It turns the whole house into a sauna.

The best part of the summer so far has been when we have been able to practice escrima outside. Otherwise, this week i been inside because it has been raining. Well it is ok, because i got a good excuse to watch the last season of Squid Game. I rarely watch series at such a fast pace, but I loved the third season.

Training my abs started as I thought. I got a sore side abdominal muscle on one side when I was hanging on the bar and lifting my legs straight in front of me. I guess even the pig carcasses hanging in the slaughterhouse look more flexible than me. 😂 Well, small injuries always happen sometimes when you exercise.

Well that's it. I will write a little bit more next week

(By to way I just read Shamika's diary entry, and I have to say that I hate cars with automatic transmissions, a manual is much better. 😁 On the other hand, it doesn't matter, because I don't need a car. I sold my car years ago.)

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