Jim's Place

"The Singing Stairs"

Over the last few months, I've had a lot more difficulty going up and down my stairs due to knee pain. I figured it was just arthritis and that maybe at 60, it was just going to be something I had to struggle with from now on. During the rough spell of the last couple of months, it got to where it was taking me a couple of minutes to get down the stairs right after waking up. I had to turn sideways and hold on to the rail and go very slowly.

A key aspect of this rough spell has been grimacing with any exertion, so coming down the stairs was effectively a chorus of winces, grimaces, groans and moans - highlighted with an occasional "Son of a gun!" (Of course, I didn't cuss!). It sounded pretty awful, but the harmony was actually quite impressive!Especially since my stairs are kind of like a shower in that the sound bounces off the wall and gives your voice some nice reverb.

Then I got a novel idea... I sing in the shower, why not sing when I go down the stairs after waking up?! With my renewed interest in singing, it'll be good practice and it sure sounds better than the moaning and groaning! So I've had a nice diversion from the pain and instead of dreading hobbling down the stairs, I've actually been enjoying it, singing whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it's a favorite song and sometimes I just make one up as I go along!

With the surprising improvement in my knees in the last several days from the new fibromyalgia med, I can whiz down the stairs without a problem now. (Shazam!) But I still take my time...and it's even more fun to try out different songs with the enhancing effect of the staircase reverb. Funny, that in the midst of adversity, pain led me to a joy that I might not have discovered...an opportunity for joy that had always been right in front of me. I don't wish pain upon anyone, but I do hope that even if you are hurting every day, that in some way you find the same kind of joy I did when I discovered "The Singing Stairs"... :)

My famous camping CDs...

Happy Wednesday guys! Are we having fun yet?! Why wait until the weekend?! That reminds me of one of my old favorites - "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy. I really loved the music of the early 80s, but when MTV came along, the song itself became secondary to the music video. After that, it seemed much harder to find music that I liked. The popular stuff on the radio just seemed like noise...

Since then, it's been on ongoing project to find music that I liked - which was rarely what was popular. I was baffled at how hard it was to find a song that had a nice melody. I still liked my oldies from the 70s and 80s, but I really wanted to listen to new music. Most of the time it was a challenge to be able to fill a cassette tape, later a CD, with current music that was "killer not just filler". A lot of my friends of similar age also expressed the same frustration and disenchantment with popular music.

That led to one of my traditions. Before the illness really started to cramp my style, I frequently went camping with my close friends. For most trips, I'd create a compilation of my favorite current music and hand out the CD to everyone after we were all set up at the campground. I'd put my heart and soul into the artwork of the CD label, jacket design, the case insert, etc. - including pictures from previous camping trips, info about each song, etc. The idea was to make it a memento and souvenir of our camping trip.

Camping in my tent trailer has rarely been on my radar screen in recent years, but maybe I can squeeze in a trip before too long. So what am I listening to lately? Mat Kearney, Lifehouse, Five For Fighting, Vertical Horizon, OneRepublic, Michelle Branch, Colbie Caillat, Rob Thomas, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Natalie Imbruglia - to name a few.

I have several hundred CDs, but now I usually buy my music via a download from Amazon MP3 or the iTunes store. For so many years, finding just one decent song meant hours of perusing through CDs at Tower Records. There's no way I'd even be physically up to doing that nowadays! But when I discover a great song amongst the thousands online, I still get that same feeling of excitement, as if I'd found a buried treasure...because, in my book, I had!

I still enjoy a good movie or TV show now and then, but mostly it's still all about the music... :)

My 2012 Slideshow

My 2012 slideshow featuring some of my best photos from the last year. Created using Proshow Producer slideshow software. Photos taken using my Canon Rebel XS and my Canon Rebel T3i. Photos edited with Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Nik HDR Efex Pro 2 for the HDR shots.

In memory of my brother...

My brother Jerry passed away Feb. 9, 2002 from heart disease - 8 years ago today. I made this video as a tribute but also I hope it inspires others to take care of themselves and their loved ones...

Check out these new songs!

I found a few songs the other day while exploring AmazonMP3.com. I found several great songs but I especially liked a new artist "Colbie Caillat" and her album "Coco". Guess it came out last year but it's new to me! Thought it would be great to share a couple of songs with you. You can play "One Fine Wire" from the embedded player below or from the "Favorite New Songs" column on the left. But also check out "Midnight Bottle". Catchy tunes with a nice sound. Hope you like them!

Flowers for Jerry

Lately, I’ve been trying to catch up on my video editing. I’m just wrapping up a DVD of my road trip last year to Texas. The last few minutes of that DVD contains a music video of when Mom and I went to Laurel Land to put new flowers on Jerry’s tomb. This is my way of expressing how much I still miss and love my brother. Hope you like it…

Click on the link and it’ll play back automatically from the Yahoo Video website.

Flowers for Jerry

Check out my slideshow from Lake Jennings!

I created a slideshow from my recent Lake Jennings camping trip. I think it gives you a pretty good idea of why I like perching my tent trailer on site 94 overlooking the lake! I think you'll really like the song I chose for background music. Click on the link to play it from the Yahoo Video website.

Lake Jennings Slideshow

Karaoke night at Jim's Place

I told my Mom that I would start recording myself singing a few songs... I got a bit of head start on that by doing a quick karaoke recording on my PC. The quality is a bit lacking but I feel it's a good start and most importantly it was fun! Here's my first effort and I plan on doing this on a regular basis. I just need to figure out how to get higher quality recordings...

The first song is  "Bad Moon Rising"...Click on Bad Moon Rising to play it...