alright, finally. back at it as of right now...

i said when i started inri042 that it wouldn't take long, and then got stuck playing with a guitar sampler before i realized i had to put it aside to come back fresh at it. the basic reality that this isn't a complex process remains true, so it should be up fairly quickly.

after this, the next track to finish is this "ostrich" thing that was initially meant as sarah's christmas present for 2002. i ended up shelving it in favour of "flying". i'm not sure exactly how this is going to work out, but it's going to finish several releases simultaneously - there'll be a single that will represent that birthday present, it will be the last track for j^2 and it will be the last component of thru (excepting a vst reversion of the birdsong). rather than produce separate singles for all of this, i may construct a "bird ep". birds were a thematic point for me, coming from several different angles; i'll explain all of this as it comes up.

my fifth symphony comes up next and i'm going to need to listen to it closely to determine the right approach. the early 2002 release will likely come up unaltered; i'll leave any mods for further releases.

there's going to be an ambient works after that, which will be a compilation. i'm going to want to sequence it, but it shouldn't be long, either.

that will take me up until i got back from bc, where i'm going to need to pause to analyze the best way to present some material. my sixth symphony is also in a completed form. there will be a few demos that will need to come up, as is, as well.

the next major project will be my seventh symphony, which is about 80% done. my eighth symphony will need to follow, and it is not recorded at all. there's a few minor projects to clean up in the middle of there. there's a programming project dated to late 2004 that i'm not sure i want to take on at all and will have to think carefully about.

i've been saying for a while that i will be rapidly jumping from late 2002 to late 2004, and it hasn't happened yet. but it will be happening right now. i want to at least get to that point by february 17th, when i have an important appointment scheduled. so, i think you can expect a lot of uploads and very little talking over the next month.

this will get me through the tail end of my second period and through the part of the third period that i have completed. the second half of my third period is going to require approaching demos from scratch and will *not* be a quick project.

symphony 5 and 6 are basically complete, and exist on youtube. symphony 7 is incomplete and only exists online right now as the third component of this gestating double record. symphony 8 will be the fourth and final component. this is the major result of my third period.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/e


this is a demo of the 8th symphony:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-lost-symphony-winter-2007


that ^ actually includes the end of the 7th, as well.

and, now there's cougars EVERYWHERE....

part of the reason i'm not calling this in is that i *know* i have an irrational fear of predatory cats. like, i know there's not really a cougar lurking in the bushes across the street - even though, if there was a cougar around here, it would be a good place to check. i know it's the wind, combined with my eyes playing tricks on me (and my eyesight not being very good, when discussing distances). what looks like a cougar is probably just an oddly shaped branch. i realize this.

i have a number of irrational fears like that. usually i can work it out. this undiagnosed schizophrenia is a double-edged sword when the individual has a worldview rooted in empiricism. it pulls on you. it's nagging. but there's usually a way to *test* it, and then you know. the problem with the predatory cats fear is that if you're legitimately concerned that there's a cougar lurking in the bushes then going over to investigate isn't the best approach to dealing with it because if there *is* a cougar in there - however unlikely - then you become lunch. as i can't test this, i can't neutralize it.

i'm pretty sure it ultimately stems from studying them when i was a kid. and, this is actually something i've been dealing with since i was about eight. i have very clear memories of seeing a tiger in my neighbourhood when i was a kid, and avoiding a specific area because i was certain of it. i guess the trend over the last little while has been with dinosaurs; it's not uncommon to meet kids that can classify every type of jurassic diapsid - and i was admittedly pretty good at that myself. but i had a thing with cats, specifically. i could tell you the difference between a jaguarundi and an ocelot, tell you what their ranges were, whether they were endangered or not, etc. so, when i say i saw a bengal tiger near the pool, i meant a bengal tiger - because i knew.

but, of course, it was probably always the result of an overactive imagination. it's probably a better idea to get your kids classifying dinosaurs than predatory cats, because they're going to understand that the chances of coming face to face with an albertosaurus are pretty remote. predatory cats, however, still exist.

there's really only one that we're likely to come face-to-face with here in canada. hence, the fear of cougars.

i was a total nervous wreck when i was hitchhiking through bc, convinced i was going to be mauled. it's my most vivid memory of the trip, which i'm getting to in the musical chronology. and that might have something to do with this, right now.

but it's just a lot easier to work it out in my head than it is to actually shake it.