Making Music, WordPress Drama, and Rumpelstiltskin

Here's what I've been working on and working through this week. Making music, WordPress drama, mindful fitness habits, and a Jungian analysis of Rumpelstiltskin lol.

Making Music - Bboy Funk

Inspired by my ​Bboying Music playlist​, I wanted to try my hand at creating some vintage funk inspired breaks. I deliberately set aside time this week to focus on music production and I'm glad I did. I really like how it's sounding so far.

I've never tried making funk before so here's my first attempt. It's not organized yet, just a few ideas smashed together, ready to be arranged into a song. I know the organ is a bit all over the place!

🥁 Listen to the track: ​bboy breaks idea_2.mp3​

For drums, I used ​EZ Drummer 3​, the default kit with the Fat Funk Drive preset. Works really well for this. Now, I also have the ​Funkmasters EZX​ with sounds and grooves from Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks (legendary funk drummers known for their work with James Brown). I started with a pretty aggressive Clyde beat, made some modifications, and went from there.

For the horns and organ, I had to do some digging. That organ has such a distinct sound and after doing research it's called a ​Hammond B-3 Organ​. I didn't actually have any instruments or plugins for this. I could have used samples, but I'm not much of a sample guy. I like to try with virtual instruments first and see if I can make my own unique sound.

I came across a free VST plugin from Orchestral Tools called ​Sine Factory​. They have a Big Band Horn section and a Tonewheel Organ. These were damn near perfect for what I was looking for. This will tide me over until I can afford Toontrack's impressive ​Session Organ expansion​ for EZ Keys.

I was putting all this together in ​FL Studio​ and playing around with the new ​EZ Mix 3​ plugin from Toontrack. I was able to give it a more gritty, vintage breaks sound. I dig it so far. Maybe I'll add some guitar here and there before I flesh it out into a full track.

WordPress Drama

It wouldn't be a Finley Fridays week without some WordPress drama. Here goes:

​WP Minute: The Problems With WordPress​ - a presentation by Marc Benzakein. This talk raises some great points about why WordPress is falling behind and frustrating its community. It points fingers directly at Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic. The talk references the podcast below which is an eye opening look into who's really has say over where WordPress is heading.

​Whose WordPress is it anyway?​ Jason Tucker and Sé Reed discuss the concept of who "owns" the WordPress open-source project and the broader question of who controls WordPress, highlighting the tension between the open-source community's ideals and the reality of centralized control. The episode concludes with a call for transparency and accountability in the WordPress community, particularly within project leadership.

Mindful Fitness Habits

I got inspired to start tracking my eating again (was heavier than I'd like to be). I'm using the ​Lose It app​ and walking 8-10k steps a day with my FitBit and ​Pacer app​. Cara and I renewed our Rec Center memberships and I made an effort to go 3x this week. I also signed up for some "drumming fitness" classes starting next month. We'll see how that goes!

Rumpelstiltskin!

I somehow got into this Rumpelstiltskin kick. I was reading ​The Sacred Prostitute​ and the author was talking about the Jungian concept of the anima and animus – how Rumplestiltskin is an example of a woman's negative animus. It sounded like it was talking about a strong inner critic, or little troll in your mind that's trying to mess with you. Reminded me of this OCD book called ​The Imp of the Mind​, and that by naming it, you reclaim its power over you.

So I ended up watching the 1996 fantasy horror film ​Rumpelstiltskin​, and boy was it terrible. But in a so bad it's good way. Watch the trailer:

I was watching it through a Jungian lens and taking notes. Yep, a fine way to spend a Sunday night. Apparently, it's only loosely based on the original fairy tale. But it sent me into a bit of a rabbit hole. I read ​Emma Jung's Animus and Anima​ and got halfway through ​The Feminine in Fairy Tales​ by Mary Louis von Franz. Interesting stuff.

So that about does it for this week. Have a good weekend!

Jeff

PS... I'm now offering ​1-on-1 sessions via Superpeer​. 🤙