The winner, I guess...

is me. Me=Melissa. I don't feel particularly deserving, but then again I sort of kind of feel like everyone "phoned it in" a bit this time, so why not me? Maybe we're all just a little tired of the politics. Oh yes, the politics. Take a deep breath everybody and get ready to do this again, only better.

Special mention goes to Dave who just learned to play the piano a few months ago and rocked the ivories in his entry. Way to inspire, little bro! Anyway, I think all the entries were worth a listen--some of them were just the cutest--and it was a good exercise to tap into our inner Langston Hughes. I do not think we heard anyone's best effort to date. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

Is it worth noting that both of my wins in this contest so far have occurred when I used good-old-fashioned walking barre chords? Too late, it has already been noted.

Anyway, I do have an idea about the next contest but it might be kind of complicated so I'm going to discuss offline and return.

As always, congratulations to all who dared. Please come back to make the next contest a festival of awesome.

Voting Extended

I added a couple days on to the voting as there isn't so much a clear leader this time and I want to make sure we get enough votes for el numero uno to seem legit. So, vote people! Or, tell others to come vote.

Challenge #6 Entries! Vote your favorite.

No big long intro this time. If'n you wanna see the rules, check out the post for Challenge 5. Otherwise, listen to these five versions of "Life is Fine" (words by Langston Hughes) and vote for the one that strikes your fancy as the best "interpretation." No extra categories this time as I'm too lazy to come up with them and there aren't as many contestants and nothing. Happy listening! Come back next time, all.

Dave
Spencer
Alan
Jordan
Melissa

Entries Coming Right Up

Five of em. They are sure to confound the wicked. Soon as I get em all uploaded.

Contest #6 Extended to September 25th

Or thereabouts. So get crackin' people. I want to see the return of every last one of you. Work that peer pressure angle where necessary, folks.

I myself am one of the many stragglers and I need to kick it into gear or I'll be bested by my little brother yet again and have to relive all those "why can't you be more like your brother?" moments from childhood.

And to clarify, winner gets bragging rights AND they get to choose the next challenge.

Hmm Two Entries

A malaise has fallen o'er the songwriters. The question being, do we extend the deadline or have an intense face-off between the two who dared?

Thoughts?

Hi, it's almost here

As always, the challenge due date is sneaking up on me. Challenge #6 entries due Monday or so. Make it happen. Or if you like:

"get down on your
knees at night
And pray to the lord
He's gonna make it happen
(Make it happen)"

As long as it gets done.

Challenge details below.

Challenge #6: Life is Fine

Can you believe the next challenge is already going up? I guess it's time to make like a winning sports team and "keep the momentum going." My family used to go to New Jersey Nets (not necessarily a winning sports team) games with some frequency and I remember a slogan that was either "keep the momentum going" or something like that hanging on banners all over the arena. I'm not sure if it was more a desperate plea or a rallying cry. Anyway, no desperation here. The only point of these songwriting challenges is to be awesome. So, if you're up to it, be awesome again. If not, maybe you'll find the courage at a later date.

Anyway, Challenge #6 is a different sort of songwriting challenge as it's going to focus on the music. That doesn't mean that whoever plays the meanest key-tar solo wins. All right, if you can actually pull off a mean key-tar solo maybe you should win. But what I mean is, as always this is not so much about technical chops as songwriting chops. In this case that means interpreting lyrics, crafting melody, rhythm, you know--the soul of things.

The challenge is to write a song with these lyrics, from the Langston Hughes poem "Life Is Fine."

I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn't a-been so high
I might've jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',
I guess I will live on.
I could've died for love--
But for livin' I was born

Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry--
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

Isn't it awesome?

Email what you come up with to rocktastica at gmail, since I don't feel like getting yet another email address to match this blog title. Regular rules apply. Check out this post if you need a reminder.

For now I'm going to say the due date is Labor Day. Though, honestly, this one may not take as long so we could move it up if people want to.

Next challenge is a'brewin

It's going to be good, so stay tuned.

We have a winner(s)

Soooo, good job, everyone. My recent scolding notwithstanding, we had a great turnout and some fantastic material this time. I hope everyone will keep participating and not be sad even if they didn't win anything. Most likely I just didn't come up with the right category for your song. For example, had there been a category for "Most Epic" I am pretty sure that would have gone to "Bob Eucker," a song which was in a category all to itself and which was truly wonderful. Feel free to come up with the category you think you would have won and assign it to yourself. I am claiming "Most Angsty" for me. Fight me for it if you like.

As you can see, by the polls to your right, the overall winner is the song "Las Vegas." Nicely done, winner-person. I'll go ahead and pretend you have your anonymity on here. If everyone else will take a moment to bow down to the winner through the computer screen, I think we can call it good. O Victorious One, let me know when you come up with the next challenge and we'll get the ball rollin' again. And if I don't do anything about it because I have lapsed into a motherly coma, feel free to bug someone else that knows me well.

Oh, to be completist, here are the other winners:

Most Educational - Harry Orchard Shot the Guv
Most Heartwarming - Sweet Home Arizona
Cheekiest - Welcome to Utah
Weirdest - Ballad of Wm Weld (I also vote for this one as most likely to be stuck in your head--nice work)
Most Danceable - Meh, I'm just going to throw this one out due to too many hanging chads and stuff

Please don't be biased when you vote!

**Scroll down two posts to listen to the songs!**

Since I check this site every couple days, I happened to notice that recently the same song got several votes in every category. I'm guessing it was just a few of somebody's friends trying to be supportive and stuff, which I can understand. But, you guys, the prize here is nothing more than bragging rights. Bragging rights over nine people, to be exact. No record contract, certainly no cash, no cute prize, nothing. There is no song in the world that is most educational, most danceable, weirdest, and whatever else I put down for the categories. Or if there is, it's probably written by Michael Jackson or else owned by Michael Jackson (does he still own all the Beatles songs?) or maybe Bowie.

Anyway, please don't squeeze all the fun out of this little contest, friends, or we won't be able to guilt all these people into contributing next time!

Thank you for your participation.

The Custodian

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Four days to go, it seems, so now is the time to vote for your favorite. We have a clear leader, but hey, you never know.

Challenge #5 and Giveaway! "We Will Rock You(r State)"

Welcome to the most successful songwriting challenge EVER. Prepare to be delighted, enthralled, wowed, and rocked.

I feel like this one is going to need an introduction for the uninitiated since we have a few new participants this time and possibly new voters. So here goes.

The Songwriting Challenge works like this:

1) The previous winner issues the challenge which is a song prompt (e.g., "write a song about X," "write a song titled X," "write a song containing X")
2) The undaunted awesome elite (aka participants) write a song with words and music, using their instrument of choice (or maybe no instrument? no one's tried that yet) to answer the prompt
3) Everyone records a digital version of his/her song as a raw one-track, one-take (eh ... more or less) with no massaging via production tools (except maybe just to adjust volume)
4) Everyone emails their file by the deadline (more or less)
5) I post all the songs
6) The public votes for their favorite with nobody voting for their own song because that is lame.

Then the whole process starts over. It's pretty much just for fun and to have an opportunity to be awesome.

The current challenge, which was due on summer solstice 2010, is to
write a song about the state you are from or the state you currently live in.
I think only little brother and I chose to write about our current states as we come from a band of traveling gypsies and so always live in the now. When all was said and done and everyone lobbed in their entries at the buzzer, or after the buzzer but close enough - I'm no killjoy - we had NINE total entries. This is all thanks to peer pressure. I do believe everyone that has ever participated in this contest has returned for this one and two new competitors were up for the challenge as well.

It's fun to talk trash and all but on a serious note all the competitors should know that they are all take-action winners. Rather than people that sit around and watch the Bachelorette and talk about how they could be awesome, you actually are. But now it is time to feast your ears on this:

Ballad of Wm Weld
Bob Uecker
harry orchard killed the governor dead
Las Vegas
Old (Northern) Dominion
old virginia
phoenix, az
Sweet Home Arizona
Welcome To Utah

I am experimenting with this new file hosting thing so sorry if it's weird.

Also, I know it is overwhelming and difficult to vote out of such surely awesome competition (okay I haven't heard most of the songs yet, but I know from past experience that they will be stellar). Also there are nine. Nine songs. Which is going to take a while just to listen to. So, take your time. Voting will go on for the next couple weeks. Also, there are some additional voting categories, to spread out the love a little. The winner will still be THE winner though. Happy listening!

Oh yeah, just kidding, there is no giveaway. Suckers.

8 about states is great

Eight is the probably final tally of entries into challenge #5. More details will emerge when I get time to upload them onto some generic audio storage site, probably by this evening (fingers crossed). I haven't listened to the recordings yet (besides the ones that were made in my house), but there has been an awful lot of enthusiasm and a lot of "stepping up to the plate" so this should be fantastic. Once we GO LIVE, please get the word out to all your friends. We're going to have to have a lot of voters for there to be a clear winner who will feel entitled to the bragging rights he or she deserves.

By the way, I heard that some people were not able to make recordings. If you have any sort of microphone on your computer, you can always download free software for recording music (e.g., audacity). Or for the iphone-obsessed, like a certain person that lives in my house, there are a number of apps that allow you to record right on your iphone. I'm not super knowledgeable in this area so consult your local smarty pants for more ideas.

SEVEN CONTEST ENTRIES!

YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAHH. I have received four entries in this eleventh hour and I'll still accept more within a reasonable time for a current and likely final total of seven awesome songs about states. I can tell you I just heard my very own husband record what is definitely the most spirited (and only) love song to Northern Virginia I have ever heard. As soon as I can figure out where I am stashing all this lovely music, I will tell you, the people.

One entry so far

It's time to step it up, folks. Either that or it's time for me to push back the deadline. What say you, little brother and anyone else that cares to chime in?

To re-cap, the challenge this time is to write a song about your home state or the state in which you currently live. As always, keep the recording cheap and simple (one track if possible) as it is not a contest to see who can best use pro-tools, but just to see who can write the best song (whether that be most epic, most transcendent, cutest, funniest, most bad ass, cleverest, or some random criterion of the people's choosing).

UPDATE: Now two entries. It's really happening so get with it, I say to myself and others.

State Songs

Write your songs! Songs about the state you live in or are from are due solstice, which is soon if I recall correctly.

I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing tonight.

A New Home

It was getting a little weird to host the songwriting contest on my blog alongside baby photos, so I decided to port the contest on over to a new location, complete with a whole new look created by the imitable me on PowerPoint. This is a step up from Paint, where I created my other blog's logo. Now I just need to figure out where to host the audio files since Google has decided to add some governance to their content management and I can't figure out how to randomly store stuff on the phased out googlepages anymore. Current contest is still on! Send your state songs to Rocktastica at gmail dot com.