So our challenge for the first week was to write an autobiographical song and accompany ourselves on an instrument.

The song came pretty easy -- I knew I wanted to do a rocking song about how awesome I am. But I don't actually play the guitar. At first I thought I'd play some sort of toy guitar, much as Margaret did. Noah loaned me a very realistic looking Fender toy that supposedly makes neat guitar sounds. But he hasn't had batteries in it for years -- he uses it as a prop for puppets -- and it wouldn't make any noise for me. I flirted briefly with the idea of building a cigar box guitar, but Ben talked me down from that one (great idea, he said, but not when we're on a deadline). But then Greg came through like the champion friend he is and loaned me a real guitar. Ben came over before Uptown Sound* rehearsal one day and showed me how to tune the guitar to an open E-flat tuning so that I could make major chords by putting one finger all the way across a fret. He also gave me a 5 minute lesson on chord progressions and left me with his mantra: "Practice makes less terrible." Erica and Kate got to hear the song a couple dozen times over and made great suggestions.

So what I'm saying is that I have awesome friends.

The Apes gave me 22 points (out of a possible 30) which puts me in sixth place (out of eight). But that isn't as bad as it sounds, because the field is really tight -- the leader (Amanda) has 25 points and then there are two people tied at 24 and two at 23.

Of note, if you followed the first season, is that the bonus point system has been radically changed. The person in last place has the chance to perform a ridiculous challenge (tonight, to recite the alphabet backwards in less than 30 seconds) to either win or lose (if they fail) 5 points. They can also pass, which passes the challenge along to the next place holder.

Our challenge for next week is to recreate a scene from a movie, adapted for the stage (much like what Bob Ladewig did for the first season's free-for-all finale). We're allowed one friend to help us perform and one of the judging criteria will be recreation of details. Good thing I'm going out of town for the weekend, or I might be able to really get started!

* First gig, Tuesday, Aug 7 at the SubT.