avast! ye evildoers ~ ~ pclef.net

CLOSING TIME

...a rhinoceros? imposs-irous...

putting the finishing touches on a year of momentous portent and portentous moment...and as I prepare for the final clock-watching, I've reconfigured the mp3 section with some new selections in a project set called "megawaste" (named after a one-man spoof-art act I did as a one-off many years ago) ... this will serve as a receptacle for the mixes I produce on my own, relying heavily on found drum loops, plug-in's, and lots of improvised guitar tracks...download & enjoy...

the first three: the hard way easy is a single take I did last night, using a sampler/looper to flesh things out...recorded to a click, I added the drum tracks (remember "jungle?") afterward; blue metal lipstick is essentially a demo of the new stellartone system--one channel (panned hard left/right) is the notched position between bridge and middle, and the other is the neck pickup, each tweaked with the tonestyler...works for me...jellyroll 123 is a piece I've been wanting to jam with the guys for a while now...we haven't gotten around to it yet, so meanwhile I created this demo, using judicious insertions of "hip hop" loops, featuring some "rap" phrases....cracker hop, if I may coin a genre...I'm in the house like carpet...

here's to a reasonably-contented and less-deathly new year, ok? 2007, ready or not...

...

ETERNITY'S SUN RISE

..."the european girl" a so-called fayum portrait, now hanging in the Louvre, was originally created for the tomb, never to be seen again...

" 'My, how foolish I am!' she cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. 'You know what I've always thought?' she asks in a tone of discovery, and not smiling at me but a point beyond. 'I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun shining through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine takes away all the spooky feeling. But I'll wager it never happens. I'll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are,'--her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie, our dog, pawing earth over her bone-- 'just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.' "

Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory, Modern Library, 1996, originally published in 1956, pp. 26-7.

[as usual, hat tips & props to delancey.com...]

...

He who binds to himself a joy, / Does the winged life destroy; / He who
kisses the joy as it flies, / Lives in Eternity's sun rise. -William Blake

...

LET US NOW PRAISE AVERAGE MEN

...Gerald R. Ford, America's pre-eminent historical footnote...

Watergate sucked. Nixon belonged in a cage. Ford's proteges include Cheney and Rumsfeld. Still, they say he was a nice man. which counts for something, if you're, say, bagging his groceries or delivering his mail. I personally think that his wife Betty had a bigger impact on the culture, but what does it really matter? In a few days we'll have forgotten all this (after the state funeral?) and will be discussing what kind of gallows technology will be used to execute Saddam Hussein...

remember the manson family? I'd completely forgotten about the assassination attempts...the names squeaky fromme and sarah jane moore ring a bell but I was completely unaware of this guy's story...

...

SANTA BABY

...unlike Santa, Walt Whitman actually existed...

turns out that we made the whole thing up, from santa to the baby jesus to the whole business regarding time of year, it was just a matter of agreeing on a schedule, as per the (then) roman custom. similarly, rudolph was an invention of a montgomery ward copyrighter in 1939 (source: the detailed and fascinating trivia featured on the comcast xmas music channel)...

more:

"The date of Nativity was first placed placed by the Western church on December 25th in the fourth century, in a Roman calendar of AD 334, when Christmas supplanted the pagan festival of the unvanquished sun. But most Eastern Christians celebrated Jesus' birth on the feast of Epiphany [January 6], while other oriental communities in Egypt and Syria observed it on April 21st or May 20th. ...

"Extraordinary astral phenomenon regularly appear in Jewish and classical literary sources as signs heralding the birth of illustrious individuals. ... [L]iterature close to the time of Matthew's gospel testifies to the popular belief that the birth of an important personality is always marked by the apparition of a new star. Just a few months before the birth of the future emperor Augustus in 63 BC, a celestial portent had forewarned the Roman senate about the advent of a king. However, the story in Matthew was most probably built on an Old Testament prophecy of Balaam in Numbers 24:17 ('I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob; a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult') which was interpreted both by Jews and by Christians as alluding to the Messiah. This prediction was referred to by Rabbi Akiba when he proclaimed Simeon ben Kosiba, the leader of the second Jewish revolt against Rome (AD 132-135), to be the Messiah."

Geza Vermes, "The First Christmas," History Today, December 2006, pp. 24-28.

...

WHATCHA GET WHATCHA GET

..a shot of the new china cabinet, close up...

...more on this project later...

...red plush?...

...red plush. classic tweed with plush red interior. a fine present even if you aren't a guitar player...perfect for a newly-restored vintage axe...thx pop...

...

LOVE IS ALL AROUND

...give it...

...

I AM A PATRIOTIC AMERICAN GOSH DARNIT

...the class of '05 greets one of the class of '06 in a blaze of americana...

what have I been up to in 2006, aside from worrying about the endtimes, kicking it old school and digesting the annals of dora the explorer? why, building building building...this year: a much-too-long build of a 50s black guard telecaster (yep, I did the guitar/fender did the very fine '51 p-bass reissue--the giveaway? no headstock logo. yet.), for which mr. thudstaff has been incredibly patient; a refinish/rebuild of my old '74 strat--all parts & neck set aside and replaced with premium kit--brazilian flame alnico details previously submitted; and soon to be born, a rad trans-orange dye jazz bass, one solid slab of ash, maple/rosewood neck, all black hardware, tortoise guard, pickups to-be-determined, and some cutting edge guts...

not a bad haul...

2007 new year's resolution #1: play them.

...

A BLONDE ON EACH ARM

...one of these was built by the Fender Music Company...the other one was built by me in '06...

there is, of course, a dead giveaway which one was factory-built, if you look carefully...

...

THIS SHIT IS GENIUS

...so good that he now plays in a tribute band to the original band of which he was a member and he's still cooler than todd rundgren...

a few more entries for the quiz, dreams schemes and themes that came to me in the night...

Rick Buckler was (and is) a tremendous drummer. His contributions to The Jam were easily overshadowed by the radiant songcraft and frontman charisma of the infant wunderkind Paul Weller, but just like my other entries (e.g. a little musicianly respect for ringo...), just try removing his contributions and see what you're left with...(don't get me started on rat scabies...)

Another would be Mitch Mitchell...at this time of year, when the idiotic "best of" lists come cropping up from every direction, and Rolling Stone must yet again re-affirm its basic food groups via a "top 100" list of some kind or another, I'm constantly befuddled by the omission of Jimi Hendrix from the top spot for best frontman, best lead singer, performer, any non-lead-guitar-god way you want to define the main guy that folks watch in the group, there was never another that was better, that basically invented the modern rock tour (he & michael jeffries, look it up) and regularly stunned auditorium audiences with nothing more than a strat, a couple of marshalls, a baby P.A. (by today's standards) and some amazing moves & playing...the guy who made all this go was Mitch Mitchell, who more than any other, moreso than Ginger Baker certainly, who often gets cited for these sorts of influences, Mitch Mitchell was fighting the beat and playing with the downbeat in a very hip, jazz-influenced way. And he rocked the - F - OUT! "manic depression." dig. he was a motherfucker.

In the early days of eno laboratories and the advent of "treatments," Peter Gabriel put out a very interesting reconfiguration of some of his tunes, and lent these mixes to a film called "Birdy"...I was/am a fan, and so it was like getting some nifty remixes (ala miles via laswell) via Mr. Lanois I believe...I recall playing that one quite a bit. also, John Lurie has written some really cool material for a few indie films...I don't remember their names, but I have a cd with music from (I think) about three films. sax man was even playing some guitar... what, ribot was out of town?

I don't know if this falls under TV Theme or Melody, but some of us have long held that the theme to "The Woody Woodpecker" show was an interesting by-product of bebop...

rhythmic feel--this one's haunted me for years--"Twisted"...I heard the Joni version first, but of course that's the great Lambert/Hendricks/Ross...

harmonic language--"Aguas de Marco" has always kicked my ass--crazy voicings on a guitar neck, and you just try keeping your place with nothing but portuguese lyrics and your self-medicated sense of math...

jazz album: call me old-fashioned, but I keep coming back to...bill evans trio @ village vanguard...perfectly precise, portable, precocious, pristine, and sad because the bass player was about to pull a james dean (not only would he never know what an enduring classic they had created, he was dead in a ditch days later, never having even heard the recording) and we had to watch his boss sadly spend the rest of his life trying to recapture that (bringing us eddie gomez, not bad...)...ellington @ newport...was ever this much spontaneity captured so long and so well? an excellent reboot on the big band mindspace...I continue to be confused by two of my favorite guitarists, who were/are packaged by year...I have not sufficient research at this stage to tell you which vintage (39? 41?) was optimum for either Charlie Christian or Django Reinhardt, but perhaps this is why I tend to embark on listening binges of them both at the same time...

classical: my folks had an old reel-to-reel machine with a few actual reel tapes of popular recordings. I remember finding something in the drawer called "Rites of Spring"...I'd like to think that some musical colorfield in my head was conflagrated, but I honestly cannot remember. however, I do remember what the box looked like...

smash hit: hendrix had an LP called "smash hits"...that's what this one reminds me of...it was the single solitary record worthy of anything other than derision at one of our family must-visit houses. because it was so unlike the others, I listened to it pretty much nonstop, until it was time to go home...was drawn especially to the non-hits..."remember"...."can you see me"...and some strange-sounding number called "red house"...smash hits indeed...

books on music: the most musical result to be had from text lies in the world of poetry...for me right now it's Wallace Stevens...maybe a more interesting category would be: musical books.

underrated guitarist: Mick Taylor. Played lead guitar on the best stones albums. the classic four. before him they were pop. afterwards, pap...and then: nothing. mick, fire your manager and call those black crowes dudes...they need a tour almost as much as you do...

isn't it rather a bridge too far to imagine one album that you wish had gone mainstream, when it's an age of niche marketing and those who do get mainstream props are usually those who have not put anything out? I mean, didn't the Paris Hilton "record" seem like something she had to do just because of the sheer amount of attention she was getting for doing absolutely fuck-all? I mean, if I could wish anything for Paris Hilton, that one thing would be for her to host a cooking show. putting her in a two-hour power block with the ex-con martha stewart would be sufficient grounds for me to conclude that armageddon is indeed at hand, burn all my stratocasters and move to a remote island to fish with my bare hands...no wait I'm thinking of the "survivor" finale from the other night...if anything in my wish horizon were to be this especially focused, let the wand of certitude befall a certain list of things which I fervently hope would become less famous...imagine what might pop up in the unused bandwidth...

However, here's my nomination for today's would-be great, smash hit, commercial hit, surprising album with underrated guitar playing and a heavy reliance on non-american folklore:

Big Star. "Sister Lovers"

if you haven't, do.

tomorrow: haircut, last-minute shopping, more nostalgic backglances...

coming soon: My Top 10 List of Best Top 10 lists...

[doesn't it seem like '07 already? can't you just smell the bad james bond jokes? already?]

...

Happy Birthday to my Lizzie....& Grandma C.....102nd...

...

HOLY BLEEPING HOTLINK BATMAN!!

...unable to cope with social situations, his face would often adopt a frozen aspect, as he averted his gaze, fervently hoping to avoid the agony of direct conversation...

DUDE. how embarrassing. the first time ever that I get a link handed-off from someplace all famous and shit, and I totally drop the ball on posting my quiz results!

So, without giving it too terribly much thought, here's a selection of answers, which on any given day might vary dramatically...e.g. jazz album? yes, well, just start with the one listed, and all the others ought to fall into place... I reserve the right to change any of these, including how I interpret abstract quantities such as "jazz," "hit," "book," or "instrument" ... :

[ta to ethan & the bad plus ... ]

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:
1. Movie score.

"The Godfather" ... "Apocalypse Now" ... "The Long Riders" ..."Il Postino" ...

2. TV theme.

"Mission: Impossible" ... "Theme from S.W.A.T." ... "I Dream of Jeannie" ...

3. Melody.

"Nessun Dorma" ... Johnny Hartman singing "'They Say It's Wonderful" ... "Claire De Lune" ... "Groovin' High" ...

4. Harmonic language.

Bill Evans: "All of You" ... Tal Farlow's left hand ... Lenny Breau's right hand ...

5. Rhythmic feel.

Billy Higgins: "Sidewinder" ... John Bonham: "When the Levee Breaks" ... Chryssie Hynde/Pretenders: "Tattoed Love Boys" ... Sonic Youth: "Eliminator Jr." ...

6. Hip-hop track.

Schooly D: "Smoke Some Kill" ... 3rd Bass: "The Gas Face" ... De La Soul: "3 is the magic number" ... Beastie Boys: " 'Paul's Boutique' Medley"... Ciccone Youth: "Into the Groovy" ...

7. Classical piece.

Beethoven 7th Symphony, 2nd movement kicks my cracker ass...

8. Smash hit.

Mott the Hoople: "All the Way from Memphis"

9. Jazz album.

Louis Armstrong: "Hot Fives & Hot Sevens"

10. Non-American folkloric group.

The Pogues.

11. Book on music.

Miles Davis Autobiography ... Chuck Berry Autobiography ... "Our Band Could Be Your Life" (M. Azerrad) ... "Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung" (L. Bangs) ...

BONUS QUESTIONS:
A) Name an surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician: something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years:

Aerosmith, "Get Your Wings" ... Ted Nugent "Double Live Gonzo" ...

B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated:

Jimmy Bryant. George Harrison. Rory Gallagher. Roy Buchanan.

C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn’t, not really):

The Clash, "London Calling" ... "The Ramones" ... Dillinger Four: "Midwestern Songs of the Americas" ...

D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer:

D.J. Bonebrake/X: "More Fun in the New World" ... Bill Stevenson/Descendents: "Milo Goes to College" ... Ringo Starr: "Revolver" ... Charlie Watts: "The Rolling Stones" (first album. 2-trk recording. hear that kick? yes you do...)

send in your entries, I'll post them here...

,,,

POP QUIZ

I enjoy reading the blog of The Bad Plus, which for the most part is authored by Ethan Iverson, the group's pianist. This week he posted a little quiz, with answers from leading members of the music/jazz community he hangs with...I'm posting the questions now, will fill in answers later...perhaps it's something you'd like to try yourself...

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:
1. Movie score.
2. TV theme.
3. Melody.
4. Harmonic language.
5. Rhythmic feel.
6. Hip-hop track.
7. Classical piece.
8. Smash hit.
9. Jazz album.
10. Non-American folkloric group.
11. Book on music.
BONUS QUESTIONS:
A) Name an surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician: something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years:
B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated:
C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn’t, not really):
D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer:

...

PRECIOUS MOMENTS

...honey I crapped my pants...no, really...

remembering some of my favorite moments from a year filled with them...this shot works on so many levels--the face of home-schooling, if you will--the blank stares, the lack of any discernable pigment, as if the children have been locked away with copies of "Pilgrim's Progress" ever since Daddy took office...witness the crying child: fully ambulatory, prim and plump as a pre-teen ought to be...yet still clutching a doll, dressed in something that you might see at an Amish Cotillion...all the while, her father, completely detached from the human drama to his left, addresses the voters as if his family isn't in the room. clearly, his children, as of this moment, having been liberated from their kneelers and flagellation drills, are being purposefully sent forth amongst the heathen to emote and thereby elicit feelings of sympathy and pathos. the man lost an election, and he resorts to the same tactic that weakling kids the world over deploy in the playground--cry until someone comes along to give you a lollipop.

and of course the silently obedient yet pensive mrs. s, looking on, obviously concerned over the children yet constitutionally unable to express it. her cloaked motherly concern a vase of utter plastic...

Rick Santorum, I'd like to think this is the last we'll see of one another, but I strongly suspect that there is a chair being warmed up for you right now over at Fox News. If so, I have the name of your show all picked out: "At The End Of The Day"...it's a phrase I've heard you use, oh, about a million gazillion times. right now another former congressman, John Kasich, is wrestling over the user rights with the fleshy babe-magnet Neil Cavuto like it's the last donut in the box. go get 'em Rickster...and while you're walking back from lunch at the evergreen diner, maybe pop over to Lord & Taylor or American Girl...they have clothing for young girls that's actually from this century...

more backward glances as we slowly approach the arbitrary calendar point that is new year's....

...

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good
may come of it. -William Penn, Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania (1644-1718)

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HOW TO SET UP A STRATOCASTER WHEN THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO

...you feel me?...

the week has been a simple one: work a holiday schedule--workloads have been typically light--get home, feed/bathe the child and then get right to the new guitar. then get lost in the pleasure of playing a toneful, good-looking slab of burnin' love, stay up much too late, losing sleep as the days progress...and get right up and do it all over again...

after a few days, some thoughts on specs...

contour: in essence, you're trying to find the piece of wood that fits most comfortably within your fist, while leaving enough wiggle room for your fingers to effectively manipulate steel strings that are laid out across the slightly-curved surface of frets and wood across its top. this guitar has a "boatneck" contour, which is a soft "V" about one inch deep. I have another boatneck with a wider nut spacing, and while that's ok most of the time, it is indeed a bit wide for maximum comfort and ease of play. this new neck is a sixteenth of an inch narrower, and the feel does improve with the slight decrease in size. however, since I'm now using a much thicker piece of wood than a typical strat neck, I'm rethinking my previous ideas about heavier strings on a strat...sure they provide better/bigger tone, but again-another tone improvement at the cost of playability when other design aspects--more wood, double-truss rod, etc., are enhancing the sustain and low-end already. the more shallow "clapton" contour on my other strat--a more pronounced "V" with the wider nut width--is a dream to play and takes to heavier strings with very little compromise in playability. in spite of this, I'm probably going to use standard light strings on this guitar, because it has so much tone and because the thicker/stiffer neck will be (I expect) a wonderful foil upon which to manipulate a more slinky grid of string vs. fret.

action: nut slots vs. truss rod vs. saddle height. I've never found a definitive text on this, but it would seem to make sense that the build order goes something like this: cut nut slots to a uniform, higher-than-normal height; tighten/straighten truss rod (I like a smidgen of relief); lower nut slots until they're closer to a comfortable playing tension; adjust saddles to make the string height over the neck uniform (i.e. strings are fairly even in height from first fret to twelfth)...

wilkinson/gotoh "vintage" bridge/trem: this has some fine-tuning abilities I've yet to fully explore--i.e. ability to tighten/lock the string against the saddle. has good mass, certainly it hasn't hurt the sustain. still getting used to the lower height of the whammy bar. I'm enjoying the fact that the saddles don't have exposed posts like a real vintage bridge would. no complaints. yet.

grover locking tuners: love them. love. them. imagine my surprise, after several experiences with the lauded sperzels, that I don't need to tighten a screw or manipulate some tiny lever, in order to lock the string to the post! imagine, it does it automatically! good old american know-how, that's what that is. also--they look like vintage tuners. and install very easily. and are very easy to line up visually. and after a week of trying to get this thing in tune, it would seem that they work. very well.

side-adjusting truss rod: what can I say? all guitars should have this feature...

...when pagey breaks out the strat, it's a lovely shade of blue...

seymour duncan lipstick tube pickups (SLS-1): I can only attribute this to the prevalence of SRV/Clapton/Hendrix/Beck wannabees that these pickups aren't more popular. sure, they're bright, but they also have more balls than I expected--not the thin/articulate/clean surf tone I was half-expecting (though they can certainly handle that assignment if required). in fact, while I was hoping I could slay the surfjazzabilly beast with it (I can), it's proving to be quite useful for good old-fashioned loud rock guitar. they are very well-balanced, the in-between pickup settings are twangy and quacky as all get out, and with the stellartone circuit (read on below), I have a 16-point adjustment spectrum within which to cut back on the extreme highs, warm up the tone, and find new subtleties within the stratocaster voice. long story short: I have unlocked the utility of the middle pickup, that little-used orphan of the strat that is rarely ever used all by itself. so, aside from hitting many vintage/americana touch points, I would seem to have an instrument that has something of a unique voice, which I plan on spending time developing...

stellartone: my plan is to get the guitar all-the-way-finished (final set-up, tweaks, etc.), and then produce a few recordings to demonstrate how this circuit functions. as the sales literature would suggest, the typical tone pot on an electric guitar, roy buchanan notwithstanding, is fairly useless. this invention is a definite step forward for expanding the utility of the fender stratocaster guitar. it works. it sounds great. it adds a new depth in feel. and it is quite invisible. so, until those recordings are produced and posted, take my word for it--it's totally cool. I'm now quite curious about the baritone version...

...a bad idea...

wood: 1974, despite what the vintage-mongers might lyingly whisper through their teeth, was quite a dark day for fender quality control. and the design fashions of the day--brass nuts, super-heavy bodies with dense wood, 3-bolt neck assemblies, have mostly vanished due to the consensus that they were all bad ideas. however, some of us were ignorant at a tender age, and their first proper fender guitar was a 70s model, and maybe like me, the attachment to this first-ever bona fide guitar grew sentimental (I can attest to the fact that I won't be sentimental about the neck, pickups, and the rest--they're going up for sale)...so this guitar is quite heavy, especially with the big woody neck. which means that it will be bright-sounding. so they say. I'm ok with it, actually. the rosewood slab certainly warms it up to some degree, and while I have no opinion on types of rosewood or whether fancy/figured wood sounds better/worse/same as an ordinary specimen of plain white rock maple, this particular neck, with brazilian rosewood and highly-flamed maple, has a marvelous feel and the overall tone is very happening. put it another way--it looks and sounds sexy, ferocious, fierce, and can make some sweet sweet sounds.

so what's the negative side? I'm losing sleep by the day. I have to force myself to put it down at some point before 1am. I need a nap. badly. ...so I can be better rested, once I get home...to spend more time playing guitar...until all hours...and then do it all over again...and again...

product links to most of the aforementioned crap listed in the previous post, below...

...

THINGS AS THEY ARE ARE CHANGED UPON THE BLUE GUITAR

LAKE

PLACID

BLUE

METALLIC...featuring duncan lipstick tube pickups w/reverse wound middle, wilkinson/gotoh mod/vintage strat bridge/trem, stellartone tonestyler assembly (with 25k strength pot), flame maple neck w/brazilian rosewood slab, grover locking tuners, bone nut, warmoth pro compound radius neck, chrome knobs w/pearl tops, 1 5/8" nut width, boatneck contour, 1974 fender stratocaster ash body, stripped and re-finished in lake placid blue metallic reranch aerosol nitro ...

I'm Nationwide...

...

I BOUGHT A HEADACHE

...ridiculously simple, right?...

for all the instruments that I seem to have around, whether home-built or home-upgraded, -renovated, diy-etc., I have never felt at home under the hood of a stratocaster...for one thing, there's barely enough room under the pickguard/pickups for the wiring, and within the control cavity itself, there needs to be room for three potentiometers, a 5-way switch, a send & ground wire for each pickup (3x2=6), along with all the connectors, and a couple of capacitors for good measure. also, there are many ways that one can accomplish this mapped transport of signal from magnets to amp, different pathways with which to melt the solder aside from the "standard" (whatever that is) configuration. AND this time I'm installing the STELLARTONE circuit, so while it ought to be a simple operation, the bright idea I had (now abandoned) about installing a custom vol/tone pot (in effect, collapsing and merging two different schematics) threw in a monkey wrench, and if that's not enough, we are talking here about my doomed, unlucky, kinda corny 1974 strat, which I had hoped to finally redeem with a sexy new finish, new pickups and a collosal tonewood neck for optimum stratocasticity...but first, of course, I have to get all the pickups connected and earthed properly. [naturally, I am probably two solder joints away from achieving circuit integrity, instantly transforming my abyss-wallow into a triumphant, celebratory photo/audio/essay, crafted in the happy/exhausted denoument of a spontaneous two-hour loud amp session--as was the case last week when I finished thudstaff's tremendously toneful '52 tele clone...]

...in case you were wondering how I spend my vacation days...

pictures, perhaps inside a large rectangular gift item which just arrived from musicians friend (gosh I wonder what it could be?) along with copious references to every single "blue" metaphor or cliche I can think of (and maybe a sound file or two), presently...

...

REMEMBER

...Lt. Kenneth Taylor, who passed away yesterday...

...remembering Lt. Taylor, and all the heroes of Pearl Harbor & WWII...

...

AEROSMITH RULES

...just something I had scribbled on one of my high school notebooks...I'm home sick with a cold today home cold with a sick today, but truth be told, I'm just heartsick...I mean, if Kid Rock & Pamela Anderson, or Britney & Kevin, can't make a go of it, then what hope is there for the rest of us? and beyond that, even in a world where love is dead, can't we even go to a taco bell in new jersey anymore and walk away unpoisoned? I mean, what's next? wholesome, organic, honest-to-goodness taco bell. don't give up hope, taco bell. we need you. the youngsters, those little kid rocks and pam andersons need you so they can sit in the back of the dining room and make out. britney needs you so that her ex-husbands all have a suitable place of employment after she divorces them. and aerosmith needs you to sponsor their next tour. just imagine, steven tyler's lips getting googly-moogly on a chimichanga--marketing magic! please keep keeping on, but while you're at it, please stop poisoning my neighbors...

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THE TURNING POINT

...John Coltrane, Musician...

"For the first time, most Parisians were witnessing the raw, boundless intensity that would guide the rest of Coltrane's career; what had been a tentative, experimental breeze when he first upped with Miles was becoming a full-force gale. ...

"Following Mile's habitual set-closer, 'The Theme,' [French club impresario Frank] Tenet rushed backstage:

" 'So, after the show, I said to John, 'You're too new for the people, they don't hear much of what they liked in the past. You go too far.' And he always had a little smile on his face. He said, 'I don't go far enough.' "

Ashley Kahn, A Love Supreme, Penguin, 2002, pp. 3-5.

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