November 29, 2007
November 28, 2007
TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT
A "decalogue of canons for observation in practical life," sent by Thomas Jefferson to the new father of a baby boy:
1. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do to-day.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have it.
4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
It's not clear what a smooth handle is. Possibly it refers to a saying by Epictetus: "Everything has two handles, one by which it can be borne, another by which it cannot." Or possibly Jefferson was referring to the need for civil discourse.
[hat tip to thudstaff for sending this to me yesterday]
...and to thine own self be true....
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November 27, 2007
BABY WATCH VI
OK. Let's cut the crap: it's baby time. if mother nature doesn't decide to intervene today, we're going back to labor & delivery tomorrow night, wednesday at 6pm. little man should be here by late wednesday/early thursday...by any means necessary...
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and speaking of birthdays, a very happy 65th birthday to the great one: Jimi Hendrix...I sure do wish he were still here to celebrate it...
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November 25, 2007
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
...do I keep this neck or go back to the rosewood?...
...a little photoshop tweak to bring out the grain...it's there...
...it's a clean machine...
...the headstock reveals my "relic by impatience" method--with lacquer on maple, I don't get particularly precious about the cosmetic result...I'm primarily concerned with getting surface coverage with as few coats as possible...unlike the "relic" nuts who try to make the guitar appear 50 years old, I just like the visual remnants of hand-polishing and irregular splotches of tinted lacquer...like old furniture...
...the contour of the neck is modeled after a late '50s gibson--any apparent sacrilege is expanded by the inclusion of another 50s gibson component--a neck position p-90--the idea is that this guitar should be able to go beyond telecaster cliches and cover styles informed by trad gibson strummers--from rockabilly to texas swing to charlie christian lines, with two-pickup settings in both parallel and series, with the classic tele spank in the bridge position...a tone beast that glorifies the subtleties....
...harmonic design '54 special (bridge) and vp-90 (neck) is a glorious combination...
...after a few hours, the strings stretched and I was able to make a few additional tweaks (remember that I just finished filing the nut last night)...I'll admit that I was initially thrown by the neck contour--even at 1 5/8, which is slightly narrower than the usual 1 11/16 width, the '59 roundback contour is pretty fat--not everything I'm used to doing with my thumb wrapped 'round is quite as easy, but after a little time, the feel is clicking with me--in fact I just recorded two takes of a tune I've been working on (to be posted), and that weighed the most in my decision on which neck to use--the tones are spectacular. the maple fretboard has a quicker attack, and if anything bothered me about the rosewood slab, it was the slightly "thunky" sound of the single note attack...flabby, sproingy, saggy, it was nice for quieter stuff on the neck pickup but not quite right on the twangy stuff, which is rather the prime mover for playing a telecaster in the first place.
it's done.
the slow holiday season coming up ought to be a good time for designing headstock logos...
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HI-RES IMAGES:
RIGHT-CLICK/OPEN IN NEW [WINDOW/TAB] ...
RIGHT-CLICK/OPEN IN NEW [WINDOW/TAB] ...
RIGHT-CLICK/OPEN IN NEW [WINDOW/TAB] ...
RIGHT-CLICK/OPEN IN NEW [WINDOW/TAB] ...
CLICK HERE FOR THE WHOLE ENCHILADA...
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November 21, 2007
HEAVY THANKS
...twang-ri-la...
a few tweaks--I ramped up the strings to a heavier set, 049-011--I'd even go as thick as 052-012, but the difference in overall sound and feel between this and the standard light (010) set is quite startling. it's like a whole different instrument. and since it's 100% single coils, every little thing makes a big difference--the string gauge, the mass and resonance of the body, the distance between strings and pickups, plectrum vs fingers....it's one of the things I love about telecasters, that they are capable of endless tweaking, and can be intonated and tuned up with some degree of precision...provided of course the correct hardware: the callaham bridge w/compensated saddles makes a big diff...
and as is usually the case with getting to know a new guitar, it becomes a matchmaking enterprise of matching it up with the ideal amplifier. I haven't even plugged it into a tube amp yet (I will soon)...but the first interesting observation is that the p-90 sounds friggin gorgeous into the AER Alpha ... thus providing evidence--if not proof--that you CAN play some jazz with a telecaster, especially if certain details in the design are altered to accentuate the middle register and a high-end control plate assembly so that the high end can be rolled off subtly to warm up the attack. it sounds, to my ears, bloody awesome--and I never had to drop $3k+ on some precious archtop, which only does one thing...this guitar also can cover country, rock n roll, rockabilly, is perfect for most any piece from my solo acoustic setlist, and weighs less than 10 pounds...
[p.s. friday night's duet improvs with thuddy's upright bass was a velvety confluence of ringing overtones and babystep impromptu...gorgeous tones and a welcome return to musicplaying with other human life...give thanks]
MAY ALL YOUR THINKS BE THANKS.
--W.H. AUDEN
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November 20, 2007
BABY WATCH V
my already poor opinion of doctors and medical people has been damaged further by our recent experience with the bungled inducement of last friday. we're going back for an exam today at 1pm.
I say "we" this time because I'm going to be there. and we're going to have a little talk, the doctor and I.
today is the due date. I am advising punctuality.
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November 18, 2007
I LIKE IT
IF YOU RIGHT-CLICK ON THIS LINE OF TEXT & OPEN IN NEW TAB/WINDOW, YOU WILL SEE A BIG SEXY BLONDE...
the blonde finish looks nice with the rosewood slab neck, which is on loan from the fiesta red tele--I could see leaving this the way it is, and putting the maple neck on the red one...or switching the bridge pickups....so far I love the sound of the pickups, though the usual challenge of tele tweaking is there in spades--the HD '54 special is not ice pick but it is bright, and it will be a case of balancing out the angles and distances to find the sweet spot...the neck soapbar (HD vp-90) sounds gorgeous after I raised it up a bit...the callaham control plate circuitry is full bandwidth--plenty of "wow" in the tone pot, and the volume pot is acurrate and quiet...quality merch--gotta dig that knurl!!!..it will sound even bigger with the heavier gauge strings I typically use...
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November 17, 2007
BABY WATCH IV
so far, we're 0-2 with visits to the labor & delivery ward...we do NOT wish to set the record for most visits to the delivery room without giving birth--in a single pregnancy...failed inducement last night was due to an unfortunate mistake on the part of the medical people...too early...very very disappointing...thanks for your continued support...
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November 16, 2007
ONE FOOT HIGH AND RISING
....CLICK....HERE....FOR...BIG....SHOT...
...shiny...
blonde lacquer
one-piece swamp ash
callaham bridge & control plate assembly
harmonic design vp-90 and '54 special
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when I saw this picture, my idea for the new build's pickup configuration felt completely validated...if it's good enough for johnny winter...
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November 15, 2007
TAKE MORE RISKS
...if you ask me, one of the main things wrong in the world today is that there is little room left for creativity, improvisation, spontaneous action...we are designed for this very function, and when allowed to happen, the results produced by our imagination inevitably surprise and delight us...yet we continue to hide behind axioms like "too busy" "I'm crazed today" "gotta run" and nod in mutual acceptance of the fact that one and all seem to have lost the ability to say "no" to just about anything...leave some room for the mysteries of your grey matter to do its thing people...you'll be less "crazed" and, probably, happier...here's one of the great examples of what can be accomplished thus...
"In 1959, Miles Davis recorded his sixth album for Columbia Records, a small group session that would eventually be titled Kind of Blue. More than forty years after its release, it is still one of the most-sought-after recordings in the country; in fact, as late as 1998 it was the best-selling jazz album of the year. In both Rolling Stone and Amazon.com end-of- the-century polls, it was voted one of the ten best albums of all time--in any genre--and it is the only jazz album ever to reach double-platinum status. Yet its popularity is not the only extraordinary thing about Kind of Blue. In addition to being an uncontestable masterpiece, it is also a watershed in the history of jazz, a signpost pointing to the tumultuous changes that would dominate this music and society itself in the decade ahead.
"March 2, 1959 ... was the first of two dates on which Kind of Blue was recorded. Miles had worked on the tunes right up until the morning of the session. He had been thinking about this album for a while and had specific goals in mind. On was to steer a new course for jazz, away from Western musical theory [to ward the idea of using modes, or scales, instead of chord progressions]; another goal, even more important, was to record an album on which musicians were forced to play their solos with complete spontaneity. ... Musicians have often brought new compositions to a recording studio, but the Kind of Blue sessions went far beyond that. Not only had the the musicians (with the exception of [pianist Bill] Evans) not seen the tunes in advance, they had never before played music with the very structure of these tunes. ...
"Miles' commitment to spontaneity was in itself a key innovation of Kind of Blue. ... This is how Miles put it: 'If you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that--but he's got to think differently in order to do it. He has to use his imagination, be more creative, more innovative; he's got to take more risks.' "
Eric Nisenson, The Making of Kind of Blue, St. Martin's Griffin, 2000, pp. ix, 134-136.
...hat tip to delanceyplace.com...
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November 12, 2007
November 11, 2007
November 08, 2007
BABY WATCH II
SEE ABOVE FOR ROUGH SKETCH OF LIKELY FEATURES, BASED ON A COMPOSITE OF SIGNIFYING FEATURES OF MOTHER AND FATHER...NOTE THE LARGE HANDS AND FEET, WHICH FOREBODE A LARGE-BODIED MANCHILD...THE LEMON-SHAPED CRANIUM, FORETELLING A TANGY YET COLORFUL DISPOSITION...THE LEONINE COUNTENANCE...THE OLD SOUL GAZING ACROSS THE BALEFUL DISTANCES, STILL ABLE TO MUSTER A SMILE DESPITE THE FUTILITY OF FEELING TRULY COMFORTABLE, EVEN WITH THE NEW IMPROVED WETNESS PROTECTION ...THE QUESTION MARK SQUIGGLE A TRIBAL MARKING SIGNIFYING CUTENESS AMONGST THE POOPIE-DIAPER CARPET-CRAWLERS OF THE SUBURBAN HORDES...
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR EXTENDING WELL WISHES AND SUPPORT...WE ARE VERY LUCKY TO HAVE SUCH A LOVING AND SUPPORTIVE ROSTER OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS...
BACK ON HIATUS...BED REST CONTINUES...TEMPERATURES ARE DROPPING...
NEW MOON. IT IS TIME.
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SEE HERE HOW THE FRAUD RUNS TO THE FASCIST
...nothing more than a liar embracing a traitor...
Pat Robertson on 9/11:
"We have imagined ourselves invulnerable and have been consumed by the pursuit of ... health, wealth, material pleasures and sexuality... It [terrorism] is happening because God Almighty is lifting his protection from us."--September 13, 2001 (from the written statement)
"We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye and said we're going to legislate you out of the schools. We're going to take your commandments from off the courthouse steps in various states. We're not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We're not going to let the Bible be read, no prayer in our schools. We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. And then we say, "Why does this happen?"
Well, why it's happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us."--September 13, 2001 (quoted on the 700 Club)
Pat Robertson has argued that the Supreme Court be ignored and its judgments considered moot, if the legal judgments do not suit his particular agenda. He has, by so doing, claimed that the government described in the Constitution is not the government we have, with three equal co-branches. He says, in the forked tongue of any competent religious preacher, that the Constitution is what counts, not the dictatorship of the Supreme Court, as if the two are separate--one might expect more from a man who has spent his life expounding upon the "mystery" of the holy trinity--you'd think a tripartite structure wouldn't seem so alien to him. But then again, I'm sure he understands this all too well, and more to the point, understands that his followers do not read, do not inform themselves on current issues, do not seek objective data or a variety of interpretations. He is a leader of a flock of poorly educated, malnourished sheep, and it is their number that he seeks to bestow upon the great prevaricator, Rudy Giuliani.
In Rudy, I do wonder at the conscience of a man who would refuse a $10 million sympathy offering from Saudi Arabia--which I agreed with--who would argue with Ron Paul for making the obvious point that our interventionist foreign policy has the potential for furthering terrorist threats and moreover that 9/11 didn't come from a vacuum of precedent activities in the region (thereby neatly putting the lie to the absurd dictum "they hate us for our freedom")--but who would accept the endorsement of one who would blame the tragedy of 9/11 on policies regarding abortion and equal rights for homosexuals.
There are so many Giuliani quotations to choose from, but for today, I like the simplicity of this one:
" “I think they want real candidates who really tell people what they think, and are actually willing to lose rather than distort their position...” "
Yes. Quite correct. We do want real candidates. And now we know that Rudy Giuliani is not one. Or perhaps he is being real, and all those ugly statements made about 9/11 are OK with him.
I wish Pat Robertson could come visit my town. Because we've come up with a simple solution: the homosexual couples are adopting those unwanted babies in droves. It's a remarkably simple, elegant, and beautiful solution. The babies are smothered in love and care, and the positive societal effects are overflowing. Win-win. And no one for miles around has a single need for the 700 Club. This happy cohabitation occurs outside of the realm of television hucksters or even that mythic baby Jesus...whom Rudy studied in college, thereby sparing him (apparently) a lifetime of chuchgoing...
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November 06, 2007
BABY WATCH
WE ARE GOING ON HIATUS...
The baby boy is due any minute now, and with mrs. stratcat on strict bedrest, I do not anticipate posting much of anything for the foreseeable future...no time!
next time: pictures!!!
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meanwhile, dig the new buffalo tom video....one of my favorite songs of 2007...
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November 05, 2007
UP THE QUEEN'S ASS
...Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot...
Hey Everybody! Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
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[BABY WATCH 2007....herself has been ordered to total bedrest...watch this space for further developments as they happen...]
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OLD BROTHER HUBBARD
...she got the goldmine, I got the shaft...
Chet Atkins considered him a better fingerpicker than himself...I never paid him much mind because of those silly Burt Reynolds movies he appeared in (as "Snowman")...and his songwriting tended toward comedy, so as a young northeastern boy who grew up during the 1970s with the aping and grinning of ray stevens and jim stafford (not to mention hee haw), I couldn't quite relate to the aw shucks lets just go fishing southern thing too well...
but spend any amount of time focused on the atkins/travis guitar style, and you're bound to bang headlong into the work of jerry reed. and he was not only a great player, but also a great writer (the king himself once covered "guitar man")--as a matter of fact, it's been said, and is probably true, that once he wrote and recorded something, he never returned to it, and in some cases forgot about it entirely. writing instrumentals was something that chet atkins, his producer and friend, encouraged him to do. right now I'm working on one of his called "blue finger" and not only is it musically hip and innovative, it also has a real logic and economy to it. meaning it sounds more difficult than it actually is.
much respect to mr. jerry reed. I'm a little late to the party, but I'll catch up...and perhaps this goes without saying, but hey: awesome muttonchops...
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November 01, 2007
'CUZ IT'S MY BUH-BUH-BIRTHDAY
...this is a "burger cake"....I do not want a "burger cake"...
by way of a consumer advisory public service, and since my typical birthday plans (a visit to sister and family in massachusetts) are cancelled this year due to incoming baby, I am posting here, for your convenience, a few items from my amazon "wish list." no links, no auto-buy format, you'll still need to do some digging, but if you're thinking of me and your thoughts involve how desperately I need more stuff (an undisputable fact), then this might be helpful to you:
What I Learned From Jackie Robinson
by Carl Erskine (Author)
La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
DVD ~ Marcello Mastroianni
The Who - The Kids Are Alright (Special Edition)
DVD ~ Roger Daltrey
Virtuoso (20 Bit Mastering)
~ Joe Pass
Meeting of the Spirits
DVD ~ John Mclaughlin
Legends of Jazz Guitar, Vol. 1
DVD ~ Wes Montgomery
Chet Atkins - Rare Performances 1955-75
DVD ~ Chet Atkins
Rare Performances: 1976-1995
DVD ~ Chet Atkins
Minor Threat - Live
DVD ~ Minor Threat
Malaguena
~ Roy Buchanan
In Concert at the Bottom Line: June 22, 1992
DVD ~ Chet Atkins
I, Claudius
DVD ~ Robert Graves (II)
The Professor and the Madman
by Simon Winchester (Author)
Complete 1956 Private Recordings
~ Tal Farlow
Tonight at Noon: A Love Story
by Sue Mingus (Author)
Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker
by James Gavin (Author)
Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years
by John Teagle (Author), John Sprung (Author)
50 Years of Fender: Half a Century of the Greatest Electric Guitars
by Tony Bacon (Author)
Gil Evans: Out of the Cool: His Life and Music
by Stephanie Stein Crease (Author)
Arlen Roth's Masters of the Telecaster
by Arlen Roth (Author), Aaron Stang (Editor)
The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History
- Jim Walsh; Hardcover
Rockabilly Guitar 1 & 2
- Jim Weider; DVD
Blues & Ragtime - Rev. Gary Davis
Audio CD
Rory Gallagher: Live at Rockpalast
- Rory Gallagher; DVD
Fireworks on TV
- Bill Janovitz and Crown Victoria; Audio CD
DVD-Exploring DADGAD Guitar-New Sounds, Textures and Repertoire - Laurence Juber; DVD
The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, the Crossing, Cities of the Plain (Everyman's Library) - Cormac Mccarthy; Hardcover
The Trio of Doom Live - Trio of Doom; Audio CD
The Unforgettable Season - G. H. Fleming; Paperback
Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History - Cait Murphy; Hardcover
Time Awareness: For All Musicians (Book & Audio CD)
- Peter Erskine; Paperback
One Long Tune: The Life And Music of Lenny Breau
- Ron Forbes-Roberts; Hardcover
Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) - Sonic Youth; Audio CD
Mel Bay Jazz Guitar Standards Chord Melody Solos (Book & CD)
- Various; Spiral-bound
A Man Without a Country - Kurt Vonnegut; Paperback
Master Class - Lenny Breau; DVD
Now He Sings Now He Sobs - Chick Corea; Audio CD
'Round Midnight - Kenny Burrell; Audio CD
Midnight Blue - Kenny Burrell; Audio CD
Venus - Peter O'Toole; DVD
The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
- Colin Woodard; Hardcover
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
- Sam Harris; Paperback
X - Live In Los Angeles - X; DVD
Bach: The Complete Orchestral Suites - Johann Sebastian Bach; Audio CD
The Sound of the Johnny Smith Guitar - Johnny Smith; Audio CD
DEWALT DW703 Heavy Duty 10-Inch Compound Miter saw - Dewalt
DEWALT DW723 Miter Saw Stand - Dewalt
Strong Is Your Hold - Galway Kinnell; Hardcover
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West - Hampton Sides; Hardcover
Why Orwell Matters - Christopher Hitchens; Paperback
Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection - Toshirô Mifune; DVD
DVD-Rory Block Teaches the Guitar of Robert Johnson - Rory Block; DVD
A History of the Crusades Vol. I: The First Crusade and the Foundations of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Steven Runciman; Paperback
Neurotica - Redd Kross; Audio CD
Jim Hall - Jim Hall; DVD
Prime Suspect 1 - Helen Mirren; DVD
Thomas Paine : Collected Writings : Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters (Library of America) - Thomas Paine; Hardcover
Modern Chord Progressions - Ted Greene; Paperback
Voice Leading for Guitar: Moving Through the Changes
- John Thomas; Paperback
Swingin' on a Seven String - Lenny Breau; Audio CD
The Trial of Henry Kissinger - Christopher Hitchens; Paperback
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury - Kevin Phillips; Hardcover
Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Volume 2 - Ted Greene; Paperback
Mel Bay Art of Picking - Jimmy Bruno; Paperback
The Complete Living Room Tapes - Lenny Breau; Audio CD
Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945 - Dizzy Gillespie; Audio CD
One O'clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils '
- Douglas Henry Daniels; Hardcover
A Wayward Angel: The Full-Story of the Hell's Angels by the Former Vice-President of the Oakland Chapter - George Wethern; Paperback
Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang - William Queen; Hardcover
Believe - Scott Amendola Band; Audio CD
Next Door Lived a Girl - Stefan Kiesbye; Paperback
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans - Eve Laplante; Hardcover
God's Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible---A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal - Brian Moynahan; Hardcover
Jeff Beck - Crazy Fingers - Annette Carson; Paperback
Full House - Wes Montgomery; Audio CD
Smokin' at the Half Note Volume 2 - Montgomery; Audio CD
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (New Line Platinum Series) - Michael Aronov; DVD
Complete Live in Paris 1965 - Wes Montgomery; Audio CD
...a modest collection of goodies...and not a speck of cereal!!!...
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