March 31, 2009

STOCK IMAGES COME TO LIFE

there's one of me in there.....did ya catch it?

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Posted by stratcat at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2009

March 24, 2009

BLACK IS THE COLOR

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really happy with how this one turned out. the lower-profile speed knobs really turned it into a highly ergonomic player...


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Posted by stratcat at 06:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2009

SON OF THE DAUGHTER OF A CORKMAN

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"Thousands Are Sailing"

The island it is silent now
But the ghosts still haunt the waves
And the torch lights up a famished man
Who fortune could not save

Did you work upon the railroad
Did you rid the streets of crime
Were your dollars from the white house
Were they from the five and dime

Did the old songs taunt or cheer you
And did they still make you cry
Did you count the months and years
Or did your teardrops quickly dry

Ah, no, says he, twas not to be
On a coffin ship I came here
And I never even got so far
That they could change my name

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
To a land of opportunity
That some of them will never see
Fortune prevailing
Across the western ocean
Their bellies full
Their spirits free
Theyll break the chains of poverty
And theyll dance

In manhattans desert twilight
In the death of afternoon
We stepped hand in hand on broadway
Like the first man on the moon

And the blackbird broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in brendan behans footsteps
I danced up and down the street

Then we said goodnight to broadway
Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to mister cohen
Dear old times squares favorite bard

Then we raised a glass to jfk
And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room
I suppose I must have cried

Thousands are sailing
Again across the ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Postcards were mailing
Of sky-blue skies and oceans
From rooms the daylight never sees
Where lights dont glow on christmas trees
But we dance to the music
And we dance

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where eer we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
And we dance

-Shane MacGowan

Go raibh maith agat mar gheall ar gach aon ni rinneas dom...
(Thank you for all you've done)

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Posted by stratcat at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2009

AN OLD FRIEND GETS A FACELIFT

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this black strat body and me have played a lot of gigs together....almost as many as I have with my les paul...but now it's loaded with two harmonic design Z-90 pickups (humbucker-sized P90s) which may well be my favorite guitar pickup ever. there's also a middle strat pickup to get in-between notched "out of phase" strat tones. neck is flame maple with gen-u-ine brazilian rosewood slab. callaham bridge/tremolo rounds out the project, which was mounted using a 1/8" deep plank of maple painted and glued on the body to shim the bridge to correct height (this particular axe used to have a floyd rose so I had to take a few extra steps to rid the instrument of this totally unnecessary and tone-sucking hardware). the pickguard, if you have a good eye you will notice is actually for telecaster, which I cut to accomodate the different pickups and bridge and so forth. gives it a somewhat unique look and I'm happy with the results. by my happiness has less to do with the looks...the tones are legion. it plays great.

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Posted by stratcat at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2009

TURD MINING

by now there is a 3-part series of clips showing last night's Cramer-Stewart interview on The Daily Show (just google it), but this precursor is even more hilarious. And a must-see if you want the full context of why Stewart, in last night's Cramer interview, referred to "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough as "Doucheborough"....

Heh. Cramer and Doucheborough (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) had better watch out--the last time Stewart took issue with a program on a major news network it was "Crossfire" on CNN. Crossfire was cancelled not long after...

Happy Friday!

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and if you're as emotionally worn down and exhausted from this crazy week as I am, then please enjoy this "great moment in tv history"...wherein Ricky Gervais meets Elmo...Happy Friday indeed...

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Posted by stratcat at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2009

EAVESDROPPING ON A FASCINATING CONVERSATION

stay with it.


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Posted by stratcat at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2009

THIS. KICKS. ASS.

...nothing beats a great pair of....well actually three pairs of....modernism? flapper dresses? wha? you figure it out...

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Posted by stratcat at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2009

JIM CRAMER RESPONDS WITH PUPPIES AND KITTENS

have a nice weekend.


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Posted by stratcat at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2009

"IF ONLY I'D LISTENED TO CNBC'S ADVICE I'D HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS TODAY...PROVIDED I'D STARTED WITH A HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS..."

too funny:

perhaps the most satisfying "fuck you" I've seen in a while...and how refreshing to see the fantasy world of Jim Cramer and Bartiromo's executive fellatrix approach given their come-uppance....

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Posted by stratcat at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2009

A LITTLE REBELLION

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With recent headlines involving the great struggle to save our economy as well as the great struggle amongst the country's right-wingers and kool-aid drinkers, perhaps a reminder from our greatest founding father is in order. Because yes, we should celebrate the fat man's right to wish failure upon the general approach, if he sees so fit to do so, but let's also be reminded of just how hollow his words truly are. He is sitting, literally, on a multimillion dollar media empire. Do you think he'd consider, for a millisecond, the option of taking arms against such a lucrative nemesis to advance his cause? Not on your life, nor his...

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, & as necessary in the political world as storm in the physical. "

To James Madison, Paris, January 30,1787

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now & then. It is like a storm in the Atmosphere"

To Abigail Adams, Paris, February 22, 1787

"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people can not be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13 states independent for 11 years. There has been one rebellion [Shays's Rebellion]. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & a half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve its liberties, if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure."

To William Stephens Smith, Paris, November 13, 1787

"For my own part I consider the [Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798] as merely an experiment on the American mind to see how far it will bear an avowed violation of the constitution."

To Stevens Thomson Mason, Monticello, October 11, 1798

"I discharged every person under punishment or prosecution under the Sedition law, because I considered & now consider that law to be a nullity as absolute and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image; and that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship their image."

To Abigail Adams, Washington, July 22,1804

John P. Kaminski, The Quotable Jefferson, Princeton, Copyright 2006 by the Princeton University Press, pp. 390-391, 134.


...hat tip to Delancey Press.....

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Posted by stratcat at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)