Month: June 2021

Fear the Walking Bad Writing

SPOILERS AHEAD, though probably not actual plot spoilers, just scene spoilers. I’m not really sure there is a plot.

I’ve been watching Fear the Walking Dead even though it’s inexcusably awful. Over the last few weeks I haven’t been nearly as offended by the terrible quality because I’ve barely been paying attention. It’s better that way. I just popped on last night’s season finale and I just can’t ignore it anymore.

Example 1: Truck driver speeding down the highway slams on the breaks and comes to a screeching stop. When asked why, he says because the breaks just went out. Really. He slammed on the breaks to stop the truck because the truck had no breaks. Really. Honestly.

Example 2: This isn’t so much a bad writing thing as a they never learn from their mistakes and we all saw this coming thing. Season four, a pre-teen girl murders one of the main characters. The response to the crime is that there is no response. No consequences. The other characters just forgive her and move on. Including the victim’s last remaining family member. (This is definitely a spoiler right here) Season six a pre-teen girl murders one of the main characters. The response is that there is no response. No consequences. The other characters just forgive her and move on. Including the victim’s wife and father. Urgh. Now there’s still a chance that that could change (I’m only half way through the episode) but come on, assholes.

Example 3: So woman I thought we’d never seen before is in the middle of the road with a baby in a back pack on her back. She’s hurt bad and is about to die. She has a dog that randomly happens to be there and she ties herself to the dog, gags herself, and then stabs herself. The dog turns out to be Morgan’s dog even though we haven’t seen it in 100 years. It walks to where Morgan is, even though the dog has never been there before and Morgan had never been there before prior to last week’s episode. The zombified woman follows the dog because she’s tied to it. The baby is still on her back and crying like crazy. The dog manages to find Morgan even though for all we know he’s on the opposite end of Texas (Texas is big, in case you didn’t know) without the baby starving to death, suffocating in the backpack, or the zombie reaching over its own shoulder to grab it. Also, when the woman died there was a missile in the air that had just dropped the first of a handful of nuclear warheads. The woman zombifies and the dog makes it to Morgan, all in less time than it took that first warhead to explode. I mean, there is such a thing as suspension of disbelief and all but this is just friggin’ ridiculous.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Morgan knew the zombie woman? There have been 10000 characters in the last two years. Most appear once and then magically come back at the end and we’re supposed to know who they are?

The whole damn show is written like it’s some half assed Rube Goldberg machine.

Season six is finally over. It was better than season five but only because season five was the worst piece of shit ever filmed. This was better, but not by much. Please cancel this idiocy and put us out of our misery.

Les Paul Tips

I can’t sleep so I’ve been putzing around YouTube looking for cool ideas for things to do with your Les Paul.

First things first, this dude is playing a copy and that offends me. He has an SG and another Les Paul on the wall behind him. Are those cheap copies too?

Anyway, he lists five things and literally every video I’ve looked at tonight lists exactly the same things. The first two are things that I figured out on my own back in 1987 when my Peavy amp’s foot switch got smashed in my car. I thought they were common knowledge. No one taught me, I just figured it out after about 0.68 seconds worth of research.

The third and fifth tricks are things I use occasionally. I learned about “woman tone” (terrible name, Eric) from a Clapton biography back in ‘86 or ‘87. The kill switch thing… I forget where I learned that… it might have been that same Clapton biography or maybe a guitar magazine column. I’m thinking maybe Rik Emmett’s column? I learned a few things from him, but most of it was way above my skill level.

The forth tip is the one that’s interesting to me. I first learned of that from a That Pedal Show episode last year and I’ve been playing with it lately, but it’s not making that much of a difference. I’m guessing it will be a bigger effect at higher volumes. I want to try it at a Lizardfish practice, assuming there someday is another Lizardfish practice.

Okay, I might try to sleep now. Class dismissed,

Changes Coming?

It’s starting to look like my father might be heading back to a rehabilitation hospital soon. It’s all up in the air, but it’s trending that way.

I feel completely overwhelmed, and I’ve been there a tiny fraction of the time my siblings have been there. I can’t imagine how they’ve held on. I feel like the phrase that describes how I feel might be shell shocked but that’s probably not right.

I never would have thought going back to the hospital would feel like a positive step, but it does. That is just heart breaking.

June Tune

I played guitar a little last night. Nothing specific, just noodling. Today I forced myself to work on a new song idea. Well, sort of new. I played a little lick into Music Memos last month that I never used. I worked it into the first and so far only June song so far. Two minutes of bad pop rock.

It’s not much, but it’s something.

SundaySundaySunday

We’re going to see Bellana for a bit today. It’s like Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, back in December when Covid-19 ruined the traditional extended family Christmas we talked about having a Christmas party in July. Literally Christmas in July. I don’t know if that’s going to happen as we planned it, but I’m still game if everyone else is.

HoHoHo in the sunshine and all that? It could work. We can look back on it as a test drive if we ever find ourselves spending Christmas in Australia.

It could happen, right?

Harry’s not getting the standard graduation party, but we are going to take him back to Disney at some point. We have a date in mind which means we also have a date when we can actually buy tickets for the dates we want to go. There is an entry on our family calendar right now that marks the date when we can first book the dates we want to go… I want to find a way to celebrate that date as a sort of screw you to Covid-19. The ‘Rona messed up Harry’s last two school years and we need to go as overboard as humanly possible on the corrective overreacting. If that means celebrating the day we buy tickets then let’s do it!

I’m trying to write this while watching an episode of Community and my concentration is all over the place. Can you tell or does this post read like it was written by someone with Changnesia?

Weight Loss Surgery

A few years ago I had my doctor refer me to a bariatric surgery information session. I went, and then booked the first consult. Not long after I canceled the consult. I just chickened out.

I think I’m going to start the process over again. I think it’s time to take a serious look. At my age, the time for screwing around with my health is long over.

I’m scared shitless, of course, but I’m going to do it.

Wish me luck.

Les Paul Lessons

This week’s That Pedal Show is all about Fender Strats. I tried to love my Strat but I just couldn’t connect with it. It’s a killer guitar and I got some great sounds out of it. It just doesn’t feel like home though. I watched the episode but it took a few sittings to get through it. As soon as it was done I went back to the Les Paul vs ES-335 episode from last December because I needed to feel at home again.

I took out my new Les Paul and noodled along. I am pretty sure I am going to have to start talking to a therapist soon. Until then, playing guitar will have to do.

Les Paul Standard 50’s into a Ryra The Klone into a Vox AC15. In case you were curious. Recorded with the iPhone mic, which means you likely won’t be curious.