Two Random Things

Here we have a post sharing two random things on this quiet Sunday evening that have nothing to do with anything anyone other than I would ever care about.

First, I watched an episode of The Trogly’s Guitar Show on YouTube today and accidentally learned something about my first Gibson guitar. It was a Les Paul Deluxe but I never learned what year it was made. Deluxes date from the late 60’s to the mid 80’s (I think). I bought mine in 1987 and always assumed it was from the late 70’s, but I had not learned how to get the manufacture date for a Gibson guitar until after my Deluxe was stolen in 1990.

Thanks to Trogly’s I can narrow the date down a little. The guitar had a Gibson chainsaw case. From a description on the episode I watched it was a version two chainsaw case. Trogly told us that Gibson introduced the version two chainsaw case in 1978. Therefore my guitar (assuming the case I had was the original case) could not have been built prior to 1978. That knocks about 10 years off of the possible dates. Thanks, Trogly!

The second item of note: The anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coming this week. That means Jen and I are in now entering our annual 9/11 remembrance period where we binge a shit load of documentaries. We’re watching the first of the season right now. Things have already been super heavy around here due to my father’s passing. Now it’s going to get heavier still.

I just felt the need to share all of that with the wider universe. You’re welcome.

New Lens Day

For the first time ever, I have purchased a third party lens for one of my cameras. It is a Meike 85mm F/1.8. I’ve never had an aperture wider than F/2.0 before so get ready for lots of blurry background fun. The reviews I have read said the autofocus is a bit of a gamble, and in the few minutes I’ve been playing with it I believe it. The same reviews suggest that keeping the aperture wide open might not be the best move, but it’s going to take some time before I get over the 1.8 giddiness so we’ll have to see about that.

Here are a few pointless shots where I just prove to myself that the lens actually works. It does.

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My first third party lens.
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Note, everything in my living room has a yellowish tinge because all of the lights in my living room have a yellowish tinge. Just in case you were wondering. When we move to the dining room the colors look less yellow.

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That last one is at F1.8 and the plant is in front of a window which is why the background is totally obliterated. That’s not a lens issue, that’s a composition issue. Also a photographer sucks at photography issue. Clearly.

So a new lens to play with! WOOHOO! Does this mean we try for a sunrise at the ocean trip tomorrow? Maybe.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 66/90

I made a little progress yesterday (on day 66). I had one song idea that was just a couple of simple bass riffs. I worked that into a full song form. After that I added two more songs. All three have (fake) bass and (fake) drums finished and are ready for rhythm guitars.

Shaun

We watched Shaun of the Dead with Bellana today.

It is still as perfect a movie as it always was.

I just felt the need to share that with the universe.

Now Jen and Bellana are playing another round of Dominion while we listen to the entire Beatles catalog on shuffle.

How’s your Saturday going? Yup, mine is better.

Movies vs Books

Why am I in such a Tolkien phase right now? It’s probably due to the second season of Rings of Power, but I read The Silmarillion and I am rereading Lord of the Rings and I am watching Rings of Power and I am (finally) watching the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. I’m about 15 minutes away from finishing the second movie. It is requiring more suspending of disbelief than I am really willing to give. I’m in a weirdly completist mode now and have to get through all three movies (even though it is laughable that Jackson took a 400 page book and adapted it into a nine hour movie).

What’s the point of this post though? The point of this post is a spoiler free comment on Rings of Power season two episode four. I saw the first two Lord of the Rings movies before I read the books. When I was done with everything I was able to look back and consider if the books were better or worse than the movies. I think they are pretty even. There are a couple of things about the movies that I prefer to the books though. First, there is a whole lot less singing in the movies. In Fellowship, especially, people are singing all over the place and it just gets tedious.

The other thing that I like better about the movies eventually became my absolute favorite thing about the movies. Literally the thing I like best. Simply, they left Tom Bombadil out. I mean… The Hobbit was a kids book. Lord of the Rings was not. Somehow it seems that Tolkien must have tried to make Fellowship a little more kid-friendly by throwing this insufferably boring, painful character named Tom Bombadil into the story. In my current re-read of the books I am in the middle of the Tom Bombadil arc right now and I cannot get out of it fast enough. It’s just awful. Jackson left him out of the movies and it makes me love the movies that much more.

I just finished this week’s new episode of Rings of Power. Season two, episode four. Without giving out any spoilers, mostly because the news has been out since we saw a trailer months ago, Tom Bombadil is in the episode.

Why? Why, Amazon Prime Video? Why are you torturing me like this? I will say that he’s nowhere near as awful in the episode as he was in the books, but all the same… why would you do this to me?