Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

Friday

It’s Friday. One week from today I am going to be writing about how I only have an eight hour work day standing between me and a full week’s vacation. I am already hyper focusing on it. Crazy.

I just watched the season two finale of Silo. It was very good. I sort of screwed things up though. The show is based on a series of books. A few weeks ago I got tired of waiting to see what was going to happen on the show so I started reading. I’m going to finish the third and final book probably this weekend. When the super confusing twist happened in today’s episode I knew what it was and I knew it was coming. I spoiled myself. I don’t care though because the books are good, the show is good, and the books and the show are just different enough that I can still feel engaged with both.

This week I also watched the season (series?) finale of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and I am down to the second season (series?) finale of The Alienist which I am enjoying a lot even though it’s creepy as hell. Fortunately season two of Severance came out today. I’ll watch that tonight before bed, I think. Silo is over, but I still have a Friday show to watch out for. That’s nice.

Last night I watched a video on the youtubes. Five Watt World’s Short History of the Les Paul Deluxe. My first “real” guitar was a Les Paul Deluxe. I didn’t learn how to figure out the date on a Les Paul until years later so I have no idea what year it was made. I think it was very late 70’s or very early 80’s. I bought it in 1988 at Russo’s Music in Lowell, MA. All of the knobs had cracked off of it and I never replaced them. I was a kid. I didn’t have the money or even the know how of how to get replacements that would fit. It also had a nasty gash in one of the frets, and I seem to remember that one of the inlays was coming unglued. I didn’t care. I loved that guitar. I adored that guitar.

On a Sunday night/Monday morning in November or December (pretty sure it was December) of 1990 it was stolen out of my car. That was pretty much the end of the world for me. I have never really recovered from the violation of it all. I bought my Les Paul Custom a short time later and that is still my number one guitar… but some days I really find myself missing that Deluxe. I would have loved to have taken it to a good shop and had all of the negatives fixed up. It would have been epic, mini-humbuckers and all.

Watching this video made me feel all the feels. Steve Hackett, Pete Townsend, and me. All of us, Les Paul Deluxe veterans.

Okay. Time to stop farting around and get ready for work. Happy Friday, everyone. The weekend awaits.

David Lynch

Frankly I am embarrassed to write this post.

With the possible exception of Dune, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any David Lynch work. Blue Velvet… Eraserhead… Twin Peaks… Nothing. I’m not even sure if I’ve seen Dune or not. I know I’ve seen bits and pieces, but did I ever actually sit down and watch the flick? I might have. I’m probably 66.67% sure that I have, but that’s not 100%, you know?

This is a guy who, purely by reputation, I should be very much familiar with. I mean… Eraserhead, right? How can I not have ever seen Eraserhead? Also, Twin Peaks? Eraserhead was before my time but Twin Peaks came out while I was in my first, first year of college and everyone on Earth was watching it. I mean… I was in music school for crying out loud, how did I not watch Twin Peaks?

Now David Lynch has passed away. It’s too late for me to do anything more than catch up in his memory. Somehow that seems very shitty of me.

As always when a celebrity dies, I have written a post about them that was really all about me. I am a selfish asshole that way.

Rest in Peace, David Lynch.

Nine Days

Vacation starts in nine days. Florida trip starts in 10 days. Getting close enough to fog my brain with vacationitis.

Not many people know this, but the Tomorrowland People Mover is THE BEST ride in all of Disney World. By far. Nothing even comes close (other than Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler’s Run). The People Mover RULES.

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Lunch Break

My lunch break is coming to an end. I was late to work today and had to take some personal time. I took my lunch break a little later than usual and who cares about any of this, right?

There is nothing going on today. There was this morning, but nothing is happening now. It’s turning into a quiet afternoon. I have to go to a store after work and then Jen (my beloved bride) and I are going to get some Japanese take out for dinner. Other than that? Nuttin’, honey.

I was thinking about tomorrow morning. I am working from home tomorrow so I have some time to do stuff before work (assuming I don’t oversleep). Should I take my new/old camera out and finally shoot a test roll or should I track some guitar parts for a song demo or two? I checked the weather. The forecast is calling for temps in the teens around sunrise tomorrow morning. I guess guitar tracking it is!

I have two songs ready for rhythm guitar parts. I just have to remember how to play them. Then I have to learn how to play them in a different key, because I changed my tuning for this round of recordings. I just tuned down a half step but that means I can’t just listen to the original demos and learn the parts. I have to tune back up or I have to change the key on the fly. We’ll see. I don’t think either song is particularly hard. I should be able to re-learn the parts easily enough.

Isn’t home recording fascinating? I can see by the bored, glazed over look in all of your eyes that you’re all just riveted. You’re welcome, really. Any time.

Theory of Relativity

We are all familiar with the Theory of Relativity, right? Albert Einstein’s big reveal and all? I have my own personal example that explains it for me. It will be meaningless for everyone else, but I am writing about it anyway. Enjoy my stupidity.

Every morning I go down cellar and jog (pronounced “yog” with a soft J) for 45 minutes or so. In reality every one of those 45 minutes last exactly the same amount of time, right? You’d think. To me though, the first 10 minutes or so last about an hour. Maybe a little more. The last 10 minutes or so last about four days. The 25 minutes in the middle last about 80-90 seconds.

Dig it? Now do you get what Albert was yakking about?

His layman’s example was (I’m pretty sure it was Einstein who described it this way, forgive me if I am wrong. Also this is not an exact quote because I am too lazy to Google right now) imagine one minute sitting with a pretty girl. Then imagine one minute with your hand on a lit stove. The minute is the same in both cases, but your perception is a smidge different. I like my jogging (yogging) example better. No one gets their hand mutilated in my example, though also no one on Earth besides me yogs. So… I don’t know.

Physics is fun.

Random Wednesday Evening Thoughts

Here are a few of the random things going through my pea brain on this Wednesday evening.

  • I haven’t shaved in nine days. If I don’t shave tomorrow you will hear me screaming from hundreds if not thousands of miles away as I tear the flesh from my face because I can’t stand the itch anymore.
  • What is it about that cats that makes them go from sitting calmly on the chair with each other one second to savagely trying to maul each other the next second? Is it me? Did I do something to cause the armageddon? The cat-mageddon if you will?
  • I really hope that Washington, DC gets hit with a massive, catastrophic blizzard on Monday (January 20th). Not the whole city, just the national mall. Really, just one end of the national mall. The end with the capital building. Like, a strategically placed blizzard. Yeah, that would be nice.
  • March 14th is going to be a big musical day for me. There’s a new album by Envy of None coming out that day. There’s only one member of Rush releasing music these days, Alex Lifeson, and Envy of None is his new band. Rush, of course, being one of two bands that, musically speaking, drastically turned my musical world upside down. The other band that, musically speaking, drastically turned my musical world upside down? Throwing Muses. Guess what? Throwing Muses is also releasing a new album on March 14th. Holy Shit Snacks!