Today would have been Jimi Hendrix’ 75th birthday.  Happy birthday, Jimi.  Wherever, or whatever you are.

 

A couple of notes about the video.  First, I have no idea what the beginning was.  Weird.  Second, Hendrix playing a Gibson guitar.  Thanks, Jim!  Third, Mitch Mitchel needed a shave.  WTF was up with that, Mitch?  Fourth, did you catch how Jimi used his volume knob to clean up his overdrive?  Sometimes it’s cool knowing a little bit of technique.  Fifth, holy microphone pop screen, batman!  It looks like he’s singing into a beach ball!  I wonder if it was a windy day.  Sixth, this was filmed on July 30, 1970.  Jimi passed away on September 18, 1970.

Lights outside…

Tree inside…

But it’s still November. What’s going on here?

I feel like Charlie Brown with the football.  Lucy keeps teeing it up and I keep falling for the trick.  Yes keeps releasing live records, I keep listening to them, and I keep having my dreams crushed.  It’s so disappointing.

Topographic Drama: Live Across America was released yesterday.  I listened to less than a minute of “Machine Messiah” and had to stop.  I listened to less than half a minute of “Tempus Fugit” and had to stop listening altogether.  The last couple of times I went through this it was all about Steve Howe.  Arguably the most talented guitarist ever.  I mean… ever… and he’s just a shell of his former self.  There are times when you can almost hear what he used to be capable of, but for the most part it’s like a great painter trying to replicate his/her greatest work using only the color grey.  It’s sad.

It’s not just Steve Howe this time though, it’s the whole band.  Both as individuals and as a group.  The singer (it’s still John Davidson, right?) sounds weak.  Chris Squire is dead and I don’t care who replaces him, he’s never going to be good enough.  Billy Sherwood is probably fine, but he will never, ever be good enough.  I also got the feeling that maybe he’s using some sort of modeling software to make his bass sound more like Squire’s.  I have no proof of that, but I know Howe uses Line 6 gear so maybe it’s something similar.  Alan White, like Steve Howe, is a shadow of his former self.  Geoff Downes has, even at his best, never lived up to it for me, but now he just sounds cheesy.

None of that explains exactly why I stopped listening though.  No, that would be the rhythm.  Specifically, everyone on the record sounds slightly out of time.  You could drive a truck through their gaps between the beats.  It sounds like they can’t hear each other.  Or maybe none of them realize that Alan White is the drummer and therefore the band equivalent of a conductor.  It’s just painful.  I had to turn it off or I was going to start to cry.  Just awful.

If they want to keep making studio records, that’s fine.  In a controlled environment I’m sure they can still put together decent sounding work.  Live though?  Please, don’t hurt us like this again.  Make it stop, please.  Pretty please.  And if anyone ever wants me to go see this band with them… don’t ask.

It’s much earlier in the season than I’m usually willing to partake, but my step son and I were given a project today. We might add more later.

I’m driving the cat crazy with all the pics.

It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I’m getting sick. Crap.

I had gone about two weeks without shaving.  I can usually go 5-7 days without it bothering me, but anymore than that and the itch gets too much to bear and I just feel shaggy and awful.  Every day this week when I first woke up the first thought I had was, gonna shave today, but I never did it.

Today was different.  I woke up at about 3:30am.  That isn’t all that unusual now.  I went to sleep around 10:30 so I got five hours of sleep.  That’s unusual.  Most days I wake up after about three.  Some days I can get back to sleep.  Other days, I can’t.  Today I was awake for maybe two hours.  I know I saw 5:20, but I don’t think I saw 5:30.  My alarm was set to go off at 6:00 but my wife woke me up a couple of minutes earlier than that.

During that 30 minutes or so of bonus sleep I had a dream.  A glorious dream.  In this dream, I shaved.  That’s all.  Nothing more.  I dreamed that I was in our bathroom shaving, and when I was done the dream ended.

When I woke up my first thought was not, gonna shave today.  My first thought was, I don’t need to shave today.  Then I scratched my itchy face.  Oh the heartbreak.  Oh the sadness.  Oh the let down.  I was still shaggy and itchy.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it was so disappointing.  The first thing I did today was help my wife with an errand.  The second thing was… well… TMI and all… let’s just say I’m regular and leave it at that.  The third thing though, the third thing I did this morning was shave that shag carpet off my face.

It didn’t eliminate all of the disappointment, but I did feel better.  Off to tackle the day.  Wednesday.  The Day Before Thanksgiving.  The work day that usually feels like the longest work day of the year.  The busiest travel day of the year.  I look out my window and I can see route 128 South is a parking lot.  128 North is slow but okay.  Looks like all of Eastern Massachusetts is going South for Thanksgiving.  Not me.  I’m going North.  Well, I’m going home but that is North of work.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we have the kids for the whole weekend.  Perfect.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Found this in the cellar tonight.