What do I think? The Purple song is pretty good. It’s the first release with their new guitar player, Simon McBride. I had only ever heard him on an episode of That Pedal Show, but he’s good. Really good. He’s not Ritchie Blackmore. I should not judge him based on the fact that he’s not Ritchie Blackmore. I am a Tommy Bolin fan and when Bolin replaced Blackmore in 1975 most of the Purple fandom shat on him because he isn’t Ritchie Blackmore. I would like to think I would have given him a chance were I paying attention and not four years old so in that spirit I want to give Simon McBride a chance. I gave Steve Morse a chance too, but he’s Steve Freakin’ Morse and he was already an absolute legend when he joined the band back in the 90’s. I saw the Steve Morse Purple live a few times. The guy was shockingly good. This song is okay.
Ian Gillan sounds particularly good here. I’ll wait for the full album release before I decide what I think for reals. I am not sure when it comes out, but it will be called =1, which is a name I probably would have tried to talk them out of if I were their A&R guy, or their producer, or their friend, or their neighbor who they occasionally talk to when we both happen to be outside doing yard work or something.
As for the David Gilmour song… woah. My one fear with his new record is that it sounds like it’s sort of a family band kind of thing. His wife has been his lyricist since the 90’s, but this time around his kids are playing all over the record as well. That sort of thing usually rubs me the wrong way. Other than that one irrational hang up, this song makes me really want this new album. The song is a killer. If it’s any indication of what we’re going to get with the full album then… yeah, bring it on. I want it now. Now!
Rock stars from the 60’s and 70’s who are still getting the job done in the 2020’s. Gilmour is 78 years old. Ian Gillan is 78 years old. Ian Paice is 75. Roger Glover is 78. Don Airey is 75. Simon McBride is 45 so… yeah, he’s younger than me so he doesn’t count for this discussion. Old people rocking. Who would have thought? Keep up the good work, old people. You too, young mister McBride.
Two days in a row. It is silly how sneaking in 20-30 minutes of guitar playing before work in the morning can just brighten up the whole day. Silly and a little weird, maybe.
I mentioned last night that I started working on a new song for the re-recording project thing. I put rhythm guitars on it this morning after I did my daily exercise and had a quick breakfast. Done and done. I used direct outs from two of my amps again. That’s the norm now. Oh well. It sounded pretty good today. It sounded pretty good yesterday too, I think.
Here’s the obligatory guitar pic. Let’s use it for today’s photo a day project as well. Day 243 of 365. Actually… 366, but we won’t worry about that until the end of the line.
Like most American kids my youth was spent living for Christmas. You know, presents and shite. As I got older my opinions changed. Xmas changed from a joyous celebration to a months long stress-fest followed by one happy, wonderful day. It dropped way down on the list of favorite holidays.
Thanksgiving ceremoniously took over the top spot on that list. Meeting Jen and having a couple of kids in my life brought new life to Xmas, a new perspective and all, but I still saw Thanksgiving as my fav. Quality family time, good food, a happy celebration. All of those things make it my favorite.
Weight loss surgery has changed the perspective again. I can’t really partake in the Thanksgiving feast the way I used to. A tiny bit of turkey, a tiny bit of stuffing, a bite of mashed potatoes and I am stuffed like you’ve heard about. It doesn’t actually change anything, I just feel oddly self conscious.
So does that change what I see as my favorite holiday? Not really. A little? Does that move Halloween into the top spot? If the kids were still trick or treating it might. I really enjoy being the guy who hands out the treats at our house, but I enjoyed bringing the kids out more. So Thanksgiving still tops Halloween. Memorial Day is a contender, but only by association. We got married near Memorial Day so to me the holiday is more representative of our anniversary. 15 years, this year. We’re going to celebrate with a little trip.
So I think the answer to the question of the day is the same one it has been since I was a teenager and Santa Claus stopped being a thing. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is the best of them all. At least for a middle aged red head living in the United States.
I want to try everything he talks about in this video. Especially the zone focusing stuff. The biggest problem I have with my film camera is manual focusing. The camera is older than the concept of auto focus so I have to do it all with my own eyes and my eyes are unreliable (see the posts from a few days ago with all the shopping for glasses).
The thing that worries me is knowing distances without any measuring device. How far is four feet? How far is 10 feet? How do I know without tons of practice, which implies tons of wasted film. I don’t want to waste film, it’s freakin’ expensive!
I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll finally get to the city and spend a day pretending I am a Boston area street photographer. That would be groovy, wouldn’t it?
While sitting in the living room tonight being totally annoyed that there was neither a Bruins game nor a Red Sox game (WTF?) I took my frustrations out on another song for the re-recording project. Now I have a song that is ready to get some rhythm guitar tracks tomorrow… assuming I get up early enough and have time to play some guitar before work. We’ll see.
Stupid NHL and MLB both scheduling a night off for their Boston teams on the same night. Jerks. Also, for the record, I don’t care about the Celtics so if they are playing tonight don’t bother trying to cheer me up by mentioning them. If they are playing tonight it will probably annoy me even more.