I haven’t played enough guitar lately to rebuild my lost calluses on the tips of the fingers on my left hand. That didn’t stop me from playing today for almost two hours. My finger tips are killing me!
I put rhythm guitars onto three songs for the RPM Challenge, and then I put lead guitars onto three more. Do you know what that means? It means I have three songs that are finished recording and are ready to mix. Finally!
The Luthier I took my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro to one week ago today posted two more updates on his bookfayce page. Lots more pictures.
The guitar got new frets yesterday. Today it got a new nut, a new bridge, and a new volume pot. Damn if I didn’t know there was something wrong with the wiring beyond it just being old and dirty. I feel vindicated!
Here’s hoping I will hear from him soon and I’ll be able to set a time to go and pick my semi-hollow baby up and bring it home!
I’m getting excited, folks!
I’ve got a feeling, a feeling deep inside… that today is going to be one of those days when I post a metric ton or two of updates to the ol’ blog. I’m not sure where that feeling is coming from (apart from The Beatles and it being one of only two Beatles songs that any band I’ve played in has ever covered) but it’s there so you’ve been warned.
I did not get up early enough to pull off car music today, but I will try again tomorrow. I have been out of the house once already (it is 9:38am) so enjoy some classic views…
In closing, here’s a cat near a window, just after dawn:
More to come, kids. More errands outside of the house and hopefully lots of music today. That’s the plan at least.
My approach to budgeting is to lose track of everything, blow all of my money without realizing it, and then have to use credit to bail myself out of financial trouble.
Fortunately for my incompetent, dumb-ass self, my wife was an accountant before she was a software super hero and she handles our budgeting. Thanks to her immense brain we are doing okay, but there is never enough for everything that needs to be done at any given moment. I mean after yesterday’s court ruling in his fraud case even a certain orange pile of fascist goo is going to open a go fund me campaign to raise about 350 million dollars. Things are tough all over.
That is supposed to be a Jedi Knight working on his budget. I’ll buy that.
I punched out of work tonight at a little after 5:30pm and started my long weekend! I took Monday off because I am going to max out my accrued vacation time next month if I don’t take two days off this month. Monday is the first of the two which means I have a long weekend.
I plan to get shit done. Get. Shit. Done.
I started tonight by writing lyrics to three RPM Challenge songs. Also, Jen and I did some work to plan for the upcoming kitchen remodeling project. When I say Jen and I, I mean Jen did planning stuff and I watched and threw out occasional comments. However it happened, I think we got some stuff done and that is good.
Car vocals tomorrow? I hope so. Run some errands? Sure thing. Play some guitar? I hope so. Repeat the whole thing on both Sunday and Monday? You betcha!
The best part about the now current three day weekend? Next weekend is a three day weekend too! My second February day off is next Friday. One week from today. I am going to Kick. RPM’s. Ass*, babie.
*Dictionary.com defines “bravado” thusly:
bravado
[ bruh–vah-doh ]
noun,plural bra·va·does, bra·va·dos.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bravado
- a pretentious, swaggering display of courage.
I have a co-worker with me at my desk right now.
In other news, my stomach is in revolt at the moment. Fun. It’s a gastric bypass side effect kind of thing and it will pass, but I just gagged up some icky stuff and had a full blown case of “the foamies” (look it up). Having said that, there is no complaint here. I ate my lunch too fast and my new redesigned digestive system slapped me on the wrist for it. Post operation side effects like this are 100% worth it, I promise you. Trust me, it’s not an issue at all.
In other other news, I checked the bookfayce page of the Luthier I brought my guitar to last Saturday and earlier today he posted a bunch of pictures showing the progress he’s made. There are pictures of my beloved Gibson ES-335 Pro without any frets, pictures of it with some new frets, and a picture of the neck with a full boat’s worth of lovely, shiny new frets. It still needs a new nut and a new bridge, and he didn’t mention anything about cleaning out the electronics (which is a major bitch of a job to do on an ES-335 as you have to squeeze everything in and out through the F-hole), but the new frets are in! I don’t know if I will share any of the photos he posted. I think I did when he worked on my Les Paul Custom, but not until a few days had past. We’ll see.
Try to picture this guitar with shiny new frets:
In other other other news, I am listening to Steve Hackett’s new album, which was released today. It is called The Circus and the Nightwhale. I am listening while I work and therefore not able to give it my full attention. My initial gut reaction though is this: Steve Hackett’s guitar playing gets exponentially better with each passing day. His songwriting improves in a similar manner. His singing… yeah, he’s better than he used to be but sometimes I still wish he’d hire a full time singer for his recording line up. I’m enjoying the new album. Check it out.
Okay, that’s it for this post. Lunch break is over. My stomach is settling down. Get back to work, Red Head!
I promised myself I was going to do it on Thursday and then failed to do it. I did not fail on Friday though. I played guitar this morning. I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. Breath that sigh of relief!
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson
I don’t know how this works in other countries, but in the United States of America the word patriotic has two definitions. At least it used to. Now it seems to have developed a third.
I once heard a description of how Americans love their country from former US Senator and former Saturday Night Live writer Al Franken. I don’t remember the exact wording he used, but it came down to conservatives love their country the way a small child loves their parent. The country is always right and knows everything there is to know. A liberal loves their country the way an adult loves another adult. They see their flaws and accept them but also want to help them grow and learn and be better.
I fall into the liberal category. My country has always been a friggin’ mess. We have always made mistakes, many of them catastrophic. Despite that, I still love my country because I can see how good we can be. I see the positives along with the negatives. So am I patriotic? Not in the flag waving, We’re number one chanting way that conservatives are, but in a let’s fix our problems and be better than we are way. Yes, yes I am.
So what is our new, third definition of patriot in the USA? It comes from the maga cult, of course. It’s not a love or a respect for our country, it’s more like worship of an authority figure or a cult leader. The cult leader is above the law and free from repercussions for his actions. About half of the voting population sees their fuhrer figure as all knowing and all powerful and will agree with everything he says, no matter how idiotic or how un-american. Or how clearly nazi. Or how flat out evil. Half of our country is pro-fascist and it signals the end of everything we stand for. It’s just a matter of time at this point. It’s already over. Hitler didn’t need to win the second world war. He just had to be patient.
Our future looks a little like this, I think:
She rules over all she sees.
Inside the Red Head's Head 