Tomorrow is a half day of work. Here is what I hope to accomplish…
Wake up early.
Exercise.
Eat breakfast.
Play some guitar.
Go to my doctors appointment for my two year post-surgery follow up.
(Maybe) hit the sugar free bakery on the way home.
Play a little more guitar.
Punch into work and work a half day.
Go to a wake.
Cook dinner and eat it with the love of my life.
Go to sleep.
That sounds like a full day.
Today is Sunday and I did what many of us do on random Sundays… I overslept. My alarm was set for 5:30am. I got out of bed a couple of minutes before 7:00am. I also had a minor hangup that kept me from getting the day started for about 20 minutes and both of those things together mean it’s way too late for me to tackle car music today.
My exercise is done for the day. Yesterday I bumped my four mile morning jog (pronounced “yog” with a soft j) to five miles. Mostly because there were many days over the last month or so where I was not reaching my move/calorie goal without doing extra exercise, so for now I am just going to build that into the morning routine. I am eating breakfast right now and when I am done I will take a Covid test. I have been symptom free since my two exposures on Monday and Tuesday so I am confident in another negative test, but I am still going to test for another couple of days. Just to be sure. I have to go into the office on Wednesday and I don’t want to risk passing anything on to anyone.
What does the no-car-music-today change mean for the music project? I still have five songs that need lyrics, so I can take care of some of those. I think I might also try to add another song or two. Yeah, it’s overkill but I am seeing guitar leads on the horizon and my playing is so incredibly rusty that I could really use an excuse to just play/practice a little. That would be a good thing.
I did something silly yesterday. I started watching the directors cut of Star Trek the Motion Picture. Shatner’s Star Trek V is often considered the worst of all of the Star Trek movies, and while that may be generally valid, that first movie is pretty awful. I’m only halfway through the director’s cut but I haven’t seen anything obviously different. The endless exterior establishing shots are still endless. Endlessly endless. The acting is often less than stellar in Star Trek movies with the original series cast, but this one… this one is bad. Overall though, the movie isn’t quite as awful as I remembered. Maybe #5 really is the worst of the bunch.
Okay, let’s get the ball moving. I need to get myself something for breakfast that is more substantial than the protein bar I just finished. I’ll probably post a film pic too before I really get the day rolling. For now, talk to you all later. Good Day.
Lots of meetings this morning. Busy busy. Lots of projects. Busy busy.
I have a day off on Thursday. A use it or lose it vacation time kinda thing. I just need to get there. It’s gonna be tough. I have a lot of things on my to do list for that day. A haircut*, early voting**, guitar playing***, maybe some photo walk stuff around town****. Stuff like that. There is also Bond movies. They are leaving Amazon Prime Video in 10 days and I am still only half way through Diamonds are Forever. I am half a movie away from Roger Moore.
Okay, breakfast is almost done, I’ve plowed through last night’s email. Let’s get crackin’ for really reals now. Have a good Tuesday, everyone.
*A side effect of weight loss surgery is hair loss. They told me it starts between three and six months (I’m nearly at six months) and it lasts for 3-4 months (it started about two months ago). Fortunately it will grow back… in theory. I am 51 years old. Maybe it’s just my time. I mean my hair hasn’t gone grey yet, which is miraculous in itself. Maybe my run of good hair luck is coming to an end. For now though, I have been too afraid of losing it to get it cut and it’s long enough to actually look long in the back and it hangs in my eyes. It’s time. It’s time to get it cut.
One other note, when I was a little little pre-school kid my hair was super curly. Somehow as it started to fall out it has also started to get a little curly again. How weird is that?
**I am pretty sure Methuen’s early voting is open on Thursday, I just don’t know where or what time. I think it’s at city hall this time, but I need to figure that out.
***Jen is scheduled to go into the office that day so I should be able to make noise without bothering her.
****I said no film until November but… maybe?
It’s been almost a month since I played my guitar. It’s starting to effect my mental health.
At least I think it is. The lack of playing combined with the daily construction combined with the approaching surgery combined with the approaching lifetime of dietary and lifestyle changes that follow the surgery have all contributed to my current mental state. Given that information it’s hard to say if the guitar is all that big a part of the stressedness.
I think it is. I need to play.
I haven’t touched a guitar in 20 days. I need to carve out some time this weekend. I have been thinking about bringing my Vox AC15 amplifier to the next Lizardfish practice, whenever that is, and I need to see how loud I can get it before the tone breaks up. I know my other 15 watt amp, the Fender Bassbreaker 15, can’t get terribly loud before it distorts. I think the AC15 handles it better, but if I can’t get it loud enough to compete with a drummer while still staying clean, then I can’t use it at practice. Really, I just want to bring my Fender Deluxe Reverb home again.
Speaking of Lizardfish, Mike the Bass Player is in Cleveland today. He sent us a bunch of pictures from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To quote Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Alex Lifeson, blah blah blah. Mike sent me a picture of the BB King display. It’s awesome. Thanks, Mike!
At our last discussion, Mike said he’d be away for a couple of weeks. After that we can try to set up a rehearsal date. I really want to play. I really want to play. I’m still scared shitless of getting sick, but I really want to play.
It’s going to be a couple of weeks before the kitchen updates are finished. Once that’s all done I am going to start looking for a guitar tech to hire to work on my stuff. I’ll go with the ES-335 first. Check the frets, check the neck joint, rewire the whole friggin’ thing. Four new pots, a new jack, maybe a new pickup switch, and all new wiring. Don’t touch the pickups, they are gold and need to live forever. Everything else that lives under the covers, replace.
I’m worried about the neck joint. It’s clearly pulling away from the body, but it’s been doing that at a glacial pace for at least 22 years. I’m worried, but I’m not that worried. I am really worried about the frets. I’ve never had a guitar refretted. If they need to be replaced, is it still going to feel the same way it did before? No, clearly, but will it be so different that I will fall out of love with one of my two favorite musical instruments on Earth*? I hope not. Especially given that the frets on my other favorite musical instrument, my Les Paul Custom, are in worse shape. We’ll find out.
Right. Lunch break over. Time to read that huge email a coworker just sent me. I’ve got some back story to get filled in on.
*Technically I should say it’s one of my three favorite musical instruments. My ’78 Les Paul, my ’79 ES-335, and the Selmer Mark VII tenor saxophone I played in high school. I haven’t seen that instrument since 1989. That sucker was in bad shape when it came to me, but it was glorious. Epically glorious. I loved that horn. It was brass magic.
You know what? After four days of practicing, my fingertips are hurting. I guess I am having a little bit of a callous issue. I didn’t think that would be a problem, but here we are.
I said I was going to run through some of our more challenging songs. I didn’t. I just noodled for about half an hour and then tried to play along with a few Jeff Beck songs. I still had most of Rock My Plimsoul in my head, and I can still nail that perfect solo in I’ve Been Drinking (it’s really simple but it’s one of my favorite solos on any instrument ever).
I’ve played the SG the last two nights, after playing the Les Paul the previous two nights. Part of me is thinking that maybe the SG might be the go to guitar for at least the first set tomorrow. I’ve never played it at a gig before. Maybe it will have it’s debut. We’ll see.
It is a little dusty though.
Yesterday I said I had practiced three days in a row but it was only two. Tonight it’s three days in a row. I didn’t play through either of the sets, I just played scales and bad blues scale riffs for 30-40 minutes or so. I did play through an amp and I did use my pedal board.
Actually I played through two amps at once because I am crazy like that.
If I get the chance tomorrow I’ll probably pick and chose a few songs from the set list that are a little more challenging and run through those. Tonight I poked around with some pedal settings. The analog delay is set for a slap back, the reverb has a new setting that seems to be working. I set up a decent boost level. Things like that.
Oh and I played the shit out of the ol’ blues scale.
I practiced again tonight. That’s two nights in a row. Oh. My. God. Woah, wait a second… I was at a band practice on Sunday too so I actually practiced THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW!!!!
Last night I played the first set on our rough draft setlist and the first two songs on the second set. My playlist for some reason skipped a song from set 1 though and I didn’t notice until later. Tonight I started with the song I missed and then did the whole second set and the first song from the third set.
It wasn’t quite as thorough as last night. Last night I played through the full rig I am planning on using at the gig, and I stood for the whole time and I didn’t take any breaks. Tonight I didn’t have the house to myself so I played through an app on my iPad while listening to the playlist on my phone. I also had to take a break when the love of my life came home and we had to shuffle the cars around and I sat down for a lot of it.
Still… I played for a solid hour for the second night in a row. I am shocked.
Raise your hand if you’re sick of guitar/Lizardfish/gig posts.
On second thought, don’t raise your hand. I don’t care what you think. Here’s another one.
Earlier today one of the guys in the band submitted 2/1/20 Set List Draft #2. I was in the middle of my lunch break at the time so I typed the list into a Google Doc and sent it around, and then went to hearthis.at and built a playlist of the entire list and shared that around too. I had an ulterior motive for that one though.
Jen has a work dinner thing tonight and I knew she wouldn’t be home until late. Tonight is a dad night for the kids so I had the house all to myself for an hour. I took that new playlist, ran my phone through a blue tooth speaker, plugged in the guitar with the full pedal board, turned up to (slightly less than) gig volume and played.
I made it into the second set, only one or two songs. I think one song was missing from the first set though so I have to check on that. I played for an hour solid without a break. I did have some real pain in my left hand for about two songs but it lessened as I went along. By the end of the hour I was noticeably tired and it was getting hard to bend the strings. That’s time to stop for tonight.
I played a lot in a short time. Notice that I did not say I played well. I guess I still have to work on that. My improv skills are down to about 10% right now, Captain. I need to open a ticket with engineering and get Geordi LaForge to work on that for me.
The gig starts almost exactly four days from now (9:00PM on Saturday). I need a lot more practice.
I’m pleased with my dumb ass for the moment though. I’m proud of me, fat boy.
My ears are ringing.
We had our first band practice in about a month tonight. The first time we’ve gotten together since the last gig. We were down one singer due to a sore throat, and there was some political joking around as the liberals in the band outnumbered the conservatives 2–1. (should we drop that 3-doors down song? I mean, they did play the inauguration)
I left my pedal board at home so that I can have it when RPM starts this week. I hope to have a new Fender tube amp (the 15 watt Bassbreaker) but that all depends on whether or not guitar center can get it’s head out of it’s ass.
How was my playing tonight? I’ll tell you in one word:
Suck.
Oh my goodness did I suck tonight. My RPM album is going to be atrocious.
Inside the Red Head's Head 