These Go To Eleven

iTumbleweed

2009-02-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ohhhhhhhh I should become a tumbleweed
Such a simple existence they have indeed
They just come & go & drift about as the wind leads
Very simple things and they really have no needs
But they're dead-damn it Jim-and so they are not free
They have no roots & so they are tossed about as a ship at sea
They have no intellect & they sure don't breathe
Can we learn anything from them as they be?
Keep it so simple comes to mind you see
Don't get caught up in the world's materialistic greed
Make positive, helpful, & encouraging morals & values your creed
Slow down & look all around at nature from the ground to tops of trees
Slow down world. What's the hurry? Why go at such high speed?
Do you even stop to enjoy the meal upon which you feed?
Sit down, take a while, & put up your feet
You there, doing a million things a day, how well do you sleep?
Oh the complicated tangled web society dost weave
You must buy this or get that or be this & that becomes our belief
What seeds are you sowing? That's the harvest that you will reap
Have you ever sat & listened to the symphony of silence & found peace?
We live here in the present now & can only focus on today's keep
Get out of the fast lane, go on, take that big leap
So many run themselves into the ground & crumble into a heap
What have they gained in their chase of their perhaps foolish dreams
I'd rather float along upon a soothing stream
I've no idea what this has to do with tumbleweeds; what does this mean?
I don't know & it sure beats the heck out of this me
Become simple like a tumbleweed perhaps, I guess, & it seems
Much of what we toil for & after amounts to a hill of beans
Welp am done now & well wasn't that keen?

iDontNeedIt

2009-02-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

So it's come up in casual conversation a few times recently that as long as my Treo 650 smart phone works, I have no need to upgrade to a new phone. The only reason I use a smart phone is because it's my brain for remembering events/appointments/etc. If it's not in my datebook, I won't remember it. Verizon has the new phone every two years incentive to try to lock in you in for an additional 2 year contract after your initial contract expires. I've been eligible for a new phone upgrade for a while. No need for it. Does my phone make & receive calls? Yup. Do my reminders & contacts & memos still work? Yup. So therefore, I dun't need to take advantage of the phone upgrade option. Well that is until today anyway.

Apparently as of today mine Treo 650 won't let me hear anyone on my phone unless I put them on speaker phone. Bummerz. So onward upon the Verizon website I journey to look at the upgrade options. I came across a Palm Centro smart phone as well as the few flavors of Blackberries. I looked at all the hype & hoopla surrounding all the gadgets. And the simple conclusion is...I'll just stick to the Palm Centro. I don't understand why one wants/needs to browse the internet from their phone. I tried it with my Treo for a while then concluded, I don't need it. I don't understand why you'd pay the $30 or so per month to be able to do so. One already pays their internet service provider for at home use unless you use a portable & just use hotspots. And we thought the internet was free eh? ha. I don't send/receive enough emails to need the messaging features of Blackberry nor do I want to pay for the "staples" of the Blackberry service. I can't think of any personal emails I've received that needed my now & immediate response. My experience is that it usually doesn't matter when a personal email is read as compared to when it was sent. And for those who think they need such features, why not try calling & having an actual conversation with the people involved/concerned? I don't need/want to take pictures from my phone. I have a digital camera that does that well for me. I don't need my phone to be a video game console either. I just need my phone to be a phone & do it as well as possible along with the datebook stuff as in "this is my real brain outside of my brain." An added bonus for me is music media playing so I don't have to carry around a music player such as an iPod or other music playing device.

The assumption is that we, the people, are lemmings & embrace the technologies companies create & try to persuade us to purchase. They prey upon us to make us think/believe we must have what they offer or we'll surely perish. Most of it is all toys, bells, & whistles that are luxuries. Am I saying it's wrong to want for such gadgets & features. No. If you think you'll enjoy the something & services, then great. Go for it. Yes there is real business need & justification for taking advantage of it. Yes there is the 'fun' & 'wow' factor of having such things as well.

For today & now I say "pleah" to the being constantly wired & connected via the Blackberry paradigm. I'm John & I vote & so what & I say phones should be phones & they should not drop calls.

Until later comes, turn it up to ring ring.

T'was Two...

2008-12-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

T'was two days before Christmas & holy cow
Much to tend to still & finish and how
Be careful out there as you journey through the crowds
Go buy that, wrap this, & find a moment for some chow
I'm going to get done earlier next year & that's my vow
It sure creeps up on ya faster than you realize & you go "like wow"
Never mind all that you say as you wipe the sweat from your brow
There's stuff to do so let's get to it & get it done like now
Crank up the tunes & get to jammin' with the holiday sound
No time to just hang out or just lay around
Get your feet a runnin' & hit the ground
Come on & get on with it already as Santa's comin' to town
You better not pout & there's no reason to wear a frown
Ya done with that wrapping yet? Just add it to the tree's mound
Ya stressed out, or tired, or tightly wound?
Well ya can recover later; perhaps then some peace will be found
Move it, move it Christmas soldier! Double time it! The clock is countin' down
"Hey come back here with my ribbon cat" you say as he runs away with a sarcastic meow
"Why you I outta" you say to yourself aloud
Careful now as you move from here to there & all about
We wouldn't want you to trip on the stuff & fall & smack into the ground
T'was two days before Christmas & holy cow
May you find some quiet as if drifting on a cloud
Me hopes you liked this ditty & merry Christmas from this rambling clown

T'was Three Days...

2008-12-22T16:48:00.001-08:00

T'was three days before Christmas & all through the land
The sales were on & the shoppers had a lot of bags in their hands
What do I get him, or her, or them thar over there?
Oh I haven't a clue as some say while pulling out their hair
For many it is a hard, or even sad, season & they might just not care
But they try anyway to tend to their Christmas affairs
Some are so stressed & tired & they just collapse in a chair
Others seem to have endless energy like a solar flare
Some are calm & peaceful as they have well prepared
Others choose to wait till the 24th to enter the shopping lair
Out comes all the tape & cutters & the colorful paper
Ribbons, bows, ties, boxes, for all the wrapping layers
Can't we wait to wrap till a bit or a lotta later?
OUCH! I cut myself with the edge of the paper sharp as a razor
Can someone grab me a drink & a snack? Oh waiter?
Now where'd that thing for who'z it what'z it go that's as big as a freighter?
Can we just "Git 'r done" so says Larry who does the voice of Mater
The gifts are placed carefully under the tree
I wonder what so and so decided to get this year for me?
The fires are put out & the lights no longer glow
Off for a warm winter's sleep we go
Us older folk creak & crack & pop as we ache from head to toe
All that running about & doing the do isn't easy ya know?
Can we just take it easy now & just move real slow?
For we've been so crazy busy going to & fro
And this is the journey of the season where we just go with the flow
In the end it's simply about being with friends & family to enjoy & share
And to, for a brief moment, let go of all our burdens & cares
T'was three days before Christmas & all through the land
Slow down & relax & have a nice time that is grand

iSnap

2008-12-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

Bonk ding doh-ing go the parts in me head
Snap ZZZzttt sproing go the parts that are red
It's a case of the bonkers which we dread
For which there's no treatment from what I've read
There's no putting it back together as it's dead
Yer just gonna have to face all that's ahead
Hey bonkoid did you hear anything I said?
Nope, notta, zip, zilcho there Mr. Ed
I'm going going gone fuzto instead
I'm slipping on my lost marbles heading to bed
Wake me up when the clock is half past fred
But only if you can track down my brain which seems to have fled
Cuckoo says I flying over my own nutzo nest
And all this just to provide daily bread
Phtphphtphthtpth says I as that sums up this season best
And of course this is just boredom drivel in which I jest

iMe

2008-12-12T14:47:00.001-08:00

Hey me
I'm he
I be
You see
Yes, si
And indeed
Slow's the speed
Nothing to achieve
So I write & read
It's wow & gee
I sip coffee or tea
And I just breathe
It's crazy I believe
But it meets need
'Cause gotta feed
Our melting economy bleeds
Who has the lead?
Too many problems interleaved
Like too many overgrown weeds
I question land of the free
Ruled by corporate & political greed
Where wall street is their creed
Now there's broken lives & dreams
Time for new seeds
Well me that's it for thee
The news isn't too yippie
Maybe I outta just be a hippie
Well, uhm,er, ok then, well gee

iSuccess

2008-12-11T12:14:00.001-08:00

The boys & I watched the movie "A Dennis The Menace Christmas." Mr. Wilson is the neighbor of the menace that Dennis be. When asked about things of Christmas Mr. Wilson called Christmas "shameless capitalism." In a time of the crumbling of debt laiden lives & companies, the last thing we need is to be bombarded by advertisements for buying things on credit. So this last weekend a commercial was on for Sears. Hey guess what? Get a Sears card & pay no interest until 2012. Today, Yahoo's main page has an ad for an Amercian Express gold looking card with the headline of "How To Say Success." What a crock of hooey. Success for me is simply having food, clothing, shelter, & some quality time with my wife & kids each day. The dangling of the buying power carrot in front of people continues. And it will always be there & will continue. Is it shameless capitalism on the parts of those offering such credit offers? It's certainly capitalism of course. And afterall customers buying things on credit has become the norm for retailers to sell their products & survive. You can just hear the robotic voice in mr. or mrs. retailer's head "Must make a sale. Must offer credit to all & their fleas to make a sale. We don't care if they can pay it back or not. Must sell sell sell." I'm sure this is part of the root issue with Circuit City's floundering & having to file. How the Tribune Company can accumulate billions in debt & still function is quite bizarre. But then we only need to look at our own states & federal government to see that defecit spending is the norm & accepted as is & the status quo. I personally wouldn't call such credit offers shameless but I think trying to continue with what has been the norm is a root flaw in our grand economic wheel. Stop the wheel I'd like to get off & just sit a spell in simple basics of life. When all else fails eat a hamburger or have some chocolate & enjoy something of nature nearest you.

iCore

2008-12-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

Hey it's now four
One or so hour more
Then go time out the door
Yawn, stretch, & then snore
Thankful but my mood is poor
In the mundane routine work day war
It's a real hoot galore
Mr. & Mrs. government fix our country we implore
Millions are now free falling into poor
Lives are crumbling down to the floor
Can any of this be overcome & restored?
There are many defecits that cannot be ignored
To survive in times of famine can be quite the chore
Economic foundations are being eaten down to the core
Who cares if you now have a bad credit score?
At least I have a view of the Bay's shore
Nobody knows what is coming or what is in store
Just gotta stare it in the face & give out a lion's roar
Maybe we can learn from famines in times before
Just live for the now & today for the present is your's
Do good & give to the extent that you can afford
Look to the ordinary simple things as life's rewards
Nothing can out do goodness & generousity outpoured

iHeyDay

2008-12-09T17:05:00.001-08:00

Hey, day
Goodnight eh?
Light fades
What I can I say?
Nothing really oh tay
Can try to play
Or hang in man cave
And rest okay
Find the way
Work done so yay
Life comes what may
Still by the Bay
'Tis a miracle I still get paid
In strange waters we wade
Find moments in the shade
Or embrace the fall sun's rays
Be brave
And oh behave
Yeah baby yeah
Night falls without delay
Hey, day
Goodnight eh?

iStareWhere

2008-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

Stare
Where?
There
In Chair
Tasks rare
Boredom affairs
Don't care
Not fair
Count hair
No flair
Yay for tech & software
What a bear
Walk the stairs
Double dog dare
Welcome to the downturn lair
Don't wanna be a player
Call the recession slayer
Hello, this the mayor?
Someone throw a rager
Or at least a pint or a kegger
Getta down & getta funky alligator
Someone turn up the fader
Say no to Darth Vader
Play Space Invaders
Ride the elevator
Don't be a stock trader
Everyone get goofy like Mater
Welp until later, later

iTickTock

2008-12-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

Gibberish run together.

Tick tock
Walking the clock
What a crock
Beam me up Spock
Whaz up doc?
Knock knock
Pick the lock
Wanna rock?
Rockin' Bach
Not a jock
Don't mock
Art with chalk
Yak 'n talk
Fly with hawks
Around the block
Feathery Flock
No elctro shock
Tubular socks
Worthless stocks
Tick tockin' tock
Grogg n' grock

I Sit

2008-12-05T13:06:00.001-08:00

Written 12/5 1230

Wanted: Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer. Reality - Wanted somebody who can sit at their desk day after day & do very little to no actual work. I've said before & believe "At least I have a job & it's better than digging ditches." Actually I think I'd prefer digging ditches about now. The movie "Holes" is about a boy's youth prison facility out in the middle of desert nowhere & each day the attendees have to dig like 5 foot deep holes for apparently no reason other than to do it. There is more to the story but you'll have to read about it, or read the book or watch the movie. Basically I get up in the morning to look forward to sitting, sitting, & more sitting. Occasionally something will come up for me to do but it usually isn't too hard & it doesn't take too much time. Then it's back to more sitting & pondering & sometimes writing things such as this. I've been doing an occasional Yahoo Crossword but I know very few of the answers so I have to use their hint link. This existence is very odd. I'm not complaining because that doesn't help me or anyone. When you're younger & someone asks "What do you want to be when you grow up?" nobody answers "Terminally bored just sitting all day long." I know that we're in extremely odd & foreign times. The cubicle nation is crumbling more & more each day. And there doesn't seem to be any light shining in the tunnel of great uncertainty we're in. Without warning this position I have could fade away just as easily as any other position in any company right now. I am thankful to be sitting here as in having an attitude of gratitude. I sit therefore I am. I sit here to contribute to the defense that belongs to Uncle Sam. I sit to provide for my family daily green eggs & ham. I sit & read the news about things of which I usually do not give a damn. I sit while I watch the clock's hands. I sit near a view of the Monterey Bay which is grand. I sit always able & willing to do a task or to lend a hand. I sit but am often found blah from the bland. I sit in the "simply show up each day to say hi" employment plan. I sit & ponder my existence in a strange land. I sit here on my can.

Is The Sky Falling?

2008-12-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

Is The Sky Falling?
Written 12/4/2008

The parade of companies cutting employees in our newly acknowledged state of being in a 'recession' continues. The parade of reductions will continue. Recovery & stability lies beyond anyone's horizon & it all seems unreachable. Is the sky falling? For those who are losing their jobs, their homes, & everything in between it must feel like the sky has collapsed upon them. There are parents who cannot provide for their children. Families are having to go without food because that's the only thing left they can cut back on. The sky is falling. Is it a necessary journey? I believe the answer to be yes. Just as a farm's soil must be churned & prepared for its crop so to must society go through the churning & preparation now and then. Why do I believe this is necessary? Because our nation is recovering from the addiction to debt & from living beyond our means month to month. The sky is falling because of our own irresponsibility as well as the irresponsibility of financial institutions who loosely gave credit to anyone & their fleas. If you dangle 'the carrot' of spending power in front of someone, they'll take it without a 2nd thought. And unfortunately the irresponsibility of many does affect the few who try to be responsible. Everyone needs to stop trying to blame & point fingers however. Instead we must turn our focus towards first surviving, perhaps even helping others in need, then towards rebuilding for a new future where we live more responsibly focused more on those closest to us than upon Wall Street, job titles/status, gadgets, credit scores, debt, etc. The sky may be falling but if you can breathe then you're still alive. If you're alive then you can & will survive. Remember that there are countless millions who have been living in worse poverty for years in the world than we'll ever experience here in our own country.

Myanmar atrocities

2008-06-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

I must ramble my thoughts. As I started writing this I selected all of my music mp3 files & clicked play. I landed on an appropriately titled song by guitarist Joe Satriani called War. But that's so insignificant.

When Myanmar was struck by the cyclone the devastation we know was beyond comprehension. But what is more beyond comprehension is the tragedy of the oppressive government or the ruling class who is led by Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe. I refer you to the gory details of this article. You'll have to form your own opinion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080612/ap_on_re_af/zimbabwe

Last week there was a headline on Yahoo about how U.S. ships with aid freely available was declined by the ruling government there. The ships left for to sit there & wait was futile & they needed to move on. Today while being able to freely travel into a Starbucks for a mocha frap I read on a newspaper's headline about how something like 40 tons of food aid was seized by the Junta government & instead used for a rally to gain voters for the current president. It also mentioned how the government treats such aid as aiding the opposition in the upcoming presidential vote. And then I read the Yahoo headline mentioned above. This in the same week where headlines mentioned 10,000+ pregnant women who needed care & aid. The above mentioned article mentions about the current president "he has been accused of holding onto power through fraud and intimidation and trampling on people's rights."

Obviously a diplomatic solution is always best. The election is June 27. This assumes the lead opposition seeking true democracy can even win with the injustice of the opposition leaders being arrested for no good reason today. That's 15 more days of people dying & suffering great tragedy now. Dare I suggest that allowing such suffering is along the lines of Nazi concentration camps? Yes there is the idea of 'To each his own.' But in a global oriented age, something more must be done. Yes the U.N. is being pressed by many to do something. When does the U.N. enact it's power to intervene by force if necessary? I'm sure all such things are complicated beyond measure. But it's simple...People need help. Help is being offered. Somebody stand up to the new block bully & hold them at bay & bring in the help. My own personal opinion is this is Sadam revisited in a different way in a different country on a different scale. Somebody with the power to do something, please go do something. What that something is & to what extent needs to be decided by those qualified to do so.

At the very least, may the leading opposition prevail in the election. But until then somebody go deal with the bullies. Pass onto anyone as desired especially those who might be able to affect change.

- Unable to help in Aptos, CA.

Satch's new boogie...

2008-05-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

Interesting new path for Satriani, Hagar, Anthony...Not that any of them need the money.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/van_halen_red_hot_chili_peppers_launch_new_project.html

You know the vocals & harmony will be there because Hagar & Anthony have done that well. I'd rather see Anthony stick with Hagar than return to the circus of Halendom.

To me a drummer's a drummer but to be a Pepper ya must have to have been good in that realm.

I like Hagar's comment about Eddie. It fits well with what has been.

Hope there's some maturity & depth to the lyrics in the songs & not the typical pre-teen focused crippy crud that's already been done year after year after year by band after band after band. Joe's lyrical songs haven't ever been like that so hopefully he's looking for lyrical maturity from Hagar's writing. Maybe Sammy will grow up lyrically.

I'd rather see this incarnation in concert than the current Halen Roth merger that's regurgitating the old & already been there done that stuff. Yeah it is a tour that needed to happen before they become rockers with walkers...I guess...It's a nostagia thing for the 40 & 50 somethings.

Eddie was first & made his mark but there's nothing new now. His solo thing he does is a direct replay of what he's already done twice in concert video tape/DVDs. And he's done it for years before as evidenced on YouTube clips. Do something new Eddie. But to be fair, Vai will always have to play Attitude Song in concert & Satch will have to play Surfing with the Alien in concert. But they have enough new in their set that the old fits in well & is interesting. It's just the nature of having those trademark songs as a musician/band. The legacy of Satch & Steve Vai & Gary Hoey, Dick Dale or The Ventures is far more interesting to me than Ed's. Ed was more into the business of music, signature series deals, & image than making music. Der-amma. No thanks. I'd rather sit down & have a conversation with Ed or hear him on Oprah than see 'im in concert. I guess I'm just over the whole EVH guitar king stigma. I am glad he's cleaned up & according to him is playing better than he ever has. Perhaps it's the way he's treated Hagar & Anthony is my irk...and overpriced EVH signature gear.

And that's my 1 cent 'bout that. Whadda I know? I hear stripes...I think...Maybe I outta make peace with my bro's stripes & finish what I started. Dumb paint & clear coat. ha.

Side note, I keep thinking about, but not sure yet, putting my stripe design on my I've Been Had, aka Ibanez, guitar. Maybe after I finish the lady's tiger in mid July & Steeb's stripes...probably in July as I have to clear it again & let it situate & cure. Am having to get over my own stigmas about self. Shine finish Shine!

Side note #2, I'm almost there in playing Flight of the Bumble Bee well at 100 beats per minute. Next up, 110 Bpm. You wouldn't think it but there's a feeling of exponential increase as you increase the speed by 10 BPM's. It'll make your fingers fall off

- Sublime I'm

iYammer

2008-02-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

Yammerin' because I'm a yammer...

So Yahoo's 'Featured' section on their main page states:
"7 must-have gadgets for your home"
Oh really?....Lesse what those are...

Bose SoundDock Digital Music System
Don't got it. Don't need it. Never needed it. Funny - They don't mention that you need to have a digital media player to play the music you want to hear through the system.

Canon Powershot A560 Digital Camera
Hmm, have a digital camera. Don't need the model you say I need to have.

Curves Digital Glass Scale
Never owned a scale or even wanted one.

Sephora Professional Cordless Straightener
My hair is straight but thanks though.

Illuminations Electric Aroma Diffuser
Hack 'n cough. Ooo-oooo whaz that smell?

Alessi Stainless-Steel Cordless Electric Kettle
Thanks but stoves for all of time have worked just fine. Usually BBQ pits at the beach or camping involve flame & heat so I think the world can manage. Be environmental...Don't manufacture such things as fire is a natural element after all. Lemmings humanity is. So how many of each of the above items will be purchased today because Yahoo planted the 'go buy this or you're dumb seed.' Well actually I am intrigued by the A650 camera but I couldn't let my quip down in the heat of the comment now could I? And thaz my quip for the now & I'm sticking to it.

Until later comes turn it up to quipping the 'quipment.'

American Dream? What is the cost?

2007-12-27T08:35:00.000-08:00

Note, this is just me rambling out loud in Blog form. No homeowners, or mortgage payers, or homes were harmed during this creation. Nor is this directed at any particular group(s),
person(s), or individual(s) nor their values/ideals/dreams.

American dream...buy house & pay it off in your lifetime...

Saw a headline on some newspaper today about how the current housing issues, and/or, crisis in our country is reshaping America. 'Tis odd to drive along some roads around here in Seaside & see former military housing units all boarded up. Kind of a good word picture. Some, if not the majority, don't have the luxury, for whatever the reason(s), to buy a home. So what becomes of those peoplez dreams? They can waste time on thinking upon the American dream which won't become a reality & possibly feel cruddy about themselves & not being able to keep up with their peers. Or they can reshape their thoughts upon what really matters & what is most important. I'm sure some choose to move far far & away, to a more affordable area just to have a piece of that American pie. But what do they give up in doing so? Everything they've built up where they have been living. I've asked self thousands of times, why stay on the Central Coast where the cost of living is ugh?! Why stay in California? The thought "Bloom where you're planted" returns to remind me that all is well. Others choose to live in affordable areas & then enter into unfathomable daily commutes. Add up such commute time a month & then project outwards & see what percent of one's life is spent in traffic jams. Meanwhile, the one(s) doing such commutes are exhausted/wiped out, leave before the sun rises, come home after the sun has set, & they miss out on the very persons & events under the roofs of the homes they commute to pay for. And that's a dream?

My definition of success is simply...Do I have what I need for my family today? And that sure got thrown for a loop during the unemployment stages. But the provision was always there.

I get to go to bed every night & hear the ocean .5 miles away. It doesn't get better than that for where we are at in the present moment.

Until later comes, turn it up to get Reshaped America...Get simple.

iRetro

2007-10-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

Long time no write. In my free time of the last week or so, I've been recording VH1's Rock Mania to see that which was once popular. I also came across a song I did enjoy back then but really didn't realize the meaning of it till now. Bon Jovi "Dead Or Alive." Did the countless bands of metal/hard rock go down the road of drinking & drugs just because it was there to do? Or were they driven towards the insanity of it all from being pushed so hard by management & promoters. Must keep recording. Must keep touring. No break allowed. You must make us more money. And in the end, when the music fades & all is stripped away, what's left is an overmarketed & overpromoted wreck & poof...it all becomes a dust in the wind memory, whether nightmare or not for the individual. Part of this revisiting was a rockumentary on the Def Leppard's Hysteria album I watched this week. Anyway so I pondered upon such things & then wrote...

The metal came & it was time to rock out
The jams, the intros, the leads, & shredders all around
I don't care what you looked or acted like just make your big rockin' sound
How'd it turn into big hair & strange glam gowns?
Make the big bigger & party on until you all fall or drown
And don't forget to do ballad drool to woo the masses & crowds
As if that wasn't enough how about doing an unplugged set & get you turned down?
Then poof the game was over & nowhere could any of you be found
Ya crashed & burned from being pushed beyond the limits playing town to town
Some died in their addictions & darkness that did enshroud
Welcome to the jungle baby where you'll fall from the top & crash into the ground
Was the ride worth it as you think back from the now?
Some of the remnants have done their rehab & are touring around
'Tis strange to think upon then & now & the attempted rebounds
Hard rock once was & was the dominant sound
But all has faded away & most of ya all have taken your final stage bows
There was dangerous & deadly madness to it all & you became the pawns & clowns
Welp this concludes my retro tour of the then & of stuff becoming unwound

Until later comes turn it up to retro.

iBrink

2007-08-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Right now I don’t want to think
I do not wish to just sit & dink
I should not & do not want to shrink
I’d rather just close my eyes & not blink
On the edge of adversity I am once again upon the brink
Glad I don’t smoke nothing nor do I drink
I pause & stretch to get out some of the kinks
Sometimes the things of life just plain stinks
But that’s part of the game & the mystery Inc.
Joy is a cuddly cat in my lap with his nose pink
But soon though I must get busy looking at links
Can’t I just be some band’s roadie or guitar tech; Ha & kidding wink wink
I ought to do some o’ the dishes in the kitchen sink
I can’t lay low too long like Egypt’s sphinx
I must send out some paper with those things called words in ink
In the silence of now visions of the next can come into being
I don’t have to understand about anything of purpose or meaning
My believing in the new window or door will result in my seeing
Have a nice now, afternoon, & onward into this evening
Maybe I’ll go get mindless & stare for a while at the t.v.
All I can do is just keep swimming & breathing

iRevolution

2007-08-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings blog reader(s),
First I claim all ignorance about the times & the issues. And I have not read or studied a thing about the times & the issues. So I'm going on only 1 source in this ramble. I was only very young at the time anyway.

I watched a documentary this week that was made in 2006 called The U.S. v.s John Lennon. All I really knew about him was The Beatles & songs & him being a song writer. That's it. Then he was shot dead.

I knew nothing of he & Yoko being the hard core activists they were in trying to join forces with other radicals to bring an end to the Viet Nam war. I did know of the "Give Peace A Chance" song. I learned that he & Yoko were basically an enemy of the state for the state hated him. The state was threatened by him. This quote was interesting "So flower power didn't work. Don't give up. Keep trying." They did, they kept pushing & pushing under the scrutiny & threats of the FBI. So the state used immigration to come after them to get them deported. I find it amusing that despite the state's best, injust, law bending attempts for 5 years to force deportation upon them, that the state failed. Peace was victorious over the injustice.

Lennon & Yoko stood their ground for wanting the war to come to an end & wanting peace. At the end of the documentary their lawyer shared that he got a call saying the appeals court has dropped the deportation issues as Watergate had already occurred. So the lawyer called John & that was the day they were on the way to the hospital to have their baby. Jullian was born on John's birthday & on the same day as freedom from the state.

One historian summed it up as "John was a man of trying to inspire peace. And that is admirable. Nixxon & Mr. Bush are men of death. And that's a bad thing."

Then I read on Yahoo headlines this morning about some U.S. report doubting the Iraqi leaders' ability to govern. Without diplomacy & leadership, what's a nation without peace supposed to do? It's a Mad Max kind of genre. May some out of the box radical visionary in our times figure out how to establish peace there. Our troops are there in harm's way to help the Iraqi people. That is admirable. But a way to peace must be found.

The word Shalom is a blessing. Shalom means peace, completeness, harmony, health, & welfare. May Shalom be upon Iraq & all who can influence change to bring about positive change.

Until later comes turn it up to Shalom.

iThought I saw a big strange commercial...

2007-08-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hey-row,
This is your local neighborhood me just rambling. I have no idea what this will become once I introduce what the subject is about in this rambles. Nobody has to agree with me. It's just my blah blah opinion.

I watched the VH1 whatever press conference tonight for the Van Halen tour whilst diddling with kid clothing, aka laundry. I saw 3 ol' guys and an underage kid overhyping how great they are & how awesome & blah-de-blee-de-blah. I looked at them & said, "I don't care." I only cared about the guitar parts in the first place. I didn't care what the words were nor who was singing 'em.

Now before I continue, I think it's great that EVH is smiling, happy, sober, & playing & such. What disappoints me that in his 'new perspective' EVH & band are going to go out & play the same ol' older than PG-rated songs to the lemmings who just want to see guitar carnage. And I know that I shouldn't be surprised that they would go out & play their old stuff; I knew they would. After all they are a rock legend & that's what they do. If Hendrix suddenly appeared for a press conference announcing a tour, he'd do the same thing & he'd sell out just as fast. I'm speculating that momma Valerie will be tending to keeping wolfie outta the inappropriate scene. I just think it's stupid to put Wolfie into that adult mix. So what if he's a great bass player. Hello, he's not old enough for the scene nor for the lyrics.

Why is it EVH can reconcile with DLR but not with Michael Anthony? Oh that's right, what king EVH wants, king EVH gets. I'd have slightly more respect if Michael was playing instead of king junior. Haven't they learned anything in their older ages that the lyrical spooge that they've created is just that...spooge? They're cashing in because they can. Just because it's there to play, doesn't mean it should be played. But that's my own cringing opinion. Do something new & more meaningful for cryin' out loud.

I'm mad at the man whoever the man is. I don't know why I am but it just is. Maybe I'm mad at stripes or brown sound. I dunno. Maybe I'm mad at burgers burned brown. How does one go from being a recluse druggie drunk to smiling & playing well & not having the guts to say no to the old junk? Because it's all about the business of music ma'an.

Edward why are you doin' the ol' groovin'?
Spewing forth the gibberish upon the drooling humans
You are different now as the new is bloomin'
What good is it to resurrect the old in your renewin'?
Legendary, yes but there's nothing you need to be proovin'
But I guess you are entitled to do yer same ol' doin'
I shouldn't judge I know but you've overcome yer usin'
I guess for you to do away with the old was my own delusion
For you are a product to be marketed & the old is the money making solution
Does the world really need to hear once again the lyrical confusion?
I'd rather just hear you than all the in between noise pollution
You are coasting upon the history & ya now be crusin'
Well I hope ya'll have a great party & find much to be amusin'
May you rock on Edward but into more positive content may you be movin'
You done good in gettin' rid of the stuff you were abusin'
May the tones & setups be with thee & may yer guitars be in tunin'
Take care of your son most of all for the scene will be quite overwhelming & consumin'
I don't know why but I'm mad at you for the path you be choosin'
I hope from this now forward you won't come into any ruin
Doesn't matter though; I hope that your 'new perspective' you won't be losin'

They're kidding right?

2007-07-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Whilst driving home on Sunday am with the boys & Caleb's new found friends called chicken pox, Terra wanted to stop at this container store in some new shopping mecca on Steven's Creek Blvd. So we slowly hunt for the seemingly lacking open parking space in the parking garage thing they have there. Ok fast forwarding to trying to leave the garage. We're inching our way out behind the other cars. So apparently there's a new rule over the hill for parking garages that we weren't given knowledge of. Perhaps the memo didn't reach us. We stop for a car that is trying to back out. There really isn't any room for anyone to go anywhere while the backer is backing up. Yet to our left, not 1, but 2 & 3 cars go by thinking they're just going to sneak through some opening that has yet to exist in front of us all. The backer gets backed out & on their way & Terra starts to go & sure enough another lefty just goes by on our left & basically cuts us off. I figure all the commotion must have saved those sneaking by on the left perhaps a millisecond in their lives. But in their greed to get going they took up more than that of our time.

We are still dumbfounded at the impatience in this incident. I don't know if it's a culture thing or what. Ugh.

Until later comes turn it up darn lefty drivers in parking garages.

Wisdom of the elders

2007-07-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

A bit ago I wrote that entry about the journey through the decades. Today out of the blue a something was on my heart that I wrote about tonight for a simple newsletter thing. When I started the article I only had the base thought & as it morphed & came to be this is a snippet of what I came up with:
It’s not hard to look at society today & see how disconnected society is becoming. The very root system of humanity is at stake & that system is family. I think upon the tragic terror of 9/11 & how for a brief moment, most people we’re driven into their homes & wanted to stay there with family & friends due to fear. Then I think upon the stark contrast of the failed responses from local, state, & national government in the Katrina disaster that prevented the needed help reaching those most in need, the weak & the poor. In a very short time period we’ve seen what the lack of selfless love can do. We’ve seen what hatred can do to lives & what local government politics & logistics can do to shatter lives. The 9/11 terror was city blocks. Katrina was whole cities. But there’s one easily forgotten that affected nations. One of the worst examples to date is the worst gang in history which was led by Hitler & led to the holocaust; please rent & watch the movie Freedom Writers.

On Saturday I had to run a couple of errands & one of them was to the library to return books the boys had. As I was walking out an elder gentlemen was at the automatic door when I was. First I simply allowed him to go first. Then just randomly I just simply asked him "If you could give wisdom to the youth of society today in one sentence what would you say?" His reply was wisely, I think, "What ideas do you have?" I basically mentioned something similar to the 1st part of this writing to him. I then simply asked him "Did you serve in the military?" He said yes, & I simply said thank you for your sacrifice. What I realized is that from dad's geezer email he sent a bit ago combined with my stepping out of my comfort zone, that we youngins have a lot we need learn from our elders.

Have you stopped to ask a geezer elder for wisdom today?

Until later comes, turn it up to may the wisdom be with us.

The influence of decades

2007-06-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

I was thinking, yes we know John you think a lot but be brief please, in terms of decades & how the main issues of the time affect/affected society.

60's - Viet Nam, hippies, peace & love, psychedelia, & such, and all men elligible for the draft fearing their number would be picked. A challenged generation for sure.

70's - Nam recovery & fallout throughout the nation, I guess Disco music was the main thing I remember as I was 3 to 13 in that decade so I don't know much else than that. I deny all knowlege senator.

80's - The decade that hi-tech began & gizmoids & gadgets at home were becomming the norm, Disco being the norm & then dying to punk & new Wave music, & the Madonna & Divas & rap music mixed with the start of hard rock/metal fronted by Eddie Van Halen restoring the guitar to it's place in rock music in our side of the world. Music videos birthed.

90's - More & more high tech, Metal music & big & even bigger hair peaked & swiftly melted away to hip-hop, gangsta rap, boy/girl groups, & grunge, and even more tech gadgets, birth of cell phones. The generation of "push a button get a response & get angry when the response takes too long." The birth of CGI animation to contribute to the movie experience. The start of email as the norm of communication, thereby speeding up company productivity & helping people be a bit more connected, but at the same time email becomming the only way some communicated & so people started to become disconnected.

2000 - 9/11 & the world stopped for a moment to try & see what is important, and our nation was brought a bit closer together, Iraq's 1st chance at freedom from the unjust & dishonest dictator began but with that birth comes a lot of growing pains that nobody is able to stick around for as our soldiers are there in harm's way to serve our country & to protect the Iragi people who cannot do so for themselves. Reality shows. Hi-tech having a hangover from 20 years of partying & silicon valley going bust, the generation of Instant/text messaging, of DVDs, flat & plasma t.v.s, cell phones & personal portable gadgets that must be had by all, birth of digital media in portable formats, thereby leading society to beginning to become more isoloated & disconnected like never before & everyone fending for themselves. The very gizmoids & gadgets all are seeking contributing to global warming & the call to go green now. Green cars. Reunion tours of bands from the 80's. Paris Hilton being the spokesperson & example that all girls want to be & follow. If we don't live like we first did after 9/11 realizing what is important & that all the other stuff & the so & so who's hot in Hollywood or which celebrity has messed themselves up today, or what's the #1 anything on any chart doesn't matter.

Terra was profound in helping me learn that at about the same time the world was watching Princess Diana having her funeral and the media broadcasting it in celebrity style, the simple woman of love who gave her life to the poor & sick, Mother Theresa was having her funeral with a poor quality broadcast & most people not even aware of it.

In the golf world Tiger Woods is gifted & amazing & is watched & is the one who is hard to beat. The day after losing the U.S. Open, his baby was born. How many are going to talk just about that Tiger should've done this or that differently & he could've of won it with this shot or putt. And behind closed doors away from the media, I'm sure becomming acquainted with new angel & connecting deeply with his wife far outweigh being 2nd in the tournament. The business of golf for him has it place & time of course....just not now.

I find it interesting that two celebrities whom millions have watched, heard, & talked about have undergone life & perspective changing events...

1) Edward Van Halen - Guitar legend, Alcoholic & drug addict, all songs put out since '78 were about sex, drugs, or rock 'n roll maybe with some love schmooze ballad thrown, divorced, father of overweight teen, wanted to go out on the road with original singer with teen son as the bass player. So going out & once again spewing forth the not so great lyrics upon millions, the planned reunion summer tour is cancelled & he checks himself into rehab & comes out looking better & happy. He probably learned that he needed to become the father his son never had. Will his change for the better change anything about any future music or tours? Don't know, but I would hope so & millions would benefit from hearing from him. Doesn't matter if he ever plays live, records, or tours again. What he does with his time with his son & himself does matter.

2) Paris Hilton - Somehow became celebrity & just played & acted stoopid & was the model for fashion, selfishness, greed, etc. Forced into jail for her stuff, & supposedly has changed. Somehow I think her whiny snibbly whatever ways will take longer than a week in jail to make that a lasting positive change.

9/11 was an instant & put the system into shock & was a wakeup call. Perhaps celebrities who undergo such a transformation will somehow have a more lasting & positive influence & impact on society.

I lived in a yellow submarine for a moment

2007-06-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

We were at the beach on Saturday hoping the sun would join us there. Brought the life vests for the boys & myself to possibly go out in me kayak providing wind & wave conditions were not too harsh. So after sitting in me chair for a bit & watching the surf it seemed to be kind of small & non-threatening. So I got the yak pumped up & ready to go but I went by myself for the first tour. I stood in the nice cold water watching the set of waves trying to time when to dart out past the surfline so I could just float around. I saw a lull & so I went for it. I have done this kind of entry before at the beach & I know that once you commit to getting out, you go for it as hard as you can until past the waves. I did paddle hard while watching the little bumps of already broken waves coming along that I breezed right through with no concern. Then I saw it. A lump appeared out of nowhere unexpectedly & I knew that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The lump got bigger & I paddled harder staring it down. Kind of like the attitude of you won't get me without a fight bucko! As I approached the wave that was forming I realized that no matter how hard I try & no matter what I'm a gonna do, this wave is going to break right on my bow & cause a lot of havoc upon my whole being. I haven't been in such a situation before & all I knew was paddle as hard as I could. I paddled hard & the wave broke just as I had expected on my bow & I sure helped it by leaning backwards, and it just smacked the yak, got it all topsy turvy, & going sideways. And as good as the yak is, it's not built for being pushed sideways by a wave & over it turns in the whitewater. I'm smacked down ma'an! Dude game over. I'm tumbling under water, & tumbling, which is not a big deal as I had my life vest on & such. The wave finally & graciously lets go of me, I get up & grab my soaking wet hat that rose to the surface & put it on my head anyway. I weighed about 20 pounds heavier as my sweatshirt is now soaked. I saunter over to the overturned yak, turned it right side up, grabbed one of it's rope things on the bow & out of breath & wiped out, I put my tail between my legs, my pride crushed, & I wander back to our spot on the beach. I must have swallowed a gallon of saltwater in the wipeout as my stomach was just going yuck for a bit afterwards. My arms were shaking from the unexpected 100 yard dash to compete with el bumpo wave that couldn't have been more than 3 feet in height that couldn't have waited about 5 more seconds to break. I was there ma'an. I had it made. And the wave said NO, you shall not pass. It would have been a hilarious video if Terra had taken one to post up on Stupid Videos.

Where's John? Oh he's enjoying his yellow submarine. ha.

Until later comes turn it up to ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha wipeout.

Don't miss out, Free upgrade...

2007-06-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

So the PC world is a buzz about Microsoft Vista operating system. All computer makers are only focussing on Vista ready or capable systems now. That's nice...yawn. Don't need a new computer anytime soon. I have XP with service pack 2 at home & at work. Usually no problems & it's pretty stable. You'd think that would be the case with XP being out for the time it has been.

I did have to venture into the realm of testing something in Vista through VMWare. I just think & go ugh. They've done it again. UI totally revamped & changed. I thought the jump from Windows 2000 to XP was odd & hard to get used to at first. Then I tried to do the testing in Vista & to do anything you were used to doing in XP, such as configuring network settings & such, became a very foreign land. Then I had to do the same in testing using a Japanese version of Vista...that was fun trying to guess which icon or button to push. I think I melted in that journey.

So what I'm first getting at is that if I were to buy a new computer today, I would be forced to use Vista because that's all that computer manufacturers are putting on their systems. They are bowing down to Big Brother Gates, controller of Windows. It's the in thing to do & consumers don't get any say in it. And ya probably wouldn't find it easy to find a valid Windows XP installation disk to redo the system to be what you want it to be. I guess you could go the Linux route but no thanks.

The trigger to write this was that a friend bought her daughter a computer that was Vista capable but that was before Vista upgrades for Windows XP were available so HP included that once the Vista upgrade was available it would be sent to them for free. My friend is able to get around computers fairly well & she ventured into the upgrade process & did everything very well in terms of creating recovery disks & such before upgrading. I was impressed. She applied the upgrade which took something like 2 hours to do. Thanks Microsoft. I'm sure your customers really appreciate that. I got a call from her the other day saying that her computer won't start anymore & gets a cryptic message saying Operating system missing. She told me that she had applied the upgrade & soon after this problem appeared. I went over last night to help her with it & I first got the recovery disks to recover the XP that was there & intact prior to the upgrade. Got it all recovered & working fine or even better than fine 'cause I'm good.

In the process it hit me. Hmmm...XP on system for daughter who mainly does some things on the internet, sends emails, & maybe plays some games. I then asked myself "Why upgrade to Vista? What is the motivating factor to do so besides that it was there for free to do?" I couldn't think of any good reason. I asked friend if she did the upgrade based solely on that it was there for free to do. So the outcome was, leave the system as XP & forget Vista upgrade. First time around the upgrade didn't do so well with this particular computer so first impressions aren't that great for a process that takes over 2 hours to complete.

So I queried a couple of co-workers & asked basically what does upgrading to 32 bit Vista from XP gain someone? Basically the answer was, not a whole lot & there's no good motivating factor to do so unless you have 2 GB of memory or something crazy like that. And their responses did include comments about how the UI keeps getting mucked with with each new Windows release.

I can't imagine how many people try to do the upgrade just because their system is Vista capable & the upgrade came for free. What's even more scary is that the instructions that come with the upgrade don't really make it obvious that if you go through a recovery disk creation process, that process does NOT include backing up personal files & data. Step 1 does say "Go backup your stuff first." I guess one would have to know that the term & paradigm of an OS recovery disk does not include backing up your stuff you don't want lost.

I'm wondering how many people do the upgrade without first backing up their own data & personal files because they think the recovery process will do that for them or they don't understand the process enough. I can just hear the thousands of digital photo files disappearing for forever from people's computers. But then it's commonly known that ya should have a backup process planned out on an ongoing basis. And with USB drives getting smaller & with more capacity, backing up is a breeze. I get to enjoy a work provided 160 GB Western Digital USB drive that Costco has been carrying. I like it a lot.

So in regards to upgrading to a major OS revision, what does this new widget give you that you don't have in your stable XP operating system? If the answer doesn't include some major compelling reason, then stick with the motto "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix or upgrade it to a new OS." If it is broke, call your nearest me & I can try to help you take it outside & smash it up. ha.

For those about to endure Vista, may success be with thee but proceed at your own risk & be prepared for the time it will take afterwards no matter the result.

Until later comes, just say no to Vista all you XP users.

Things of guitar kit-dom

2007-05-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

Rambles of things about kit guitar-dom. They are an interesting adventure, especially when they are rapidly assembled by stressed out & overwhelmed kit provider prior to shipping.

First thing I noticed was some string buzz on the lower strings in the first couple o' frets. It's got an original floyd bridge clone which doesn't have individual saddles for each string; a saddle allows you to adjust the action of an individual string. So to set action is basically screw bridge all the way down & slowly raise each side so no more string buzz occurs on the 1st 12 frets of each string. It took a bit of tweaking but I seem to have gotten it. Too bad I have to take it all apart. ha. I might upgrade the bridge to something that has the saddles for each string as I use those GHS Boomers that have thicker Low E, A, D strings. With the bridge it has on there, the action would have to be raised higher & it would feel like the strings were in outer space.

The 2nd thing I noticed was that the high E string was very close to the edge of the neck & easily slipped off the neck while playing. It also felt weird to bend or tap on it. I peaked at the back of the neck & sure enuff the locking nut was positioned without much care or attention to detail & gave the Low E more room on the fret board as the nut hung over the neck's edge on the low E side.

The 3rd thing I thought I needed to do was finish the back of the neck & fretboard. I was not feeling too comfortable with learning that process, although it sounds much easier than doing up a body with 5150 or whatever stripes. ReRanch.com has good instruction for finishing a guitar's neck along with a Wood Satin Clear finish. After emailing John G., the paint guy who wrote the book, I realized that I didn't have to finish the fretboard or the back of the neck as the natural wood feel feels great.

I could start taking it all apart & priming the body as the primer isn't too much. But I'll have to wait a while to get the desired paint & chrome paint kit that I'll also be using for it. The chrome kit is like $115+shipping & the needed paint supplies is like $125 + $42 for the primer + $18 for the final rubbing compound. It sure would be nice to walk into a store to get these supplies but there's no store I can find that carries urethane based things. I'm guessing there's some environmental thing in our state that does not allow for these products to be obtained easily. So ya gotta pay shipping if ya want to play the painting game.

Anyway that's the life of this kit at the moment. Strange thing is that I haven't plugged it into me amp yet. Busy busy with boys & such.

Side note: I learned this week that after 10+ years of having this amp, that I've hardly used, the effect return input jack is a stereo, tip-ring-sleeve-jack so I can have major stereo mojo from my Quadraverb 2's output running into the amp. Way cool.

Until later comes, turn it up to kit-dom.

Service, schmirvice #2

2007-05-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

Ok so back to service issues. I'm stuck on this. First experience was stopping at Chevy's at Westgate on Sun. to eat mom's day dinner with Terra & her mom & dad & boys as we had journeyed to IKEA to look about. We go in about 8pm & the wait is about an hour. Turns out only 2 servers were available as the manager sent most of the wait staff home early due to a lull. HELLO McFly! It's mother's day & the mother's are out with family & hopefully at play all day. Later dinners are probably the norm for mother's day. Sheez so we bailed & hit Red Robin & Monster Burgers. yum.

2nd) In regards to the previous entry about the one entity who expected me to chase them down for a not so cheap item...

Got email last week saying the item was shipping that week.
No new information by Fri. afternoon so emailed to find out status.
Get back "The FedEx labels will be printed tonight & things will be shipped out next week"
So Friday night was the end of the week, for the week the item was to be shipped, & still not shipped. Grumble factor increasing.
So no new information on Mon. am so I left a voice message & in grumpy way stated "I don't care about when 'they' are shipping out. I want to know when MY item will be shipped & to please call me on my cell.
Monday night came around & still no return call.
Sent email getting more frustrated at the lack of customer service & stated that if I cannot talk somebody soon about this then I'll consider cancelling my order.
Response was in a tone of the company who has stated the thing I ordered, & paid for, & therefore mine already, is mad at their customers for getting mad at them. You want customers yet you are going to get mad them for wanting what you're selling them.
So I wrote back & explained in a nice way how it's very confusing on our end & reminded him of the simple concept of sitting at a table starving waiting for the waiter to show up but never does.
I also threw out possibly getting a temp. someone to be the one-on-one human voice that is greatly lacking in this process.
He wrote back stating that the company is struggling & blah-de-blah & that I wasn't the first one to get uppity about the lack of service, etc.
I could relate to a small company going through struggles because I work for one. I just encouraged him to press on.
He wrote back an apology for the lack of response & then offered a generous addition to the order. I was actually amazed.

Attention businesses who want customers....Please make available a human being to answer phones & emails in a timely, friendly, & knowledgable way. Dont' make the customer chase you down. Don't tell the customer that you're busy & trying to get stuff out the door or busy doing what's a natural part of your buiness. That's part of your existence & you'd rather be busy wouldn't you? Don't get mad at the customers for being mad at the lack of replies & responses as you have our stuff & we want to know what's going on with it. If you're behind just say you're number 57 on the list so it'll go out Wednesday or Thursday; that's better than us not having any idea at all about status. Regardless if I'm spending 5 cents or $500,000 on your product, treat me the same as if I am gold to you. And please note that how you treat me during my first communication with you will determine if I will be a customer & look at & buy your products. As you know there are many sources for acquiring that which you have to offer. I have no problem looking for another provider or even paying a little bit more money. Now I return you to your process flows & such.

Ok until later comes turn it up to oh servant person come hither.

Troops & Iraq

2007-05-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday when me pa was over for the boys game, we drove to Costco for Costco chow. And whilst travelling about I asked him from his wisdom & life experiences about the Iraq situation. The root of the issue is establishing diplomatic order & peace. Many argue, we didn't need an invitation to come in. Why do we need an invitation to leave? Establishing peace seems an insurmountable task. And the process is costing lives of citizens of the region & yes our soldiers. Would pulling troops out solve anything or do anything good for the people there? That to me seems like the adults walking out on a kindergarten class & let the kids do their own thing unsupervised all day long. What you get is mess, disorder, chaos, & most likely kids hurt or crying. I heard this in a moment yesterday on the radio when I was parking at a store & I didn't hear anything before these words
"...To serve & protect & to help the Iraqi people."

I do not know what all the little victories & successes are with troop present there. But I'm sure there are stories of courage, of feeling protected in a time of great fear, Of children seeing the troops there & knowing that there's someone here to help us because they're scared & unsure. When entering the service one is expected to have the courage to put onesself in harm's way for others. And serving the Iraqi people is the mission. I don't like to hear of attacks on our troops and some dying. The most common question is "What are they dying for?" They are simply dying so that others might have a better life than they have had in many years. So they aren't dying for nothing. They're dying for the freedom of oppressed people. There's no greater offering than to lay down one's life for one's friend or for one who you are helping. May the grieving friends & family of those who have died somehow come to realize that they died trying to help others in need.

Jammers & Jams that are hidden & lost to time...

2007-05-10T13:10:00.001-07:00

We all, well most of those interested in things of guitar players, & jams & such, know the story of Michael Jackson & the solo part of the song Beat It. Edward Van Halen was asked to come do the solo for it & EVH agreed to just do it for free or what have you. Then the solo became one of top leads EVH has ever done & it was probably 1 take or so. Sheez. And it's a song lost to time as well as a 'classic' lead being lost to the wind. I remember way back then Mad magazine did a spoof about it somehow how having funny drawings of Jackson and/or his people calling Edward Van Halen and/or his people to see if EVH would just jam over to the studio to lay a solo down for the song Beat It and how EVH aftwards regretted doing it for free & fun as Beat It was such a huge hit. Guess you had to see the Mad Magazine issue or be there. Those who have ions of time could go try to dig it up somewhere I guess. Onward...

So that reminded of me of solos hidden in the popularity of movies in the industry & how the coolest riffs, music, & total outpouring of the musicians & their talents, etc. just hide. I still have yet to hear in full the song EVH & Alex Van Halen did for the movie Twister which got nominated for a Grammy. I'll have to do the EBay thing to get the sound track's CD I guess. So where I am rambling in all this? I dunno I forgot....uhm...oh yeah...lost or never heard or hidden solos. Sorry, I must have gotten lost for a moment or was it longer than that?

Music/soundtracks for movies are an odd entity aren't they? The music is a necessary part of the movie experience & is only a small miniscule part of the whole movie industry pie & that part of the pie is there for a moment then tossed & most likely unnoticed. I guess as a creator of anything, you learn how to pour yourself into your art in the present & then let it go unto history for those who partake in it from then on, especially those who go into retro mode. Just look at Star Wars & John Williams & all the orchestra members & all that was created for those movies but just it all just hides behind the story lines, action, & effects.

Very scary....Saw a sign in Watsonville for some small giggage of bands like Poison & Ratt. Talk about retro mid 80's. I wonder how many 80's-90's musicians decided to enter into rehab 'cause Eddie just finished his stay in it & came out of it looking much better? I remember a video clip from something about guitar in rock on VH1 thing & Dweezl Zappa said he molded his hair style & length to whatever it is Eddie did. I still remember the metal world being shocked & in disbelief that EVH cut his hair to break the big hair style & image of rock-dom. Hello...focus John...How did I get on this subject? I 'unno. Oh yeah retro things which is pertinent to the below.

So this is one of my favourite lead parts & it's just a few notes-the best leads usually are-with energy, power, & harmonic jammin....Can you name the song? Can you name the guitar player? If yes cool...If no, read on...
http://www.pplministries.org/jam.mp3
- All things of the above belong to somebody's copyright & trademarks.

If you couldn't guess the song yet then, can you name it from this full lead part? I'm sure the ending of the lead gives it away. But perhaps not. It is one of my fav leads...
http://www.pplministries.org/jamfullsolo.mp3
- All things of the above belong to somebody's copyright & trademarks.

Answer cannot be disclosed until later from now.

I wish I had the teacher, I had in mid 90's that showed me I could write songs & record & such, when I was in my teens taking lessons from the nearest Guitar Showcase schmoe in town. I've always been a purist in that I want to get every note & nuance as the original. He just wasn't able to be that for the hard rockin' tunes & leads I wanted to emulate. I wanted to play the above referenced lead, but he just wasn't able to do/be that. Welp now I know better & I realized whilst listening to the above referenced song that started this rambling & wandering blog that I need to venture unto finding someone who does know or can learn the parts & then help me to a) play them as such & b) to get the guitars & equipment I already have to sound like it should or at least as I think I would like them to. I joked with a friend this AM, make me a great sounding amp that has a volume knob & a power button. Knobs & I do not get along well at all! It's almost worse than sibling rivalry between knobs & I.

Until later comes, turn it up to power to the music people

Service, schmirvice...pleah...

2007-05-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Long ago when I was at SJSU-dang that was a long time ago-I worked in the electronics/computer dept. of the Spartan Bookstore. One day out of the blue the dept. manager decided that the male employees in that dept. needed to wear ties & the thinking was that selling Mac's to students & teachers was like selling cars to someone. They wasn't cheap & customers were making a huge investment. So the sales persons should look appropriate for such a sales environment. Why do I mention this? Because good service is just not very dominant these days. Restaurant service & food quality is not so great more often than not. Terra went in to a store to get a very specific shampoo product to make sure cat Emmitt doesn't get any fleas as the temps warm up. The person helping her just basically gruffed at her & said something like "It would be over there" and just pointed. I've emailed two different guitar body/neck makers to inquire about some specifics of what they offer as well as seeking some suggestions. Not one reply. And so now I take you to the journey of this week...

So I get a newsletter email about a particular item & the provider mentions ordering by May 1, by midnight. Yeah, it is a marketting ploy to get people to buy now rather than later. They are mostly a net of inter seller & therefore want & probably expect most people to pay via PayPal. I Try to call on May 1 & no answer. No replies to emails I sent. That is very confusing...You want customers to hurry & buy your something so you can get it out of your warehouse, but you're not available by phone or email for customers on the day you advertised as the "Come & get it day." So I create an email stating what I want, the billing & shipping addresses & such, with a request to call so as to give the payment information. The reply I get the next day, yesterday was, "Call us after 9:30 am EST." Hmmm, so I have to try & chase you down in order to buy the item I'm interested in that you want people to buy sooner than later. So I try to call & email on May 2. Nobody avaiable by phone or email again. Boy they really must want to sell stuff to people. They didn't even return a voice message I left yesterday. So I constructed, basically a resend with some ranting included, of what I sent the previous day. Reply I got this morning was "We're in the warehouse packing things all this week. Call back & blah blah blah or use PayPal, etc. HELLO, Not everyone wants to use the all powerful PayPal system or has a PayPal account to use for every purchase in their lives. Yes I do have a PPal account but for this one matter I didn't want to use it for private reasons. I can understand possible treatment for a cheap item. But for something that's not as cheap you'd think the seller would do whatever they could to make things easier for the buyer. The net of inter has made things very strange. Computers & e-commerce systems have become the sales people. Or should I say Big Brother is becomming more prominent, only about 23+ years later than the book.

I've made it a point, & not just for tax write off guitar painting biz reasons, that when I go into a Starbucks or whatever, that when they ask for my name to write on the cup or what have you, I say something like "But now you have to tell me your name." They usually tell me & laff & probably find it odd that someone would do that. I then s'plain something about how people are becomming more & more disconnected. Then I show my biz card really quick & happily write the person's name on the receipt so I can write off the food stuffs & miles. This reminds me of the story circulated many a time about a nursing teacher querying her students in class to see if they even knew the name of the lady, the students saw day after day, who cleans the floors & such in the hallway just outside of the classroom door. Not one of them knew the lady's name. The teacher's point was that ya gotta connect well with people & get to know them if you're going to be their nurse in their health needs.

I guess it becomes if you want to do something or know something specific, about what is offered, it's probably easier, faster, & better to just pick up the phone & call as emails & electronic blah-de-blahs can so easily fall into the ether of their realms & go unanswered. But I wonder how many customers go elsewhere because some bizness didn't reply to the customer's email or electronic communication in a timely manner. My motto, if you don't want to or cannot reply to someone's electronic inquiry, don't provide an email address or way for customers to communicate with you that way.

Until later comes, turn it up to people & the internet are strange.

Growing pains...

2007-04-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I literally have perhaps .5 to an hour to tweak or do things on weekdays on guitar painting things. The things I was struggling through a few to several weeks ago were a sure beacon of oops, & back up & try again. But at the time I probably wouldn't have known how to do so. I was trying to take what was & make look better. But no matter how I tried I seemed to only make little to negative progress, ie the 2 steps forward 3 steps back kind of thing. I reached my end. It's probably no different than someone drafting a story, book, or essay & deciding to scrap it all & do it right. I've found myself doing that with operating systems during dev or QA things as well & either reinstalling the OS from scratch, using Ghost to get OS back to known good state, and now using the simplicity of VMWare for things. I reach a state & say enuff of this, I'm starting it over to get back to a known good stable state.

Thursday night I reached my end with the things I've been trying to make look well on the back of Fender. But the things I was trying to correct stemmed from way way back in the process of using cruddy masking tape & poor bleed through corrections. I wouldn't have sold or given the thing to a flea let alone keep it for self & play it. So on this day, the stripes exist fairly well for the most part on front but are covered with blue tape & some paper. I quickly sanded down the back & the body now sits with, I think, 4 coats of primer as a base & 4 coats of white. No regrets in choosing to redo the back now that I know better what I'm doing. So by tonight I should have enough coats of white on the side stripes to clean them up & make sure that there's a good even flow from the sides to the back. Then I'll have to wait 4 days before taping & then doing red. Three days is the suggested time to wait but my unfun has been that the side stripe paint peels really easy when trying to remove the tape & the peeling really ticks me off. Again, knowing that it will look way better was worth the backing up. Job satisfaction is needed from the creator even though the area being redone is the back.

I'm not sure I'm going to pour much oomph into putting things on the backs of guitars. Not many will see the backs when guitar is just hanging around or being played. Streamline the creative processes is my thoughts regarding the backs. But any time I do a 5150 design for my own fun or for whatever reason in the future, I'll put the back stripes on just because EVH was there.

Until later comes, I continue to vent out the steam of the growing pains.

A letter from the stripes

2007-04-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

So 1) be sure to read Well Done ramble below this one.

Dear John,
I am your Fender stripe-i-fied guitar. I did look great as I was & then you came along & just stripped me down to bare nothing. I knew not why you were doing that. What did I ever do to deserve such treatment? I've looked good in my blue all these years. I've sounded well. I stayed in tune for you. I stood by silently watching you play your other guitars wondering why you wouldn't play me too.

I've had to endure the coats of sealer & more sanding. Boy that was sure a lot of fun. Really appreciated that. Thanks a lot...sheez. I've never felt so embarassed when you just hung me out in the open air all exposed like that & with you taking pictures of me. What are you some kind of perverted freak? Oh I know it's guitars gone wild isn't it? Well I'll strike the pose for you buddy. You like that? How about this? Lemme show you my killer backside cause baby I got back!

I was relieved to be coated with primer & white. But I lost my identity in that I had no idea what you were going to do with me. Why couldn't you just let me stay as I was in my great blue? Then you stuck all that sticky stuff all over me. I wondered what the heck are you trying to do to me? Let me tape you bucko so you can see how it feels. So I'm there in my white underwear with tape all over me. Great! What am I a model for underwear & tape or something.

Next thing I know I'm being covered with red spooge. Great now I have red spots all over me. Can I just be blue again please?! Leave me alone already! So once again I hang there in my taped up underwear looking like I have the measles or something. And then more red spooge comes at me. Did I ever tell you all these things you've put on my really stink & smell. I bet you I'll be damaged in some way for having to sniff all this stuff. When this is all over I'm calling my lawyer. I never consented to this. Why am I...uh....white...wait a minute, now I'm red all over. What the? You actually clothed me in red. Cool. But...hmmm....I still have all this tape all over me from your freakazoidal photo shoot & strange fantasies of guitars in bondage gone wild. Well at least I'm covered up now. How nice of you to care so much that after days of just hanging out & around you decide to cover me up. Thanks for thinking of me. Don't let me swinging about in the breeze hit you on the way back in. I hope this hook you have me stuck to breaks & I fall on your head & I knock you out or at least bring you to your senses. You must dislike me immensely or something to do this to me. Why don't you just smash me up instead? Get me down from here!

Hey! Ouch! What are you doing! That hurts. Oh, great, now you think of taking the tape off. What took you so long to realize that it was on there? Well I sure hope you get the tape off of me quick & I hope you get all tangled up in it. Ha! That would be a laff. Dang that hurts though. Ouch! Can't you be more gentle? What'd you have to put the tape on in the first place? It burns! It burns! Get it off me now! Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww! (time passes)

Finally! Man, lemme put that tape on your hairy arms & then yank hard & see how good that feels to you. Oh great, you're just going to leave me hanging here with my unfinished red and whaaaaat!? Stripes? What the? How'd that... Hey wait a minute, I'm red with crazy white stripes! Check me out world! Take that you dumb Ibanez that gets played more than me. I'm stripe-i-fied & look at you just sitting there in your plain dull Jewel blue. Man, this suit makes me look good. Hey! Ouch! That really hurts! Oh, so now you're going to cut me up with that blade huh. What kind of sicko freak are you anyway? You make me look cool & then you start scraping me up. What gives? Can I have some anesthesia please? Or at least a couple of shots of Jack Daniels. I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding! Someone call 9-1-1! Oh wait, it's dried stuff. Heh, heh, I guess I bled already. Oh so now you think you're this great doctor & surgeon & you're going to just fix up all these red marks. You just watch it bucko! You so much as poke me with that thing I'll....OUCH! Dang-narn-it! That hurts! Be careful. You don't know what you're doing do you? Let me take that dry sharp blade to your stuble on yer face & see how that goes for you. (More time passes)

Well gee thanks for that acupuncture torture that I never wanted or asked for. I bet you've really messed me up now. See that stripe there...huh? Where'd that dry red stuff go? I'm still red. I still have white stripes. And I look better than before the acupuncture carnage. Whoa dude, thaz kinda cool. But you need to cool it with that blade thing. Am I done yet? Can I please be done now? Can you just put me back together now? Wait, let me guess, there's more. Why else would I just be hanging around still?

Oh joy, more sticky tape. Aren't I good enough for you? Haven't I had enough. You always want more from me. You always want me to be someone I'm not able to be. I'm red & white. That's who I am now. At least I know that much. I at least have some dignity left. What the? Hack hack cough cough choke choke. What gives now! Now your spooging me with black. You need to figure yourself out ma'an. First I'm naked. Then I'm in my white underwear. Then I'm red & white. Now you want me to be black. Make up your crazy mind you fool. I don't know who or what you want me to be. Stop! Enough! Aren't I good enough for you the way I am? Why are you always trying to change me? Why don't you change yourself first? Spray yourself with paint & leave me be.

Blast ye my new found foe. Why dost though yank upon the tape upon my being yet again by taking off that tape. First I'm in bondage. Then I'm not. Then I am again. Now I'm not again. Can't you make up your mind? You know I'm just going to end up with bruises from such rough treatment. This is abuse! You need some serious help bud. See I'm black and blu....black stripes? I'm still red with white stripes & now black stripes. Whoa did you see that Ibanez? Ha! Beat that! You know, it's better to look good than to feel good. Dude! I be looking crazy insane. Now am I done? Please tell me I'm done. Dude? Dooood! Where'd ya go! Come on, don't just leave me hanging here! Yo! Freakinator! I've given you all that I can. What more do you want from me?! Oh the humanity! You dress me up & then you leave me high & dry. Yo barkeeper? Martini, shaken not stirred! Someone! Anyone! Bueller? Bueller? Anyone! HELP ME! I'm hungry! Can anyone give me some burned up brown burgers that were burnt all over town?

- Stripey

(And the story pauses there. What will happen next? Why is stripey still hanging there? Will there be more tape? Will there be more scraping with the blade? Will the striped crazy one get free? Will someone come to help him. Stay tuned to this same stripey channel at the same stripey time in the nearly insane future.)

Author's note:
And now for something completely different. Any similarities between this story and any persons, entities, or groups, is entirely coincidental. No animals were hurt during this writing. Do not try any of the stunts portrayed in this journey as they are performed by specially trained crazy incompetent fools who don't know what they are doing. This story is based upon actual events in the life of a Fender guitar but some events were modified at the author's creative discrection. The guitar was not harmed in the writing of this story. The guitar still needs some minor touch ups due to many factors beyond the painter's control, peeling paint under tape here & there & gravity being a couple of those factors. The guitar apparently made an attempt to get away from it's hanging place last night in the dark but instead just fell to the carpet & received a couple of minor fixable dents from obstructions during the brief travel. The incident was investigated & it was determined that darkness combined with a female person stepping the wrong way in the dark caused a disturbance in gravity thereby causing the guitar to have a short trip during the fall. The aforementioned female was not injured. The guitar threatened to sue the author for hanging him so carelessly on a top heavy clothing drying apparatus but negotiations between guitar & author created a simple repair plan. The guitar deemed that it was in his best interest to be completed instead of getting tied up for months in legal processes. Guitar does demand being completed as soon as possible however with no more mistakes during the touch up processes that have held up progress. Author was placed under surveillance two nights ago after threatening to give up & burn guitar due to guitar maliciously & purposely shedding paint in various locations. Author has since learned to go slowly & be more calm & is learning to make peace with the ensuing issues. Guitar is not available for comment. Please direct all inquiries to the crazy insane author who doesn't know what he's doing at times & writes very long rambles.

Until later comes, turn it up to Get On With It

Well Done Eddie

2007-04-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Not much to say other than this bit of long rambles...

http://www.pplministries.org/WellDoneEddie.htm

Until later comes turn it up to eat some lunch.

A 2nd email to person @ ELVH Inc. I still laugh.

2007-04-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I am writing to offer an unsolicited suggestion that stems from the confusion that many write about in forums & such about the evh stripe designs. Perhaps you are already aware of the confusions that exist.

If ELVH Inc. is out to protect the stripe designs, it seems to make simple sense to have a website that describes simply & clearly in very easy to understand language about the copyrights & trademarks & what constitutes infringement. There are many a confused person throughout the world in regards to the infamous stripes. Some have written that they've turned their backs on EVH because of auctions being pulled, rightly so of course. There are many people who are angry with Edward in regards to stripes on guitars & alienation is occurring. If the aforementioned website was easily found by search engines, more people would be educated more quickly. And it seems that would reduce the workload upon those at ELVH Inc. I did many a search on the net & found nothing about Frankie 1 & 2. I did learn quickly about the 5150 design being trademarked however but not from searching the net.

I've found many a picture & many videos on YouTube that would most likely be considered infringement upon all things Van Halen. And none of what I found have any notice of copyright with them.

The web has created a huge, if not impossible, challenge for those seeking to protect their intellectual/artistic property.

The reality is people are going to set out to paint evh stripes on their own guitars. There's nothing that is going to stop that throughout the world. The stripes in of themselves are a legend & people want to have them. I know I won't do so, but many who paint guitars will set out to paint the stripes for profit in secret. Many will try to find loopholes to do so. Why? Solely because they cannot afford what is offered via manufacturers. It's hard to understand how any entity who paints guitars for $250 to $400 for profit is infringing upon the Fender $25+ thousand dollar market or the $2k+ Charvel artist series market. People seeking such paint jobs cannot afford more than $400-$600 for a guitar.

But unlike many, if not hundreds, I do & will respect the copyrights & trademarks in place.

Until later comes, turn it up to let freedom jam.

Big Brother found me...I have to laugh

2007-04-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

I have to laugh at both myself & ELVH Inc. Big Brother found me, aka ELVH inc. Someone from there wrote me an email & I quote:

"I am writing to you from the Van Halen office. It has come to our attention that you are offering your services to paint in the EVH designs onto unlicensed VH guitars.

Please be aware that the three artistic striped EVH designs are copywritten by ELVH, Inc.- Edward Van Halen.

The red, white and black design: (Copyright: Frankenstein design- VAu 505-308).

The white and black design: (Copyright: Original Frank design- VAu 558-125)

The yellow and black design: (Copyright: Franky design- VAu 544-060).

Please note that all three designs are copywritten by ELVH, Inc (Edward Van Halen), and that it needs to be noted that all three designs are owed by ELVH, Inc on your website.

Also, please know that making a profit off of these copyrights is a copyright infringement.

Your website has been forwarded to the Fender Music Corporation for review."

So I removed images of concern & updated webpages as such. Then wrote the person back & stated that I had done this & to forward the revised site to any entities as desired. I also stated that I have not painted the designs on anyone's guitars. And then I apologized if I had offended anyone's intellectual property. Then I sent the email & then I laughed. I couldn't & didn't resist stating that I respect the copyrights & trademarks but I do agree with one entity's statement:
"...there are still fans that want a guitar in the style of their guitar hero...and not too many fans want to, or can, for that matter, pay over $2k or for a guitar....the individual in question might consider rethinking their market strategy and provide an affordable graphic guitar that the "true" fans can afford, not just the collectors!"

Copyrights aside for a brief moment, no schmoe painting guitars for $250-$400 is infringing upon Fender's 25k market nor upon the 2k Charvel artist series things. So I laugh. I laugh at my feeble attempts to put said designs on my website. I laugh at E... Inc's efforts to protect the precious especially in that what is protected is not being used to advertise Halen other than the occasional guitar manufacturer's offerings. Heck the 1st is now almost, if not already, 30 years old. Let it go already. Sheez. I laugh because at the moment it's like "Van Who?" And I laugh because many have posted many copyrighted & trademarked things related to evh on the web.

Reinstating the copyrights now, I must bow & cower in secret to the powers/laws that be. And I put this on my status site as well:
"The following pictures show what has been created on my own personal guitar which will not be sold. Please note that the design I’ve painted on my own personal guitar is copywritten by ELVH, Inc (Edward Van Halen), I’m not the only person or entity in the world who has posted pictures of work they have done on their own personal guitars & wanted to share it with their friends & family. To those who might find this to be infringement upon intellectual property, I challenge you to provide a public offering of guitars of good quality that are in the $500-$800 price range. I do not know one regular simple person who could afford the Charvel artist series offerings nor the Fender offerings."

So I continue to just touch up me crazy #1 & not worry about Big Brother. Stripes is as stripes does I guess & they can only be duhzed by the one who created them in the 1st place.

Until later comes, turn it up to a good "oh well" laugh.

S'tar & other yakking bits

2007-03-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

So hit the SC harbor with yella thingy. Just headed out to the harbor lighthouse thing & decided to head into the incoming high tide & paddled, from start, 1.4 miles, to the end of the SC Wharf where there were a couple o' starfish hanging on pilings & a sea lion barking constantly at nothing in particular. Theyz just gotta lot to say I guess. Turned around & just let the tide drift me inward & back towards the harbor. Other than a few moments of paddling for course correction, I got a free ride back to harbor mouth. Then paddled up into the back end of the harbor towards where Frederick St. Park is. No otters this journey. It sure took my mind off of bleed throughs & stripes & the state of do over.

Until later comes, turn it up to drifting along with the tide.

DRM Ramble - Jobs made some good points

2007-03-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

So many dinners ago brother Glop sent along a link to Steve Jobs writing about digital rights media, DRM. T'was interesting to read. I found it amusing that, according to Jobs, most music is still purchased on CDs which is totally unprotected content. Each consumer has the ability to post the unprotected content, illegally of course, on the web for others to steal. I also found it interesting that if the major music giants were to discontinue requiring DRM, that Jobs & Apple would happily embrace that paradigm shift & remove the DRM stuff that's in place. I just have to laugh at the comedic irony that many strides are taken to protect digital music but at the same time the companies that require the DRM to be in place make available the same music, in unprotected form, on CDs. And I've probably repeated myself somehow in this ramble but hey why not. But hey why not. Wait I just said that.

Anyway...until later comes turn it up to protected content that for the most part remains unprotected.

S'otters...aka saw the otters...

2007-03-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

So I S'otters yesterday at the Elkhorn Slough. The night before I had a Caleb & a Noah wanting to go to the Slough with me. But come yesterday morning I get "Dad, I don't want to go." Sheez. Anyway...Went out about an hour before the predicted high tide. T'was easy to head out. There's a pack of otters that hang out about 1.5 miles from Moss Landing Harbor. I did observe something this week. When I was at the harbor last week there was the otter I called Flip. Flip was much more used to boat traffic & noises & such as Flip just laid there chopping on his/her food whilst I drifted nearby & watched. The otters at the Slough however are quite skiddish & if you so much as look at them they go hide under water not to be seen again for a long time. Till the wind picked up the Slough was smooth as glass.

Until later comes turning it up to drifting.

iYak - 1st yakkage of spring...

2007-03-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

So hit the harbor with the yella water craft last early evening. Paddled out .8 miles from launch spot. Harbor entrace light house is about .5 miles from launch spot. So went out .3 miles from the entrance. Saw two otter friends during the journey whom I will call Flip & Flap & they will be my squisshies? huh? Nemo reference. Flip was in the harbor. Flap was out past my .8 miles. Some boater comin in mentioned that the CA grey whales are out there headin' north. I didn't see any this time around. T'was nice to float about & be bounced around by the oceans lumps & bumps. Paddled back in & saw Flap on his/her back chopping on some delicacy found on the harbor bottom. Did a power paddle from launch ramp to Crow's Nest & back which is about .25 miles 1 way. So all in all paddled & floated 2.1 miles. Need to build some stamina so I can do a paddle from harbor to Capitola beach. The Harbor is nice to train in because you don't have to worry so much about high & low tides along with head winds like you do at the Elkhorn Slough.

Until later comes, turn it up to drifting.

Rock fame...

2007-03-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

1) So watched the DVR recording of the rock hall of fame induction. Skipped through most of it. Watched the Van Halen part of it. And what I find amusing is that the two people that contributed very significantly to the band & who were cast away & no longer part of the 'drama' were the ones present for the induction. The others, exluding the obvious reasons for EVH, were where doing what? Who looked better to those watching on? They had every reason not to come but their presence there showed more courage & more maturity. And then they indicated that if a future tour opportunity for them to participate in came along they would just jump right in. Sammy mentioned "When we all grow up, myself included..." Perhaps Michael & Sammy have already done so.

2) I've noticed this in two different things. First is a show I recorded about how guitar & guitarists have influenced rock. Eddie was interviewed & he said that instead of pursuing the social life as a kid/teen, he'd just spend hours playing & learning. And then last night in one of the clips Eddie said something like "All I know how to do is play. I don't/can't talk to people very well." DING! LIGHT BULB! Why does he have any influence then on decisions made in the band then?

3) Why Velvet Revolver? I had to skip the song they did 'cause the singer was just plain strange wiggling around how he did. I did enjoy hearing Slash though. I wonder if the red stripe guitar the guy was playing was one of the Fender relics or the actual Frankie. Who knows.

Prose...Gifted Man...

2007-03-05T11:07:00.000-08:00

Gifted Man
Written by John Brooks 3/5/2007. Copyright (c) John Brooks. All rights reserved.

A rambling about Edward Van Halen after hearing of the cancelled tour, one news article commenting on Eddie being a recluse like other stars of recent years, and of hearing about the 'delicate politics' in Van Halen that might lead to the absence of the Halens at the Rock Hall of Fame induction.

Other similar items of prose about him -> http://www.pplministries.org/DearEVH.htm

You rocked insanely hard as a younger lad
Now you wither away not able to regain what you had
Did your fame & stardom & even cancer drive you mad? (1)
Saw the YouTube clip of you playing Fender relic at NAMM
I see a clip of you now & I think eghads!
A talent & a legend, yes you bet; you are a very gifted man
But you just can't seem to hold together the infamous band
Why do I care so much for I shouldn't give much of a damn
Too me it seems simple, pick up guitar & find a jam
Let fingers do their thing upon the fretland
Rock till duhn with them gifted hands
And just do what ya love to do for the fans
Rock wherever & whenever because you can
But everything has to be a big show & full of image, acting, spotlights, glitz & glam
Why do you have to try to only hit a grand slam?
Perhaps it is better that you hide away instead of touring the lands
For you seem to be very unstable & it's hard to see & it is sad
You probably ought to just focus on writing & playing for yourself & being a dad
Rock on Edward whether it be on stage, or in yer 5150 launch pad
And if you don't then you'll just be remembered as the one who rocked hard with Frankenstrat

Good giztarage paintage wiz-doh-uhm

2007-02-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

So I emailed an inquiry to one of the paint dude's customers, Jim at www.strict9guitars.com who was interviewed on John's www.paintyourownguitar.com site. Mainly I inquired about his wisdom about the value that painting a guitar adds to a guitar's value so that I can offer something for our kids' school's annual auction next year. Had I started this venture about 3 months ago I would've gotten a Star Power Guitar painted for this year's auction on the 10th. Oh well. Better to have some experience & practice behind ya with backing photos & videos to help people see that this me did do it....Hopefully I will be able to "Do It My Way."

My 2nd reason for inquiring is possibly doing paint things for other people to make money on the side, but keeping it a hobby & fun, to help the cause of feeding the 3 bottomless pit boyzages as well as the even more hungrier fuel tanks on two cars with increasing fuel costs.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the wisdom from Jim as it's helpful.

"I'm painting a guitar for a raffle right now so I'm kinda in the same boat...

The value of a paintjob is very subjective. Basically it's worth whatever you can get somebody to pay for it, haha. That said, as a hobbyist (which I am) I can basically charge whatever I want for my labor above and beyond what it costs for supplies. Let's say the paintjob is gonna cost me around $80-$90 for paint/supplies, then maybe I want to change the color of the knobs or the pickguard so it looks a little cooler with the chosen finish, now I might have another $30-$50 into it, bringing me a cost of around $110-$140, so let's say it's gonna cost $125 to acheive the finish I'm looking for. Then you grab a StarPower project for about $250 and you're in it a grand total of $375

Then you gotta ask yourself "what could I sell it for, your market might be different in your area than in mine, but let's say you could get $600 for it. Would you be willing to paint the guitar for $225 and if so, then do it, and have fun, remember when you treat it like a job, it's not as fun as it was when it was a hobby! haha

As far as painting guitars for other people...

Do some internet searches as well, there are places that'll actually show you right on their website how much they'd charge you for a single color finish on a strat. They have a bit of a reputation and can crank 'em out faster than you and I can, so they might get a few bucks more for their version, but it'll get you started.

And of course theres what usually happens to me, and that is "man, that's gonna be a cool finish, I'd REALLY like to do it", so I go a little lower on my price just because I REALLY wanna do the finish. I'm working on a checkered Firebird right now, just for that reason.

When you finish yours you'll have an idea of how much time is involved, my first 4-5 guitars I actually kept track of how long it took me to do each step, so I'd be able to see how long each thing took seperately, and to be able to add up those little tasks to help me get an idea of how much to charge. It's not an exact science, but it'll get you close.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, have fun and just enjoy painting guitars. Enjoy setting them up, enjoy taking pictures of them, getting to play them before anybody else, the whole thing, otherwise it's kinda like a job and then the money just doesn't seem to add up. I mean let's face it, if you have a real job, your hourly overtime rate is going to be more than the amount of money you make an hour painting guitars, but if it's fun and you make a little who cares.
I never ship a guitar back without insuring it for the amount that it would cost me to replace it for the customer, and I always make them spring for the shipping, as a seperate cost from the paintjob. I also never send a guitar home without a case, even a cheap universal from Musicians Friend. I have folks sending me parts to build them a guitar then paint it, and I always tell them to send an extra $40-$50 and then I go grab them a case to send it home in. I thought you might find that useful.

Remember to tell them you are a hobbyist and that it might take a little while, otherwise they may try to hurry you, and don't be afraid to tell somebody "no". If you don't have time, or you're not sure if you can pull off the finish their looking for, whatever. If you do it anyway it can stress you out and it goes back to feeling like a job.
Have fun man, and send me some pictures, I always like to see what other people are doing, keeps the PYOG spirit alive!" - Jim

Until later comes turn it up to...Rock On! Yo....Duh....Mon.

Project Stripey Strat - Link

2007-02-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

Pics all in one place of fender sanding & painting project...

http://www.pplministries.org/FenderPainting.htm

Ouch....oomph...thud....may I have another...

2007-02-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

Step 1) Get a basketball

1.5) Get some shaved ice in a large bucket & get a companion to be with you.

2) Get some hooks you can screw into wood & run a rope through.

3) Get some rope.(1)

4) Get a flat piece of wood about 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick that's about 4 feet long & about 18-24 inches wide.

5) Stand on top of wood as you would on a skateboard.

6) Take a sharpey & outline your feet.

7) Attach a couple of hooks at the front & rear of each foot's contour line.

8) Grab your board & your basketball & don't forget yourself & go stand at the top of some stairs.

9) Run the rope through the hooks & around your feet so as to secure & bind your feet tightly to the board.

10) In one swift & perfect move, leap yourself up on top of the basketball & balance the board, & hence yourself as well, on top of the ball.

11) Now pivot yourself on top of ball so that the front foot is pointing down towards the bottom stair & such that most of your weight is on the forward foot.

12) Have your companion throw the shaved ice at you at random frequencies from various angles.

13) If you'd like you could skip the rope & hooks & just use a nail or staple gun to bind feet to board. But that involves blood & more pain. Your choice...

If you can do all this & not fall off of the ball or fall down the stairs....you can then attempt to snowboard.

When people say they spend most of the time on their rears whilst learning snowboarding...it's worse than that. It truly becomes "I've fallen, & I don't want to get up. Save yourselves & I'll just lay here crumbled up in a tired & exhausted & sore heap of I'm not 20 anymore." I think I did more push ups to stand up than all push ups done by the peons at a military boot camp in a year. And this was after taking a lesson & trying things out on the slope.

For me, I've spent my whole life with my feet existing separately & independantly from each other. To have both feet buckled down onto a board is quite foreign. Conceptually I could not get past that barrier. Boarders...have a great time....I'll stick to the simplicity of skiis. I've rediscovered muscles that I thought might have fallen off long ago......MEDIC!

Until later comes, turn it up to ouch.

Stripey-zoidals...

2007-02-02T13:08:00.001-08:00

So in looking more at these Mean Street guitars I came to learn that if you want one of the guitars with anything but the stock white, black, or natural finish one must pay an extra almost $400 & then wait is 4 months for the paint job. Ughage. So one ponders the buying of a natural finish model & then paint it stripey. Found a couple o' cool resources...But first a caveat is that apparently it has become illegal for others to sell books that teach about the process of cloning a trademarked design. Whatever world...I love this comment "(Artists - Watch Out If You're Showing People How To Draw Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny!)"

http://www.crazywebbys.com/~5150/index.htm

http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/offer.html

So me is tempted to buy the how to paint books for good solid foundation & then apply the painting journey to just a plain boring block o' wood. Once perfected, will then try on me solid blue Fender. If all is well then will consider the Mean Street purchase. Sounds fun & this actually seems more fun than building a tube amp kit.

Until later comes turn it up to paint.

Stripesdoidals

2007-02-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

Stripey thing...hmmm...Might have to try...

2007-01-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

So I've already rambled, & ranted, about the concept of signature series guitar & amp models. And the new Fender replica of EVH's Frakenstrat for a whopping $25,000 just makes you go...why? Only collectors will buy them & they'll just sit in display cases or hang on walls which is fine as art is art eh? So I started poking around to see if someone provides EVH looking kit guitars one could build for themselves or if someone sold a clone that looked cool & sounded decent but not necessarily how EVH sounds. Stumbled upon this one site that I find very interesting & intriguing...

First there is the products available...drool
http://www.meanstreetguitars.com/Mean%20Guitars.htm

Then there's stripey heaven...
http://www.meanstreetguitars.com/Mean_Street_Guitars_Unchained_5150_glossy_TC.jpg

Then there's the possibility of these...drool again...
http://www.meanstreetguitars.com/exile_guitars.htm

Then there's the interesting realm of building Exile for fun...If nothing else it's something the boys could kick around with.
http://www.axcessories.com/proddetail.asp?prod=ExileKit

Impressive collection:
http://www.meanstreetguitars.com/Jorges_guitars.jpg

But then I like the Stripey flame look...
http://www.meanstreetguitars.com/Mean_Street_Guitars_Evil_Rat_Jorge.jpg

Now a required exercise for the reader, that's you, is to pick a model & color scheme that you would go with & share your choice & why. The writer of this read, that's me, cannot help you make your choice. Assume that the testimonials are true & accurate & that the positive reviews on Harmony Central are true & accurate.

Till later comes...turn it up to affordable cool.

Amalgam o' stuff

2007-01-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

So now in third week of the year and it's now time for an amalgam of stuffs...

Language - So outside one store near the boys' school is a sign on which words are placed. The words on the sign a bit ago were congrating a couple on their new baby & the sign said "It's a boy." I didn't think much of it but my wandering mind got stuck on that simple phrase commonly used to announce a birth. I got to thinking about the use of "It's" in that saying. It? It what? It who? Of course It refers to the baby. Isn't the baby a he or she? So why not "He's a boy!" or "She's a girl!" But that's redundant....Wouldn't want someone to end up writing "He's a girl!" or "She's a boy!" How about "The baby' s a boy!" or "The baby's a girl!" "It's..." ugh.

Service dogs - Terra's mom has trained her personal dog, a bouvier, to be her guide dog as mom is blind. Bouvier's are unique & I never even knew about them until meeting Terra. Anyway...It never fails that whenever she goes out-no people don't shout "John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt"- People always want to know about Hanna, the dog. Rule 1 is don't touch a service dog who is working. Rule 2 is how about you don't touch the dog at all. People ask mom a lot what kind of dog it is. I told her she should reply with "The kind that has fur & barks." Mom is always having to tell people, even though Hanna does have clear & visible signs that say don't touch her, to not touch her dog. I told her she should say to such people, "Do I walk up to you & poke you in the eyes? Well don't touch my eyes who happens to be Hanna!"

Weather - Yup it's cold. What else is new? Sheez. Go away cold, we need the rain. On our trip to Irvine this last weekend down the always & ever exciting I5 we saw citrus trees bare & some even covered with a thick layer of ice.

American Idol - Seatlle episode was pathetic. I never really like watching the show anyways but Terra was watching it the other night. Friends shouldn't let friends audition if they can't sing. If these people would just pause, & have someone taking a video clip of them doing their bit, they would be spared the public scrutiny of Simon & all.

Audio from DVD - Almost a why bother process. First, DVD technology is one of those great creations we get to enjoy. But we haven't tried to get anything for portability for the car for long trips yet. Doesn't mean we won't in the future. Anyway for our trip to So. Cal. I decided to use some available tools to grab the audio off of the Star Wars episodes 1-3 DVDs & them put the audio into mono .mp3 format. What a slow process that was. First gotta extract the audio in AC3 format, then gotta use another tool to convert the AC3 to .WAV format but does the tool actually produce mono even when selected in the UI? No. So then gotta load it all up in Audacity & convert to mono, compress & normalize-a step I forgot to do which made the quiet parts hard to hear, then spend a bit of time breaking the audio up into 30 minute chunks. Then there's the use of lame to create the .mp3. Shoulda just bought a portable DVD in the first place. laff. I did enjoy trying to follow along the story in me mind though. I think the boys enjoyed it as well.

Cloning musicians - I remember a few months ago checking out a video clip of a EVH look alike playing Cathedral. I was impressed for I hadn't even tried to play it yet. First feedback comment from someone was basically "Gotta play it faster." In my own practice of the thing with a metronome, I realized early on that a) I couldn't play as fast as Eddie does & b) I didn't have to play it that fast. Who cares if it's not as fast as EVH. First, Eddie has unusually long fingers. Second, he generally can out play anyone speed wise. Third, Eddie purposely wanted to make it hard for cats to copy him. Is the fun in trying to be exactly like the musician you are trying to clone or is the fun in playing something at a pace that works for you & brings you to your happy place? So right now my tempo is based upon a fixed & unchangeable delay value built into my amp. And I walk in the snow 20 miles uphill both ways while playing it & I like it that way. So until I dig out my Qverb 2 from the land down under in the garage, the tempo is what it will be with my own twists on the tune...Soon to be demonstrated in some form or another...

Welp that is the clutter of me ramblings for this now.

Non-week

2006-12-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

T'was the blahs during the holiday non-week
Where many are off to be lazy & stay off of their feet
We find ourselves munching & snacking on the many treats
And we drink up some coffee whilst sitting on our seats
Taking a nap here & having a yawn over there; ahh those moments of sleep
And occasionally turnin on the metronome & doing a guitar whatever to the beat
The boys play & do stuff together with all their things that go beep & bleep
Many thoughts pass by which stem from the the mysteries of the grey matter deep
Oh look at that them over there, those silly dishes piled up in a heap
I'll get to them whenever, when there's a greater need
It's definitely nice to not have to tend to a yard & pull any weeds
However, a good dose of the blahs & boredom set in as I exist & be
Don't want to ride up nor climb anything that is steep
Don't wanna go 4 wheelin' for I do not have access to a jeep
Don't wanna get in the saddle & ride upon a great steed
Don't wanna pick up a book & give it a read
Not quite sure what to do with the time I have that is free (1)
There's myriads of house things one could do but those aren't motivating deeds
And I could venture out with the littles & journey to the parks & along the streets
In the blahs & the rest I find that I don't have much adventurous energy
And I seem content to just be with the boys & watch their video games & movies on the t.v.
I guess it's the one week of the year I get to sit & drool & be a lazy dweeb
So have a good now, day, & new year, & may the harvest in 2007 be rich for you...indeed

(1) Sort of free as being with tornado boys does take oophum.

T'was...

2006-12-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

T'was the night of the day of Christmas & all through the house
Mamma, the head Claus, snoring & boyzages watchin' a wind down movie on the couch
Too much food in our bellies & the food continues to tempt & call out
Yet another successful holiday journey for the family with no grumpies & not one downer grouch
I think upon the many years such traditions our parents have upheld
And all those "I won't eat for a week" statements as the elders loosened their belts
I'm thankful that all of our kin are healthy & appear to be doing fair to well
My thoughts, however, quickly turn upon troops in hot zones & battling what seems to be hell
May they all be protected & safe from all the bombings & may the source of all such darkness sit in prison cells
Why I'm sitting here rambling instead of just staring at the drool tube I just don't know
But I bid you a merry happy peaceful night for I must vegitate & with the boys & watch "The Barnyard" show
So yes it is time that I stop writing & it is the time that I must go
Knock knock he says to ya'all
"Who's there?" ya'all say back to me
I say "Ho ho"
And all say....well come on then humor me...."Ho ho Who?"
No it's Ho ho ho
And he tries again by saying Knock knock
"Who's there?" yer required to say to me
I say "Who who"
And all say.......And all say......"Who who who?"
Again he replies, ya just don't get it, it's Ho ho ho
Well right then ok uhm whew...

iHoliday Parodies

2006-12-24T10:04:00.000-08:00

(To the tune of let it snow)
Oh the traffic outside is frightful
The people in the stores are so happy & delightful
Let us shop, let us shop, let us shop

(Tune of Jingle Bells)
1) Dashing through the stores
On their tired & weary legs
Gotta buy & buy some more
What am I gonna get aunt Peg?
Registers go beeeeeeep
Many lacking sleep
They look so darn happy
While they're grinding teeth
Oh...

2) Gotta shop
Gotta shop
Gotta get something for pop
What am I
Going to find
For me dear ol' ma

3) Am I done with my list?
Have I checked it over thrice?
Have the kids been naughty?
Or have they really been nice?
It's that special time
Where parents are tired & fried
Gotta wrap & wrap all the stuff
So the gifts'll be piled high
Oh...

4) Can I sleep?
Can I sleep?
Cocktail genie send a drink
I'm going nuts
I'm about to freak
Please someone send a shrink

iHeads up...

2006-12-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

T'was the today of the present now
Had to get a work something done on a company day off...ow
Then he spent some time in quiet restin' on the couch
Me turned on the tele & watched the Shuttle landing...it was a bit of wow
For the news showed the pilot's heads up display & the little target box bouncin' around
I felt like I was watching a video game & the computer path was flown perfect & how
T'is always a good feeling to see the flying brick make it's landing touchdown
I've always marvelled at the Shuttle & the infinite complexities of a mission up & then back to the ground
Welp I continue on in this night in my holiday journey of rest & becomming unwound

It was very interesting to watch this little computer controlled flight path box move around the heads up display & the pilot just navigated by making sure his little round indicator was in the flight path box. I didn't even know they had a heads up thing in the Shuttle. Welp now I know. And I'm sure it's a nerve wrenching flight path to navigate. I think I tuned in when it was going about 1700 mph & 60 something miles out.

T'was the now...

2006-12-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

T'was the now before the moments forth coming
As he continues his journey in his becomming
Shocked out of sleep with his alarm clock blaring & rumbling
"I don't wanna" he says to himself whilst grumbling
For the covers were nice, warm, & comfy
And outside the temperatures are plummeting
That first blast of morning air can be quite numbing
Teeth chattering in the pattern of random drumming
Come on car get hot so the heater can do its pumping
The refreshing thaw begins as he continues on in his daily something
So yeah, right then, ok, this is yet another whatever kind of rambling
And it's just basically a bunch of silliness & some babbling
So that now it for is in this uhm...thing

iSniffles & Coughffles

2006-12-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

T'was the third weekday in a row & all through the house
He's stayed home to care for various sickly ones who aren't so full of bounce
Sniffles & coughffles & little drummer boy ear infections did so pounce
Thankful for the rest but boredom sets in easily & the blahs weigh upon him, more than an ounce
Oh he could tend to the myriads of chores that are just too many to count
Or he could play a rousing round of Diner Dash & earn more points & increase the amount
Then there's the various saved slots on XBox Snowboarding & the many ways to wipe out
There definitely isn't anything worth watching on the tele whilst drooling on the couch
He picks up a guitar & plays a tune or a few then and sometimes now
He has to be careful though to not let himself turn into any kind of grumpy grouch
'Tis better to be at home than sitting idle at work twumb thiddling & doing the internet browse
The Emmitt cat stares at him & tells him all about things with his meow
What is it fuzzy & furry child? No you cannot go outside & tour your favorite places all about
So on coffee, on laundry, on various things that need to be done, he says with a brief shout
Welp that now it for is from this simple this me unto thou & I won't stop & take a bow

iDunno Mojo

2006-12-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

T'was the now after a moment ago
Isn't that weird & whoa?
How'd that happen? I just don't know
Maybe it was something in my cup o' joe
It's crazy silly strange like Larry, Curly, & Mo
Maybe I need to find some kind of new mojo
I don't have happy feet nor do I have a happy toe
Just hangin' here & goin' with the boredom flow
It's almost that time of year for ho ho ho
Where upon the children new gifts are bestowed
For some it's a great season for others they get down & low
And many live in the cold areas where it is zero or below
Too cold for my bones so to being there I say no
Unless I'm up on a mountain skiing down it really slow
Where falling down is a requirement...Doh!
It's fun to once in a while visit the snow
Welp each moment comes & wow ma'an there they goes
Always remember you can't pick your friend's nose
This ramble & drivel says nothing much & is not much of a show
So I conclude with a moment, there it went, of the status quo
By giving ya a "Shout out," "Word Up," "Forshizzle," & a yo yo yo!
Uhm...Ok....right....what's all this then? I dunno

iRainy Workaday

2006-12-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

I'm in twumb thiddling mode at work so yes I do have time on my hands...

T'was an hour before work & all through the house
All had left except for him & from under the covers he didn't want to come out
For it was cold & raining outside & he didn't want to travel across the towns
But alas the journey had to begin & he made his feet hit the ground
On shower, on toothbrush, on clothing & on cell phone he did shout
For he knew that this was what the workaday world was all about
He dashed down the stairs & the caravan sleigh he did mount
He whipped out the keys & the sleigh roared to life with it's typical starting sounds
With a wink of an eye & a nod of his head he departed as the rain didst pound
Unto the freeway he travelled hoping that no traffic or accidents would be found
Travel was swift for a moment or few but as usual at 41st traffic slowed down
What is it this time people? Did ya see a bird fly by or something like that ya clowns?
Or is it that you have to look at the roadwork without workers & the tractors that surround?
Hey all you, it's just pilings & rebar for stinking crying out loud
And the rain has sure made quite the mess of the dirt which is now mud brown
He endures the slow travel through the wind & rain & he does not frown
Free at last he declares as he turns upon Highway 1 & is amazed & feels a bit proud
With no traffic or trucks in his way he makes good speed & it's like ma'an wow
As his journey nears the end unto the place of workadayness the Beach Boys song comes to mind
"I Get Around"
On Coffee, On Keyboard, On Headphones, On rocking Christmas tunes, it's time to work now
But his thoughts are really upon the couch under a blanket with a purring Emmitt meow

iHolidaze

2006-12-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

T'was two weeks before Christmas and all through the house
There were boxes & decorations all over & some wires to be unwound
T'was raining outside & amidst the walls the 3 children did bounce
Mom sick in bed with a bad cold & dad just wanting to crash on the couch
Comic relief is always needed so dad doesn't become a grinchy grouch
Then throw in an occasional round of SSX Snowboarding where video boarders go boom & OUCH!
Dad often checks the net of inter sites for the hot item gift that is nowhere to be found
No big deal he says whilst his fingers upon the keyboard continue to pound
He moves onward to look at the adult gizmoids & gadgetoids as he dost browse
Boys bickering & gettin' agro with each other is such a pleasant holiday sound
Oh come now children 'tis the season to be loving & giving & won't you please just calm down
I didn't know that the wild & crazy boy circus was now in town
Must you pounce upon your brother as he tries to get up from the ground?
Hmm, it seems that you have forgotten you're all inside, could you not be so loud?
Too bad I can't make 'em go outside & shovel snow & be human plows
They's just was doing what high energy boys do & the mom & dad are thankful & proud
T'was just a holiday season Sunday inside whilst the needed rain fell from the clouds
Now this big ol' elf sits in silence at work sluffing off the weekend tornados for recovery is allowed
And I'm thankful that I'm not at a center of shopping amidst the shopping crowd
T'was two weeks before Christmas & the Holidaze is in my brain bouncing all around (1)
Oh look a purple reindeer over there, like ma'an that's really far out wow

(1) Play on words from lyrics from Twisted Christmas tune Holidaze done to the music of Purple Haze

iPuffles

2006-12-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

I don't have a puffle? Should I have one?
I don't have a purple save badge. Should I feel bad?
I don't have any coins or points to get such things. I feel poor.
I don't have others throughout the world on my buddy list to play with or compete against.
I'm not a penguin on the kid's site Club Penguin where you play these games to earn coins/points & acquire things like a pet called a puffle.

So I'm not a penguin therefore I am not cold & I do not stand still for days on end in the freezing torment of winter, nor do I walk 70+ miles one way for a meal for my family.

Until later comes turn it up to puffle.

iParallel ramble...

2006-12-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

In a parallel but unreal life I would get up each morning & head to the shop of Torress Engineering in San Mateo & enter the realm of hand wiring the prebuilt amplifiers for customers. But for now I don't exist in the non-existent parallel life & I have children to educate & feed & provide for. I'll enjoy removing & replacing components on my SD-1 pedal. 'Tis nice to hear PAF Pro & Fred in action at last.

Welp it's cold now & need to get bundled up & consider snoozing.

Until later comes turn it up to parallel.

iZilchizzo

2006-12-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

He sits in his chair watching the shadow of the building of the late afternoon sun rising up the trees outside his window. The night's chill will be upon him surely in the near future past now. The trees are quite still & so to is his workaday world for the moment. For one project completed last week & at the moment in these last few days before now there has been a possible project lurking but the waiting on the possible client continues. He is content with the silence but the boredom begins to get old. He ponders that he could be at home tending to many possible tasks or just rotting away on the couch playing Football or something on XBox. His energies were focussed greatly on the pickup & amp repair projects. Those now complete he tries to adjust & balance thoughts of house tasks with thoughts of either tedious scale ascents & decents, known song practice, & continuing the learning & practicing of the Johnny B Goode intro. He also ponders the two pedal mods to be done in house rather than through Glop's surgical services. Although it was a pain to levitate the crate board out of it's cradle it was enjoyable to conquer the problem of bad solderdom. He pondered this day that if that joint was bad, how many others on that board might be candidates for going bad. He chooses to perish the thought for now as long as the amp behaves well....(brief conversation about status)...Am back. He looks forward to taking the next 2 days off to possibly have more to do on Monday. Zzzzzzzz.......zzzzzzzZZZZZZ......zzzzzzzz.

Until later comes turn it up to something to do.

iDragon has been slain...

2006-12-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

Avast ye dragon come forth & face your doom!

Who dares to enter my domain where I rule with fierce & swift injustice upon all who violate my will!

I sir John of Purple Soundage come forth unto thee to thwart thee dragon for the time of your reign has ended. The people shall be set free from your greed & rule of slavery!

Thou, a mere small meal of a mortal hast come forth to defend the pathetic peoplez I rule? What foolish folly have thee to think thou hast the strength & power to defeat me, Dragon of Crate! I will enjoy your failure in this encounter!

Show yourself dragon of Crate & prepare to be slain by my sword & shield. My sword is made of driver of screwiness & combined with the strength of nose of needles & lastly if I strike thee, thine flesh shall be burned harshly without pity for the iron of solder has been forged from the finest powers & metal found in the land of Shack of Radio.

Dost thou forget I’m a dragon & I have an impenetrable shield of scales? What else have ye to say before I send forth the raging inferno of mine breath upon thine miniscule pathetic being that thou be?

If thou claims to be powerful without defeat then demonstrate that unto me & prove that wrong am I!

With pleasure!

The battlefield is now prepared. Sir John takes up his weapon to stand his ground against the vile Dragon of Crate. Determined to defeat this enemy he prepares to strike at first site of Crate. His first strike is swift upon Crate. Out comes Crate’s long scaly fierce head & he is poised to strike back with the raging inferno of hate within him. Sir John reacts swiftly, without thought to escape the blaze that is about to ensue. Crate unleashes the volcano & the roar of the blast is intolerable. Crate looks where his target was & realizes that his first attempt has failed. Sir John knows that Crate cannot send forth another attack for a few moments. He strikes swiftly at Crate & almost strikes him across his horrid gaze. The blow knocks Crate back & he cannot fathom the strength of the blows of this simple mortal. The blow is so powerful that the strength of the nose of needles loosens the front plates of Crate. Sir John dashes swiftly out of the rugged rocks unto a large & completely unprotected flat area. His doom seems to be guaranteed with such a foolish move. Crate recovers from the blow & sets his glaring eyes upon his target out in the open. The battle continues on. After much toil & exchange of blows, Sir John finally strikes a harsh blow that penetrates & removes one of Crate’s smaller scales. Crate becomes dazed as John exposes the raw flesh. He now has a precise target he must strike soon or face his doom. Crate’s rage continues to build & he fails to notice the damage upon his being. Sir John dashes all about Crate who seems to be tiring as he’s never faced such a swift opponent before. Sir John forgets all else & places his entire mojo upon Crate’s one weak spot. Sir John knows that he will have only one chance to strike & hence achieve victory. His timing must be perfect or he will die. Crate has Sir John trapped in a corner & is preparing yet another blast of torture upon his pray. Just as Crate is about to unleash the fury Sir John charges forth with sword extended with his being calling upon the powers that be in his sword to activate the iron of solder. It’s been a long a grueling battle up to this point. The first to strike a blow will win this battle. Crate adjusts his line of fire as Sir John charges. Just as the explosive power of Crate’s deadly breath rages forth towards him Sir John Leaps forward with all is might with sword extended. The sword strikes the exposed flesh & Crate falls in defeat.

Sir John was the needed instrumental input to make way for the new fair & just leadership which has been bestowed upon the suffering who are no longer bound to the dark power of Crate. Sir John approaches the lifeless pile of rank stink & declares victory & proclaims in the name of Purple Soundage that today the lifeless & suffering will no longer be in suffering nor will they be lifeless. For Sir John’s quest was successful in taming the lifeless dragon whose every muscle, nerve, & joint was broken. Crate the Dragon’s dark reign will never be again. Sir John steps forth from the cavity where the dead one now dwells. He returns to his suffering people to help rebuild & reassemble the pieces of those he selflessly has vowed to defend. In Sir John’s honor the people have created 4 pillars each topped with a glowing lantern. Each has it’s own meaning. The first being a reminder of warmth & the warm soothing sounds echoed in the songs of the people. The second is light & also reminds all of the orange glow of the life-giving sun and to respect the provisions the earth gives to those who care for it. The third is the reminder of the power of the good in the people following the example of Sir John. The last is a bit brighter & is a reminder to amplify the first three amidst all the lands & not just in the land of Purple Soundage. Sir John often reflects on Crate & marvels that he, a simple man, was able to penetrate the mystery of Crate & bring forth a new uninterrupted & flawless flow of grace unto those he encounters in Purple Soundage & beyond. Sir John knows not when Crate become broken but it was obvious that poor input lead him to his doom. Sir John gives thanks that through his input new & solid connections via the Peaceful Compassionate Board (PCB) of leadership is now in place.

This has been a description of the fictitious kind. No person or dragon or Crate was hurt during the writing of this ramble. Any similarities between any of the above mentioned events or entities & any other party or parties in the real world is merely a coincidence & hey, stories happen.

Go forth unto this location precisely to view an artist’s rendering of some of the battle described in the ramble you have rambled through…Humor me...Dumb solder joint.
Click Me

iHums & other gibberish

2006-12-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

Update 12/5 10:30 am
Determined to resolve the abnormal & not 60Hz noiseage hum/buzz he tried to once again awaken the sleeping paper weight. It clicked to life & there was that already dreaded sound. In a seemingly random fashion he began to rapidly turn each of the numerous knobs their range of travel back & forth suspecting that there possibly could be some corrosion or other particles of crud in the pots. A bit of success was found in that the annoyance dissipated & was no longer. But the jiggle of the wiggle of a cord unto the orafice of input jack still produced the nasty growls that must be tamed & silenced. He also did notice that there were 4 screws on the top of the amp that seemed to be the gate keepers of the mystery contained within the head portion of the thing. So he armed himself with the driver of screwiness & proceeded to enter the journey unto the land down under the hood. The key master successfully merged with the gatekeeper & the deep hidden mystery was revealed....There sat on top was the jack of input soldered onto the board of circuitage in 4 places. It would take further surgery to levitate the region of jack attack to infiltrate the situation & go covert & assimlate unto the culture of solderage...If the secret intelligence gathered is accurate, penetrating those 4 core positions & voiding their influence upon the situation would allow for the insertion of a new & better equipped operative to better handle the future transmissions. A brief check of intelligence information reveals that the needed equipment for the operative is available & appears to look like:

He carefully began his return trip from the land down under the hood & applied the driver of screwiness to cause the gatekeeper to resume his position & to ensure that the hidden mystery does remain a hidden mystery to all who approach. He prepares his report for his superiors to review & establish the needed mission codenamed Jack-In-The-Box. A brief intelligence inquiry brought forth 2 wisdoms: 1) There's a place here in town that could deal with the amp 2) A person there suggested that it might possibly be a solder joint gone bad/cracked where a simple touch up might suffice. After further contemplation this might in fact be the case for how else does a jack of input not used very often decide to just barf?

End Update
=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

And after his wife departed for work for the day he once again mounted the chair of bitdom. He proceeded to utter an search amidst the land of google. He found the wisdom to send an email to DiMarzio support to inquire to either confirm or correct his suspicions about why the PAF Pro & FRED pickups were not sending forth their anticipated signals unto the land of ampdom thereby causing much froth & lament within him. He uttered the inquiry & then patiently waited whilst pursuing the norms of preparing for the typical workaday Monday. Upon arriving at the land of cubicleocity he conferred with yet another bitdom interface device. And there sat was the reply to the inquiry to confirm that which he had already sent along to the support of the technicalities. His whole being filled with preparedness to await the treacherous journey home through the hills & over the woods. He was also met with goodness of the package which contained the highly secret & anticipated devices sent forth from far across the world from Russia. He was poised & ready to once again embark with nose of needle pliers, the wand of great low wattage heat & the core of rosin from the land of solder. Amazed at the complexities of the numerous wires running forth amidst the cavity of wiredom he stopped to consider the surgeons who work on far more delicate tissue with far more complex routings of body stuff. He finally completed the needed surgery to bring to life the now installed PAF Pro Neck & partner FRED bridge pickups. He then approached the then slumbering black beast of noisedom with the aforementioned secret devices. He had to be careful for the beast could awaken at any time & devour him in a moment. He had to act swiftly & with precision to attach the secret glowing tube devices. All things appeared to be assembled so with blue wild thing in hand he plugged the needed appendages between the black beast & the blue thing. All systems appeared go & so he did the only thing he could which was activate the black beast. He waited the needed moments for the slumbering one to come to life and....and....he was met with the annoying hum that he set out to conquer with the new secret glowing tubes. He twiddled with the input jack on the black thing of hummage & discovered some very interesting sounds of loud squawking & squealing. So the beast of hummer seems to have won this round. And it appears that one would need to replace the input jack which appears to be quite embedded & enshrouded in mystery. But before considering that to be the cause of the spewage of hum-de-dum he casts his gaze upon the previously referred to black heat shield protecto thing which when one thrusts his great strength upon this stronghold the hum appears to cease for but just a while. But that could just be a plan of mockery & trickery by the black 80 watt paper weight. He could hang his head low in lament & snine & whibble or he could keep trying to find the source of the spumming hewage the black thing utters. He does consider that his options are approaching zero rapidly & he might have to concede & transport the beast, under heavy sedation of course, unto the land of $60 an hour techie service to try to find the source of the treacherous mocking mockery.

Until later comes turn it up to....whatever.

iTube things of amp things...

2006-11-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

So, as usual for this fall, brother glop has sparked an interest in learning about but not necessarily totally understanding nor even actually building a tube amp kit. The affordable & popular kits & service by www.tedweber.com seem to be the way to go for kits. I've emailed asking a few questions & have gotten back quick replies. I even inquired about a generic or somewhat generic solution to adding an effects loop to existing kits. He replied stating he's been giving that much thought. The thing about weber kits is that you get parts & a schematic. That's it. Other more expensive kit providers provide instructions & such. For this me, staring at a pile 'o parts & a schematic would not be the ideal way to learn. And if you read some of the stuff on the kit building forum or look at pics of amp kit builds in progress it looks rather daunting. Then through the complexitiy & nature of the do it yourself kits you have to become a tinkerer & make decsisions about how & where to place things or cope with things and troubleshoot things like hums & buzz & such. I guess that is part of the core hobby of it.

Why my interest? Well I'm intrigued by a kit that clones, or tries to anyway, Marshall's original amp or head which was the JTM 45. VH-1 has this documentary series going on & they had one on Hendrix. I watched it when it was first on but didn't notice that which I noticed last night when I watched through it again from a 2nd recording that my DVR happily did for me. I realized in the concert footage that there stood proudly JTM 45 heads. Yeterday I drooled over that amp building seminar thing & how it takes a Mojo JTM 45 kit such & turns it into the Marshall JCM 800 "on steroids" as one reviewer called it. Halen used the JCM 800 in 80's tour such as 5150 tour & such. So that's a JTM45 45 watt amp instead of a horridly loud for home 100 watt thing. Then stick a Weber MASS Lite attenuator on the 45 watt thing makes a vintage great amp tolerable at home listening levels. I would definitely desire the hot rodded JTM 45 but that would have to come with time, practice, & asking myriads of questions.

I found some cool clips of the Weber JTM 45 at:
http://www.leftee.net/Leftee_Gain.mp3
http://www.leftee.net/Villanova.mp3
http://www.leftee.net/WindCries.mp3

So I thought welp, I know nothing about circuits or understanding them. I can solder simple things together. So I began looking about for simpler kit things that help teach the novice about stuff... Found a couple of good resources so far...
http://members.tripod.com/~gabevee/papers.html
http://www.ax84.com/?pg=associateprojects

Just to read some stuff is interesting in itself. Will I actually try a kit any time soon? Probably not as the simplest & smallest kits start at like two hundred something dollars. I've got mouths to feed & such. laff. I think I would enjoy becomming kit builder, for simple amps & heads, for others where they buy the Weber kit & I put it together for them at a going rate builder price...whatever hundred or few that may be. First that requires my learning stuff & understanding it. But it also requires someone wanting to pay for the kit amp & then pay additional for someone to build it. I'm sure it happens occasionally but not very often. Purple Sound Makers R Us. laff.

Until later comes turn it up to wires, & connectors, & chassis, & transformers, oh my...

iMojo for JTM45 Becomming a JCM800

2006-11-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

There's fantasy camps for everything in the world...

Why not one for building tube amps...
http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2006/Egnater-November-18-Seminar.html

The Mojo JTM45 head kit of course is $900.00. I'm sure the course is way crazy expensive as well. And then there's the travel & hotel & yaddas.

Until later comes, turn it up to JTM45 becomming a JCM800 on steroids.

iSpeaker Mojo - Ugh....

2006-11-27T19:45:00.000-08:00

It goes without saying that for every class/category/level of widget or wadget you might buy there's usually more than anyone would want to count number of manufacturers that make such things. And the obvious is that advertisements & online product descriptions try to woo & wow & almost brainwash the potential buyer. And because I'm middle-aged obvious man I had to state the obvious above obviously. And, as I learned earlier this year from personal yadda yaddas & blah blahs that it is human nature for groups of people, or categories of people, to naturally conform to what leaders or others do or they conform to some norm or standard & hence products become the 'hot item' or 'must have' thing of the moment or you won't be able to survive another second. Kind of like how Jim mentioned in his political speal about how the politicians want to make you think that if you don't vote on a something or someone the way they want you to the world, or the state, will come to an immediate end.

How did the SUV vehicle boom start anyway? Who knows? I'm quickly reminded of the outtake at the end of the movie Cars where Mater is coaching Hummers & other SUVs to get out into the dirt & go off-roading for the first time in their existence. One yells "But I've never been offroad before!"

When Terra & I went on our honeymoon in Mexico we were walking about puerto Vallarta in both the new & americanized touristy part as well as meandering through some back streets. We just wandered randomly by some back street tiny hole in the wall tortilla factory where one could walk in & buy tortillas hot off the line! We sampled some & they was great! A modern example is that of Krispy Cremes hot off the line! Yum! Sorry heart & gut & arteries!

So I did mention previously that I might, just might, pursue upgrading me two speakers in my overpowered monster of an amp that's more suited for live gigs than dinking around at home. And I've also spoken of the THD Hot Plate which is way expensive and the Marshall Brake which is even more ughage! Anyway...So I began hunting around for possible speaker choices to consider. First off I realized that there are only few models that are in the needed 80 to 100 watt range. The reason is most guitar hero types use 4x12 cabs so the speakers don't need to be as beefy. It's almost frustrating for the combo amp types. But it's also nice so as to not have to sift through myriads of speaker spooge & hundreds of different opinions. As I said, I don't care if I plug into some grey box or an, the fruit, orange with apples for pickups & it sounds decent. I don't care about the details nor the settings. I just want the fantasy turn it on & sound good clean, surfy, swirly, bluesy, EVH rhythm, & Satch or Vai or Hoey or George Lynch, or Gilmour lead. I also realized that the world has migrated to the well known manufacturers such as Celestion or Eminence speakers. They have a long history of course & there will always be debates & arguments & personal preferences that decide the popularity of things. And respect is due to such speakers that have created some of the greatest sounds on recordings. But does what most people get just cause Eddie did it, or does it, or any axe-person got it or has it mean it's the thing to conform to. NO I SAY! Do not conform to conformity dag narn it.

So, like the wandering about back streets in Mexico, I somehow found myself doing a search on www.gearslutz.com. Not that I like the name much but real people, not trying to hype the marketting crud, write their preferences & such. I came to find the little hole in the wall place called www.TedWeber.com. One quote on the aforementioned gear place.com states "I would say anything that doesn't have Celestion printed on it. Weber VST make bloody fantastic speakers at great prices." So that sparked interest in what Weber has to offer. I even emailed to get a suggestion. Again, due to wattage, I'm limited to about 4 choices there as well. I think my main decision will be warm sound or 'uncolored' whatever that means. I poked around a bit more & encountered a much more affordable attenuator as well which I inquired about.

If a coin were to decide a speaker choice between a Weber model or a Celestion Classic Lead or some Eminence model I probably wouldn't notice a difference & wouldn't care either way because I couldn't tell the difference between playing a spoon or a knife.

So Glop, how's the wall o' transistors & resisters & flux capacitors coming along? Please include in the wall several speakers that somehow randomly make contact with the speaker cable connectoids for random amounts of time. Hey stop, what's that sound? It's now a Celestion, now it's some stock speaker crud, oh now it's a TedWeber & now it's some orange spooge thing. And now I'm playing through a cheese cloth based speaker with corn on the cob as the coil.

Untils later comes turn it up to something that makes sound.

iAmplifier Gizmoidalage & Gadgetoids

2006-11-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Update 10:00 pm 11/26 - Welp whilst switching around tubes to see if I could isolate the hum issue in amp I tried to straighten a pin on one o' the tubes & snap. So my conjecture is that hum is probably due to way old tubes so ordered some to try. Not a bad thing. I also chose to pursue a newer tube set by Electro Harmonix rather than the Groove Tubes that everybody & their brother sells. End update.

This ramble has been a couple of days in the making but I think I'm content with the wisdom of the result. I had the usual Friday off after downing the Triptophan & other standard Thursday goods. I finally got around to changing my Fender's strings for the purpose of providing to Gloppage dude for the pedal mods as there are points in the mod process where the pedal needs to be checked. Anyway...I finally, I know it's a miracle, plugged my Crate amp in. Silly me...I expected it to work just fine after several years of dormancy in closets. It worked some of the time. Other times the left speaker has an annoying hum that indicates something is not happy somewhere. Anyway...I did finally try out the Phaser I bought. It's swirly cool ma'an. I also plugged in the yet to be modified Super Distortion pedal. Cool as well. But as I've spoken before, and that which I realized yet again, the amp is not designed for quiet or for close quarter living situations with neighbors; I'm not sure why I chose to buy such a powerhouse way back when but I was naive then. So between the speaker hum, which I will blabble about in a minute, & the loud factor, I allowed myself to enter a period of depresso discouragement. And that's pretty typical for me in regards to musicdom over the years....Try something, don't like it or something's wrong, throw a pity party about it. As far as the left hummage goes I did pull out & reseat the 4 tubes & made sure that they all glowed when turned on. They weren't purple though. Oh well. So the speaker still hummed. I noticed that at least for a few moments applying pressure upon this metal overhang heat absorber plate thing the hum went away. But it comes back so I need to dink about with it a bit & possibly call Crate on Monday.

Back to the original subject which I haven't really mentioned yet & that is I started considering should I bother with an attenuator like the THD Hot Plate or sell the overpowered, but well reviewed, amp & get a low wattage studio type practice amp. So I spent a few hours on Sat. night researching myriads of 15-30 watt amps available for an amount much lower than a Hot Plate costs. It's puzzling to me that manufacturers of these amps do not supply an Effects Send/Return jack on such amps. I was really sold on the Spider III 15 Modelling amp until I read that they don't include effects loops. I was also looking at the Orange CR-15 amps. I still want to try one but no effect loop. And as I write this I conjecture that an effects loop is not included so as to try to lead buyers to choose a more expensive amplifier that has one. And boy the Orange amp prices jump radically from the CR-15. Ugh. I went to bed last night with a possible few models to try to go try if any stores within the Santa Cruz/Santa Clara counties might have one to try. Still discouraged though.

I mounted my computer chair this morning once again to continue to look around & I stumbled upon some good wisdom that helped me conclude that I will keep me loud thing & try to obtain a Hot Plate off Craigslist or EBay. The wisdom is here:
http://www.guitarnuts.com/amps/myths.php

Now not so blah & negative about things. Sometime next year I might invest in some Celestion speakers to replace the Crate stock speakers.

The only thing positive about the smaller lower wattage things is that they do offer headphone jacks that mute the speaker. That's a big plus as the bulk of the time I would just be dinking around & need to keep annoying Terra to a minimum.

Until later comes, turn it up to Effects Loops.

iPickups & wires & coils & magnents...oh my...

2006-11-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

Just taking a Thanksgiving evenin' to write out some drivel & rambles to wind down from a day of boyzages being very trying.

This ramble began yesterday by brother glop sending me a YouTube link to some EVH wannabe who has several posts on YouTube playing & teaching here & there things about EVH tricks on the fretlands. He posted one clip of just his guitars & equipment & settings. The last guitar he mentioned was his Ibanez which turns out to be the same model of Ibanez that I have...Here's a pic I found...

The video dude mentioned that he has Steve Vai Evolution pickups for the neck & bridge. That intrigued me as I've always wondered if the stock Ibanez pickups should be replaced. So that began a journey all about the net of inter to see what peoplez had to say about the DiMarzio Evolution pickups. First wall I ran into was that there are two types of pickups which are referred to as "Regular" or "F-Spaced." And of course I couldn't find a thing about whether the s540 that I have takes regular or F-Spaced in the neck & bridge positions. I finally gave up trying to figure it out & emailed the YouTube video guy & he nicely replied & mentioned that they were F-Spaced. Whew. Glad to have that answer. I'm sure I could've taken it into Guitar Showcase over the hill to have someone figure that out for me. So long story short....I could go with the Satriani setup of a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the neck & a DiMarzio "FRED" in the bridge. Or I could go with the Vai Neck Evolution for the, duh, neck pickup & Bridge Evolution for the, again duh, bridge position. Reviews are comparable for these pickups so for this pickup illiterate it's like flipping a coin. So I'm just going to stick to the PAF Pro & FRED thing. I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference between either configuration. There's always, don't like it, sell it on Craigslist or see if DiMarzio will take 'em back.

Until later comes turn it up to replacement pickups.

iSignature Series

2006-11-21T11:52:00.000-08:00

I was wandering through a local music store yesterday. And whilst looking here & there I overheard two of the sales persons talking about some guy coming in trying to get the store to carry the $70.00 guitar picks that he either manufacturers or is just trying to sell. It sounded like the guy actually suggested just placing them by the register & people will just gobble them up. I heard the guys say that the dude mentioned something like "These are the picks that Satriani uses." $70 guitar picks. Yeah, uhm, okay....I guess. I turned to the sales guys and jokingly mentioned to them "That's like the whole signature series concept of guitars & amps." I told them about how Gibson & Guitar Center recreated Clapton's ES-335 & joked about how it costs like $12,000. You could choose to get a reissue for 1/4 the price & sound just the same as the Clapton model. One of the guys mentioned that Fender was replicating a Fender that was used by some guy named Rory Gallagher. It was a Sunburst type of guitar that through it's life all of it's finish & paint had worn off the body except for patches of flames here & there. So we were joking about how there must be professional "drag a guitar around the parking lot" persons who work at Fender. They take a perfectly good & nice guitar & go out to the parking lot & drag it around for a while till the body's paint is worn off. Here's a link to Fender's rendition:
http://www.fendercustomshop.com.au/customartistseries/0150080.php

So one could buy a 3 color sunburst fender of similar color. Drag it around a parking lot for a while & then break off one of the tuners & replace it with a different color one.

Signature series? Who cares? Reissues that sound pretty darn close to original for 1/4 the price? Gimmie.

Until later comes turn it up to reissue.

iCannotComprehend...

2006-11-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

Quick entry. I know that's not possible from this hyper typing me...

Way back many stuffy noses ago I would hear of people camping outside a theatre to be the first to view movies like Star Wars sequels & such. Ok, that doesn't seem to bizarre. And I've seen people camp out to try to get tickets to a concert. I can understand that as well. What I cannot fathom is people spending more than 1 24 hour period doing that. It's just a concert or movie. It's not one's life. The world will not end if you see the movie a week or two after it opens. You won't die if you're in the 50th row rather than in the front row for a concert.

So the paradigm for camping out for something has been raised up to a very neurotic level in my opinion. People camping out for days to buy....a video game console, PS3. As I write this I'm hearing a couple of co-workers talking about a riot at some store over the thing. Also heard was some began lining up on Wednesday outside a target store. They were told that Target was not going to honor their place/position in line & that the 'official' line would begin at 10 am today. The Wednesday folks didn't get the clue. And so there were two long lines each containing people wanting to storm the usual few doors a Target store has. Anybody ever hear of placing an advance order online & then waiting the needed time for it to arrive? Does it really matter if you get it on the 1st day or the 14th day after it starts to sell? No. Will one die having to wait? No.

And then I hear on the news that people are spending 4,000 to 10,000 to buy a unit on Ebay.

Until later comes, turn it up to neurosis.

Can you hear the purple in the image?

2006-11-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's set to display here at 60% size to fit in the Blogger's way narrow space. Actual size is at:
http://www.pplministries.org/PurpleJamz.bmp

I had to impatiently watch Windows Media Player's X Marks the Spot visualization to screen capture the purpleness. I wanted to paste some kind of real lightning bolts but no time & didn't really know how to make it look well. Anyway, can you feel the purple?

A brief tale of a famous one...

2006-11-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

Just lettin' my fingers ramble out a fictional stuff....

I once was not even imagined yet. Then I became a design on paper. A set of crafy persons carefully took the design set forth & brought me into existence. And I was sent forth to a new home with all sorts of my kind in all sorts of shapes, colors, & sizes(1). We were all hanging out together. And there I stood proudly waiting. Hey look at me, I'm over here. But nobody noticed me. So I kept watching & waiting. Well there's a fine chap over there. What's he doing over there? He's talking to the people & pointing at the various other things here with me. What's he doing now? Oh he's trying someone else out but he doesn't seem to like that one. Some fellow I'm used to seeing everyday here tells that chap something & he points at me. What? He's coming over towards me. Hey hi there. Why don't you try me out? Nobody has in a while & I'm kind of bored just sitting here. He looks at me some more and...and could it be? "Oh you won't be disappointed sir" I say. He turns me on & I show him what I can do for him. He seems to play very well. Whoa, he's really pushing me hard now. I'm being pushed to my limits. Must hang on. Must...must show him I can do this for him. Whew...he stopped. What a rush that was. Hey! Wait! Where are you going? Didn't you like me? What's he doing? I guess I don't sound as good as I thought I did. What's he doing over there? He's looking around searching for something but what is he looking for? Yo! Buddy! Stop looking...I'm what you need! Oh come on give me a chance! I won't disappoint! These other Joe's can't handle you. Wait a minute, what are they doing over there? They keep looking at & pointing at me. Someone is coming over to me but why? To shove me in a corner or just dust me off. Leave me alone! But he's grabbing me & taking me over to that dude who tried me out. I'm FRREEEEEEE! See ya suckers. I'm going to make history with this dude. Who am I? I'm a mystery & the envy of millions but you can call me Brown...Super Lead Brown.

1) Creative liberty taken. Ed actually purchased the head from the Rose Palace when he was 14. The head was used as a house amp there. This is according to:
http://www.valleywebs.com/van-halen/Magic.html

A moment of the reminder of simplicity...

2006-11-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

I mentioned forgetting simplicity in a previous post. Nephew Hopo, aka Jim, mentioned this in a comment to one of my posts:
"I like the flexibility my Line 6 gives me. But I don't like the fact that I have to tweak knobs for a long time to get a great sound, whereas my friend spends 20 seconds on his Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier and gets the sound he wants."

Now that's what I'm talking about.

My reply is I'm sick of knobs & buttons. Anyway back to simplicity. Now tell me this isn't weird...When I got home last night I noticed Terra had emptied a small but good sized box. I have sitting on the floor a too small of a box with the Phaser I got along with the two pedals brother Glop will be modifying soon. Anyway, so I took the bigger box & put the gizmoids in it and then moved on with the night's food events. Fast forward about an hour. So last night I was enjoying, & at times not enjoying, helping tired cranky boyzages with homework at the table. I looked down in the direction of where I placed the box o' stuff & right smack dab in the middle of the box is the logo for Tastefully Simple which is a mail order foods supplier. That just zapped me & confirmed simplicity, rather than Line 6 or otherwise complexity, is the way to go for this me in this time. And then later that night I ventured into the kitchen for a treat of a frozen nature & on the counter was some book or something that was from Tastefully Simple & on it was this quote:
“In cooking, as in the arts, simplicity is a sign of perfection." ~Curnonsky~

So I continue to chew on simplicity. Speaking of chewing, onward to the kitchen.

Until later comes, turn it up to chewy...(Not the wookie)

iStardom & iLegends

2006-11-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

A long while back I learned this little wisdom that a star/performer is remembered most for their most recent production. Their current value/worth is judged & based solely upon that with little to no regard to previous works or their life's collective body of creations. And the more famous & popular a star is, the more scrutiny they must endure by the media. It amazes me how much investment these people make just to 'make it' or get to 'the show' & more often than not, after they get to a peak they come crumbling down in an avalanche & boom it's all over. I remember several years ago Chris Rice was hosting some major music awards show & he just bluntly, & accurately stated to the audience, that 90% of them would not be back the next year. One of Jack Nicklaus' quotes in some golfer's quote book I had said something like "It's amazing to be considered the best when you only win about 30% of the time."

It's amazing how much energy fans & media put towards a someone one moment. And the next those same people are going "So & so who?" I chuckle to myself when I think upon the shows about one hit wonders or "Where are they now?" kinds of things. And the reason I chuckle is because I ask myself "Was it worth it to try to get there & be there?"

And yes this Monday ramble would not be complete without touching upon things of legends without mentioning the example of EVH. What do I think he's remembered most for in this time in history? For being an addict, narcissist, off the deep end, for poorly taken photos at some Elton John party thing, for a strange phone call he made to Howard Stern & presently hanging with a seemingly questionable collection of people, & unable to have long term relationships with family or long time band members. But there are some who look beyond his current 'image' & the current news about him & just want to think of him as being 'great' & being a 'hero' or 'legend.' People in this category probably could not understand what it is I have written in my prose stuff about him & think I'm crazy or I'm dissin' a legend. I'm sure even EVH wouldn't get it or he would think I'm just slammin' him like everyone else. Yes his contributions to music & guitar & equipment have been extraordinary. But that was then. Now I see a mess of a very gifted musician. If I could choose 1 band to be in for life, it would be The Ventures. Not because of their guitar playing. But because they are just simple down to earth guys who have stood the test of time & probably didn't care much about popularity & stardom.

There's many a version in email or on the net that is about asking one to name the last n people to have accomplished xyz & such. I got such an email from a friend this morning. And it included: "The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners...The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care ."

Until later comes, just be simple.

iForgot iSimplicity For an iMoment

2006-11-09T07:35:00.000-08:00

I did glance over something I wrote in me blog & that was "...has returned me to the concept of simple." I so easily got stuck in drool mode about things of Pod XT/Live/Pro that iForgot that I'm going for starting simple. I guess I liked some of those Pod XT sound clips. I'm a gadgetoid & a gizmoidal consumer. But then I started looking at reviews. And like most multi-conquer the world units, most say they take a LOT of tweaking. That's what I must avoid for I've fallen into that trap before and just aimlessly pushed buttons & turned knobs. If less is more then it seems to follow the less buttons to push & the less knobs to turn means more in regards to simplicity.

One reason I was looking at Pod-dom things is due to the fact that if I want to change the time based effects on my Q2 in the middle of a song I can't at the moment. Down the line I'll have to enjoy a MIDI foot controller to send patch change signals to the Q2. No big whoop to do or get. It's just have yet another widget to find...on Craigslist no doubt.

So iPromise myself to remain true to iSimple. I promise to pretend that I'm EVH in the late 70's & I have my pedal board of, as Ed described it, 'MXR garbage.' Why don't they make an EVH signature plywood & duct tape pedal board? chuckle.

Till later comes, turn it up to iSimplicity.

Dear Edward....Yet again...

2006-11-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

iWrote this iRamble the other iNight...Copyright (c) 11/4/2006. It's iMine.

Dear Edward....Yet again...
(See also http://www.pplministries.org/DearEVH.htm)

Everybody wanted some & they sucked the life from you (1)

Everybody needed some, what wuz you supposed to do?

You've poured your life into your art but the buisness and media was cruel & shrewd

There must have been quite the stress & pressure to produce for the suckers in their suits

It all must have taken a toll & I don't doubt that is true

At times you must have felt you lived in a circus or life was a crazy zoo

How often did you have to compromise for the hits & dollars instead of creating what you wanted to?

When you return to the heart of the art & the yet to be created tunes

What comes to your being & travels through?

What within you begins to steep & brew?

Who were you way back when in '78-79 & what now is your reality & truth?

What is dead & old that needs to be pruned?

What awaits to begin anew?

What is your current outlook & view?

Where's that Van Halen I sound & living to play live attitood?

Have you ever listened to your songs without all the vocal chart topping sexual drivel & spooge?

Behind all those words & uh-huh's & screaming yeahs is the real you; that's who

So I noticed you tributed the Who & they ask Who are you? We really wanna know

You have created &amp; innovated & performed & you've done your time & paid your dues

I'm not writing these iRambles for entertainment nor to amuse

I do hope however that they strike a nerve or a chord within you & that you would note the que

Have you been thrown off the bull for the last time or are you ready to go sittin' in the chute?

Do you stare at the mud at your feet or do you hold your head up high & dream beyond the moon?

Play & record for yourself & not for the dollars or for anyone else for you are 1 of the very gifted few

1) Reference to how the world continually wanted something from you whether it be another song, another signature series something, another album, another hit, another change of image, another sound change, another tour, another interview where they end up twisting your words around.

iYikes - Things of Line6 Pod products

2006-11-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

So I'm having a wrestling match within. The purist in me wrote my iRant about amp modelling vs. recording a live or live-like sound. The purist in me also thinks along the lines that if you record something with a certain sound, that same sound should be reproducible with a live amp without depending on sound engineers to tweak buttons & knobs & effect settings. The gizmoid drooler in me is now taking a deeper ponderance into things of Pod XT. Not the Pro or the Live model. The regular kidney shaped Pod XT. After writing my iRant nephew Jim mentioned he had a Pod XT Pro. Out of curiousity I went about the netlands & found some .mp3 sound clips of peoples patches they use for Pod XT. Those are at:
http://www.project80s.com/podxt/podclips_sounds.htm
http://www.robtognoni.com/line6.htm

There are some good sounding patches out there.

Jim also mentioned that Weezer toured & played their instruments through their Pod stuff & had no amps on stage. I have burned into my brain images of concerts where a band is overshadowed by stacks o' amps & guitar dudes going up to their amps with their guitars & finding that sweet feedback spot...I almost want to say that to have no amps for a live show is just darned wrong. But who am I to criticize right. It all falls back onto what the player & band think sounds good & fits their band & image & such. These days if plugging into an orange & then running that into a mixing board works for ya in the studio & on stage then go for it.

I'll be in my iCorner now.

- iMe

iPurplez

2006-11-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

So I strike a harmonic at you in your general direction. Why? Because they're there to share & one must be aurally blasted frequently by them to sustain life. Why? Because brother Glop has stated many times that a UCSB professor was infamous for the final exam question being Why? And the only answer was “Because.”

So the title is iPurplez. Why? Well it’s due to the popularity & marketing bondage the world feeds upon where there's iThis & iThat & iWhatever. So I just added my own i-word: iPurplez. But what does that really mean...really? It’s kind of along the same lines as the entity known as “The Blue Man” of The Blue Man Group. It’s not why. It’s not because. It's not something but it's not nothing. It's the stuff between something & nothing perhaps. It's not fiction & it's not reality. It's the stuff that lies between fiction & reality. It's the stuff between the lines & the moments of not playing between notes & chords. So as part of the journey of this iPurplez I look back upon some of my iProse that iWrote about things of purple. These are some purple excerpts....

Make It Sound Purple - iWrote 5/3/2005
Mr. soundman, make it sound purple (1)
In the corner I often sit in silence to vegetate & drool
And I pound on my blue Ibanez as an expression tool
"I've been had" is a joke nickname for my guitar brand
Of the blue & shark tooth inlay guitar I hold in my hands
My fingers wander along & babble in the fret land
To actually record something of worth, ha ha I seem to laugh
It's hard to not think of one's creations as useless trash
I would be one in the crowd of millions across the world's strands
It doesn't matter though for it is just an outlet to pound upon "the man"
But my fingers somehow continue to dance upon the fretlands
Who knows what will become of my simple guitar purple hands
- (1) When I took the recording class at Cabrillo College the instructor mentioned how a band he was recording said "Make it sound purple ma'an."

Purple & Haze – iWrote 5/29/2005
The purple & haze can do whatever it wants for that seems fair
Let the haze be purple & the purple be haze here & there
I'd be glad to take some of my purple haze & share
In the purple haze of life I sit here in my chair & I stare

Purple Lane – iWrote 5/10/2005
Life in the purple lane
Drifting here & there in the haze
Life in the purple lane
It's purple & haze kinds of days
Life goes on in the purple lane
Life is as life does in the purple lane
Haze is as haze does in the purple game
People are hazy when they are purple
If there was purple rain in the purple lane then we might start to hydroplane
It might be safer to just take a purple train
To avoid the stress of the purple lane strain
Life in the purple lane

Purple's Deep – iWrote 5/10/2005
Have you ever journeyed into purple's deep?
Have you ever journeyed into deep purple as you go to sleep?
Or does it take great courage to make the purple leap?
The law says that what you sow you will reap, so if you sow purple what deep will you reap?
Perhaps you'd feel safer if you would just go wait in the purple jeep
Excuse me while I just go fall down into a deep purple heap.

So the concept of iPurplez is based solely upon that phrase "Make it sound purple ma'an." It's like trying to see with your ears & to hear with your eyes & get beyond the boundaries of the boxes that we get stuck in as we go through iLife. If you watch a butterfly there is no pattern or boundaries to it's flight. It just goes where it desires.

So until later comes, be the purple peoplez.

An Analog To Digital Rant & Rave...

2006-11-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

There's a saying that you can't believe a picture you see in this high tech age due to all the photo munging products out there. Now a days you probably can't tell if the amp you hear on the recording is live or not live.

I've learned a new term amplifier modelling. You get some device you play through into your computer & it models various types of amplifier sounds/settings. Yes I'm sure there's the "brown sound" setting as well. Ok guitar synthesizer stuff is ok & it's been around a long time & that's what Alan Holdsworth & I'm sure many others such as Trevor Rabin from Yes do. But for any guitar hackie to just plug into something & sound like their favorite guitar riffer is almost blasphemy to the art of live sound. The box for my MXR Phaser even has on the front of it "Live to play live." How processed & computerized & overprocessed does the world need to become? Just listen to a phrase on Van Halen I & then listen to whatever it is you want to call it on Balance. Ugh. Sorry when it comes to amps & settings it should take one's entire being & sweat & blood to create & lock in their sound. I haven't gotten there yet but I smell that I'm close...maybe. Am waiting on a couple pedals to arrive so brother glop can modify them with the mod kits I ordered.

But to be fair to the gadget gizmoids out there, I do confess that I have a Hughes & Kettner Red Box which I will probably use. It can simulate a 4 speaker cabinet or a 2 speaker combo amp. And the reason is due to not having a 'studio' like environment in which to place an amp in an ideal spot with mics in another ideal spot. But at least it's dedicated to 1 purpose which is taking existing post gain amp sound & allowing one to go directly into mixing or audio capture device and sound like a mic'd cabinet. I could rationalize & justify it away but I won't. I have a kind of gizmoid that is in the category of this rant. >>>addition added 11/3 - The red box is like my running my amp's 2nd speaker output into a speaker cabinet so perhaps I'm not cheating afterall. <<< So onward with my iRant.

So this brings me to my next item & that's home digital audio recording. It's not a new concept but with computers being media oriented now a days many music gizmo companies are trying too find their niche in the market of USB & Firewire based products. To me that's cool. I started looking at USB based gadgets & I noticed for example the, ugh don't make me write this...'amp modeller' Line6 TonePort UX2 USB thing. Filled with lots of gizmos
& gadgets. But does any one of the features excel in any one area? Well it's limited by the very nature of the limitations of USB ports. Who knows. If I'm bowling I need to use a bowling ball. If I'm golfing I use A club for A shot. So the goal is quality audio recording through some interface on computer that is not based on the, usually stock & poor quality audio card. Why not get something that's dedicated to just converting the sound to digital & storing it on computer for shaping later? So in looking at reviews I found this interesting thing called Firebox that is Firewire based. Can I drool now? Now that's more like it. What's it for? Capture audio with quality mic preamps.

Before going through my Brother Glop induced journey I would've probably gone "Oh wow, & no way man!" about the Line6 thing. And I can see why people migrate to such things & that's because they don't have the time or resources to do the needed work to find their sound at home to record with. It's just a tool that gives the myriads something easy to work with. No I don't have much time & of course I'll need a Hot Plate to do anything at home...if ever. I'm wondering how many people just instantly settle for USB based stuff which does have a throughput limit but some may never reach that level of audio data. What do I know?

To be fair, perhaps the popular things like the Line6 help encourage & motivate 'cats' do jam out stuff for themselves that they might not have tried to do otherwise with mics & various other recording methods. For the good & tight sounding players that's good. For the not so good or out of tune or off key folks handing out the 'Hey look what I tried to do" CD at Christmas to friends & family, perhaps ease of recording isn't the best idea. And I'll throw myself into that grouping as well unless I can prove otherwise in time. laff.

And I shouldn't talk until I've recorded something of any kind.

I'll get off my binary soap box now.

Until later comes turn it up to Firewire.

Let's Play Remove The Vocals....

2006-11-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Been hiding in another realm for a bit....But yes I emerge victorious. So what have I to purple about this first November entry begins with a simple, cool, free audio product called Audacity. It's a digital audio editing product that software developers all over the world contribute to developing. As a guitar honkey there are songs that have great song parts to listen to or even play along with. But then comes the interuption of some singer contributing their 'Oh-Yeahs' & 'Uh-huh's' & baby this & baby that & all the other not so wholesome lyrical content. If I could wiggle a finger & have something magically happen it would be to have fav songs in their published form but with all vocals muted or faded out. Forget some black box that tries to remove vocals for ya. Forget covers or cover bands or karaoke. I'm talking about the real original thing baby, oh yeah, & uh huh, & come on. So back to Audacity, I've been playing around with taking cool fav things & using the Silence tool to silence the parts I don't want to hear. And then I've been applying fade outs & fade ins & removing the silent periods I created. So you take a 4+ minute song & do this munging & you end of up a couple minutes of just raw music, or in my case, guitar carnage.

So that leads me to the realm I was hiding in. I realized that to manually repeat this process is a pain & it gets old quick. And for this dad with bizzy beez, anything to speed along such things is a must. I realized that, hey, I could write a software tool to take my .wav files with the silence periods & apply the needed fade ins, fade outs, & do the silence removal. It took a long while to find some code examples for getting at the raw audio samples in the .wav files. But after fiddling with all the codeims I have my tool. You would think some simple tutorials on wav file processing would be available on the net of inter. Not really. Cool thing about Audacity is that since it's public for developers to contribute to you can get the source code. That was a help as well in fingering out how to apply a fade to a block of audio data. And brother glob helped me to undertand what interlaced media mean. So I've emerged from my obsessive abyss about getting this thing done so I can use it as desired..I should try to add the tool to Audacity for my own use that way it's all in one place. But that would require my trying to figure out how to follow the model already in place. All I really need to do is tell Audacity to select a region, fade it out, select another region & do a fade in, then select the silent period & delete it.

Go Audacity!

Until later comes, turn it up to binary.

Puttin' On The Brake...

2006-10-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

I was pondering the other day as I was viewing some pics of some amps & realized...Hmm a lot of axemen probably go out & buy the loudest loud thing they can. But they probably live in apartment, condo, or townhouse type of dwellings so how can they turn up their loud & not bother their neighbors? Or specifically how can I, John, crank up my Crate amp to get tone but play way quiet? Most probably don't care about noising out others. But there are kind caring rockers out there, well at least I would hope so anyway. So you want to get amp turned up to 11 or beyond to get the desired tone but you want speakers to sound like you've set the volume to 3.

I read something somewhere yesterday that 11 or beyond out of control players just go into small clubs with a decent sound system but their amps are too loud. And often the players aren't willing to cooperate with the sound person. One sound guy said he mentioned to a player that the amp was to loud so the player said "You need me to turn it down?" The sound person was shocked that the player offered to do that. I also read that some place their amps on a slanted rack to get it up off the floor & some turn them sideways or all the way around so the amp is louding out in the face of the player so the sound person has a audio chance at creating a better mix.

So in a nutshell the technology is referred to as a power brake or attenuator. More info than you would to know about it is:

Background info...
Loud cool sounding amp & need it to drive the tubes but sound quieter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_attenuator_(guitar)

This seems to be the popular model,$270+, to get for an amp with 8 ohm speakers...which I have on my Crate...
http://www.zzounds.com/item--THDHP

Do it yourself (DIY) stuff...
http://www.amptone.com/g243.htm
http://amps.zugster.net/articles/attenuation

Until later comes, turn it up to 11 but really 3.

Gadgets & Mods & Pickups & Effects...Oh my...

2006-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

This morning whilst driving in & listening to parts of songs I had an epiphany. I have plenty of examples of intros, leads, rhythms, swirly, clean, crunch, & overdriven in my set of songs in .mp3's on my smartphone. I have in my head categories of types of sounds to create. And the epiphany is that I have to first sit down & slow down & describe in words what it is a particular sound is. If I can't do that then I can't sit down with the knobs & buttons of gadgets & just turn & push aimlessly hoping to recreate that sound and then shape it to be my 'purple' sound. For some this might be "Well gee, duh John, what did you expect?" As I listen to a lead or rhythm on Halen I or even something on a Satch album I find myself asking myself things like is that a Flanger sound or is a Phaser or is it both. Heck I realized that a sound I so desperately wanted to recreate long ago on one of Satch's songs was due mainly in part to a flanger setting that has no sweep making the guitar sound like it's in a tunnel. And as I listen I hear more & more how overprocessed Vai & Satch are for some of their stuff. Would you like some guitar to go with those effects? It's interesting to listen to early Halen & then move to their subsequent pre-1984 tracks to hear how EVH moved from that simple & classic VH1 sound to becomming more processed then 1984 was great & after that....uhm Eddie dude what happened? Sheez.

I listened to a bit of some intros & leads from Slash on G n R's Appetite & just hear rock & I hear slash & not effects. Friend Jeremy, mad dog, wanted me to learn a song called Peace Dog by The Cult. I listened some clips from their Ceremony album & it's just simple & good sound. So peace, dog.

This would be interesting...Take Brian Setzer(Stray Cats), Trevor Ravin(Yes), Alan Holdsworth, The Edge, John Sykes(Whitesnake), Vivian Campbell(Dio), Eric Johnson, Ace Frehley(Kiss), Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Gilmore, Slash, EVH, Vai, Satch, or whoever I'm missing that should be included here, & stick them each in their own studio by themselves with the same 4.5 minute drum track, with their fav guitars & amps but they are only allowed to use reverb & digital delay to record. No stereo effects, no phaser, no flange, no chorus, no overdubs, no harmonizer's & no mixdown effects processing except for necessary standard EQ settings to shape the sound after recording. What would each come up with for their sound.

There was a song that sang "Video killed the radio star." Effects have sure have had quite the influence on axemen throughout the world & throughout history. I know guys like Satch & Vai are constantly driven to reinvent their sound from song to song or album to album. Is this their desire or is it driven by the business of music & marketing suits who just want album sales & the only way to do that is to always sound new, fresh, or different. Just give me my four or five or ten go button settings in some box hidden somewhere. I don't care what the details are of the box. I don't care what the amp settings are. An example I thought of also this am was that I thought about Halen & boys prepping for a tour. Makes me wonder if Eddie just goes to techies, Ok here's my main amp(s), here's my rack of stuff, Here's my guitars, I'll be back in two days. Make it sound right. Or does he piece together everything himself thing by thing & cord by cord. It boggles me how a national or world tour for such types of bands get prepped for the 1st show.

So as part of the Epiphany & describing sounds, this is the first step. What do I want to find & then make 'purple'

Sound concepts I have in my head:
Classic surf clean
Classic surf crunch
Clean surf swirly sound
Classic Rockabilly such as Brian Setzer
Classic Hendrix clean such as Hey Joe or Wind Cries Mary
Classic rock like Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode
Rocking surf rhythm such as Pipeline in hard rock style
Overdriven surf lead like my Pipeline cover I do how Dale & Stevie Ray V did together.
Clean stereo kind of sound that doesn't sound overprocessed for both leads & rhythm
Clean swirly sound
Crunch rhythm stereo wall of sound like The Cult's intros or EVH in Beautiful Girls or Purple Haze
Crunch rhythm swirly sound
Heavy hard rock rhythm stereo wall of sound that's Halen's Panama-ish or Hot for Teacher-ish.
Heavy hard rock rhythm swirly sound that's Gilmore-ish
Overdriven screaming stereo, in your face harmonics, sound
And something that's classic "The Edgish" that is all over Joshua Tree album.

The stock default patches in my Quadraverb 2 will probably cover a lot of these already.

And as U2 sings "I still haven't found what I'm lookin' for" but I seem to be gettin' there. I'm acutally going to buy strings for my electrics today & boil 'em. And once I find what I'm looking for in the coming weeks & get some tunes down I'm going to make an attempt to find some fun & good wholesome & morally sound peoplez to form some kind of instrumental surf to hard rock band to have fun with first but perhaps play weddings & such. But first I must find my 'Purple' & get to the basics with a metronome. I guess I could get things together & go play at an open mic night thing. I'm not so paranoid about my tremolo system now that I know about boiling strings & such.

Until later comes, turn it up to purple & swirly.

The First 9 Seconds - In The Beginning...

2006-10-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yep more sound/song stuff.

The 1st 9 seconds that influenced guitar & rock for millions...

=~=~=~=~=~=~==~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~

Found this guy's clips the other day. Whoa...
http://www.jasonjosephphotography.com/soundclips.html

*Marshall 1970 100watt Super Lead*
Hot for Teacher(Seymour Duncan 59)stock specs
Unchained(Seymour Duncan JB)mod
Seymour Duncan 59 plus DOD eq boost
Original 1(Ibanez Artist)mod ©2005
Original 2(Ibanez Artist)mod ©2005
Blues Jam(Seymour Duncan JB)mod

*Marshall 1959slp Plexi Reissue*
Feel your love tonight(w/album)(one tube)
Various VH song parts with one tube in the amp
One tube jam w/background music
Doodling around w/Dimarzio PAF (one tube)
Some AC/DC with my sound (one tube)
Unchained with my sound (beginning part) (one tube)
Fools (Ibanez Artist) (stock)
Mean Street (Ibanez Artist) (stock)
Mean Street (w/album in right speaker) Kramer Striker (stock )

*79 Marshall 50watt JMP*
Original 3 ©2005

*5150combo*
FYI Brother Glop - These amps are $500-$1000 used on ebay or Craigslist.
Mean Street riff with Dimarzio PAF (Marshall 4x12)
Unchained "new version"(Seymour Duncan 59) (No 4x12)
Wankage 1 (Marshall 4x12)
Wankage 2 (Marshall 4x12)
Outta love Again (w/album) Marshall 4x12 (my own vibe)
Blues on Steroids - (Marshall 4x12)
Everybody Wants Some (w/album) Marshall 4x12
Ice Cream Man (w/album) Marshall 4x12
Runnin with the devil (w/album) Marshall 4x12
Panama beginning (completely dry) Marshall 4x12
Panama(Seymour Duncan 59)
Combo with Marshall cab/Greenbacks
Jamies Cryin(combo w/Marshall cab/Greenbacks)
You really got me(Seymour Duncan 59)
Little Guitars 'fool around mix'(Ibanez Artist)
Demo solo(1980 Ibanez Artist)

This place has some rather expensive amps. There's a Soundclips link on the left side which will take you to a page that has links to .mp3 samples. The 1st Scorpion clip is a VH classic
http://www.mojaveampworks.com/

What I've Learned About Guitar Soundz

2006-10-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

What I've Learned About Guitar Soundz

Prerequisities are to read these:

I feel like I've been on an exploration to create some kind of paper for some kind of rock guitar history class. It's a journey that I've never really taken. It's a good journey but man...That EVH article I mentioned in previous post should be required reading by Federal Law prior to a person buying a guitar, amp, or pedal unit.

I must confess that I was the innocent victim of the "gotta have the gadgets" syndrome. To have gadgets & dink with effects was far more important than to just simply sound simply good. I've wasted a lifetime just pushing buttons & turning knobs endlessly & aimlessly & without knowing why & not ever really finding my "purple" sound.

We wuz prayed upon by listening to the hammering guitar carnages of our youth who had thing after thing in their racks all of which contributed to sounding big & good. But what we so easily forgot is that the 'big sound' was owed in large part to the record labels financially backing the recording studio, the recording engineers, the live sound crews, & the live sound system. Of course joe schmoe guitar dude with a simple stock mass produced guitar through some whatever high tech mass produced multieffects unit into a small amp is not going to get ya big sound. And then we take our guitars & run 'em through myriads of effects thereby muddying up & clouding what could possibly be a decent sound. We was ruined by the marketing of crud. And just last week I was hit by that DigiTech RP80/50 from the store dude at Union Grove. Sheez.
These quips from that Eddie & '79 article pretty much sum it up:

"GP: What is your philosophy on using effects?
EVH: What I'm really into doing is squeezing anything out of the cheapest possible thing. Like whenever I get something made or built or designed I always say, make it as cheap as possible. I'll walk into this music store where I buy all my stuff, a place in Pasadena called Dr. Music, and they laugh at me. Because I ask them what they have, and they go, Oh, got this new this, got the new digital delay or something or other, and I go , Got anything cheaper? Because I can get weirder noises out of them than the expensive state of the art stuff. ...And like a lot of big name players laugh themselves silly when they see it, but after they hear me, then they go, Can I plug in? Some of these guys have got four out-of-phase switches, and a this and a that, and a biamp crossover, and blah, blah, blah. And I just go, Is it on? Is it working? What's it for? What's it do? I can't tell! At least when I use an effect, you know I'm using it. My main tricks are in my amps."

How did pop & Roth & the world take Eddie's classic sound & simple approach...This title of their song seems to sum it up "Everybody wants some." Everybody wantin' a piece of him & exploitation till there was nothing let to take. Too bad Eddie lost that philosophy to keep up with the pop & rock mainstream. But my own journey by looking into EVH's early sound has returned me to the concept of simple:

Brother Glop mentioned reverb. It's all over great surf tunes & Eddie's early sound with a delay here & there.So my journey towards simple consists of:

Ordering an MXR M101 Phase 90 Pedal with 1 knob & turn it to slow sweep & keep it there forever unless I want to try to get Gilmooreish or Trowerish.
I never learned this about distortion in amps & that 'tis good to drive them with something like the classic Boss SD-1 Overdrive pedal or better yet, get the modified & cleaned up version from http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=13
Am being patient to wait on an EBay or Craigslist item for a Boss GE-7 EQ to stick in front of the amp. I found this info in a wikipedia article:As an example of pre-distortion EQ, Eddie places a 6-band MXR EQ pedal before the Marshall amplifier head (pre-distortion EQ). Slash places a Boss GE-7, a 7-band EQ pedal, before his Marshall amp. This technique is similar to placing a Wah pedal before the amp's preamp distortion and leaving the Wah pedal positioned part-way down, sometimes mentioned as "fixed wah," (pre-distortion EQ), along with adjusting the amp's tone controls (post-distortion EQ).
And then use my rack compressor & either built in Amp verb/delay/chorus or find the simplez in my Quadraverb 2 which is not a cheap unit. Nice thing is it's technology is dedicated towards time based effects instead of trying to have a million features.
I've also dreaded changing strings on my Ibanez because of the supposedly great locking tremolo system which will drive one to 5150 status quickly. I was often puzzled by how whammy monsters such as Vai, Satch, Eddie, etc. can go so long in a show without going out of tune. I asked myself that just this morning. And today I read this in that article that I didn't see before:
"GP: Do you put new strings on every night? EVH: Yeah, Fender 150XLs. I stretch them to death. With that new Rose thing, I boil the strings so they stretch, because if you just put them on and clamp it down, the strings stretch out on the guitar. I just take a pack and let it boil for 20 minutes in the hot water. And then I dry them in the sun, because otherwise they rust. But I only use them one night anyway, so who cares if they rust?"

So can I have an A+ now teacher? Strange thing is that I've done all this looking about & such & I haven't even gotten an amp out or changed any strings yet on me electrics. I did change my acoustic strings last weekend though. Now I'll go buy, boil, & sun soak some electric strings & see how they, & I do. Laff.

Untils later comes, turn it up to simplicity.

Whoa & Wow Ma'an Tracks From Brother Glop

2006-10-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

I inquired with brother Glop about a list of songs from the roots of rock & surf music that we're like 'Whoa' & 'Wow ma'an' excluding some obvious one's like Pipeline, Classical Gas, Johnny B Goode. These are what the glop of manly surfdom emailed to this simple this me.

The Ventures - Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
The Ventures - Perfidia
The Ventures - Diamond Head
Pink Floyd - Gilmore's solo in - On The Turning Away
Jorgen Ingmann - Apache
The Lively Ones - Surf Rider
Jimi Hendrix - Villanova Junction (Live at Woodstock)

Diamond Head played:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TUmMoEcD9EU

Just My Pedalboard...Said Ed in that '79 article...

2006-10-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

This here is rambles about guitar effects processing & finding one's "sound."
In that article I found with EVH in '79 he quipped humorously...
"Just my pedalboard, my cheap piece of plywood with my MXR garbage. You know, that's funny too. I've met just about everybody that I grew up on, and they all laugh - you know, like Montrose and Nugent and all these people. Last year when we'd open for them, they'd walk up to me and go "What is this stuff?" You know, I got my little plywood with an MXR phase shifter duct-taped onto it....I see Montrose with his $4000 studio rack...And then he laughs himself silly looking at my stuff. And then later on he's going 'Whoa, how do you get that sound?'

Stop! Hey what's that sound? Everyone look what's going 'round...

"In the late 70's Dave Gilmour and Eddie VanHalen were both using script MXR Phase 90's"
"Why so popular? Simple. Have a listen to 'Eruption' from EVH, now have a listen to the solo in 'Hotel California' and now have a listen to 'Breathe' by Pink Floyd. It's all the same phaser." It's all vintage modjo.
"If you really want one, and you should, you'll need to be prepared to trawl for hours on the net to find one & pay $250 0r more."

Forget mocha. Modjo please!

Then found that Dunlop makes or did make a reissue called:
Custom Shop Phase 90 Script Pedal
http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/pip&id=243&pmh=products/p_and_e_detail

Curiousity might lead me to get one to try.

Added 10-21 - Did a bit more poking & found MXR M-101 Phase 90 Pedal and then doing a simple 'R28 Mod' where you clip one end of a resistor to remove it from the circuit:
http://www.thejunosound.com/phase_90_r28_mod.htm

So as part of one's journey into guitardom there's the dreaded cat & mouse game of "Find your sound." It's been a vain journey so far for this me. There's something to be said for just plug in & play & forget trying to sound good for, as I hinted at in my rambling earlier this week it is far better to look good than it is to be & sound good. So I'm on this quest to return to the roots of the Halen I simplicity. That sure changed quickly:
http://www.customaudioelectronics.com/images/EVH1.jpg
Some guy claims this was the 90's setup that Ed used:
http://guitargeek.com/rigs/img/v/vanhalen_eddie_1997.gif

So I walked into a local music shop in town & just asked the dude "I look at the roots of Halen I sound & there's simplicity. What effects processor do you recommend to help return to similar simplicity?" They had only a few types of units but the guy pulled out a DigiTech RP50 & RP80. The 80 is the 50 but adds an expression pedal. I'm not fond of DigiTech as they try to market to the masses. Of course reviews are all over the charts but the consensus seems to be it's for dinking around but overall, as expected, not for the intermediates & above. But I could go try one for the heck of it to either prove the guy wrong or to confirm or deny the reviews.

So I did a Google for: best simple guitar processor & on page 4 of the myriads of results I found the text "Steve Vai Takes Guitar Effects to a New Level...
http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=8873

I drooled through these clips:
http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=6061

The GSystem is of course at least $1500.
The TC Electronics VPD1 seemed impressive as well.

In the very middle of drooling I just said to myself..."Welp, simplicity at it's best on VH1 was guitar on one side & verb on the other with some flange or delay." I'm to the point of saying, turn on my, not so cheap Crate amp, turn on a bit of chorus, & pick one of the preset verb or delay settings & go. But then I could also run the amp's effect loop out into my, not so cheap & not really meant as a guitar effects processor, Quadraverb 2, & just pick a something & go.

Welp, until later comes, turn it up to phaser + "MXR garbage."

It's Starting...Media Invasion...

2006-10-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

In the continuing saga of things of music media & the wholesomeness, or lack thereof, I'm noticing that the battle has been taken to the next level in my children. I realize now that my own journey of recent days has been training me to, or shedding light upon, the need to meet the ensuing media onslaught head on & stand my ground.

Why are 3rd graders listening to the music of Dio, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Z.Z. Top, and, ugh..., the dreaded Iron Maiden? And the answer is either the kid's parents listen to it or the parents don't screen what it is the child listens to. In my own journey into the realm of metaldom, my parents as great as they are, didn't involve themselves in the monitoring & restriction of music content. The metal roamed free....wheee. And if that's not bad enough the child listening to the aforementioned inappropriate lyrical content had one of their parents burn a copy of songs & gave to Noah & another student. And now I must create simple ways to teach Noah & boyz about not cloning media to give to others & why the particular media is not appropriate for them. I hope I have the needed stamina & wisdom to redirect little ears towards Dale, Ventures, the Vai's & Satriani's, etc.

Do not be afraid but be very afraid for peer influence has begun.

Ramblin Band Blue Ma'an

2006-10-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

Revision 10/19/2006 10:45 am
Jim Wrote "I wonder what the difference is there?"
I'm sure it was the drive to rock hard following in the successes of the Cream's, Zepplin's, Nuggent's, Aerosmith's, Cactus, & Hendrix. To rock hard in main 'rockstream' you had to have lyrics & obviously someone singing them.

So I've been on this interesting journey since I started doin' this blogg thing. The journey was inspired by brother Steve, aka Glopman, who randomly & out of the blue sent me the link to the YouTube-good luck there Google with all the legalisms-of Eddie Van Halen jammin' Panama with Paul Shaffer & Letterman band dudes. This began the journey of returning to roots of things of music for me. Looking back I, along with every other young teen guitar wannabe, listened to things of Halen or whatever the most popular guitar riffing maniacs was & mainly it was to listen to the guitar carnage spewing forth in incomprehensible ways. For me none of it had to do with the lyrics nor the image or look of the bands. So as I have been returning to the roots of things of Halendom I realize now how stupid the lyrics are to most of their songs and how 1 tracked minded the lyrical content is. I never really even read what the lyrics were until I started doing so in this day & age. The second thing I realized is that for a band, seeking to invade the world, it is almost better for the band to look good & have their image than it is to sound good. You had to have the image first, then you have to have lyrics that conform to the standard of being about sex, drugs, rock &amp;amp;amp; roll, & just maybe about cars or motorcycles. I recently watched part 3 of MTV's review of Heavy Metal days of the 80's & 90's. As big hair & stupid outfits got more bigger & more stupid, bands came along to crack that misery such as Metallica & Guns & Roses.

so if you take away image & take away the conformity in regards to lyrics & a band's success & popularity were based entirely upon musical content alone, yeah dream on John, what kind of music/songs would they put out instead? Would Van Halen have needed a singer ever in this scenario? One example is that Eddie & Alex were nominated for a Grammy for the instrumental track they did for the movie Twister. Even Vai & Satriani had to move into the realm of putting lyrics to their music to attract more to buy their music. And that’s mainly that non-musician types need lyrics to relate to a song because they can't relate to just an instrument playing.

so a band has a choice to be just a bar/party band & play what they want how they want or they start to write way cool & awesome backing music but they stick crud in front of it in the form of the conforming lyrics & they start to create their image & attitude. And when they sign a deal they get stuck in that realm of just being a sell out money making pawn for the business of music. Eddie tried to break away from some of the control of the business of music by building 5150 studios. But they still had to put out the sell out type of genre of music that the very nature of the business of music dictated.

Does the business of music interfere with the art of music? Of course it does. It is better to look & sound the way the business wants you to than it is to look at & sound the way you want your art to. It must be impossible to stand one's ground in that realm.

Until later comes, I'll be listenin' to more of the Blue headed peoples.

Babble about technology today vz. long ago...

2006-10-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

Zo thiz babble I have about thingz of muzic & technology & servicez in thiz now iz about a way back when thing that I learned from friend Jeremy. But first....Way back long ago when I waz young we didn't have theze thingz called CDz or MP3 or DVD nor did we have a net of inter. If we wanted to lizten to our favourite album man we had to get up off our lazy buttz & actually zearch through a stack o' vinyl record albumz to find the then 'dizc' to play. We then had to go over to the ztereo device & puzh a myriad of buttonz to bring them to life. Then we had to carefully place the 'dizc' upon the turntable. Now if we wanted to lizten to a zpecific zong we had to ztudy the groovez on the dizc and accurately tranzport the needle device to the approximate location on the 'dizc.' And we did zo hoping that we would not cauze damage to the preciouz needle or the 'dizc.' We could then proceed to rock out or zit on lazy buttz & juzt lizten. Oh but what if you wanted to hear the whole album? Well half way through we had to get off our duffz & turn the 'dizc' over & go through the needle placement routine again.

In regardz to said 'dizcz' that if for whatever reazon the song or couple of songz you liked didn't come in the 45 format 'dizc' then you had to buy the whole darn ztinkin' album juzt to be able to play the zongz you wanted to.

Zo back to what I zet out to write about iz that Jeremy & I had thiz rule about buying albumz & that waz either we had to have enjoyed previouz releazez from the artiztz or we had to have heard & liked at leazt 3 zongz on an album to buy the album. That took out the guezzing of weather or not we'd like anything on the album. Now fazt forward to now & today...

One can go on the net of inter & lizten to a zhort clip of muzic being conzidered for purchaze. And that can be helpful but a short clip izn't going to give you much of a zample. And to date I've enjoyed the concept of Rhapzody which allowz you to firzt have a free 14 day trial & you can lizten to all the albumz & songz you want for free. You can skip songz on albumz you don't like. And you don't have to have the song filez on your playing system. Each time the player iz on a zong it juzt goez & fetchez it online. I think that'z kind of cool.

It'z juzt interezting to think upon how much how we get media into our beingz that we dezire haz changed zo much. There'z even the incredibly huge paradigm shift that Hollywood haz to set it'z marketing planz unto the realm of home viewing rather than firzt putting forth all energiez towardz promoting & releazing moviez in theatrez firzt & then on video/DVD long long long after the movie leavez the theatre building.

Welp back to enjoying zampling some Blue Man Group via Rhapzody.

Until later comez, go be blue ma'an.

Thingz of free trials & copyrighted material

2006-10-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here pondering a strangism...And it's merely from an observation & not my actual doing such things. And the strange is about free trial services that allow one to enjoy fully copyrighted material for a limited time. And hence one can use various methods available to clone such copyrighted materials to keep & enjoy for however long one wants to. Examples are things like Netflix, Blockbuster online rentals, or Rhapsody where they usually offer you free trials for about two weeks & then you cancel & then they say "Well hey we want ya so we'll extend your trial for 2 more weeks." And then you cancel & then you sign up again for a free trial using a different shipping address such as your place of employment along with a different email address & then you can enjoy more free for another month. In the case of the online music service such as Rhapsody, you can listen to entire songs & albums during the trial period & not pay a dime. And there's myriads of free or almost free software programs that will happily capture the audio from you computer's sound card. Or you could simply run the line out of the computer into some of kind external audio recorder. In the case of protected audio that you purchase from Rhapsody or iTunes, you get this nice protected file that you can have burned onto a CD. And then you use a free or almost free tool that copies the audio content from the CD byte by byte to create a perfect audio file. Then you can use converters to convert the audio to .mp3. And then you can, if you wanted, just send that audio file all about the world. I laugh to think about how iTunes has been disabled for parts of the world due to people doing that. The only thing that prevents people from such sharing of things is a little license agreement that you click a nice button on the computer screen and then it's up to your morals & values to keep you from 'stealing.' I'm sure publishers just love that.

I just find it ironic to think about the paradigm of digital media rights & how the publishers of such media are trying to protect that which they publish. But the very thing they are trying to protect can be so easily obtained for free & converted into an unprotected format.

But then the same was probably true way back when one could record their music onto an audio tape & then pass the tapes around to people. I'm sure the music industry went nuts about that.

The publishing realm is strange. If you leave it up to consumers to abide by a legal speal that they either click on in the computer realm or read on the back of some media disc, tape, or album, then stuff is going to be cloned & passed about.

Until later comes, turn it up to free.

Dear Eddie Again...

2006-10-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Edward Van Halen Again...

http://www.pplministries.org/DearEVHAgain.htm

If someone knows how to get this to Eddie's eyes, please do so. Until later comes, turn it up to 5150.

Thingz of Gibzon ES-335 - How could you Steve!?

2006-10-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Zo my favorite oldezt brother Steve wrote in hiz blog:
"...buying me a Gibson ES335 electric guitar. I don't have it now -- I sold it in college...I got it in December 1967, I think."

Zo I did a zearch for ES335 on the net & went poking around at various linkz I found. I learned that you can buy a reizzue made by the Gibzon Cuztom Zhop for about $4500. Found zome guy zelling one from 1971 on craigslist for about $4000. If I had the money I'd probably go fetch that one after having a guitar tech review it.

In my clicking about the net of inter I ztumbled upon an interezting video clip about Gibzon & Guitar Center partnering to create a clone of Clapton'z ES-335. It'z an interezting journey through watching the 'cloning' & building procezz. Interezting to note iz that I noticed that part of the manufacturing procezz includez dipping the pickupz in hot wax to help avoid unwanted feedback. Thiz waz a pratice that Eddie Van Halen did with surf wax melted in a can az he azzembled hiz guitarz himzelf. Yet another example of how Eddie haz influenced the world of guitarz & how they are made. The video clip link iz:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4764707652331081865

In an article from 1979 Eddie stated:
"See, I love 335's. I can haul ass on those things. When I pick up a 335, you probably wouldn't even recognize my playing. There's no vibrato, and I just play totally different. It's more jazzy, more fluid-fast. Kind of like Holdsworth."
- http://www.vhlinks.com/pages/interviews/evh/gp122979.php

At the end of the video the Gibzon dude told a tale about showing a prototype of the clone to Clapton & Clapton thought it waz hiz original.

Alzo in the clicking about I learned that the Clapton izzue from Gibzon goez for about $12,000. Found that zome perzon wrote thiz about buying an ES-335 reissue:
"Gibson 1963 ES-335 reissue - $3,899 - hey wait a minute - this is the same as the Crossroads 335, except for the Hare Krishna decal, Eric's autograph on the orange label and the distressed case"

Until later comez, rock on clazzic jammerz

Dear Edward Van Halen Wherever You Are...

2006-10-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Edward Van Halen Wherever You Are...

Wrote the following today in pondering things of guitardom & my early & present guitar carnage journeys.

http://www.pplministries.org/DearEVH.htm

If someone knows how to get this to Eddie's eyes, please do so.

Until later comes, turn it up to 5150.

Cathedral Ramblez

2006-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Welp after dinking around with things of Cathedral I've got the intro chords & the note patterns down & can pick the notes with the MIDI file at the default speed that is in the .mid file at 114 beats per minute. I even tried to play along with Eddie from one of the live solo video clips. It's darn hard to start when he does because of the volume swells & the dig. delay note that comes about .4 seconds later. It's the game of find the note. But I did find I was able to keep up if I started at the right millisecond with Ed. In terms of notes & chords it's a darned simple song & the mystery & complexity of it is buried in the harmonies produced by the delayed note. Picking the notes is one thing. Now must actually get out an amp, blow the dust off of it, get out an electric & blow the dust off of it, & get it in tune, & then find a proper delay setting for way slow. First I'll practice picking then I'll practice the volume swells & hammering the notes rather than picking them. I like the song & it's fun to play. And then maybe I'll venture unto changing the strings so I can actually have a nicer sound. Where's my guitar tech? Sheez.

Until later comes I'll be in my corner cloning others & hopefully you can turn it up to 11 because where we live I wouldn't be able to without neighbors shoutin' shaddup already

Satch's Brother John & Guitar Carnage

2006-10-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

So uhm yeah howdy hey. Just rambling on a Friday because I can. So my left hand is tired from trying to stretch me fingers upon all corners of me accoustic fretboard to play Satch's short but sweet Brother John thing that's on his first album. When I first started trying to finger it out with a .mid file & some guitar tab I thought, aw to heck with it. Especially after finding that Classical Gas stuff by Tommy Emmanuel. But I pressed through the fingering for Bro. John figuring that if I can get it ok on me accoustic it will be much more easier on me electric. I'm still causing havoc to me fingers with trying to get better at Satch's Tears In The Rain. I wonder if the guitar wonders have a hard time playing their own songs where they stand up there on stage in dread of having to somehow make it through the next song or riff or what have you. If they do you wouldn't see it in their faces or their hands.

So I'll continue practicing these things whilst venturing into the realm of first learning the notes of Eddie's Cathedral then learning how to do the volume swell. I stumbled upon this guy's site looking for info about how to play Cathedral & what delay settings to use. He goes on & on & on & says the same things over & over again but it was interesting to watch. He has other vids about Eddie's playing & such that I might watch.

http://www.jfrocks4.com/tech/vin_heuton/mos1.wmv

Welp, until later comes, turn it up to eleven.

Cathedral Midi File

2006-10-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Computers can be cool...

http://www.pplministries.org/Cathedral.mid

Tommy Emmanuel & Classical Gas - Whoa!

2006-10-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Forget Eddie, Vai, or Satch, Hendrix, brown or purple for a moment...Not for the Classical gas purist...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQJ1k2HMoRU

A fun 6 minutes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgR3DMWLzsA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBEbYXa6Cik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0tqCgTjbM

I stink...laff.

Until later comes, turn it up to 11.

Zhort & Zlow Fingerz

2006-10-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

Zo I ventured in the very depthz of the dungeon known az our garage to look for a Zatraini tab book so I could once again, for about the hundreth time in my life, learn Zatch'z accouztic "Tearz In the Rain" inztrumental. Of courze whilzt venturing amidzt the myriad of boxez I could not find the dezired book. Zo I ventured out of the dungeon to the net of the inter & found a tab to try. And after a few hourz I can play through it zort of ok. Hopefully I won't forget it again. And once again I realized that my fingerz are shorter than Joe'z. Zigh. I've alwayz had to & once again have had to play the zong with the B ztring tuned down a half step. 'Tiz good to be dinking around with thingz for the fun of it. Perhapz I'll ztare at Ed & otherz playing Panama to try & learn it better than the cheezy way I uzed to play it in high school. I won't try the zolo though. Too many little black dotz for theze "zhort & zlow" fingerz. Onward to play Znowboarding on XBox with Caleb.

Until later, turn it up to 11.

Life Iz A Blur

2006-09-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Zo it'z a Zaturday. Weather report. Overcazt with zun attempting to poke out. The fall crizp air thing zeemz to be ztarting with nightz & morningz becomming more cool. Zome of the treez are ztarting to turn color. And zome are already dropping their leavez. The treez outzide me cube at work aren't turning or changing much yet. They juzt zway in the zlight breeze & I ztare at them like one would at fizh in an acquarium. Noah'z off to a b-day party for one of hiz clazzmatez. Caleb & Jozhua are off to a movie with their friendz down the ztreet. I have a few momentz to myzelf which iz a rare thing. But zince it'z a day of floppage I don't have much oophum to do much but relax & do very little. Z cat'z azleep on the couch & maybe I ought to follow hiz lead. Already zcanned the t.v. zchedule for the day & there'z not a thing I would want to record or watch. Zo az the world buzyz itzself with fun & recreation & even exercize I juzt want to be ztill & chill. I'll have to get to doin' zome zstuff around the houze in a bit though to help Terra get ready for her once a month girlz night in playing bunco which she'z hozting tonight.

Written by me juzt now. It'z mine, aka copyright (c) me now & today.
Life iz a blur & to slow down iz blizz
For many of our momentz are conuzumed by kidz
They're great & fun & wonderful of courze but they'll make ya flip yer lidz
Nuthing like being able to flop & drink something with some kind o' fizz
Oh what a relief to have a moment or few to zelf it iz
Having to get up zo early to get 'im out the door for zchool zure can be the pitz
It takez great effort zometimez & the tired can hurt & makez me looze me witz
But that'z juzt the way thingz are & I juzt have to find a way to get a grip
I guezz I find zome zanity by turning on zome tunez & listenin' to the riffz
Then there'z good ol' coffee which can help overcome the morning blitz
Welp zilence callz to me now zo I zhould get on with the day & end thiz quip
Zorry if I don't get up or move too fazt today or do any flipz
And I'll do my bezt to ignore or avoid any kind of "honey do" liztz
Off to pet the cat & juzt let my being wander & drift
Off to find a moment of the noize of silence for a bit

Zo until later comez along, turn it up to 11. And kidz, juzt zay no to uzing the letter Ess.

Guitar Carnage Video Clipz

2006-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Guitar carnage video clips. Probably higher than 11 & probably illegal & good luck there YouTube.

Steve Vai National Anthem - poor vid & audio quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1bP23nXvY

A scary Georgy Lynch noise attack of distortion & delay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5v2XPYBfbY

Stu - bass - Peanuts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPIIuFudMw

Stu - from Satraini DVD live in San Fran:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Q_J2fIKPI

Eddie - Rock on Eddie:

Steve Vai with Attitude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I92d9JysA_8