Just thinking out loud about guitars again. Non guitar players might want to go fix a cocktail at this point in the proceedings. Snooooooze....
Went traipsing up and down Sunset Blvd in LA over the weekend, poking my nose into a bunch of guitar stores with John and getting surled by some junkie rockers who desperately needed to find the nearest deli and have a sandwich or twelve. I'm getting that hankering again for a new guitar. Something different, something I've never really played before, something so damn cool I'd need shades just to play it. Not a used one out of the dustiest corner of Real Guitars, but a brand new one, without anyone else's dead skin and spilled beer caked into the frets. One I can call my own and abuse as I see fit. If you put a gun to my head I couldn't count how many guitars I've owned over the years, although it might be fun to try. They just come and go, and that's kind of what they're for.
My American Tele certainly is my favorite of all of them ever, but it's time for a different flavor. At the moment the main ones in the quiver are the Tele, the Phantom Teardrop, the Epi 12-string Les Paul, and the Fried Yamatele. I need something to fill the obvious hole that leaves. Any ideas anyone? What would I wear well? What would play these tunes well? Another Fender? I've been a Telecaster dude for many moons now, and that Thinline at GC was awfully nice. But I've owned too many Teles. I need a real Strat, but I just can't be a Strat guy full time. My fake (Chandler) Strat will do for now. Jaguar/Jazzmaster/Mustang family? Mmm, not quite me. My wardrobe won't support it.
Rickenbackers are out of the question. I've owned two, and there won't be a third unless I find one that plays like a guitar and not an goddamn egg slicer. The first was a 481. They're rare for a reason, and that's all I'll say about that sorry-ass instrument. The second was an Atlantis, which I would have loved to death were it not for its complete inability to get in tune. Sounded and looked great, played like fifty pounds of ass. So close, Ricky, and yet so very far.
So howsabout a Gibbo? The second electric guitar I ever owned was a Gibson Marauder, and Bill used to make fun of me because of it. I'm sure I deserved it at the time, but I saw one for sale at the Hollywood Guitar Center for $1300. Who knew? Not me, that's for sure. I had an L6-S for some time, which was a great guitar. Kind of looked like a squashed Les Paul. Smelled funny, but sang like an angry bird. I also had a Flying V briefly which was a ton of fun. You really can use them for anything. Chris Fortier needs a V badly. I'm probably not a Les Paul guy. My back is already shot. Explorer? HA! I'm thinking a LP Jr or a Melody Maker might be just perfect. P Rusty has a nice Jr, and John has an absolutely beautiful MM. The 335s and their ilk are too damn expensive, and I look and feel stupid (er?) playing them. Yeah. Les Paul Jr. I'm liking that idea a lot. And I think tomorrow might be a great day for a test drive. Can I borrow $850?
By the way, while enjoying the dulcet sounds of the Riptide open mike this evening, I was treated to the absolute worst guitar sound I've ever heard in my life, spewed forth from the rancid plastic innards of a Fender Telecoustic. To my guitar player friends; if ever I see you playing one of those bits of kindling, I'll snap off your arms and beat you soundly with them.
I hardly ever do this. But today for lunch I actually ate...gasp...a Wendy's burger. Plus fries and a root beer. All-American lunch. I now know why I hardly ever do this.
I felt sick for the rest of the day. Before I even ordered I thought that I'd just indulge an infrequent guilty pleasure and smile about it. Impossible. You know you're making a mistake lunch-wise when you have to ask yourself, "does this taste good?" Yyyeeecchhh.
Americans, you've been had. Fast food burgers are disgusting. Put it down and walk away. Abandon the seductive pretense offered you by the tomato and pickles hiding reluctantly under the slice of American cheese (read, square slab of congealed orange oil) and just suck on a stick of butter instead. It's better for you anyway.
I am a Whitney blanket
Original and best
You'll never get cold feet
With me across your chest
The concluding paragraph from Frank Rich's NY Times op-ed column today:
"What comes next? Having turned the page on Mr. Bush, the country hungers for a vision that is something other than either liberal boilerplate or Rovian stagecraft. At this point, merely plain old competence, integrity and heart might do."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Yep, looks like hell has frozen over. Playin' in a couple country bands. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Come out tonight to see Octomutt's Country Cousin at the Riptide, Taraval at 46th Ave. here in SF. Ted on guitar, Ashley on the doghouse bass, Mike on guitar, and yours truly on drums. Drum. Sure is nice to be able to walk to the gig.
Plus, I'll be playing guitar for a few gigs in coming months with The Highway Robbers in SF, OC, LA, and possibly in Nashville and Austin if we can scrape up some gas money.
Is it just me, or does it seem like time is just creeping along with that pasty homunculus sitting in the Oval Office? Do we really still have 3+ years to go? After the election I comforted myself with the thought that term #2 would go by quickly. It would cost us all 4 years, but seeing W go would be worth the wait. But he's still there!
On the other hand, I take much comfort in the fact that he is personally overseeing the investigation into why the feds made such a pig's breakfast of the Katrina relief effort. That gives me a big warm fuzzy; after all, they only saw the storm coming for a few days. Nice to know we're in good hands...
See, I think the thing I hate the most about W Inc. is that he absolutely demands that I yank out of myself pure, undiluted, and anger-driven sarcasm and surliness and spew it out here. I don't like me like that, and I don't much like writing in my little blog about things non-musical anymore. But he just drags it out of me. It's too easy. That stupid face, the condescending smirk, misguided alpha-male stride; what I wouldn't give to see him fall head-first down the stairs while getting off Air Force One.
And I REALLY can't stand it when that goddamn criminal has the sheer audac...
Wait. Someone at the door. I'll be right back...
HUZZAH! My new Vans!! Thanks Mr. Mailman!! More exclamation points!! OK. All is right with the world. See W? There's nothing you can say that a new pair of shoes can't put right, you stupid idiot.
Actual words fail me.
On the one hand, unbelieveable. On the other, no surprise at all:
"We reported last night on the cause of Hurricane Katrina -- at least in the eyes of an antiabortion group called Columbia Christians for Life. The storm, the group says, is God's way of punishing Louisiana for having 10 abortion clinics.
Well, at least that's what the Columbia Christians for Life were saying yesterday. We've just received another e-mail from the group, and now it seems to be saying that God sent Katrina after Louisiana to prevent Southern Decadence, an annual gay-themed bash that was scheduled for Labor Day weekend in New Orleans.
The Columbia Christians for Life forwarded to us a press release from a Philadelphia-based outfit called Repent America. In it, Repent America director Michael Marcavage explains: "Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same."
How much $$$cabbegio$$$ do you think these subhumans contributed to the American Taliban last year? No wonder Bush sat on his ass for 4 days. He was worried about how his mayo-slurping potato-headed constituents would feel about going to the rescue of those hordes of evil black people. "Oh, the reprisals! The swirling down the drain of my political capital."
This is America, so I'll be the next one to say it, as is my right. The occupants of the White House need to be dragged out into the street, run out on a rail, shackeled onto the prow of The Barge. How much more evidence do we need that Bush and his drooling throngs are the most dangerous, selfish, myopic people on the planet? Osama, you're an idiot too. Why waste time with NY and the Pentagon, slaughtering innocents who had nothing to do with your frothing childish ideology? Couldn't you have just dropped Atta onto Bush's motorcade strapped to a couple TNT belts? New Orleans sits in a fishbowl? Let's slash government spending on the levee system's development, and pour it down the Irag black hole. Gooooood idea. Meanwhile, that useless regime puppet Brown, FEMA figurehead formerly of the horsy set, is doing "a heck of a job."
We elect our leaders freely. Supposedly, anyway. Why can't we get the hell rid of them when they just take every opportunity to fuck it all up? We got rid of Governor Davis for being an incompetent weed. Never mind his successor; that's kind of where the argument falls down.
They impeached Bill for getting a blowjob. Just think about that for a second. I'm sure you have. Did anyone get hurt or did billions upon billions of dollars evaporate for no reason? At least he could play the sax, and as such would probably have charged headlong into the Gulf Coast in a minute, carrying a million MREs on his back before the National Guard even had time to gas up. Even Nixon could play the fucking piano.
Enough is enough. Troops home now. Coup d'etat now. No more useless people in charge, spitting on our sidewalks and eating all the pie. This "man" needs to go.
I'm mad. And I never even got to visit New Orleans.