Friday, September 09, 2016
Anyone for tennis elbow?
I'm not a medical person, you may have guessed. I just think I have a sore left elbow from time to time. Mostly when I use it. The internet information seldom helps, there are too many options when you look for help. I was thinking that those long summer days in the heady 60s playing tennis with a splintered racket from Woolworths and the dog's ball (?) on the gravel in Rosyth had finally caught up on me. Hand to eye coordination? None really. Of course I was no good and have religiously avoided the sport for years though I did play a lot of summer time campsite badminton for a bit. I guess it's all catching up but then what if it is golfer's elbow? There's a bit of a stigma attached to such an injury i.e. the suggestion of once playing golf, sticky social mobility and bad trousers, I'm not quite there yet. Could it also be bass guitarist's elbow or gear change elbow? Beer swilling elbow? Black and Decker elbow? Wanker's elbow? Nah! It's the left elbow anyway. Probably just a bad case of people of a certain age's wonky parts getting worn and time to reach for the ibuprofen or some other cheap medicine from Aldi, that and some minor alterations to my lifestyle such as avoiding tennis matches and courts.
Thursday, September 08, 2016
Problem solved
I bought a seven guitar guitar stand from a nice bloke in China to hold at least seven of the numerous guitars I'm either putting together for future sale or actually using in order to play for (some kind of weird) pleasure. It was relatively easy to assemble and even easier to stand the guitars up in, all at a peculiar angle. It does however take up a bit more floor space than I has imagined. Imagine that. Perhaps it's better to consider it as a piece of furniture that can be moved around as required rather than as a permanent storage unit stuck in one set lace. Of course if I got up of my arse, got my up-cycled guitar shop started properly I might well sell some of these and thereby solve the problem. That is of course both overly optimistic and completely unrealistic.
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Saving the world one bee at a time
OK, it's not overly impressive but a spoonful of sugar at the right time and in the right place may just save the life (temporarily) of one of your friendly neighbourhood bees. Not sure why, with all the daft superheroes bouncing around on film and in comics nobody as yet has been stung by a radioactive bee and so received super powers. These powers would obviously include the ability to fly albeit somewhat erratically, buzz very loudly, be annoying at picnics, get mistaken for a wasp, gather huge amounts of pollen and require regular pit stops for sugary water. You can probably tell the scripting of this may need quite a bit of work. As for the costume, not an easy design even for the best artists out there.
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Right now
So what am I thinking about right now?
Breakfast and a shower, most likely breakfast first which will be porridge, banana and syrup. The shower should mainly form warm water, soap and no porridge whatsoever.
Partner gone to work. Traffic.
Guitar pickups: I put two new Warman Humbuckers on an old Les Paul copy. They work really well and importantly worked and fitted first time with only a tiny bit of tweaking being required. No drama.
Weather forecasts, even though it seldom stops me doing things I still zoom in on today's weather.
Instagram. What are people taking pictures of today and will there be any good ones offered up for one dimensional approval via the little red heart?
Last night's fishy leftovers (?), salad with a really good dressing and of course well sliced, tasty tomatoes.
A phone call or email from a prospective employer, so many things that are promised but take far longer than they should to arrive.
Road trip and Amazon delivery.
And then there's the blurry edges, between the real and the imagined, sitting considering the pale light of day and the hazy recollections of a distant night time and what might have passed by or been experienced in a few hours of sleep but is now remote and forgotten.
Monday, September 05, 2016
Cloudfest
Here are a few pre-Poldark clouds from Sunday evening: Sometimes clouds are pretty dull, sometimes they are interesting. You never really tell what you're going to get until you take a little time, stop and look upwards. Commonplace as they are they still make strangely compulsive viewing unlike Council TV. "Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air..." They've been blocking the sun for some time but I guess that's part of their job, if they didn't we'd be in a mess, or even more of a mess. I'm just glad that Michelangelo was astute enough to invent them back in the Renaissance or at the dawn of time or whenever, I can't be precise on this. Too young and not observant enough.
Sunday, September 04, 2016
Maggies 16
We had a good time last night playing and participating in the 2016 "Song for Maggies" charity benefit gig. The venue was the Sailing Club at Dalgety Bay; cheap drink, free food and the fine company of a group of skilful musicians and enthusiastic supporters. I've no idea how much money was raised, but I'm sure it will be a decent amount. Some great original material was aired along with a variety of covers, two of the highlights being a mother and son performing "Parklife" with gusto and our Norman's spirited rendition of "You can call me Al". Thanks to Neil Drummond for putting the whole thing together and paying us in bottled beer and a unique copy of "Band of Gypsies" on vinyl.
Neil takes command. |
Saturday, September 03, 2016
Stills from Ghibli
"Meditation in the still of the grey dawn as the lake holds back on that vital answer." |
"Moon talks to grasses, grasses ignore the moon." |
"She's gone all catatonic for no reason." |
"Completely losing track of which planet I'm on at the moment. I'm sure that it'll all come back to me in time." |
"That was one mean blast of heat, didn't even see it coming. Things are still standing however." |
Friday, September 02, 2016
Sonic confusion
Or possibly and more accurately, perpetual art of continued sonic confusion. What is best? Valves or transistors or digital or acoustic or what? What if it's all really just in your fingers like Jeff Beck (a theory I've always liked to think I've subscribed to) or is it really that (playing live) most guitars sound pretty shit really and it's only the magic of studio rendering and witch doctor type of spells that fixes anything? Fabulous mistakes where solos end on that awkward wrong note (Miles Davies said "it's the note that you play next that matters). Hmm... as Frank Zappa said to Steve Vai (people seem to say a lot of things about tone) "your playing is great but your tone is like a ham sandwich". Me? I'm more in the Marmite on toast tonal zone with a little porridge on the side, quite comfortable in there really.
Just reflecting on the fact that most of my musical references are set from forty years ago or by people long dead and gone. That looks dangerously out of time however I do subscribe to Pro-Guitar Shop's latest tonal suggestions, hints and advice when ever I can. The trouble is most modern equipment is hell bent on replicating the "classic" sounds from the golden age of whatever genre happens to be mentioned.
Just reflecting on the fact that most of my musical references are set from forty years ago or by people long dead and gone. That looks dangerously out of time however I do subscribe to Pro-Guitar Shop's latest tonal suggestions, hints and advice when ever I can. The trouble is most modern equipment is hell bent on replicating the "classic" sounds from the golden age of whatever genre happens to be mentioned.
Neil Young's wonderful, ramshackle rig, as you might have guessed. |
Thursday, September 01, 2016
Early morning trees
Mrs GB drove out and caught the sun in it's usual wake up place earlier this morning whilst I was still snoozing. Welcome September and all that you might bring. It's been a long, enjoyable and busy summer.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Maltese Falcon
Today's quirky adventures have mainly consisted of attending a job interview and "are you reasonable person" assessment (quite interesting and generally good fun), cleaning out the garage and watching the Maltese Falcon in a kind of stop/go piecemeal fashion. Black and white, film noire films are a bit of a guilty pleasure and my knowledge on them is...incomplete. Anyway you can see from the poster above that this story is as "explosive as his blazing automatics", not sure how strong a sales strap line that is but it proved to be an interesting diversion and an excuse to quaff some mid-afternoon red wine.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Last days of summer
Limekilns and Charlestown, the tide's out and all is still as the sun sinks slowly in the West. Warm and peaceful and we've just had a big meal of fish and chips at the nearby Ship Inn. |
Monday, August 29, 2016
Friday, August 26, 2016
Porridge
Porridge for breakfast again this morning, generally speaking a small tub topped up with a banana and syrup keeps me going all day. This graphic pretty much covers the effect.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Minor modifications
Control cavity as was, note there's no shielding here at all. |
On a more practical and less artistic note ( no pyrography) I changed the pickups in an old lightweight (Korean?) bass today. I've had these Jazz Bass pickups lying around for a while and having not got round to using them anywhere else a transplant operation seemed in order. First trick is to photo the wiring as is, just in case there's some weird thing going on to trip me up. Turns out there wasn't so after a small amount of screwing, rewiring and soldering (with no burned finger tips) it was good to go. Actually it sounds fine now, it was a bit thin and dull previously. I had also changed the bridge and so improved the action a few weeks ago, now it's time to leave it alone, that is unless I get some strange desire to use it.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Unfortunate situations with contractors
Staring into the void i.e. the black hole of a redundant firefighter's pole trap door (rapid descent for the use of). The fire station is now a cafe and arts lab. |
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
You are at position one
Apparently I'm currently at position one in "this queue" and I must wait to be connected. This has gone on for a while, like some strange test of wills, patience and stamina but I'm still at position one. Call centres present a bleak version of modern life, long and mechanised, scripted and unbreakable with the key outcome being frustration. Designed by those seeking the most economic contact solution with the minimum of possible interaction, a doomsday pill to fix the problem no one is free to discuss. The queue and the music drone on and imagination takes over. Perhaps there is only one position and it is one and many others are also here or there, bundled awaiting connection but bound to fail. We are the callers, trying to call those too busy to listen, so we languish at position one for long periods of time and eventually a single noted tone rings out ominously and we are all disconnected with no new options - until the next attempt comes around.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Difficult child revisited
Regards yesterday's troublesome guitar, the simple answer was to change the neck. In retrospect I was using a neck that fitted and looked ok but was damaged or warped enough to screw up everything, when you're beat you are just plain beat sometimes. The new, lighter neck immediately resolved all the problems and niggles I had and the guitar is now much more playable and there's still some room for further, finer adjustment. Fine adjustment is not my strong point, patience and care being required and sometimes my stamina in those areas wears thin but I guess I'm learning and each instrument I've now put together has given me valuable experiences that I must remember not to forget.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
A difficult child.
The "Lone Wolf" single Seymour Duncan Humbucker Strat is proving to be a hard guitar to complete. The neck simply isn't right and I'm getting more and more frustrated over trying every possible thing to adjust it all correctly. At the moment it's playable but only within a certain limited tolerance. I've done all the fiddling and balancing I can to the bridge, tremolo settings and truss rod but I just can't get the correct result between all the possible options. A new or different neck looks to be the best solution at the moment; more time wasted but more lessons learned. This is one difficult child to deal with and the only answer may well be to start again with another neck.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Ben Vrackie
The Ben from a safe distance. |
Lunch stop loch. |
Friday, August 19, 2016
French Onion Soup
It seems I've reached that peculiar stage of life where I'm prone to strong cravings for French Onion Soup. This has been going on for a few days growing slowly stronger. At first I ignored it as if was an invasive religious type of experience or possibly some weird and unpleasant sexual deviation arriving from nowhere. It however has persisted and thankfully at the moment seems related to neither of the possible causes mentioned. It may be I'm just feeling a little sympathy for the French, something to do with own rejection of any Brexit thinking and French comfort behaviours coming to the surface. Perhaps I'm just in need of a big dose of onions and a good dousing in their magical healing and restorative properties, facts the Romans knew all about. The other odd thing is rather than buy a tub of it or get some in one of those foodie influenced designer cartons I've decided to make it myself, from scratch and even consulted a recipe book. This is something I never do; recipe books gather large amounts of dust in this house despite being freely available to read and even consult. So I've got the ingredients, all I need to do is take my time and get on with it. I just hope it fills this nagging, empty void in my....someplace.
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