Damn, but that's expensive!

It's always a bittersweet feeling when you sell some of your musical gear. Typically, I'm only selling stuff because I'm planning on buying new gear with the money I get, but even still... When I sold my Epiphone Sheraton last night I was sad. But that's only because the guitar I plan to replace it with (either an SG, Les Paul doublecut, or possibly a Strat) hasn't made it's way into my hands yet. And probably won't until I find the right deal, which could be a little while.

But on the topic of gear, I'm going through one of those phases where I'm thinking of changing a lot of my stuff up. Obviously the guitar, that's already in motion. But I'm also considering changing up my amp situation. I'm happy with my half stack, but I want to do something different with my combo. I have a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10, which while good, is frankly just too loud for what I want it for. I'd hope to use it for a home palying and recording amp, with the possibility of doing some small club gigging with it. However, it's so powerful that I can't even turn it past 1 on the volume at home. "Hey, great!" youu're maybe thinking. "Plenty of headroom." But I like to push the tubes by getting more of my gain from the volume rather than the gain knob. I typically think it sounds warmer, and breaks up better. And I can't do that with the Deville. So oddly enough I'm looking for something less powerful. Realistically, based on what I can currently afford and what I think sounds good, it would probably be something else in the Fender family. But yesterday I went to Boston Guitar Works in Brockton to try out some stuff they have there.

Boston Guitar Works is the premiere store in the area for hard to find, smaller company, boutique gear. In the gear world "boutique" = "expensive". And I finally got to play the amps I've been dying to try out: Bad Cat. I've heard nothing but great things about them, and now that I've played one, all I can say is: "Wow!"

Actually, that's not true. I can also say: "Holy shit!"

I tried a couple of them, but to give an example, one that I played was the Bad Cat Classic. It has a power switch, standby switch, and two knobs: Tone and Volume. And it sounded amazing. There's no gain on it, but once I threw on a Fulltone OCD gain pedal---which I'll probably be buying regardless of anything else, as it's the best sounding gain pedal I've tried, and I've tried a lot; that is, unless I can wait until the ZVEX Box of Rock pedals come out at the end of Spetember, because I hear they sound amazing, like a cranked Plexi, in which case I'd seriously consider that instead---it was pretty much damn near perfect. Compact, 20 watts, one 1x12 speaker, class A...this little amp only runs for about $1,500 new.

Ouch! Did I mention that Bad Cat is NOT cheap. That's one of the "lower end" models, too. The prices only go up from there.

There is one selling on Ebay right now that I'm watching with quite a bit of interest since it's only currently at about $525. Granted that's with about 4 days still elft on the auction, but I'll be keeping my eye on it.

Ahhh, new gear. I should really just concentrate on the guitar for now.
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By the way, in a bit of sad news. On my way to Boston Guitar Works, I passed by where Derringers used to be. You know what's there now? Condos. Yeah, there's a little bit of my personal rock and roll history definitely now gone forever.

The Dying Season

Bill's blog, amongst other things, got me thinking about the fall season. I've always thought of fall as the dying season, but not in a bad way. But that's what it is, with leaves falling off the tree, grass getting less green. If you compare the seasons to times of day, fall would be the the twilight, the dying of the day.

Used to be I was all about summer. And to an extent I pretty much still am. I love the hot days and the fact that it doesn't get dark until late. I used to dread the coming of fall, largely for the onset of the cold (which I'm not a fan of), but for another reason as well: residual memories. Because, you see, fall was always when school started. Goodbye summer freedom, and hello homework. When I think of fall memories, the first one that always comes up is of playing football out in front of my house after school, with a slight bite of cold in the air as it quickly got dark. And then having to go in and do that dreaded homework. It's a bittersweet memory at best.

But despite that, the past few years, I've really started appreciating fall. It's rapidly becoming my second favorite season (despite the fact that it's also the most depressing season to be single, for some odd reason.) But let's talk about some of the good:

- Those cooler nights that are so good for sleeping. That's my one real beef with summer: it's hard to sleep when it's hot. The past few weeks, we've had a hint of fall in the air at night. A nice cool breeze through an open window just has me sleeping that much better. (Although it's slightly disconcerting that we've been having it so regularly in August.)

- The start of the football season. Nuff said.

- Octoberfests. Hands down my favorite kind of beer. Sam Adams (despite the ugliest label in beer) and Harpoon (which for some reason gets me drunk quicker than any other beer.)

- The Little Hearts pub crawl. Kevin's yearly foray into drinking for charity. 20 bars, 10+ hours, funny (and missing) memories. One of my favorite yearly outings.

- Cider. Or, more accurately, the thought of cider. Every year, as it starts to get cooler, I think about how awesome warm cider would be. And then never have any. But I always think about it and it's always a nice thought.

- The smell of cold. You know what I'm talking about. That slightly sharp, somehow clean, smell. I like it in the fall, because it's more a hint of cold, and not the full-fledged thing. Once we get a few months in and it starts to get real, I immediately get sick of it, but it's cool (no pun intended) for a little while.

- Socks. I have a couple of pairs of really comfortable heavy socks that I can't wear until it starts getting cold. They rule.

- Halloween. I still dig the vibe around that holiday. And October in general. It's the month where I load up my Netflix queue with horror movies.

That's all I have for now, but tis a good list, it is.

Snakes in a blog

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I saw Snakes on a Plane last weekend.

How was it?

Well...

Here's the thing about SoaP. With a premise like that, and a title like that, it has to be a B movie. There's no other way it will succeed. Now, it can be a bigger budget, (relatively speaking), B movie, with better distribution than most, a la an Eight Legged Freaks or Tremors, but it's a B movie all the same.

The wrinkle is Samuel L. Jackson. Throw a A-list actor into a B movie, and where do you go from there? How do you proceed?

And then there was the advertising. This film took on a life of it's own all over the internet. Take that title + Sam L and you get pretty much what the internet was created for. The director/producers of the film even went back and reshot parts based on requests from the online community, turning the film from a PG-13 to a hard R, and including the now famous line, "I'm sick of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" Hell, I even spent a good part of one evening sending out personalized messages to people phones from Sam L. off the SoaP website.

But does the movie live up to the advertising hype? Unfortunately not.

Lost in all this advertising blitz is the fact that there's still 90 minutes of movie around one famous line. B movies, by definition, (or by MY definition, at least), need to be bad. And for me to enjoy them, they have to be "good" bad. I loved the shit out of the examples I mentioned earlier: Eight Legged Freaks and Tremors. They're good because they're not good in all the right ways. They're cheesy, they're stupid, but most of all they're fun.

That's what SoaP is missing, the fun. It's not terrible, by any means. And that's partly the problem. At times, it takes itself too seriously for a movie with that ridiculous title, and that's where it becomes bland. It needed to be over the top with it's silliness, and unfortunately it wasn't. The best scenes, not surprisingly, were the full on snake attacks, simply because they were so ridiculous.

Overall, I'd reccomend it as a rental, because there is enough decency there to maybe keep you entertained for a while, but it's not a rush to see it in the theaters movie.

Target is dangerous and so is wiffleball.

But for different reasons.

This is one of those months where I get three checks instead of two. Which means extra money. Unfortunately I had a pretty long list of things I needed/wanted to get with that money: Oil change, new iPod car adapter, "Nightwatch" by Sergei Lukyanenko, a new alarm clock, external hard drive, new hoodie, jeans, sneakers, and tickets to the Drive-By Truckers show at Avalon in September.

Out of that list, so far I've picked up:

"Nightwatch". First in a trilogy of Russian fantasy novels. I saw the movie, which came out here in America earlier this year. Great film. Supposedly it was bigger in Russia than Lord of the Rings. Anyway, because of it's popularity, finnaly it was decided to translate the original books into English and the first one just came out. I'm pretty psyched to read it. And pretty psyched that the first sequel film, Daywatch, already out in Russia, comes out here some time in the fall.

Drive By Truckers ticket. I missed thme when they were opening up for the Black Crowes last month, but I'm damn sure going to catch them at Avalon next month. Especially for $15! Side note: If you really want a good guage of how ridiculous Ticketmaster fees are, check out the difference between ordering online and going to an outlet. The DBT tickets were $15.25 at the Orpheum Ticketmaster outlet. Had I bouth them online they would have been around $24. What?

I've yet to get the iPod adapter, but that's just because I haven't found it yet. The oil change will hopefully be sometime this week. But as for why Target is dangerous: way too much cool shit, and cheap too.

I went to Target and picked up my alarm clock ($8), jeans ($20, and they looked cooler and were cheaper than the pair I was originally looking at), and hoodie ($20, and stupidly comfortable). I ended up not getting the sneakers, because they didn't look as good as I had remembered. But I did get two t-shirts and some boxer shorts. And almost bought socks and more shirts. Seriously, way too much good stuff there. I bought two t-shirts there last week, too. I have to stay away.

Now, let's address the hard drive, because it touches upon another point. I want to get a new hard drive because the hard dive on my computer is getting dangerously close to full. And I want something to put my music on. Because, you see I plan to be getting a lot more music soon.

Unfortunately, and despite my tales of extravagant spending this weekend, I don't really have a lot of money to spend on new CDs. My rent went up this year, gas prices are still high, the cost of living is still high. It's hard to squeeze money out to check out new stuff. I get kind of stingy when thinking about buying albums by people I don't really know I already like. And you know me, I like to check out new stuff often.

To that end, I got an invite from my friend Rob to OiNK, which is a bit torrent site based out of the UK. Bit torrent, if you don't know, is a much like a Napster, except that it seems tailored towards albums instaed of individual songs. Now, I'm somewhat conflicted, because there that part of me that doesn't like stealing music, but at the same time, I just can't afford to buy it. I jsut don't have the I don't have the money to experiment as much as I'd like. And let's face it, if I had the money, I would not be spending it on the new Christina Aguilera or Neil Diamond anyway. But if it's free, I'll check it out. (Christina's is a decent double album that, if you took all the best tracks and made it one record would make a slamming disc. Neil's is just straight up badass.)

Other good pickups: Jonny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways, The enire Kyuss catalouge, Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal and Death By Sexy, Bonnie Prince Billy & Will Oldham - Superwolf (Bill, I think you'd dig this disc), Ryan Adams' unreleased Suicide Handbook, Sloan - Navy Blues, Black Crowes - Instant Live disc from a show in London, and Wilson Pickett's greatest hits.

But I need a place to put all these tunes, and my CPU hard drive ain't going to cut it. So I was out looking for an external. I think interanl hard drives are actually cheaper, but I want something I can use with both my desktop and laptop. I just missed a CompUSA sale for a 250GB for $60. In case you were wondering, that's ridiculous. Usuaully that would run you between $200-$250. So, unfortunately, despite the third weeek windfall check, I don't have the cash to pick up my external hard drive just yet. Hopefully soon, though. Because more tunes need to be acquired.
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And lest I forget wiffleball. I played for a little bit yesterday, maybe half an hour or so, before the slaughter rule kicked in. My team was ahead by something like 173-11. But for a half-hour's play, man are my legs sore today.

I am not a fan of this whole aging process thing.

Don't try this at home.

What the hell was I up to last weekend exactly?

Getting the shaft

I read/post on the Noiseboard during the days at work. Often exasperating and annoying, it is however the only consistent timekiller I have, since I can't check my email from my desk and don't have enough to say to blog all the time.

At any rate, today's little bit of "oh my God I'm a nerd" humor. Someone posted a thread called "Pics of my shaft". Of course you're supposed to think it's a penis reference, and of course, before opening it, I knew it would be about mine shafts. And sure enough, a picture of a mine shaft. Well, I though, I can one up that. I hopped on Google to find a picture I had read about a few weeks back of the largest mine shaft in the world, in Russia. (Note: there seems to be some debate as to if this really is the largest, but that's what I heard.) I type in "russian mine shaft" and...it doesn't come up. What the hell? It was on page one of Google images the last time I looked. And then I realized it's not the world's largest mine "shaft", it's an open pit mine. Here's the nerdy part: I was actively disappointed that I could no longer post it in the thread because it wasn't a shaft mine.

But I can post it here. It's a giant fucking hole:

I just finished reading Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. A book like that really helps add some perspective to ones life view. It's hard to think any of what I consider to be my personal issues/problems/mountains to climb/etc. are really as big as they seem after reading a memoir of a man who was pretty much given away by his mother to her therapist when he was a boy. And the tradeoff wasn't in his favor as he went essentially from one crazy parent to one crazy family. Much in the style of a Frank McCourt, or to a lesser extent, David Sedaris, Burroughs imbues the craziness of his life with an undeniable sense of offbeat humor that masks the actual tragedy of what's happening to him. It's only in the last 10 or so pages that it really hits you how depressing this book is.

Yet at the same time, somehwat uplifitng. As he contemplates fleeing western Massachusetts for New York City and wonders if he could ever survive there, he realizes, "Of course I can make it in New York City. There's no way New York could be crazier than my life had been at the Finches house in Northampton, Massachusetts and I survived that." And survive he does, judging by the excellent reviews of this New York Times bestseller. (Not that it that was easy, as evidinced by the sequel to this book, which was another memoir called Dry that I had previously read, and was about his struggle with alcoholism.)

I have a tendency to unconsciously feel like problems are the biggest thing in the world. And while, intellectually, I know they're not, because they are things that personally affect me, it's not entirely unrealistic to feel that way. The brain may be logical, but where do you feel your problems the strongest? In the gut, which is not so logical. But reading something like this, the perspective it offers, is a little like antacid for that gut. It calms it...for a while. Let's you think a little clearer, makes you realize: "I can handle this. Piece of cake."

Sleep Tight

Ever since I moved to Medford, weather permitting, I've slept with a window or two open. Typically the one right next to my bed, and another across the room to get airflow. This may seem a little odd, as I live on what is usually a loud street. People walking by, airport flight patterns, motorcycles, trucks, people in cars that sound like they have no mufflers but don't notice the fact because they're covering it up with a booming radio as they speed race down the street. You'd think it'd be hard to sleep with all that, but you learn to tune it out. And to be honest, the windows in my apartment are so old that they don't offer much in the way of sound protection. (Or cold protection in the winter.)

But on a night like last night, a rare night, when none of those things are happening, and there's a cool breeze, well then there's nothing better than sleeping with the window open. The wind blowing on me and the almost utter silence outside always reminds me of the New Hampshire house for some reason. So much so that I half expec that if I was to look out the window, I'd be looking out over the lake and not Dartmouth St., Medford. Never mind that I'm lying on an uber-comfortable, pillow top queen mattress with the extra added benefit of a box spring, and not a sand covered, twin that feels like it's stuffed with lumpy oatmeal; that car engine I hear way off in the distance, that could easily be the sound of a small outboard engine on the far side of the lake.

I sleep a little better on nights like that.

Updates

I haven't been writing, because there's not really a lot going on here. Seems to be a down time for me. Not much of anything to report.

I'm looking forward to ramping up towards getting some more serious demo recording done. Eric's back in town, and once he gets comfortable on the drums I plan to kidnap him and take him to my fortress stronghold until drums have been recorded. OK, nothing quite so insidious, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. However, that means I really have to buckle down and whipping these tunes into better shape. They're largely in various stages of rough demo quality, and they need to get better and get finished before they get recorded. Also, I plan to start looking around for some more recording gear so I can hopefully get a better sound. Most importantly a decent (yet cheap) mic pre-amp would be nice.
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Some quickie movie reviews:

Clerks 2: The commercials for this didn't look that funny, but that's only because the funniest stuff can't be shown on TV. Admittedly it's more "dick and fart" humor from kevin Smith, but it funny dick and fart humor at that, so no complaints.

The Descent: Chicks vs cave monsters? Originally I said pass. But then good reviews started rolling in, and I found out it was directed by the guy who directed Dog Soldiers. So I went. It was pretty good. There are two distinct vibes to the movie, let's call them "pre-monsters" and "post-monsters". The first half is about set-up and slow claustrophobia, and it's plenty creepy in the caves even without scary creatures. When the monsters appear, it gets more action-y, but even still, depsite that I typically don't go for that in my horror movies, it was still good. But yeah, definitely do not see this movie if you're claustrophobic.
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New Slayer album comes out tomorrow. Although I'm not the metal fan I used to be, (despite a slight resurgence brought upon by hanging out with metal fans), I'm unreasonably excited about this. Probalby just residual awesomeness hangover from seeing them up in Lowell last month.
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Speaking of concerts, I saw Poison and Cinderella over the weekend. It was slightly disappointing. Not for any major reason. There were two main negatives: Tom Keifer's voice was shot, (otherwise Cinderella was right on), and Poison's sound was pretty bad. But neither would have killed the show for me, not even combined. However, the show just seemed bland, unmemorable. Nostalgia apparently only carries you so far, when you're seeing the same show year after year. Not that I want Poison putting out new material, since their last album, Hollyweird, was an unmitigated craptastic disaster.
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Signed a new lease for another year in Medford. That's noteworthy just for the fact that whenever I've lived not in Weymouth, I hadn't stayed at any one place for more than a year. As August was getting closer, I had it in the back of my head that I would have to get packed up and ready to move again. Not that I wanted or expected to, but just a subliminal result of past history.
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So, finally after about 31 years, I'm starting to get a decent idea of a possible tattoo to get. There's a line from It by Stephen King (and also from the Dark Tower series), that says: "Behold the turtle of enormous girth. Upon his shell he holds the earth." I kind of dig the imagery of a turtle with the earth on his shell. I thought about it for a while and instead of a globe type earth, I was thinking that his shell could be painted like a flat map, and you'd be looking at the tattoo from above. And also, the quote has some meaning for me, aside from being in an awesome book. Big decisions, for me, have always felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders, to take from a cliche. And as such, I tend to move slowly on them, like a turtle.

I'm thining it would make a good forearm tattoo, or if I did it upper arm, could maybe make a good centerpiece for a small upper arm sleeve. (Which would of course entail more ideas that would need to be thought up.)

But at any rate, I'm going to sleep on the turtle idea for a couple of weeks and see if I still dig it. At which point I have to find someone to design it for me. And then of course, I need to find the money to pay for it. Oh, and a good tattoo artist. I'll probably be about 45 by the time I'm ready.
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Just found out last week that Kevin is once again having his charity pub crawl this year. Drinking for kids. It didn't happen last year, which was a bummer because drinking your way through 20 bars in a 10 hour span down Hancock St. in Quincy is really a time not to be missed. Except in your memory the next day when you wonder exactly what happened after 4pm. So mark your calendars for October 28th. And bring a video camera for documented proof.
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I'm crazy for football. I woke up yesterday expecting to see NFL Countdown and a game or two. And then realized that the season hadn't started yet. And then later realized that pre-season started last night. So technically I did get to see some football and more importantly it's time to start scouting for my fantasy football teams. One of the only redeeming things about summer ending is the coming of football. That and Octoberfest beers.