Rain

One of my favorite bands...

The Misfits - Violent World.

Chris Cornell - When I'm Down.

Darn I miss that guy. What a voice...

The Tea Party - Sun Going Down

Triumph - Follow Your Heart

If you don't use it, it becomes latent.

This is what the girlfriend and I did during the last few months of isolation - got really drunk and did things like pretending we were 1969/Abbey Road era Beatles or something...

Stupid Song idea totally ripped off from The Beatles: Krist
Guitar - Krist
Overdubs - Kyoko
Totally Unrehearsed Bass - Kyoko
Piano - Krist, under Kyoko's supervision - and heavy quantization (mainly).
Keys - Kyoko
Drums - Both of us idiots PLUS programming
Goofs - Mostly Krist
Cuteness: Definitely Kyoko
Vocals: We could not get Paul McCartney to take our call so there's no vocal. (Ringo did take our call and agreed to sing, but he sang out of tune, so we threw tomatoes at him until he left).

Recording Engineer: Astrid the dog
Mix Engineer: What's that? Like, a unicorn? Definitely not mixed. 

Special thanks to: Clos du Bois red wine.

I spent most of the last decade writing music and making arrangments for my ex. I learned a lot in the process, so there really is no bitterness.

Before we got together, I'd not touched a guitar in a year and and barely written anything in almost 18 months. All I listened to was traditional Chinese and Japanese music.  And prior to that, my music featured virtually no guitar anyway. I had been working on dark elecro-ish projects for years. So I had to re-immerse myself in guitar music, rock and roll and metal. 

I truly love all that stuff, and I love playing guitar. But I don't feel I have anything to contribute on that instrument. I can play adequately and that's it. And living here in Vegas, where there's musicians everywhere and people who've played with this and that guy... The environment is so saturated with "classic rock" and "classic metal". I just did not want to be another one of those 50 years old in skinny jeans, with eyeliner, wearing bandanas to hide a receding hairline and playing the same tired old crap everybody else is playing in every bar in town...

So I'm kind of back to focusing on the songs and they seem to come out with the same weird hybrid of genres, with the same weird assemblage of instruments as before all of this.

At one point in the past, I had started working on a project for which I had a very clear idea, but I ended up piling up ideas on the side for something completely different - more of a fun things.  All the songs were about death, corpses, funeral homes, and such - but with a touch of light hearted humor. And ideas kept on piling up and piling up, probably because I wasn't trying - that's just what poured out of me. There was no room for me to be self-conscious. Almost as if the project gave me the instructions and all I did was assemble material for it. 

Anyway, it seems to be what I naturally reverted to as a main project. Because that's what comes out naturally. But my vocabulary has developed a bit in the last 10 years, so I have more options to voice those ideas. 

I am also collaborating with a friend on a heavy, dark, gothic metal project, writing original material for an EP. Actually, for once I don't do the writing, I just play guitar and help with the arrangments and the instrumentation since I am the one who operates the DAW and who's fluent with that stuff. It's nice not to be in charge, for once, and the guy is writing some darn good songs, too. 

I have this one queued up for this weekend. The man is who he is, but I appreciate the guitarist.

.

nevermind

Unlucky Morpheus, Black Pentagram.  One of my favorite newer heavy metal bands.

I think I am in love with the singer, too...

Beer? This is all you need (to get you started). I LOVE Guinness.

Plisner Urquell would be a decent second. Pilsners in general.

White beer, too. I used to love Blanche de Chambly by Unibroue back home. I found some down here on occasions. Trader Joe's usually carry some.

Unibroue also had one called Raftman that I used to love. According to their site "This singular amber ale, brewed with a touch of smoked malt whisky, offers the delicate taste of fine Belgian yeast and caramelized apples"

All I know is that I dug it.

That being said, I drink beer once a year, so...

17 hours ago, RobertWS said:

Hmmm.   Go to Las Vegas and spend the money on *****, drugs and rock and roll!

The rest of the money I would just waste.

 

[Edit]  WTF?   The word s e x got censored?

Mentioned I bought a guitar for my birthday.  I am on a tight budget but turning 50 and my one week of vacation is this week, so I figured it there ever was any excuse to spoil myself...

Well, I discovered an issue with the guitar so I'll have to send it back, and it's a Holiday week so I'll never get a replacement in time, meaning that my only real plans for the week are off. I'm not sure I would have bought the darn thing if I didn't have that week off ahead to beging with. Oh well, I guess at least I have something to look forward to. Monthly payments...

I live in Vegas. I should have known better. I'm too old for new guitars, anyway.  John Entwistle knew that. Hookers and Blow, my friend...

EDIT: Just in case anyone takes the above seriously (in this day and age where some people always manage to find the worst possible interpretation for anything you say and convince themselves that that's what you meant), I was being facetious. If you were offended, please accept this complimentary apology. I am Canadian. I have endless supplies.

A favorite of mine.

I'm not kidding...

Now, to try and find another song (not just a version) with the word Manalishi in the title...

Judas Priest: White Heat, Red Hot. (Yeah, I've been listening to Priest a lot again, lately...)

15 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

Sorry to hear about the dissolution of your marriage Rain. FWIW I have been through it too and given the way she was, I am better off. Remarried now-Happily. I'm guessing COVID might have played a part in adding to the issues many experienced.

So you are an 'established' American Canadian now? The thing that concerns me about  LV Nevada is the water supply. Lake Mead is dangerously low right now. I had heard Las Vegas gets some of their water from that location. Maybe I'm wrong.

You had a dragon? 😲

So far as having enough, we are holding at bay right now. My commute to work helps because often I take someone else in with me and they help with gas expenses. Food is definitely getting more expensive. I consider myself fortunate so far. We do the best we can do right?

Thanks, Tim. I appreciate. Glad to hear that it all turned out for the better for you too. 

My green card is valid until 2025. I believe it's easier to renew them it and to get it for the first time, so at the moment, I am thinking that I will likely apply for that. It would make sense to buy the house too if I can. 

I guess I'll always be Canadian but after 10 years in the US, I'm probably a bit American too by Canadian standards.  10 years in Vegas, 9 in this house - I've not spent as much time in any city in my adult life, and never as much time in any building in my entire life. Of course I miss Quebec, but I would miss Vegas just as much if I were to leave. ’ll never be 100% home anywhere because I have 2 homes. Which is a blessing, as odd as it sounds.

Yep, a bearded dragon. Here you see her and Astrid the dog, quite perplexed.

I did not expect a bearded dragon to be so aware of her surroundings and to interact as much with me as she did.  They are surprsing little creatures.

Judas Priest - Turning Circles.

After years of going from bad job to worse job, in November 20, I finally found the best gig I've had since moving to the US 10 years ago.  Not quite as lucrative as my last job in Canada, but adequate. And I work nightshifts, from home. Can't ask for better than that...

A month later, my mariage ended (this had been coming for a while).

We are on good terms, so we shared the house for the next 10 months, but I've essentially been living here alone since the beginning of 21, and officially since December.

So that gig really happened at the right time. Not sure where I would have ended up otherwise. And the subsequent promotion also came in at just the right time, as it allowed me to keep the house alone.

It's a big house, too much for my needs, but, after 9 years living here,  it provides me with a sense that I have some roots in this city and country. Plus, this neighborhood is the best. The landlord is a friend and considering the market, I get an extraordinary deal. I would have a tough time finding a 2 bedrooms apartment for this price around here. 

That being said, I am on an extraordinarily tight budget.

I know, I know - I just bought a guitar. I'd been working OT and saving for that.  And I am aware that I may have to sell one of the others that I don't use as much if things get too tight, too.

Also said farewell to my dog, my dragon, and all of my cats but one.

But I am good, really.

I’ve been on Facebook since 2007. In my humble opinion, it’s nowhere near as bad as Instagram or Twitter, where everything you post is public. Young people and influencers (ewww) often think of it as a boring platform for old people. That's for a reason...

You can select what you share with whom on FB - in terms of privacy, that’s actually better than most online forums. You can hide your profile and make it undiscoverable by search engines and even by people who know your email address, and configure it so that strangers cannot see your profile or send you requests.

I have 174 “friends” (I have deleted hundreds of them in successive purges these last few years) and the way I set up my account and posts, most of what I share can only be seen by a fraction of them.

It allows me to stay in touch with friends back home on an ongoing basis, and share the little things with them without having to send emails every time. It makes for a very superficial form of communication, much like this forum in a sense, but one that I appreciate and makes me feel that I am somehow always in touch.

And of course, you can always unfollow people if their posts annoy you. Of the 174 contacts I have, I see posts from maybe 20-30, tops.

IMHO it is not that bad, if you know how and why you want to use it. But that's just me.

One of my favorite mugs, ever.

Purchased it when we attended The Addams Family on Broadway.

Too bad it was broken.

According to my Facebook memories, 10 years ago, to the day, I went to Sam Ash in NY to buy an inexpensive Strat with a humbucker as an ealy brirthday gift but walked out with an Epiphone les Paul. I'd been playing strats ever since I had bought a replacement for my first guitar, a uber cheap LP knock off. I didn't want to hear about Les Paul's anymore because I had dislike that first guitar so much.

The Epiphone made me realize how much I liked actually Les Paul's and how awesome they could be, and I ended up buying and playing mostly LPs and SGs for the next 10 years, including my main guitar, a white Gibson LP Studio.

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of Hendrix, Gilmour, SRV, and the likes, and I felt I really needed a new strat. The old 1996 would need new frets and a lot of TLC, and, a this time, it just seemed simpler to retire it, at least temporarily, and to get a new one.

And today, well, Mr. Fedex delivered this one. Just what the doctor ordered.  Plays like a dream. And so I finally got my early birthday strat, only 10 years later.

I am up...stairs, sleeping. Usually 10am to 6pm. 

Alright, you guys showed yours, I'll show mine.  I call her Domina Mortem.

I knew the finish looked good (this is my first quilted finish guitar) but I was even more surprised when I woke up early a few weeks ago and decided to spend some time downstairs where there's daylight...

50 minutes ago, SteveStrummerUK said:

Arriving next weekend ...

 

"Noisy bugger"

           ~ Jonbouy

Congrats - and happy birthday!

I had my doubts about Schecter and it's not a brand I was attracted to, but the minute I picked up the Hellraiser I was sold. A thing of beauty, with incredible features and surprising workmanship. I am looking forward to getting a 6 string version of it.

If you enjoy yours even only half as much as I do mine, you'll still be delighted.