While this blog is apolitical for the most part, the protests in New York are gaining significance by the reaction of the authorities. They are absolute fools to crack down on legal assemblies; you’d think they learned a little last time around. But the 60s is more than a generation past, so here we go again. Seven hundred people arrested in one day gets my interest.The crowds, which are half-way to becoming mobs, are marching of Wall Street as the symbol of our financial decadence. They have a point, but I’m less than trusting when it comes to motive. I mostly care less what Wall Street does because I was never one trying to do the same thing, ahem. I’m not the one who took out a $300,000 mortgage when I had a $40,000 a year job thinking I’d make some fast bucks and not have to save for my own retirement. Then go looking for somebody to blame.
Still, this is what Big Al predicted. He said civil unrest, I said a more subdued brand of protest, like massive boycotting. Looks like Al was closer, if those crowds ever arm them or defend themselves, those beefy New York cops better head for the Catskills, because they are on file somewhere, too. I would say there is cause for concern, as the laughing rich, who live miles away, watch the proletariat blocking downtown traffic.
Trivia. We all know they use trickery to make the food look better on TV. Today I find out what they use for maple syrup. What you see slowly oozing from the spout and gently surrounding the stack of hotcakes is really 5W-40 motor oil. For all you school bus schedulers, drywallers and other big-time intellectuals out there, let me explain 5W-40.
The W stands for “winter”. The 5 means the oil’s measured viscosity in cold weather, and the 40 means that when that oil is heated to 100 degrees centigrade, it is still 40% as viscous as the cold oil. This is accomplished by adding polymers during manufacture and these polymers “unwind” when heated, helping the oil stay “sticky”. A 30 oil would be only 30% as thick when hot, hence thinner than 40. Bon apperteet.
Oh, and I missed Columbus’ Birthday again, totally. It was last Monday. He’s not such a big hero out where I come from. Why, he even discovered the wrong coast. Here’s more trivia. Did you know the higher the air pressure, the less you can taste your food? I wonder if that explains why so many people hate airline meals. I think they are okay, never myself having dated a woman who could cook.
At guitar center, I tested five guitars with different neck sizes, called a “radius”. My Ibanez is the dead center average, so I’ll keep plowing on with it. I also tried acoustic and semi-acoustic basses ranging from $400 to $1200. No thank you. For the combination of sound and action, I’ll take my electric any time. The staff says for my guitar, a set of Martin “11” strings are a good compromise for learning since my fingertips now have troughs.
There was one guy there I talked bass with, he was so far out of it he didn’t know how badly his thinking had been channelized. He stated that he would never use a pick on a bass. You get this kind of narrow-mindedness mainly in guitarists, he went on to say that if one did not grab a bass and start thumping, snapping, and popping the strings half-way up the neck, you weren’t playing it “right”. I asked him how many years he took bass lessons and before he realized he’d been set up, he blurted out “Eight.”
I’m the virtual opposite. The way I play is what a lifetime on stage says works the best. It’s the guy who can’t play bass that starts trying to distract everybody with superfluous technique. That’s why I smile when I see a teacher offering “advanced” bass lessons. He is conning guitarists who switched to bass and don’t know any better. Yes, the upright bass, a totally different instrument, was played with the fingertips, and that largely explains why it now lives on only in jazz bands or the city dump—everything after the first couple tunes sounds exactly the same. A 4/4 beat at maximum 120 per minute. There’s nothing much else you can do with that contraption.
I’ve now put in around six hours learning rhythm guitar and am satisfied with the progress. There is a truly addictive tendency to revert to a standard “boom-chicka” strum behind any vocals, very similar to the urge to play simple bass lines when singing. Ah, this is where my management experience takes over. Play the real thing or get fired, talent is not a substitute for lack of discipline. I can name you 50 guitars players who will never rise above the pack because they don’t or won’t recognize that fact.
Like the bass, I’m starting off making sure I can strum the entire tune, so I’m enforcing discipline from the word go. Start simple, work up. I’m not saying you can’t get away with playing a generic strum to every song (look at Johnny D), but don’t complain when the tips taper off. I have mapped out eight distinct beats, around twice as many as any local guitarist I’ve played bass with. I’m talking about the strumming patterns underneath the vocals of a solo guitarist , not the intros or instrumental patterns which are different and I cannot play those.
Last, I’m taking a crack at writing lyrics, my first totally original composition on guitar may soon follow. Under scrutiny, I find the top ten tunes of the previous ten years have a predisposition toward “meaningful” or “heavy” lyrics. Things need to lighten up. The world needs another Johnny Cash, whose themes about prison life are distractive at most. He can sing about love without getting into divorce. He can sing about drugs without mentioning addiction. And he can sing about a broken heart without sinking into unfaithfulness. He knew when to knock it off.
My first lyrics concern something I am familiar with: Women who rejected me when they were young and pretty, but now that they are on the skids want to get back together. I call it, “When Did I Become #1?”. Just an idea at this stage. I’m working on a unique 3+3+2 strum and you can bet your daisies the bass line will be simple and totally original.
