Musical Breakthrough...

It's part one of "In My time Of Dying" by...well, hmm...
Robert Johnson? Ledbetter? Lisa doing Led Zeppelin doing Robert Johnson?
I just came across this by accident 2-3 days ago. I realize I should be playing slide guitar, but I'm doing what I can. I can't wait until my new guitar comes!:) This guitar has a short in it. Had to fiddle with it for about 5 minutes to get it to even work.
Was actually pretty frustrating. Something to do with the volume knob.You can't move around at all while playing this guitar, it will die.I was lucky it played for 2 minutes.>:( The new guitar should come any day now...

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Thanks Everyone...

Thanks everyone that responded to my recent posts, definitely I was NOT Ok recently.
But I'm trying to pull out of it. Staying away from drink is helping. So I figured I'd share something funny that did happen recently, when I was drunk.
Apparently I got it into my head to perm my hair. Yeah. Dunno what I was thinking with that in the first place.And whilst I was shitfaced, I managed to actually do a really good roll up. That is the most important part of a successful perm, ladies know. The rolling/curlers. So I was actually happy and confident at this point. What I did not think about, being drunk, was the fact that I had my contact lens in.
Yep.
The perm solution dripped into my eyes. Intense, immediate, blinding, excruciating pain occurred. I realized what was happening- I had to get those lens out of there! My eyes were determined to stay squeezed shut, due to the burning, but the burning was in fact my lens melting! Fusing themselves to my eyes!
"Ah God, ack...fuck...oh man" I wept, the tears helping, plus the water I was trying
to squirt in there. Managed to get ahold of the left eye lens, and I pulled. It literally was stuck to my eye.I felt it tug, but I did manage to remove it. Instantly my left eye fogged over.
So I grabbed the right lens. BTW, I no longer felt drunk in anyway whatsoever. The pain was so intense. But here's the really gruesome part:
When I pulled on the right lens, it wasn't coming away from my eye! I saw, I actually saw, my eye move and start to come out of the socket! Eeeew!!! Before finally the
lens came free from my eye with a plop and that eye fogged over! That was amazingly
horrible to witness!
What a Goddamn, drunken idiot I was! What the hell was I thinking? :)
That was sooo gruesome, I can still barely think of it without feeling queasy.
But the best part: The perm still came out ok! What are you going to do, at that point? Kinda had to finish it! Hehe...the determination of women sometimes when it comes to these things.:)
My eyes were ok after a few days of rest and no contacts. I actually am only now wearing my lens today, they feel fine. I got lucky, I realize.
As I said the perm is ok, I guess. You can see it in the current profile pic. That is actually the humorous, gruesome, true and extremely stupid tale behind the current profile pic.
It's bad enough to be perming. That alone is ...but to be perming drunk! And then to be wearing contact lens! Haha! :)
Hopefully this made you smile.

9 more...

Since some of those were repeats and I was technically cheating, here are 9 more:

1.. My fave color Royal blue.But I admit it, I also like hot pink/magenta. I hate dusty rose.
2. I hate clutter. I'm actually a minimalist, but it hasn't worked out for me. My house is cluttered. And if I could I'd have a sci-fi-looking house. But fortress -like.
3. I am a bit of a technophobe.Electronic things make me nervous.
4. I have had such crippling stage fright when it comes to my guitar and singing, over my lifetime, that it has kept me from pursuing a musical career and I only
overcame it a couple of years ago-still need to work on it,though.
5. I'm tallish, 5' 7.
6. I don't like whipped cream and I am an ice cream snob. It has to be pure ingredients. Haagin Dazs.
7. I've never had chicken pox.
8.I've shattered and broken my both of my ear drums not once, not twice, but three! times. This is true.
9.I love to laugh and have a good sense of humor (I think)

That's all for now! :)

I Been Tagged ( Deja Vu)...

And wait until you see who I am tagging! Ha!
Ok, let's see...9 things. But forgive me if there are repeats here:

1. I am left-handed but truly ambidextrous. Guitar, sports, everything I do is right-handed. Except for writing. That's really the only thing I do left-handed.
I even punch, swing on people, right-handed! Not that I go around hitting people.
But I have gotten into a few scraps with my brother and a few others when I was a kid,enough to know.
2.Actually, let me explain. I hated bullies. The only people I ever beat the crap out of were usually bullies that I caught beating up on smaller people. Or weaker people.
I became popular for this in 6th grade.People knew I was fighting for peace. Heheh.
3. This was also my jock phase of my existence. I was really good at sports in school until I discovered smoking. :(
4. Allegedly I am psychic. I have been told this a lot and to give credit there have been too many scary examples to count. But I am also surprisingly skeptical, don't believe in God. And there are logical examples for things that seem paranormal(counts as #5).
5. ( see #4.)
6.I was once a hard-core vegetarian for a few years. Damn near a hippie.
7. The ring and pinky finger of my left hand is substantially shorter than my right,
due to an accident when I was a kid of about 2 or 3. Hence my funky playing style.
Since they were severed, it's a wonder I'm playing guitar at all. I felt the need to mention this again because I don't think a lot of people actually realize this. I should photograph those two fingers. They were sewn back on. Microsurgery ( and this was like 1970!).
My mom was so pleased with the doctor and the outcome that even though we were really poor at times,
she paid the whole thing off. Took 10 years, and even if she only sent 5 bucks a month, she was faithful with it.I'm appreciative of the fact that they allowed her to pay it off like that. And that I have fingers. lol
8. Everyone in my family is dead except for my brother. We apparently die young and leave good looking corpses hehe. Although...
9. Twins run in my family. Most likely if I ever finally have kids they will be twins.
10. But music also runs in my family. My Grampa kicked ass on the guitar and banjo.
Bluegrass. It's funny because he was sooo Italian. You wouldn't expect it, But he picked and grinned with Andy Griffith and all those guys. Stole Andy's fiancee and married her. My grandmother, who was beautiful in the pics I saw..
10. I have been a studio vocalist in my life when I was a kid. Actual paid work.
Anyway.

I tag Pete, Rachel, Mikey, Rene, Justin, Simon, Maria, Gary ( again), Ticharu.
And Maria, if I did this, you could do it! Think of the company you are in here,
Pete and Rachel! We - I-want to know more about you, girl!
But we'll see if they do it! Probably not! lolol

Came Close....

Last night I was drunk and suicidal. I even posted about it, left a post up about being
close. That's what I wrote. " I am so close right now. And I've never had such easy ways to kill myself. Heart meds that slow my heart down, pills that would knock me out, plus alcohol."
I was so close last night. I wrote about how I could buy a Rickenbacher, someone offered me one. But that nothing mattered anymore. Wrote about feeling sorry for myself, I knew it sounded like a pity -party.

It's Monday morning and I looked and I must have deleted the post because I knew it would scare people. I really came so close to doing something lethal last night to myself. If you did happen to come by last night and see that post, you know it was bad. Actually, it would have alarmed anyone that had read it.
Anyway.
It's Monday morning and here I am. And whilst I'm having a hard time, nothing makes depression worse like alcohol.
Please, anyone, anyone that reads this, if you have problems with depression and drink, at least try to give up the drink. It makes it all so much worse. I almost died last night. I literally almost died last night. I had my bottle of rum, I had heart pills, all of it lined up here in front of me. It wasn't fear that kept me from swallowing the pills and alcohol. It was the thought that I might hurt people by doing it. That's the only reason I am alive this morning. Also I thought of Nick Drake and how I felt when I learned he'd died so young. How he'd died. Not that I am Nick Drake.
And I'm glad that I am alive this morning. As bad as I feel I don't feel as bad as I did last night. God I came close!

"It's my Birthday and I'll post if I want to, post if I want to, post if I want to"
Figuring since it's MY day that I'd post this crap, even though it's the usual. It's the most recent progress on the latest solo. It's morphing. It's only a minute. I'm kind of cranky in this one but then I wound up being pleased enough with the progress of it. It's at least showing noticeable improvement. Actually, from last year to this one has been a lot of guitar improvement just in general. This has been an interesting experiment.Thanks for listening.:)
*Note* I didn't mean to sound obnoxious (if I did come off that way)in the beginning of this post. I was just joking around.:)

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Nothing's Easy...

Nothing is easy
Though time gets you worrying My friend, its o.k
Just take your life easy
And stop all that hurrying,
Be happy my way.
When tension starts mounting
And you've lost count
Of the pennies you've missed,
Just try hard and see why they're not worrying me,
They're last on my list
Nothing's easy

Nothing is easy, you'll find that the squeeze wont turn out so bad
Your fingers may freeze, worse things happen
It seems there's good times to be had
So if you're alone and you're down to the bone,
Just give us a play
You'll smile in a while and discover
That I'll get you happy my way
Nothing's easy

Jethro Tull song that I just heard. The words really struck me just now. Good stuff.

It's Official...

Bought a ticket. But damn,I shouldn't have lagged. It was oh, 10:05 by the time I got in.In that space of time, using "Get whatever the hell you can" I was only able to get:
Let's see...
Seat location: section LL21, row 7, seat 8

The IpayOne which IS the Sports Aroma. I didn't know the name had been changed.Shows you how out of touch I am with seeing shows there. The last time had been Page/Plant.
Was unhappy with the seats, I'd been in the nosebleed section behind the stage. It felt like an off night. Jimmy Page wasn't playing his own leads/solos.
Anyway, I believe I'm closer than the very last rows behind the stage up near the ceiling.That was as far away as you can get.
I'll have to go scrutinize the chart.
*note* That last paragraph was worded so that one got the wrong impression about seating.This ticket is on the floor, but back far from the stage. At least it's not behind the stage and back up in nosebleed land, like P/P.

Hopeful, Happy...

Well, a lot of you know that new dates were added, including San Diego - Woohoo!
I'm happy about this, and yet concerned. I admit it. Not sure what kind of prices we are talking about. Of course I want to go, badly. It was amazing recently up in L.A..
I suppose I will try, which means that I will go, somehow. I have to. Seems like it's almost fated! How could I not go in my own hometown? :)

BTW, in my other blog I was posting some bad cam clips, "Find the lead/solo". It's for my "You can tell me anything my friend" song. But they are good clips because you can hear the ideas coming together. This is the result of parts one and two. It's part 3 of "find the solo." It's getting found! I have spared you parts one and two.
Part 3 is painful enough. Hehe...

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A Special Night...

This from the man himself, at the end of the evening. I believe he said : "Well, this really was quite a special evening I think." To which the crowd agreed by cheering enthusiastically. It made up for my missing Friday night's gathering. I was glad I'd
made it this time. :)
I'm trying to articulate my thoughts, to capture the moments, describe the evening for
you so that you can feel it as if you were there. I'm failing. But let me post this for now just to let all know that I made it! There were some funny moments, such as the fact that I stood right next to Glen Ballard for quite a bit, and pretended not to know who he was so that he could relax and enjoy the music. In fact, I behaved very enthusiastically for Simon , Mikey, and Rachel so that he could see the reaction they get from the audience. Just in case.:)

Ok, this is the add-on:
I also met Gary, Stephanie, Metalchick, Alecia, Molly, Sue, I Am One ( I think), Justin, Dan L, his friend Allen(?), and others that I didn't recognize in person but may have known online. Would like to have met any others. :)
Let's see...
I appreciate that there are people that enjoy the posts about the concerts. I am the same way! :D
So I'm trying to remember little details...
Heheh, Gary and I were outside when a living, brightly flashing juggernaut slowly passed by. A mass of people, a swarming mob. In the center is a tall man, a gentle smile on his face, patient and kind. Taking up the pens offered and signing what is put in front of him. It is Pete.
He was literally only about 3 or 4 feet away, something like that. The image amused me, and I couldn't help but call out in a fake but pretty passable English accent :
" Why, what an accomidating man he is!"
And Pete looked at me, and laughed/chuckled. :)

If I remember any more little things I'll post them. I thought that was pretty funny, cute.
OT: Rose Hill Drive needs to change their name. In my opinion. i and others have been unable to remember the name. Even though it was in context of discussing how damned good they are. When people are discussing how great a band is and yet no one can remember what their name,makes me think it's a good idea.
They got the most enthusiastic response I have ever heard for an unknown opening band. And this was at the Hollywood Bowl.
*Yet another update* Remembering something Pete said that was beautiful, I thought.
Pete did Blue, Red, and Gray with the ukelele, and it was gorgeous. Truth be known,
it made me cry a little. I was just so happy. I never thought I'd hear him do that song. And I was so close! The ukele sounded so sweet...
Anyway,when the song was over he said:
" You know, when I first wrote that song it was a rough place in my life, and I wasn't loving every minute
of the day - it was really a sarcastic song. ( Sings I love every minute of the day in a sarcastic sounding way, the audience chuckles)
But recently, I've come to feel differently. It's like for the first time in my life I'm allowing myself to be happy, finally, and to feel that every moment
IS precious and beautiful. ( audience whoops and cheers when he says this) ...So I no longer hate doing this song. It's actually a rather sweet little song."

Anyway, I am trying to be as accurate as possible, and I hope I am succeeding. :)