tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-264505892024-03-19T03:51:57.082-06:00Rainy Day In Denver... is the name of a song I wrote in 2002. It is also a lovely, wet grayness that comes mostly in the springtime in Denver, when upslope winds prevail.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-16654103429232895472013-12-24T21:18:00.000-07:002013-12-24T21:43:06.951-07:00Blue XmasIt is with some trepidation that I’m firing this blog up again after more than two years, but I think it’s time. Let me say this up front: I’m not writing this post to rant or disparage anyone, and I have little interest in relating all of the events that happened. None of it is ancient history to me. I am still dealing with the consequences of what my ex did. It’s painful for me to even talk about, so I generally don’t.<br />
<br />
So I’m posting this mainly so I don’t have to tell my story again and again… people’s mouths tend to drop open and their faces go blank when they hear it for the first time.
I haven’t socialized much lately. Some of the people I haven’t seen in a while don’t seem to be in the loop – I’ve hardly commented about any of it on Facebook etc., and when I have, I’ve noticed by the tone of some people’s comments that they don’t know what’s going on or what has happened. I do feel it necessary to get my thoughts out about why I haven’t posted anything in over two years – there are legal as well as emotional reasons, as you’ll soon see if you dare to keep reading this.<br />
<br />
Those of you who know me well also know what I’ve been through in the meantime. My life was turned upside-down, dumped on the ground and set on fire. I made it through, but I am not whole and I don’t know if I ever will be again. I no longer really expect people to really grasp any of that. I understand now that what happened to me is beyond most people’s experience or ability to really understand. That is OK! I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anyone… well, maybe a very bad person, like Rush Limbaugh. Of course he’s been divorced three times I think, but he’s not only a bad person, he’s also a rich person. He can take it.<br />
<br />
But I am neither a bad nor rich person, and it still happened to me. It was very much a worst-case scenario. There was literally nothing in the world she could have done to hurt me worse than what she did, short of harming Simon in some way. I don’t say that lightly. I’m not even trying to imply that she really meant to hurt me, though she did, and will tell you herself without hesitation that everything was my fault. I am simply stating a simple fact that I’ve learned about myself, and I have the therapy bills to prove it!<br />
<br />
I also learned a lot about the type of person she is. It’s strange that I learned more about her in the past 2 years than in the preceding 8 years that we were together. Even when my marriage was really starting to fall apart, I never thought that she would do the things that she did. Then she did those things. I stand corrected.<br />
<br />
Lest you think I’m being dramatic or spiteful, please consider that I’ve lost my son, my house, my finances are ruined, and I’m now living in my parents’ basement at age 40. I was ordered to pay her for the privilege of all the above, while she was telling half-truths about me, trying to manipulate the system and enabled by the financial support of her new lover. She left Simon behind with me in Colorado to move in with the guy. An invasive child/family investigation was done. I was drug tested. I had to answer hundreds of questions. And through extreme financial pressure, courtesy of the thoughtless judicial system in Adams County, I was forced to reach a settlement, the terms of which directly contradicted everything in the court’s own CFI report recommended.<br />
<br />
For all this, I was duly congratulated by Judge Ted Tow for agreeing to give up my son for 9 months out of every year. Magistrate Stapp had the nerve to say a year ago at the hearing, to my face as he ordered me to pay 80% of all legal costs, “I don’t know where you’re going to come up with this money.” Due to this decision one year ago, my finances deteriorated rapidly. My lawyer withdrew for non-payment of my account – though I probably could have retained him somehow, the problem was that under the court’s order, the court would have taken a very dim view of me being able to pay my lawyer and not hers. I had nowhere to turn for legal counsel – of course the court was indifferent to my situation.<br />
<br />
I was served with Discovery shortly thereafter (Discovery is an extremely expensive, intrusive legal process, like most legal processes), and I was facing a divorce trial versus a very aggressive lawyer, whom I was paying, in a court that I felt was hostile to me and the idea of Simon remaining with me. And of course the ultimate irony was that the CFI investigation was pretty devastating to my ex and all the stories she told about me. Had I gone to trial, it probably would have gone my way, but by the time I negotiated the settlement I had absolutely no faith in the court system or its reasoning.
<br />
<br />
I have been asked by friends and family many, many times about the court's "reasoning," and I have no answer. Magistrate Stapp did not elaborate beyond his insightful comment. I only know that the court engineered this outcome and then congratulated me for being reasonable enough to settle. I only know that the court seemed to have no idea what it was doing. I only know that the entire system seemed to be biased and no one seemed to listen to me. I only know that I will never trust the legal system again. I only know that the Adams County Court does not seem to have the slightest concern regarding legal outcomes for people who aren’t rich, or their children either.<br />
<br />
Can you imagine if the circumstances had been reversed, and I had left my ex for a girlfriend I had known only for a few months, moved out of state and demanded custody of our son? Would the court have ordered her to pay most of my legal bills? The financial hardship was not symmetrical. In addition to the legal bills, she also left me with some thousands of dollars in delinquent taxes, childcare bills and debt. I was unable to afford staying in my house, while she pulled up stakes and moved in with her new boyfriend, in a very nice neighborhood in Michigan.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, I do not have a lover to support my cross-country move so I can live rent free while I try to extract custody of Simon and other concessions, as she did. And of course the biggest hardship is that Simon is no longer with me most of the time.<br />
<br />
The divorce was finalized on May 14th of this year. I drove Simon out to Michigan in July. I got the house ready to sell and moved into my parent's basement in November. The house went on the market and sold just last week. I expect to make a minor gain on it, so there is a silver lining. I'm going to use the gain to pay down the lawyers and then pay back all the money I owe to... let's see, my family, the bank, Simon's former school, my therapist etc, etc. This windfall is entirely spoken for already.<br />
<br />
Yes, I know this is all dirty laundry that is painful to read. Can you imagine how painful it is to type? Can you imagine living through it? I have a lot of rebuilding to do. It’s just a simple fact. I will never be the same.<br />
<br />
On a more positive note, we are civil these days. Simon seems happy in Michigan and is very excited about Christmas. I see him via Skype two or three times per week and he came back to Colorado for two weeks over Thanksgiving. I even had a girlfriend, Lisa, for a while. Though we broke up a while back, the breakup was not hostile and being with her showed me that I still have the capacity to be in a relationship. My band Governors broke up too, but I’ve been playing in a new cover band for some time now. I’m exercising 6 days a week and crave it.<br />
<br />
I have been seeing a great therapist for more than a year in order to deal with the emotional trauma and figure out strategies for co-parenting with my ex going forward. I am trying with varying levels of success to not be that bitter, vengeful divorced guy -- we've all met one of those, right? We are cooperating fairly well in parenting Simon, whom I love more than ever -- he's really been through a lot lately and seems to have held up well, for which I'm so thankful. He's such a sweet, big-hearted kid. I'm grateful that he's mine. <br />
<br />
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m trying to look forward to the time when my finances settle down and I can have Simon with me all summer long. I'm trying to end on an upbeat note here and I'm sorry if any of this makes your Xmas a little less cheery... it's just kind of blue for me.<br />
<br />
On the bright side, for me, next year cannot possibly be worse than 2013. I assure you, I’d much rather write about music or… well anything but my divorce! So I’m going to start posting regularly again… it’s been years of hell for me, and I miss putting down my many other thoughts on the Interwebs.<br />
<br />
I’m back. Thank you and best wishes to everyone who reads this!Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-6262318898059399202011-10-19T20:28:00.001-06:002011-10-20T11:26:37.152-06:00Getting a job without getting a jobThis is a rant about certain recent events in my career.<br />
<br />
Back in August, I applied for a promising contract as a revenue accountant for the Bureau Of Land management. I interviewed one weekend late in the month with a panel of six women. Yikes!<br />
<br />
Actually, it went well. My natural charm and command of details gave me the appearance of enthusiasm, and I won their hearts. Then that weekend I received the rejection letter. I was disappointed with how things worked out, but moved on.<br />
<br />
The following Monday I was off work. I woke up late to a phone call telling me to ignore the rejection letter. The cobwebs cleared from my head. The contractor decided to hire me, pending a standard background check. I let out an audible whoop after I hung up. This was good news! Pending the background check of course.<br />
<br />
Pending.<br />
<br />
I complied with all paperwork requirements the next day. I was fingerprinted in an office in Lakewood. I filled out the long questionaire, and complied with all required disclosures. I was a bit concerned that it took them two weeks after being hired to take my fingerprints. Then I had to wait. <br />
<br />
I began to hear from people I had listed as references that they had received questionaires about me in the mail. All for what I was told was a low-level security clearance. It seemed a bit much.<br />
<br />
A few weeks later I received a phone call in which I was told I was clear to give notice to my current employer. Which I almost did. Thankfully I decided to check my personal email that morning. An email from another bureaucrat told me I hadn’t completed the information and so-and-so was on vacation until next Monday. What information was incomplete was not specified, until the next Monday. That same day I provided the information and faxed it again. Later that week I confirmed that the OPM had received it. Then, nothing.<br />
<br />
After inquiries for a couple weeks, I was forwarded an internal email chain between the contractor, the BLM and the Office Of Personnel Management. Someone I had never met or seen said about me and my background check, “He doesn’t want to quit his current job until he knows it’s good.” Something about this phrasing still nags at me... perhaps because it did not describe reality. In fact I wanted to quit badly, but had explicitly been told not to quit until the background check was complete.<br />
<br />
I wasn’t worried about passing the background check. I was becoming worried that someone wasn’t telling me the truth, intentionally or not.<br />
<br />
Finally, last week I received a call. The BLM “decided to go in another direction” because your background check is taking too long.” The people at the contracting office “feel terrible” about this. I did make a mild protest that I didn’t think this was fair, since I had complied with everything as timely as possible. They explained to me that since nearly two months had passed already, only 10 months remained on the contract and the BLM had decided to promote from within.<br />
<br />
I was actually excited to have found this job. It sounded like great accounting experience. I would have been helping to implement a new billing system for well inspection fees. Losing this opportunity was a big blow, in several ways. My job search was delayed by more than six weeks. It’s dejecting to be strung along in that way.<br />
<br />
I do feel like someone is not telling me the truth, or at least that I don’t know the whole truth. It’s a somewhat bitter irony, as I was completely honest in my disclosures.<br />
<br />
Finding a new job in this horrible economy is neither easy, nor fun.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-16736619079331167742011-10-08T18:09:00.001-06:002011-10-08T20:11:28.198-06:00"Poem" of the day #4I wrote this in memory of Wendi’s brother, who died under tragic circumstances in 2008. I didn’t know him well, but his death affected Wendi greatly, not least because they had not been very close for a long time but she had recently spent some time with him and had been trying to reach out to him towards the end. With reverence and respect...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtHeNzhE5AmwIGJofdVqPSlJE90WSbqWFMjSLM95hKjFThsl20j93sOp6B45tkdDAimY1cv4UbdmtTH0-zP-gCWuFtZ9eiisT9_Syy6wfTv9vf4T3CCWPRqt-OvPuwjsKhxvGcwA/s1600/Dark_Room_by_ikiz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="250" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtHeNzhE5AmwIGJofdVqPSlJE90WSbqWFMjSLM95hKjFThsl20j93sOp6B45tkdDAimY1cv4UbdmtTH0-zP-gCWuFtZ9eiisT9_Syy6wfTv9vf4T3CCWPRqt-OvPuwjsKhxvGcwA/s400/Dark_Room_by_ikiz.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<i>“In Johnny’s Room”</i><br />
<br />
we struggle to find a name for it<br />
<br />
as we are overwhelmed<br />
<br />
stare into the abysmal black mirror<br />
<br />
as if we are compelled<br />
<br />
what is rising to swallow you<br />
<br />
try to lose what follows you<br />
<br />
in the end to just lie down<br />
<br />
oh in happier times he was not happy<br />
<br />
in bleaker times lost his way<br />
<br />
now there is nothing left<br />
<br />
now to clean up the wreck<br />
<br />
she reached out her hand and was bitten<br />
<br />
but still worried for him<br />
<br />
when the news came she cried quietly<br />
<br />
mourning the memories so dim<br />
<br />
and nothing would fill in the gaps<br />
<br />
a life with no strength left to sap<br />
<br />
waiting for the end<br />
<br />
your daughter<br />
<br />
like her son<br />
<br />
cannot say<br />
<br />
how must they feel<br />
<br />
now you’ve gone away<br />
<br />
without a word to them<br />
<br />
they are your next of kin<br />
<br />
look what you did to them<br />
<br />
now there is nothing left<br />
<br />
now to clean up the wreck<br />
<br />
while they are living still<br />
<br />
life will do that, man<br />
<br />
you could’ve used that, man<br />
<br />
but the light was too dim<br />
<br />
can’t see the bottom from here<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Your humble blogger has been scribbling words of varying degrees of coherence in countless spiral-bound notebooks for many years. This is one small sample of them.</i>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-20093864981493550722011-10-08T15:38:00.000-06:002011-10-08T15:38:11.225-06:00Apologies againWell I was going pretty good there for a while, only to drop out of sight for 8 months or so. No promises this time. But I am going to try harder.<br />
<br />
I guess I just haven't had much to say. But I have been thinking a lot. More soon.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-36804189010273613712011-02-08T22:31:00.004-07:002011-02-08T22:33:40.343-07:00An artist statement<i>"I find artist statements to be tiresome, so I limit myself to the following: yes, your kid could do this." <b>-Inept, 1992</b></i><br />
<br />
While shopping among the scratched records and random detritus at Goodwill sometime in the early-to-mid 1990s I found a tape by a “band” called Inept. It was a hand-dubbed Memorex with a photocopied cover, and contained10 or 12 songs of stumbling, out-of-time rhythms, mangled guitar chords and funny, self deprecating lyrics. Though nobody would claim (including the band) that the album contained great music, the “musicians” obviously had made it with much love and had fun doing it. It had a certain homemade charm, and it still holds a warm place in my heart. I think the band was from Montana somewhere, though I know nothing else about them. <br />
<br />
The above quote comes from a short, spoken intro to one of their songs. The only reason I mention it here is that it has stuck with me to this day. An artist statement usually accompanies an exhibition or commission and is intended to provide some insight into the artists thought process or inspiration. Wendi has had to write a number of them in her college career, being one of them hoity toity art majors (in a fairness, she just now walked in as I was writing this and told me I was a “podunk philistine”).<br />
<br />
I won’t argue. I love and appreciate art, but I do find much of the theorizing and philosophizing of the academic art world to be ponderous and wordy… tiresome, even. Hence, the above quote. <br />
<br />
I’m not a visual artist. I can’t really draw or paint and the few times I’ve tried are better forgotten. But I have been playing and practicing music now for more than 20 years, writing and recording songs and absorbing lessons from the music that inspires me. I’ve been posting some of my random scribblings lately… some of the better ones anyway. <br />
<br />
So, whatever the quality of my output, I guess I qualify as a creative person. I’m a fairly skilled songwriter and guitarist and have made plenty of efforts to study music theory and formal songwriting, in my own slacker way and time. But I also listen to and have made music in my time that was deliberately primitive, unskilled and… well, inept, and that is another reason that the above quote has always stuck with me. I’ve always said that making great music has little to do with how well you can play your instrument, and I still believe it.<br />
<br />
Anyway all of this is just to give a bit of background to my own artist statement, and my thought process when writing music or words. I really don’t take myself too seriously, whatever the tone of the following; having said that, creativity and expression is pretty central to who I am. As I continue to post various poems, and as people hear the music I make, if anybody has questions about what they “mean” or how I come up with this shit, this is as good a place to start as any.<br />
<br />
Narrative. What is it?<br />
<br />
Narrative is the human compass. Texts are the expressions of the collective consciousness. The human capacity for forging narratives and myths is very nearly infinite. The peculiar and paradoxical features of narratives are that they are both universal and strictly individual, collective and differentiated, simultaneously. Every person is therefore both a repository for and manufacturer of stories.<br />
<br />
But narratives are more than stories. They are ways of making sense of the world, understanding the associations we experience, the subconscious reactions and conscious reflections our minds’ eyes. The self both authors and experiences narratives, interpreting the manifold symbols and never ending chaos of life. The simultaneous objective and subjective nature of narratives’ relationship to our consciousness is, I believe, unique to human beings.<br />
<br />
This dual nature of the power of narratives is what the best art strives to nurture. The experience of the viewer/listener/reader is an integral part of a work of art, in some cases more so than the contributions of the artist. The artist/audience dynamic and dialectic are essential to art.<br />
<br />
In my work (if you want to call it that), I have tried to nurture and encourage this dialectic between the listener and this humble artist. The lyrical content of my songs has become more important as I have progressed as a songwriter and musician.<br />
<br />
In the songs by other artists that I appreciate most, the deepest feelings and most unvoiceable thoughts were caused in me by their ability to foster this dialectic. Therefore, I try to encourage the listener to make up his or her own narratives or story. While I generally have a specific idea in mind, I consciously attempt to avoid specificity in voice or causality, but trying to leave enough significant signposts and monuments upon the convoluted path that (I hope) the listener will appreciate as their own the view to which it as brought them on the journey. I believe it to be ultimately more meaningful this way. I just hope the view is scenic enough to make them want to continue the dialectic.<br />
<br />
What does it “mean”? Exactly what it says. Exactly what it sounds like.<br />
<br />
I hope that clears things up a bit.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-63394187124786737802011-01-30T12:21:00.000-07:002011-01-30T12:21:44.380-07:00"Poem" of the day #3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.poi-factory.com/files/img/castle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://www.poi-factory.com/files/img/castle.jpg" /></a></div><i><b>"Reign O'er"</b></i><br />
<br />
The terrible tyrant trots out another excuse<br />
<br />
Tries to rescue himself from the swing of the noose<br />
<br />
"And the statues they build of me<br />
must surely reflect my nobility<br />
of blood, most goodly bred."<br />
<br />
The armies clash in the streets outside<br />
<br />
Even unto the fall of night<br />
<br />
Black treason in the air<br />
<br />
Hear the oaths the generals swear:<br />
<br />
"This day we stand together,<br />
if for no other<br />
than each other."<br />
<br />
Now, as the thunderclouds roll over the sun<br />
<br />
Behold the chosen one<br />
<br />
White trash son-of-a-gun<br />
<br />
As the stars fortold<br />
<br />
So done<br />
<br />
The armies dash like water off his flanks<br />
<br />
Victorious sign with a roar from the ranks<br />
<br />
A forest of spears in the sky<br />
<br />
The cries of hawks upon high<br />
<br />
"Let the glory of this noon<br />
be remembered.<br />
Let each man to fight<br />
choose his own legend."<br />
<br />
Thus was the kingdom established<br />
<br />
And prosperity reigned<br />
<br />
Until the pestilence threatened<br />
<br />
In the year of the plague<br />
<br />
Thirty years yonder<br />
<br />
Very few remained<br />
<br />
<i>Your humble blogger has been scribbling words of varying degrees of coherence in countless spiral-bound notebooks for many years. This is one small sample of them.</i>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-1538792245279866672011-01-29T23:29:00.004-07:002011-01-30T00:01:50.948-07:00I am so tiredOy, I am so tired of living from paycheck to paycheck. It's been like this for years, but in the turmoil of the past year has been the worst ever. There have been times when I literally couldn't have bought a pack of chewing gum. You can imagine how this makes me feel about my ability to support my wife and son. I generally live from day to day, just hoping I can buy groceries to feed Simon or eat lunch at work.<br />
<br />
But this week I was finally given a significant raise at the job I've had for 8 months. We're not on easy street now, but at least I hopefully won't have to go begging for handouts from family members so I can buy enough gas to get to work for the next couple of days. Yes, it was getting that bad. Humiliating at best, desperate at worst.<br />
<br />
My employer does seem to value me to some degree, and I like my immediate bosses. But I don't care about wacky things like having a jazz band playing live in the office (yes, that actually happened last month), or having no dress code, or praise. I need money, badly. <br />
<br />
I'm glad they stepped up to the plate, but I've been dissatisfied with quite a few things at my job lately, and I'm not the only one. There has been a lot of grumbling around there, and in the past few weeks a number of people have quit. Just last week, a guy in my work group went to lunch and didn't come back. I can't say I blame him.<br />
<br />
The upshot is that I've been looking for another job for a few weeks. This raise has diminished my dissatisfaction somewhat, but lo and behold this week I managed to get two interviews for jobs next week. Real employers, not the usual shady recruiters that flock around you like vultures when you post your resume on Monster.com. This is a much better success rate than when I was unemployed last year; back then, I sent out over 200 resumes over the course of a few months and got only 5 or 6 interviews. This time, I applied for about 12 jobs over a few weeks and already have 2. Maybe the economy is improving? What other opportunities are out there...?<br />
<br />
So I'm conflicted. On the one hand I would really love a satisfying job that doesn't require me to donate 10 pints of blood a month. On the other hand, I absolutely hate looking for a job and the whole interview/hiring process, and I feel I have some more potential for advancement at my current job, and they did give me a pretty fat raise. So I am going to check out these two opportunities next week and see if they lead anywhere. <br />
<br />
They are going to have to offer me some serious $ incentive though, if they go so far as to make offers. That is my number one concern! You might not understand if you haven't been through the sort of financial trauma my little family has been through. We have been barely holding our shit together.<br />
<br />
The other thing: my band had a pretty good rehearsal this evening. But I apparently blew a speaker in my amplifier, my beloved 1976 Fender Twin Reverb. It sounds like bacon frying when I hit the low notes. Oh well... they are the original speakers and are nearly as old as I am, so something had to give, sooner or later.<br />
<br />
I don't really have much more to say right now. Time has just been so short lately. My job is working me an average of 10-12 hours per day, plus weekends too... it's hard to find the energy to say something worthwhile. But I will persist in my attempts! <br />
<br />
Maybe some more "poetry" tomorrow, if I get a chance. People seemed to dig it... to my surprise. I only posted it to fill a bit of space. Anyway, that's all for this evening.<br />
<br />
Have I mentioned that I like bourbon? Jim Beam is calling me. Bye.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-87444214057891919992011-01-16T20:44:00.005-07:002011-01-16T21:06:00.778-07:00"Poem" of the day #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://johnsonmatel.com/2007dec_files/dec4junk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="333" width="637" src="http://johnsonmatel.com/2007dec_files/dec4junk.jpg" /></a></div><i><b>"Object Lesson"</b></i><br />
<br />
it's a plush chair to sit in<br />
<br />
the comfy spot under the bridge<br />
<br />
the paperbacks you'll never read<br />
<br />
they are all you'll ever need<br />
<br />
it's a dirty coin to pick up<br />
<br />
if someone will make change<br />
<br />
collecting the odds and ends<br />
<br />
dissecting the fads and trends<br />
<br />
it's a plastic toy dump truck<br />
<br />
the child would never grow up<br />
<br />
a sad reminder of the past<br />
<br />
but happy days are here at last<br />
<br />
it's a ticket stub from a show<br />
<br />
back when the band played cheap<br />
<br />
wrote your name with your young blood<br />
<br />
before you saw the grave was dug<br />
<br />
a soiled scrap of twisted paper<br />
<br />
the thoughts that came and went<br />
<br />
the missing moments that didn't come back<br />
<br />
from the void where they were sent<br />
<br />
a rusty can, a ripped-up shirt<br />
<br />
a soiled mattress in the dirt<br />
<br />
a pickle jar and broken sticks<br />
<br />
the thoughts you lost and found again<br />
<br />
now you forget what they meant<br />
<br />
<i>Your humble blogger has been scribbling words of varying degrees of coherence in countless spiral-bound notebooks for many years. This is one small sample of them.</i>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-38491969466167023522011-01-09T00:37:00.002-07:002011-01-30T13:06:08.432-07:00Guitarists I admire: Tony Iommi brings the thunder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.listal.com/image/1305505/600full-tony-iommi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="540" width="500" src="http://img.listal.com/image/1305505/600full-tony-iommi.jpg" /></a></div><i>This is the second of a series of posts I have planned for years, but rarely gotten around to writing... until now! These are guitarists who have been greatly influential on my style of playing. Part one, about Jimi Hendrix, is <a href="http://rainydayindenver.blogspot.com/2009/05/guitarists-i-admire-jimi-hendrix.html">here</a>.</i><br />
<br />
Black Sabbath, though they were not the only band emerging in the late 1960s to play the style of rock that would eventually become known as heavy metal, were undoubtedly they heaviest in their heyday. Their sound was generally despised by the critics of the time, and yet more than four decades later their early music, specifically their first 6 albums, is among the most influential and revered of any rock band before or since. Each non-guitarist in the band – Bill Ward’s amazing sludgy backbeats and whirlwind fills, Geezer Butler’s throbbing, flailing and deceptively simple bass llines, and Ozzys wailing, sometimes-slightly-out-of tune vocals – contributed massive amounts of talent and drug-infused inspiration to the band.<br />
<br />
But it was Tony Iommi’s sledgehammer guitar riffs and bluesy soloing that was the keystone of the band. Without Iommi, there simply would have been no Black Sabbath. It was Iommi who wrote most of the riffs and songs, with Butler writing most of the dark lyrics. His talent is all the more amazing because he lost the tips of two of his fingers back in the mid 1960s in a machinery accident in the metal shop where he worked before Sabbath blew up big (all of the members came from working-class backgrounds).<br />
<br />
Just to get it out of the way, contrary to the popular beliefs of the ignorant, the band did not worship Satan. Their songs did often dabble in dark, occult or druggy waters, as well as science fiction. These themes suited their doom-laden, downcast music, which generally merely commented on the dark side of life with an old-testament vibe of retribution and punishment for sins, rather than a celebration of them. They also had a strong anti-war streak, with a number of songs decrying the destruction and death of war.<br />
<br />
Though I hate ranking my favorites, Tony Iommi is near the top of the guitarists at whose pantheon I worship. The riffs and songs of Black Sabbath’s early “Ozzy” era were generally recorded quickly and cheaply in-between tours, but are among the classic albums that to this day I do not tire of hearing…. as seems to be true with a lot of bands that recorded classic albums in the late 60s and early 70s. And I generally bore pretty easily. <br />
<br />
There’s something about those sludgy, overdriven, precisely loose riffs, dripping with the smooth blast of Marshall amplification that made a boy of 15 want to play guitar like that. Heck, I still do! I play a lot of Sabbathy solos in my current band, and that’s ok with me. He could play so soulfully, those fat, pentatonic runs, his impeccable sloppiness (just enough behind the beat and accented to let you know he knew wtf he was doing) and his howling, moaning vibrato. I would say that, by default if not by design, my current soloing style owes a lot to this guy.<br />
<br />
Iommi’s signature guitar was a Gibson SG, which, after many years of fudging around with other kinds of guitars, your humble author/guitarist finally settled on as having the ideal blend of fat tone, lovely sustain and affordability. Iommi’s guitar tone, generally amplified to earsplitting levels through stacks of amplifiers, was also a thing to behold. I have played an SG as my main electric guitar for more than a decade now and though it is beat to shit and showing its age, to this day I still love it’s tone. I owe it to Tony!<br />
<br />
More about tone and why Iommi’s is so special… back in the day, heavy guitarists used much less distortion than most metal bands today… and yet they recorded music that was both groundbreaking and timeless. This lesson in tone has stuck with me. As the years went by and heavy metal developed as a style, the guitars became much more extreme, overdriven and distorted, sometimes sounding like swarm of killer bees at 110 decibels, or in the worst cases, like a thundering dentist’s drill. <br />
<br />
As Black Sabbath lost and gained new members (eventually only Iommi remained) Iommi’s tone became more processed and distorted, his style less bluesy and more conventionally metal, and his music less inspired. He recorded a few dreadful albums in the 1980s that are better forgotten, believe me. He seems to have, anyway. In the past decade his bread and butter has been touring with various lineups of members from Sabbath’s classic era. This is as it should be!<br />
<br />
So it’s really in Black Sabbath’s early era that you will find the good stuff. Specifically, the band’s eponymous debut, Paranoid, Master Of Reality, Volume IV, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and Sabotage. Every one of these albums is a classic from beginning to end, and I continue to throw one of them into heavy rotation every few months or so.<br />
<br />
So, here’s a few examples. First up is their classic ode to marijuana, “Sweet Leaf”: <br />
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_F5C0rrncXE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_F5C0rrncXE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
I often describe this riff as one of the stupidest (and most awesome), ever written. Basically, it's a three-chord, repetitive slog that that begins to really get under your skin by the second verse. This song’s famous riff (which is one of the first any metal kid learns), though indisputably great, is like a teaser, deceiving you into thinking the band is a bunch of unsophisticated galoots incapable of playing any more than these three notes.<br />
<br />
Many aspiring guitarists have been lulled into a sense of complacency by this awesome and easy-to-play riff, including yours truly. This song is actually very difficult to play, because of the speedy middle section. The band speeds up, building to a crescendo as Iommi whips out a major-key lick that splits the sky with lightning. There is then a tornado of virtuosic double soloing backed with the band whipping itself into a wind-lashed frenzy before the main riff comes crashing back in at the original tempo. This song also features one of the first uses of sound sampling in popular song – the dry hack of Butler coughing is looped into an instantly recognizable intro to the song. I speak from experience: cover this song at your peril!<br />
<br />
Next song. “Wheels Of Confusion” is probably my favorite Sabbath tune, though again, I hate to pick favorites. <br />
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9VswnvAitTA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9VswnvAitTA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
The introduction is a slow, mournful blues that collapses into a droning one-chord riff. Again, deceptively simple. There is a short turnaround at the end of each section that I have never been able to master. This song again follows the tried-and-true template, first pioneered by Sabbath, of a sludgy verse section followed by a speedy middle only to slow down again for the climax. Hey, it works! This is a great example of a song that just draws you in with its hypnotic groove only to explode with fury in the middle section with a strangely beautiful guitar lick in the middle that sounds like a shooting star. There is also a great coda to the song with a very nice solo… for some reason they titled it “The Straightener”. The lyrics are some of their best, about a dark night of the soul or depression or something, but they fit the song perfectly. It’s a masterpiece of rock dynamics and the band plays like a single instrument, each member’s simple part contributing to create a mighty mountain of stark, hard rock beauty. It’s the perfect example of why they were one of the great classic rock bands.<br />
<br />
Finally, anyone who doubts Sabbath’s greatness needs to watch this awesome performance of the band’s anti-war anthem “War Pigs” from 1970, by a young and hungry Sabbath with something to prove. <br />
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtqy4DTHGqg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtqy4DTHGqg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
Just look at the way Ozzy wails, Butler flails, Ward beats his drums to death…. and Iommi actually moves around a little! Sabbath cut its teeth in the days before MTV, and Iommi’s stage presence was usually not very rock star-ish. He generally just stood there on stage right, whipping out these amazing riffs and solos. But here he is clearly rocking even more than usual. What I like most about this video is that this was filmed before the whole “arena rock” conceit. There are no stage props, no pyrotechnics, no fancy lighting. Heck, there ain’t even a riser for Ward’s drums! Just a ripping band at the peak of their powers, clearly enjoying themselves and rocking out... and I love the size of Ward's bass drum, which is much bigger than on the average modern trap set.<br />
<br />
Sabbath will never go out of style. All hail Sabbath!Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-655009041982596192011-01-04T23:13:00.001-07:002011-01-30T13:11:27.343-07:00"Poem" of the day #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/411612537_5f26014825.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="375" width="500" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/411612537_5f26014825.jpg" /></a></div><i><b>"Progression"</b></i><br />
<br />
The must-have purchase of the year<br />
<br />
Converts easily into a toaster or a bed<br />
<br />
Well-received in savvy circles<br />
<br />
You must strip out the gizzard and other viscera<br />
<br />
Complete with personalized, airbrushed logo of your choice<br />
<br />
Be specific about the order of events<br />
<br />
A few of my favorite things<br />
<br />
The antibiotics are having limited and diminishing effects<br />
<br />
Some may yet survive the depopulation<br />
<br />
The merger was planned for years to be the largest in history<br />
<br />
In retrospect, public opinion did not conform to reality<br />
<br />
A face above the dais commands, scowling<br />
<br />
Hunched columns, distant gunshots<br />
<br />
Deep orange sunset<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Your humble blogger has been scribbling words of varying degrees of coherence in countless spiral-bound notebooks for many years. This is one small sample of them.</i>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-4418848338213763552011-01-03T23:17:00.002-07:002011-01-03T23:57:33.806-07:00The new lookSo I finally upgraded to Blogger's new template editor. I hope everybody likes the new look. Not that it matters much.<br />
<br />
But I did take the narcissistic step of Googling the name of this blog, and it came up on the 2nd page of results. Today, the 2nd page of Google results... tomorrow, the world! Or maybe later than that. Oh well.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-71767903785501214452011-01-01T15:25:00.007-07:002011-01-01T15:54:16.437-07:00A year of stormsNot to be trite or exhaust my metaphor, but this blog is called what it is for good reasons.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ewhpSp992n4EDuxkdj8n4FvBkKMZeQV6SxIl2QrVB4fiyHVbsfMO9N8SAIf1BeHEHFAwc4ACQQl-366KtE9q_Tbz3ulMarskP-vpoxRw7_v6Vr_qZvNHI5xb5ZewomdNbis7tQ/s1600/qtip_denver_storm.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ewhpSp992n4EDuxkdj8n4FvBkKMZeQV6SxIl2QrVB4fiyHVbsfMO9N8SAIf1BeHEHFAwc4ACQQl-366KtE9q_Tbz3ulMarskP-vpoxRw7_v6Vr_qZvNHI5xb5ZewomdNbis7tQ/s400/qtip_denver_storm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557349222970077778" /></a><br />I can’t say there is any particular reason why I haven’t blogged in over a year. I’ve been busy, for sure. I also began finding my political leanings somewhat tiresome to write about. There was all the chaos and desperation of my personal life, most of which I didn’t feel like writing about. I have to live it, every day after all. Writing about it just makes it that much more inescapable, to some degree at least. In many ways, I’m glad I never bothered to update this blog with that stuff. Talk about a drag to read!<br /><br />But the number one reason I’ve been so inactive: Facebook. I’ve been more active there in the past year than at any time since I started an account a few years ago. It’s great for keeping up to date with the lives of lots of people, and for wasting time on stupid surveys, playing games, and sharing links about things that interest me. <br /><br />But Facebook has some downsides to it. For one thing, Facebook is insidious and opaque about the way it collects and shares personal information. Its interface can be clunky, counterintuitive, far too complex, and often changes without warning. People’s posts seem to pop up on my feed at random, with no rhyme or reason with respect to how close I am to them. And, most of all, it is not very good for blogging about things that interest me. It’s just not very good for writing more than three or four sentences at a time.<br /><br />With that in mind, my New Year’s Resolution is to keep this blog updated at least twice a week. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to hold to that, or that all of the posts will be worth reading. But I’ll at least try to make it interesting, even if it’s just short thought/link/youtube video/whatever.<br /><br />So…. by now you may be wondering, what <b>have</b> you been doing for the past year, Matt? Well, it’s been an “interesting” year, in the ancient Chinese sense, and not in a good way. In fact, 2010 more or less sucked for my little family and me.<br /><br />Well, probably the worst thing that happened was that I lost my job back in February. It’s still painful to me and I’m fairly bitter about it. I won’t go into details, but I don’t feel what happened was warranted or very fair, and I still have some pretty hostile feelings towards TransMontaigne. I was unemployed for about 3 1/2 months until I found my current job (at a slightly higher yearly salary) at Rivet Software. <br /><br />You might say I have first-hand experience with The Great Recession. I lived through it. Heck, I’m still living through it. Some people might not understand why I feel so strongly about the things I do, or why I can’t be so detached from social issues as people who haven’t had to go through what me and my family have been living through and dealing with every day of our lives recently.<br /><br />I know I sound negative sometimes. It’s not because I’m a particularly negative person. It’s because I’ve come very close to losing what little I have, and I am still scared to death of losing it all. We are still living a day-to-day existence, forget about the future. And I perhaps am more aware than most of issues that are larger than myself. And for all our travails, I know that my family is one of the luckier stories to come out of the Great Recession.<br /><br />About the only other thing I have to say about that is that I certainly appreciate Unemployment Insurance. UI, and the kind assistance from my extended family, was my little family’s lifeline. We would’ve been sunk without it. We still haven’t recovered financially. <br /><br />So it galls me to see politicians playing political games with UI, making things up about how people collecting unemployment don’t want to work or that they are lazy. During those 3 1/2 months, I applied for more than 200 jobs throughout Denver, nearly any opening in my field for which I was remotely qualified. I accepted the first offer I was given, because I was pretty desperate. Yet apparently Republicans think I should have been looking for jobs at Taco Bell (which, btw I am overqualified for and may not have been able to get hired for anyway, which would have resulted in my family becoming homeless even if I did get a job as a fry cook). But I digress….<br /><br />Other stuff... after a 6 1/2 year-long slog, in May of last year I finally graduated <i>cum laude</i> from Metropolitan State College of Denver with a BS in accounting. While I am happy that I finally crossed the finish line, I crossed it more at a staggering limp than a triumphant dash. I am so utterly sick of school, and then there is the matter of tens of thousands of dollars in student loans that I have no idea how I’m going to pay back. I never want to go back to school again. Wendi wants me to consider going for a CPA certification. Though I am considering it, I am also dubious, for career based reasons as well as “school fatigue.”<br /><br />For Wendi’s part, she is nearing the finish line of her own long slog through college. She’s on track to graduate next May and has worked hard all this year to make sure that happens. I’m very proud of her. She’s done some of her best photographic work ever this year. She doesn’t like to “toot her own horn” but rest assured she is very talented and her photos are artistic and of fine quality.<br /><br />She’s done it all while taking care of Simon too, as well as looking high and low for a job. This means she is pretty exhausted most of the time. She can tell you her own stories about what The Great Recession means to her.<br /><br />Speaking of Sy, he turned 3 years old in 2010. He’s the babble of every brook these days. In the past six months his vocabulary has exploded exponentially, with a corresponding increase in potty humor. He thinks a poop joke is the funniest thing in the world… “I pooped on the ceiling! Poop jokes go bleeaaaghh!!!!” That’s is a typical line of comedy from him, followed by lots of giggling. <br /><br />He started preschool in August, which we struggle to afford but is providing him with some much needed social interaction with other kids his age. He of course has all the wild mood swings and crazed behavior that any 3-year-old does, but he is also a sweet little boy full of love and affection…. when he’s not beating the crap out of his Mom or Dad.<br /><br />After 7 years in the corporate world, I am less than enthralled with it, especially given my recent experience at TransMontaigne, which ended so bitterly after more than 5 1/2 years and stellar performance reviews all the way. At some point, I have realized that I just don’t fit into that world very well. I don’t really have the temperament to reach for that corporate brass ring, and I am certainly not executive management material. I am good at what I do though, and I’m currently trying to figure out where I want to go with my skills and experience.<br /><br />My band, Governors, played 5 shows last year. We really tightened up and I have to say we sound gooood! In August we lost our awesome bassist, Ross, who moved to Utah to accept a music teaching position at Utah Valley University. After trying out a few more people we found our current bassist Abe Willock, who is another veteran of the local music scene. We played one show with him in October and are planning to ramp up our activity significantly in 2011.<br /><br />This band is the most musically adept bunch of dudes I’ve ever had the fortune to play music with, and is devoid of the personality conflicts and petty stupidity that seem to plague most bands. I don’t think it’s because we’re all older (in our 30s), because all 3 of us generally have the maturity levels of teenagers. <br /><br />I think it’s because we’ve just been around the block in other bands, and would rather shut up and play music than argue or get mad at each other. Don’t’ get me wrong, there’s plenty in the world that I’m angry about, but it’s all there in the music, baby. That’s how it should be.<br /><br />I hope 2011 is a better year. I’m tired of treading water in life. So, I’m going to be tentatively optimistic. And I hope at least a few people will forgive my inactive period, and check out my blog from time to time as 2011 rolls on by.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-80976658203293131092009-12-24T18:05:00.007-07:002009-12-24T18:14:29.829-07:00Merry Christmas from the official Laziest Family On Earth<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YpfrLIXCwV7E_9gLDouOJEeZYclJgNGMv1r85BJGW7eRJ7rHOX1ZDiO5KCQ0ZdNX8Xnu9f9JbiHeuXzM9eVOxW08bAnN2-tBRUoWXzZRE80QggR1njFWiSpFv9b5oI5l3bv6Zg/s1600-h/lazy+family.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YpfrLIXCwV7E_9gLDouOJEeZYclJgNGMv1r85BJGW7eRJ7rHOX1ZDiO5KCQ0ZdNX8Xnu9f9JbiHeuXzM9eVOxW08bAnN2-tBRUoWXzZRE80QggR1njFWiSpFv9b5oI5l3bv6Zg/s400/lazy+family.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418974323245202498" /></a>Many thanks to all who helped us in the last few, chaotic weeks! We won't forget it. As you can see, we've been taking it easy lately.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-89088344407571480642009-11-06T19:29:00.011-07:002009-11-06T23:48:06.840-07:00Hardwood heavenThe past few weeks have been a flurry of home improvement activity. We are frantically trying to get ready for the move next week!<br /><br />A thousand million thanks to Drew and Mark for helping me rip out the carpet at our new house a couple weeks ago! Wendi and I have spent a lot of time since then yanking out exactly 896,722,933 staples from the floors. We also ripped out the ugly wallpapered paneling that covered up the natural wood walls in the living room... let's just say that the prybar that Mark left behind got a lot of use. Thanks again Mark, you can have your prybar back anytime you want.<br /><br />There was about two decades' worth of dirt underneath the carpet. In places it was a quarter inch deep, and it reinforced my vow to never live with carpet again! We have lived in too many apartments with ugly, worn-out, filthy carpet to ever live that way again if we can help it. It doesn't matter how much you vacuum it, dirt builds up under the padding and just stays there. Who knows what kind of vermin thrive in places like that, inches away from you! I hate carpet.<br /><br />But lovely floors and walls were revealed after all this hard work.... behold!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGJpYUEqntfqaOQTyEuMJ5My0TnHdYRpWSemhB9GGE9JSc0PQEl-WbtHhrkQ9BfaVv7JeJXRUNyyus9ZQmaRGVyqybWpnt_tFnT87IlrhlaaWq-OHSWB4wO6OL3IXw-kglw2HIgQ/s1600-h/living+room..jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGJpYUEqntfqaOQTyEuMJ5My0TnHdYRpWSemhB9GGE9JSc0PQEl-WbtHhrkQ9BfaVv7JeJXRUNyyus9ZQmaRGVyqybWpnt_tFnT87IlrhlaaWq-OHSWB4wO6OL3IXw-kglw2HIgQ/s320/living+room..jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401186048814647970" /></a>The living room with real wood paneling.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFV5lL7G-7b0CXUJj9G63kKrTsGsuexLiDo2e03JVlPOdzqVeCmnkzkL2AmTi6asMWOPedakxahUQDaWgItS5v6ErN1YtQFkDLCGz4T0XBefKoFa27-IXSdQZLDq0YyVIHYAvHQ/s1600-h/livingroom2..jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFV5lL7G-7b0CXUJj9G63kKrTsGsuexLiDo2e03JVlPOdzqVeCmnkzkL2AmTi6asMWOPedakxahUQDaWgItS5v6ErN1YtQFkDLCGz4T0XBefKoFa27-IXSdQZLDq0YyVIHYAvHQ/s320/livingroom2..jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401186346981547330" /></a>The living room again.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-z4O-sjutSpTo_WJst3UuZL7jUFfoC1zQgkSIU_av8Lf8riNzE_veOTFKPDjPz7hlAWkCHzL1iy1m5B5qqSRt3zFpjbC8MJ5m_XxMAEwNjQFU9aAQJbN6lYJztyLUEgY7RejYw/s1600-h/hall..jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-z4O-sjutSpTo_WJst3UuZL7jUFfoC1zQgkSIU_av8Lf8riNzE_veOTFKPDjPz7hlAWkCHzL1iy1m5B5qqSRt3zFpjbC8MJ5m_XxMAEwNjQFU9aAQJbN6lYJztyLUEgY7RejYw/s320/hall..jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401186652072959298" /></a>Who is that scary man with the wild hair at the end of the hall? Notice the dirt worn into the otherwise lovely hardwood :-(<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7IWYzmwx4AuDqFqOxIqOQSPScr4_H_zq1Giji4C1rt5Tz0oUYmhkqRk4NUxZPq-nNrsE-l-bHXS1OFYObObWSF1amDXEp0lptBenW7Ct6QW70_c2Wks306x-gEk2oo_KYuLPgxQ/s1600-h/room..jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7IWYzmwx4AuDqFqOxIqOQSPScr4_H_zq1Giji4C1rt5Tz0oUYmhkqRk4NUxZPq-nNrsE-l-bHXS1OFYObObWSF1amDXEp0lptBenW7Ct6QW70_c2Wks306x-gEk2oo_KYuLPgxQ/s320/room..jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401187066795754578" /></a>This is the "master bedroom" which is not really so huge. We really hate this color blue and plan to paint it a nice earth tone at some point.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBRUdxVu3VmrJFlamWj3gUgJLe1dVi7geim1l26aCnORbnK38gKmqIOO30iyAA5zQAf8ElGOfcMj3UsUllb5R1CgVVj7WFf0NzgZd94T6zvoSHmt8RpWFTurx_LbbajEdU-vTpQ/s1600-h/guitarroom..jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBRUdxVu3VmrJFlamWj3gUgJLe1dVi7geim1l26aCnORbnK38gKmqIOO30iyAA5zQAf8ElGOfcMj3UsUllb5R1CgVVj7WFf0NzgZd94T6zvoSHmt8RpWFTurx_LbbajEdU-vTpQ/s320/guitarroom..jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401187489501981186" /></a>We are tentatively planning to use this bedroom as a study.<br /><br />In places the dirt was too worn into the finish to be removed, so we are having them refinished and are crossing our fingers in hopes the job will be done by the time we move next Saturday. Once you have hardwood floors, you never go back, man.<br /><br />Finally, a lovely sunset turned the sky bubblegum pink and gossamer orange. Really spectacular sunset. Love that air pollution.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEz_yADLrhx6Hr7__sELkGYSdhS15dTS5K5PxTfB3YTwuUG0VBHaSrwDw8kfBJUVSE61POinc4VsNMx3lQFbiaGWdP_az_BlzdeH4g6o0rfTjuBAV-ayqow8CTlYR3kSGRxnJypw/s1600-h/sunset..jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEz_yADLrhx6Hr7__sELkGYSdhS15dTS5K5PxTfB3YTwuUG0VBHaSrwDw8kfBJUVSE61POinc4VsNMx3lQFbiaGWdP_az_BlzdeH4g6o0rfTjuBAV-ayqow8CTlYR3kSGRxnJypw/s320/sunset..jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401249357776254322" /></a>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-3531684666866293532009-10-30T22:28:00.006-06:002009-11-05T12:59:17.934-07:00I take it all back. Not.Sorry, not to harp on this. Am I being too harsh in saying the GOP and its leader & figurehead, Rush Limbaugh have racist tendencies? Did I make it up? <br /><br />Maybe I should reconsider. I suppose that some people would find nothing racist about this picture which appeared on the official GOP Facebook page for about a week...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj86-iqX9gTiUKQyosobFqEtap_Hg8AO8gY8eGyTjmKPVXP_rsM_2SGHdJ4tzW02PegH8UTa_xhqQk24ojSabEiEwmlSYw676MTIVGVpKOmqghghAJeRAh6bqGxMLynKn7GPw6jKA/s1600-h/rncobamafacebookphoto.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj86-iqX9gTiUKQyosobFqEtap_Hg8AO8gY8eGyTjmKPVXP_rsM_2SGHdJ4tzW02PegH8UTa_xhqQk24ojSabEiEwmlSYw676MTIVGVpKOmqghghAJeRAh6bqGxMLynKn7GPw6jKA/s400/rncobamafacebookphoto.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398618411208203026" /></a><br /><br />...but you know what? Those people are stupid. And I didn't make it up.<br /><br />Regardless of what the GOP thinks,I really don't think this photo represents "American values" at all. Not the ones we should admire anyway. Rush Limbaugh and the GOP can keep them to themselves.<br /><br />Sorry, racism irritates me. I don't feel sorry for or apologize for mocking and ridiculing the people who practice it. Why should people like that be respected?<br /><br />I'll shut up now... no more political posts for a while :-)<br /><br />UPDATE 11/5/09: here's a photo from the teabagger "protests" today in DC:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ZXyDZHCENns8YhSnyh7kixCboA3UhiAnydLYo7VDhKhzqEQGpjZwFmIVpsE6DjGey7XfboG_gRgf580pU_rqRBByYwDxuTrZ6Jgcsh0MkqxvSGOE3xq-uaK2ot6zbKeBjc1Ezw/s1600-h/bachmannmarch2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ZXyDZHCENns8YhSnyh7kixCboA3UhiAnydLYo7VDhKhzqEQGpjZwFmIVpsE6DjGey7XfboG_gRgf580pU_rqRBByYwDxuTrZ6Jgcsh0MkqxvSGOE3xq-uaK2ot6zbKeBjc1Ezw/s400/bachmannmarch2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400710456316653842" /></a><br /><br />Modest moves toward universal health care are will result in a new holocaust. Makes sense to me, I've been persuaded.<br /><br />This kind of idiocy cannot be brushed off as being the work of a few crazies on the fringe of the GOP. The Obama photo above was on the GOP's official Facebook page and the awful banner above was proudly hoisted at a rally today sponsered by the GOP congressional leadership.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-86168010699276940242009-10-15T10:19:00.003-06:002009-10-30T22:28:02.819-06:00Truth is out of styleWhen I read about the <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/?last_story=/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/10/15/first_they_came_for_rush_limbaugh/">right wing freakout</a> over the torpedoing of Rush Limbaugh’s attempt to buy the St. Louis Rams today, I thought of this snarky song from two decades ago. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PYtlpG0hb38&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PYtlpG0hb38&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />It’s like the GOP has adopted it as its theme song. Seriously, what is wrong with these people? I would be more disturbed by their whining and paranoia if they weren’t being taken less seriously every time they start frothing about how oppressed, misunderstood and wronged they are. Think about it: wealthy multi-multimillionaire, lying, thrice-divorced, whore chasing, “family values voter” like Limbaugh is soooooo oppressed. <br /><br />Boo hoo you big fat baby. Nobody’s trying to take away his freedom of speech. In fact, I hope he keeps it up, so he can show everybody everybody who doesn’t know already what a hateful, hypocritical, creep he is. <br /><br />Lest someone doesn’t think he deserve the backlash against him, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/press/releases/200910140029">please see this list </a>for why some black football players aren’t very appreciative of his race-baiting, reactionary right-wing cluelessness. He says he’s “color blind” when it comes to race. I can actually find common ground; I agree he’s blind to a lot of things!<br /><br />About the song: yes some of the cultural references in it are dated, but the sarcastic satire is more biting and relevant as ever in this era of what is misleadingly known as “cable news” and wingnut wackiness. Turn off the TV!Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-20226196816231554402009-10-09T10:59:00.002-06:002009-10-09T11:02:43.342-06:00No peace, no prizeWell I haven't posted anything political for a while, so I thought I'd fix the situation.<br /><br />I did a double take when I read this morning that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I thought it was a joke at first… I’m sure most people did.<br /><br />Let’s leave aside the fact that this administration has been in office for only about 9 months or so and hasn’t had time to accomplish much. That’s not the heart of the matter.<br /><br />Do we really need to be reminded that we are in the midst of an indefinite military occupation and insurgency in Iraq, with no end in sight? When Obama makes a decisive move to end this occupation, then he might deserve a Peace Prize. That is not what is happening. In fact even after withdrawal the USA is likely to have a significant military presence in Iraq.<br /><br />Do we really need to be reminded that our country is fighting another endless war in Afghanistan? That we are slaughtering civilians there by the dozens every week? When Obama takes significant steps to end this war, then he might deserve a Peace Prize. But that is not what is happening. In fact, the Obama administration is planning on escalating that conflict.<br /><br />Do we really need to be reminded that in the name of freedom and liberty and America, our country tortured and killed completely innocent people on the most dubious of charges? That the criminals who ordered and perpetrated these crimes are still free? When President Obama decides that these crimes should be prosecuted and these people brought to justice, then he might deserve a Peace Prize. But that is not what is happening. The administration has declined to take any substantive steps because they want to “move forward”. And then it has the gall to lecture Iran about torturing its own people?<br /><br />Do we really need to be reminded that the Obama administration has not taken any substantive steps to repeal the Patriot Act? That it reserves the right to detain any US citizen indefinitely, without charges? That even if the prison at Guantanamo Bay is closed, the USA reserves the right to hold people without charges in other places? If Obama had taken steps to reverse all this, he might deserve a Peace Prize. But the Obama administration has actually embraced and reinforced most of the powers that the executive branch gave itself during the Bush years.<br /><br />Do we need to be reminded that the government is at the beck and call of the military-industrial-corporate complex? That we are becoming a country eternally at war in part due to the profitability of our wars to our private sector? If Obama had taken steps to dismantle corporate control of the government’s military procurement system, he might deserve a peace prize. But that is not what is happening. Instead, the government has reinforced its ties with murderous mercenary companies like Blackwater (now Xe... nothing like the slaughter of women and children to affect your company's brand image), while at the first hint of a scandal rushing to strip a scapegoat organization like ACORN of any chance of getting grants from the government. How many people did ACORN machine gun?<br /><br /><br />I don’t know what the Nobel people were thinking, they are making a mockery of themselves and the Peace Prize. <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/09/obama/"> Glenn Greenwald had a good piece up today</a> about this… his thinking mirrors my own. But then, his thinking often does.<br /><br />This is absurd.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-8736440165835457192009-09-19T10:50:00.006-06:002009-09-19T11:06:01.529-06:00First show - make it rainTonight is the first show for my new band Governors. It just kind of fell into my lap a few days ago and we decided to go for it. We hope to blow the doors off of Bar Bar.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHSluIY1N9BYm2s4FG0x4uvmsqxtY6sgcPAmeLMY2eQZSZvstuIx3lC2w2qxKml6iugpFOiwdeVhxmMlZ2zNf0MkUv5re5sMRzvmchbjwTvbEPW2SJORdwyotgBlVKlbbw1vooQ/s1600-h/governors2+8-2009+crop.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 255px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHSluIY1N9BYm2s4FG0x4uvmsqxtY6sgcPAmeLMY2eQZSZvstuIx3lC2w2qxKml6iugpFOiwdeVhxmMlZ2zNf0MkUv5re5sMRzvmchbjwTvbEPW2SJORdwyotgBlVKlbbw1vooQ/s320/governors2+8-2009+crop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383224581029865666" /></a>Business not casual. It's how we roll. <br /><br />My first live performance in nearly 5 years. We gonna make it rain!<br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EUhWuPTBIfo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EUhWuPTBIfo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />I came across this awesome performance and just felt like he was singing to me, is all, ha! Tom Waits is a treasure.... and it's a first-rate song, too. We'll probably never perform so well, but we'll try.<br /><br />Oh and the guitar solo in the middle is phat.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-47873199511167181012009-08-29T15:11:00.006-06:002009-08-29T15:49:06.469-06:00Don't apologizeI just discovered this powerful new song by Lou Barlow and have to share it. It's from his forthcoming album <span style="font-style:italic;">Goodnight Unknown</span>.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ufp6NycISE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ufp6NycISE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />For those of you that are unfamiliar with Barlow, he was bassist in the legendary band Dinosaur Jr. in the late 1980s and later led his own bands Sebadoh and Folk Implosion... you may vaguely remember Folk Implosion's big hit in the mid 1990s, "Natural One". <br /><br />Barlow left Dinosaur Jr. under bitter circumstances and was very public in bashing the singer, J. Mascis -- who is a <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kifqxqqgldae~T1">formidible indie rock legend</a> in his own right. So, it was pretty unexpected when the old Dino Jr. lineup reunited a few years ago and played a very successful tour. I was lucky enough to see them myself back in 2007 at the Westword Music Showcase downtown.<br /><br />Lou Barlow's music is usually pretty melancholy but there's something anthemic and profound about it that makes it better than your average indie rock. Sebadoh's 6th album, 1994's <span style="font-style:italic;">Bakesale</span> was part of the soundtrack of my early 20s. It ages so well 15 years later. I'm happy to see that Lou's still going strong and still making great music! I think I'm going to go and listen to <span style="font-style:italic;">Bakesale</span> now...Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-43551224495229347392009-08-19T19:12:00.003-06:002009-08-19T19:18:45.288-06:00Hey Gandalf.... nice dress!Great video by Red Fang that I came across today. It's got swords, wizards, violence, beer and rock n' roll. And it's funny! <br /><br />All kidding aside, this band really rocks and I'm going to have to check out more of their stuff. I'm posting this video because their sound is close to the aesthetic to which I aspire for my own band... more about that soon!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y3Vcoq-QRo4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y3Vcoq-QRo4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-64105345408620493362009-06-12T22:47:00.008-06:002009-06-12T23:10:55.542-06:00Monkey chant! Wow!I have been playing and listening to a lot of music lately, so in keeping with this theme...<br /><br />Glenn Kotche is the drummer for Wilco, a band I have followed and loved for many years now. I saw them live once. But I didn't know until a few days ago just what a virtuoso their drummer is. He has a percussion performance degree from University of Kentucky... and it shows. <br /><br />It's long, but this performance is worth checking out to see the just what amazing things a master percussionist can do. You will notice that his kit is heavily modified, with all manner of springs, boxes, soundmakers, a thumb piano, bells and other odd little devices... with which he makes some astounding music! <br /><br />The piece is not just a drum solo, but composed the whole way through with (I think) a few improvisatory sections. You will notice he returns to the same melodic theme on the thumb piano and bells multiple times.<br /><br />No, the crickets aren't real... but I have no idea what the heck is up with them! Ask Kotche.<br /><br />Hat tip to Will for enlightening me with this a few days ago. Turn it up loud.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jkmGSABX1Sg&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jkmGSABX1Sg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object>Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-37710042908863598052009-05-30T17:38:00.004-06:002009-05-30T17:49:43.283-06:00Guitarists I Admire: Jimi HendrixI imagine that most of the small crowd that reads this blog knows that I play guitar. It’s the great pleasure of my life, and “musician” is a key part of my identity. I’ve been playing guitar for about 20 or so years now, and I’ve come a long way in terms of ability. While I don’t consider myself anywhere close to being a virtuoso or even an expert, I’m pretty comfortable with my instrument and can play pretty much anything I hear in my head, electric or acoustic. <br /><br />Part of being a serious musician is having and acknowledging your musical influences. I am no exception. Certain guitarists have influenced and inspired me since I was a kid of 14 just learning to plink out a few hesitant chords on my mom’s nylon string guitar. I can’t say that all of what I liked when I was a kid has stood the test of time (Mark loves to give me crap for liking crap like Whitesnake and Britney Fox in the 1980s), but over the past two decades, there are certain artists/bands/guitarists whose influence upon my style and taste in music has proven durable and deeply influential to me. And, given the fact I am a total music nerd who can talk for days about music that I dig, I feel like sharing what inspires me.<br /><br />So, this is Part One of what I plan to be a occasional, long series on guitarists I admire. I’ve been drawn to loud rock n’ roll from a pretty young age, so it shouldn’t be surprising that most of the guitar gods you’ll read about in this series come from that tradition. It’s not that there aren’t fantastic guitarists that I like in other genres such as jazz (Django Reinhart, Pat Metheny, Stanley Jordan) or classical (John Williams, Andre Segovia), etc., it’s just that rock n’ roll is the family of music that has left a lasting mark on my musical personality. <br /><br />As I’ve often said, my tongue only half in my cheek, “I was born to rock!”<br /><br />First up in the series of <span style="font-weight:bold;">Guitarists I Admire</span>: <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hnfexqr5ldte">Jimi Hendrix</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFgig3rpP1QIB2UQuS-AqsyyzbFvtcIuYUWoesUJZk9SbpMY760F5XMN9P3Jyzraore5-pBtOXoLWd1axIqSKEt9Rca9YrYE5DsnAo_G-oCktGCTDVRZoXTI4R9s5h888vvBlOA/s1600-h/jimi_hendrix_biography.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 249px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFgig3rpP1QIB2UQuS-AqsyyzbFvtcIuYUWoesUJZk9SbpMY760F5XMN9P3Jyzraore5-pBtOXoLWd1axIqSKEt9Rca9YrYE5DsnAo_G-oCktGCTDVRZoXTI4R9s5h888vvBlOA/s320/jimi_hendrix_biography.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341767382831259538" /></a>This is kind of a no-brainer. A cliché too. I mean, what fan of rock music doesn’t consider him among the greats? But I have to weigh in, because Jimi Hendrix’ music was very important to me as a formative musical influence.<br /><br />I think I first heard Hendrix on a tape that my friend Nat gave to me when I was a sophomore in high skool. The first song? “Are You Experienced?” It was mind blowing for my 15 year old adolescent brain, that thick, hypnotic, incredibly complex, sidewinding electric guitar figure that comes in over the trippy backwards drums, and a guitar solo recorded backwards in the middle, too. I listened to that tape over and over again… I think I actually still have it somewhere.<br /><br />Hendrix was a man of many and immense talents. To this day he is primarily known for his guitar solo pyrotechnics (literally… at one famous show he set his guitar on fire before smashing it to bits) and his liberal, revolutionary use of fuzz tone. And it’s true that his abilities in this arena have rarely been equaled, before or since. He had a naturally flowing, lyrical style to playing guitar solos that made them seem effortless. His vibrato technique was among the most expressive and instantly recognizable anywhere. And he pioneered guitar sounds that are still admired all these years later, even though the technology for producing them was quite crude by today’s standards (slashing speaker cones to make them sound “dirty”, first generation fuzz boxes, arcane guitar effects like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_(audio_effect)">Echoplex</a> and <a href="http://www.blamepro.com/mwn/tips/univibe.htm">Univibe</a>).<br /><br />The band he became famous for fronting, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, consisted of himself and two seasoned jazzmen, Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass. Indeed, it’s difficult to separate his own talent from that of the phenomenal talents of his “sidemen”, both of whom, while being slightly lesser known than Hendrix, have nearly equal status in musician’s circles. Mitchell, in particular, is considered to be one of the greatest of all rock drummers and is certainly responsible for much of the magic of Hendrix’ early albums. Prime examples of this band firing on all cylinders are “Manic Depression”, “Red House” and of course his first big hit “Hey Joe”. None of these are particularly musically complex (“Red House” is in a standard 12 bar blues form), but they are prime examples of what master musicians can do with simple ideas.<br /><br />These guys were so talented that they would record entire albums with minimal rehearsals, sometimes recording tunes that Hendrix had written the same day. That is a significantly different aesthetic than modern recording techniques, which are far more sophisticated and time consuming. The primitive techniques they used resulted in some timeless music, and didn’t rely on technological gimmickry to sweeten them up.<br /><br />But to label Hendrix as merely a great guitar player does not really do justice to his multifaceted talents. He was also a first rate songwriter. “Castles Made Of Sand” is a melancholy, somewhat simple song that nonetheless shows of some tastefully understated guitar chops. The chord progression to “Little Wing” is a beautiful example of the ideas that sprang from him, lilting and longing. Though his voice was not particularly good by traditional standards and he used a sort of “speak/sing” technique on most of his work, it was nonetheless expressive and well suited to his compositional ideas. <br /><br />On later albums such as Electric Ladyland, he toned down the flashy guitar solos and focused more on songwriting and use of recording techniques; although this being Hendrix, flashy guitar work is in abundance.. The result was, predictably, great music. Psychedelia just doesn’t get much better than a song like “In 1983 A Merman I Should Turn To Be”<br /><br />Hendrix eventually parted ways with Mitchell and Redding and formed a new band, the Band Of Gypsys. While not quite as legendary as the Experience, they were more than capable of backing Hendrix and his music. And my favorite Hendrix tune of all, “Machine Gun”, dates from this era. The song was recorded live and is famous for both its politics (a Vietnam War protest song) and the stuttering palm-muted guitar technique that Hendrix used at the beginning to imitate the rat-tat-tat of a machine gun. <br /><br />But what really makes it stand out is the guitar solo in the middle. Beginning with a single, sustained note that he holds for a ridiculous length to build suspense, it then carpet bombs everything in its path for the next couple of minutes with liquid napalm. All other electric guitarists before and since are felled by this solo. I hereby proclaim it The Greatest Electric Guitar Solo Of All Time! <br /><br />You think I’m kidding? No. That’s not hyperbole at all. Okay, maybe the caps were a bit much. But if you really want to know why Hendrix is worshipped by musicians to this day with such reverence, listen to this song and your question will be answered. I get goosebumps just remembering it in my head now. Also, "Machine Gun" is an excellent example of what the aforementioned Univibe effect sounds like.<br /><br />I still like to pull out some Hendrix once in a while, even though his music, particularly his big hits like “Purple Haze” and “Crosstown Traffic”, has been nearly over played to death on classic rock radio. But he was a genuine rock and roll pioneer. His huge impact on later generations of musicians, including myself, means that it makes no sense to write about great rock guitarists without a hat tip to Hendrix. RIP Jimi.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-28583642143138589362009-05-21T10:58:00.005-06:002009-05-21T11:06:37.909-06:00Wendi's stone updateQuick blurb to update everyone about Wendi's salivary gland stone problems. Her surgery was yesterday. Here is what they pulled out of her...<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzXlKeAumuU6gonQqoNWEEhWqo5UatmhowqOgkgYdOCVY34tjx0t6V-kdier9A3NTrLFl3oRGW3LmdBoLtq3Fo5licc92Gm7ehWzRfY-os7nEdTqgd_ipn33DHDvQPfP8WAB1oQ/s1600-h/the+stone.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 97px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzXlKeAumuU6gonQqoNWEEhWqo5UatmhowqOgkgYdOCVY34tjx0t6V-kdier9A3NTrLFl3oRGW3LmdBoLtq3Fo5licc92Gm7ehWzRfY-os7nEdTqgd_ipn33DHDvQPfP8WAB1oQ/s400/the+stone.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338323612780161170" /></a><br />I have read and heard from the medical professionals in our family that most salivary gland stones are about the size of a grain of sand. Wendi has had this one for more than 20 years and it grew to the size of a pea. In Mark's words, "That's a big honkin' stone!"<br /><br />Though the surgery itself went well, she is having a difficult time swallowing, is in a lot of pain and is rather loopy from the pain meds. I feel bad for her. We are watching her condition closely. <br /><br />So, I'm at home today again helping with Simon, who is blissfully oblivious to most of this, though I do think he understands that mommy isn't feeling very well. Oh well at least I got off work again.<br /><br />Get well soon, hon.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-5681940968390862542009-05-03T22:11:00.005-06:002009-05-03T22:19:16.629-06:00Professional sports: parasites of the publicThis post started as a response to Mark’s latest post rhapsodizing about the Nuggets. It’s nice that the Nuggs have finally overcome their jinx. They do seem to be playing better than at any time in their history and Denver is really rallying behind them. Awesome!<br /><br />I’m being sarcastic. Now I’ll turn on the charm.<br /><br />I don’t have the obsession that most people have with professional sports. In fact, I hate professional sports, almost without exception. And college sports are nearly as bad. If the Nuggs, Broncos and Avs left town never to return, not only would I not miss them, but I would cheer and openly celebrate.<br /><br />Why, you ask? What did the Nuggets or the Broncos ever do to Matt?<br /><br />But that’s the wrong question. My question is, “What have the Nuggets or Broncos ever done for me?” I understand the appeal of watching a game. What I don’t understand is the sentimental attachment. The Nuggets are not our friends. Most are not from Denver. They are millionaires, hired mercenaries, paid to use their athletic talents to fool you into thinking we have some kind of stake in their success, that their triumph is ours. We have no stake, and their triumph is not ours. They do not care for us, they do not love us, and they have no loyalty to Denver. <br /><br />Neither do any of the other major professional sports teams have any particular loyalty to any location. They are notorious for pulling up stakes as soon as they find they can make more money elsewhere. It’s not surprising. Any business would do the same. <br /><br />What is surprising is the adoration and love that sports fans shower upon their “heroes”. It is completely one-sided – we can read in sports magazines about the sadness sports fans every time their idols do not live up to their perceived status as “role models”. Which is quite often, though the reality never seems to sink in to the fans. Sports stars are generally egomaniacal prima donnas, jerks who relish their status and care what the fans think only so far as it affects their abilities to sign fat endorsement contracts. <br /><br />And why would they? To be a sports star in America is to be the closest thing to royalty we have in this country, and rare is the scandal that ends one’s career. The worst forms of behavior are winked at. The reality is that the culture of sports encourages it. And people expect these overgrown babies to be role models?<br /><br />But sports star culture is not even close to being the worst thing about professional sports. Far worse is the parasitic nature of the industry on the economy. Most sports teams <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1800/1860_ch1.pdf">could not survive economically</a> without public subsidy of their enterprises, through public financing of stadiums, special laws granting them the ability to effectively operate as monopolies, etc. If the public balks at providing subsidies for the multimillionaire owners, the owners threaten to move to a town more favorable to their public extortion scheme. And they do not hesitate to follow through on these threats if their bluff is called.<br /><br />Here in Denver, the public provided nearly 70% of the financing for the Bronco’s home, Invesco Field at Mile High, nearly $250,000,000, through a special metro-area sales tax levy.<br /><br />The rationale behind this public “investment” is a supposed benefit to the economy at large. In reality, the positive effects on the economy are <a href="http://www.faegre.com/webfiles/Homefield%20Economics.pdf">dubious at best</a>, non-existent or negative at worst. <br /><br />But certainly, some people do benefit economically – the wealthy owners and athletes. They are lucky to have such a deep reservoir of public goodwill and trust, which never seems to deplete, no matter how badly they misuse and abuse it.<br /><br />It’s true that, in Denver’s case at least, the tax increase in question passed by a wide margin of a popular vote, so clearly the public believes it derives some form of value from the Broncos et al. My question is therefore, what value? The right to purchase overpriced tickets and merchandise? $8 beers and $5 hot dogs, while being prohibited from bringing your own food into a facility that your tax dollars paid for? <br /><br />Of course not. The “value” to the public is what they perceive to be the “team spirit”, the loyalty to the hometown, the vicarious thrill of victory when the “hometown boys”, who are neither boys or in most cases from the hometown, defeat the enemy. But as I have shown, that is manufactured, not genuine, the result of successful branding campaigns and gigantic marketing budgets. The reality is precisely the opposite. It is cynical exploitation of mass delusion, and very, very lucrative. Every time you buy something in the Denver area, you are paying the interest on the bonds that were issued to pay for Mile High Stadium. <br /><br />If you feel good about that, consider this: perhaps the worst thing about the public subsidy of pro sports is what economists call “opportunity cost”. An opportunity cost is the result of choosing one economic option over another. How much affordable housing could have been built for that $250 million? How many schools built and funded? How many public works like parks and infrastructure could have been paid for? Don’t ask the owners of the Broncos. They’re too busy putting that new wing on the mansion or vacationing in Bermuda.<br /><br />I am under no illusion that professional sports are going away any time soon, or that they don’t command significant popularity. I just think that people should try to be a little more aware of the realities of the world of pro sports before they go painting their faces orange, or arguing about statistics in some bar. Professional sports teams are not your friends.<br /><br />Wake up. Class dismissed.Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26450589.post-59633283184843367032009-05-01T20:43:00.006-06:002009-05-01T21:36:14.803-06:00Slack and a salivary stone scareFor the record, today was a classic rainy day in Denver. So, I thought I would write a short post, just to show I haven't disappeared or anything.<br /><br />Y’all don’t have to tell me what a slacker I am. I will just say that there are 2 reasons I haven’t posted anything for more than 2 months.<br /><br />The first: school. Or “skool” as I like to spell it. I am taking a really hard tax class this semester and I’m in skool 2 nights out of the week. Wendi is of course back in skool too. From Monday to Thursday, it seems we barely see each other. So when I’m not at work or at skool, I’m at home taking care of Simon. And when he goes to bed, I usually don’t have the energy to write much. Sorry. Plus, this tax class I'm taking is really difficult.<br /><br />The second reason: music. I have finally found a good drummer to work with. I have been playing with Will for about 2 months now, and am looking forward to summer when I will have more time to devote to creating loud, obnoxious music that will frighten decent people, disgust upstanding citizens and make children cry. That’s really what I live for, after all. Plus, a very good situation has come my way recently that I think will give me a great foundation to network and play with even more musicians. More about that later.<br /><br />For now, we had a bit of a scare this evening. Wendi has had sporadic problems with a salivary gland stone since she was 17. Her stone had been hurting her for a couple days but this afternoon it really started to hurt and swell. A conference with Dr. Mark and internet research revealed that an abscessed salivary gland stone can be very serious. We made the decision to take her to the ER at Swedish Medical Center, where she spent a good portion of the evening.<br /><br />Don't worry, everything is more or less OK. I picked her up a few minutes ago from the ER. She will probably need surgery for it. Bummer, but at least she won't have any more stone problems. Geez, it seems Wendi and I are on track for having an average of one surgery each per year. As Wendi is fond of saying, "Ain't nobody getting any younger."<br /><br />Anyway, I plan on posting again soon. From famine to feast and all that…Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06226461398867907395noreply@blogger.com2