Thursday, June 14, 2007

Counting Down...

Busy busy busy. Just busy. School’s dictating everything at this point. Last weekend I got no work done for my online class, as I had login problems. I lost a lot of time waiting to get that straightened out, but I’m almost caught up again.

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I got the Les Paul back. As I expected, the neck pickup tone control was dead. Now that it’s up and running, man that guitar’s a ripper! It’s got a sweet new setup. Bends are smooth and easy, action is low, intonation is good… The instrument is very easy to play. For the first time in 25 years I can actually play the opening to “Spirit of Radio” by Rush. Come to my house and I’ll show you. Over and over.

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Big changes are possibly in the works, almost all of which fall into the “can’t talk about it yet” category. But good news may be coming.

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I think “Say Hello to Heaven” by Temple of the Dog would be great as rearranged into an R&B rave-up.

***

Next week is the Wolfmother gathering at Casa de Briscoe.

That is, it’s when Toland, Bruiser and Garmon are coming up to see a concert. Toland’s galfriend too.

And I’ll try not to go all “Big Chill” on you here, okay, but you know, those were guys I ran with a lot back in the day. I saw concerts with all of them, and now, decades later, we’re doing it again. We’ve changed a lot. Bruiser has kids, Garmon has kids, I have kids, Toland… well, Toland’s going to remain a playboy I guess.

I crack me up.

And to varying degrees I guess they’ll all have the image of me from back then in their heads, just like I do with them. Garmon’s probably in for the biggest surprise since he probably doesn’t know I had the sex change and now answer only to Paloma.

Okay okay… but I’m sure he’ll at least think, holy CRAP did Briscoe get grey! Fine, fine.

Oh, Bruiser and Toland won’t be surprised since we’ve stayed in pretty regular contact. Bruiser and Toland and I have all continued to rock. I love how cheesy that sentence sounds. But the fact is, we all still go to shows. I’m going to assume Garmon does too.

I’m actually probably in better shape now than I was then, to be honest. I remember jogging with Garmon one night, during one of my many half-assed attempts at staying fit. He was in the army, exercising regularly, and lecturing me about jogging, about the army, about how bad my form was…

And I responded with witty comebacks like, “wheeze,” “gasp,” and thoughts like how can he talk while running?

I’m just sayin’.

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I’d like your honest opinion on this.

Granted, the wording for the ad could be better, I think. I simply wish to know your opinion of commemorating the Katrina anniversary in this manner.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I was thinking more "Grumpy Old Men" rather than "Big Chill." :)

Anonymous said...

If the funds for that bracelet go to one of the many worthy charities set up after Katrina, then fine. But otherwise, thanks to the cheerful tone and the unfortunate choice of "celebrating" rather than "commemorating," it's just tacky.

Not as tacky as R.Kelly tacking a song about the Virginia Tech victims on the end of an album of cheesy sex talk, but still.

Michael

amcnew said...

Hmmm.... and hmmm...... some things may just defy comment, BB. What in the h**l does the fleur de lys have to do with a hurricane...?

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I am the artist making these.
I started making fleur-de-lis because it is our local symbol here in Quebec too. One of my friends in Louisiana asked me to create this symbol with the hurricane & fleur-de-lis for the 2nd anniversary of Katrina. She had many requests by people around her for some too. Which leaded me to add it to my website.

I decided to make a donation of 10% of each pieces sold considering I am not making huge profits at all on those handmade pieces. I belive that is fair. I will let me friend in Louisiana choose the charity she thinks is best as the idea for the design was from her.

If you have any question about this please fell free to contact me on myspace.com/sterlingsilverart

Thank you

ho yes I changed "Celebrating" for "Commemorating" you are right that is a more proper word.

Blue Crockatt
silversmith artist

BB said...

I sent Ms. Crockatt the following note:

Hi Ms. Crockatt. Thank you for stopping by and offering your input.

I must say that I am sorry the comments I solicited about your work were somewhat negative.

I really meant to approach that question from an honest, unknowing perspective. The Katrina-themed work intrigued me (and still does), because:

*I have family members who were in the storm. Thankfully, they did not lose their homes.

*August 29, the anniversary of the storm, is my birthday. I’m grateful that this catastrophe isn’t identified so clearly with a date like 9/11 is, but I’m still bothered by the association. It’s now an important date to me for two reasons.

*In my mind—and this is a point I’m surprised no one else brought up—jewelry is a perfectly natural medium to mark such an anniversary. I’m sure that if, say, the Nile flooded 2000 years ago, archaeologists might expect to find jewelry from that era that makes reference to the catastrophe.

Anyway, my original intention was just to provoke a little intelligent discussion about these particular pieces. I wish there’d been a little more balance, but so be it. I run with a good pack of folks, and their opinions are their own.

I’m still intrigued by this, and I like many of your pieces. Aesthetically, though, these just aren’t quite my cup of tea.

Take care, good luck.

Brian