A flat: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom (power shower, bath, tiles, ceramic floor tiles, mirror, 2 flush toilet), 1 large living area (laminate flooring, balcony, floor to ceiling glass doors), kitchen (ceramic floor, gas hob, electric oven, washer drier, fridge freezer, trendy lights, fitted cupboards and worktops, wall tiles), gas central heating and hot water, fitted carpets to bedrooms and hall, double glazing, thick wooden doors throughout. Whew, is that all? No, fitted carpets to all public areas of the block, trendy lift, trendy windows and lights everywhere.
This is the modern world. And I am ready for it. Have a look here

I thought things may turn out slightly different to how they have.
I thought maybe things might be worse, even.
I thought a lot of things, most of which turned out to be fantasy.
I thought I might be in a rock group.
I thought I might be in a new flat by now.
I thought I might earn less than I have, and be hard pressed to survive.

But then I woke up. And I was back at my desk. Just thinking, and working, and planning ahead.

That IS the question. I was asked recently to try out for vocals in a heavy rock band. As in, front the group. As in, a VERY heavy rOcK band. (Think Korn/Tool etc.)

Is it possible? Of course. Should I do it? Not sure, want to, but should I?

Naturally, it all depends on ideas and sheer charisma. I liked them, I think they liked me. Now what? we wait and see.

I have recently restrung my Gibson - an LG1 perfect creation, and it now sounds fabulous again. I use 12-53, phosphor bronze D’Addarios, great strings for this weight.

The next one to do is the Takamine - a single cut away £1000 job from about ‘95. Really nice blond maple finish, with rosewood fretboard and simple inlay. Electro Acoustic, so it plugs in and sounds great, as well as being good acoustically. I use the same weight D’Addarios on this one too.

After that comes the Gretsch, 10’s (Rotosound?). A Broadcaster model, dark sunburst, f-hole thin/wide body, great condition, no wammy bar, about 25 years young. Incredible perfect guitar for my electric needs. Soul and fire, as they say.

Then I have a 12 string, Fender Shenandoah. Made famous by the Kinks, this one is at least 30 years old, in great nick. The steel truss rod through the whole body is the special characteristic with this one, so strumming sounds just like ‘America’ or thin paper shuffling, totally magic in my opinion. (There is also a 6 string model that makes a a matching pair, Ive yet to find one…)

Lastly, the small custom spanish job, nearly 50 years old, Austrian, hand made. I use gut D’Addario or similar, light to medium gauge. It sounds, to me, exactly the way a spanish should sound, earthy and simple. Clean, precise with good tuning up and down the neck, I regularly detune/retune and never have any problems with it.

That’s it then - them and me, we come as a package.

(This was originally posted on Facebook, in Nov 2007.)

University deadlines are a funny thing. Everyone starts to behave a little crazy, staff and students alike…

I have taken to listening to very loud music in headphones whilst in the staff room. This is in the hope that no one will talk to me, and I will then get a lot of work done. All it actually achieves is that I feel in a manic state by the time I go to class.

Music taking my fancy at the moment is:

Infa’a by FZ Bey and Northwoods Improvisers - (free jazz by friends in Michigan)
Amputechture by the Mars Volta (prog space rock)
8 free mp3’s by Zan Lyons, off his website (manic D&B)
Garage Mix Frightwig 1 and 2 by DJ Shez
Epiphany Web Radio recordings
In Rainbows, by the ‘head, which yes, has grown on me a heck of a lot….

So next week I will be working enough for three, wish me luck.

The picture is of my desk with OLD staff PC (RIP), I will post a pic of my beautiful new machine in next post, with my glorious new software, but for now, respect is due to an old box that did its job well.