Say cheese.
2 Anybody lookin'?
3 I had to get up early, so I've already gotten into all sorts of mischief.
4 Yesterday I recorded the guy next door who spends forty-five minutes each morning, noon and night doing some Janov rooster crow. I bought a new amp, stuck it next to the fence, and am currently playing it at 11. Hopefully he'll go crazy and run through his front door like a cartoon and get blamed for the noise. End of problem.
5 Pest control, Part One: I realize "That's just hockey," but c'mon Lapierre! Just because you have a name that screams "I'm insecure!" you don't have to play it out. Your first name is "Maxim?" Yeah, and my horse's middle name is Cialis. Get some help, little man.
6 Moving On, Part One: Last night I stepped into Save Mart over by my house. On the way in, I heard a familiar voice hiding behind the boxed pumpkins: "Hot tamales?" I looked over and saw The Tamale Lady.
7 The Tamale Lady has sold tamales at various stores for a LOT of years. She used to be everywhere, and let me tell you: her tamales have always rocked.
8 I never learned her name. She went simply as The Tamale Lady, and remains with that handle to this day.
9 She used to be out in the middle of the parking lot selling chicken or pork tamales for a buck each. It was the easiest deal around, especially if you were in a hurry, which most people are at around five or six in the afternoon.
10 With some onions, a salad, and homemade rice, it was the most perfect fast meal in town.
11 I bought four from her last night and immediately ate one with my fingers. They're that good. They've gone up to a buck and a half, but remain as scrumptious as ever.
12 She looked great, by the way. It was good to see her. I'm pretty sure she recognized me because I was one of her best customers back in the day.
13 Back in the day.
14 Everybody's dancin'.
15 Sign of the Times:The one thing that bothered me about this was that she seemed to be hiding among the pumpkins.
16 I have to guess that public health rules and regs probably moved in. For the record, her stuff has always been served hot, and always tasted luscious.
17 Times change.
18 Everything is regulated, almost beyond reason. I remember maybe ten years ago her being able to work different places. I'd see her in various locations, and it was always an awesome, familiar moment.
19 I wish she didn't have to hide behind pumpkins.
20 She's as much a part of our history as Original Joe's or Henry's Hi-Life. Good to have her back.
21 She's The Tamale Lady, and she is as sweet and friendly as ever. I'll enjoy one later today when we give yet another in a long line of bubble tests.
22 I think we get a five-minute lunch somewhere in there when we return our materials.
23 It's a livin'.
24 Moving on, Part Two: yesterday I still felt like adding a few more items to my new/used guitar and got me a new/old Dean Markley amp, a new guitar stand, and a new strap.
25 I began with the thought of buying one more amp that could do a lot but not cost much.
26 I was going down Quimby past Eastridge, looked over and saw another San Jose institution, Musician's Warehouse.
27 I've had a little luck lately with gathering good deals from some of my favorite old shops, so I stepped inside.
28 I don't know why I would step into anywhere with the name "musician" in it. I play guitar, and not very well. I'm okay, but there are guys and gals thousands of times better.
29 Lately I have been feeling my musical oats though. I do have the music in me, that's certain.
30 Visiting this store is visiting an old friend. I used to happen into this place every once in a while, and always emerged pretty happy.
31 I had one thing in mind: a small used amp. I bought a few cheap ones for classroom use, but I wanted something a little more versatile. I wanted distortion, and inputs, and gain, and all sorts of little boots and whistles that these old amps provide.
32 I found the Dean Markley. I had no idea how good it was, but looking over the other amps, I liked what I saw. And any old amp is better than any brand new cheap one, by eons.
33 For a guitar place, it was pretty quiet on a Tuesday afternoon. Usually you have really talented guys sitting around playing guitars that cost in the thousands.
34 This place was as quiet as a fart in an Amish house.
35 I almost felt bad grabbing a cord and grabbing a cheap electric guitar. It was some forty-nine dollar job, but it amped up pretty nicely. I plugged it into the Markley and got a decent sound. It was remarkably light, and cost just $129. Easy Street.
36 "I'll take it," I said to myself. "Dust and everything!"
37 I grabbed a stand and a cheap strap and hustled it all to the counter. The guy selling it said, "You're in luck. I just lowered this to $99." So I got the guitar, amp, strap, and guitar stand for around $130 out the door.
38 I looked over while the transaction went down, and almost jumped across the room. The guy has a fake dog right next to the counter. I thought it was real.
39 "Don't worry. He don't bite. He just scares kids."
40 Awesome.
41 "Best dog I ever had," he said.
42 I guess it's a good way of keeping chocolate fingers off the equipment, most of which was used. There's something fun about old guitar stuff. Sort of nostalgic. I thanked him, got home, and it all worked.
43 I remember reading some book about the Beatles, and how much John Lennon always wanted his voice distorted.
44 I dragged all that stuff into my new office, which is starting to look like a garage band headquarters: mics, cords, amps, mic stands, guitars, pics, capos, sheet music, and fun, dusty junk.
45 It is not unlike The Musician's Warehouse. They could be brothers, only my own dog Phoebe is real, and does bite, but only assholes and the Orkin guy. Other than that she's sweet as pie.
46 I was excited. I've been working WAY too hard lately an needed to play. After hooking everything up, I had the usual stuff happen: cords that didn't work, feedback, mics that weren't loud enough, those sorts of things.
47 I finally got the mic right where I wanted it. I wanted it to sound like I was playing in a huge sewer beneath New York.
48 Without the smell, of course.
49 I played a chord. It reverberated through the trees, causing a few leaves to tremble. I talked into the mic, played a few chords, and started strumming a D chord really delicately. First song on my new/old amp: Strawberry Fields Forever. I remember now George Martin talking about how beautiful that song sounded when Lennon began it with some soft noodling around the D chord, and then sang, "Living is easy with eyes closed..." which he said sent it into a simple dream. That happened.
50 My voice easily hit all the notes, and the reverb worked sensationally. The trembling leaves of the trees outside listened and felt all of it.
51 The afternoon turned to color and paintings.
52 I loved it, and segued into Norwegian Wood, which sounded just as good. Some fun!
53 On the low end I butchered Truckin', too low a key, but a little too up the neck to change up. Took a break, had a sandwich and returned to the scene of the crime. Started Truckin' again and again it sucked.
54 "Gonna need a LOT of practice," I said to myself. Thank God I'm a good listener. "A lot, man."
55 I threw the capo up to the third fret and began strumming along the awesomely fantastic Punky's Dilemma by Paul Simon, and the afternoon again lit up. That song rocks. Why wouldn't it? It's a breakfast song, right up there with the Beatles' Good Morning, and Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes.
56 It's late as I write this. I'm listening to a Further concert on You Tube, February of last year. The song: Touch of Grey. Here, for all you Old Brown Shoes and Deadheads out there:
57 Start it at the very beginning on a different server, and re-load the DN. It'll sound just as stupid as the first reading, but you could dig the Dead still rocking it. I'm down for seeing them next time they roll into town.
58 Wow. Two days in a row of Grateful Dead DN's.
59 I remember when Ponch and I used to play Dead music every Dead Week. Always a chuckle nobody but the two of us and our guitar mates would get. Oh, and always Shawna.
60 We will get by.
61 Gottago.
62 We will survive.
63 Peace.
~H~
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