Like I said, talent runs in the family.

My cousin John's grandson, Ashton, is in this movie.



And my cousin Wayne is in this movie.

Santa was good to us.

And when I say 'Santa', I mean my sister. The Boy has been Jones'n for this guitar for a while. He had resigned himself to the fact that it would take him forever to afford it. So when my sister pulled it out from behind the couch....he was floored. At one point I thought he might topple her.



She has been bugging him to learn House of the Rising Sun since he first started playing at age eleven. Guess he won't be able to avoid it now.

Then I found out that my nephew is on YouTube. Talent runs in the family. His father used to play guitar and sing, back in the day. This is Gummmy playing an original composition.



Now all I have to do is convince The Boy that this is the way to go. Maybe I can hear him play more often.

Artists are just plain fucked up!

The Turner Prize. Some of them are of course interesting, but some are completely lazy and stupid

Nathan Coley - Threshold sculpture, a 2 by 4 accross the entrance. "...designed to make you aware you are entering..." Are you fucking kidding me? More like designed to trip you on the way in or out. That has to be a fire hazzard or something.

Mark Wallinger - "...he dressed in a bear suit and wandered aimlessly around an art gallery in Berlin..." I kid you not. A video of him doing this was his entry. And he actually won, not for the bear suit thing but for this. Which is sort of interesting

Where has all the good music gone?

I have had the same playlist for about as long as I have had a playlist. I might add 2 songs a year. Mostly older music that I have forgotten about or, on rare occasions, I will hear something I really like on the radio.

Maybe because I am of the radio generation. Back then, you had to have talent to get yourself on the radio. I know, you are saying as you watch MTV, "These Dude's have talent!" But are you really hearing the music? The lyrics? Or are you just reacting to the 'awesome' music video. Remember 'Video Killed the Radio Star'? It really did. Bunnie's daughter, The Lump, sends me new music every once in a while and some of it is listen-able but most of it is not. Most of it is angry or obscene. Not interested. And is it just me or does a lot of bands out there sound just like Nickleback?

The music industry is up in arms over the downloading of music, but if they actually put out a cd that had more than one decent song on it, people might actually buy it. If they were truly interested in curbing the downloads, they would spend less on the splashy videos and more on vocal coaching and decent songwriters.

I am not a music snob, my playlist has everything from Alabama to Zappa. From to Aerosmith to Zucchero. Everything except for Rap, can't stand it. I used to be able to stomach some of the earlier works of rap artists but since 'gangsta' rap came on the scene I have to take a pass.

I am the record companies worst nightmare. I demand talent. I will not listen to a song, just because the video has hot chicks or explosions. The song has to be well written with lyrics I can hear and understand and that make fuckin' sense. And most of all the artist has to be able to actually sing.

Talent. That is all I am asking for. Deliver it and I will gladly run out and buy the CD. I am like this, I am sure, because I am of the pre-video generation.

What does your playlist look like? Does it reflect your age?

Maybe we should take this opportunity to exchange information. Do you have someone on your playlist you think I would appreciate? Drop me a line, Here are a few of mine.

Andrea Bocelli - Even if you don't understand Italian, you can appreciate the talent. The man has mad skills, his voice is like velvet. He has range and control.

Josh Groban - Also has mad skills. First seen on Aly McBeal, the boy is talented.

Frank Zappa - he is good for a laugh.

A really good Monster Rock Ballad like High Enough - Damn Yankees. You can't help but turn the stereo up full blast.

You want a story that will tug at your heartstrings,(grab a tissue for that one) or make a really great point? Turn on the country station.

Come on, share your playlist.

Prepare yourself to be awed and amazed.

The guitar is in the building.

Picked up The Boy's new guitar today. Ya, I know, there will be no thanks for that but I am a sucker. I know this about myself and I am okay with it.

The first order of business is to get him to learn the song from the second video in yesterday's post. New Again - Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. I am addicted to it. I will make sure he records it so I can post it.

Now I am broke. Pretty good, it took me til 11am this time to blow the whole paycheck. Personal record.

Guitar Number Four.

The Boy worked a couple of days for his father and has put his 'hard earned' money on a new guitar.

This will bring the guitar count to four but this will be the first acoustic/electric. He has never taken a lesson before, he always just taught himself. But now he wants to learn classical guitar, thus the acoustic.

Prepare yourself to be awed and amazed. Here she is!

The Cort SFX1F NS has a Solid Sikta Spruce Top, Venetian Cutaway, Mahogany Arch Back, Dovetail Neck Joint, Mahogany Sides, Rosewood Fingerboard, Satin Finish, Fishman Classic 4 Electronics

I share this description with you because I must commit it to memory and be suitable impressed and awed when he shows me the picture over and over and over and over. If I can not pull off the 'holy fuck that is the nicest guitar I have ever seen' then he will torture me with more pictures. More detailed pictures. Explain to me why I must be in complete awe of this guitar.

He only put it on lay-away today. This means unending torture for me until he gets it out of lay-away. He will talk about it, show me pictures and talk about it some more. He will try and figure out ways to get it sooner. He will plot and scheme. This will be the only discussion going on in my home until the stupid fucking guitar is in his possession.

And all the while there will be this underlying theme that it is somehow all my fault that he does not have it right now. He will blame me, for what? I don't know. Not sleeping with a richer guy? But he will not ask his father for one more red cent. It is not how The Boy works.

He will hound me, the one who lives paycheck to paycheck. The guy with 3 houses and as many cars, who owns his own business (building bridges for fuck sakes) gets off scott free, he would never dream of bothering TBF for some extra cash.

That is just not done.

Sometimes my boundless talent scares me.


BACK STORY:

When I first started in tech support I had a tech buddy. Someone to sit with who would tell me when I was fucking up. We will call him Origami Guy. Mainly because he is constantly doing origami, carries around a ton of paper and instruction books. (For the longest time I actually referred to him as Origami Guy because I could never remember his name.) He makes some crazy shit, and they are getting smaller and more intricate as time goes on.

Anyway, as luck would have it, I developed a nervous habit of ripping paper into tiny pieces while I work through tech support with callers. On a good night it is a small pile, when things get really hairy, I can have a pile a couple of inches high.

This would make me Origami Guy's arch nemesis. Like Superman's Lex Luther. He has even started to hand me paper from his satchel so I don't absent mindedly grab a critter that he has spent the last hour on and rip it to shreds.

Tonight he decided to teach me how to make a critter of my own. When he showed me one he made, small enough to sit on a dime, I just looked at him and raised my hands, "Dude, you expect me to make that, with these man-hands?" I have my father's hands. Very large for a girl. My ring finger is size 11. "I don't have delicate fingers like you, Princess."

This is what I ended up making. Although mine is much better than this one and it hops way farther. I was hoping to bring him over to the dark side, but this is good too.

I spent the rest of the night showing it to everyone and making sure they acted impressed. I am a bully after all.