music ideas

I've started another blog to chronicle the music project I've been working on. A place where all the ideas and garbage can swirl around and around...

www.musicideas.blogspot.com

It isn't much at the moment, but I'm going to include notes, pictures, and samples of the new project once things get started.

dinner

I went to the Mayan restaurant for my birthday. And while I've heard about that place- people seem to think that it's the best mexican food around. Every chef I've ever talked to has told me that the food blows and people just go there to see the divers and the indoor waterfalls.

The Vedict:

Food: I've eaten better at Betos or Mi Ranchito. There really wasn't much difference there. I'm not sure how innovative mexican cuisine has become but in all honesty there's only so much you can do to an enchilada or a burrito. The rice was a little dry. The food was a little on the salty side.

Atmosphere: Ok. It seemed like I was standing in line for a Disney Land ride.

Etc: Since I was wearing a giant balloon hat, and my drink was never refilled I'm sure that the Mayan won't be on the top of my list of places to eat. Ok. The hat was cool.

What ruined my dinner was the beefy flexing guy in a speedo diving off the rock waterfall into the pool. I guess that's the draw for this restaurant. Seeing a dudes butt crack didn't make me want to eat anymore. I'm sure Garit would have liked it though.

So birthday dinner was good. We saw The Last Mimzy. I really liked it. The sound effects were really really good. The visuals were awesome. Great movie.

drive

So skunks must be the slowest land mammal. They must be considering the skunk genocide I witness and smell everytime I drive through town. I see lots of road kill on the side of the road. Deer. Cats. Dogs. I even saw a horse once. On these busy rural roads people crank up the speed and inevitably hit small animal critters. The majority of roadkill around here is the slow moving skunk that explode with smell when hit. I'm not sure what goes through a skunk's mind to cross the pavement, or what the driver thinks when he feels a small bump in the road. What remains is the lingering stench of skunk musk that lasts for days.

No one is going to pick that thing up.

guitar 3

So after the clear had dried, I left the guitar hanging on a hook for about a week to let everything harden. I sanded some roughspots on the neck with 1000 and 2000 grit paper. The white finish looked good on the body and the neck didn't show signs of warping or bow. I installed the tuners on the headstock and they went in pretty well. The coats of clear made the bushings a little difficult to put into the tuning holes but it worked.

I put all the parts out on the table and started running the wires through the body. After connecting the wires together and grounding it under the bridge, I reversed the switch and the control plate. I put the new output jack on there. Everything seemed to fit into place. I drilled two small holes in the pickgaurd so I could adjust the neck pickup heigth like a Strat, so I wouldn't have to remove the pick guard everytime I needed to adjust it.

It all seemed to fit pretty well. The screws used to secure the neck to the body suck. They didn't go in very well and I'll probably have to replace them- but the neck looks ok and went on alright. When I put the strings on I noticed that the nut was really high. No amount of adjusting the saddles and bridge would fix the high action. Judging from another guitar, I lowered the slots for the strings and filed down the nut to something more managable. After a few attempts I tuned up the guitar and saw that the action was way better than before. There is some hum from the guitar- when I get around to it I'll shield the control cavity with copper tape and check the ground wire again. Maybe even shield the wires. But for right now I don't really care. I'm playing a BIG MUFF PI and it sounds awesome.

Besides a few issues with the nut, the guitar went together pretty flawlessly. There are a few dead spots though.. and while I don't see it as a problem, I'll probably have to make some more adjustments to the saddle and maybe a little fretwork someday. No big deal.

Plays great. Looks great. I want to build another one now.

guitar 2

I've been building a guitar for the past few weeks. After getting everything together- it wasn't as bad as I had thought. There are a few issues that I need to work out, but nothing that bad

After the parts arrived in the mail, I marked out the design I wanted on the head stock and taped the neck pocket and fingerboard to keep it from getting painted. I figured that a Strat headstock would be different for a Telecaster style guitar.

I cut the headstock design with a coping saw and sanded it smooth. Not so bad for someone as uncoordinated as me.

I wanted this guitar to be white, and a tortoise shell pickguard would really make it stand out.

I started by priming the wood with some BIN primer. After sanding it down to something level, I sprayed the Olympic White color. After numerous coats and once the can was empty, it didn't look so bad. It isn't a perfect paint job, nor is it a really thick layer of paint. I want to relic this guitar later so I'm not too concerned with the getting the finish that perfect. I had some rough spots, and orange peel- but most of it sanded down.

I had to wait to clear coat the guitar because of bad humid weather- but everything went on ok. I let the lacquer harden for about a week. Like I said before, it isn't a perfect job, but I think it will look good with a relic look.

soda

I was thirsty. I had just woken up from a spontaneous nap. I've never really craved a big freaking soda, but I wanted one. BAD. So I jumped in the car, drove down the road, and went to Harts.

Ah Harts... A gas station the gods bestowed upon smalltown Utah. As I pulled up the street I noticed that gas prices have gone up 20 cents since the last time I filled gas. I got out of the car and went inside the door.

What stuck me was the crowd of people coming and going. I went up to the fountain and decided that yes, a 64 oz. drink would be the only option. I figured I could use the huge plastic cup for something else later. After filling up my drink and one for my wife I balanced the drinks carefully and went over to find some lids and a straw long enough to handle the extreme awesomeness of 64 oz. of soda. More people come in. They all go to the fountain and grab sodas. I overheard a conversation:

"... Hi, I haven't seen you in awhile."

"Yeah, I came home from practice and my mom was like, "get me a diet soda now!" so I came right over"

I went over to find some chips and saw more people come in and out of the station. Every one of them went to the fountain. As I paid the cashier and left, I noticed a long line of kids and parents about to pay for their drinks.

On the way home I realized that we were all victims of Hart's subliminal messages. Messages that have throbbed silently throughout town for years, brainwashing the people. Whenever I ask my wife where we should get a drink, she always says Hart's. As I left the station tonight I knew that I was already a silent drone of Hart's fountain drink army. All the kids I saw, and all their parents, we were all silent cogs in the robotic machine. This is a frightening conspiracy.

All of this came to me as I drank my soda. I'll probably have to pee like 8 times tonight. But I don't care, it is a small price to pay.

dls

Day light savings is a joke.

Everyone argees to do things an hour earlier so more can get done. That's it. There's no miracle there.

Stupid.

I'm moving back to Arizona. They don't change the clocks forward or backward. They don't believe in day light savings time.

People need to take more naps and have longer vacations.

That's the solution.