While John Mayer has played so many amazing guitar solos, this is probably one of my all-time favorites (solo is at 2:48 mark):
I've always had an affinity towards hip-hop. I can't personally say I can relate, having never been affiliated with any gang. My parents even steered me towards the high school I graduated from because they wanted to keep me away from the "gangsta" life. But even so I still enjoyed hip-hop. Tupac was the guy for me growing up, also I also enjoyed Ma$e, Puff Daddy (pre P. Diddy), Jay-Z, a little Notorious BIG, and Eminem. Lately I've been exploring some old school stuff, like Bone Thugz N Harmony, going through Jay-Z's discography in chronological order, some Warren G. Like JM, I got into D'Angelo, and while I do enjoy the likes of Boyz II Men and Babyface, among others, D'Angelo combines the sweet tones of R&B with the grit of hip-hop and mixes some funk in there, and his latest album, "Black Messiah" has more of a rock flair to it. There's always been sort of an earthiness to hip-hop, especially the stuff that came out when I was growing up. A lot of hip-hop now, sad to say, is mostly borne in the studio; my generation's hip-hop was borne out of the streets, and the studio was just a medium, a canvas onto which hip-hop artists could express themselves on. Hip-hop is modern day blues in the sense that it's the outcry of (mostly) oppressed people set to music. Guys like Tupac, Nas, Notorious BIG, Eminem, Rakim, and Jay-Z have the same spirit of BB King, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Muddy Waters. They're all storytellers, all geniuses in their own way, wordsmiths, and all earthy. They were beloved within their own communities but misunderstood outside of them. But as the bluesmen have become more revered through the years, hopefully emcees will also garner the same appreciation as time goes on. I guess my mission, at least for the time being, is to not just find a way to fuse blues and hip-hop, but really mine the riches of these two seemingly disparate yet similar genres of music and strike gold, discover something that may have been brushed on but never really experimented with.
Hold on to whatever you find, baby Hold on to whatever will get you through Hold on to whatever you find, baby I don't trust myself with loving you - "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)", Continuum Studio version:
Live version with crazy intro and solo:
As if I didn't brag about my girl enough in my earlier post, but more than anything the reason why I love her so much is she had the courage to risk her heart with me. This song has struck a chord with me (as has a lot of other JM songs) because since my parents' marriage was so rocky, I never really got to witness on a day-to-day basis how to love a woman. I heard a lot of second-hand stuff from other good men, but still. And from the get-go there's always been this doubt, not just from a physical standpoint (although apparently I'm not doing that badly, LOL), but emotionally if I would be able to respect and care for my girl the way she deserves. But like I said, she makes it easy. I've dealt with so much BS from people in my life that anytime someone comes along who is unabashedly honest and open, it's refreshing. It's like eating a real mango after eating nothing but mango candy your whole life. It's been good so far, but when times get rough, as they inevitably will (from my cynical perspective), will I be strong enough to walk with her through them? And even though I'm crazy about her, I still enjoy flirting, and I wonder if, when faced with an incredible amount of temptation, especially when another girl wants to turn things up a notch, will I be strong enough to resist? But part of me feels like I will be, and that's because if there's anything I DON'T want to do, it's break her heart. She's been through enough crap in her life, and the last thing I want is to add even more. I also want our relationship to be as drama-free as possible, since my parents' was so bad.
You love, who you love Who you love You love, who you love Who you love My girl, she ain't the one that I saw coming And sometimes I don't know which way to go And I tried to run before But I'm not running anymore Cause I've fought against it hard enough to know That you love, who you love Who you love You love, who you love Who you love You love, who you love Who you love Oh, you can't make yourself stop dreaming Who you're dreaming of If it's who you love Then it's who you love -"Who You Love", Paradise Valley One of my all time favorite movies is "The Last Kiss". Zach Braff plays a guy who just turned 30 and is about to settle down with his pregnant girlfriend (played by the lovely Jacinda Barrett). At their friends' wedding, he meets a girl (played by little cutie pie Rachel Bilson) and ends up sleeping with her. Spoiler alert: even though his girlfriend is pissed off about what he did, she gives him a second chance. But he slept with the other girl out of fear of settling down because there won't be any surprises in his life.
I'm madly in love with my girl, but when we "broke up" for a day in an attempt to placate her husband (it didn't), I tried to convince myself and her, but especially myself, that I didn't want this relationship as badly as I did, that part of me still wants to be a bachelor. And it's not completely false; I still enjoy being flirty with the ladies, especially at my new job, where I meet beautiful women from all over the world, and some of my co-workers are lookers. But on Friday when we spoke on the phone, I realized right then and there how much I really loved this girl, and maybe she could be the one I settle down with. It's not the situation I pictured myself in; I thought I'd end up with someone single, maybe a little younger (don't hurt me! LOL), and with less baggage. But in a way this is actually much better than I could have imagined. She's so wonderful, and it's so effortless being around her; it's kind of scary how easy it is. There will probably be conflict, as in every relationship, but I can't imagine those being very long-lasting or frequent; we're so in sync like that. It's the honeymoon phase, and I wonder at times if things will ever get stale. But neither of us are really thrill-seekers, and as much as we like to do exciting things once in a while, I think we're just as content curling up on the couch watching TV or playing with our dogs or cats. It's like the poem that says,"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." She's honest, intelligent, strong, compassionate; she's everything I've ever wanted in a woman, and I can't imagine anyone better to come home to the rest of my life. I'm tearing up as I type this! I'm such a softy. Even though I see plenty of bumps (and some huge ones) in the road ahead, I'm willing to navigate them because I know once she and I get through these next few months to a year of dealing various issues surrounding our relationship, we'll be able to declare to the world our love for each other, and that's what I want as much as anything else in life. And I can finally change my Facebook status! LOL
I apologize for the 2.5 weeks break in between posts. Update: I've been hired by the Red and White Fleet and started work this week! Whew! It's been fun, but also pretty damn hard. I'm on my feet a lot more with this job than my other job as a special education paraeducator, and yesterday was pretty busy. I'm off today, but tomorrow should be even busier since it's the weekend. But it's been mostly fun. I met another training supervisor, who happens to also be a musician! He has an album out on iTunes with his former band, Red Light Mind, and it's really good. Has a psychedelic, Hendrixian feel to it. Although he no longer goes around doing performances, he still plays and write songs. We chatted about music during our down times, and he has some great insights. I made a post on Facebook about JM, which I didn't expect to blow up like it did. But in the end it made me realize how much JM really means to me and so many other people. I got pretty long-winded, but I essentially said I feel like I'm a stronger, braver, and more compassionate person, and JM played a big role in that, not just with his music but also from listening to interviews and watching videos like Eastwood Allen's "Someday I'll Fly".
Got me thinking: what if a bunch of us wrote essays on the impact JM has had in our lives, put them together as a book and sent it to him! It would be nice if they got published and we made a bit of profit, but ultimately just to see JM get it and making his day, if not his week, month or year, would be satisfying enough. Sounds cool?
Got "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967" playing as I type this:
I applied last week for a customer service position with Red & White Fleet in San Francisco:
I just had my interview this morning, and I felt it went well. They later e-mailed me about doing a background check, which according to my buddy is a good sign. "Walt Grace" is a great them not just for the nautical aspect, but because the song is about a man who out of "desperately hating his old place" (like me in my current job) took a gamble. "And his wife told his kids he was crazy".
When I told my mom about the initial e-mail requesting an interview from R&W, she didn't seem too happy about it. Just a few weeks ago there was a recent announcement that they had a few permanent positions open. I know my mom and some of my co-workers were telling me to do it since it meant a steady paycheck and benefits, but I couldn't. The last time I took a job for security was the fall of 2012, and I was literally losing my mind. At one point I punched a hole in the wall. It wasn't just the job, but a combination of things, but the high-stress job didn't help. Since then I've kept plugging along, subbing here and there, but in the past month I've applied to seven different places in hopes of landing something different. I've been depressed, with fleeting thoughts of suicide (sorry for the morbid turn, but I gotta be honest). I've felt stuck, like I had nowhere else to go. But with this interview and the potential hiring, for the first time, it's like someone just threw color on my gray world. So my mom and other folks may think I'm crazy for wanting to take a job in the city, something that's way out of my comfort zone, working on a boat. But I need change. I've been stuck indoors, either in classrooms or in different stores and movie theaters for the last 15 years, and an outdoor job would be awesome. Not to mention the job entails riding a boat on tours of the spectacular San Francisco Bay, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, and not just during the day but during sunset as well. Also, while this job I'm in isn't the easiest, it's still the same routine of either disciplining kids with emotional problems or toileting and diaper changing even teenagers and young adults. And to make things worse, everyone's miserable at work. I know the grass may be greener on the other side, and at some point if I get to work for R&W it might become a bit of a grind. But my impressions so far are the staff seems very cool, and one of the managers that interviewed me said as intense as the job can get from time to time, they do try to keep things as relaxed as possible. Wish me the best, guys. I'm going to hear from them in a couple of days. Right now it's part-time they're looking at, so I might still keep subbing a couple of days a week, but there's full-time potential if I do well, and if I can get a full-time gig, then NO MORE SUBBING!! BTW, shout out to these young cats from Hawaii. Wish I knew their names. =) They released this cover of "Walt Grace" around the time the album came out. Enjoy!
So my younger sister has picked up the ukulele and just played her first song last night. Needs to work on the rhythm, but got the notes right at least. =) But just tonight we were chatting about it, and right off the bat she was like,"I ain't playing no 'Twinkle, Twinkle'". It got me thinking: all these guitar methods I've been on had me play melodies of lullabies or songs from like the freaking Civil War era, or just strumming chords. While there's nothing wrong with either of those things, right from the bat my sister's like "Why play stuff that's boring? I just want to get to the good stuff." Why have I subjected myself to playing these exercises that end up with my eyes glazing over because they're so freaking boring? I get that beginners have to start somewhere, but why not just start with stuff you like? While I still am working on my sight reading, instead of relegating myself to boring tunes, I'll use something like Hal Leonard's Easy Guitar White Pages, where there's all these cool popular songs to start out with. It's a bit challenging, but in order to get better I have to challenge myself anyway. There's also books and websites with all kinds of riffs and licks I can feast on, too. It's time I started playing what I want for a change. Where's the humble pie come in? Here I am thinking I've been playing guitar for a couple of years and I was going to walk her through the ukulele, but instead she got me to change my way of approaching the guitar. It seems like that's how all the greats got their start, anyway. John wanted to play Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff; apparently when he started taking lessons he told his teacher "I want to play this" and then played an SRV tape. Nothing against lullabies, but I don't think Jimmy Page or Joe Satriani got into guitar to play those. =) So I'm going to get a bite to eat, have a nice little drink and then start finally having some fun! Hopefully I can get around to this in a month or two:
This is more for the guitar and music theory nerds, I'm afraid. =) My buddy from work (a great guitarist) and I were having a discussion last week about guitar notation, specifically how it tends to be strictly written in the treble clef one octave up. Then the question was brought up: why not the grand staff? Here's the range of guitar notes on the treble clef alone (typical guitar notation):
Notice the number of ledger lines that must be written above and below: 3 below, and this picture only goes up to the 17th fret of the first string, A; if we kept going up to D for a 22 fret guitar, it would require two more ledger lines. Unless you write 8va, but it would create more confusion, in my opinion.
Here with the grand staff, you would need only one ledger line below (the lowest note is actually E, unless you did Drop C tuning but that's a whole other post), and for a 22 fret guitar you're already set because the D would be in the space right above that 2nd ledger line on top of the treble clef, and for a 24 fret guitar you just need one more ledger line as opposed to six with just the treble clef. Plus you wouldn't have to worry about being an octave up. The tones are the same as on a piano. Coming from piano, while I have improved my sight reading, I still find it easier to digest the idea of reading using the whole grand staff. On guitar threads I've seen, the most common reasons why guitarists (if they read) use the treble clef alone are space saving and ease. Maybe this won't be some sweeping movement where all of a sudden more people will use the grand staff. But the late great jazz guitarist Johnny Smith was a huge proponent of the grand staff, and his book from Mel Bay, "The Complete Johnny Smith Approach To Guitar" emphasizes right off the bat why he prefers using the grand staff for guitar notation as opposed to just the treble clef.
This is my next guitar experiment, playing off the grand staff. I'll be transposing some easier pieces, such as those from the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar series, onto grand staff using Musescore (I'm totally doing product placement), and we'll see how it goes. Maybe a month from now I'll go back to being all about the treble. Who knows? (Disclaimer: I actually loathe Meghan Trainor, but I thought having this title would get me a least a couple more views. LOL)
