A Portrait of the Dumbass as an Old Man

Walk This Way

Haven't biked after that first time. Our May has been rainy, cool and windy. I did walk 90 minutes yesterday and today with the dog tho.

Played guitar a while yesterday at LexJam. I would say an inferior product to our Wednesday jam at O'Neills. At one point a guy rather than saying "12 bar blues in A with a quick 4" proceded to call out all the chord changes for the 1st 3 go-rounds. People also seemed to be pretty challenged at catching stops. None of my band showed up.

The official band name is "King Chukka", in honor of our lead guitarist King William (Allen). I just set up a personal myspace page, so I could see some music videos that a young coworker had posted to their myspace page, I guess if King Chukka ever starts doing some gigs I will create one for the band. The online stuff seems to be more and more time consuming, with limited return for the time. Probably better off practicing music -- except, the osteoarthritis in my left hand has spread from the thumb into the first finger. Playing in public, the adrenaline rush pretty much blocks the pain of playing; practicing, usually not much in the way of adrenaline.

Re music in:

• The new Portishead, "Third", is anxiety-producing to the extent that it is hard to listen to. A few places I noticed riffs that sound exactly like Stereolab. 3 stars rather than 2.
• Elvis Costello, "Momofuku". Not doing much for me yet, probably 3 stars.
• The Yardbirds, "The Best". I got this off of eMusic after Amazon sent me an ad for a Yardbirds CD. As it's downloading, I notice the reviews "none of these are the tracks I expected, it's some kind of live tapes" -- and indeed it is. Very well done, but not what you expect. I think I'll go on and get the one from amazon as well. "I'm Not Talking" -- I'd forgotten what an odd, fun song that was. The Wikipedia page on the Yardbirds had some interesting stuff. Eric Clapton, their 1st lead guitarist, quit when they started doing more pop stuff -- he was a total blues purist at the time. He recommended Jimmy Page to replace him. Page was happy doing studio work so he recommended Jeff Beck. After their bass player quit, Page joined the band as bass player until the rhythm guitar player learned to play bass, so Page and Beck could play lead together. Beck was kicked out of the band while on tour in Texas??? Page then went on to Led Zeppelin. The 1st Led Zeppelin tapes were actually done as The Yardbirds, but then Chris Dreja, the rhythm/bass player, told them that he owned the name.