Hope everyone had a merry christmas/krampus filled with food and alcohol, I certainly did Despite some family troubles over the past month I still managed to have a good time with them and my friends. Here's my pile'o'loot



highlights are some knee pads for biking, fake moustaches which will be put to good use over new years eve, some new adidas busenitz because I love them dearly, 2ft of wispa chocolate bars and some Black Keys/Clutch/Mastodon CDs oh and ma gurrrl is paying for us to go zorbing in the new year which is gonna be fun as fuck

And because it's Christmas here's a bonus pic of me being pretty drunk in my awesome xmas jumper



Watcha get?!

See telecaster thread... otherwise, some booze and winter wear, which is awesome.

Despite my demands that Krampus and not Xmas be held, and that no one get me anything, pretty much no one bid my wishes.

My dad did hook me up with a pretty nice woodworking handplane though. Even though he should not have.

My mom also decided that i should not sleep as a hobo anymore and had a bed delivered. Fucking thing is totally gigantic(well, really only like a totally normal bed like people have, but my old system was more like a gloriously efficient sleeping shelf sort of arrangement). This (comparative)behemoth is totally impractical and really cutting into my ability to store piles of electronics and instruments in this room.

My sister/housemeate did me pretty solid too, nice warm socks(she knows what flavor of hobo i am) and some nice beers.

My main dealie. Besides that guy, the first season of Boardwalk Empire and some candy and other small gag stuff I can't recall. Pretty fucking damn dope present, man.

I totally get the "don't get me anything".

You wind up with stuff anyway.

I got a fantastic- and snarky- book on WWII generals, a couple nice dress shirts in black, and purple-with-pinstripes, some practical household things, cash and some Amazon whatnot with which I've spread the love to a few folks on here. And a bottle of riesling.

I appropriated an old compressor and some keyboard stand from my 'rents' basement- my synths are on a rack case and a coffee table at the moment- and they are glad to have the stuff gone.

Re: beds and storage, I get that as well. Now, I've been sleeping on a futon borrowed from my housemate for a couple years now. I used to have what you'd expect from me, a huge queen-size thing with wrought iron and whatnot, but it wouldn't fit through the damn door or up the damn stairs so it had to be abandoned. This, it has to have extra padding wedged in so bits don't bite into my ass or my spinal column. That being said, I can stash a ton of stuff under there, and with all the opulent finery (now severely oversized) above it, no one is any the wiser. To be fair, it's mostly shoes, but there's computer parts, guitar parts, a copper-hilted broadsword, etc.

EDIT: a shout-out to the anonymous forumite who send me something very kind. It has been much appreciated. You know who you are.

Tom, that sweater is choice. Only just noticed the penguin.

Those are Sennheiser HD280Pros, are they not?

Who's the mandolin by, anyhow?

They are indeed HD280s.

It's a Kentucky, I guess they make pretty noice schtuff for an entry level price. My muzzah went into the dope guitar shop a couple towns over and was picking between a mando or a uke. I am very thankful her gut told her that her son wanted the funnier looking one with fucked up double string deal.

The mandolin is a cool sound. It's different, but it is useful. Obviously you've already put it to good use. Stuff like that, you find a use for it.

It looks cool, too. The picture's a good shot if you want to use it for something to pimp yer work.

They are definitely properly exotic looking. The little neck is really funny and weird to get any sort of real chordage as I stand with it now. The tuning is really quite notably interesting as well: GDAE. Seen a similar pattern somewhere before?

Yes, actually. I never knew it was tuned like a violin. I suppose it sorta makes sense- it's a similar size. (Also, backwards from a guitar, which may or may not be what you're getting at.)

Balls, I hadn't recalled that being the tuning of a violin. I thought it was something a bit different, would have though I'd noted that previously (about the geetar backwardity) so motherfucking fooey on me. I'm usually good with things like that.

Yeah, violin is guitar backwards, assuming a guitar had two less strings. Viola is similar but tuned lower, goes down to C. (Also, reads in alto clef, which is funny-looking.) Cello is an octave beneath the viola. Upright bass, though, is tuned like a bass guitar, though a 5-string upright usually has a low C instead of a B, at least for classical stuff. Don't ask me why that is. I don't know. But it's been around for a hella long time. Beethoven wrote for basses tuned to C as early as his 5th Symphony. (Beethoven is metal as fuck, with all the subtlety of a sucker punch. A model of Germanic efficiency, who never let his very real innovation get in the way of his getting to the point, and always wrote catchy tunes. A huge deal for a reason.)

Piano back in the day and electric guitar now are the stars of the show because of their range and versatility. But man, all those other instruments- now we have synths and guitar effects, but that was your effect box. I have a recording of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique played on the original period instruments that's super-cool. The writing makes it awesome even played on modern gear- the story it tells is fucked-up, there's murder and beheading and Satanic rituals- and he was fucked out of his mind on opium writing it. Very metal. Now, the guy literally wrote the book on orchestration back in the day; this is only a few years after Beethoven kicked it and parts of it sound like a cool film score from now. Yeah, play the violins with the wood of the bow, etc. It's a cool piece, but you hear that with all of what he wrote it for that gets substituted for common modern stuff, and it's like someone kicked on the whole pedalboard and is playing the studio version vs. you hearing a cover band at a bar. It comes to life. There are parts that get played by other instruments because this is no longer- or never was- a common instrument. As usual I digress- all that stuff is cool, and, really, only one thing Does That, as it were.

likewise about your beard, minus the penguin, unless there's one lurking in there somewhere.

I do the don't buy me anything, but that doesn't work. so I did end up with Kinda Fire HD, a nice 18v DeWalt drill and the lady gave me the ok to get this for xmas

Oh, nice! Now you'll have no excuse not to poast clips.

LOL - yeah I am the worst about getting around to posting clips. I did do a multivocal track for Mr H's cover of Was Not Was though...

Yeah, chances of me finishing that cover two years later = 0

I got a new phone, a Johnny Cash shirt, Halo 4, some cash and I'm waiting for the laptop to get here. Oh and that tremolo bar!