Looks like I might be headed back to Alaska in as soon as 2 weeks, and then I will be gone for a loooong time. Possibly 5 months. Pretty cray to think about.

GAK are letting me keep the damaged Vox Amplug, which is nice I guess. Any ideas how I can go about fixing an intermittent problem with the headphone jack? I guess it's all cheap and tiny PCB so probably no way of getting it replaced easily.

I have been using the 11R exclusively at practice for 5 months now, it's making it's gig debut Saturn's Day. I gig with GnR friday and the pop band gigs Sat. The place we are playing has a great crowd, but no stage and no room, so usually end up on top of the bar, like a tramp, and the 11R and floorboard will be perfect here. I will through the Bogner in the car just to be safe in case I can't deal after the first set.

Prolly is SMD/tiny, but there is a solid chance that the jack would be through hole anyhow. If the jack is okay, it might just be a bad solder joint, and you might be able, if you have a soldering iron with a fine tip, to just melt/reflow the joint there and it might just work.

If you were in the same country i would say send it here and i could do it for you. It could be a really simple fix.

Even the more involved fix of replacing the jack if it is actually bad, might not be too bad to do, provided you could find the right style jack with the right leg spacing from an electronics supplier. That, you might want to have someone else do though, if it needs it. Because that circuit board is fucking tiny and doing the job could be a far bit fiddly.

This town is a musical wasteland. Granted, I knew this ten years ago, but damn. My drummer and I have not been able to entice a single person to audition, not one.

It's really nothing but classic rock covers, jam bands and shitmetal around here. Well, not totally that, I exaggerate; I know there are some people hipper than that, but they seem to be few and far between.

I am tempted to suck it up and learn my own songs as a bassist and vocalist and just hire my friends to play guitar live. The only reason I say as a bassist is I don't know another bassist who has the time and could play the parts. Problem is, well, I've posted enough shit over the years; you've heard... Those are not easy bass lines to sing over and I really, really don't want to. I'm not Geddy Lee. I can get a lead guitarist easy enough- a good one, or two, or three, and concentrate on being a frontperson.

Maybe I can try and find a sessionperson through someone I know? I do not want to be tied down having to play that shit and sing lead. I have a monster shredder + effecthead of a lead player from my metalband on standby if I could only find a bassist.

Funny, he's easily the most chopsy of all my guitaristfriends, and is kind of intimidated by learning some of my parts, because of the weird chords. I told him he could take all the solos, too. (As if he cares; I'm just pawning off responsibility!) He can play Nevermore stuff note-for-note so it's not as if he'd have a problem. I'd have to write it all down, of course, but I've done that before, and neither of us are musical illiterates by any stretch. To the point I could be a total dickbag and write it down without tab, but a guitar is not a piano and I would think that a really douche move even to someone who can sightread just fine. I would do it with a bass, but not a guitar; the fingering is too important to waste their time like that.

...and my Grados suddenly work fine today.

Well, do whatcha gotta do to get your solo thing going. Go solo, because YOLO.



I'm going to do session drums and full time vocals for a Vesication member's side project. Looking forward to that, hoping I can get the old Altec mixer to work as a bunch of mic pres for the close mics.

Truly, dealing with drunk hipsterfolk is one of my least favorite/fine things to be doing. Had some photography major girl really go nuts on me a few hours ago. I had an upside down cross written on my forehead with lipstick, which got her going on some completely nonsensical bullshit about me needing to acknowledge the many interpretations of whatever symbols I wear and what they mean to other people. She was going off about some shit about Ash Wednesday and kept asking WHY (seriously, looking for some sort of deeper meaning to it) I had the symbol on my forehead. So much of me on acid like, "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, CRAZY LADY?"

I mean, making deals out of immemorable idiocy is stupid and pointless. But man, WHAT THE FUCK. These are the things that make me angry. If "Because I worship the devil" is not good enough, I probably don't want to hang out with you.

One of the plus sides to being in a band with some dudes with money: they are willing to shell out a fair bit for someone with name recognition to mix a full-length. As much as I'd love to do it myself, I'll gleefully pawn that responsibilty off, too. The A-list is of course completely closed to us, but the B-list (whose work I tend to like better anyhow) runs commercial studios for cash on the barrelhead.

I do not miss being young or associating with young people. Of course, I don't miss associating with people much either. Granted, someone I am very fond of is much younger than I, but they are also slightly mad as well so it works out. I am too bitter and cynical to get worked up over things. Giving A Fuck is for the immature and the stupid.

Now, the upside-down cross is a fine example of real-life trolling. Acknowledging their meaning is, well, sort of the point, no?

Allah akbar might make a few people uncomfortable.

I would agree the acknowledgement is key, myself. It was almost like she was the one on psychotropic drugs. She would be sort of making sense and sounding reasonable and then BLAM!, it was like she would try to get me to admit I am.. Stupid or something..? I don't know, by the end of it I was nearly yelling into her face that I'd no idea what she was talking about, that I didn't even know her and that we would simply have to stop talking. It was actually frustrating as fuck, completely harshed my mellow for a little, brah.

What was completely and mostly retarded, was the complete lack of anger based around religion. The upside down cross didn't seem to offend her as much as just the idea that I had some sort of symbol on my head at all, it was truly nuts.


I don't know, man. People fucking suck.

IMO, sounds like exactly what artschool does to creative people. Symbolism is not so much for artists, as it is for art critics. Artschool doesn't train artists, it creates commercially minded critics. Artstudents are generally the worst. Their brains are all half-ruined with wrongideas about why things happen/exist/are produced.

Anyhow, next time, go for the Freemason square and compass. Or the crest with the pyramid. Or just a third eye.

Actually, a lipstick third eye would prolly work nicely for a youngdude wand'ring 'bout psychedelically at some youngkids party.

How's that for symbolism, bint?

Otherwise intelligent people can say and do dumb things. See: politics, which will of course cause hugemanatee to destroy itself so some rich bastard can make a couple bucks.

The young and passionate with an idea stuck in their heads can be irksome. The weary old reprobate, or one with the soul thereof, is preferable. The things my drummer and I say are epic.

We'll sit around for hours after rehearsal just shooting the shit. Given the layout and lighting of the room, we've joked about making it a talk show and doing public access or something, with the shitmetal band next door (who I believe are gone now, RIP. ) as the house band, because hiliarity, that's why. The sheer level of profanity and foul subject matter might make it un-doable, but the serious intellectual content balances it out.

But I digress. People are stupid.

THIS IS PERFECT. I heartily endorse everything said here and have nothing further to contribute.

Well, aside from the following: I have little use for critics. Most of whom, not being worthwhile artists themselves, have nothing to add to the (figurative) conversation, and mostly spew fat lots of wank to justify their continued existence. It has been my experience Things Happen for three reasons: you have an idea stuck in your head and it needs to get out, it was a random thought, or you did it for money.

BITCH, THE LIPSTICK THIRD EYE SYMBOLIZES THE FACT THAT I AM A HORNY YOUNG DUDE, WHO IS TRIPPING FUCKING BALLZ.

The fact that the eye is lipstick and not eyeliner symbolizes a thing but I forget what right now because melting giraffes.

Also, to Chris: extra points for "bint".

More or less, this.

It is kind of upsetting though, this whole entire Cornish art school crowd, they are mostly normally shitty people with massive egos and very little actual skill. They all like getting fucked up and partying, but their idea of what is fun is just completely wrong. It becomes very clear, very quickly, that there is a massive divide between me and these people that I didn't think existed originally. In short, they have little desire to destroy things and make loud noises, or do much of anything that is awesome. I usually find myself wanting to fight like, half the fucking people I meet there. So many self-righteous fuckheads. And truly, the photography majors are the worst.

BTW, this nearly had me in tears.

When it comes down to it, they're a dull lot of wankers, art school folks. My experience is that they tend to be self-righteous without being self-critical, and are essentially scenekids playacting at rebellion with a strain of pseudo-intellectualism thrown in for good measure. Now, I am probably much duller than all of them; I read books for fun and rarely leave the house. But I've at least lived it, make loud noises and have destroyed a thing or two, and am not about to retire to the suburbs with 2.6 kids any time ever. They'll all settle down to a job they hate and golf on the weekends soon enough.

Playacting at rebellion would be a fine way to phrase it, for sure. These dudes definitely strut around and talk like they are some next level edgy motherfucks, but most of them are into very "normal" sorts of entertainment media. Tons of these people just listen to shitty modern hip hop and like fucking Mumford & Sons, for fucking real. It kinda blew my mind. Or worse, they are in a chiptunes band/are into chiptunes. I remember offering this band to record live drums (I guess they are chiptunes+real drums) in my basement just for the practice of recording and the fun. I got some incredible bullshit from one member, "Uh yeah, we're signed.."

YOU'RE A FUCKING CHIPTUNES BAND. DIE.









































DIE