Collecting guitars is overrated.

I fell into the trap of this collector mentality about 25 years ago.  My old assistant Jenn penned a phrase.  Whenever we got a new guitar she’d say ‘you boys and your Hot Wheels’…

For me it began in the early days of having a dream to possess all the instruments I ever wanted.  This is back when I had a single electric, single acoustic, single drum machine, in a single apartment… and oh yeah, I was single!

But all this time later, I wish I’d have made a single guitar my own.  Like f’ing SRV.  Like BB.  Jimi, Jimmy, Keith, Bruce, Bo Diddley, Alvin Lee, i’m just thinking off the top of my head, but there are more.  Rory!  ha.

Collecting things like cars and guitars, you gotta house ’em.  You gotta care for them too.  Keep them strung, tuned, in temperature controlled environments.  But beyond all that, they become a little like jelly beans.  All of them are good, but not one stands out.

I bet cars are this way too.  Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld have hundreds of cars.  They all need to be started, gassed, oiled, replacement gassed after 6 months, driven, stored… I mean if you’re rich enough I guess, but it still sounds like one major pain in the ass to me.  I’d rather just go and enjoy a car show at the local park on any given Sunday.  Even go to a dealer’s showroom and test drive it.  That’s about how long you will enjoy one of your 100 cars.

Anyway, the signature you create by becoming one with your main axe, a tool, but one you have perfected… is meaningful!

And it’s like Jeff Porcaro used to say about all the new digital toys coming out one after the other… he’d pause with comedic timing and go “… so… got any tunes?”

We have 2 winners! 

Winner of the autographed ‘A View From 3rd Street’ LP is: RocknWalkn

Winner of ‘Start The Car’ CD in long box: Rockfan

Congratulations to you both! Please PM this website with your address so we can get these out right away.  Rockfan, please let us know if you want the long box autographed or sealed.  Sealed has it’s own merits and to autograph would would mean is has to be opened.

Until the next one… Cheers all!

Let’s face it, it’s an eyesore.  Not to mention, it represents a lazy, ‘Wall-E’ kind of society and should come with it’s very own sleep pod so you can nestle in, watch your binge-worthy streams and eat a half pound of potato chips and dip.

Flat screen TV’s were once the rage.  They sold mounts that connected to studs and got larger and heavier and larger and more vivid, to the point now where it’s like… what do you want a drive-in?  Get a VR headset for cryin’ out loud!

Much like digital synthesis and recording, we were so proud of ourselves that it was even possible that we abandoned all that was glorious about the greatness of analog music.

Then the bit-rate wars began, and what started with analog 5 and 8 bit samples eventually got to a place where it’s so digitally good it’s actually kind of not good…or should I say so good that now everyone prefers 8 bit analog samples again, or a dithered simulation of this.  The highest quality digital sample available today is 3072, and the only thing I can imagine using that kind of sampling for is if you’re trying to duplicate an old analog recording, hoping to capture the essence of a better era for sound!

Mostly, we don’t need to hear a laboratory clean record.  We don’t need every bit of noise removed from music.  There’s generally so much racket going on in a live or studio performance from the drum kit shaking, drummer grunting to time, amp hisses & hums and a plethora of other things… it makes a nice kind of soup our ears understand.  We’re not cyborgs.

A Helmet Newton photo is so much more pleasing on the eyes from his innate skill and 35mm camera than one of the mega-pixel images that come in every phone that show the close-up pores of your skin, nose hair, even magnifying parts of your face and body you didn’t know was a problem.

After visiting many open houses and spending at least a half hour each evening on sites like realtor.com and zillow, that ominous black rectangle hanging on the wall not only ruins the picture, but represents a lazy, spoiled society of large, overweight children.

A few years ago when I had a Jeep I stumbled onto something that really cheered up my drive.  It was an AM station that played 60’s and 70’s music in LA called K-Surf.  Turning down the bass a bit, turning the fade up to front-only speakers, and listening to The Beatles in mono was magnificent, and the way it was intended.  It’s the appropriate amount of volume for that small a space.  It even got to where I looked forward to my drives just to experience music this way again.  Then of course they turned the station into an all classical format and like… well of course LA, because you must destroy everything I like!

I think TV’s are the same.  We had it right in the 60’s and 70’s.  It should take up a proper amount of space in your room, like a bread basket.  It should be a device we use, not one we live for.  Personally I watch shows on my laptop now and that screen suits me to the point where I don’t have TV’s in any of the bedrooms anymore.

Furthermore, my son talked me into buying an 85″ Samsung smart TV.  I bought it, had them place it in my living room, got the sound bar to enjoy a more cinema-type experience, and was set.  For the next year I’d walk into the living room and curse the ugliness of that albatross against the wall.

Last week I got rid of it and have replaced it with a very portable 32″ model that can be set on a stand and rolled around for viewing convenience.  It feels 1000 percent better in this room now.  There’s something more serene about the room as well.  A certain peace.

This is just an opinion/observation based on my own taste… but I believe a backtracking in the arena of brainwashing is necessary!
Cheers- Jude

Once we had a black kid named “Stoney” move to our street in the early 70’s.  Sounds normal now, but at the time it wasn’t typical.  I don’t recall a word ever being said about it… no whispers or racial undertones.  Just frame of reference in small town midwest, probably 1971.

I remember him telling us he was from Joliet, and that he used to get in fights on a daily basis because he was light skinned…  so Blacks would pick on him for being too white, and Whites would pick on him for being too black.

Recently, feeling exposed during the election, Stoney’s story came to mind.  Since I have no real party affiliation in politics and this has become such a polarized world of left vs. right… my sights have been on the owners and their antics more than the turntable of politicians, who appear mostly clueless as to how the world really works.  They may know who butters their bread, but are paid to ask no questions.

My soul is conservative, yet my analytical side can be very liberal.  Maybe I feel too much.  Leave Britney alone!!  Sorry.

Fiscally very conservative and socially liberal.  This makes sense.  Born and raised in a small town of about 1200 at the time of my youth, then moving to Los Angeles where liberalism was shouted from every rooftop in the city.

I’ve been responsible for abortions, so it would be hypocritical for me to stand on a soapbox and preach.  And still, common sense says there’s a pretty significant difference between 12 and 24 weeks.  24 and 32.

My instincts for people guided me on a journey over many years, and when I see someone that just rubs, let’s just say the hackles go up.  They were up for the entire campaign, presidency, re-election and post presidency of Barack Obama.  I never trusted this man.  The Clintons either.

Bush had me with the whole terrorist thing, then I started looking into his family.  The Bush family along with The Cheneys are probably the world’s biggest terrorists in centuries.  Then there’s Fauci, Gates, Soros and the Covid Club.  They should all hang publicly for their crimes against humanity, the whole lot.  But then the real power is in the shadows.  We never get to know them, yet they are worth trillions.

I realized this morning that because of my mistrust for Obama and the outward loathing his wife Michelle displayed to anyone they disagreed with, I bought a place out of town.  A humble home on the outskirts of LA where I could flee at a moment’s notice.  It was fear.  The man caused fear in me because he was so divisive.

Remember, after the Rodney King riots and the jolt of the ’94 quake, this was no safe haven of a city to live in.  I’d often look at maps for quick exits out of town for my family.  9/11 convinced me… Go rural!

SO when I found this place I bought it.  Started stocking up on water, food, guns, ammo, fire, medicines, everything… what you’d call a doomsday prepper.  Yep that’s me.  It was fear.  I still have it, though it’s more about pragmatics now than fear.  Maybe 64 is just closer to the end…  It’s a conservative instinct that exists since my DNA was created.  My father had it, his father etc.

What I’m trying to say is, I understand the fear of people who’ve been told Trump is the end of the world.  Maybe he is, maybe not.  The owners have either decided to change course from the last four years… which isn’t likely, or they will throw a bomb into his plan and blame him for it.  As for he himself being evil, I just don’t see it.  We’ve known him too long.  Certainly he has weak spots, but I believe, maybe naively… I guess time will tell… but I believe he wants better for the country.  Joe and Mika not so much.  And let’s not forget who Mika’s warmongering father was.

RFK is a real chance to get healthier food into our stores and stop the poison that causes the general public obesity, anxiety, diabetes and a hundred other illnesses that require lifetime medications.  This has me pretty optimistic.  I’ve been filtering water taking the fluoride and other ‘dissolved solids’ out for about 10 years now.  We’ve given up almost all food that comes in a sealed bag.  Eliminated fast and corporate food, processed food.  Not a perfect diet, but a 180º from what it was years ago.

Anyway, I write this in the most human way I know how.

I don’t agree with a lot of liberals on a lot of things, but I feel the fear is real.  Please don’t think you’re the only ones who’ve feared an administration.  I bought an entire house and had a complete life change because of it, so I’m not one to laugh at those who have fear because the president.   I think going online with a bunch of negativity is futile, but whatever…

It gets better.  Or maybe you could say it doesn’t matter.  The trajectory of this country is in the hands of the owners of our money, and sorry to say these are not good people!  The goodness must come from us.

We need to lie less, cheat less, get away with less, have less nepotism and color/gender counters, more accountability and work ethic.  We need to respect other people’s faiths and cast less judgment.

There’s a lot in life we can’t put back in the bag, but the above is a must if we ever hope to have a thriving civilization.  Dang… I guess this was a bit of a soap box.  Ah well, c’est la vie.  Love to Americans on both sides of the Coke/Pepsi aisle, we’ve been through a lot.

Someone once told me something about Bruce Springsteen that never left me, probably because it was so opposite from my personality.  They said he won’t ever speak badly of himself.  Even when he does a performance that’s not his best, he’ll say something like ‘Ok I think I did pretty good there’.  He may end the session after hearing it, but he won’t say ‘I fucking suck today let’s stop’.  Yeah that would have been me.

But I’ve changed.  We need to be our own best friends.  Our own mothers, fathers, big brothers.  The support system of relying on friends and family is too shaky.  People that see you win are often more envious than happy for you.  We need to be first in line to give ourselves a pat on the back.

I recently wrote about how I learned something significant from Donald Trump and his ‘just drink some bleach’ slip.  Now here’s another lesson we could learn from him.  The man is and always has been his own support system.  

Love him or hate him, I can’t think of another soul on earth who could withstand the enormous amount of pressure, hate filled venom, lies and abuse he’s taken from mainstream media.  Most of us would crumble from an organized smear campaign on Facebook or X alone.  Imagine every single cable and mainstream news channel, every radio station, every website, most of Washington DC!  Add to this the assassination attempts, slurs on his family members.

Yet he’s been stoic, and then he wins.  Whether or not he wins this election, he’s already won the hearts of most hard working Americans because they realize he’s funny and decent and would like Americans to win too, unlike a guy like Biden who speaks of decency while he insults half the country as ‘garbage’… while the press hides his daughter’s diary of inappropriate actions from him …ahem… in the shower??  and of course there’s good ol’ Hunter.  If you haven’t seen his hotel photos and notes of extortion with % going to “the big guy” it’s out there.

Suffice to say DJT has he’s taken more arrows than a normal person could by 1001 X.

His secret?  I think it has something to do with the Springsteen model.  He won’t say a bad word about himself.

So while he’s up there free-wheeling like ‘We had a tremendous crowd, it was the best and biggest crowd you wouldn’t believe how big’… etc. etc… And while the world is snorting and criticizing and calling him the devil, he’s busy being his own support system.  He doesn’t need the sheep, the cucks like Don Lemon or Lawrence O’donnell.  Is this not Uge?

In the words of  Judge Reinhold 1981, in Fast Times At Ridgemont High: “Learn it, Know it, Live it”.