I’m a strat man. But, I also have a ’57 Gibson ES 125 – and I love the arch top. If you want to learn about Gibson guitars, visit Billy Beck every once in a while. He can write about making music and appreciating an instrument a lot better than I.

But, in the mean time, this is a fantastic documentary about the reproduction of one of the most famous rock & roll guitars ever to have rung out a chord.

Eric Clapton auctioned a pile of his most famous guitars through Christies on June 24, 2004 with proceeds going to his Crossroads Foundation Charity. Among the treasures on the block was the first guitar that EC ever bought new – his 1964 Gibson ES 335. He made unbelievable music for forty years with this guitar.

It’s funny, the estimate on the original Christies gallery had the going price for the guitar at $60,000 to $80,000. It was ultimately purchased by Guitar Center for $847,000!

Together, Guitar Center and Gibson worked to recreate this classic instrument in every detail. Everything from the case to the Hari Krishna sticker on the back of the head were faithfully reproduced.

I can dig the fact that you need to nail the neck profile, the hardware, and pickups to reproduce a guitar. But, I can’t imagine sitting around with your guitar buds comparing specific nicks, nooks, and crannies. But, that’s just me.

This video is a great insight into a world where art and technology meet in true harmony.

I didn’t know that the Swedes almost didn’t field a team this time round because of the higher skill level of the Americans and Canadians in this sport. Well, thankfully they did. I hope that it stirs some interest in women’s hockey in Europer. Otherwise, we won’t see it around next time.

Ben Smith, Team USA Women’s coach disagrees, but for the wrong reasons. He feels that the International Olympic Committee would not eliminate a women’s sport for politically correct reasons.

The Canada women beat the host Italians – 16 – 0!!!!!

Hurray for competition.

That shot was not a problem for the goalie and would not have been a problem for a Novice goalie. It’s just sad to have the Canadian commentators pretending that there’s an actual competition going on.

Women’s hockey should not be an Olympic sport until there are more than two teams who have a chance of scoring a goal – let alone winning the bloody thing.

Don’t get me wrong. The US vs. Canada gold medal game in Salt Lake City was a fantastic representation of the sport. The officiating was horrible – due to the fact that male refs were excluded. There we’re very few female referees with enough international experience to take the game, so an American women got the nod by default. She was definitely the extra skater for the Americans and the Canadian women battled against the odds to a real gutsy victory for gold.

The problem is that there are only two countries in the world who can compete at the highest level in women’s hockey. The sport should be left out of the Olympic schedule until they can scratch up a tournament’s worth of competition.

Alright

I play music. I’ve played music almost my whole life. I consider myself a musical person. That last kid with the guitar blew my mind.

My mind has realy been blown now.

A friend of mine (who’s a WAY better player than me) was down in LA (not Lake Ainsley) a while back. He reports that talent like this can be found in every music store and on every street corner. That’s crazy. Just crazy.

I guess it’s one thing to play a song and another thing to have written it.

Also — strats clearly rock!

One of the problems that I always had with making my own ice packs, was that they weren’t very moldable. If your ankle is sore all the way round, a bag full of ice has a difficult time making good contact points with the majority of the curved surface. Anyway, lifehacker has a good post about making your own ice pack.

My previous injuries seem to be returning as arthritic echoes, so I’ll be trying this recipe at the next flare up. Hopefully, not until next winter.

seem smaller

- that is all; carry on; nothin’ to see here