Friday, April 2, 2010

working on a boat, rock reviews 101

This is the last one. Gel coat is a bitch. I've been working on gel coat, learning how to coax a factory like finish onto a basically messed up hull. For about ten years. If I haven't got it down now, I'm not gonna.  I can get some good results.It just costs me too much. Too much time, makes it very hard to make any money. a repair job is only worth so much.  Too much worry, Is this gonna work?  Did I just create a lot more trouble for myself?   Is this going to be done in time for the owner's schedualed departure?

Still, there are times, when all one can do is sand it, see what you've got.  And that's a good time, sometimes. It can be very Zen-craftsman feeling.  While I'm doing that, I like to listen to music on the headphones as I go.   Some of those tunes, from the 70's, the 80's , 90's and even now are timeless classics. More than that, they are, as someone said,  Instruments of Truth.

Yesterday, at  one point, I had called up some mid Seventies Steely Dan. Countdown to Ecstasy.  Boston Rag. Walter Becker on guitar, Donald Fagen, keyboards.  Musically, technically, and lyrically, these two guys create a powerful team. To me, a fifty something father, grandfather, continuing rock devotee, regular guy(mostly), this is music my children and grandchildren need to know.  More important history than who did what to who back when. To that end,  I'm thinking of a series of reiviews, or possibly just relistens of old and new music. We'll call it Boomer Music 101.

This is not one of those.  I  don't have time today to get into that depth on one.  But just for kicks, go to the link below. Watch. Listen.  NO, really, LISTEN....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifjVRdzapx4

 I'm going to hope here, that you are a person who is capable of being moved by music. Not just the lyric message, but the sound, the POWER IN THE SOUND.  Can you find some Indescribable Wow of something true in a guitar solo, a keyboard rift, a rhythm beat?  Check out the guitar solo towards the end of Boston Rag.

How can a sound,  a simple or complex set of vibrations, translate in our brains to impressions of memories, emotions, feelings we can relate to as very deeply personal and yet as universally experienced as any part of the human condition.



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