(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Thu Mar, 13 2003

Take My Airline. Please.

It looks like some people are really starting to hate their jobs. They want someone else to take 'em.

It was inevitable, I suppose. There is now talk of the forced nationalization of the airlines in the event of war. It would give the government a virtual carte blanche on who can fly and on what terms.

Movement within the United States used to be a hallmark of its freedom, in sharp contrast with "travel papers" required by totalitarian nations. The constant, repeated demand -- "Your papers!" -- at airports already feels like a bad film about Nazi Germany. Didn't the first person checking I.D.s get it right? Besides, no amount I.D. checking would have prevented the 9-11 disaster.
(Wendy McElroy, who linked the story.)

I have nothing to add, except that it's just heartbreaking to live in a culture that's gotten so good at begging for the whip as this one has. At this point, I'm just grateful for technology: I saunter through airports, now, with my MP3 player turned up to eleven. I know the whole drill, and I just blow through it, letting the shit-heel creeps do their idiotic thing. When they try their homey little "how's the weather?" chat routine, I get to ignore 'em while I'm listening to, say, BÖC's "The Red & The Black" ("It's alright, it's alright, to kill your man, to kill your man...").

If you travel, and you're a sociopath, go get one today. I speak with authority on both counts.

Mar 13, 03 | 2:37 pm
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AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}