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

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Tue May, 27 2008

"Caesaropapism Rampant"

"George Will has been known to tease out his inner libertarian from time to time, usually when the GOP is doing something stupid. He’s easily the most intellectually honest conservative pundit in the business."
Radley Balko remarks on Will's comments on Gene Healy's book, "The Cult Of The Presidency". Personally, I've always liked Will's style, but thought that he's an incipient monarchist about five steps down the road past Alexander Hamilton. He's another one born into the wrong century, but for different reasons than me.

That column is pretty good, though. In general, Americans have simply lost their minds behind the presidency.

Along these lines, I always recommend Charles R. Morris' 1993 piece at Atlantic Online, "It's (Not) The Economy, Stupid".

May 27, 08 | 11:56 am

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}