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

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Fri Jul, 03 2009

"Maybe A Few Fireworks."

"'Look,' one of the goons explained to him, 'you know we’re the nicest crime family around. I mean, honestly, would you rather pay tribute to one of those other families? You might think we’re bad, but you ever hear of the Bonanos? Those fuckers would take six hundred a week. No joke. And the Lucheses? The Lucheses would be all over that cute little daughter of yours. Up the ass every night. She don’t like it up there? Don’t matter. The Lucheses get what the Lucheses want.' The goon took a step closer, the smell of sausage pizza emanating from his breath. 'When you get down to it, Saul, you’re living under the best crime family in the city. So show a little gratitude. Make things look nice. Maybe put up a picture or two of Mr. Gambino. Maybe a few fireworks.'

Fireworks, he thought—I’ll give you bastards fireworks! But, of course, he was all talk. Because, when you got down to it, there was nothing he could do."
Don Emmerich dons gay apparel in the spirit of the season. Not.

I only wonder what sort of grease will come slithering out of Obama's face tomorrow. He's gotta crank up some kind of rubbish for the annual show. I'm interested only to the extent of noting advances in euphemasia: the murder of truth by dissociation of the language from reality. Naturally, this has been going on for decades in the matter of Independence Day, so the grease is traditional by now, but I look forward to considerable evolution of the mendacity.

Jul 03, 09 | 9:02 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}