Stick sold; basement finishing underway; song written. It’s been a good week so far!

I can’t explain it, but lately I’ve been on a huge ELO kick. I really love Jeff Lynne’s songs as well as his production work; John Lennon once admiringly called them “son of the Beatles,” and it shows in amazing tunes like Mr. Blue Sky [Real] and Twilight. I picked up their albums Time (1981) and the 2001 release Zoom this weekend; the former being something I remember very fondly from my youth, and the latter I picked up on a lark. It’s actually very good on balance; a few weak songs but it has several that are extremely fine work.

I am selling my 12-string Chapman Grand Stick on eBay, and the auction ends tomorrow night. I have a 10-string that I play much more regularly, and both are in fantastic shape. My hands are just too small for me to get comfortable with the 12-string, but they are smaller than most people I know. Because Stick instruments hold their value really well, at the price at which I’m selling, this instrument is a great investment even for a beginner.

I have a more recent picture of Evie available on the links to the left. Still haven’t gotten to organizing them all. Time to go practice, I love my new GuitarPort!

I ordered a new Variax yesterday from Guitar Center. A lot of “talkback lusers” seem to have a problem with GC, but I never have. Plus I have a friend who works there who got me a deep discount price. Hopefully I should see it in a few weeks; I bought the black one with the cool pearloid pickguard, since it will look good on stage.

I played one of the Variax guitars this weekend at Chuck Levin’s in Wheaton, MD. The physical report is that they are a very good value for their cost ($909), especially considering the cost of the electronic components that do the guitar modeling. This guitar feels more solid and playable than most guitars in the $500-600 range — more like a $700-800 guitar, which makes it a high value in my book. Comparing this guitar to a boutique guitar is ridiculous since that’s not its competition. And the sounds? Amazing! This guitar is truly revolutionary and will change (again) the future of countless aspiring (and established) musicians. I played it through a standard Fender Deluxe amp, so no amp modeling trickery was between me and the sound. It was fantastic, and many of the models were dead on. The acoustics also sounded great, and the sitar? Mind-blowing. Unfortunately, they were sold out so I have to wait or order on-line!

When, o when will the Variax army arrive at my local music store? Confound this tiresome waiting!

A new piece of Linux knowledge today: Compiling your kernel with devfs support will kill your ability to use “LABEL=” in your /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/grub.conf files. Make sure CONFIG_DEVFS_FS=n in your kernel .config when you build, or alternately fix your /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/grub.conf files to change the offending lines to VFS names (/dev/hd??).

<

p>We had a wonderful NYE, with friends visiting from Richmond and Charlottesville. My wife and her dance troupe performed for First Night, and Evie really enjoyed seeing them as well. She also liked being wheeled around town after dark, with all the streets lit up with holiday lights and the streets covered with colorful chalk graffiti.

<

p>Have a joyous and prosperous New Year!