FROM THE MUSICAL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD...An ALL-STAR JAM featuring LEGENDARY GUITARISTS of the SOUTHERN OREGON COAST!!!

Okay, okay, maybe I'm getting Just a Little Bit carried away. After all, some folks call this place "Snooze Bay"...which it might just be...which is okay with me; life just seems to bang along too fast, and with each year, time seems to go by faster. So it's important to put that time to good use (can that really be me talking?).

I've lived down here going on four years now. I've written more than my share about the beach, the clean air, and the fact that snow (well, actually more like frozen rain pellets) covers the streets one or two days a year, and that by 10am, any precip has melted away. So I won't rub that in your face. I promise.

Someone told me that it always takes at least a couple of years before they feel at home in a new place. I think that person was "Cis", one of my two blog-followers. Two blog-devotees. Talk about yer 'epic proportions'. Anyway, what with having been really ill with flu my first year here, resulting in Vertigo, which I'm still trying to shake, and doing the Denture thing, which took an awful lot of my energy the second year I was down here, and basically just trying to find my way down here, I haven't really had much opportunity to ingratiate my presence in any sort of definitive way. Really.

A couple of years ago, whilst shopping in a thrift store at the record rack, I was talking to another person looking thru all the dead vinyl, and we began talking about music, then the conversation "morphed" into what's going on around the area, I'm new here, etc. etc. I was invited to bring my guitar to where some hand drummers were playing, and we've all been doing that for quite a while now. Along the way, I've met some other guitar players who've come into our little circle also, and, well, anything goes. As long as the song is kept to 20-minutes, that is...that's our "20-minute rule".

We've all been doing that twice a week, bashing guitars and banging on drums, when all of a sudden, there was a Third Night, which is more of an open-mic sort of thing led by a very congenial host, so we all get some "solo" mike-time, and then after all the soloists are done, then all hell breaks loose and, gentlemen, start yer engines, 'cos an all-out everybody-jam takes place, and whatever happens is totally unpredictable, as you'll see in the YouTube clip below...a bluesy version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"...this is an 8-minute clip, which means I have, according to Andy Warhol, exactly 7-more minutes of fame to use up someday, somewhere...

I'm on the far left in this video. This was the first night I played my Dad's old guitar; I'd just had it worked on at the music store. So on this nite I was "sighting in" my instrument, not sure of what sounds I'd be able to get out of it. Occasions like this are fun for me, because somebody else can run things, and I can be more of a supporting player. My playing tends to veer off-course into the ditch, but hey, that's what makes it interesting. I've played more guitar since I've been down here, then where I lived before, up in the land of the Floating Green.

So after posting tons and tons of serious stuff in my last few posts, I thot I'd "mail this one in", and so, voila...Instant Post. I'm still working on 1,000 posts, and I'm Not Quite There Yet. Still have a few to go. After 1,000, I'm not sure what's gonna happen with this blog. Sometimes I feel like my posts are just being "ground out" these days. I now blog in Precious Stolen Moments. Hence the ultra-early posting time you see at the bottom of this entry.

As far as my guitar playing goes, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, or the unknown guitar-star of Twisty Creek, Alberta have absolutely nothing to worry about. They'll get no serious competition from me. But hey, it's fun. If it ain't fun...it ain't worth doin'!