Being a social thread--- ima pretend for a moment that i have a Social Life. Ha ha
The Holidays are a fun time of year for me, as long as seasonal depression stays the Fuck outta the picture. My kids are grown, yet young enuf they still love to gather, eat my Bomb holiday goodies , play games at a large table and exchange gifts throughout. We had a blast last year; hoping for repeats this year. (5 kids!)
I'm not sure what threads I've mentioned it in, but I lost my Dad about 19 months ago. He had lung cancer: I was his caregiver and at his side when he Transitioned, from this life to whatever the Next Step may be. So last years holidays were defiantly tainted with a loss, a sadness; that Logical feeling that the world had now become Altered, and Nothing will ever be quite the "same " again .
My heart is slow in healing
But it's coming along.
I still enjoy some various holiday Traditions aside from just those mentioned above.
I love the Ritual of dragging out the Christmas decorations (I decided to no longer put up a Tree, in my apartment. One of my cats is a real Climber and things got dangerous last year in the five days I had a Tree up.)
I still put out stockings, knick -knacks, decorations. Although the Family gatherings now take place at the homes of our relatives, my husband and I have certain "items" we put out each year.
I did this tonight; took down the Autumn decorations and put out the Christmas ones. The actual WEEK OF Christmas, I will put the Nativity up (small frosted cystal set had belonged to my husband's parents). On Christmas Eve, I lay tiny Baby Jesus in the manger.
Little rituals.
Baking pumpkin pies and wrapping holiday gifts.... baking up cookies n treats : making trays for neighbors n friends. These things my parents did before me and my now-Adult children are beginning to do in their own homes.....
Bittersweet, these special occasions. but they are markedly more comfortable and enjoyable when I Observe the little rituals and traditions as best I can.
Last year was difficult all December, right up to Christmas eve when I got off my butt and Forced myself to make treats, wrap presents, put a traditional holiday movie on the DVD player. The Spirit took over and I was Ok after that.
I truly wish ALL life's comforts and joys to everyone this holiday season; May we ALL be Blessed with wellness and Peace .
i'm sorry to hear about your dad.
christmas is a really tough time of year for a
lot of people. i miss a lot of my family - those that have passed, and those of us that are in different parts of the world. my siblings and i all live in different countries and i feel a bit bad for my mum and dad that they will be alone again this year.
i've never been one for the whole christmas spirit thing, because i'm not reliigious, but also because i've seen it as a sad day for a long time.
i should have arranged to fly home for xmas but it is complicated.
also, a lot of the traditions of christmas that most of the world follows would be batshit crazy on a hot australian summer's day.
i know some people have a big roast for lunch with teir families or whatever, but my family tended towards cold meats and salad. i stopped eating meat about 20 years ago - so i don't feel very much attached to any sort of christmas traditions.
i just try to make sure that if anyone i know seems particularly down or troubled around this time of year, to do my best to look out for them. as i said to begin with - it's a really sad time for a lot of people and that worries me sometimes.
i hope the holiday season this year won't be too hard for you and your family.
Dude was bout to be like... how much do you want for the unfinished ash guitar body? Love the look of my buttescotch ash telecaster with maple neck and mine feels quite light. This proletarian pothead ain't going nowhere but bookstores, coffee shops, and pub gigs in town. I'm about to practice though since I am working with a few of the parts I liked from my improvisation yesterday. Really like the higher frequency phase and long delay, makes playing fun when I'm so baked.
nice. do you have a picture (or a link to something similar?)
i used to play a tele, they're very nice guitars, but i sold mine when it was gathering dust after i got a jaguar, and then the ever so beautiful gretsch i play now.
i'd never had a hollow body or semi acoustic guitar before, but i'm a total convert. the harmonic resonance and feedback capabilities are phenomenal
i think if i ever were to get a solid-body electric guitar again, i'd consider another telecaster. they're solid, no-bullshit guitars, and not as toppy as some of the other fenders (like mustangs for instance, which look great but lack bottom-end for my kind of playing.
teles though - you can't go wrong.
i'm not a guitar collector though - i only like to own what i use, and i have a really nice old 1961 harmony archtop acoustic, which is just good to have on hand for acoustic stuff (i've done a little studio work with it, but nothing major - few overdubs here and there)and my beautiful gretsch which i use for live shows and recordings.
i hate touring with the gretsch though. well - not touring so much as trusting it to baggage handlers and airlines.
the bodies on those things aren't the toughest instruments around, and i don't have the greatest road case for it. last time i took it on tour, the fucking airline left it sitting in the middle of the terminal, nowhere near the baggage claim thingol, and it really freaked me out, i thought they'd lost it.
so...i occasionally think about getting something better to tour with. something tough like...another telecaster
there is an incredible vintage guitar store near where i live, and the guys that own it are from my hometown and we have a lot of mutual friends because one of them was in a pretty successful group from there in the early 2000s.
anyway, i like to go in and play all of their ridiculously hot gutars for hours at a time, because they're happy to let me do so and i love talking vintage guitar with guys like that who fix them up and sell them - they know their shit.
last time i went there i spent about 2 hours and picked up every beautiful guitar that caught my eye.
of all the great guitars, my favourite was a 1973 telecaster deluxe, something like this:
if i were inclined to add another electric guitar to my huge stash of instuments, i think that would be one of them.
sounds, feels and looks smokin' hot.
but i still love my gretsch most of all, haha. i think this month must mark 7 years since i got it, too.
it's really nice after playing for years and constantly upgrading to better guitars as i could afford them, to feel like i've found the set up (guitar and amp) that absolutely works for me.
it's a dreamy combination i've got, and it really gives me a unique sound.
i've posted pics before, but i'm going to do it again because she's sexy as fuck, and looks like this;
tl;dr - guitar blatherings.
edit -
i really really love playing guitar - and oh yeah, i nearly forgot, but i started a new band recently, and we booked our first gig yesterday, for sometime in early february.
that's going to be fun, and my other band are currently spread across the globe, so we won't be doing anything until at least march next year either. i think 2018 will be a very productive musical year for me though.
i want to play as many shows as i can possibly manage, and i'm thrilled to be in a town with hundreds of venues to let us do that. the music scene here is so ridiculously healthy, it's insane - and my older, more established band got an almost embarrassingly enthusiastic response from a lot of people last time we played here, so that's exciting.
this year has been nuts, and i think only did about 4 gigs, which is pretty crummy - but we did put out an LP and i have co-written (literally) hundreds of songs with the new band (which is a vehicle for a very old songwriting partnership - a guy i've been writing songs with since about 2003).
so it hasn't all been a waste of time. far from it
