Design, function and X-mas day

X-mas day for me always brings back fond memories of playing with huge plastic tacky Robots that moved backwards and forwards and made horrendous sounds that could only be muted by a very large ON/OFF switch, often frequented by my parents.

As Dylan pointed out a while back , the times they are a changin'. The robot memory was around '73, bout the same time Dylan was still top 10.However, and more importantly, this must be a happy memory as I've carried it around for all these years. It comes hand in hand with the same memory of truly believing that I heard santas sleigh , or the bells on the reindeers, landing on the roof of the house in Switzerland. Back then I shared a room with my brother and every attention to detail is still etched into memory.This would be years before the testing of magic mushrooms as well..

Nowadays I'm pushed into a room and told that the pc's and television will be pre-occupied by WOW (world of warcraft) and PS2 Harry Potter game.. There came a roar of delight from both when they discovered that NHL 08 also included the ability of the players to knock holes in each other... There is no chance that Santa exists , unless he is in a B movie shown on telly and as the Dalai lama points out, its all about fending for yourself in this world of individuals closing the door on others. One child per room, their Mother asleep in another and myself working on the only pc available as it's too slow for gaming and indeed anything else.

I reckon if I'd given them each a robot (they are still available as a kind of nostalgic cheap junk) I would have been given a cynical look and asked what the joke was..

Anyway, let x-mas day reign on I suppose in this post swedish x-mas eve apocolypse of Must and Chocolates.

I had to spoil myself this x-mas having caught a glimpse of a plastic strapped watch designed by one french designer , Philip Starck. The same guy has designed everything from a 2 z .

Something about the design which I couldn't resist.

Of course having looked up the maker it wasn't an import into Scandinavia, and then I discovered the white version had been replaced by grey and black.So, a quick hunt later and a white limited availability model from 06 was found and purchased immediatly.To be honest I'm not even sure if I'll wear it or put it up on my oiled oak shelves, as I only bought it for it's clean lines, out of the box watch design and looks. Merry x-mas to myself..

Back home tomorrow with new year and projx to look ahead too..

It's X-mas eve...

merry x-mas eve then.. more scripting as soon as...

5k 4 30 minutes

Tomorrow is the final part of a two part mini series involving one of my gnashers.

Of course, this all started around 35 plus years ago when somebody somewhere failed to ensure that my education in tooth retention was followed up. In fact, Scottish dentistry is officially on the map as being the worst in Europe.

So, 2morrow at 14.40 I hand over 5000 kronor for 30 minutes of work and some cheapo crown as the other one costs 12,000. So I suppose there is a positive that there is a cheapo version.
Not a bad job though, being a dentist. He probably marks up around 400% plus on the peice of plastic he will glue in place, and thats on top of a root filling that he charged me 4500kr for.

So, 9500:-\ on one gnasher...no frikken wonder I'm one of the one's never to have been in Thailand...

EJS meets SRVS for Sami Mk1

X-mas just around the corner and despite the media tidal wave I have managed to survive due to 200 golf balls and 3 minutes of indoor football.

The result was an acute buggered back which necessitated a weeks rest, injections to the lower back and a 20 day cure of volteraine and dexofen.

I have to say dexofen has the worst write up on it's box I've ever seen. To summarise, if you drink a day before or two days having swallowed a tab, you could die a horrible death..

Luckily for me don't have a huge drinking habit so it's all aboard the opiut based painkiller train.

The worst factor about having a shot back is the fact that nothing is good enough to relieve the pain (except for the dex..), so standing, walking, lying down or sitting are as painful as each other. So I had to do a shake and mix. The time I used well, as you can see by the photograph of the latest fender neck that will adorn my latest custom project. Shes named Sami Mk1 and comprises of a Fender Eric Johnson Signature 57 custom body adorned with a pau ferro fretboarded Stevie Ray Vaughn Signature neck. Parts are all on the way from several corners of the planet and the result should make an interesting sound indeed. I will be updating with pictures.

The 76 univox hi-flier is now completely rewired and has one pickup, new 250k pots and no switch.I wired her up direct as Johnny Ramone, despite having a chrome seymour duncan at the neck, never had it wired up and only used his di marzio fs-1 in the bridge. I've had to make some adjustments to fit the single coil into the humbucker spacing and without wanting to ruin the original body I've had to make up a new pickguard and conversion ring using an Ikea plastic bread cutting board.Very cheap and plyable. I've noticed the string spread across the magnets is wrong and I will now make a better conversion ring to ensure the wires go across the magnets as they should.With some new Ernie ball Slinkys the sound has been massive and the neck is very fast. I can understand where Grunge and Kurt Cobain got the sounds and soul from, as most started on these Univox guitars. Its a trasher guitar, you have to trash the thing to get the bite...

All very far away from the Jimmy page Signature that rests in it's own green lush quality guitar case and only gets taken out when I'm composing.The difference in quality reflects in the price tag of course and one shouldn't compare the two.So I wont. Lets just say the JP signature is magnificent in all areas and is used for different moods and feelings.

I can only compare those days when one listens to Dave Brubeck or Miles Davis as opposed to The Exploited or The Ramones.

Now all I needed was a guitar that would be there purely Blues days and that will be Sami Mk1.

With 3 single coil Vintage hand wound pickups added to the neck and body it will only be there for blues..

So far so good then. back is getting better and sooner rather than later I will put the Supermotard back to glory and then start off loading a lot of gear I have around.

More to come on Projx