Recording of the red Melody Maker tuned to "Open A"

    In going through some of the old songs in a dusty corner of my computer's hard drive, I ran across this recording.  It was in a folder named, "Slide idea in open A tuning" and was just that - an idea for a song that I never took any further.  I'm not even sure which guitar I used, but I suspect it was either the red Gibson Melody Maker (which is a story for another time) or one of my Ovation Breadwinners (I had a rare blue one shown in this photo, but later traded it with an Ovation collector for a tan Breadwinner and a Kaman amp).  To me, it sounds more like the Melody Maker, but it is kinda tough to tell due to the fuzz, which I think is the homemade Tube Sound Fuzz pedal I built from Craig Anderton's "Electronic Projects for Musicians" book.

Played: 16 | Download | Duration: 00:00:00

Boys love their toys. I talked about some of the toys from my childhood on this blog in the past. But what happens when the boys grow up? Well, some of us never seem to grow up. We simply get more expensive toys. << MORE >>

This song is about the troubles in this life and the promise of the one that comes after.<< MORE >>

My sisters and I were cleaning out the attic in Dad's home recently and found lots of artifacts from our childhood.  In addition to just about every birthday card we ever made for our parents, we also found lots of old school papers (including report cards, yikes!).  There was an entire suitcase full of my old school papers - class notes from US History, graded papers from 7th grade & up, and one curious picture mounted on construction paper.  It appeared to be a full page picture cut out of a magazine (see below).  I'm guessing it was from Omni Magazine, or ...<< MORE >>

Reverend Fred V. Ellis, 82, of Hickory, went to be with his Lord on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at the Lutheran Home-Hickory West. Born on April 12, 1926 in Mitchell County, NC, he was the son of the late Joseph Mack Ellis and Naomi Randolph Ellis. He graduated from Mars-Hill College, Carson-Newman College and the Southeastern Theological Seminary. He was a bombsight mechanic in the United States Army and retired from the textile industry...<< MORE >>

Stay in the car, Joe

Yeah, right!  How many times did I hear that one as a child?  How many times did I ignore that parental order?  But I was too adventurous and had absolutely no fear.  Before you start thinking my parents were negligent, please remember this happened in the 60s.  It was pretty common for a parent to leave kids in the car while they ran in to the local grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread.  This was in a very small town, also.  Dirt road main street small.  Even Mayberry had ...<< MORE >>

Okay, I've been slack in posting to this blog over the last few weeks. Free time is hard to come by right now. This is partly due to a music project we are doing at church. The choir and orchestra are working on a cantata kind of deal and there are guitar parts in it. Some of it is acoustic, and some electric (including a few solo parts). Yikes! So all my spare time has been spent practicing. So far things aren't really gellin' during practice with the orchestra. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, DomainOfficials.com just announced that we can now post to our QuickBlogs via email, which is how I am attempting to send this post. Perhaps I will be able to add some quickie blog posts using this method...you know, post a thought during lunch hour. Let's hope it works!

Growing up in the 60s & 70s exposed me to quite a mix of toys and games.  We all learned about the latest craze from the same source - TV commercials!  Being the child of minister / missionary, TV was often my only experience with many of the toys and games.  We didn't have a very big budget for toys at Christmas time or on birthdays.  Often the more expensive gifts came from relatives back in North Carolina.  But I did get a hands-on experience with some of the toys and games through the other neighborhood kids.

Our generation got to experience some toy ideas that were so bad that they ...<< MORE >>

Disclaimer:

DON'T PLAY WITH FIRE.  BE CAREFUL WITH ROCKETS - MODEL OR OTHERWISE.  'NUFF SAID.

---

Since last week's article about fire, I remembered a few other fire-related stories.  Hence the title of this week's article:  Playing with Fire - Part II.

Paper Balloons

I'm pretty sure Philip was the person who told me about these.  They required an open space away from any dry vegetation or anything else that might be flammable.  And there shouldn't be any wind at all.

Paper balloons were made from a large sheet of newspaper, such as the piece that was used to form the front and back pages.  It needed ...

<< MORE >>

Disclaimer:

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO ANY OF THE THINGS DESCRIBED BELOW.  DON'T PLAY WITH MATCHES!  DON'T PLAY WITH LIGHTERS.  DON'T PLAY WITH FIRE AT ALL!  OF ALL THE "PRANKS" I TOOK PART IN AS A CHILD, MESSING WITH FIRE WAS THE DUMBEST AND MOST DANGEROUS!  I HAVE SCARS FROM SOME OF THESE INCIDENTS - AND I WAS LUCKY.  YOU MIGHT NOT BE SO LUCKY.

Fire

Why are so many people fascinated with fire?  It almost always starts during childhood.  Most kids outgrow it at some point, often after they suffer some kind of painful burns.

When we first moved to Raton, NM, all ...

<< MORE >>