Day: April 18, 2007

To learn an instrument, I think you really need to start young. If you’re forty years old and pick up a guitar, I don’t think you’re gonna be able to play the B.B. King licks. You have to spend more time with that guitar than you do with your wife. That’s why I’m by myself now. I had to come up with a divorce, because my wife would tell me, “You’re putting too much time into the guitar and ain’t givin’ me none.” And I said, “You go, I’m keepin’ my guitar.”

– Buddy Guy – Rolling Stone interview 2005

Well well, looks like I may be buying an all access pass to Bluesfest this year as the lineup is stellar. Let’s take a gander at some of the neat bands coming our way that I’m interested in seeing:

Thursday, July 5 – Bob Dylan, City and Colour
Friday – George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Saturday – Nothing really of interest yet.
Sunday – The White Stripes, Hawksley Workman
Monday – Hedley, Jonny Lang
Tuesday – George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars (awww yeah!)
Wednesday – STEVE MILLER BAND!!!
Thursday – Blue Rodeo, Robert Cray Band (of Eric Clapton fame), Xavier Rudd
Friday – INXS, Metric
Saturday – Nothing much of interest.
Sunday, July 15 – Sam Roberts Band, Alexisonfire.

Honestly, you can’t go wrong with a lineup like that. I am actually thinking it’s better for my body to just take the entire week off of work to compensate for the beer drinking that will occur. We all know what happened last year after going for one night…I can only imagine an entire week!

I was talking to Troy last night after commending him on his stellar demos that he and his bass playing buddy Oram (assuming this is a last name…) recorded (which are amazing by the way. Their cover of Living on A Prayer is by far the best cover I’ve ever heard) (way too many parentheses scattered around)(this)(entry).

Anyhow, Troy was talking about how he loves Guitar World – the must have magazine for guitar players.

I’ve given up on magazines for the past few years as I really didn’t feel they had much to offer that I couldn’t get off the Internet. Sure, they are great for reading when you have a moment but if I’m looking for some hardcore information, it’s usually out there somewhere in cyberspace.

However, he piqued my interest when he mentioned how this month’s issue has a great write-up from the engineer of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Well, I can’t really pass this up!

Until I get to the newsstand and I notice the price tag.

$10.

$10?! For a magazine? What the heck? Where I have been all these years? Do people actually pay this much for a magazine? Granted, this magazine had a swell CD along with it, but still!

I checked out the Guitar World website (Troy, this is some good info for you buddy) and they say a subscription is $40. That is awesome, yet utterly ridiculous.

I understand why they do this. Subscriptions are guaranteed sales. Newsstands are not. Numbers are the new king in the world. If I can tell my boss that we have 90 subscribers that guarantee some revenue, but only 50 newsstand issues that may get returned…well, the outlook is still good.

So there is the potential that they will get some unsold copies returned to them at the end of the month. So why not slash the price of the magazine for some guaranteed sales numbers so they look good?

I must admit that as a subscriber, you can’t really complain. If I get this subscription, I’ll be getting 12 mags and 12 CDs for $3.33 an issue as opposed to $10.

But what about the casual readers like me? Doesn’t make much sense to me to go out and pick up an issue for $10. That’s 3 issues in subscription land!

In the end, they achieve the result they wished for. I will go forth and order a subscription in hopes that if it processes fast enough, I will get the Sgt. Pepper’s issue. It’s a different world nowadays. When I was a kid, subscriptions would get processed 2 months later and then you would wonder if you would get the newest issue or the one from two months ago! I had a subscription to a Star Wars mag last year and I was afraid of missing an issue so I bought the 2 issues in the meantime, but they sent them to me! Argh, what a rip. So this time, I’ll go ahead and order the subscription and not bother buying any off the newsstand. Worst case scenario, I’ll just borrow Troy’s issue one day while I’m visiting.

Memory: This brings up a memory of how…I think one of my grandmothers got me a subscription to Spider-Man. Coolness! Until I got them in the mail. Mail is NOT the way to get a comic. Not only was it bent, mutilated, etc., but inside the plastic bag when I opened it, the cover was off! What kind of collectible is this? I had to go out and buy the issues anyhow so I could have one in pristine condition. Not impressed. I can’t remember if I wrote to Marvel Comics or not, but that was ridiculous. So Nanny, if you’re reading this, the gift idea was great, but it really didn’t work out.

iplaying: Everything Back But You (Avril Lavigne – The Best Damn Thing)

I’ve been in super study mode for the past week.

Although it really didn’t work out for me on Monday night. I love my media ethics class. I really do. The professor is top notch also. Best professor I’ve ever had.

He hinted towards what he would be asking on the exam. I knew this and I still couldn’t figure out a way to approach it.

After cramming, I sat myself down and lo and behold, it was what I expected – a single question dealing with what my opinion was and I needed to back up my opinion.

So far in my academic career, I have mastered the art of regurgitation – memorizing facts and spewing them back onto a piece of paper. No worries there. I can tell you what each Supreme Court case dealt with, what the verdict was, and the main issue to learn from it was.

But I haven’t mastered the art of providing my opinion and backing it up. Lord knows I have an opinion on many issues…but I usually just throw out random tidbits to back up my arguments, not some full blown examples from six Supreme Court cases. Gak.

I froze. I felt sick. I think a tear dropped down my face. Alright, it wasn’t that bad. (no really, it was!) I really didn’t know how I was going to approach it. The fact of the matter was, I didn’t know if I did have an opinion anyhow!

Krista mentioned how it’s not about having an opinion – it’s about finding the knowledge to back up either side of the argument. I will know for next time, that’s for sure.

I wish I would have had a week to work on this exam – I could have put a lot more thought into it. But two hours was all that I had and I have a very bad feeling that the two tests that I aced in the class will be relied on heavily to bring my mark up from the bottomless pit which will be my mark on the exam.

I’m always interested in the markings of exams. I’ve had this feeling before back in college (but not this bad) and I think I did really bad on the exam and in the end I come out with a decent mark. How did that happen? Then I wonder if some Professors go easy on the whole group during exam time because they know they under pressure so they are easy on the marks. I need to find the inside scoop.

Anyhow, I have another exam on Thursday and then I’m a free man for 2 months until the school thing starts up again for me. I haven’t been doing too well in this other class so I am cramming hard for the exam. I think I figured out where I went wrong in the last test so I know how to adjust my studying so I feel confident. Also, it’s multiple choice. What’s the beauty of multiple choice? At least you have an answer no matter what. The catch is, you may choose the wrong one. But it’s way better than leaving a blank sheet.