More STYX

It's been two weeks since the rodeo and concert, and I'm still blogging about it?
Lots of other stuff has been happening, and I'm way behind.
Remind me of this when I'm complaining that I don't have any new pictures or stories.


Ricky has changed basses and Tommy's now playing a Les Paul, so you can tell that we've finally moved past the 1st song.
JY never changes guitars, and in fact has played this exact same Fender Stratocaster from the beginning.
A friend of his in college invented a distortion or booster circuit of some kind and installed it in the guitar. JY could never get the same sound out of any other gear, and got hooked on it. Forever friends, a boy and his Strat.




This guy sings almost exactly like Dennis DeYoung, the original keyboardist who sang some of the hits, but I think the new fella is less pretentious.
I explained to Sylvia that the other guys hated Mr. Roboto, Dennis's concept album that almost killed their career, and that they wouldn't play the title song. I was right.





Here Tommy is playing a 12 string electric that looks like someone took a saw to a Telecaster. Like me back in the day, he even played a solo on the 12 complete with bent notes. What a little stud.


I had just finished telling Syl about how the band was formed by the Panozza brothers, who played drums and bass, but who were now too old or too dead to tour.
Then who walks up onstage but Chuck Panozza! Ricky Phillips switched to a 6/12 doubleneck so Chuck could play some bass and feel like a star again.
After this song he sat behind the drummer and rested, then played the rest of the night. Two basses at once?
Very Spinal Tap at times, but they made it work.

Feeling Foggy

My chills and fever seem to be over, but my brain is still a little foggy.
Much like a few nights ago:


While at the Quarry Shopping Center I got a new guitar ornament from Restoration Hardware--they are already 30% off.
RH is featuring the Beatles this year, so the only choices were a Ringo drumkit, a Hofner violin bass, a big Gretsch hollowbody electric, and John Lennon's Rickenbacker pictured above.
The quality and accuracy of these guitar ornaments gets better and better every year, and at under $10 before markdowns I find them hard to resist.

We got the Viewmaster at Hallmark last January when they were at 75%-off.
It really works (if your eyes are close enough together) and included a 2nd ornament with the extra discs.

Work = Play

I got called onstage to play with Bliss again tonight, and it's always a fun surprise.
Glad I have a friend who knew where my camera was hidden and also knew that I would like a shot of this.

I have great affection for Rikk's Ibanez bass.

More Marathon

The people on the far side of the metal barricade are about to finish the half-marathon. The guy with wheels on this side just rolled for over 26 miles!

A familiar face in the crowd. Yay, Meredith!

I was a little surprised that Sylvia spotted me in the crowd, but we've been together for so long that our ESP is synched-up very well.
We even finish each other's sandwiches.
Sentences.
Whatever.

We're all very proud of Sylvia, but a bunch of fake Elvii make for a more interesting picture than one of Selma trying to get her to eat a banana and some chips at the same time.



The medal is much nicer this year, if you can overlook the font size error.

Syl's recovery was much better this year--a short nap and we made it to the concert, unlike last year.
Always wanted to see Grand Funk Railroad, and even without Mark Farner they were solid and fun. Drummer Don Brewer was amazing--I guess all the years he's played with Bob Seger haven't turned him into a pussy.
Bruce Kulik, who usually wears Ace Frehley's makeup in KISS these days, played lead guitar.
Mel Shacher was as cool as could be on bass.

Los Lonely Boys were terrific until they started taking long jams with some random harmonica player, then trotted out cover tunes.
The best moment of the show was during a long intro to their 3rd song.
The drummer turned to the local crew's monitor mixer and asked for some bass guitar--his request was clearly audible out front.
I guess he didn't get any bass, because 20 seconds later we all heard "You ever done this before?!?!"
Hilarious!

I feel bad for monitor mixers because it's the hardest job in rock.
They get a lot of abuse, including beer bottles thrown at them by weak lead singers.
(Cough cough Don Dokken cough!)
Whenever I've been on a big show I always play dumb and "confess" to having no clue how to run a monitor board, which bumps me up to the main house mix.
It works out for the best, since I usually have the best ears on the crew.

Sylvia is a running machine!
13.1 miles would kill me.
And so would the dirty looks from the other runners when I stopped for a smoke break.

Jazz Candy

Tonight I was just going about my business--learning songs for band practice on Thursday, cooking some pizza for us to eat during the Spurs game, surfing the interwaves, watering the brown grass, stuff like that.
Happened to notice that Candy (our albino corn snake) was cruising around her tank in 'hunting' mode and remembered that I had a mouse in the freezer, so I took the micicle out to thaw and forgot all about it.
The snake's actions eventually reminded me to check on the mouse's temperature and set-up the feeding tank.
Mere seconds before that process was too far along to interrupt, it occurred to me that snakes and electric basses might be a nice combination for photographic purposes.
A few months ago I already had a squirming handful of hungry slither before deciding to set-up lights and camera--what a mistake! You need two free hands.

What's interesting to me is how repeated usage of my lighting tools speeds-up the process.
Three or 4 minutes to place a white foamcore background on a rocking chair behind the bass, connect my main flash to it's radio-remote triggers and gel/grid/position the 2nd slave flash, aim them both using guesswork that turned out to be good, then add my newest light modifier--a white Chinese paper lantern globe from IKEA that Sylvia remembered I wanted.
We don't have any IKEA stores in SA, so it was a delightful surprise when she grabbed me one on the way home from her trip to Galveston.



This is how I shot it--as a vertical which represented the reality of a bass on it's stand + snake.


The beauty of having a bajillion pixels to work with lets you make desktop wallpapers of your favorite parts within an image.


But going back to how things first appeared onscreen, I kinda like this version.

It's still too early to decide where I'm going to go with this one.
Only spent 6 minutes shooting, and this exposure with both a good snake presentation and visible forked tongue was within the first two.

Good photography isn't supposed to be about how quickly you can set your shit up, it's about capturing what you intended.
But the reality is that when anything becomes a pain-in-the-ass to accomplish, you might be less likely to continue.
Right now, I'm jazzed by the fact that whenever I try something complicated like this it takes half as much time as the previous attempt.

Bass Portraits

A lot of work went into getting her cleaned-up.
I didn't remove the neck, but all else was fair game down to screws and springs.
Boiled the strings with a little baking soda to get the gunk out of the windings and bring back some brightness and sustain.
Adjusted the neck's truss-rod to get it straight and at the same time lower the action.
After that you have to re-do the intonation unless you like to play out of tune.


Installed StrapLocks so she doesn't ever leave me before I decide to let her go...

After all that work I spent only a few minutes gazing at her with lust before pulling out the camera gear and going to work capturing how I felt--while she was still fresh and clean.

Before I got my hand around that slender neck and used her.


It's a shame we can't stay together forever.
But she isn't truly mine, except in my heart.

Christmas Parties

A typical Christmas for my family as far as what we did, yet it somehow manages to get more wonderful every year. We all grow older and wiser, and the love grows sweeter.
The kids in our extended family are now a married man, a college senior, a HS senior, and a 'tween--and they've merely become older and taller and smarter versions of how they were as soon as they could string a sentence together.
Bless them for keeping unnecessary drama to a minimum, but nobody's perfect so I get plenty of chuckles out of what they do.
Even when my vodka was "borrowed" last year. We found out and replaced the alcohol in the water bottle with...water!
I love how every generation thinks it has new ideas.

This is an overview of the party at my house on Christmas Night.
My fire pit is in the center, but instead of the fancy and pretty and expensive ones you can buy at Target this is just an old galvanized washtub set on cinderblocks, which are on a pallet. My brother welded together a grate to hold up the wood using expanded steel mesh, rebar framing, and railroad spike legs.
He's a genius and a rocket scientist and a clever dick who I love dearly, and I was overjoyed that he and his GF were able to attend our annual party this year.
2007 saw many potential guests knocked down by the flu. Most of those who were AWOL this year had much crappier excuses.
On the right is Sylvia's new chiminea--a truly perfect gift from Julie and Eddie who also brought some nicely seasoned wood to burn and some fine chili.

Last year my closest friends and family were sick--not so in '08.
Not only did Mike & Amie make it along with Ken & Deri, but the musicians in Bliss also stopped by and in fact Rikk and Steve were the last to leave. I love being in a band that has a "family vibe". (A slightly drunk family...)
The photo above shows the amazing multi-instrumentalist Florin Sanchez playing my guitar and singing for everyone's enjoyment. It was enough of a treat for me that he even showed up, let alone provided some entertainment. It was a relaxed and special moment that surely set a high mark that'll be hard to beat in parties to come.
The very best musician I have worked with during my 28 years in the music business.

Never one to be outdone by some youngster, the family patriarch takes his turn on my guitar and amp. This is the very first time that Jesus Cantu ever played an electric guitar, and I was honored that a man in his 70's would entertain my guests with his lovely songs.
He'll tell you that he sang better as a boy, but my band members (and everyone else) preferred him as he is now--a man who's lived a long and sometimes difficult life who put family above all else and can now sit back and enjoy.
The compliments on the authenticity and style and tone of his voice keep coming in.


This is the middle generation of sisters who all have names starting with S.
Mine is on the left.
Somehow we managed to shoot this without the matriarch catching-on, just before Christmas Eve Mass (with bonus Children's Nativity Play).
I warned them to be dressed up and ready when we arrived and used a wireless flash hand-held.
Their mother was so busy making sure everyone was ready to go to church that we got away with it in only a few minutes.
Giving her the framed 8x10" print on Sunday night--there was a point when we all choked-up and tears were issuing threats, much like the photo of her grandkids in 2007.
Having some technical skills and an occasional idea when it comes to photography can be extremely rewarding when you concentrate hard on what your audience might want.

And it was good...