Tres Amigos

My brother Mark is visiting from Nashville and we got to hook up with Alan Young, his bandmate, who is also visiting from Nashville, and rehearse a bit for the upcoming gig on May 30th. Here we are standing in front of LiveMix Studio's green chroma-key wall. I haven't had the energy to stick a weather map up behind us...

AIG and Congress

With all the outrage over the AIG employee bonuses paid out, I feel the need to put some mathematical perspective on this. Yes, it looks bad when a company has received 170 billion dollars in bailout funds, then turns around and pays 165 million in bonuses. It makes people mad. And when people get mad, their elected officials get mad.

170 billion: $170,000,000,000
165 million: $165,000,000
1/10th of 1% of 170 billion=170 million

Look at it this way: think of AIG as our son, away at college, who has asked us for $1000 to help with his expenses while he looks for a job. We find out that out of that money, he put a penny in a gumball machine. How dare he! We didn't give him that money to buy gumballs! Now we're mad, because he wasted a penny out of the thousand bucks. Should we huff and puff and waste time trying to get the penny back, or do we lay down some rules to make sure the rest of the money is used as it was intended?
I'm not pretending millions of dollars is inconsequential, just that it pales in comparison to the total amount of money at stake. Instead of wasting time and money trying to find a way to get back a tiny fraction of the bailout funds, our legislators need to keep their eyes on the big bucks and make sure it is used correctly.

Wonderful Saturday

Saturday I got to shoot some photos for a project I'm working on, with indispensable help from Tina Watson and Amee. After shooting, Amee took me to dinner for my birthday at the Bridge Road Bistro, then we headed home and decided to play some Scrabble, which went badly for me, as you can see from my beginning seven letters. It wasn't pretty. It was a great day, though.

Recommendation

I'd posted this picture awhile back; a Reverend Warhawk 390. It was kind of a wish list guitar at the time. Well, I've had one for a little over a year now and decided to give a review of sorts, since many people still don't know anything about Reverend guitars.
First off, a bit of history. The guitars I've owned:
Fender: 3 Telecasters, 1 Strat
Gibson: Les Paul Standard, ES-335
Gretsch: Tennessee Rose, Duo-Jet
Rickenbacker: 360 (6- and 12-string)
Epiphone: Les Paul Special
I've also played Gibson SGs, Explorers, & Paul Reed Smiths.
So now, how does the Reverend compare to the other guitars I've played? Hands down, this is the best guitar I've ever owned. Right out of the box, the action and setup were perfect. The sounds this guitar makes are phenomenal, even if my playing isn't. Solid Korina body, set neck, 3 P-90 pickups, and a "bass contour" knob, exclusive to Reverend, that actually changes the sound of the pickups from a fat P-90 sound to a cleaner, Fender single coil sound. It's not as heavy as my Gretsch, it's comfortable, and it really sounds fantastic. And it was reasonably priced (about $600). From the user reviews posted on Harmony-central.com, I'm not alone in my praise of this company. Gibson's quality control of the last couple of decades has been spotty; not so Reverend. They have several models, with almost every pickup configuration you can think of, and offer tremolo units for those players who love a whammy bar. Check them out.

To Pork Or Not To Pork?

John McCain on the earmarks in the current spending bill:

"How does anyone justify some of these earmarks: $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa; $2 million "for the promotion of astronomy" in Hawaii; $6.6 million for termite research in New Orleans; $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York," he said.

Do the math. The $6.6 million for termite research is sixteen one-thousandths of the spending package. Taxpayers for common sense estimate $7.7 billion in earmarks in the bill, out of $410 billion; that's less than 2% of the bill. Earmarks, while an easy target to complain about, are not the big culprits they are made out to be. Each of them are attached to real people doing real jobs, which is why senators and congressmen are loathe to give them up. $1.7 million for pig odor research seems frivolous, unless you've lived near swine and know how much they stink (I think it's money well spent).

Projects like the F-22 Raptor fighter, which is currently 19 years in the making and $55 billion over budget, will never get voted down, because the project has ties to 25 different states and employs hordes of workers.

There are places to save, but everyone needs to be a little more honest about the numbers they throw around.

Clarification of Terms Used

Recently, some environmental activists have been protesting Massey Energy's C0al River Mountain site by chaining themselves to heavy equipment, blocking access roads, etc. Massey has dubbed these people "environmental terrorists." They call it "civil disobedience." There have been incidents in other states of what I think it fair to use the stronger term. The one that comes to mind was a situation out west where some activists, who were against the building of new subdivisions. These people didn't chain themselves to bulldozers or stand in front of trucks. They burned down the new houses. Big difference. Massey should not use the t-word when speaking of these people, who are non-violently protesting Massey's mining operation. It's not a case of to-may-to/to-mah-to; it's inflammatory and sensationalist, inaccurate, and, ultimately, reduces the chances of any meaningful discussion.

WVU

As WVU looks for a new president, journalists are interviewing board members and interested parties to find out what they are looking for in a new president and what he or she needs to do. I think their top priority should be to bring up enrollment numbers by repealing the "no burning couches on game day" ordinance and work to put WVU back on the top of the list of "Top Party Schools." Think of all the students who decide to go to another school since they aren't allowed to burn couches and partying is being frowned upon...no fun!

(I'm being completely facetious, by the way, before the WVU alumni start sending hate mail...)

Howlin' Wolf Don't Laugh at Me

Some great guitar work from Hubert Sumlin and the Wolf rocks, as always.