One of the problems with being old and having a young 'un is my inability to stay up long enough to watch late night television. A bout of insomnia the other night had me watching Leno, and he had on Raul Midon.
It is rare that someone comes along with an entirely new way to play guitar. Eddie Van Halen did it. Stanley Jordan did it. Michael Hedges did it. Jeff Healey sort of did it, but he was more just playing blues guitar in an unconventional manner, like the way Jimi Hendrix played his guitar upside down and backwards. Although Jimi did break plenty of new ground, too.
If you watch this clip, which I'm sure will be removed by the New York copyright police in a day or two, listen to all the harmonics he's playing. (For the non-musicians, harmonics are "false" notes that sound above the fundamental. They are the really high, ringing notes that ring out above the percussive slapping. On a stringed instrument, you can carefully coax the harmonics out with dinner and a movie.) He is getting a sound on guitar that I have never heard the likes of before.
I got me a shiny new job last month. I'm a VP at an ad agency. The President and one of our Account Executives and I made a successful conversion of a potential client into a new client the other night by using that tried and true method used throughout advertising history, many bottles of expensive red wines and many plates full of expensive red meats.
I've been meaning to get a new work cell phone for this job, and the other night the discussion turned to the new client's iPhone. (For the uninitiated, ad agency folks live and die over having the newest, hippest stuff that Apple puts out.) He said, "You're at an agency, you gotta get an iPhone." So I did. Yesterday. Take that.
And now, for no particular reason, other than the fact that I hardly post here anymore, here is a video of "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by one-hit-wonder White Plains. Not to be confused with The White Stripes. It was one of the first records I remember buying. I was probably six or seven. I probably still have it somewhere. I can still picture the label. Of course, at age seven, I didn't realize that "My Baby Loves Lovin'" is pop-music code for "I have a really horny new girlfriend."
