Paul Wesley

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For me: Joe Walsh better than Stevie Nicks Ryan Adams better than Alanis Morisette Todd Snider better than John Prine (disclaimer: Prine discovered and showcased Snider -and is an all-time great - but at this time, Prine was in his twilight)

First-hand accounts only.

Sold

Flirted with selling the R8 last year (talked about it on this thread). Decided to keep it. Just relisted it on Reverb. Dead mint, 8#2oz. Teaburst. True Historic specs. Carmelita neck (pretty chunky). PM me for the Surly deep discount.

Need to get rid of these. $180 for both.

Bought tickets but can't go. This is the 8pm show. 2 tickets. Face value ($270).

Cross-posting from the guitar thread, just in case there are interested people who have a different primary instrument, or who make electronic music completely in the box. I am trying to move forward with the idea of organizing a songwriter group that will hold one another accountable for the rest of 2023. Here's an abbreviated version of that post: ----------------------------- Here's what I'm imagining: 1. Every month, you get a three or four prompts to pick from. A couple of them can be specific (tempo or key or style) and a couple can be broad (topics or a short lyrical phrase that you have to use). Everyone can throw one out or email me suggestions and I'll come up with them. There are a shit ton of "songwriting prompt" websites to steal from. 2. An iPhone recording is probably going to be the default format. If y'all want to do zoom or in-person, we could do that too. So don't feel like you'll need professionally polished versions of your songs. I imagine people (maybe including me) would be more comfortable sharing things on a zoom call or an email chain. 3. Something due on the first of the month from now through Jan 1. That's a fairly self-limited commitment, and seems both ambitious and achievable. I would LOVE to have five songs done or semi-formed by New Year's By comparison, the Mraz/Schneider song game - which I was never part of - had a song due every Friday, and you were kicked out of the group if you didn't submit something. https://www.npr.org/2013/11/24/246755925/for-a-few-musicians-beating-songwriters-block-is-all-in-the-game One song a month is a WAY lower bar, though maybe we still have to use the threat of an Amish shunning in order to hold everyone accountable. I'm open to suggestions for a format that is most inclusive and most helpful. Tell you what, if you want "in," then "like" this post with the Gritty Fuck Around and Find Out icon (no need to Gritty again here if you already Grittied on the other thread). I don't know what's a reasonable quorum (maybe eight people minimum?). If we get a quorum after a few days, I'll PM everyone, and I imagine it will probably be easier to operate offline, like we'll start a new email chain for each month. edit: We can make at least one of the prompts pertinent for people who write instrumentals (i.e. it won't just be a vocal phrase like other songwriting groups have used). I have an idea for the first prompt, and I'll send that one (and others) on the 15th. Everyone will have 15 days to write the first one, 30+ days to write the others. And then it's over, just in time for your New Year's resolutions (which always work out perfectly).

Me, reading this thread: "Hey, Babe. Who was that artist that you and (oldest daughter) used to listen to -- it was bubblegum pop and all her songs were about girl power?" Wife, without hesitation: "Bree Sharp. I love her. I'm going to listen to her right now."

To hear him tell it now - and imitate himself trying to do the rapid-fire lyrics while crying - is pretty hysterical. "You try to give away a keeper, but you keep me 'cause you know, You're just so scared to lose..." Tragedy + time, I guess.

A good friend of mine has a brilliant story about this song. He was probably around 30 at the time. His girlfriend of a couple years, who he was really in love with, had announced "this isn't working for me" and moved out. I'm not certain, but I think she had even left the state and gotten back with her ex in a very short time. My buddy was devastated and deeply depressed. After some weeks/months of his friends not seeing him, they convinced him to get out of his house and meet them for karaoke - something their group (both guys and girls) had done off and on for fun. So he goes out, and everybody is having a good time and picking songs, and he sees the song "Stay," and he thinks, "Oh, this would be an ironic and funny song for a dude." He signs up for it. A short time later, he's on the stage, the song starts, and the words come up on the video screen. He sees the words to the very first line in the song and realizes, "Oh, wait .... This is a breakup song." And then all the pain starts pouring out of him, and he goes pretty quickly from shaky-voice singing to crying uncontrollably. But he's determined not to quit, so he just sort of sobs his way through the entire song. And finally it ends, and the once-lively bar is pin-drop silent. All conversations had stopped. And with everyone watching, he walks past the table where his friends are and he goes and sits at the bar alone.

I'm just putting this here because I'm sure someone here likes it. A few of you really belt it out when you're in the car and no one's watching. I mean, not me though. I use antlers in all of my decorating.

The time I've spent with a guitar in my hand - or just doing anything creative - has probably declined to an all-time low in 2023. I've had a constant feeling of being overwhelmed and stressed and starved for time. Some of that is real and some of it is probably imagined - i.e. I haven't been super productive with the time that I *do* have. So for me, offering to coordinate a writing group is just an attempt to salvage what's left of the year, and to show some grit even though I'm not feeling super gritty. I'm just trying to create some self-accountability. In the past, when I was trying to finish an album, I would book a studio/engineer and a rhythm section, with the goal of doing drums/bass and scratch vocals/guitar on four songs in a day. Invariably, when I confirmed the session, I only had 1.5 songs and then maybe a riff and the fourth song usually didn't exist at all, and then I'd have two or three weeks before the recording date to get them done. I've written several songs at 3am when the band is showing up at 10. I subscribe fully to the Duke Ellington observation: "Don't give me more time. I don't need time. I need a deadline." Anyway, I've never been part of a songwriting group, much less led one, but here's what I'm imagining: 1. Every month, you get a three or four prompts to pick from. A couple of them can be specific (tempo or key or style) and a couple can be broad (topics or a short lyrical phrase that you have to use). Everyone can throw one out or email me suggestions and I'll come up with them. There are a shit ton of "songwriting prompt" websites to steal from. 2. An iPhone recording is probably going to be the default format. If y'all want to do zoom or in-person, we could do that too. We *could* start a thread in this forum, but I imagine people (maybe including me) would be more comfortable sharing things on a zoom call or an email chain. 3. Something due on the first of the month from now through Jan 1. That's a fairly self-limited commitment, and seems both ambitious and achievable. I would LOVE to have five songs done or semi-formed by New Year's By comparison, the Mraz/Schneider song game - which I was never part of - had a song due every Friday, and you were kicked out of the group if you didn't submit something. https://www.npr.org/2013/11/24/246755925/for-a-few-musicians-beating-songwriters-block-is-all-in-the-game One song a month is a WAY lower bar, though maybe we still have to use the threat of an Amish shunning in order to hold everyone accountable. I'm open to suggestions for a format that is most inclusive and most helpful. Tell you what, if you want "in," then "like" this post with the Gritty Fuck Around and Find Out icon. I don't know what's a reasonable quorum (maybe eight people minimum?). If we get a quorum after a few days, I'll PM everyone, and I imagine it will probably be easier to operate offline, like we'll start a new email chain for each month. In the meantime, change your fucking strings and get your gummies ready.

That aged very nicely.

Not sure which thread to put this question on... I'm curious how much interest there would be in a songwriting group. And if we had one, how would it function? Prompts would have to allow for a variety of styles. Songs due on the first? Publish them on this website, somewhere else, in person, ? Maybe have one song due on the first of each month through New Year's? I would maybe be down to run something for the rest of 2023.

AUTF, nice guitar. Congrats.

I agree with all of this, but wanted to add: The exact same player behaviors are reported differently depending on how the team is doing. A guy who is always laughing and singing along to his music and playing practical jokes.... when you're 8-0, all his teammates will nod along and smile and say "we like to keep it loose." If they're 0-8, then he's a clown who doesn't care about the team. --- I think that as Texas has been stumbling and bumbling since 2010, this "culture" stuff is often more imagined than real. After six years of Vince and Colt, and after a couple MNC games and a couple other top-5 finishes, Mack Brown should have had our roster ***full*** of NFL talent from top to bottom. But he didn't. He was too busy saying "No, thank you" to RGIII and Johnny Manziel, and Texas spent the next decade playing against guys like that, while our own offenses were led by Case McCoy, Jerrod Heard, and Tyrone Swoopes. It was just as bad on the offensive line, where we had another position group that was likely one of the 3- or 4- worst in the conference for a fucking decade. Was that a "culture" problem? I would argue that it was 80% a roster problem - some combo of failing to identify and failing to sign the best players in your home state, and maybe 20% everything else (coaching, strength and conditioning, "culture"). I mean, Case and those JAG linemen could have been choirboys with Navy-Seal levels of discipline, and they weren't going to win the conference simply because they had sub-par talent. Hell, in the Manziel documentary, we saw behind the scenes during his 11-2 freshman season. Those Aggie teams didn't have winning "culture." Yes, Manziel was a great college QB, but they were a salty team because just before Sumlin took over, Mike Sherman had filled the offensive roster with NFL linemen and skill position players. The filmmakers didn't even mention that in passing. They just told us that a perennial Big 12 doormat became an SEC juggernaut the day Manziel showed up. Without all that other talent around him, his college career would have looked a lot more like Mahomes (brilliant QB talent on a .500 team). Maybe a better example would be the 1980's Miami teams, who were all about strippers, cocaine, hot tubs, and South Beach nightclubs, and yet played for the national championship year after year after year in spite of their culture. Meanwhile, the JAGS playing for the service academies were waking up at 4am, working their asses off for 18 hours a day, and winning jack shit. tl;dr Having more talent than everyone else will get you do double-digit wins WAY more consistently than having "culture."

Yeah, that's staggering. And yet we can be pretty sure there's more. Maybe a lot more.

I just find it impossible to feel good about Mike Pence or (or Chris Christie) when - in 2023 - they get heckled by Trump's deluded, cult-like followers. It's like watching a horror movie where the monster goes out of control and kills the scientist who made it. Those guys vigorously and willfully contributed to the creation of this American monster.

I definitely didn’t say that. I was reacting to you saying “everyone does it” in a thread about the starting quarterback betting on his own game. Yes, I’m sure tons of athletes gamble on sports. No, I don’t think a bunch of Power-5 starting quarterbacks were using their parents as shills to bet on their own games.

Dude, you've responded to me three times on this page to call me out, and you're absolutely wrong. The subject is betting on your own team. So follow me here: "Integrity of the game" means that all the fans and spectators can reasonably believe that they're watching a fair contest where each contestant is acting in the best interests of the program/school/team. Betting against yourself, or shaving points obviously makes the contest a sham. But betting ON your own team also destroys the integrity of the game, because there are hundreds of scenarios where the gambler's interests MIGHT fall out of line with those of their team. - A baseball team is down three runs in the eighth inning, and the bullpen is thin. In many situations, the team that is losing is better off saving certain pitcher(s) for tomorrow's game. But if Pete Rose bet big money on THIS game, now he's motivated to squander those players on the small chance of a comeback even if it makes his team much more likely to lose tomorrow. - A football coach has the outcome of the game in hand, but he's up 17 in the fourth quarter and the spread was 21. He's motivated by $ to keep valuable starters on the field to get one more meaningless score, even though the best interest of the team is to keep those guys healthy and available for the rest of the season. - A team has a meaningless game this weekend. Regardless of the outcome, the conference title will be decided next week. But the starting QB, who's been nursing a sore shoulder all season, has put a big bet on this week's game, and now he's motivated to misrepresent his health to the coaches in order to win the game that matters to HIM, even in a situation where it makes his teammates less likely to win the game that matters to everyone else. College football has betting lines and injuries are a big part of the game. These situations happen regularly. If coaches and players are putting money on their own games - EVEN IF THEY BET ON THEMSELVES - then every single Saturday, we'd be watching contests where players MIGHT have an interest other than 1) win, 2) stay healthy, 3) consider big-picture goals such as conference championships, etc. That ABSOLUTELY destroys the integrity of the game. Why? Because when the ball is kicked off, no one - including administrators, coaches, teammates and fans - could know whether they're watching a contest where those conflicts of interest are in play. Either you have no idea how gambling works or you don't understand what "integrity" means.

When coaches and players bet on themselves, it creates situations where their betting interests MIGHT not align with competitive interests. When you kick off or throw out the first pitch with that possibility, it ABSOLUTELY destroys the integrity of the game. Read it again. It’s not the least bit contradictory.

Betting on your own team absolutely destroys the integrity of the game. You might behave differently (use a pitcher who ought to be saved) if you’ve got a big $$$$ on *this* game. I understand that the argument isn’t as straightforward for a player betting on himself, but it’s a line that just can’t be crossed, and anyone who does it should lose eligibility. Al, you’ve got to be fucking joking with “everyone does this.”

OK, but how would that compare to the weekly Notre Dame TV ranking from the 80’s and 90’s? I’d bet they were in the top-2 or -3 games every week. Not to mention: they used to finish the season in the top five as often as not, and that’s not happening anymore either. They’re still a powerful national brand, and they’re gonna get courted by all the super conferences, but considering where they came from, I think Deej is right - seems like they’re still overplaying their hand.

Watching Trump talk, it's just so plainly obvious what a vile, selfish, malicious person he is, and how little he fucking cares about America or anyone in it. But watching Christie talk makes me way more ragey, because Christie embarrassingly rolled over like a little fawning bitch to enable and justify selfish and anti-American behaviors (up to and perhaps also including overthrowing American democracy), but then almost immediately, he goes out and claims the moral high ground and wants us to know he's principled and steadfast, and he's the antidote to the monster he enabled for half a decade. Remember that Trump gave Christie covid when they were doing debate prep in 2020. Not ten or fifteen years ago, where he could have some plausible deniability, but 20fucking20... looooooooooong after we saw Trump make a political career out of racist claims against a black man's Americanness, mock a reporter's disability, talk about his own daughter in sexual terms, cavort with Epstein, brag about getting away with serial sexual assault, insult the parents of a man who died fighting for this country, extort Zelensky, stand on an international stage in Finland and repudiate American intelligence agencies in favor of sucking up to Putin, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. If I were interviewing Christie, I would lose my fucking mind if he tried to say, "I just didn't know how bad Trump was."