Paul Wesley

Yeah, that's f*cking ridiculous. I'm not sure if it's Gibson or Sweetwater who should be more embarrassed (insert "why not both" gif). I'm pretty sure Duesenberg PLEKs every single guitar they make, including guitars waaaaaay cheaper than 6 or 7K.

Been there.

I met Donahue (and Marlo) in about 1984 at a benefit gala for Gloria Steinem's "Ms" Foundation. The featured speaker that night was Dabney Coleman - and yes, he was pretty famous at that time for playing male chauvinists, especially in "9 to 5," and I'm sure the irony of making him the featured speaker was intentional. I was Coleman's cue card holder for his speech. He was very cool to me. Donahue definitely wasn't afraid to give orders to the entire production crew (spotlight guys, etc) even though he didn't specifically have any role of authority. Both guys now in this thread. /csb

The first song that my garage rock band ever performed live was "the breakup song." My bass-player friend and I were at a pretty good-sized house party, and another band had set up a PA. They took a break, and we asked if we could play a few songs and borrow their drummer. The next day, he defected and became *our* drummer. Great guy, and - by a lot - the most talented guy in the garage. I think he got a music degree from North Texas. Decades later, and we'll still text one another when one of us hears it come on in the grocery store (or wherever). It's still a great song. RIP

I thought today's thread bump was gonna be about his email hack: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/12/politics/trump-campaign-hack-personal-email-account-fbi/index.html#:~:text=Stone was informed by Microsoft,of the sources familiar said.

I truly hope the optimism is justified and well-founded. The flip side of that is that there were a ton of city/county/precint/state/whatever-level Republican election officials who were actually trying to do a fair and honest job in 2020, and there are probably hundreds of those that have now been replaced by facts-don't-matter MAGA lunatics who don't give a fuck about administrating a fair and honest election.

That's a very cool little time capsule. Thanks for sharing.

I'm sure the entire GOP will be along within hours to condemn the call for widespread political violence that occurred right on the stage with their VP nominee.

Pretty sure that when he was asked to account for this, he said something like, "Well, what were they doing in the park?" i.e. they're young black men... they must be guilty of some capital offense.

Haha. Rickenbacker also seems to have evolved on a remote island. I look at everything they do - like bridges and neck attachments and mounting pickups and think "Haven't you guys ever looked at another guitar, because there's definitely a better way to do this." I guess we should be grateful for options and sonic variants.

I take back everything I said about Yngwie Malmsteen's bad taste.

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

Guilty

(putting this observation in the amp thread, but it could also go in the pedal thread) So I had my first experience tracking with one of the latest-version amp modelers yesterday - a Helix. It's pretty easy to understand the appeal, I have to say. I had my pedalboard (that I spent a year plus $$$$ building and cutting my own perfect-length patch cables), plus an amp ($$$) plus a cabinet ($). Took several trips from the car to haul it in, and a bunch of cables, etc. My buddy comes in with a Helix (his entire rig) under his arm - one trip, obviously - and is plugged in and tracking overdubs in like 30 seconds or less... And it sounded good. Pretty intuitive interface. I think if we played you a track and said, "pick out which of these guitars that was tracked using a modeler," I'm not sure you could do it. I'm sure if you broke it down effect-by-effect a la "That Pedal Show," we'd probably agree that the phaser isn't *quite* as good as your favorite Phase90, the flanger doesn't *quite* have the same panache as an Electric Mistress, etc, etc. But damn, it's light years easier than sourcing, building, and maintaining all that stuff, and I'll bet it gets you 90% of the way there with 3% of the effort. And this doesn't account for a decent ribbon mic (even a cheap Royer is $500) and a pre. In fairness sake, we have to say that if you spent $800 for a vintage Electric Mistress, it's highly likely that in a decade you could sell it for double that. And that $1500 Helix is gonna be worth $100 in a decade. But still...

I think that *was* the bar, and not only did he not clear it, he ran the wrong way on the approach and then face planted at the worst possible moment. If he wants to win, the bar is way, way higher than that now. He's losing, and the strategy of hiding him from any moment where he'd have to think on his feet - that just confirms every worst narrative about his decline. Hell, it confirms the worst-case scenario to me, and I think he's been a great president for the last four years. The insiders need to be telling him how stepping aside would be a heroic final political act (which it has a chance to be).

Great TM story about Foreman's sparring partner, who shows up a lot in that movie: https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-shot-not-heard-round-the-world/

Yeah, I just don't think this is true at all. 50 million watched the debate. Those people didn't need pundits to tell them that Biden looked like he wandered off from a memory unit. There's maybe 0.1% of that watching mid-day hand-wringing on MSNBC.

Man, this thread is moving at warp speed. I was about to reply to a couple things and realized that we had added three pages since those posts. Anyway, just a couple random observations that have likely been covered in the interim: 1). I think name recognition might be a negative thing these days. It just means that right-wing propagandists have already had a nice long time to fertilize the minds of their base with a narrative. They do a great job of identifying potential opponents and prosecuting them in the eyes of the public with highly consistent and highly coordinated messaging. If Harris or Newsom is the nominee, the right (and by "right," I'm including an army of Russian trolls) has got a box of memes ready to go right at hour zero, and those memes are gonna reinforce their own years-long messages. For some potential candidates (Harris, Newsom), the GOP is going to land haymakers right from hour zero. 2). Any woman can be president as long as she's deemed likable by other women. That's the rule. Women love Oprah. They love Michelle Obama. They don't like women who seem the *slightest* bit condescending (Marcia Clark, Hilary Clinton), and those women are likely to lose. I'm afraid Kamala may be in the latter camp. Anyone who's ever watched a female nurse taking orders from a female physician understands the dynamic.

If we're talking about GWB judicial failures and foreign policy failures, let's also remember his fiscal failures. GWB inherited something very close to a balanced budget in 2000, and was elected in large part due to the relentless "balanced budget amendment" and "term limits" mantras of the 1990's GOP. Fast forward only 8 short years later, and he handed off the wild, unchecked fiscal house of cards that continues to this day. Tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans. Corporate capture of the agencies intended to protect the best interests of the average American. In 2004, with growing public disenchantment with a bungled war and a close election, he made a deal with big Pharma to transfer/privatize countless billions of dollars. That also continues today. The wars he started accounted for about 25% of America's total cumulative deficit at one point. Like 300 million *PER DAY* for decades. What do we have to show for all that lost treasure? Imagine how transformative those seven trillion dollars could have been for our society: Infrastructure. Schools. Transportation. High-tech education. Re-tooling American factories to keep more manufacturing jobs at home. Investment in clean energy. Ugh.

The fact that there's a coordinated right-wing propaganda campaign on MAJOR NETWORKS and involving their most famous anchors and the RNC chairperson herself - all reporting how the president is experimenting with the optimal dose of cocaine as part of debate prep.... And a huge % of Americans drink down these purported facts without any skepticism... It's fucking mind-blowing. My wife is tired of hearing me say it, but the singular thing I have learned in the last decade is the incredible power of right-wing propaganda. It will be our undoing. Arguably, it already has been.

Haha. I missed this song in real time, and I only know it because a few years ago, it was the nominee of a friend of mine when we were talking about "worst songs to make it big." Also... that performance in the music store... wow. Apparently having a hit song does not protect you from the effects of meth and face tats.

Holy shit, I have that exact amp in my closet right now. https://reverb.com/item/81778797-legend-model-a60-series-ii-hybrid-amplifier-system

I grew up on terrestrial radio and album rock, spent a shit ton of money on albums and cassettes, and CDs -- and listened to that stuff into my 30's. But I gotta say, the idea of listening to a "classic rock" station into your 50's - that just strikes me as horribly depressing. Haven't we heard those same songs a gajillion times already? Their playlists are so short, it's hard to imagine many songs in their top 200 that I'd be surprised or excited to hear.