Odds and ends and a few points of information that may or may not be of interest. First of all, I’ve been doing pretty well keeping ahead of the posts on Power’s Shadow, but Real Life (tm, pat. pending) has intervened and there is now what is technically known as a snag. (colloquial, (n)– An obstacle or impediment). Circumstances have persuaded me that it would be to my advantage to acquire a certain technical certification in my (other) chosen field. I won’t bore you with the details, but the reality is that I need time to study, and when I’m studying, I’m not writing. I will continue to put up installments of Power’s Shadow as long as that’s possible, but there may be a hiatus if I can’t keep up. If there is a disruption, I’ll try to keep it as short as possible, but the possibility exists, and so–fair warning. Continue reading
Category Archives: real life
Review: When I left Home-My Story by Buddy Guy with David Ritz
Da Capo Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-306-82179-0
The great bluesman Buddy Guy’s story in some ways was the story of any bluesman who left the South for Chicago near the middle of the 20th century, lured by the electified sound of what’s now called the Chicago Blues, created by earlier artists like Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, and Howlin’ Wolf. In some ways it’s not like so many other artists’ stories at all, for so many of them lived and died in complete obscurity. That was not Buddy Guy’s destiny, and of course that’s the bulk of what this book is about.
Buddy’s early life as a sharecropper’s son in Louisiana, however, is not given short shrift. There’s a good deal of fascinating detail about what life for a black man was like at that time and in that place, the strong values his parents imbued in him, and what led him to music in the first place. This information has to inform the reader’s understanding of the next phase of his life, when he left home to make his fortune in Chicago. Continue reading
Jesus on a Piece of Toast
There was and is a metaphor floating around about “how your brain is wired,” having to do with how two people’s brains can—at least superficially—appear to work very differently from each other. Turns out, of course, that this particular model of the brain isn’t entirely inaccurate. We do form synaptic connections all through our lives. Some people have stronger ties to the sections of the brain in charge of fight or flight—they’re the sort of people who tend to see terrorists/commies/Godzilla-size ebola viruses around every street corner. Some people have stronger connections to their aural or visual senses and tend more toward music and art. Note the word “tend” there in both examples. Biology, as they say, isn’t destiny. We’re no more slaves to our wiring than we are slaves to our instincts. But they are both there, and getting through your day without unnecessary drama often depends on understanding what you’re working with. Most people don’t know that their brains are programmed to react, they just…react. You don’t have to look far to see the consequences.
Posterity Can Kiss My Posterior
Lately it’s felt as if the sf/f field is under a curse. Within the space of a few months we’ve lost Lucius Shepard, Iain Banks, Jay Lake, Graham Joyce, and just this week, Eugie Foster. Nor was it that long ago that Kathy Wentworth left us. I think it was Kathy’s passing that hit me the hardest. Even though we’d been drifting in and out of touch as geography and our separate directions pulled on us, I considered her a friend. Then she was gone before I even knew she was sick. Cancer, like most of the above. All of them gone too soon no matter their ages, but Eugie especially in that regard. She was only forty-two (And for anyone out there who considers forty-two old, all I can say is—wait a while). Continue reading
Regrets, I Have a Few
And to your immediate left is one of them. That’s an Epiphone Les Paul Special II, and it was the first guitar I ever owned. While I was sad to part with the Peavey Horizon II that passed out of my hands recently, I did and still do feel it was the right decision under the circumstances. When I think of the Epi, I can’t say the same.
For those who have known Epiphone only as the budget brand arm of the Gibson Company, it’s easy to forget that they were once a powerhouse guitar maker in their own right, accorded equal (and often greater) prestige than Gibson itself. But they fell on hard times and were eventually bought out. The thing is, they still make pretty darn good guitars. Ask Gary Clark Jr., whose go-to guitar is an Epiphone Casino, and it ain’t because he can’t afford an ES-335. While I don’t think anyone is saying that, say, the Epiphone Les Pauls are in the same class as a Gibson Les Paul Standard, the Special II is closer in design and intent to the old Gibson LP Juniors and Melody Makers. And for someone just getting started especially it’s a heck of an axe to cut your playing teeth on. It’s a good sounding, easy playing guitar. Whenever I hit a sour note, I knew it was me, not the guitar, and that’s not always the case for guitars in the “student model” class. That Epi took a lot of the guesswork out of starting out and it was, as my Brit friends might say, “cheap as chips.” I did good when I chose it to start on. I did less good, even though I’m leaning more to Strats these days, when I decided to part with it.
If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have done it. Really big word, that.
If.
Richard Parks 