They got the proportion right, but the label wrong...

It should be "because it's hip, and they think it will get them laid"...

Reminiscent of Someone

I'm sure others have mentioned this before, but I can't get over just how strongly Obama reminds me of Herbert Hoover in 1930.

I'll go into more detail about it later, but think about it.

That scream you heard?

That was the sound of millions of bookies crying out as one.

It's Prison Rape, or Swishy Camp, and nothing in Between

Isn't it kinda screwed up, that probably the best depiction of masculine homosexuals, and romantic love between men, ever put on a major network (I don't count gay specific media like Logo etc...); is "Oz", an extremely brutal prison drama?

Now, you may hate homosexuality, think it's an abomination before god... degeneracy and deviancy whatever... but it IS a part of our culture. In fact it's a part of our culture that might involve as much as 10% of the population.

One would think, even with American attitudes towards sex, and towards homosexuality; that there would have been a more mainstream, REALISTIC, and forthright depiction of masculine gays, and romantic love between men.

Or maybe if it's more acceptable to society as a whole, of NORMAL looking lesbians, who aren't models or porn stars?

There have been plenty of depictions of swish gays, and a lot of "never see them be affectionate" stuff (not just kissing, you'll never see two men even HUG romantically on network TV), usually with ONE character or very rarely ONE couple in a large ensemble cast. Or the special "stunt casting" drop in characters (the lesbian stunt on "Roseanne" kinda thing).

Yeah I know, most of America doesn't want to see it blah blah blah... Most of us don't want to see MOST of what they put on TV, it hasn't stopped the networks. They put hypersexualized straight folks up there, they put swishy gays, and lipstick lesbians up there... Is it too much to ask for an honest depiction of just plain normal looking lesbians, and masculine gay men?

I mean, I don't feel like seeing guys making out on TV any more than most of y'all do... but then again I don't feel like seeing girls making out, or guys AND girls making out... I don't want sexual titillation from my television set. I want humor, and drama, and a semi-realistic depiction of the world around us, just turned up to 11... and that depiction should include realistic depiction of gays and lesbians.

Anyway, just a random thought (and not even an original one, since gays have been making this same complaint for years), occaisoned by the fact that the complete series of "OZ" (an EXCELLENT show that I highly recommend by the way. Almsot certainly the best performances ever pulled from Christopher Meloni, Lee Turgeson, J.K. Simmons, Dean Winters, Terry Kinney, Kirk Acevedo... well, basically the majority of the cast of "Law and Order" "Dexter", and a half dozen other shows) is on Amazons gold box deals today.

Good day today

Good day today... unfortunately I can't talk about it, but lets just say that several people in my life are happier and better off than they have been recently.

Unfortunately that's about all the mental energy I have for the day... work is getting crazy.

A few VERY different shredders...

Expanding on last nights post, I thought I'd put up a few different videos, of a few different styles and techniques of shredding.

Just for fun, let's look at Darrel Abbot (aka Dimebag Darrel) and his tour through all the major shredding styles "The Art of Shredding"

This sound is, literally, an example of every different kind of shredding there is. Different sections are played in different fingering, picking, and tapping styles.

Then there's the all time canonical example for the shred guitarist, Yngwie Malmsteen; and what is probably the best example of his several different shredding techniques (alternate picking, sweep picking, hybrid picking, hybrid tapping, and two handed tapping) all in one song, "Caprici Diabolo":

Oh and I should note... though I often criticize Yngwie for being all speed and technique, and no soul...and for being a total douchebag (really, he is. Major asshole, and a nasty drunk too)... he can do it almost as well with an acoustic guitar as he can with a strat. Still no soul, but he's not using insane overdrive and extra strings and extended doublecutaways to get his speed :

And I should note, for most of his best, fastest, and most difficult work, Yngwie was stone ass (near falling down) drunk. If I drank as much as he did I wouldnt be able to tie my shoes, never mind play like that.

Oh and he CAN play slowly, and play the blues, and classic rock... he's even good at it... he just likes guitar masturbating a lot more.

There's two guys you have to credit for bringing shredding to mass audiences, and coincidentally both played behind (or in front of) David lee Roth.

The first is of course, Eddie Van Halen, with the song that brought shredding out in public for the first time, "Eruption":

...and for those of you who only know Van halen as mediocre middle aged adult contemporary rockers (you poor misguided fools you), here's an INSANE 11 minute live shredding jam on eruption from the early 80s (where Eddie uses every shredding technique known to man):

Just the look on his face during the whole thing... there's a man in his prime and having the time of his life. He was the absolute king of the world for that 11 minutes.

The other player of course is Steve Vai; who would do more than any other 80s guitarist to popularize shredding with the hard core musical theory crowd (the guys who love metal for the technique and degree of difficulty)... and who in this clip just happens to also being shredding with Tony MacAlpine, Dave Wiener, and Billy Sheehan:

Though I have to say, my favorite Vai tune ever is probably Bad Horsie:

Some may say that role more properly belongs to Satrianai (or even Steve Morse)
... but I disagree. Like Eric Johnson, Satch doesn't really shred... Satch just... IS.

Now... we have to talk a bit about Michael Angelo Batio; who is considered the fastest shredder there is (though Talio DellaVega is the fastest picker according to Guinness).

Frankly, I'm not a fan. He is INSANELY fast... and his technique is incredible... but if there was ever someone who is all technique and no soul or art it's Batio. And I hate to say it, because he's an incredibly versatile and inventive player, and a great teacher of technique (and apparently a very nice guy)... I just don't like his music.

Here he is playing on his signature "double guitar"... not just a double neck, it's actually two guitars joined at the base, that he plays simultaneously with plucking and tapping techniques:

What he can do with a guitar... or two.. or even four (yes, he has a four way version of that thing and he'll play all four at once through harmonics, pedals, sustain effects etc... ) boggles the mind... It's absolutely amazing... but it leaves me cold.

And here's Dragonforce's Herman Li, demonstrating his hybrid tapping/two handed tapping style:

...and what has become their iconic song "Through the Fire and Flames":

Where you can see that Li is one of the fastest two handed, or hybrid tappers ever... Plus it's just a fun song.

Admittedly, Li isnt nearly as musical as some others, but his playing is incredibly fast, and very fun. It's not strained or over-techniqued... it's just he sacrifices quality for speed.

Now, I can't do this sampler without something from John Petrucci, one of my favorite guitarists from one of my favorite bands of all time, Dream Theater. Here's his solo piece "Glasgow Kiss":

Not one of the fastest shredders (though he's damn fast); but definitely among the most musical... Probably as good as Satch, Gilbert etc.. as an artist and band member rather than just a "guitar player".


Ok... I saved this one for last, because... well most people dn't know who he is, other than real guitar geeks... and he's probably the only guitarist I can think of who is both faster, AND more musical than Paul Gilbert... His name is Rusty Cooley; and though he's been around since the early 90s, he's never had much fame... but guitarist know who his is, and stuff like this is why:

and this freestyle jam... just blows me away:

Oh and thinking about it now... Why is it so many of the most amazing guitarists come out of New Jersey? No joke, like 1/3 of these guys are from NJ.

Eine Kleine Shred Musik

Sometimes, I just can't sleep. Soooo much going on in the cranium, I just can't shut it down.

When I was a kid, I used to drown out my brain, playing metal and deep cuts of classic rock, very loudly (either through headphones, or after I got a soundproofed private apartment through a quite loud cd player and amp)... The music just pounded away my obsessive multitrack mind, and attention to everything around me; and after a while I could sleep.

It's how I first learned to love the guitar gods. Hendrix, Clapton, Blackmore, Morse, Moore, Gilmour, Vai, Satriani, Johnson, Vaughn... Hell even Knopfler and Kottke and Cooder, and Di Meola, and MacAlpine. If I could get ahold of a CD and it had great guitar (and bass too; but finding a virtuoso bassist was a lot harder. Billy Sheehan, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, Stu Hamm, and Stanley Clarke are about the only guys you could actually get albums for at the time), I probably listened to it a hundred or a thousand times like that.

It doesn't work for me anymore. Not sure why, but it doesn't let me sleep like it used too... Though I still find it relaxing. Sometimes I'll just stick my itunes into a loop of my "guitar" playlist, and wipe out as much of the distraction as possible.

So, here's some shredding for you this late night slash early morning, courtesy of Paul Gilbert (one of the best guitarists of all time... and one of the most underrated, because he chose to be in bands that get little respect, and because he became a guitar video hawker):

First a few classical caprices (both literally and figuratively)...

Then some more explicit metal shredding...

Y.R.O (Yngwie Rip-Off... Gilbert has an interesting sense of humor)

"Technical Difficulties" (still one of my favorite pieces of "background metal")

Gilbert is all the more impressive (and this makes his being underrated even more clear), because unlike most shredders who play at his level of speed and precision; he is an alternate picker not primarily a tapper or sweep picker (Gilbert WILL tap, but in his own compositions, and most of his shredding, he is almost exclusively a picker).

He achieves his amazing speed and precision almost exclusively with alternate picking, string skipping, and soft legatos (basic hammer-ons and pullofs); rarely using tapping or sweep picking.

Gilbert has been clocked at sustained 20 distinctly picked notes... not legatos (hammerons, and pullofs), or taps... per second, in actual music (not just speedpicking) when messing around (that's 1200 beats per minute, though only for a few seconds).

Although there are faster players; notably Herman Li (who has several hybrid tapping pieces at 320bpm) , Michael Angelo Batio (who can apparently hit 32 sounded notes per second when tremolo picking; but that's not music, that's just speedpicking), and Tiago DellaVega (who can play "Flight of the Bumblebee" the normal test piece, picked at over 320bpm ); they are all tappers, hybrid pickers (people who pluck with several fingers in addition to the pick, as in fingerstyle guitar, bluegrass, and banjo playing) or hybrid tappers (tapping and sweep or tremolo picking simultaneously); I don't think anyone is a faster picker, while being as musical.

Notably, because of this skill (not to mention soul, and sense of humor), he is the most "musical" of the ultra-high speed shredders; not just depending on speed and technical prowess... and not needing a finely tuned and heavily overdriven electric guitar with funny weight strings to do it (as you need to do with high speed tapping).

He can do things like this:

Which, if you'll note the fingering and picking, ISN'T actual flamenco style guitar (which he says right at the beginning). He isn't fingerpicking or plucking here, hes only using his thumb and index finger to "pick" up and down... so it doesn't sound as fluid as true flamenco would but there is more precision to the notes.

Or this little Hayden piece for example:

Which you will note is exclusively alternate picked; where a classical guitarist would be finger picking, or another shredder (Yngwie certainly. He has also done this piece) would be two handed tapping or hybrid tapping (both faster techniques certainly, but producing an entirely different sound and "feel").

Thing is... though I appreciate the technique, and the foundation Gilbert has (he's certainly one of the best musically educated guitarists out there in terms of technique. He has a degree in guitar theory, and is a professor at the Guitar Institute of Technology)... What I like most about his playing is the soul, and the sheer FUN he has playing. Gilbert is a guy who doesn't take himself, or playing guitar, too seriously... and I like that.

Here he is, having some fun with his Mr. Big bandmate Billy Sheehan:

Ignore the conclusion and the digs.. look at the DATA