Author: colter

Perpetual Adolescence?

I am realizing of late that my generation was the first to really get marketed to in a psychically deep way. Where in my father’s generation, something like the Red Rider BB Gun might have been the cool thing to have, my generation insisted I have every facet of the Star Wars/Transformers/G.I. Joe/He-Man/M.A.S.K/etc universe. So many toys. So many commercials and cartoons for toys. And then came the explosion in video games. Now, as the children of the 80’s are hitting their 30’s, I see that we have yet to put away childish things, many of us unrepentantly so[1]. Now, I’m personally proud to admit that I have not, nor will I ever “grow up” in a conventional sense, but more and more I wonder if my position wasn’t psychologically impressed upon me by the Toys R Us jingle, “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid.”

What if a significant portion of my personality was marketed to me by Hasbro®? Maybe we don’t want to give up on acquiring toys because we’ve been conditioned to continue enjoying them, so lodged in our subconscious is the allure of the fantasy world, so appealing is the packaging, or in the case of videos games, so gratifying is the accomplishment of the game? And this isn’t just a nerd thing…I just watched leading man Vince Vaughn play video games in his swank Chicago high-rise condo in The Break Up. Are we a generation who has had the the Peter Pan Syndrome psychologically transmitted to us by Madison Avenue?

It’s harmless of course; I’m still a mature 30 year old who has a career and a mortgage, and who doesn’t behave like a teenager. I do, however, prefer to dress in odd t-shirts and I still find trips to the toy department appealing, even if my purchases there are fewer and further between. A great lesson from Twilight Zone: The Movie that I took to heart was to grow old with a fresh young mind. I think that’s something good for everyone to do.

1.) Of course I’m not talking to you, Josh. What would make you think that? 😉

More MySpace Fun

What other website allows you to communicate with Sting’s guitar player in Monte Carlo? I struck up a conversation with the great Lyle Workman (who has also worked with Jellyfish and Beck, and who did the score for 40 Year Old Virgin) about Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, because he’s a big fan. He then asked me how to switch from a Top 8 to a Top 12 or more on his Top Friends thingy on MySpace. Just one of those random moments where I stop and realize…this guy is on tour with Sting in Monaco and he’s asking me for help on a webpage? Isn’t life weird?

I sent him this great sketch from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, featuring a cameo by John Lennon, and a great American accent by Cook.

Help I’m a Rock

I just bought two tickets to the Halloween Zappa Plays Zappa date in New York City at Madison Square Garden theatre. Frank Zappa’s Halloween shows were always something special and Dweezil’s Zappa Plays Zappa tour is going very well, so I think this gig should be something worth traveling for. Plus I need a vacation.

Yesterday I bought a new car battery because my previous one died yesterday in the Guitar Center parking lot, which was probably God’s way of saying I shouldn’t have just plunked down $1650 for an Eric Johnson signature strat just minutes before. Yes I bought another guitar. BUT…Banjo Center has a 30-day money back guarantee so this is really just a test drive. Now that I know I’m doing this NY trip I’ll probably take the guitar back. But it’s so sweeeet.

I went to Sears Auto Center for the new battery and they give you those today-only $5 coupons for the Sears store and that was convenient since I REALLY needed to buy some new shoes. So. Yesterday, new battery, shoes and guitar. Oh, and dog meds for Zoe, who had to wait in the back of the car at Guitar Center while Randall came over with a battery charger. Good thing I parked in the shade.

Inspiratorial

I made up a new word. Inspirational + Conspiratorial = Inspiratorial

For those situations that conspire to inspire. Like yesterday’s backyard cookout, about which I just realized I took absolutely no pictures. Dammit.

Today I worked on my lesson materials. I’m taking lessons on Wednesdays with Ted Ludwig, an amazing 7-string jazz player, formerly from New Orleans. Bryan Frazier also came by and we worked on his tunes for our gig tomorrow night at Easy Street. 6:30-8:00. Come down and see us.

Vacation All I Ever Wanted

I need to decide soon on where I want to take my vacation. From a scheduling standpoint, I should go the weekend of August 5th and thereafter. Where should I go? I’m thinking I’ll go to New York in October, so my choices for August are Los Angeles for the International Pop Overthrow, or London, to check out John and Susan’s gallery. Or someplace else? I still haven’t been to Seattle to see Heather and Ben. But for some reason Seattle just doesn’t excite me as a city. What do y’all think?

Your Future, Odd-Sounding

Some great new spam prose from the bottom of a message hawking Cialis:

“But you can Jonathan. For you have learned. One school is finished, never know if that’s the Zone greeting me or my stalker’s nerves acting up. extraordinary, gathered around him in a handful of months the great-est eye on me again, that they hadn’t forgotten me, or if they had forgotten, the Troika; yet, in retrospect, one realizes that one has experienced a sighing and shifting from foot to foot and yawning nervously–he was feeling

his instructor’s fire, surprised himself and became a wizard of low”Can’t we talk about the arts instead? Wouldn’t the listeners care to

Google indicates that these are passages shredded and pasted together from Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Download/Overload

Why spread it out over time when you can have it all now? Here are some live and rare tracks from some of my favorite people:

NOTE: Bandwidth increased, tunes re-uploaded.

I Yam What I Yam

The first batch of digital tunes from my new turntable are ready. I transferred the long out-of-print soundtrack to Robert Altman’s Popeye. My father and I have always been at a loss to explain the film’s status as a box office flop. We loved it, and still do. And the soundtrack was written by Harry Nilsson! So let me know if any of y’all are interested in the mp3’s I made from one of my brand-new, freshly unwrapped copies of the record.