bandstarter

So for a while my dad (just behind me in the picture above) had a side-hustle buying, fixing up, and selling guitars. I mentioned it in this post from 2022, because I used to take pictures of the guitars for him. He no longer does it, but this business of his put him contact with a lot of new friends. For the past little while he's been meeting up with what my mom and I refer to as his "guitar buddies." They aren't a band, per se -- they just meet up and jam out playing covers, for the heck of it.

Well, guess who recently got invited to the jam sesh!!!

To set the scene: They meet up anywhere that works, and as of late that's been in a warehouse belonging to one of the fellas. It's a clean and nice (but very warm in the summer!) space. In the warehouse there's a little area set up with a drum kit, lots of guitars, a piano, microphones, speakers, pedals, cables, tripods, music stands, and a computer. Unless they decide to meet up at someone's house, this is where they've been playing.

The attendees are in their 50s and 60s, and so they play a lot of songs from their younger years. 70s, with a skosh of 60s and 80s as well. Currently they do not have a drummer, but do have a drum machine. My dad plays lead guitar; one guy plays rhythm guitar; and one plays bass guitar. I think there's another guy who sometimes shows up, and I have no idea what he plays, but perhaps I'll find out someday.

Whilst a gigantic fan blows around papers covered in chords and lyrics, songs get worked out. Everyone who wants to sing does so. Specific songs are pitched by whoever, whenever.

Left pic courtesy of my dad!

The first time I went, I didn't know even one of the handful of songs they played. I learned one of them on the spot. First the chords, then the tune, by listening to the guy singing lead. They gave me a mic (!) and I sang some backup. Shyly. Even though that was the only song I could play and sing with (besides a very impromptu acoustic cover of "Stand By Me" with one of the guys while something else was going on), that was honestly my goal in attending: to be able to play along with at least one song.

Nailed it!

After my first time playing with them, my dad said, "Yeah, you fit right in." I took that as a super high compliment, because I am not skilled at all. However, I think it was a more a vibe thing: I am basically a 67-year-old man in all other respects. So.

The most recent time I went, I sang lead (!!) on what is truly my personal anthem: "One Toke Over the Line," by Brewer and Shipley. Just kidding. It's a song I learned expressly for this jam sesh. Hahaha. Not my usual fare. But fun to play. Honestly it is very fun to play music with others, and I'm honored I was invited. My skill level is honestly such that to be able to even remotely keep up with a song here or there is an achievement for me. I'm also nervous to sing in front of other people, but they make it a really chill environment and are so positive and encouraging.

I mentioned in the post about my guitar from 2022 that my dad and I don't have a ton in common, so even though we both play the guitar, our differing skill levels and musical tastes have kept us from really being able to play together. Those differences definitely remain. I am not a skilled player, and we don't listen to the same music. But I'm learning his songs, and he is learning at least one I picked out. This is really beyond any expectation I ever had. I'm happy to be able to have this experience with my dad.

(Almost all the pics in this post consist of screengrabs from phone videos, by the by.)

BONUS: Here's "One Toke Over the Line" as performed on the Lawrence Welk Show. Personally, as I am an honorary old guy, I enjoy it.

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summer of '25

Hi! Just a rando post before July slips away totally! As you recall, I started a new med of late, so things have been a little wonky for me. I'm feeling a lot better, but at the same time, I'm just doin' my best on any given day.

Now: some summer stuff. Forgive this collage. I just snatched a crappy mirror phone pic and did some crappy Photoshop. (Check out that bent arm; it's giving content-aware, it's giving Goofy Wormpus.) As you can see, in this pic I am wearing the Mary Janes and a pair of socks I mentioned in this post last year.

Space buns have been THE MUST, of late. Hair on my neck? NAUR. Of course a regular ballerina bun or messy bun would get the hair off my neck, but I feel like space buns are more fun. I've been putting flower hair clips on them for extra fun. These claw clips are small enough that I have also used them in Blythe hairdos.

I lately got a new undereye corrector, and have been enjoying it. It doesn't crease on me and a little goes a long way. To be honest my under-eye circles are like... completely next level. I not only have visible greeny-blue veins all around both sockets but purple/gray skin discoloration as well. The circles are literally all around my eyes due to the way the veins sit. Which makes it nigh impossible to effectively camouflage it all. These dark circles actually have nothing to do with sleep or diet. I've had them since I got sick with impetigo as a kid. Seriously, if you see pictures of me from elementary school, there they are, making me look like a haunted horror movie child. They are everyday for me, and literally never any better. I always look like I recently got two black eyes that are still healing. But anyway, I've liked this corrector! But I am aware that I will probably need two discrete color correctors if I really want to conceal. And I just don't have the mental batteries or the desire to futz that much!!! Maybe someday. In the meantime I like this a lot right now.

(I have some STUFF to SAY about makeup because a lot of products I've used for a while have been lately discontinued, or the company's gone out of business. It's left me to need to find some new things to try. And I do not want to deal with it!)

My nephew loves my phone case. It's large and heavy and colorful. Very attention-grabbing, if you are less than a year old.

Scooped some pastel Sharpie S-Notes to add to my collection of markers I regularly use to bujo and highlight guitar chords! Thrilling purchase, especially because they were $2.50 where I got them. Did I need them? Decidedly no. Did they give me serotonin, yes.

I got this insulated lunch sack recently, since I have been packing lunches and got sick of carrying my lunch all loosey-goosey in my regular bag. Just another example of my daisy sickness. It's so groovy though. Unfortunately I really like it.

Lastly, I have recently done several diamond paintings, and I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT. It's MEDITATIVE. Amongst three other kits, I did this pink guitar one and hung it on my wall. I needed this hobby like I needed a fractured toe and a locked jaw. (Two other things that happened to me this summer, both of which I have basically memory holed.)

• flower hair clips (Target, 2023)
• CC undereye corrector (Tarte)
• tulip phone case (Five Below, last year)
• pastel Sharpie S-Notes
• checkered insulated lunch bag (H*bby L*bby)
• pink guitar diamond painting kit (Michael's)

Also this past month in particular, I've been spending time doing things with my parents, which to be clear is something I enjoy. I just have one friend that lives in my city -- my friends are either online or in other cities -- so my family are my built-in IRL social group. Lately my parents and I have been going to get smothered fries at a BBQ place (we get them with chopped brisket, mmm). We get to visit with my nephew some days and my grandma on others. I am actively trying to appreciate this season in my life, where four generations are sometimes in the same room.

With my mom, I go to knitting club every Wednesday. In addition to that, I have been a volunteer alongside her at a children's camp, doing both a music hour and an arts and crafts hour on Mondays. I can now say I've demonstrated the function of a capo to a bunch of four-to-six-year-olds. Intimidating. (Legitimately! I was not prepared for that!) I've provided guitar accompaniment and done a lot of prototyping of art projects. Just helping as best I can to make these children's hours go smoothly. It's more of a production than you'd think, behind the scenes. Luckily I'm not running the show. I have felt glad to be of assistance in whatever ways I can be, however.

With my dad, I have lately joined him and his group of buddies who get together on Thursdays to play music! I have a post about this in the pipes, so I'll talk more about it there. Suffice to say that learning new-to-me songs and doing associated pre-pro aspects of this activity is also taking up a lot of my free RAM lately.

Looking back at this post in future summers, I think this little graphic of all of this stuff will take me right back.

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now i'm your daisy

Happy July. No sense in not mentioning it: I've started a new med (ya girl takes like a dozen pills every day) and it's made me feel real wonk in a startlingly wide variety of ways. So this post, while it does have a running theme, is not going to be my most coherent. Just a small collection of different Things Of Late. Whee!

As pictured above, I recently got some daisy knobs for my guitar! Y'all remember Karma, surely! Well, Pinterest totally got my ass. That's where I saw them. They were cheap enough to seem like a fun purchase, and it was definitely an impulse purchase on my part! I rarely actually plug in my guitar to my mini amp, so I don't use the knobs frequently. That's good, because I don't think these knobs are super functional. One of them doesn't seem to turn the dial it's supposedly gripping onto. However, these are just a little something that makes my guitar look and feel cheery and me-ish, so I really like them nevertheless. They make me happy whenever I pick up my guitar.

I've been making these crochet flowers the past couple of days. Another throwback to an older post: I crocheted around a phone charging cord to give it a vine-y appearance. It is just to cute-ify things, you know! A whimsical touch to an otherwise boring and ugly thing. I always thought, "It'd be even cuter with flowers." Since that post, the cord pictured has met its final end, so I've crocheted two more cords, and may well do even more, if I need things to do during knitting club. And I have decided to go ahead and experiment with sewing flowers onto the cord. I'm still in the flower creation stage right now. I'm using this pattern for these flowers. But I'd like to find a few more so I can get in some variation.

Just for fun: Olive in a drawstring dress printed with daisies! I'm gonna freakin' squee just looking at her!! I have yet to dress her in anything other than green. Maybe someday.

Also just because I think it's fun/cute: I got this pink and daisy-print heating pad last month. I'm super rough on heating pads. I use them all the time. And of course eventually they give up on me. I've gotten the same plain gray heating pad the last three times I've had to replace my heating pad, and this time I decided to switch it up. Maybe this one will last longer than a couple of years. Or maybe it won't. But I'll find out! It's very cushy and fuzzy, which I'm not used to. But I gotta say it goes better in my room than the plain gray one I keep replacing over and over.

To be honest this is not even the only daisy-ish stuff I could have added into this post. But like I said, I'm feeling pretty wonky right now, so getting pictures of things is a challenge for me. Just sitting here at my desk, I feel like keeling over and yartzing.

Hopefully these side effects will ease up soon.

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