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| Pennies From Heaven!Or rather from the basement! I have been holding onto this old antique electric organ - it's a VOX Continental - truly terrible sounding, think 'Iron Butterfly meets surf music...' - and decided I would put it up for sale. I figured I might get a couple hundred dollars for it, so what the hell - I put it up on Craig's List and a refinishing forum that I visit, and a couple months go by, nothing. Suddenly there's this cat in California (who plays surf music and collects these old VOX bastards) who wants it - I had checked on fleaBay to see what they were going for, and the last 2 sold for nearly $2000!!! Naturally, I set the price high, even though mine's not in that nice of shape - I asked for $1500. Well Mr Moneybags and I get to haggling, and 2 days later, I've got $1300 in money orders sitting in front of me!!! Of course I insisted on US Postal Service MO's, because they're impossible to fake and it's a federal crime to do so, so it keeps the scammers away.... Anyway, I'm going to pick up a case tomorrow and ship it out to this dude - I'm still in shock... Yesterday I was saving every penney just to get through to my next paycheck, and today I've got money pouring out of my ass!!! 8P Well, I know, $1200 (after the shipping cost) isn't exactly a fortune, but it will get me a very cool new toy I've been saving up for, and a bunch of fun money on top... Don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging here, or trying to sound like a stuck up dick who's all into money, but for Fuck's sake, this is like a gift from the Gods! I'm super psyched. I will soon be the owner of this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Roland-GR20-Guitar-Synthesizer-with-GK3-Divided-Pickup?sku=150097 I've wanted one of these for about a year, but I never seem to have $600 worth of disposable income at any one time... Anyway, it will allow me to trigger synthesizer sounds with my guitar, along with the guitar sounds - you can 'blend' the two sounds together, and make it sound like you've got a full orchestra backing you up, or a piano, or a sax, just about anything you can imagine. I guess I should make an offering to the Goddess of Good Fortune! More to come, I'll make a link to some cool music that I record when I get my new toy! Melissa, you're gonna have to help me with that... BTW - METALOCALYPSE ROCKS!!! Thanks for the CD, Lissa - the artwork you did (chibi Lissa with her iPod) is WICKED COOL! I can't wait to show it to my friends. Your talent is boundless, woman! Laterz, all Spike | | |
| Getting over the Flu...Damn, man, I hate being sick! I got the fucking flu, right before Halloween. It's not like I missed out on Trick-Or-Treating, since I haven't done that for about 25 years, but I was looking forward to putting Anna's little 'Ladybug' costume on her and parading her around a bit... I did put it on her, and it is cute as hell - she looks like a 100 pound Ladybug/Rottweiler, with big red wings (with black polka dots) and two little antennae on top of her head - she was such a good sport about it, too, until I tried to take it off of her - I think she actually liked the feeling of wearing it. It was so fucking funny I almost pissed myself laughing. Of course, it was too late to take a picture, because my dad was asleep in bed and he's got the camera in his room, so I'll have to do it again, maybe tomorrow. Anyway, things are going pretty good for me, at the moment, I'm keeping busy with my little guitar repair business, and I've got more customers than I can handle at the moment, so I'm making a pretty good little amount of money, all tax free! he-he!!! Take that, Uncle Sam! You like it like that, don't cha, bitch!!! O....o Anyway, I'm selling off a few of my guitars, since I've got, like 13 or so right now - I've just been accumulating them like crazy, but I've had a lot of fun modifying them and playing the shit out of them, and now I'm gonna sell them for a bit more than I've got in them, and buy myself some new gear! Whoo-Hoo! I just love what I do - I wish I'd become a guitar tech years ago - it's something that I'm really good at, and that I enjoy the shit out of, and I can make a pretty decent living, doing it. Everyone who plays guitar needs a guitar tech, to keep their guitars playing right - the intonation goes out about twice a year with the change of the seasons, and the necks go out of whack about twice a year, too, so it's a pretty stable job. I've got a bunch of new customers from an ad I placed on Craig's List, and now I'm getting a bunch of referrals from people who I've already helped out, so the money just keeps a-rollin in. No complaints, here - Those of you who know me know that I'm disabled (nasty rheumatoid arthritic condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis) and my mobility is becoming more and more limited. Even now I'm having trouble driving a car, because I cannot turn my head left or right (or up or down, for that matter) anymore, so I have to have someone ride with me, to look left and right for me. It's kind of a drag, but you know, it's all happened so gradually, that I've become accustomed to it, and to me, it really doesn't seem all that bad. I don't have to work anymore (except my little hobby/side career of guitar techie) and I collect Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, so I really cannot complain one bit. Of course I have a lot of medical expenses - primarily prescription drugs for the pain, but I'm going to qualify for Medicare next year (2008) so that will pay for a lot of my medical expenses, as well. I am also forced to live at home with my parents, but they are pretty 'hands-off', and they allow me to do all the stuff I love to do, like playing guitar and recording, and collecting and watching anime, and of course I have my loving little doggie butt-butt Anna (aka Anna Banana Pants) to keep me company, so I never really get that lonely. I still dream of making it big in the music industry, and I know that I have a snowball's chance in Hell of actually pulling it off, but you know, a guy has gotta dream! LOL At least my current situation allows me to nurture my inner child, which I think is the most important thing anyone can do, so when you look at it that way, I'm actually pretty fucking lucky. I don't have to work, I get to play guitar as much as I want, I get a decent wage from my guitar techie work, and the government pays me retirement money, as well. If it weren't for the pain (ouch) I'd be in hog-heaven. Oh, well, I still can't complain - the pills do a pretty good job of masking the pain, without putting me totally in 'lala' land, and I gotta say, Life is Good. I've got some really great friends who totally support me and encourage me to be the best I can, I've got the best Dad in the whole wide mother-f-ing world (You ROCK, Pop!), and I have a really awesome niece named Melissa (you may know her as Mewtaila) and a cool kid of a nephew (you may know him as Blockhead) <just kidding, Jeremy - you know I love you, boy!> And of course my little butt-butt doggie Anna Pants - I'd say life is pretty fuckin good, baby. That's all from the world of Uncle Spike Spiegel, AKA Robster the mad musician. To all of you who made it this far, Thanks for reading, and thanks for being there for me! Peace, Love, and Applesauce, babies! Spike | | |
| The METALOCALYPSE has begun...I just got my Metalocalypse Season I DVD set today in the mail - if you haven't seen this series on Adult Swim, you have to check it out - it's a parody of a death-metal band that is 'the single largest financial entity in the world... They're responsible for the rise and fall of nations, peoples, religions, etc... It is so funny! I especially like the bass player, Murderface - he talks with a lisp and is always threatening to kill himself whenever anything goes wrong. I can't recommend this series enough - it's totally tongue-in-cheek, it's not to be taken seriously. Personally, I hate the whole 'death-metal' thing, but these guys make it so funny that you have to laugh. Anyway, that's all I got today. Check it out on Adult Swim, Cartoon network, Sundays at 11:45pm. Laterz! Spike | | |
| Hey, All! Things are going pretty good for me, right now - I have a few complaints, but they're really not worth mentioning... I'm really excited tonight, because I'm getting a new guitar tomorrow. It's not 'new' new, but it's new to me... I found it on CraigsList (of course) and it's an Apollo '335'-style guitar, which is a semi-hollow bodied guitar with f-holes like a violin. Here's a couple of pics:  
They're terrible pictures, and they got cropped, so you can't really see much of it, but it's a wonderful old relic - made somewhere between 1969 and 1971. It's very rare, only about 5000 were made, and only a few are still around. I imagine most of them were either destroyed or cannibalized over the past 37 or so years. I am going to pick it up tomorrow, and I cannot wait. The guy only wants 75 bucks for it, which is DIRT cheap. I'm sure he has no idea of the value - I doubt I'll ever sell it, because it's such a cool piece of history, but to a collector, I'm sure it would be worth many hundreds of dollars, maybe $500 or more! I love it when I find scores like this - I'm constantly trolling the Musical Instruments section of CL, and I've found quite a few really good deals that way. I just built another really cool 'muttcaster' guitar, it's got a Squier '51 body and a really awesome mohogany and rosewood telecaster neck, and it's rapidly becoming one of my favorites, as well. Jesus, I've got a serious case of GAS (that's Guitar Aquisition Syndrome) going here... I've already got them spread all over the 2nd floor of our house, just because I cannot possibly keep them all in my room!!! Let me see, after I pick up my new Apollo tomorrow, I will have 11 electric guitars, one acoustic/electric, and an electric bass. I think I'm going to have to thin the herd, soon, or else build a new wing onto the house to accomodate them all! 8P Anyway, I just wanted to brag on my new aquisition - I'm really psyched about getting it. The guy lives in Lawrence, but he works out in south OP, so I'm gonna drive out to 130th and Metcalf tomorrow afternoon and pick it up from him at his work. Well, that's all I've got for the moment, I'll talk to ya soon! Spike | | |
| It's been AGES Gotta BLOG!!I just saw STARDUST - what an amazing movie. Every bit as magical as the Harry Potter series, with a kind of neat little love story woven in. I was shocked at how good it was. Left me wishing I could watch it again, and again. Anna Banana Pants (my rottie) is growing up into a beautiful young lady, almost 2 1/2 years old now! My little girl is growing up... sniff... LOL I'm building/repairing/modifying guitars in my spare time right now, and I've even got customers! I placed an ad on CraigsList in the Musical Instruments forum, and I've got people coming to me from all over the city to help them setup their guitars properly, and getting 40-50 bucks a whack! Pretty nice little supplement to my social security disability income. Not enough to screw up my eligibility, mind you - just a couple extra hundred bucks a month. It's really nice, because even though I'm disabled, I can still tinker with guitars - makes me wish I had learned to do it back when I was still able to work full-time. I might have had a nice little guitar/music store right now. Oh, well, shit happens for a reason, and it's not up to me to fuck with fate. Even though I've been through some pretty awful shit (and believe me, parts of it would curl your hair!!!) I wouldn't change a thing, because I like who I am, and everything that's happened up until now is what's made me, me - y'know? Anyway, enough of the cathartic introspection. It's nice to be back. Take it easy all, Rob (Uncle Spike) | | |
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