Finding the Right Guitar

I haven't had the same experience as this player. I'm still playing the sturdy Japanese-made instrument that showed up under a Christmas tree 30+ years ago.

But I recognize some of the feelings (see Moving Down the Fingerboard). It's not just the music.

On the other hand, my guitar has been with me so long that playing another almost seems an act of betrayal. I can tell by the sound when I haven't trimmed the ends of the new strings enough. I've gotten used to the second string tuning gear being stiff. I know exactly how to trim my nails to get a good tone out of it.

Jesus of the Week

Here. And don't miss the Golgotha La-Z-Boy.

Si Ji

I've been listening to Xuefei Yang's new CD, Si Ji every day for the last week and a half. It's an amazing disc of transcriptions of traditional Chinese music, as well as Chinese-inspired western compositions.

What amazes me is that so many of the techniques that I think of as Spanish or Latin American sound, on this disc, as if they were Chinese from the get-go. But don't take my word for it. Click here and listen to "Yi Dance."

Tone and technique are both right there, which makes it easy to over look the "babe of the month" packaging and promotion.

Katrina Donations

By all means, contribute for immediate relief. Then think about contributing to ACORN. They do old-style, Saul Alinsky-type organizing, person by person, neighborhood by neighborhood. Their national headquarters was (past tense) in New Orleans.

There are reasons most of those folks in New Orleans are still there and it is has nothing to do with laziness or criminal intent. ACORN is one of the good guys. Give, if you can.