(Early January 2025)

In the spirit of having written every day on this blog, as in having written some kind of post every day for three days in a row now, which in the history of this blog is totally unprecendented, I will keep it going, and write yet another post. The challenge this time is, what to write about?

I am not much in the mood for writing, to tell you the truth. I am in the mood for living. But my environment is not currently all that conducive to living. Or, not living, exactly, but living passionately and with gusto, and savoring life and tasting the joys of life, as I kind of want to do right now, in some way.

I picked up the guitar, but I’m not quite in the mood. I am beset on both sides now, literally on both walls of my room, by people who I will be bothering if I unleash the beast, as has now happened multiple times. It’s dark, and I feel confined, in this room, and in my spirit.

Something I have learned about rock and rocking – you can’t do it without making noise. You must make noise. And if you are going to do it right, you must unleash. You can use headphones, but it’s not the same. We all know that. It’s not the same, and you’re bound to the headphones. It’s like a silent rave. Not a fan of the silent rave, even though I like the idea. But it’s not about being quiet. It’s almost the principle of the thing. It’s about making some fuckin’ noise. It’s about unleashing the beast, freeing your spirit, that’s what the fuck rock is all about.

I went to Gibson Garage today. I work in the same building as the Gibson headquarters, and their main store, the Gibson Garage, that has all the fancy Gibson guitars. It is a guitar player’s dream to be working in the same building as this Gibson Garage, and in the last week I’ve been in there probably four times. Today, again, I played the Kirk Hammett 1979 Flying V. The Epiphone verson. That guitar is absolutely amazing. I want it now. That’s the first one I was interested in, and I also have been interested in the Epiphone Extura Prophecy Explorer, but I picked it up today, and I just wasn’t that into it. But that Flying V, I picked up afterwards, and was once again, extremely into it. So that must be the guitar for me.

There is one other guitar that I really want to try out, and that’s the Fender Mustang, whatever. Some kind of Fender Mustang, with the racing stripe. I want to see what that guitar is all about. I first saw one at the Nashville New and Used Music store. Caught my eye, that one did. But I haven’t played it yet.

These days, I’m all into rocking. Punk rock, metal, heavy metal, grunge, rock of all of those flavors. That means Metallica, Nirvana, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Superheaven, Disturbed. Not much Disturbed right now, because I’ve already listened to it all and am waiting to crack into playing Disturbed. I have my hands full learning Nirvana stuff, and now just recently, Metallica. A completely different ball game. We are riffing the fuck out now. I LOVE it. I’ve been playing Blackened. Genius song, and genius writing, and heavy as fuck. The riffs outstanding. The Ramones and Sex Pistols is fun to play, but the Metallica so far is something else, because I’m actually getting to work the neck and do some riffing, some interesting fret work, that I haven’t done yet in my guitar player career, which is still pretty short. But today, at the Garage, I have been hooking into a $2700 Mesa/Boogie amp (the Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Badlander), and I played around with the knobs and settings, and with the Flying V, and I landed on a sound that was so heavy and chunky that I can say 100% it was the best sound I have ever gotten out of an amp/guitar combo. That was the sound for me. I need that sound in my life. I must have it. I asked the guitar pro guy, who’s name I should really remember, how can I get something like this sound but not pay $2700 for this Mesa/Boogie, and he recommended the Marshall DSL to me. And I keep hearing the name Marshall pop up, so I might have just found my next amp.

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I titled this post Humanism because I had to think of something to title it, and I looked up and directly across the room in front of me was a small framed Keith Haring artwork poster, with this word written across the bottom. I can tell you a little story about this, the story of how I came to own this poster and three Yayoi Kusama framed posters. Here is the story, not the most riveting tale but mayhaps thou’ wilst enjoy it nonetheless.

When doing my Christmas shopping with my dearest sister we attended a local thrift store that I must have passed by many times and never noticed, although it was much further down Gallatin than I originally thought, so actually I have not passed by it so many times, and it looks like it would be a CVS or Wallgreens, and that’s probably what it once was, but it is not a thrift store, and I went with her to this thrift store that was so close to my house on Gallatin, and it was amazing and full of treasures and gems, and I spied a Yayoi Kusama poster, framed, for $18, that was calling to me, sitting in a wicker chair, all alone, and I thought, that this is here for a reason, but did I need it? No. And was I shopping for myself? No. I was there for other people. I was there to shop for other people, for Christmas, so I resisted and did not buy it, and I have often thought, if you aren’t sure, just don’t buy it, and if you are still thinking about it later, maybe then you can go back and get it, and be sure about it. That way you avoid making impulsive purchases. Well, guess what? After Christmas, and during Christmas, I kept thinking about that Yayoi Kusama poster. That frame. I wanted it, and I could justify it, because I am a Yayoi Kusama fan, with nothing to show for it, and it fills a niche in my room that I don’t have, which is any kind of connection to visual arts and the art world, that I do love and am interested in, and currently, you wouldn’t be able to tell if you looked around my room, except that I have one large handmade couch throw hanging on my wall, that I bought at a local Indian restaurant called Surya when I lived in Ozu machi, and then I have a fluid painting that I made awhile ago. So, my room is sorely lacking in wall art and especially of the art world, in the visual arts way, and so I wanted this poster, and I could justify it, and I had a little Christmas money to spend. Well, when I got back home to East Nashville, I went back to the thrift store to see if they still had the frame, and they still had it, and they had two others, and then they had the Keith Haring up on the wall, and I thought, I must buy all of these. I need to have all of these. I absolutely must, and this is important. And they were all $18. So now, in my room, I have three of these framed Yayoi Kusama exhibition posters, and one Keith Haring, and this was money well spent, and I don’t feel guilty at all. The reason being that it truly is a reminder and a link to the visual art and art lover in me, and I appreciate these frames and am reminded of that world every time I look at them. When I look at these Yayoi Kusama frames, I think about going to her exhibit when I was in New York, and I think about her story, from what little I know about it, and it makes me happy. My room, if it were going to be a representation of me, is now more complete, having these artworks. And someday, if anyone were going to enter into this room, they might say, “Cool pictures!” or they might say, “You like Yayoi Kusama?” and I would say, yes, I went and saw a Yayoi Kusama exhibit in New York, I love Yayoi Kusama. Keith Haring I don’t know much about and have not been to a Keith Haring exhibit, but I have always liked his work. I couldn’t say that I really knew his name or connected him with his art until I bought this frame, though. The Yayoi Kusama also ties in with my Japanese self, and that’s important. I have a nice bottle of Kagoshima shochu on my bookshelf, that also is a reminder. The word iconography has been in my mind, recently. The iconography of my room, that brings certain things to my mind. It is powerful.

I have been hanging out in my room more than I would really like to, because it’s winter, and after staring enough at these blank walls, I started to have ideas about how to decorate them. I have been leaning records against the wall, on the back of my couch, and I can display five records that way, which is amazing. After the Superheaven concert, I bought a record, which contained two copies of a folding album artwork, and I also got a free poster with my purchase, so here were two large rock visuals that I could tape to the wall, and then after doing that, I had the real brilliant idea, to rip up the picture book that come with my deluxe Bleach album (Nirvana), and stick all those pictures to my wall. I wasn’t looking through that book anyways, it was just sitting there in the record case. So I tore it up and stuck it all over the walls. Now I have had rock iconography, and I think more about rock, which is great. But the Yayoi Kusama and Keith Haring are something else, they give me something else to think about, and represent something else I care about, and love. So I’m glad I got those.