Just for the fuck of it all.
Took time out yesterday and today to work on some Model Kits I've had laying about the house for years now. I about got the Enterprise C & D complete. (the kits are TREK related, natch) I find model kits very relaxing and frustrating. You see these folks who have awesome airbrush aztek patterns on their ships and I cannot get that down at all. So I go basic. They come out okay. Cannot tell you how many Enterprises I've put together in my lifetime. Lots. I still got the NCC-1701 B and the NX-01 in the box ready to get worked on.
Today I took out my old Fender Strat (I nicknamed JOHNNY FIVE a long time ago. Cause its my 5th guitar) and jammed on it. Its literally been almost two years, maybe two and a half since I've even touched it. It desperately needs a neck and body cleaning, oil up and new strings. Some TLC. I think when I get paid this week I will do that. She's an old friend of mine and you don't neglect your friends. Specially after all we've been through together.
Thats something I don't talk about often on here is how I wanted to be in music as a teen. I learned to play around 15 years old. Never had lessons, just friends showing me stuff. I had effects pedals and a stack. I had two acoustics and even more. I just loved to play. My friend Shane (from the Idiothead.com podcast) and I recorded alot of music together. It was just a big part of my life. the last time we played together was on my 30th birthday, almost 4 years ago. Time flies eh?
Sometimes when we are short on money, I consider selling ol' Johnny, but there's no way I could do it. He's a friend. Even though we don't talk much anymore. My wife is the same way. She got her masters in Clarinet. We MET because of our love of music. She toys with selling her old Clarinet. No way I'll ever let her do that. She'll regret it forever. There's something about an instrument that you live with that you just cannot explain. Like BB King and his Lucille. BJ Armstrong and BLUE. Many examples. Some things, some objects just feel like home.
The kid is musically inclined I think. I broke out the guitar and he sat for a long time just listening to me play. He loves it. I think I'll show him one day. And Johnny Five can help him out. Those will be great memories too. For both of us. The power of music. I love it and live it.
I guess I am feeling a tad introspective today. I learned that a close relative of mine has prostate cancer. While I am confident it can be beat, as it was beat by others in my family, it still concerns me. My uncle had a great hand in making me who I am today. I guarantee I wouldn't be a Trek fan if it weren't for him mailing me his beta tapes of Trek and buying me the ol' ERTL ships and figures for Christmas. To this day, his nickname for me is "STAR BLECCH," A reference to a Mad Magazine parody. Everytime we are together we talk movies. Just like he and mom did too. I have a great life cause I wanted to be into what he was. He loved NES Nintendo back in the day. He showed me how to play those games. I became a Nintendo nut. I still am a classic gaming nut today. All cause of him. I know he'll pull through. Hell my dad is a cancer survivor. Prostate cancer too. Still, its sobering to remember that one day, all these things will be no more. All you will have is memories and all that will remain are objects and the works created and left behind. Like a well loved guitar, or music and comics.
So this week, I will give my old friend a clean up and new strings. Just cause I want to.
T
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