Wonderful Daydream

It’s busy times at work. I work for an online video company, and work has been pretty busy lately. Meetings, writing documents and processes, providing help to dose in need of assistance. I’m having a blast, don’t get me wrong, but every now and then I get a sudden pang of gloom, somewhere in my abdomen… I miss making music!

I play each day, but some days are more constructive and ‘useful’ in terms of getting better or learning new tricks then others. Getting into a song, or into music, always gives a high, a rush that takes you away, and only after several hours have passed, you realize that dawn is breaking, that your feet are completely numb with cold, and that although you’ve promised not to make too much noise to give the neighbors a break, there will be hell to pay in couple of hours. (side note: although I have had as little sleep as the neighbors, usually they are grumpy ones, strange…)

Work is a necessity. It’s fun, but besides that it also provides a roof over my head, food, shelter, challenge (the bottom tier of the Maslow triangle ) Music is also a necessity. Simply because if I don’t listen/make/play music…I get seriously unhappy and distressed.

If someone has found a perfect way to mix the two…do tell!

Hmm. Holiday’s are particularly good for those books that have been waiting for you, on the shelve, whispering ‘read me, read me’. During my holidays, they all get a chance to do what they do best, share their insides with me.

One book I was particularly looking forward to was the autobiography from Slash. I got the book as a reward for translating an online bookstore, Bokiboki.co.uk. The motto: it seems excessive, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, particularly came to mind when reading about all the drug use. And boy, Slash did a lot of that. Several times, I had to look up terms I was unfamiliar with, such as freebasing, and speedballing. Apart from the drugs, the constant drinking of booze, in his high times often more then 2 gallons a day, also seems excessive to the point of ridicule. It’s a wonder he still lives. He was clinically dead for 8 minutes, had two heart attacks, and in total kicked the habit cold turkey more then 13 times.

But, being a huge Slash fan, it was very interesting to read how he became the guitar player I so look up to.
If anything, it has gotten me to play my electric guitar again, which I didn’t do for a long time. The setup I have is shit, so I’d resolved to playing acoustically.

I’ve learned a lot of factoids, for instance, the original version of ‘November rain’ was over 18 minutes long. And in ‘Rocket Queen’, during the break, they mixed in the sound of Axl having sex with ‘loud’ girfriend at that time, because they felt the break needed something extra.

For fans of the autobiography genre, or the music genre Slash embodies, it will be a good read. Otherwise, you’re like to put the book away after the first 40 pages.

I was pointed at this excellent video by a friend of mine. The artwork used is really marvellous, I’m very much in love with the style of drawing. They’ve incorporated it very nice in this video, I must say. The song is not that bad either