Hi all. I generally go by the name Robbie, am rapidly approaching 55yo and am marrried with three kids. I look after corporate and financial services for the Western Australian State Government agency that provides hospital, community and primary health services to all parts of the State outside of the Perth metropolitan area. I joined the G&LDP around four years ago but I am by nature more of a listener than talker and therefore spend far more time reading posts than writing them. I've been particulary inactive for the past 18 months as 2010 was a horrific year when through separate circumstances I almost lost my father, my wife and my daughter. Fortunately, they are all reovering well - cross fingers.
I've played guitar since I was a child having been taught by my father. I played in bands continuously from my mid teens right through to the begining of 2010 when circumstances lead me to stand down from the band I'd been with for the past 20 years. Since my mid teens I've been semi pro in that I've always been in working bands but I've never made my living solely from music - well not since I finished University anyway. Over the years I've probably covered most genres form rock to metal to country to punk to indie to ....
Today's Geography Lesson
My hometown of Perth is the capital city of Western Australia, a State which comprises one third of the Australian continent. WA has a population of 2.3 million people - 1.7 million of whom live in Perth. Outside of Perth there are few settlements with more than 20,000 people and non larger than around 30,000. To reach one you have to drive two hours South to Bunbury, Four hours North to Geraldton or seven hours East to Kalgoorlie. To give you a sense of scale WA is more than three and a half times the size of Texas but has only one tenth of Texas' population. Its around eleven times the size of the United Kingdom but with a population only four percent that of the UK In line with the precedents set by my compatriots ... here's a map, although it doesn't look like any type of biscuit or anatomical feature that I know of ....
Lunch
Warning - my lunches are usually pretty uninteresting, unimaginative fare. Too often I've found myself caught up and not able to get out of the building to buy lunch so I generally bring lunch from home. Today was a chicken and salad roll, Mars bar and an apple, all washed down with a hot lemon tea.
Do you guys manage to get away from your workplace for lunch or (sigh), like me, do you usually end up cramming in a few bites at your desk?
G&L Topic
Leo Fender was a renounded tinkerer and innovator - always looking for improvements and better ways to do things. I think its probaby a safe bet that if G&L had continued under Leo's guiding hand production techniques and product design would have continued to evolve from those of the '80s and early 90's. Unfortunately non of use really know where he would have taken things. In that regard I really feel for BBE. To maintain the spirit of Leo Fender they need to be innovative and look for opportunities to change and improve, but if they do it in a way that WE don't think Leo would have done, they may be deminished in our eyes.
Given the philosophy behind the Telecaster, I think production changes like CNC and Plek would have been entertained by Leo and George. They may well have been sold on the merits of the Tribute line. What about innovations like the DFS Vibrato ... or Leo's last project (the baritone) not yet making it into production? What are the innovations that might have been?
How much different do you think G&L might be if Leo, George and Dale were still at the helm? ... and are BBE between a rock and a hard place in trying to balance preservation and innovation - is it inevitable yjay they will be damned if they do and damned if they don't?
General Topic
OK. Monday being introduction day this is turning into a rather long post so how about a quick non G&l question.
What song or piece of music would be the theme to the story of your life and why?
The dreamer in me wishes it were Spectrum's "I'll Be Gone". My ego might hope for Skyhooks "You Just Like me "cause I'm Good in Bed" (sentiment only as I hate the song!). My wife would probably think I should use Neil Innes' "How Sweet to be an Idiot". But for the most part the title if not all of the actual lyrics of Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" probably best sums up how I'd reflect on things so far.
What! No Porn?
Some of you will have heard me explain why I don't post pictures or even speak much of the gear I own. Briefly, a few years back my home was broken into and trashed as a direct consequence of my profile on our band website including details of my musical and video production equipment. I made a promise to my wife that I wouldn't publish that kind of information again, and remembering how distressed she was about what she came home to that day, I have and will continue to keep that promise.
Not being able to show or talk specifically about my gear is kinda limiting in stiuations like this. So ... since I can't show you my gear .... I'm thinking that over the coming week I'll let you hear some of what I've done with it. Today you can hear the most recent thing I've recorded. Over the rest of the week I'll post some of my early material from the '70's from that long lost cassette that turned up a couple of years ago. I guess its the musical equivalent of showing my baby photos.
The newet project .... I'm working on a two minute promo clip for my agency to use at various expos etc. I've recorded the audio track with the assistance of my old band mates and am about half way through putting the video together. If you have nothing better to do with your day, have a listen to the full audio clip, have a look at how it works with the first half of the video and post your critique
Here's the audio - wachs.mp3
[youtube]9SZJwK28pZs[/youtube]
... and now its nearly time for bed here so chat amongst yourselves and I'll see you all tomorrow.
Cheers, Robbie
Great meals and the two of us fill up for $10.
Maybe the isolation encourages creativity?