My wife made some red beans and rice for dinner, and she decided to wrap it in a tortilla which turned out really good. I'm having leftovers of that for lunch today.
Travel Picture
In Grand Cayman there is a sandbar where you can go and play with stingrays, and it turned out to be an amazing experience that may be one of those bucket list items. The history, as told by the tour guide, is that fisherman decades ago came to this sandbar to clean their daily catch. They noticed that stingrays will gather to eat what they discard into the water. Eventually they ventured into the water to find that the stingrays were quite friendly, so they made a habit of interacting with the rays. Someone eventually came up with the bright idea of bringing tourists to interact with the stingrays and an industry was born.
The ray's skin feels smooth, the underside is white in color and feels velvety smooth. They will swim right by you and come into contact with your body and will let you hold them. The stingrays will also eat out of your hand. I am provided pieces of squid as food. I'm told to hold my thumb in my palm and make a fist covering my thumb and with the squid sticking out the top of my fist. The stingrays don't have teeth, they suck the food out of your hand as they glide over your fist. The reason to tuck your thumb in is because they manage a lot of suction, and if they catch your thumb it will hurt, so I'm told.
My Instruments
Being a Beatles fan for life I had occasionally wanted to have a 12-string electric guitar. Rickenbackers are way too expensive for someone like me who just want a 12-string to bust out every once in a while. In 2007 I bought this Daisy Rock DC12 on eBay for about $250. The action was a little high when I first got the guitar. After shimming the neck it now has much better action. I play Beatles, the Cure, Silencers, and other 80s tunes on it.
I had bought a cheap Fernandes bass back in 2004 when I started doing some home recordings. After acquiring that bass I started paying more attention to G&L basses. In 2008 I happened on a super deal through the Portland Craigslist for a USA-made L-2000. I've told the story many times before so I won't repeat it yet once again. It is now my only bass and I use it to learn songs and record with.
Guitar Playing Is Hazardous To Your Health
Just hanging around guitar forums I have read many stories of the dangers of guitar playing. Examples are the danger of getting smacked when a band is playing in tight quarters, the potential lethal voltages in tube amps, jealous boyfriends of groupies. What are your stories? I'm sure BoogieBill, gDub, Spot and others have a bunch to tell.
Living the almost hermit-like life I do the only thing I can think of is a string snapping when I'm tuning that could have taken out an eye.
Maximum Musicality
I had watched "Standing In The Shadow Of Motown" recently and there was a few seconds of footage that I will remember for a long time. A segment showed one of the percussionists picking up a tambourine and playing it for a few seconds, and it was the most musical thing I've ever heard out of a tambourine. In the hands of a player with vision and ability, a musical instrument can go beyond what you assume it is capable of. Interestingly later in the film one of the funk brothers made a comment about the tambourine playing. Watching Tommy Emmanuel play an acoustic is another experience that stretched my appreciation of what that instrument can be made to do.
Kit
