I've decided to change the look of my blog. The original design was looking too dour in my opinion. I want this to be a happy place, but the vibe was quiet melancholy.
So I've changed the template colors to brighten it up. My lovely wife is working on a new graphic for me, so as soon as I get it I'll customize the colors to match. I'm ditching the tag line, too. It's just going to be called The Pantomime Horse Music Blog. I'm envisioning a sort of 60s-ish graphic, something lively and colorful.
I already think it's easier to read. There's something about white text on a dark background that makes your eyes water.
So stay tuned, soon this will be a happier corner of the Interwebz.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Review: Neal Morse - Testimony 2
In those nine years, Morse has dove headlong into his religion in both his personal life and his music. While still a purveyor of prog, his albums have become more and more religious with each offering. When Neal and the Transatlantic boys decided to get back together in 2009 and make an album, I approached the results with more than a little trepidation, as I said in my review, and lo and behold the result was more than a little church-y. So I took an even healthier dose of skepticism with Testimony 2, as there was little need for Neal to even pretend to be secular.
The album is split into two discs. Disc one includes the Testimony 2 suite broken up into three parts. It starts off with part six, much like the first Star Wars movie is actually part four. There's a second disc with three unrelated songs and a DVD chronicling the making of the disc, which I haven't watched yet.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Gone but not forgotten
It's been over two months since my last blog post. I guess it's about time I write another one.
So why the long break? I got a new job. I'm not proud to admit that I composed a lot of my previous posts at my last job. Even though I wrote them during break times, I wrote them so I had something to do throughout the day that I actually liked doing. See, I hated my old job. I moved from administrative IT work to programming because I thought that was the next logical step after finishing my degree. I was wrong. I hated programming and longed to be back doing server administration, network administration, hell even help desk would've been better.
Fortunately I found another position with a great company as a systems administrator. It's work I love doing, and there's a lot of it to be done, so I haven't felt the need to spend my breaks writing blog posts. To be honest, I really haven't had a lot of break time at all.
So the blog has suffered. I still enjoy it, but since I would rather spend my free time playing guitar instead of writing about it, it's sat idle for some time. I have no intention of abandoning it, but the posts will be fewer and farther between.
Even though I've been neglecting my blog, I haven't been neglecting my guitar playing. In fact, just today, I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself last year - I can play the entire first side of Rush's Moving Pictures. I've known how to play Tom Sawyer forever, but now I can go right through Red Barchetta to YYZ to Limelight. There are some rough spots but the fact that I can just start the album and play along is a tremendous boost to my playing confidence. Sometimes you go along thinking you're not going anywhere with your playing, then one day, things just click and you know you've reached another level. Today was one of those days for me.
I also got a new guitar stand. I know it seems like a simple purchase, but now I can have all five of my electric guitars out at the same time, so whatever guitar I'm in the mood to play is right there, ready for me to just grab, tune and play. It's important to match guitar with mood - anything to get you playing more is a good thing. Now I don't have to waste time putting one guitar away and taking another one out before I sit down to play. Sometimes I just didn't feel like going through the hassle and ended up either not playing or not putting my all into my playing time. Now I don't have to worry about that at all.
I also don't have the urge to buy new guitars anymore. Sure, there are tons of guitars I'd like to have, but none that I feel I need to have. There's a difference. With my current rig I feel like I have everything I need. The latest Ibanez purchase is going well. I don't miss my Gibson at all - in fact I never think about it. The only thing I need to do now is update my amp. I've outgrown the Line 6 and I want to finally have a good amplifier. I've always had nice guitars but I always had crap amps to go along with them. My wife and I talked about it and when my 40th birthday rolls around (it's a lot closer than I'd like it to be) I'm going to get a good amp. I have a few in mind that I'd like, plus something new might come out in the next few years. I definitely want a tube combo amp, nothing too powerful but not a lightweight, either. The ones I like now are the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blackstar HT20.
I don't know how many watts of power I'd need - the Fender is a 40 watter and the Blackstar is a 20 watter (hence the name). Tube wattage is much different from solid state wattage - a 5 watt tube amp can blow away solid state amps up to about 60 watts depending on the amp. All you get with higher wattage tube amps is more headroom - the higher the wattage, the louder the amp can go and still sound clean. Who knows, maybe a 5-watter is all I'll need, in which case I'd be looking at either the Blackstar HT-5 or the Marshall Class 5. When the time comes, I'll have to just play as many as I can and see which one speaks to me.
Sounds like fun.
So why the long break? I got a new job. I'm not proud to admit that I composed a lot of my previous posts at my last job. Even though I wrote them during break times, I wrote them so I had something to do throughout the day that I actually liked doing. See, I hated my old job. I moved from administrative IT work to programming because I thought that was the next logical step after finishing my degree. I was wrong. I hated programming and longed to be back doing server administration, network administration, hell even help desk would've been better.
Fortunately I found another position with a great company as a systems administrator. It's work I love doing, and there's a lot of it to be done, so I haven't felt the need to spend my breaks writing blog posts. To be honest, I really haven't had a lot of break time at all.
So the blog has suffered. I still enjoy it, but since I would rather spend my free time playing guitar instead of writing about it, it's sat idle for some time. I have no intention of abandoning it, but the posts will be fewer and farther between.
Even though I've been neglecting my blog, I haven't been neglecting my guitar playing. In fact, just today, I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself last year - I can play the entire first side of Rush's Moving Pictures. I've known how to play Tom Sawyer forever, but now I can go right through Red Barchetta to YYZ to Limelight. There are some rough spots but the fact that I can just start the album and play along is a tremendous boost to my playing confidence. Sometimes you go along thinking you're not going anywhere with your playing, then one day, things just click and you know you've reached another level. Today was one of those days for me.
I also don't have the urge to buy new guitars anymore. Sure, there are tons of guitars I'd like to have, but none that I feel I need to have. There's a difference. With my current rig I feel like I have everything I need. The latest Ibanez purchase is going well. I don't miss my Gibson at all - in fact I never think about it. The only thing I need to do now is update my amp. I've outgrown the Line 6 and I want to finally have a good amplifier. I've always had nice guitars but I always had crap amps to go along with them. My wife and I talked about it and when my 40th birthday rolls around (it's a lot closer than I'd like it to be) I'm going to get a good amp. I have a few in mind that I'd like, plus something new might come out in the next few years. I definitely want a tube combo amp, nothing too powerful but not a lightweight, either. The ones I like now are the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blackstar HT20.
I don't know how many watts of power I'd need - the Fender is a 40 watter and the Blackstar is a 20 watter (hence the name). Tube wattage is much different from solid state wattage - a 5 watt tube amp can blow away solid state amps up to about 60 watts depending on the amp. All you get with higher wattage tube amps is more headroom - the higher the wattage, the louder the amp can go and still sound clean. Who knows, maybe a 5-watter is all I'll need, in which case I'd be looking at either the Blackstar HT-5 or the Marshall Class 5. When the time comes, I'll have to just play as many as I can and see which one speaks to me.
Sounds like fun.
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