General Eclectic's incoherent Universe

5/28/2007

Uncle Neil's battered black beauty

5/27/2007

elliot smth gear

I was listening to the new Elliot Smith album, which is brilliant and stunning.

Just stole this of a a site. Guitar fetishists info. This is the guitar to buy: ELLIOTT SMITH

When it comes to musical equipment, prolific songwriter Elliott Smith doesn't need a lot of bells and whistles; he prefers to keep things fairly simple. His main acoustic guitar is a Yamaha, the model number of which escapes him. "It's a real standard-looking guitar," he says. (it is actually a YAMAHA FG-180)

"It's big and loud and made out of light wood. I don't use a pick when I play most of the time, and I chew my fingernails, so it's a good guitar for me because it's really loud." He recently expanded his collection with a Norman 12-string (La Si Do, 4240 Sere St., St. Laurent, PQ H4T 1A6, Canada; [514] 343-5560; sales@lasido.com).

Smith uses John Pearse medium-gauge, phosphor-bronze strings. "They seem to last longer," he explains. "I get mediums because I tune all the strings down a step. That happened by accident a couple of years ago. I didn't have my own guitar for quite awhile, and I'd play my girlfriend's guitar. I don't have perfect pitch and I didn't realize that it was way lower, so the E string was actually a D, the A string was a G, and so on. So, nowadays I just tune that way, and when I play older songs that were written in normal tuning, I put a capo on."

As far as amplification is concerned, Smith sees no need for pricey, complex equipment. "I go direct," he says. "I have one of those pickups that fits in the soundhole, a Lawrence. It was real cheap, like 40 bucks. It's the only one of those I've seen that has a metal cover instead of wood or plastic. I like it a lot better than a bridge pickup. It doesn't sound glassy or slick." (Editor's note: the Lawrence acoustic pickup is no longer available.)

(actually I have a photo of Elliot Smith playing a rare earth Fishman acoustic Guitar Pick up)

--Roger Len Smith

More info here:

5/13/2007

clapton in de seventies

http://www.iem.ac.ru/EC/images/covers/no_reason_to_cry.gif

zat te luisteren naar No Reason To Cry van Clapton. prachtige plaat waar zo'n beetje alle leden van The Band aan hebben meegedaan.

Bio'tje van Clapton

http://www.vandaagindemuziek.nl/Eric_Clapton_70.htm

4/27/2007

the most amazing graph I ever saw

I'm not an information designer. Don't have the stamina for it. But when I see this gorgeous image it makes me want to display all sorts of gibberish ridiculous and obscene information in beautiful graphs like these. CLICK!

rip off?

This beautiful though bitter poster campaign for amnesty looks familiar... I just found it here. These people make good work. The Red Cross campaign is identical though better I think. Don't know who was first. I like them both. Very Jeff Wall-ish. Very trendy. Don't know if the impact is as big as the agencies are pretending with their environmental semi 3d solutions. It's nice for their portfolio though and it does make one wonder I guess.

Battersea Power Station

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Bluffs/7571/animals.jpg

Battersea Powerstation is the factory used for the cover of Pink Floyd's album ANIMALS. Beautiful intimidating building. Stalin would be proud. Looks like a 19th century castle.

http://www.antipodean.org/photos/london/battersea.jpg

what do we call ourselves now

Interesting article by Steven Heller in eye magazine about the title graphic designer.

It seems designers use this title less and less. And there's definitely no consensus on an alternative.

4/16/2007

nice quote

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.

There's also a negative side.

Hunter S. Thompson

curious piece of writing here... good though. The doctor would be proud.

Devil Ascends to Heaven to Battle the Almighty

Hunter S. Thompson, the so-called 'gonzo journalist' known for his immoral advocacy of drugs, wild uninhibited sex and gunplay, has used his dupes in the amoral, secular humanist liberal Hollywood to blast his way to heaven to fight God to the death.

His Hollywood moral relativists built a huge Tower of Babel on Thompson's ranch, topped with Thompson's favoured false idol of evil: the double-thumbed red hand, pictured below.

Built by Johnny Depp, a famous actor known for his portrayal of characters unable to prevent their own excesses and moral decay, the tower of hate blew Thompson's remains into the sky from a 150 ft vantage point.

"He'll never make it," predicted brother Iguana, an expert on liberal entertainment cults. "Heaven is infinite, and these evil cult instruments from science can't ever project him far enough to reach the blinding light of infinite truth. Dust in the wind. All he is is dust in the wind."

"People downwind will need to be exorcised," he added. "That's costly, but my ministry can help."

But what if he did make it to the Almighty?

"My money is on God", says Iguana. "He's got the most righteous uppercut of them all, and you never know where he's coming from. One moment he's jabbing right, and the next, he's a southpaw. God can do that, you know. He's all powerful. And he knows kung fu."

Yes, Thompson, for all his highly concentrated evil, is expected to lose, joining the ranks of other failed would-be usurpers of all-that-is-right-and-good such as Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Peter Jennings.

Jud McCloud is The Wingnuterer's writer-at-large.