baby bird update....



oh man. it was about a month ago that we found and took care of a baby sparrow. after a few days of round the clock feeding, we noticed that one of his legs might be broken so we rushed him over to the calabasas wildife center. they told us he was screwed and most likely would have to be killed. they took him away from us and we cursed that wildlife center a good one.

we called in everyday for ten days to check on him, after that we stopped because we didn't want to know if he had been put down. we thought we would wait awhile for the wounds to heal before we got the bad news. so a month passed, and we figured he was gone.

boom! fast forward to a few days ago. we got the call that baby bird, aka/ baby dude, was not only going to live, but they wanted us to be there to release him! so on friday we drove over to the center and they handed us a box of three birds and said we could take the box and release them wherever we wanted. what the hell? so we got into the car and drove to malibu state park, walked about a mile in so we could be by a river and let baby dude and two of his closest homies fly away. i might have picked the best spot on this earth to leave them. here's the emotional release.

mike b and his magic piano

trying to meet our deadline, mike b desperately plays piano.



one more time

pioneer town

i don't know if you have ever been to pioneer town, but i think you should. it's a place where you can get mixed up with the biggest lowlifes who turn out to be lifelong friends. we rented a room at the rimrock ranch. we were balling out of control. just look.......


taking a dip in the tub. no big deal. just another day in the life of this player.


discussing what to wear to tonight's big show aka/ open mic night.


so the heart of pioneer town is a place called pappy and harriet's. it's a restaurant, bar and music hall. and it's also a little magical. it the hogwart's of the desert. we ate dinner and then rocked the crowd. here's a highlight....



played by carlos santana

i can't resist. here's someone making an ass out of carlos santana. i lose it every time i hear the keyboard player playing the 'final countdown'. this will hopefully be the last of these videos. 


steve vai is god

i remember a time in my young life when i thought that shredding was it. i wanted to shred. i waited in a three hour line to meet joe satriani when i was in junior high. maybe if i shook his hand some of that shred would rub off onto me. i still have my signed copy of surfing with the alien. it's something one should outgrow by high school. but, these dudes still captivate guys who can't play guitar and namm show nerds. 


i guess there's a big community of guys who make these videos. they take guitar legends and then make them look like assholes. it takes real skill because the timing is flawless. me and naim sat around for an hour laughing at these. here are two of my two steve vai favorites.






leaving tucson

goodbye to tucson. here's what i'll remember.




this is naim schooling me in the art of tasteful soloing. he didn't know i was filming so i darkened the image for legal reasons.

still in this

coming back to life after food poisoning. i've been wearing this shirt for like five days. my sickness has given me a new appreciation for using a whammy bar. it makes the guitar sound like you don't know how to play it. it's great.


here are a couple of awesome amps that i will never see again.


the last moments of a hot solo. another pat on the back.



rubio's shrimp taco's

food poisoning. thank you rubio's for your amazing shrimp tacos. and for the vision quest that i was on for three days straight after dehydration. thank you rubio's for allowing this chance to meet with my spirit animal.

after missing the first show we had out here with cmg, i wasn't going to let rubio's win the battle. grabbed my tambo and headed out for the trunkspace in phoenix. it was all a blur. here's a highlight.

party this saturday

rehearsals for retirement

i think this one might speak for itself.



here's a different version that is unbelievable as well. the 80's were a confusing time for a lot of artists. you keep doing what you do bruce.

freestyle raps

anybody who knows me knows that i'm not shy to lay it down on a freestyle session. i'm not saying that i'm good or i even rhyme, but i handle my business. at the backyard party or in the car or walking home. but never on public access cable shows. why? because i suck.

with that being said, here's eli porter and envy in the saddest rap battle in cable access history.

jonathan richman

when i was living in mid city los angeles a few years ago, i used to listen to jonathan richman once in a while on the stereo in the living room. that was when i was new in the house.

after a few weeks, people start getting familiar with me. i remember rocking this next song in the old living room when suddenly the music stops. it was one of my roommates telling me that there was going to be a strict ban on anything jonathan richman. then another roommate walks out to agree with him. i was in shock. how can this man stir up so much hate in roommates?

i went in search for the answers late night at the club congress in tucson. he played with local hero tommy larkins, and it was awesome. i wished the old roomates were there with me to pull the plug from the sound board and to tell richman that he had to bail.


that's my picture from last night and here's an old school video of his smash hit 'new england' live (maybe) from the top of the pops. make sure your roommates have left the room first.

p.k. ripper


so right now i am in tucson living a lazy man's dream. right before i left, i did a massive closet cleaning and found so many treasures. mostly trash though. anyways, i found my friend paul's cd that he made a few years back and it's been the soundtrack for going to trader joe's. his one man band is called the 'gold state', and the cd is called 'whole wide whole'. paul is a complex man, he's an artist, poet, composer, with the humorous voice mail message chops of a well paid comedian. he also does comics which are awesome and called underwear lane. anyways, his record is a good summertime late night jam. here's one more comic to sweeten the deal.


deets #2 (part one)

so i'm not going to walk through the steps of refinishing again, i just wanted to show you the new project. i'll let you know if anything interesting happens and show updates from time to time.


this time i'm going to try to cut down the man hours. one hint, if you plan on painting a guitar a solid color, don't sand down to the wood. just scuff up the surface until you reach the polyurithane and then primer. i wasted a lot of time dealing with filling in the grain. so, if you want a natural finish, good luck. sounds like a pain in the ass.

making a custom headstock logo (guitar refinishing part 25)

check me out world! i've got my design and i've printed it backwards onto transparency paper.

next, i sanded the neck down real nice with 220 dry sandpaper, cut out the logo, sprayed some photomount on that piece and stuck it on real good.

now it's time for some magic. we lightly spray lacquer onto the logo and the headstock until the lines from the transparency disappear. little by little though because lacquer will melt your ink. use your slowhand on this one. a light coat every half an hour or so. when it looks like the lines are almost gone, let it dry for a few days. sand it with 400 grit dry. then 400 wet all the way up to 2000, just like the body. wax that, and there you go!

here it is with all the hardware back in action.

working on a dream part two

remember a couple of weeks ago when i made this chart? i told you i was working hard.


boom, check it. it's like way more complete. it's true what they say about charts. i was telling grant capes (his records are awesome and he's performed for huell howser) how it becomes more about the chart and less about the record at times. like when they have that monopoly game at mcdonald's. i just want to see all the pieces there, not to win a prize, but for the pat on the back after doing a such a great job.



i am currently in tucson and will be for the next two weeks working on finishing this album and hanging out with dogs, naim amor, artie vint, and eating tater tots.

screwing in the last of the body (guitar refinishing part 24)

so, now with those pesky electronics out of the way, we can screw in the pick guard to the body. look at this thing come together! it's what god must of felt like when he created his first guitar.


i sort of can't believe that this all worked out. now the hardware.



now for a couple of jaguar/mustang knobs that i got for $5. it's kind of ridiculous what a difference nice knobs make. i spent at least 4 days non-stop on the internet until i decided on these. oh my god i'm getting excited. i think i might overheat.


here it is. what a transformation. at first, i couldn't imagine anybody wanting this guitar but now it should have it's own room. me and this guitar should get a room. i'm going out for drinks, alone.


so believe it or not, there are still some things we need to do. it's time to get that logo onto that headstock. mysteries will be revealed.

jackson c. frank - stating the obvious



when i was living in portland, or seattle as the kids call it, i remember getting this record on a burned cd. i remember listening to it once or twice and thinking it was ok, but this song was a classic. and no matter how many times i've lost this song it always comes back to me. every one in about 100 people i meet will remind me about this song by playing it for me. it's definitely a song you feel like you want to share with people. i covered it about four years ago to further that sentiment.

although i research a lot of singers and want to know information behind songs, for some reason i feel good not knowing anything about this guy. the song has always drifted in and out of my life as a mystery and so i need to respect that. i know a few things about him and they are hazy and most likely made-up.

i know that simon and garfunkel sing this. paul simon might of produced this version. he ended up somewhere broken down and then died. so that might or might not be true. but, what is true, is that this song remains the same.

most love songs you hear sound like overreactions when you grow out of them. how embarrassing for you and them. 'blues run the game' is great from the first time you hear it until the last time. because the lyrics ring true and stay true. because it deals with trying to drown everything out, not because you're young or confused, but because it's the way we have been designed.

nice one, god!

electronics are lame (guitar refinishing part 23)

i might have mentioned it before, but i'm not sure how electronics work. i just know if you mess around with them long enough and look at things that actually do work, it will find it's way to you. so that's what i'm doing. i've heard you're supposed to make a fake pick guard out of cardboard so you don't screw up yours doing this. check this thing out.


so i looked at how people wire things online and just went with it. how hard can it be? there's like five things going on. you have a volume knob, tone knob, output jack, pick-up and some sort of capacitor. i just started soldering what felt right. look at this thing. it's got to work!



and hell yes it worked, indeed. now i screw this stuff onto the pick guard and we're ready to do this. by the way, every screw that was on this thing was worthless. i don't know if you have ever tried finding weird small screws at home depot, but they laugh in your face when you do. i was referred to the lovelady screw shop in torrance. they set me up. go say hi if you're in town. here's the finished deal.

next, it's time to screw the hardware and pickguard onto the guitar. i can't wait.