got most of the bits, pieces, doodads and doohickeys i need to get started today. i also decided on the finish i want to do, but i’m not telling what it’s going to be just yet. you’ll need to wait and see. i think it’s a bit of a risky move, but i’m doing it anyways. if it turns out how i am imagining it, it’s going to be amazing! alright, lets gooooo!
step 1. sand everything.
step 1. find somewhere to do the sanding.
step 1. clean up the garage.
argh! the back of my garage, which also serves as my workshop is, funny enough, about as clean and clear as my mental state these days! it’s a dump zone and it has been for a few years now. for fucks sake. it’s completely out of control. i gotta clean this shit up.
i swear i am not a hoarder.
guitar build might have to go on hold for a couple days while i deal with this. what a fucking disaster. how did i ignore this for so long?!
i really should get started right now, but i’m too discouraged to even think about tackling this mess tonight. it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow.
tabarnak. last night was great, but oh boy am i ever paying for it this morning.
j&k, m&j2, you are good people. i’m happy to count you as friends. j2 i am sorry you are perpetually the asshole, but at least m got to be prez this time! for one round anyways lol. and thank you so much for hosting, cooking, cleaning. most of that is usually my job, so taking a break from it felt great, also everything was delicious!
there was a lot of reminiscing tonight as well. j&k and i share a lot of history… i mean, j has been my best friend since we were like 13 or 14 years old. and i’ve been friends with k for just about as long too. we all used to live together too at one point. man, we had some good times.
band today. i don’t know if i am going to make it. at least i know j and m are going to be in similar boats after last night.
i think we might play some more of our own stuff today, or at least i am going to suggest that. last night m was pumped to show us some things he was working on, and also was strangely motivated by something i wrote when we first started this, played it once or twice and then discarded it. i thought no one liked it, but i guess it just needed to ferment a little.
i’ve been posting lists of songs with no context. maybe it’s the lack of sleep, maybe it’s the 2 rebulls and 2 coffees i’ve had, but right now i am motivated to write, and i’m thinking maybe i should explain why i have posted each and every one of these songs. because each one has a story and/or deeper meaning. at least for me.
i really want to stay at your house is from the original soundtrack of Cyberpunk 2077 released in december 2020, written and performed by let’s eat grandma, but credited to rosa walton and hallie coggins. it’s song from a video game i have been following since its very first teaser was released over a decade ago. it’s set in night city a fictional near future dystopian metropolis, and based on the original ttrpg by mike pondsmith from the late 80’s early 90’s.
as a teenager, cyberpunk and shadowrun were my obsession. mostly cyberpunk. i still have the original rulebooks somewhere here as well as a folder filled with character sheets and campaign settings. something about the whole near future distopia with corporate greed and cybernetic body modifications mixed with ultra violence just set my mind on fire. to be honest, it still does. i love movies, tv shows, videogames, anything set in a similar type of scenario. it’s so hopeless, depressing and unfair and yet so ridiculously lucrative to those who figure out how to play the game. imbalance is everywhere and if you’re on the wrong end of the seesaw, it’s game over choom.
but this isn’t a review of Cyberpunk the ttrpg, nor is it an analysis of Cyberpunk 2077 the game, instead, this is about my connection to this song, and although it was definitely a jam in the game driving through the streets of night city, it really cemented itself in my soul when i watched Edgerunners on netflix.
if you haven’t seen it yet, then stop here, go watch it.
no for real. stop reading this and go watch it.
i don’t care if you don’t like anime. i don’t care if you don’t like the premise. none of that matters, because what Edgerunners does is tell an amazing and ultimately crushing story that will absolutely make you feel something. if it doesn’t leave you struck with intense feelings of despair, emptiness, unfairness, sadness, depression even, then you just might not be a human.
and this song is the god damn crescendo of it all. it’s the ptsd trigger that gives you flashbacks. it fucking kills you all over again every. god. damn. time.
david, lucy, rebecca, maine, dorio, pilar, kiwi, hell even faraday are all so relatable it’s scary. the studio that did it, trigger, are masters at making you feel a connection to the characters (watch delicious in dungeon). at least for me, the relationship between lucy and david in particular broke me. like grown ass man sitting on the couch crying watching a cartoon broken.
this scene in particular affected me in ways i cannot even put into words. i don’t know if it was just being so immersed that i felt what david must have been feeling, if it was something i wanted to experience for myself again, if it was just remembering past loves, or maybe something else entirely, regardless, all the feels. you hear me? all of them!
and then when the song plays again at the end of the series… i’m dead. fucking dead.
so, i’m telling you. watch it. you won’t regret it. or actually, you probably will, but you’ll thank me for it anyways.
edit: i forgot to mention, lucy > rebecca. fight me.
body looks good, grain is not pretty. will need sanding, sealer and paint for sure. color? i’m thinking yellow? orange? mint green? or maybe i’ll do stickerbomb? i dunno yet.
neck is… well… it needs a bit of work, but nothing i can’t handle. back bow is minor, hopefully the truss rod works. frets need leveling, like across the board. needs sanding, sealer and probably 1000 coats of poly. but i can make that happen easy enough. need ideas for a logo to put on the headstock.
hardware is surprisingly not as terrible as i was expecting. i’m probably gonna order a set of locking tuners and new pickups anyways, but the rest is actually fine. i may even try these pickups first and see, maybe they sound good?
more potato quality… for a guy who pretty much has a recording studio in his basement, i really fucking slack on using it. anyhow, recorded on my pc using a blue snowball. whatever, it’s fine for a work in progress. same little thing i was working on the other day. i’m happy with the next progression, even though i played it poorly. not sure if it will remain acoustic only or if i will switch to electric and add drums and bass. we’ll see. still need to work out some more parts.
i haven’t decided on what this will be about. i think it still needs to crystalize a little in my head. i have some ideas.
really good jam yesterday, despite y not being there. things are slowly coming together, things are getting tighter, less mistakes being made. j and m only took one 420 break and both were motivated to keep going. i played my heart out as well… i guess i have some demons i need to exercise or something (shocker, right?).
i’m starting to believe in j’s plan that by next summer we’ll be able to play a show.
the other day j said something as well which i thought was interesting. both m and i play by ear. we can’t read music. heck, i can barely read tab and i don’t even think there is tab for drums. j on the other hand relies 100% on tab. so every song we learn, he needs to study and m and i just kind of fuck around until we get it. because of this, j claimed we were superior musicians to him. which is kind of funny, because j has always been one of my musical inspirations/mentors/idol. i’ll take it as a compliment.
anyhow, towards the end of the jam, m pulls out a little thing he’s been fucking around with for a while and holy moly, i fucking love it! pardon the potato recording quality.
little rough still, this was the very first time either j or i played along to it, so there is work to be done for sure. but man oh man, this is something. can’t wait until next weekend to flesh it out more.
