Delicious Grace

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! I have been thinking about you,
because thinking about you is remembering what we are saying here,
and I'm working hard to get a new musical life together, offline and on.
I feel creative, thinking of band and song concepts, and I can see myself onstage.
I know how I want to set up onstage as a band to create the sound I want,
and make sure the musicians are hearing it as a band, making it musical for everyone.
This year, I even had two dreams where I was at a music festival, just looking around.
In the second one I was asked to play onstage, having my guitar, as I always do,
but I didn't have my amplifier. People were asking for songs I used to play in Niagara Falls.

For Auld Lang Syne, and for the first time, I was working the Flea Market by myself,
being given the business for free, saying it's the Me Market, you were part of it.
Sometimes in my life, when I'm feeling it, a person could walk into the room,
saying John, I don't know why but I was thinking of you and knew you needed this,
so I brought it to you. So please, don't think I'm making this up.

When I first opened the Flea Market, I decided to go through the CDs for new music for me.
Look at what I picked up first, and for sure it made me think I've got to get it together.
I wasn't posting here, thinking I had to have something musical happening to be real.
This is real.
This is also using "insert an image" for the first time, not using "Go Advanced".
I am starting to click around more and use this computer more, when I should be building my guitars.



This video won't last long, because it's for a Kijiji ad for the store.
I just want you to see it, to see what's new for me, having this handed to me,
businessmen helping to make my life more interesting, and profitable, where I live.
And it's very cold, snowy and icy out there, so it's nice to have an indoors public thing to do.
After I saw the video I realized I was just trying to carry the camera to be steady,
and didn't even think about narrating it.

 

[John Watt]

You might think that being handed a store where everything is being given to me,
no rent, an up-to-date business license hanging on the wall, passing fire and police inspections,
is a big opportunity, but Eduardo, you know what it means to me?
I'm just thinking a few weeks, because it is very cold with snow and ice everywhere.
That's not good for business if people aren't walking or driving around as much,
so I'm not being ambitious, just taking it as it comes.

I wanted to buy a soldering gun, pencil type, to use for my guitars.
The 1949 Weller soldering gun, made in Kingston, that my father got for a wedding present,
still looks and works like new, but I need a pencil type to use for my semi-solid-bodies,
no longer having a pick-guard to take off and work on from behind.
But guess what? There wasn't one in stock in Welland, even at Cox Hardware,
where a friend said they didn't have any kind of soldering gun in stock.
Considering the electronic lives we lead, and how so many people are happy just to see,
I wasn't surprised that anything electronic for home use is falling by the wayside.
Radio Shack, what used to be a huge franchise for buying do-it-yourself electronics,
went out of business over twenty years ago, what was two stores in Welland.

If I featured one item it would be the Hohner accordion.
When you pull it open the air compressor is a beautiful peacock blue, looking like it glows.

I bring my CD player upstairs and try out different CDs, playing along with my guitar.
And then I'm walking around getting into rhythms and singing, trying out songs.
I'm thinking of using this space for guitar lessons, not as a long term thing,
but something to do in this weather and while I'm getting my guitars together.
People are saying I'm a real musician, playing everything, and I can still sing.
And yes... some people say that for an old man I am very well spoken.
That's only because I'm being polite... in daylight... when I say bring on the night.
Oh yeah! "Bring on the Night" is a George Benson song, and people talk about him,
when they're talking about me... and there's always Jimi...

Get ready Eduardo...

 

[John Watt]

Here it is, being here in the middle of the night,
thinking I'll watch one of the DVDs I have from the library, getting some nice ones,
after I finished the previous replies,
but then I thought of something musical I could do and do right now, so I did it.
Here's a link to a Kijiji ad saying I'm open for guitar lessons.
This link won't last very long even if it's successful, because for me,
it's just about making some extra money to buy hardware so I can finish every guitar,
and maybe meeting other musicians I can start a band with.
I'm old and bold but I'm not cold or showing mould... if truth be told.


https://www.kijiji.ca/v-artists-mus...ng/1411958976?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John! How are you, my friend? You sure have some exciting news! I'm glad for that.

I was shocked when I saw the picture of Ivete Sangalo's CD! How do you know her? I mean, that was something I never thought we would ever talk about. haha Still in shock, John!

So let me get this straight before anything else: you were giving a flea market?

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! No... no-no... the Flea Market isn't exciting news.
Right now it's minus eighteen degrees outside and it's been snowing for three days.
The worst of the snowstorm is supposed to be coming later on tonight and tomorrow.
I've got some extra cash, so I'm going to buy some bottles of nail polish for my mail-order lefty guitar body.
Don't forget, the sugar maple leaf I carved out of the green pick-guard plastic,
was painted with the same colour of the body, where I touched up bare wood around the new guitar cord input.
The transparent quality of the nail polish on the green did that, turning into the dark sugar maple leaf.
It will be interesting to paint with yellow and orange nail polish and see the same effect happen.
I'm doing to use different sizes of construction nails to draw leaf veins in the nail polish,
letting them blend in when it's still wet, using a bottle of nail polish remover as a thinner.

This might not be me playing along with any of your videos, having to mention that at the start of this new year,
but it's something about my guitars that has got me going, and I'm practicing on the cherry Strat,
playing chords and singing, when I'm sitting upstairs in the Flea Market.

But that's all about me.

I saw there was a big dam disaster in Brazil, over fifty people dead and over two hundred missing,
and they're saying the missing are probably dead.
A second dam could have done the same thing but it didn't, or it could have been far worse.
When this happens in California, mud slides, rescue providers complain about the working conditions.
You can be walking on a hardened surface of dried mud, but it can be a crust,
where you break through and do down in the softer mud where there could be days old dead bodies.
If you're feeling bad because you didn't get a change to volunteer, this should make you feel better.

Oh! Some new news about Americans in South America countries, mostly about Venezuela now,
shows the dates from when Americans took over those countries. I like those news the best.
I like Hugo Chavez. After Americans tried to impose trade restrictions to take over more oil,
he built a chain of gas stations that sold gas to Texans cheaper than they sold it to themselves.

I've got two new lines... trying to update my comedy routine.

And, in the end, the font you send, is equal to the font...... you send.

PLEASE BE FOREWARNED: Senior-sexual content.
I've been looking at online porn for so long now,
if I make love with a woman I'll have to be holding on to my clicker.

I better keep my musical momentum going today and have something to show tonight.

I think you're shocked about Ivete Sangalo because two of her players,
Rionegro de Wanderlea and Zila Sexius are your parents, when Zizi Romantico was there.

Se Eu Nao Te Amasse Tanto Assim...

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John!YEs, we've been through some hard and shocking news lately. This tragedy took place a week ago and there are still people missing. That's very sad. I don't really want to talk about it because it's too much to handle.

If the market was exciting for me, what about your building another guitar?! That's awesome. Looking foward to see the results.

Next week I'm going to release another music. There's a dark vibe to it and a lot of strings. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy it.

Have a good weekend, my friend.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! You're giving me too much credit here, about another guitar, because it's the same old one.
I want to finish refinishing my first semi-solid-body so I have that wonderful and semi-famous guitar to play onstage,
and I want to finish the mail order left-handed guitar so I have a beater or bar guitar to carry around.
I've got a second semi-solid-body but I stopped working on that because I don't have all the hardware.

I don't want to upset you, but I came here to add some Brazilian mudslide videos... and...
just the same as the last time, when I opened the store today and went to sort out some CDs,
the first one I picked up was by a Brazilian artist.
When things like that keep happening to me I usully end up being there somehow.

The news around here about the dams in Brazil isn't as much about the loss of life and property,
it's seen as not being reported properly because it's not Brazilian owners and engineers who caused this.
That might look difficult from your local perspective, but that's the same for me here in Ontario, Canada.
Americans have offices in Canada and give their businesses Canadian ownership and names,
and now, around the world, Canada is getting the same reputation as Americans have.
With Americans wanting to build more dams in Alaska and along the Rocky Mountains,
all about tailings for mining operations, they also don't want Americans to watch a dam like that break.

uh... I uh... okay... I got typing too much when I knew I was going to add this video and news article.
The previous video was seen from the crane at the mine, that doesn't show a lot,
but it's interesting, and gives a greater perspective, when you see where that was in this second video,
that shows the dam break from down the valley.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/09/world/americas/brazil-dam-collapse.html?imp_id=502369881&action=click&module=trending&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

 

[John Watt]

Alcaponedudu! Again, just as I'm going to start sorting out the CDs for something to do when customers aren't here,
the first one I look at is from Brazil, or at least the artist is.
This isn't just a CD from Brazil, like the previous one, it's a mix of a Brazilian guitarist and Canadian technicians,
giving me more hope that maybe some day I'll be able to visit or you visit me.

This isn't me commenting on your new music, making a video of me playing along with your video,
or me making a new video of any kind of new music, when all of this is what I want to be doing.
And when I finish my guitars and get some new songs together, I want to be better than ever.

This scan isn't the best because this CD is still new in the package.
I'm not going to open it up to see what it sounds like because I'm going to donate it to the library.
I'll look on YouTube instead.
You know, using videos and links to build a thread is like picking petals off a flower,
where you're thinking she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me... yeah...
only now it's edit it, or edit it not, edit it... yeah... that's all I got.
That is all I got, unless I start wondering why he isn't left-handed,
or has a chain around his neck made with used 9-volt batteries instead of shrunken heads.





This strangeness is getting stranger.
I typed in Fabio Rosa at YouTube and got a lot of videos,
but they're all about Fabio Rosa and his contributions as an electricity provider,
using new solar technology and promoting lower residential voltage.
This Fabio Rosa, in this short video, looks the same as the guitarist Fabio Rosa.
okay... I read the liner notes... and I hope you can see them here.
It is the same person.
Here I am, Clan Watt, thinking the world is too over-engineered, too industrialized,
and I'm trying to start a band when I can't, and I can't make a good recording,
when this man Rosa has been called a "new hero for the 21st century",
for his humanitarian work and electricity providing.
If this was just a Scottish or Canadian against Americans or English thing,
it would be what I'm used to, but this Brazilian angle is creating a new rhythm for me.
I like it, but I haven't been deep in the jungle...

 

[John Watt]

I'm going to hang on to the CD until I hear from you, alcaponedudu.
The song titles are interesting and he does "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
I've got my own Jimi Hendrix chord and effects style of playing that song, singing it like Judy Garland,
if she had a more r'n'b or soul singing background.
Nowadays, her sleeping and wake-up pill addictions could be equated with modern codeine singers.
Hey, I'll get there, even if I have to grab that rainbow and bring it down so I can crawl over it.
And yes, I'm saying codeine, when muscle relaxants are also used by singers who want to sing like divas,
or songbirds, having a soft throat for those highs and lows.
It's too late for me to start smoking cigarettes to get that adult male smoky voice,
unless I start smoking automotive exhaust pipes.
yeah... I can imagine the other musicians backstage being asked where I am,
and they say he's outside getting revved up.
nuff's e-nuff!

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello my friend. Glad everything is alright with you. I'll get into more of this Fabio Rosa thing. I've never heard of him. Right now I'm in a bit of rush.

I have a new demo out. I hope you can check it sometime, my friend. I'll come back to chat with you a little bit more.

Take care!

 

[John Watt]

I'm just here to see if you were here, a little to late at night, not even having something to eat yet.
This sympatico we have is growing.
I was at a guitar rehearsal and decided to stop in at the library on the way back.
There were two younger men sitting there, joking around, having a good time,
not like the locals around here. I was looking at their skin and hair and had to go over.
I introduced myself, saying some Gaelic, saying I'm not English or American,
and thought they were Guatemalan or Chilean... and right away they said they were from Brasil.
We got talking, and one man had a Brasil shirt on, so I said I thought you spelled Brasil as Brazil.
They explained they were seeing it both ways, but liked Brasil better.

I've got a Cree native who wants to buy my cherry Strat, after I take my pickups off and put back the originals,
and change it back to being right-handed.
I'm thinking of doing that so it pressures me to finish my semi-solid-bodies and my mail-order lefty.
It's rotting my socks a little, wanting to get into it with your new recordings, but I want to get it together too.

I had to phone the police again, being robbed when the store was open by a criminal I complained about before.
The officer got the item back and gave me an incident number, but more should have happened.
The building owner told me he served him with an eviction notice, so it should settle down here.

You never heard about Fabio Rosa? I not only heard about him, you saw the scan of his CD that I have.
The way YouTube videos have been going, I'm starting to think you're not a normal Brasilian human.
You might be one of those fifteen foot tall red-haired giants living in caves, hiding from ordinary mankind.
They're starting to dig them out of graves around Nevada, with American soldiers killing them in caves at Kandahar.
My life isn't that exciting, except for some of the riffs I played today.
I'm not carrying my guitar outside in this weather, I'm using a really nice Gibson S.G.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello my dear friend. Sorry for being away such a long time. But things really speed up a bit around here. I mean, I'm fine and all that is just usual daily stuff.

Have you had the chance to listen to my new song ''Nocturnal''? I would like to know your take on this song.

I'm sorry to hear about this robbery. That's horrible, man. I hope you're ok now.

Tell me about your guitar work. How is it coming? Looking foward to see it.

We're getting closer to the biggest holiday in Brazil this weekend, carnaval. Everybdy is just excited as hell. I'm not very into it though.

I'm not a cave man! hahaha You just kills me, John.

Have a good wekkend, my friend. I'll be out this couple of days but will get back soon. Take care!

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! Please don't think I'm pulling back from our friendship here.
I could type a chapter of a book if I got going, but I'll describe it this way.
I had an appointment with our local Member of Parliament this afternoon.
They're trying to help me with the federal government and my income tax and benefits,
that got interfered with a couple of years ago before I was homeless the last time.
I won't go into that. Not here.
I'm showing you the card of his parliamentary assistant and a Niagara Regional Police card.
You can see the date of my appointment is the date I typed this reply, to be real with you.
You can see the officer who attended my complaint gave me an incident number. I didn't ask for it.
An incident number means the officer is passing on my complaint and the evidence she saw,
to a detective for further action.
Vance Badaweys' father was a sign-painting customer of mine in Port Colborne in the nineties.
If you go down Elm Street and see his big warehouse, a supplier of food and equipment for lake boats,
the big, three-dimensional white plastic letters that make up his name were supplied and installed by me.
That boat reference is nice.
So is the painting of the Titantic I used as a background.
In the M.P.s office, I was warned to leave Welland for my own safety.
But that's okay. They always say that.
And guess what? I was on time. They put a conference call on hold when I showed up.

My online reluctance about making more videos of me playing guitar, and I should be singing,
is something I tried to explain before and I've got more of an explanation now.
In Scotland, there is grass that is considered to take 300 years to cultivate properly.
When a Scotsman invented carbonated water, now called soda pop, or pop, or the fizz to whizz,
he aged it in oak casks for seven years and called it Vernors.
A big lyric in many Scottish songs is "I could wait a thousand years now".
I have the same patience and cautious attitude. Here's my biggest example.

When I was starting out as a lead guitarist playing in bar bands, a way to get out of Welland at the time,
I thought I was getting paid the funny money right away and was busy enough as an entertainer.
Of course, being a musician who got bookings through agents and managers,
meant I was filling in and playing with bands with a big gig who wanted me on lead guitar to help out.
That's not being in a band where everyone is putting their heads together as a band.
I decided not to play anyone any of my original songs and save them until I get too old,
thinking I can start singing those and if anyone wanted to record one I might hit it big,
or at least be making it with other musicians instead of doing nothing at all.

When I write a song I'll sing other songs I like to get me going,
and then I'll sing my song and see how it feels as part of that set.
I always like my song and think it's right up there if not better than the others.
Is this me trying to pump myself up with you, or am I trying to seem like I'm up there with you.
I know I'm not. I've got to get it together.
I went to a local NAPA store, a big warehouse store for automotive parts and tools.
My friend had to show me their catalogue because I couldn't believe they didn't sell soldering guns.
He's saying people aren't doing it themselves like they used to,
because modern offshore electronics are less expensive than doing it yourself.

I felt light on my feet today and was singing out loud a little as I walked down streets.
I got humming along with a young man at the library who said he used to play in bands.
Don't write any sad songs about me, not just yet.

 

[John Watt]

Oh! I could have used any number of paintings from this really nice book, big too.
But I know me. Just like onstage, I'm not going to slowly drift to the bottom of the water,
I'll be doing a big crash and burn and put on a light show as I go under.
oh....oh.... no..no.. should I type the deck was stacked against me?
You can push me under if you want to.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John. It's always to hear from you. I'm sorry though about those circumstances. I wish you were better off. I kind of miss our weekly conversation, man. This forum is not the same without you.

I didn't quite get why you're not playing anymore. I think this is something you should never get rid of. You're an artist.

How is your health going?

Please tell us something good, positive. You're a bright guy going through some darkness. That's all.

Next month I'm getting a new demo out. Really looking foward to it. Maybe you will not understand why I'm writing about this particular subject. Let's wait and see.

Hope to hear from you very soon. Take care, my friend.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu, I have gotten through the worst and I'm started to emerge,
if that can be the answer for your questions, when I'm too self-conscious to describe details.

Thanks for saying I'm a bright guy. My nick-name as a youth was watt-bulb or light-bulb,
because everyone always thought I had the good ideas.
Those names are a reference to cartoons where when you had an idea a light-bulb appeared over your head.

Here's something for you, and I hope you don't mind, but I have to reorient my mind, and I like that.
I'm going to start calling you just Eduardo. That's your real name and I've never been hot on alcaponedudu.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to look for this Al Capone video I saw and post it here, and you might think I've got a good idea.
You really should be using your real name because a user name hides your true identity,
and as I say when people ask me why I use my real name and tell my email address,
how can you become famous or make deals if you're not using your real name. That works for me.

When I read that you're getting a new demo out I thought yeah... you're still moving on up the musical ladder.
I still haven't listened to your latest song here, and believe me, I haven't even tried to make another video.

I'm not just picking on you about Al Capone. He's local for me as a rum-runner.
When alcohol was illegal in America it was Canadian distilleries that concocted the booze they used,
and here in the Niagara Peninsula, his rum-running boats went from Fort Erie to Buffalo and Chicago.
I always joke about finding a box with cash that was tossed overboard while being chased or was lost during a storm.

More than just music and art, I have to look at my life and think when am I going to start living again?
And you are right. Let's wait and see, before I start writing a song "about this particular subject".

Eduardo. You know what I've been saying about Welland and drugs and criminals.
Last week, just three store doors down the street, a four month old child was found dead behind a door.
It was a side door to a bar from a parking lot, abandoned late at night. I still haven't walked past.
When I talked with a couple of meth-heads, they were saying it's going to give King Street a worse reputation.

I think I'm going to look at a video of the coast of Brazil tonight, and watch the waves roll onto the shore.

 

[John Watt]

Someone has to put this up here.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello my dear friend John. How are you doing lately?

The Alcapone goes back a long time. I started using this nickname when I was a teenager haha. Can you believe that? I was very into gangster movies and all that. It really fascinated me bach then. After that, it kind of became my name online. Everybody knew me by this name. I like the sound of it more than the person itself though.

Don't get me wrong: I do not support their actions, I'm talking about the gangsters in real life. It was more about the romance involving their stories in movies and literature basically.

What a cute couple: Bolsonaro and Trump!

I will not contaminate our cheerful conversation by starting to talk about people that is just not worth talking.

I don't know your political point of view but I respect whatever it is.

Let's talk about music instead...

What have you been listening to lately?

 

[John Watt]

My political views is that politics exist and it isn't a very humanitarian situation out there.
I'm here just so you know I can still be here.
I had a band practice today, two and a half hours of playing with another tomorrow.
I'm using an older guitar from someone else but at least I got playing again.
That's what I want to do, play my guitar and sing. I've been singing a lot lately, feeling really good.

I've got so many ideas for my guitar playing when I play along with your videos...
and it's something I can see happening, when I got down about it before.
I'm still down about the technology, but this band wants to make a video, so I'll get into it.

You say you don't want to contaminate our cheerful discussion,
and here, I say I don't want to pollute your mind with American politics.

You must be younger than me if Al Capone is a gangster you got into, not Scarface.
That might sound out of order, but Scarface started a trend to gangster movies,
and gangster documentaries, when I saw him the most.

It was my birthday, this May the 1st. I was a month overdue and was born of natural childbirth.
I hafta say that for my mother.
So far, I have only told ten people and got ten happy birthdays, some giving me gifts of birthday food,
what I've been talking about, saying I'm having my birthday by myself.
That's okay, because it was important for us as much as New Years or Christmas,
as far as our lives on earth.
Here in Canada, my parents never told us their birthdays, and wouldn't take gifts.
So, because it was my birthday and I wanted to take a professional approach to modern music,
I went to the library and copied out the list of the ten best new artists from Rolling Stone,
and listened to each one. That's about getting into the modern style and new songs.
That didn't work out.
Rolling Stone is obviously looking for a new version of someone who is making it big online,
or someone else who is the same but has a different skin colour and music community behind them.
I didn't one song I would want to do.
A very old funk group has a new song out about white political fascism in the United States,
and they had a good groove happening, but it's not a song one singer can sing.
Rolling Stone made them number ten, me thinking it's a nod to the old bands of the past.

Eduardo, you classy classy man! Please watch out for future font from me.
I've been getting too many wants for conversations with me to have much sex with too beautiful and too young Russian prostitutes,
who are just waiting in my city to have sex with me any time I want to,
and it's starting to influence the way you would want talks with me about the visit from me to you in my city.
I'm really not into that. I like my music to come... no... no... I won't type that... no... no... uh... oh no...
oh... I'm starting to heavy breathe a little like I do when I'm getting excited in a song...
the stress of playing guitar and trying to sing along... oh... oh... it's coming together...

Life has inspired something new in my life, and everyone says it's an original.

I have a new handshake. This isn't a traditional handshake, bump, pump, motions or high five.
I hold one of my hands up, facing the other person flat, about shoulder level.
I ask them to put their hand up against mine,
and say can you see our hands together as one person would be in prayer.
Everyone says yes.
That's so nice, not shaking, bumping, pumping or making motions as secret handshakes,
being calm, being at rest, as if we are sharing the same prayer, before someone starts to use words.
I don't start saying a prayer even if some others do, I just say "we share the same prayer".
Everyone understands that. I know I share the same prayer with you.

I'm getting it together and I'll be better than ever. It's my birthday and I'll dream if I want to.

 

[John Watt]

Just in case you're not looking, I did a reply in your Elvis tribute thread,
with a video and photo. You really don't have to look. I almost didn't.
Actually, I could hardly see.