Delicious Grace

[John Watt]

oh... yes... I can understand you saying virgin land, but it's a new heaven opening up for both of us.
Music isn't just the language of angels, it's in the hearts of those who have the heart to share it.

What's going to happen with the name and band AC/DC, keeping it going to cash in,
might be a good reason to keep the party going for fans, but I doubt serious listeners will follow.
It's going to sound good for a while, but the new songs aren't going to be up there.
I still haven't seen or heard any Axl Rose AC/DC.

I know what I was going to type to you, just about what happened today.
I was invited to an annual picnic for a big social services agency, in Port Colborne and Welland.
They used to get vans to take clients to a park in Port Colborne by the lake,
and get banquet food from the Blue Star, famous for their big pieces of chicken.
They also had bushels of peaches and other fruit and vegetables.
This year, because of cut-backs, they used a Welland park you had to get to on your own.

Two different people, very poor and struggling, with their lives and sense of self,
came over to me and asked if I wanted one of their three pizza slice tickets.
A recording artist from St. Catharines who does music for children,
and teaches music and drama in a school, came over to encourage me.
She was laughing as only a chubby woman from Polynesia can laugh.
A young produce worker I never talked with before in No Frills,
said he could put some black cherries in a bag with a 50% off sticker.
A man from Port Burwell who moved to Welland talked with me and offered me a ride home,
because it was raining.
I said I enjoyed talking with him, making a new friend,
but if I took a ride he might think I'm just being friendly the next time to get a ride,
saying I wanted to keep things mutual. He looked me in the eyes and shook my hand.
His father used to run a big dance hall along the lake that was big time back then.
I also climbed the big sand hill, the side of a huge glacial deposit kame, in Port Burwell.
Believe me, if you share that you've shared a lot.
When you climb up the hill, looking like it's almost straight up, with warning signs all over,
using whatever is growing to pull yourself up with at the end,
when you get up to the tip of it, you are looking over and straight down,
seeing five feet of stones between the sand and water, higher than Niagara Falls.
It's the only glacial deposit remnant like that in the world.
Every year someone dies when the tip is loose and they slide over.

I'm going to be playing along with your video tonight, and I hope it's good enough to record.
You can say Axl Rose, I can say Delicious Grace, but here's a singer I used to harmonize with.
An agent said you should pick up this gig with this family band that's starting to pull in the money,
after Elvis died. Here's 3:06 of your life, what was eight months of mine in 1979.
And I'm going to be singing with you. Here's a photo from back then. That's me on the far right.
I just got back from going for a hike outside, wearing a cross country ski jacket.
If I'm showing my face, you know my music is coming in second place.
Hey! Having a Beatle cut in an Elvis band was hot! I did one song Jimi Hendrix style.
The band did a show set, Selvis did his, and the band did another show set,
unless it was a concert. One night, minimum $5,500.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3bvXXuYeOU

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John. How was your weekend?


Though I do not agree with your take on the current situation of ACDC, I do respect your opinion. I don't see it as solely as a money grab thing. I think these guys are doing the only thing they have ever done in their entire life: play and carry the name ACDC along. The last album they did ''Rock Or Bust'' is a traditional ACDC record. The title track is already a classic for me. So nothing changed except the line-up duo the circumstances of life. Let me put this way.


I'm in the team for rock n' rollers can age and keep playing. They are not to blame if life was fortunate enough for them to be at 60, 70 or 80 and still be able to play make a living out of it. I don't really care.


Nice! I'm a big Elvis fan. You really are a ''box full of surprises'' (Brazilian expression. Don't know if it makes sense in english).


Elvis had such a unique voice and approach. I don't know if you have heard but I recommend for everybody this album: Elvis and the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra. I spent a couple of months listening to it like non-stop. Those songs transported me to places I had never been to. That's the magic of Elvis.

 

[John Watt]

Am I ever glad I looked, just getting in, because I'm going to be bizzy bizzy bizzy.

It's strange for me, as an older man, being asked to play classic rock.
That was all about the sex and drugs and rock and roll, with a big emphasis on being a stud.
Now, none of those ever mattered to me as far as being a musician,
but senior players need a new motivation for wanting to get up onstage,
especially if they are retired and as they say, don't need the money.

What I want to comment on the most is you saying "box full of surprises".
It's been a big saying around here, "thinking outside the box", or being "stuck inside the box".
I like being a box full of surprises, even if I'm more of a carrying case, no... not a head case.

A lot of that Elvis magic came from hiring some of the best session players around.
He was using players who were doing his movie soundtracks,
and hiring huge choirs, or what you got into, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Somehow, when Deep Purple played with a symphony it just didn't do it for me.
With the keyboard and synth players I was working with we sounded like an orchestra.

Here's a little know Elvis fact. He is said to be singing "black music" as a white man.
They say he hung around, inside or outside, gospel churches and nightclubs.
Who was the blues radio DJ who worked and lived in the same town as Elvis?
B.B. King. He saw the talent and helped him out, or Elvis might have been country rockabilly.

I'm thinking about what you're saying about AC/DC and you have a point.
I was looking at them from the top down, the original singer, the original guitarist and songwriter,
but as a band and business, and with all the world-wide fan support, they have a genuine career.
As far as saying it's okay to keep the party going, that's what their concerts were and what fans did,
so keeping the party going is reason enough to get back up onstage.

Everything that's been happening to mess my life up on purpose, and this building, is fading away.
I should be moving my bass powered computer speakers into this room later on,
and try to record. I feel ready, after jamming along a few times already.

I sold a painting as I was coming back here, a social worker seeing me in a parking lot.
That's why I went shopping at No Frills, catching more 50% off stickers.
They didn't sell enough fruits and vegetables and baked goods last week,
so they put the ripe stuff on sale on the shelves with the new deliveries beside them.

I don't have a cape or sequins,
and I hardly memorize words at all,
I still play guitar up-side down,
and I'm singing over it all,
you'll never know, the joy of feedback,
if you insist on being acoustic,
and it's the wonder.... do do do do...
wonderful John Watt

he thinks he can put up his own video,
even if he's coming far from Brazil,
he talks about his guitar and his piano,
and the partner he's song-writing with,
but he'll never know, how new airplay feels,
as long as he's an end user,
that's the plunder, do do do do,
the plundering of Eduardo.

You have to admit, those are two extreme verses.

Let me explain the photo.
Wayne, the new drummer with a big Russian borzoi or something like that,
came to the celebration party in the back yard of Corrado, the father, third from left.
The dog made a bee-line for the big pet rabbits in cages in the corner, killing two.
Jayne, the sister and back-up female singer, fell on the grass crying and sobbing.
Sal is squeezing her neck to make her say "nuff nuff", the sound I said the rabbits made.
That's Wayne looking down at her, already in love, and already on the way out.

I was in the band for the first two weeks, both six-nighters, learning the songs.
Give me two weeks in any band, and I'll start dancing around and singing all the time.
I can sing less loud and not move my mouth much, especially doing back-up.
I started harmonizing with Sal or singing an octave higher, like dubbing in another vocal track.
Sal would be looking like a deer caught in the headlights, looking back, looking around,
but not seeing who was singing.
Corrado got up on stage during a rehearsal for a new bassist. He said "Who's singing",
and he was always operatic. He asked again, and then asked each member of the band.
I was last and admitted it. He took me into board room, the mixing board room that is.
He said that the two vocals made the band unique, and he wanted me to keep doing it.
He also said that if I'm going to be singing with Sal, I can't sing songs during the band sets.
I also had to stay behind my microphone stand when Sal was on.
All that was fine by me, singing back-up as much as I could and letting my guitar come first.
"Fuzzy" a lead guitarist-vocalist was hired to be a singing guitarist for the show sets,
but he was told he couldn't play lead because I was there. He's second on the left.

My new sign-making customer, a man born in Portugal now living in Toronto.
A new friend working in my corner store, from Columbia.
Why are we still just online friends? You know you have an invitation.

 

[John Watt]

I'm working, not sherking,
even if friends are saying the waves at Sherkston Beach are over six feet,
and it looks like the ocean. If I bike-hiked straight there, it's a two hour ride.

 

[John Watt]

8/29/2018

I'm changing my portable office and bass powered speaker system,
and practicing playing guitar. I stayed in tonight, on a beautiful night...
People are talking about priorities, when I just want to play guitar.
I was interviewed for a live stream news thing, as I walked downtown today.
And I made a new friend, a Cree native, always nice to share some ancestry,
with someone else who has some. That's not easy to say or talk about.

 

[John Watt]

I just noticed that three previous posts have the same posting number.
When this domain went down during the rebuild, like most others,
I lost a lot of posts or I'd be over 3,000 now.
The more you post the more photos you can use.
I don't want to lose that.

I'm editing to say I looked and there are five with 2,808.
If I thought the admins weren't looking,
I'd get into some 40hz comments.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John. Thanks for the invitation. It would be a pleasure to meet you in person some day. And would be awesome aswell to visit your country.

Nice observation you made about Elvis getting the best musicians around to create that ''magic''. Yes, I agree with you but there's something else. There's an element that only Elvis could bring to the table and if I knew what it was I'd be a millionaire by now. He had an amazing voice that could transport you to the exactly place or theme he would be singin about.

I think I haven't told you about a song I wrote about Elvis. There's a line where I compare his singing to ''walking in a velvet room''. I don't know why but this is one of the very first things that come to mind when I think about him. I guess his pipes was covered in velvet. That must be it. Or could it be his elegance? I could spend a whole day talking about Elvis. He only brings joy to my ears. You will hear this song one day. This song has elements of horns, big band stuff. I tried to emulate with the resources I have today. But the song is much bigger than I can do right now. Really proud of it.

Nice to know you're such a good singer. It would be a pleasure to listen to it any day you want.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu, Eduardo, please, hear me out.
Having illegal business to deal with in a courthouse in St. Catharines, when I only have doubts,
I took my cherry Strat and portable amp with me, even playing guitar on the bus on the way there.
That's when I realized that I always carried my Stratocaster with me, even hitch-hiking to St. Catharines.
What happened outside the courthouse, getting to sing and play with a man and a woman with beautiful guitars,
having encounters with strangers about my guitar and how I played it, snapped me out of my modern tech avoidance.
This portable amp paid for itself today.
I'm not looking at your new thread, almost as much to punish myself, as to not distract me from this one.

I just built a new page for "my new Niagara Falls telephone friend", who works for the Police.
Now I'm hot to work on a video for you.

http://www.johnwatt.ca

You might not think of Fred Astaire as a singer, but he was the biggest seller before Elvis.
Many famous composers wrote songs for him, hoping he would sing them.
I see his popularity as coming from the same place that Elvis did.
What did these great composers say about the way Fred Astaire sang?
They said he sang the song in a way that let the song speak for itself,
not jazzing up the melody, letting the song tell the story.
I see Elvis that way.
However, I do see Elvis as having one big drawback. He had uncontrolled vibrato,
always holding notes with it, not using no vibrato or variations in between.

My fingers are getting into it all the way, my guitar feeling almost too easy to play.
I've been working three jobs, doing signs, painting an apartment and painting inside this store.
I feel tired now, late at night, but I know I have it in me.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hi John. Sorry for taking too long to answer you. We had a big holiday here in Brazil. Independence day.

I didn't think of Fred Astaire that way you told me. But I will definitely check it out. He was always ''a very good dancer'' for me.

About the other thread I created is because I did not want to mix with this one. The other song is really about Elvis. Very specific subject. Our conversation about him encouraged me to post it. Hope you will like it.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! I've got some recent events to tell you about, the political and criminal,
but I want to start by commenting on your comments.
And please, you don't have to apologize to me, unless you are apologizing about having a life.

I grew up watching Fred Astaire movies, all black and white, and don't watch them now.
He was a vaudeville performer with his sister as his partner, and had a very long career.
I think he was in his seventies when he was acting on TV, playing the father in "It takes a thief".

As soon as I heard your Elvis tribute I thought of what kind of guitar playing I would do.
He always started his show with "C.C. Rider" or another song that had the same guitar playing.
That was hitting a G chord, moving it up one fret and then working a rhythm on A.
That's what I would add to your song.
Thank you, thank you very much, for dedicating that thread to me.

Can you dig this? I went to Niagara Falls to create an international incident.
I can say international because of all the people from all over the world who take photos of the Falls,
even though I was just looking to make news here in the Niagara Peninsula.
I dressed up in Royal Buchanan and Royal Stuart tartan from head to toe.
I made a professional sign, using a sheet of soft white plastic and black vinyl letters.
It's over three feet tall and two feet wide. "Enforce Ontario Justice in Welland".

I first began walking in the water above Niagara Falls when I was a teenager.
I had a friend piss over the Falls, but I would never do that.
After midnight, when the most water is used by American and Canadian hydro,
the water isn't even half-way up to my knees, maybe ten inches deep.
If you can visualize the wall at Table Rock, where you look down where the water Falls,
and go left across the Falls, you will see, about 120 feet out, a higher rock ridge, about a foot tall.
That's on the left of the island, and that's as far as I have walked.
I don't want to try stepping over something in the dark that I can't see.
The rock along the sides of the island is worn into such a deep, smooth groove,
you can't step up onto it without someone else helping you.
If you go to the top of the island it's much easier.
That was my plan. Stand in the water above Niagara Falls and hold up my sign.
Showing any Royal Tartan is a call to arms. It works that way for me.

A young couple from Poland were travelling around, so I offered them $20,
if they would had out the statements I made to go with the sign.
It said I knew I was trespassing and would be happy to pay the fine.
I also described what the sign meant and why I was doing it.
I listed ten different news agencies, suggesting people with photos or videos try to sell them.
I also had my domain and email address there, hoping to get copies.

I took off my shoes and socks, putting them in a gray plastic bag for safekeeping.
That was about leaving them behind the rock wall where no-one could see them.
I pulled my pant legs up over my knees to my waist, and used safety pins to hold them.
What was inconvenient was the misty rain, coming back from the face of the Falls,
not blowing down the river or to other side. Wearing wool, I was getting wet.
It's easy, the way the rock is, and from locals climbing down along the rock wall.
As soon as I got around and down to the surface of the water I knew I couldn't do it.
The water was higher than my knees and at this time of the year, I saw green algae on the rocks.
I put one leg in the water, up to over my knees, and it was too slippery.
I might have been able to stand, but the pressure was so strong I would have been swept along,
and there was no chance I could walk back. It did feel amazing.
No-one on the Canadian side could see me, so I took my time, looking around.

Before I went doen to the Falls, I stopped in a Niagara Parks store to get some Halls.
I was travelling, so I was trying not to drink so I didn't have to go to the bathroom.
I was talking with an elderly woman who was buying a photo, and the clerk didn't like me.
She phoned the police, saying a man dressed like a clown was going to create a problem.
I think she didn't like the way the elderly woman ignored her and talked with me,
and, as a device user, was just trying to dramatize her own life.

That's why police walked along the sidewalk looking for a man dressed like a clown.
They were surprised when I came up the side, away from the river and said hello officers.
They both reached over, helping me over the railing, and were suprised when I said step back,
and hopped over it, landing on the sidewalk in my bare feet.
When the middle-aged male and female officer started to question me,
I said wait, why just talk with me when I have evidence about my intentions,
saying I left a folder with fifty statements I wanted to hand out. They got wet too.
They weren't there. We walked twenty feet and I said they should have been there.
And then a young man came over, saying were you looking for these?
The police read the statements and agreed with me, saying they didn't want to arrest me.
The officers also said that Niagara Parks, with a police force older than the City of Niagara Falls,
passed a new law after the last wire-walker did his stunt over three years ago.
it's not just trespassing any more, called stunting, with an automatic $10,000 fine or jail time.
Their supervisor came over, and he agreed with me about my protest and the criminals in Welland.
They had problems with them.
He said I have an option. I can be arrested or go to a hospital for a psychiatric assessment,
and there wouldn't be any police charges against me.

That's where I am right now, in a hospital in St. Catharines waiting to see a doctor.
I've been waiting two days, yeah... hospitals in Ontario. I feel like a customer.

You celebrate what could be seen as a false independence day,
while I'm staying in a hospital for false reasons.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Wow, John! What a great story. I was worried though about what they are going to do with you in this ''treatment''. You should be careful, my friend.

There was a funny thing reading you talk about the Niagara Falls. Last saturday I watched a movie called ''Vegeance''. The most famous actor is Nicholas Cage. This film takes place in the Niagara Falls. But I guess it's on the US side. You should check it out. I liked it. There's too much violence though. I don't know if you need that right now.

About the Elvis' thread... it was a pleasure dedicating it to you. You played a very important role in my decision to post it.

Life goes on, John. Thank God. Writing a lot. Right now, I'm working on three diferent songs. It's crazy but fun aswell. The good part is that I'm doing all of it because I want to. It has become a big part in my life ever since I wrote ''On My Way To You''.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! It's after supper here and everyone must be back in their rooms, I'm alone.
This hospital was founded in corruption. They closed down hospitals in Welland, Fort Erie, Niagara Falls and Port Colborne.
This hospital was originally called "the mid-peninsula hospital", but it's not, built in St. Catharines on the Hamilton side.
I am lucky in one way. When you are prescribed medications here, you can refuse them.
Any other hospital, if you don't voluntarily take them, will strap you down and inject them.
I was signed in for three days, now I'm signed in for what could be 24. Nurses are now upset at my detention.
I did three cross-word puzzles in one day, everyone saying I'm focussed and very fast.
Last night, being alone after ten, I started singing to myself in the big lunch room while I did a jig-saw.
That was good for me, jamming out some tunes, not singing words, just working the notes.

In many ways I don't care if I don't succeed as long as I feel I tried my best.
When I was singing I was thinking of you and sang "Girl From Ipanema", Stan Getz style.
I can ask for two 114ml packages of cranberry drink any time I want to.
They serve apple or prune juice for meals. I must have drank ten cups yesterday.
My electrolyte levels must be ready to operate a remote without a battery.
Oh! My blood oxygen level, my description, was tested with some new technology.
This showed how efficient your circulation system is. I tested 99% positive. That impressed the nurse.

I did three crossword puzzles yesterday, one 500 pieces and the other two 300 pieces.
I just finished a tiger puzzle with 500 pieces.

As a professional, I'm used to singing classical rock and new wave and some country.
When I say some country, a country singer would ask me to learn a couple of songs,
slow songs, to give him a break if he asked, or to do a song and then introduce him.
Last night, I was singing softer and getting more jazzy or Mozartissimo with it, just not operatic.

There's a movie with a female actress who plays a military operative who forgets who she is.
She moves back home in the winter and other military men come after her to kill her.
She ends up in a transport truck trying to go over the Niagara River at Fort Erie.
That's very realistic. I don't know the movie you mentioned.
If you want to see Niagara Falls and Chippewa like they used to be, most of it,
you should see "Niagara" starring Marilyn Monroe.
If you're a fan you can see where she was and go to the same places.

I phoned the biggest law firm in the Niagara Peninsula, in St. Catharines,
and talked with a lawyer I spoke with last year, now wanting to sue for improper detention.
The psychologist didn't talk to me for more than two minues, using previous records.
I was put in the psychiatric wing of the Welland hospital in 1985 so I could go to mayoral debates.
Johnny Carson talked about Welland twice that week, after the mayor and a priest were arrested together.
This doctor didn't talk to my nurse to see how I behaved, he didn't look at my statement or sign,
and he didn't look at my domain to see my letters of encouragement from Ottawa politicians.
I have my reality, living it, and they have their reality, manufacturing it. Mine is far better.

See what's happening now, Eduardo? Here I am, confined in St. Catharines,
and sharing messages with you in Brazil.
I met a man from Syria and he taught me how to say hello. Mahabar, spelling it how it sounds.

The Canadian side is fast, strong current, on the outside of the curve of the river.
The American side is like a park that leads down to a rocky river, almost like a lake, almost.
In the past, Americans had walkways into the river, one with a watchtower.

I'm going to do a happy thing and put up a Niagara Falls photo I know I have in the library.
This girl wanted to have a photo with her and my bike. Her boyfriend took the photos, and one for me.
I can't upload a new photo, using this public computer.

Here's some Falls photos, with one of my mother.
People used to say she sang with a savage beauty.
Hey! You should call yourself "Savage Beauty".

What world we walk with.

 

[John Watt]

oh.... oh.... it's another day, early in the day, seeing some free computer time.
I did three jig-saw puzzles two days ago, finishing the last one, the biggest one, yesterday.
The only book left, after the rest were stolen by patients,
is about Chinese and Japanese in California before the second world war.
After three chapters I can tell how it's going to end,
and as someone who knows about the War Measures Act and internment camps,
I doubt if the details in this "new age" book are going to be more horrific than mine.

I looked at the photo of my mother.
That's a black and white photo that's been colourized,
and it doesn't capture the crystal blue clarity of her eyes.
My parents were founding and charter members of a Scottish church,
and she's wearing a choir gown, as lead soprano in the adult choir.
They hired David Gross as choir master and organist, buying a new Hammond organ.
Saying Scottish church isn't saying much, as Sons and Daughters of the Gael.
Our Holy Bible doesn't end at Revelation.
The next page says "for use in the Church of Scotland",
followed by The Psalm of David, the next chapter being "Quotations and Paraphrases",
with an ending chapter "Hymns", followed by maps drawn during the time of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Psalm of David is the only English translation with the same rhythmic flow as the original Torah.
Quotations and Paraphrases are taken from the family of Jesus of Nazareth and his relatives,
when they, and other political refugees, came to our island.
This chapter ends by saying you can use these to make hymns if you want to.

As a senior I pay $5 for a bus ride, not $6.
Catching a ride with my bike to any other city in the peninsula, with free transfers,
has to be the best $5 I can spend. It's a five minute walk to the bus station for me,
and I can be dropped off in the parking lot for Table Rock, right beside Niagara Falls.
That is a little strenuous as an early morning wake-up, but I'm there and ready to bike-hike.

That misty Lake Erie shoreline photo is more than misty, seeing the sun and water reflections.
Between Crystal Beach and Point Abino, I'm bike-hiking through this world for over half an hour.
Hey! I'll look in my library here and see what other photos I can use.
It's going to be a long day.

Needless to say, I'll be back.

 

[John Watt]

I could be here to comment on my own photos, I could be, but I'm not.
Not only is it too close to supper being served, I met a new friend.
Hiroke, a young man who says his Persian father and Japanese mother met in Canada.
He showed me a music domain where he has his album cover and tunes uploaded.
He sings and plays a ukuleile with a friend who plays piano.
His album is called "Songs of Sorrow", very nice.
He is very withdrawn, here for reasons unknown to me,
so I introduced myself and asked if he'd like to see some artwork I did.
When we came here he asked about Frederik Magle and the music content,
and then showed me where he was at.
Life, and those living around you, can be living a life outside of yourself,
a way of seeing the world through the eyes of others, if you let it.
His caregiver came over, surprised he was talking with me,
and she was even more surprised when he said these are songs I wrote.
Music has a way of cutting through the mind of mankind. I know that.
I know you know it too.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello my dear friend John. I'm glad to know you're getting better. I was worried about you (like Mick Jagger says). Really!

That was a beatiful portrait of your mother. She seemed to be a very classy and elegant woman. People really used to portrait themselves. That's nice to see. Today we don't have it anymore. It's just throw away photos most of the times.

Your photos... very good, John. You always inspires me unintentionally I guess. Your stories and the way you write always giving good arguments to base your opinion upon. I really wish you well. So you can recover very fast and get back to your daily routine.

What about playing your guitar? Do they let you do it?

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu, your concern is very touching. It's a warm welcome for me, now on my own computer.
I've got two scans to show you, a hospital document and the statement I handed out in Niagara Falls.
I want to correct you, there was nothing wrong with me, unless knowledge of a changed law is wrongful.
You can see I said I know I was trespassing, but that was changed to stunting, an immediate $10,000 fine,
being arrested and put in jail until you paid it or did the time.
Part of that was decided to be unfair to me by the two police officers and their superintendent.
These were Niagara Parks police who control the border, not police from the city of Niagara Falls.
The United States has no extradition for Americans who commit financial crimes in other countries.
That's right. An American can commit any kind of financial crime in any other country in the world,
and if they make it back to American soil, a loosely defined word around the globe,
you can't be sent back to face arrest.
That means Niagara Parks Police have to detain anyone arrested for financial crimes,
because if they cross the border they can't be called back. My potential fine is part of that.

The employee from the Ministry of the Attorney General visited me twice.
She set me up with an activist lawyer from Hamilton, who visited me twice.
That got me released as soon as possible, or four days early.

When I got back I phoned Niagara Parks Police. They gave me a new incident number.
This evening, as arranged, a new police officer came to look at me and all my evidence,
so those who have made my life suffer, and miss being a mayoral candidate, can be arrested.
And for those criminals who monitor my use of computers,
when you always think you are one step ahead, others can strategize knowing that.

I saved a lot of money today.
I went to an optometrist to have an eye test and see about new glasses,
wanting to do something good for myself. I paid $64 six years ago.
Today, it was free, the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan, OHIP, paying for it, now that I'm over 65.
Before I went away for fourteen days, I had a 3 day new release movie from the library,
and a TV episode, a year's worth of DVDs, and I had to pay a big fine.
Okay, big for me. Even though I brought them back today,
a librarian retro-renewed them so I didn't have to pay.

Now that this hospital stay is all over, I have one view of my experience.
It was a vacation away from my life, and I really needed it. You know that.
I felt such a sense of peace come over me on the bus, looking out at the sky.
People in the bus station talked with me, asking about my tartans.
I came home with six new email and mailing addresses from new friends.
One of them was from a university student from Jordan, another from Syria.

If you can see the email address of the lawyer from Hamilton,
I'm sure he'd get a big kick if he saw an email from Brazil that supported me.
Jus'sayin'.

I always keep my refrigerator on low, and try to keep vegetables growing.
Being away for fourteen days, nothing went bad.

One of the owners of the music store in Toronto where I got the lefty mail-order Strat,
send me another email, sharing a musicians joke and asking how I am.
He's trying to get two lefty tremolo units for me, instead of buying the entire kit.
I can always sell any left-handed guitar I make.
Please be forewarned: when I finally make a recording of me playing along with you,
you might want to buy a lefty guitar and try playing it upside down.
Just as you might derail your own train by listening to Coltrane,
you can be left right behind playing a left-handed guitar right-handed.

A jazz trumpeter is seeing a lot of new players with afros,
and wearing the kind of clothes their African ancestors wore.
He decided he needed to get in touch with his roots, and flew to Africa.
As he walked off the plane, he heard drums. He turned and asked the stewardess,
what's with the drums. She said beware when the drums stop.
On the cab ride into the city, he kept hearing the drums in the distance.
He asked the cab driver, and he said watch out when the drums stop.
When he was checking in to the hotel he could still hear the drums.
He asked the man behind the counter, who said don't be around when the drums stop.
When he was laying in bed, hearing the drums, drumming, drumming, drumming,
he went outside and asked a man on the street, what happens when the drums stop.
The man said oh no, we get a bass solo.

yeah... how low can I go? That's an old Buddy Rich joke.

 

[alcaponedudu]

My dear friend Jonh! How nice it's to hear from and see that everything is ok. What a relief!

I went through the files and can count on me on that matter. It sound like everybody is really giving you a hard time. I was so sorry to hear about your brother.

But let's talk about good things... The weekend is here and it's time for a good time! (Ha!)

I'm getting a lot of good reviews about the song ''The Boy From Memphis''. That's cool although I do not seek for that. Been playing a lot. Now I got back to the piano. It's time to develop some songs that really ask for it. That's so good. Sitting there and just playing. I forget about all the daylife stuff and connect to myself, to my music, to my soul actually.

This year I will put out another song in demo status. I'm not sure which one yet but I'll get there. My songs need to get heard by people I came to conclusion. I tend to keep a a lot to myself. I'm working on it. If you lived here you would be very welcome to join Delicious Grace for a recording session.

Take care, my friend!

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! It's a good thing, talking about good things, you're right on about that.
Today, Saturday, is when my half Inuit, half Irish friend from Fort Erie has his buy and sell upstairs.
I was up there before he was, with his two signs out on the sidewalk. He was smiling as he pulled up.
A Methodist Pastor, someone who visited me months ago, came down into my work space.
We talked for over half an hour, and he wanted to know about Sons and Daughters of the Gael.
He was amazed at my Holy Bible, with three chapters after Revelation, showing it to him.
He was a conscientious objector during the Viet Nam war, his soldier family disowning him,
and when he had to serve as a missionary pastor after graduating, he went to Viet Nam.
He had some incredible stories to tell.
Around here, people say look at North Vietnam with Google maps, looking like a barren wasteland.

A computer expert from Fonthill and his left-handed guitar playing father also wanted to see,
showing them my paintings and my guitars.
He pulled out a USB stick and plugged it into my computer, that has really slowed down.
He defragmented and other things, installing some programming with three new icons.
I paid him $20, thinking about the money I saved this week.

I still giggle a little when I open the box and look at that left-handed guitar, all in pieces.
As far as building a guitar goes, I've never owned all those left-handed parts all at once.
Showing my semi-solid-body guitars got such a big reaction, I'm motivated to finish them.
Every day I'm thinking I'm going to be jamming with you for a video, and now,
just like you, I'm going to focus on my music once again.
Showing you those documents was as much about showing you proof of what I was doing,
so you could see what was keeping me from guitar playing, as it was anything political or legal.

Uh... you got me thinking about songwriting.
It's funny for me that I can go through crosswords until they're too easy,
the same with Soduko, jig-saw puzzles, even books and artwork, but not songwriting.
That's also easy for me, thinking I can write any kind of song I want to, any time I want,
but it's not a challenge, exercise, or mental game for me.
When I'm in a band, writing a song is having a song that isn't part of the bands set list,
doing that so I can get a style or complexity that is necessary for me.
If I had a choice of writing songs and recording an album,
or going out on a bike-hike, getting out in nature would always win.

Here's a good example.
Elvis Junior, the only legitimate son of Elvis, as far as Elvis admitting it, legally,
played around Ontario, doing a gig at the Welland Arena.
That was after he paid $40,000 for his mirror effect, like he was walking out of a mirror.
He also wore over $75,000 worth of jewellery around his neck,
his biggest piece, his name in platinum with huge diamonds, said to be a gift from Elvis.
I got a call from a recording studio in Niagara Falls, owned by a former roadie friend of mine.
He said I should get over there without telling me anything, but he was serious so I went.
When I walked into the booth there was Elvis Junior sitting there, in all his finery.
We got into talking about Douglas, the only Elvis imitator to sing onstage with Elvis,
telling you about him already, and Selvis, the highest paid Toronto Elvis imitator, also telling you.
I had my guitar, but we were having such a good time talking about the music and shows,
I never did plug it in. He wanted my number, but I said I can't cross the border into the States.
I'm sure he thought I was busted for drugs as part of the War on Drugs during the Ronald Reagan years,
and I left it at that. Just like Elvis, he was very pro-America.

All Elvis imitators say the same thing.
If Elvis was alive he'd want the best guitarist playing on stage with him,
and they all say that would be Jimi Hendrix. I've got a big step up when it comes to that.
Tell you what.
I'm not prepared to even try playing guitar tonight, having weekend store work to do.
I have an offer to have another $100 taken of my next rent if I do it, so I will. Easy. Painting.
I haven't opened the lid on my stage amplifier since I was made homeless six years ago,
being made homeless five times in four years, so I'll do a photo journey and explain my equipment.
I'm feeling so good, seeing my amp will be a real treat for me.
Unfortunately, the Marshall stereo pre-amp has a sleep mode, and it might not want to wake up.
Right now, nothing or nobody is more awake and alert than I am,
unless you're looking at your young and tanned body as the girl from Ipanema walks by.
yeah... I'm going to make something to eat and do that after...
That's not a step towards recording with you, but it's opening up my past life to my life now,
and that's something I have to do, my past musical experiences being a big part of who I am now.

Get ready Eduardo, you're going to see something you never saw before,
and I can say that, because I built some of it myself.
It's going to hurt a little, seeing what I had going before, that I'll never be able to do again,
because all those venues, all those gigs, all those agents and talent scouts, the musicians union,
aren't there any more. Magle dk, and right now typing with you,
is all the computer activity involving music that I want to do.
But then, I always think that if I put up a You Tube video of me playing "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix,
as you can only play it left-handed upside-down, it would go viral in days.
In all my life, I am the only other guitarist who has played the strings the same as Jimi,
and when other guitarists see that, they can only see that if they are seeing me.
But then, if I do that,
they won't want to come and see the old man onstage they heard about who does that.
And if nothing, I want my life to be real. Very real. As real as real can be.
I saw enough people with problems that dominate their lives, without admitting that truth,
to ever want to deceive myself again... and that's technology for you, and now, between us.
Decepticons, they are real and drain your life energy out of you, online all the time.

I'm going to put on some Frederik Magle dark piano while I'm preparing my meal.
That's like listening to a musical postcard from Denmark.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! Good evening. My photos of my stage amplifier aren't what I expected.
It was the new upgrade, where my computer had to upgrade before it turned off,
or the new programming the computer expert installed this afternoon,
that make my "pictures" work different.
I took all the photos I wanted, always doing extras, with my Canon camera.
It ran out of batteries. I used my Samsung to get the last photos.
When I did my photos in pictures, when I went to change the camera photo title,
to "amp !", a new pop-up said if I changed the title the extension might become unusable.
I'm thinking oh no, another something to click just to do photos, so I kept going, amp 2, amp 3...
Sure enough, when I saw them open they were just a blank page, lost, deleted as I downloaded.
I tried a couple of new photos with the Samsung, no batteries charged for the Canon,
and it did the same thing, seeing, not the date the photo was taken, but "SAM-0456-9356" numbers like that.
You know I'm an old word processor who likes to do photos,
putting my bike-hike photos on discs so I can look back to relive memories,
and have them in order so I can find the photos I want, if I'm using them for email attachments.
This is not good.
I had to take my Samsung and redo all the lost photos, and that got me thinking about technology.
I also realized I shouldn't use them here, all about my amp, when that should go in musical instruments.
I know I could type a chapter in a long book about my equipment, so I'll do it there.
I also feel like I've high-jacked your thread enough.
So please, Eduardo, have a look in "musical instruments" to see it.
I always moved my amp myself, always set it up myself, and tore it down myself.
Roadies, band managers and venue owners all respected me for taking care of my own equipment.
But Eduardo, that was a selfish act for me, not only sneaking in an advance soundcheck for myself,
but being the first band member to be standing onstage playing my guitar and amp,
feeling out the room or venue, playing my heart out, so happy to be set up for another gig.
If strippers or dancers or daytime entertainment was sharing the stage, I had an advance party.
That only made the customers, listeners or media want to come back to see the band.
And if the owner was there, saying John, you're a real pro, a real entertainer, a real showman,
that usually got me an invitation to have something to eat for free.

If I have a plan here, I'm going to do one reply for every photo, describing it in detail.
If anyone else can put together a system like this with the same specs,
they'll have the most advanced and most ethereal spacial resonance and feedback reactivity,
if not a sonic-tonic, for whatever acoustic ills they might suffer.
Jimi Hendrix never had equipment like this. You'll see for yourself.
In "musical instruments", "John Watts' custom amplifier", an easy title for me.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! I just got back from "musical instruments", doing ten lengthy postings with photos.
That was over four hours of typing with very little editing, except for adding more explanations.
When I went to "musical instruments" to see it from the start, it already had twenty views.
I hope my music career takes off as fast when I get back up onstage.
I can dream, can't I?