Tim,

Have you ever messed around very much with an Ampeg Jupiter or B-25B? I know you're mainly a V-4 man, but, y'know.

thanks,
James.

that damned fly wrote:

Ekkssvvppllott wrote:Dear Tim,

I have a younger friend who's fairly into nostalgia.

It's even listed as one of her Myspace interests - "nostalgia."

i wonder if she pines for a time before myspace.

Haha.

Definitely not, I'm afraid.

dear tim,

i do not like my bass as much as i think i should, and my satisfaction with my rig is waning.

unfortunately i'm penniless.

would you like it?

Hey Tim,

I just got back from a four day corporate paid trip to Las Vegas. My fiancee and I were put in the Wynn. I remember in the "Little Details. . ." thread you said this place was pretty nice. You were very right. This was place was great! I'm a fairly tall man, and the bathtub fit me better than most.

Also in Vegas, my work had Rihanna play the first night of the trip. My fiancee and I had no idea who this person was. We thought it was Nelly Furtado for most of her set, for some reason. They also had the Ray of Everybody Loves Raymond do stand up on the last night.

One thing I noticed, the bass player for Rihanna's band was wearing Croakies, or something Croakie-esque. I recently started wearing Croakies while playing live. For a long time, I had glasses that would fall off occasionally, but not all that often. These glasses finally broke, so I had to wear my main glasses during a set. These fell off, and the frames broke. In Portland, OR. So, I started wearing the Croaks. I still feel kinda lame wearing the Croakies, but I do enjoy not worrying about breaking my glasses, nor having the push them up during our sets. What are your thoughts on Croakies in rock music?

Wow, OK. I have some work to do. Thanks for writing.

So, I had another dream last night.

I was at some punk rock show.
There was a raffle.
I won the raffle.


The prize was:
a series of photo negatives (the film cut every 2 images) of punk rock bands
a blue and white matchbook with SKWM handwritten on the scratch side.
and a few other odds and ends that I can't recall.

This recent spat of Midgett dreams almost as troubling as my willingness to share them.

Yeah, Tom, that's super weird.

Hi Tim,

I'll ask what you wanted to ask yourself, if you were interested in such things in other people. Why do you have so many tatoos?

To be honest, I didn't know you have many tatoos, I thought you have one(I saw it in one of the pictures on skwm's website).

Does the other members of silkworm have tatoos?

I have one old tattoo. The new tattoos, I got them all after Michael died.

I don't know, it just seemed like a good idea. They're all flowers, black flowers, but not goth-black or woe-black. Just black b/c I wanted them to age well.

I like flowers. I like the fact that they aren't around forever. I like that flower tattoos are 'permanent' relative to actual flowers. I like that 'permanent' tattoos aren't permanent at all, because in the long run, we're all dead.

It was some summing of those things that yielded these things. The same kind of vaguely meaningful junk that inspires everyone else's tattoos.

Do I have this right?

In The West: Some kinda bass, maybe a TB?

Libertine, Firewater and Developer: TB Wedge

Blueblood, Lifestyle, Italian Platinum and It'll Be Cool: TB bass and baritone

Chokes!: Electrical baritone/bass

ITW: Spector 'potato' bass. Bartolini pickups.

Libertine and some of Firewater: my first TB. Narrow-body w/horns. The bridge PU was fucked up and had this really gnarly doinnnng to it. Sounded great distorted.

Some of FW and Developer: Mostly Wedge, as I recall.

Blueblood: Both TB basses and TB baritone.

Lifestyle: Wedge, TB bari, and Steve's 'dumb bass,' which is a cheap Hofner violin-bass knockoff.

IP and IBC: Wedge and TB bari. I think I played my Ampeg scroll bass on one song each, or so.

Chokes!: It's all baritone. I honestly don't remember if it's the TB or the all-metal Electrical. Probably the Electrical.

I have a younger friend who's fairly into nostalgia.

It's even listed as one of her Myspace interests - "nostalgia."

Though she's an undeniably sweet person, in some ways she's living in the past.

I'd like to successfully introduce her to the notion that nostalgia is (or possibly could be) crap.

My question is, How do you explain to someone who doesn't already know that nostalgia is a bunch of crap that it is indeed a bunch of crap?

Nostalgia is escapism. I understand wanting to escape. Modern life can be overwhelming.

Earlier times seem more simple.

But they weren't.

Try to think of a 20-yr period in history when things were much better than they are right now.

I suggest taking into consideration major wars, social conditions (proliferation of racial prejudice, etc.), political climate, artistic climate, global economy, prospects for good health and a long life, etc.

This is the thing I would ask a nostalgic friend to do, if I wanted to knock them out of their nostalgia.

Reading this thread, I am more convinced than ever that you have been blessed with a certain brand (at least an American brand) of universal wisdom and decency. With that in mind, have you ever considered writing a children's book? If so, I would like to take a stab at illustrating it.

That is all, thanks, I am and remain,

Tom Stack

Tom, you are overestimating whatever wisdom and decency I may possess. And I am grateful for that!

Children's books are, I am convinced, very difficult to do well. They are very easy to do poorly. I am not sure I am up for the former job.

You, however, would be....I will give this some thought.

Midge, are you an ass man? It's the sort of thing dudes ought to know about each other.

Steve, I have to say, given the options, I'm much less a breast man than anything else.

There's a Pavlovian response in most straight men to the female bosom, and I won't claim to be immune to that. But I think the potential for disappointment is much higher in that area than in certain others on which one might focus.

I guess that means yes.

Do people still play racquetball?

Thanks,

Tom

Not to my knowledge.

Tim,

Have you ever messed around very much with an Ampeg Jupiter or B-25B? I know you're mainly a V-4 man, but, y'know.

thanks,
James.

B-25Bs are nice. Sort of a cross between a V2 and a Bassman. The tone stack is just bass and treble (with the ultra-high and ultra-low). I like having the midrange control on the V2, usually to cut a bit. But B-25B is a good amp.

Always been curious about the Jupiter, which appears to be a B-25 with echo and tremelo. But I've never tried one.

dear tim,

i do not like my bass as much as i think i should, and my satisfaction with my rig is waning.

unfortunately i'm penniless.

would you like it?

I'd LIKE it, but I can't afford it right now.

If I could, I would consider buying it.

Maybe in 6mos or so, if you still have it. I doubt you'll still have it, if you want to sell it.

Hey Tim,

I just got back from a four day corporate paid trip to Las Vegas. My fiancee and I were put in the Wynn. I remember in the "Little Details. . ." thread you said this place was pretty nice. You were very right. This was place was great! I'm a fairly tall man, and the bathtub fit me better than most.

For a sleazy Vegas hotel, it's as nice as it gets.

Also in Vegas, my work had Rihanna play the first night of the trip. My fiancee and I had no idea who this person was. We thought it was Nelly Furtado for most of her set, for some reason. They also had the Ray of Everybody Loves Raymond do stand up on the last night.

Oof.

One thing I noticed, the bass player for Rihanna's band was wearing Croakies, or something Croakie-esque. I recently started wearing Croakies while playing live. For a long time, I had glasses that would fall off occasionally, but not all that often. These glasses finally broke, so I had to wear my main glasses during a set. These fell off, and the frames broke. In Portland, OR. So, I started wearing the Croaks. I still feel kinda lame wearing the Croakies, but I do enjoy not worrying about breaking my glasses, nor having the push them up during our sets. What are your thoughts on Croakies in rock music?

In general, strongly crap on Croakies in rock music. HOWEVER, it's possible to pull off almost any look if you own it.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that you own it, so you know, whatever.

I used to wear the old-school glasses stays--the cord type or the elastic type. I like the cord type b/c then you can loosen it and hang the specs around your neck like a librarian.

Hey Tim,

I listen to Hammer of Gods all the time recently, it's a fantastic record, and I'm very happy that I took part in making the artwork.

Also, I have things to do on a computer but the online access is not helping at all. Will pluging the net cable out be a good move or admitting to a failure? (the failure being that my will is too weak to keep myself from going online instead of working)?

One more thing: I'm out of ideas for dinner today. What is good, cheap, and easy to cook?

Tim,

any plans for the BP to play the northeast any time soon?

my girlfriend, our friend rosie and myself are going to be in chicago in a few weeks. probably 3 days. just hanging out. other than a cubs game there is no real plans. anything we should make sure to do? i have been to chicago four or five times but always with a band either playing or recording so besides good restaurants and baseball i haven't really done anything touristy.

-e

Tim Midgett!

What is your favorite Somerset Maugham novel?

I just got to these.

My feelings about this thread are neutral.

Extend it if you wish. Let it die if you wish.

As always, I appreciate your interest.

I'm very happy that I took part in making the artwork.

Me too. There's no reason anyone would know this, but e.c. took the photos that we stuck together for the inner gatefold of Bottomless Pit's Hammer of the Gods LP.

Also, I have things to do on a computer but the online access is not helping at all. Will pluging the net cable out be a good move or admitting to a failure? (the failure being that my will is too weak to keep myself from going online instead of working)?

Knowing one's weaknesses is never a bad thing. This action would never occur to me. I think it's a good idea.

One more thing: I'm out of ideas for dinner today. What is good, cheap, and easy to cook?

Pasta.

You only need some tomatoes (canned whole tomatoes work fine), garlic, olive oil, salt, balsalmic vinegar.

Heat olive oil (not to smoke point, below that) in a wide, shallow pan. Peel and brown garlic (no need to slice or crush the cloves, if you don't want to do it).

Dump halved tomatoes or the canned ones. Or both. Salt a bit immediately to help the tomatoes cook down.

After about, I dunno, three minutes, add a little vinegar. Cook it down for a couple minutes, stirring all the time.

The vinegar should be sweet by now. Taste it and add whatever to make it better. Cook it down until it looks like pasta sauce.

You can have salted water coming to a boil alongside all this. Once it boils, cook some g-dd-mn pasta, and then you have food.

any plans for the BP to play the northeast any time soon?

Yeah, maybe July. With the busiest man in Boston, perhaps. And some other guys. We're working on it.

my girlfriend, our friend rosie and myself are going to be in chicago in a few weeks. probably 3 days. just hanging out. other than a cubs game there is no real plans. anything we should make sure to do? i have been to chicago four or five times but always with a band either playing or recording so besides good restaurants and baseball i haven't really done anything touristy.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Is this Rosie the girl who drew your tattoos? Those are great tattoos.

I have a ton of restaurants. Chicago is the best food town in the United States, so I recommend eating a lot.

What other interests do you have? There's a bit of everything. You should probably go to Dusty Groove and the Reckless on Broadway south of Belmont. I've never been to the one downtown, which Dylan runs.

Tim Midgett!

Dude!

What is your favorite Somerset Maugham novel?

Never read one.

I haven't read a novel or seen a dramatic film for ages. I don't know what happened.

Tim, I decided to not drink alcohol for the entire month of April. Do you have any tips to help me make it successful?