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BLACK VELVET ELVIS



Last Updated: 12/6/2009

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Status: Single
City: Cedar Rapids
State: Iowa
Country: US
Signup Date: 12/31/2006

Blog Archive
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009 
Please! 

I just posted two new songs: The Incantation

I wanted to get the indian scale thing going with this tune. One of my friends referred to it as 'trance music".  I didn't know that's what I was doing. I am putting you listeners in a trance?! 

He said at 3:03 the Rondo picks up again. Hell I didn't even know what he was talking about. I really need to learn something about music someday.

But please go listen to The Incantation. 

I used my Gibson R6 for one track and my Tokai LS Custom for the other. The rythm tracks were all played on my Marshall 2061 and the little Avatar 1x12 cab

All the leads were played on the Tokai through the Marshall 2555SL head.

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I also did an old Robert Johnson tune called Stop Breaking Down Blues. I used the 55 tele and the 2061 for the leads
for that song. I love that song. I just felt the need to do it.

I've been writing material like crazy....time for a new CD!!!!

The Cardigans

Do you remember these guys? So I'm a blues guy but I loved this Lovefool song when it
came out.




The Boomtown Rats

Do you remember the Boomtown Rats? : ) Man, in 1979 I think I wore out my copy of The Fine Art of Surfacing.
Let's see Pink Floyd's The Wall came out that year too, so did Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door....

That was a fun year....


So it's my birthday today!
And all I want for my birthday is to be served genmaicha by a Maiko-san! : ) That's not
asking too much is it? : )
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Monday, November 16, 2009 
Marshall Amps

It's no secret I love Marshall amps. At one time I had 10 Marshall amps. I'm down to 6 now. Which is still a lot of Marshall amps.

When I grew up, it was the dream amp. Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson, Angus Young, Gary Moore, Joe Perry, Paul Kossoff, all the big boys played Marshalls.

Some guys played strats, or teles but in the 1970s the Les Paul/Marshall Superlead was the sound I always had in my head.

It's getting cold here, and that means recording time. I set up my studio again for winter and began playing with some mics and amps.

I used the same cab (a marshall vintage modern cab) and stuck a Senheisser e609 close and a Audio Technica 4047 back a bit. I used 4 amps: A 1971 Marshall Superlead model 1959 100 watt, a Marshall 1982 JCM 800 50 watt model 1987, A Marshall 2555SL (Slash) 100 watt and a Marshall 2061x 20 watt head.
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I used my Tokai LS Custom with Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers. (The guitar was made in Hammamatsu! That's where Momo, Hana and JJ are from! : )
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I tried to play close to the same thing so all the clips would be as equal as possible. 

Please go listen and tell me which amp you prefer : )

I have posted the clips here:


Good Crew.

Has anyone read about Good Crew on their website? Is is true they are going to quit playing live? I am sad to hear about this. I wanted to go see Mika and Good Crew in April when I was in Japan but they didn't have any shows the week I was there....

Dallas Texas

Have you every been to Dallas? It's a strange mixture of money and rednecks. Rednecks with cash. That can be a weird mix. Where there is money you'll find finery. And there is culture in Dallas, that's for sure. It seems 10 years ago there were more fashion conscious women there? There sure seemed to be more Texas Belles. 

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I just spent a couple days in Dallas. People seem very friendly down there. Just like there is a Japanese Woman public voice, there is a Texas Belle voice...sweet and polite. It's a voice that can lower my blood pressure. 

I remember having to go to San Antonio and Greenville to test aircraft and I'd love it when a pretty little Belle would call me "Sweetheart". I didn't have so much of that this time. Maybe I'm just getting older? :  ) That could be......

I also wanted to go to Waco and see the Texas Ranger museum. No such luck. I didn't see Chuck either...  : (

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Some people say the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are the best thing about Texas...I guess they are OK, if you like girls....

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I still think the maiko is prettier!!!!!!  : ) I don't think I'm a normal gaijin!

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Monday, November 02, 2009 

I spent last week in Atlanta, Georgia at the International P-3 Operator’s Conference. The P-3 is a maritime patrol aircraft that’s been in service since the early 1960s. The United States operates nearly 150, Japan has about 100.

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The aircraft has been delegated by the US to mostly an anti-submarine role but lately more operators have been tasked with anti-piracy missions off Somalia. ....

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The P-3C has been upgraded over the years to allow for advances in avionics and amazingly, there’s really no aircraft that can take it’s place. ....

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The United States will replace it’s P-3C fleet with the P-8 and Japan will replace her P-3Cs with P-1s. Both the P-8 and the P-1 are turbo-fan jets that will not be able to loiter (fly very low to the water and very slow) like the P-3C can. The P-3C can remain on station for nearly 14 hours! ....

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I think like guitars and motorcycles, the late 50s/early 60s were a golden age in aviation. We still use the KC-135, the B-52, the P-3C and the C-130. These planes were built in 50 years ago but they still are used everyday!....

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While in Atlanta we discussed the future of maritime patrol and we learned what other countries missions are. It was very interesting. ....

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I talked with Flight Officers from countries all over the World and I’d always ask about the Japanese P-3Cs. I heard the same story from all of them: The Japanese P-3Cs are the best maintained in the World! A Lockheed executive said the bulkheads are wiped down!....

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Sadly, I heard that Japan plans to scrap many of its P-3Cs. Some of these planes have less than 15,000 hours on them. That’s like finding a 1959 Cadillac and chopping it up! Nooooooooo! Please write your representitive in the Japanese Diet and tell them to keep the Japanese P-3C in service!!!!!....

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I got to speak with many of the JMSDF Officers and avionics suppliers! I even talked to a young Nihonjin from Mitsubishi about GO!GO!7188 : )....

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I tried to observe diplomacy and protocol for Japanese : ) I carefully handed my card with two hands and carefully examined theirs before putting it into my wallet. ....

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JMSDF Captain Ichikawa....

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I got to accompany my BD director Lt. Col Oakley, USMC. I introduced him to Capt Ichikawa JMSDF: “Lieutenant Colonel Harry Oakley, United States’ Marine Corps des” ....

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Lt. Col Oakley is an F-18 Fighter Pilot and a Top Gun graduate. I just say, “Yes sir” when he asks me to do something  : ) ....

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Later the Colonel had a few beers and started in on some very interesting stories. Marine fighter pilot’s typically have some pretty good stories and Col Oakley is no exception. Never, ever try to out-story a Marine fighter pilot! : )....

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The Japanese Contingent outside the hotel. I’m in there too! Sorry the picture is very blurry.....

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Me and Gondo-san at dinner....

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On the last day of the conference we toured Bldg1 of the Lockheed Marietta facility where they make the F-22 and where the P-3Cs will be rewinged. The F-22 is the most advanced fighter in the world and very impressive to look into the weapons bay! (I can’t talk anymore about that :  )....

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And yes, even Atlanta has sushi! Owned by Chinese : (....

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Momo wants to go out for Halloween!....

So Momo the shiba wanted to go out for Halloween and get candy! She even had her trick-or-treat pumpkin!....

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No I did not put this on her head! She did this herself.....

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Thursday, October 15, 2009 
You have a band you really like right? Some band that comes up with melodies that attract you and with their careful craftsmanship, they keep your interest and over the years you come to appreciate them even more?

Ok I have a lot of bands that fall into that category. I remember hearing Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin the first time on the radio. 

Man!

I'd never heard a guitar solo like that. The whole band just stopped playing and this guitar player played amazing flashes of notes and phrases. 

I was hooked ever since. Jimmy Page will always be Ichiban for me!

But I remember hearing a lot of bands. I remember the first time I heard Queen. Listening to Killer Queen on the radio....a song about a woman so deadly she was like "dynamite with a laser beam"! WOW. What a cool song.

Anyway, I like a lot of bands. But I usually remember what song of theirs I first heard that made me like them. The first song of GO!GO!7188's that I heard that made me stop was 神様のヒマ潰し and I still love that tune.


I saw that Akko is playing Orange amps! Wow! Cool!!!!!!


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More THE NUTS!

So recently I wrote about how much I liked a band called The Nuts! They are very edgy, and raw
and everything that makes rock and rock so cool!!!! I love that.

Well, I am very happy to have 2 cool The Nuts CDs!!!! Sugoi!


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I loved No School Tomorrow the first time I heard it. Yui's guitar rocks old school and Hana's bass
nails the downbeat to the floor!!! I love it I love it!!!!

Ninja and Do It just kick ass! Hana's got the rock voice goin' on!!!

Go check out their myspace page!!!!!!

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I don't think they realize how big they are in USA already! This is what rock sounds like!!!!

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I DID SOMETHING STUPID! AGAIN!

Ok, I have a lot of guitar/recording/sound gear. A lot. More than I would admit to.
I have a guitarsenal that I can't justify!

As far as amps go, I have 20 watters, 30 watters, 50 watters, 100 watters, full Marshall Stack!

So....why on God's green earth did I feel the need to go get this?

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Man, I must be crazy! It's still in Japan. I have to get it here.....oh man!



Picture of the week:

Spot my office??????

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Monday, October 12, 2009 
I think Bozu already is. We've started writing songs. I want to expose him to many different styles of rock. He plays Beatles and the Who and Rolling Stones and Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy and Aerosmith. In his other band he plays Weezer and Green Day and Blink 182.

I think we have some skills to improve...steady tempo is hard. He wants to run away.

We worked up THE ROVER by Led Zeppelin and Sick Again by Led Zeppelin. This style is very difficult as John Bonham was very powerful and could be very subtle at the same time. He mixed things up a lot.

We are trying.

Monday, October 05, 2009 
Our new song is called Gypsy!!! It's on our player today!

Well, the thing is, it's not so new.

So there I was...it was maybe, hmmmmmm 1981! Me and Paul were planning on being rock stars 

Yeah. But I wrote a bunch of stuff. And Paul was patient with me when I had ideas for songs. So was Kurt Fredericks (bass) and Jim Swenson (drums). We were just a high school band but we thought some of the stuff we were writing was cool.

So I wrote a song called Gypsy. And I scrounged enough money to get into a local studio and record it and a few other songs. We were practiced up and we went to record them. I think we did 5 songs in 2 days. 

But when we heard the finished tapes they were HORRIBLE!  The playing was good, but the tape quality was BAD.

There was sooo much noise, HISSSSSSS, that it was almost unlistenable. It made a very bad demo tape. No one could really get past the noise. It was very depressing for the band when we heard that tape. We paid a lot of money for something we couldn't use!

Anyway, over the years I've written a lot of songs. But I always thought I'd like to do Gypsy again. I had to change a couple lyrics and its still a young man's song. Not words I'd write today, but I thought the basic idea was still cool so I redid it.

I used my Tokai LS Custom (made in Hamamatsu) for the bulk of the guitar tracks and my Jeff Beck 55 tele (Edwards) for some of the spice.

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For an amp, I turned to the amp I've used almost all the time of late, my 1997 Marshall 2555SL.  
I don't know why but lately that's the one I want to play.
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I had to play the bass on this song too and that's always a hard thing for me to
get my head around. Bass players don't think like guitar players... DOH!

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But I think I got a grooooovy bass sound.

Please go to our player and give this song a listen

GYPSY! : )
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Thursday, October 01, 2009 
Last Saturday we played a small Iowa farm community celebration. 

The hall we played in was very reverberant! Echo city!

Oh well we had fun

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PJ (age 10) and Shannon(13) band THE PICKLES opened for us. They were awesome!!!! And they gave their autographs after the show...











Saturday, September 26, 2009 
e played Chrome Horse last weekend. We had a great time!!!!

Thanks everybody who came out

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Monday, September 14, 2009 

The Nuts

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I like Japanese rock bands. It’s really an American art that got pushed to a new level by the British and now American and British bands are just LAME.....

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I discovered some really cool Japanese rock bands. I get to see the bands that Kimura-san brings here with Japan Nite and if I happen to see bands when I’m in Japan. ....

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But sometimes I just find really cool bands on MYSPACE. Like The Nuts! They have made straight ahead rock sound like fun again. Sort of like the Ramones covering Chuck Berry  : ) ....

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Check out their Myspace Site. http://www.myspace.com/thenutsnagoya....

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No school tomorrow....

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Go Away....

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I have to buy their CDs….can anyone tell me where I can buy them? I think it takes people who appreciate fundamental rock and roll to remind us what it was originally that made rock and roll cool and so much fun!....

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MacIntosh Computers....

A long time ago I collected hydraulic data for the Corps of Engineers. Yeah I know, real exciting. But I had to log onto the DOD’s internet. I had to type these cryptic commands and hope I could remember all the jibberish to make the computers work!....

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When I was at college I got to use Apple computers. They were very graphic-oriented and consequently, easy to use. I have always bought Macs. ....

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While my friends would experience catastrophic failures of their computers, my macs just kept working. My Imac is a 2004 model! I’ve recorded 3 CDs on it! : ) ....

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Here are some of my macs…I also had an LCII that I sold to a friend. As far as I know it still works too!....

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Imac....

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Imac....

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Ibook....

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Mac Classic....

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I’m slowly getting up to speed on this whole technology thing! I just bought a black berry. Hmmm. Please call me or text me!!! : ) I have to figure out how this thing works!....

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Blackberry....

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Shiba-ken....

JJ the Shiba continues to grow…and run…and chew….. But he is a good boy and has a patient disposition!....

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More than 40,000 Japanese aged 100 or over: survey....

More than 40,000 Japanese people are aged 100 or over, up 10 percent over last year, a government survey showed on Friday. The report is the latest reminder of the economic problems facing the world's most rapidly aging country.....

Of the 40,399 citizens in their 100s, 87 percent are women, the Health and Welfare Ministry said.....

An aging population that is also forecast to shrink is among the challenges facing new prime minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Democratic Party, elected in a landslide last month.....

A smaller workforce will have to shoulder the burden of ballooning pension and healthcare requirements. Just over three people of working age now support each elderly person, but in 50 years the ratio will be closer to one to one.....

Hatoyama's Democrats have pledged to standardize the pension system with a minimum of 70,000 yen ($765) per month for those who had low incomes or lacked sufficient contributions to qualify for a pension.....

Japan's centenarian numbers rank it second in the world behind the United States, which now has more than 96,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. But the U.S. population is more than double that of Japan.....

Japan boasts the longest life expectancy in the world, with experts citing healthy diet, high quality health care and a tradition of active pensioners as factors in the phenomenon.....

The survey was issued ahead of Respect for the Aged day, a national holiday, on September 21.....

Thursday, September 10, 2009 

I’ve never been abducted by aliens and whisked away to Venus


At least as far as you know. Not so for the new First Lady of Japan. 


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According to the London Telegraph, “Miyuki Hatoyama, 66, the charismatic wife of the leader of the incoming Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), has also described how she met Tom Cruise in a former life and enjoys "eating" the sun for energy.”


Well, where do I start? It’s ok. Hillary Clinton claimed to séance and communicate with Eleanor Roosevelt (who had at the time been dead for years!) so whackiness sort of comes with the territory.....


I, being an American, have absolutely no opinion on Japanese politics, lest I be tarred with the epithet “Ignoramous”. So I will not comment on the matter further.


The Nature of Truth and War....

There is a famous quote attributed to a US Senator from California that says The First Casualty of War is Truth.


And that’s probably true.


The victors always get to write the official account of how things happened. The vanquished, are almost always the focus of war-time atrocities..


I know there are many specific instances of Lore, that never really happened that way. The problem with “the Truth” is that if you lose a war, and your government is overthrown, you have no say in how battles and campaigns actually transpired.


Every campaign the US has fought began with official lies.....McNamara (Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and LBJ)  admitted the Gulf of Tonkin incident, that started the Vietnam War for the US,  never happened. It was fabricated! It was all a lie.


We lie to our own people to pull on their emotional heartstrings. We lie to calm the mother’s who cry at the prospect of their sons dying in some Godforsaken corner of the globe. We lie to bolster the nationalism and patriotism of young men to blindly join and fight people they don’t know and have never met. And we lie to gain a moral high ground, so the whole world knows we are the good guys.


Further, we lie so that any legitimate opposition to expeditionary operations will be silenced as unpatriotic.


World War II is filled with such false hoods.


And the US is not the only perpetrator, every combatant in WW II  realized the importance of  propaganda. Germany was probably the most skilled at twisting events into opportunities. Joseif Gobbels set the standard for propaganda ministers.


Our current regime is looking like they are very skilled at playing the propaganda game:


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The American people have mostly figured out that Obaaaaaama was a joker before he got elected. He is the least popular president in recent history (at this stage of his administration).


If you know what a “false-flag” event is then you know why we should fear one in the coming months. Hitler’s goons burned their own Reichstag to the ground to justify their anti-jewish agenda. This current crop of nationalist socialist will do the same.


Google “Operation Northwoods” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I sense a Reichstag fire coming.



BAKA SHIBAS!



Momo can jump up on the table and eat things that we left. She did this last night. I’d left a bag of shredded cheese on the dining room table and momo came into my bedroom looking like this.....

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I thought Shibas were smart? : )


JJ seems to not care so much. He is really a very good dog. Although he still pees in the house and drinks from the toilet. Preventing this is more of an exercise of training us than it is of training the dog


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Kids First Day of School.


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So the kids recently went back to school….they all ride the bus together. Poor bus driver!....