"This will never get old" / Image of the week

Vancouver is a lovely, futuristic city. The work brother who picked me up at the airport told me it reminded him of The Jetsons.

He was right, it was like that.

Flying to Vancouver takes longer than it feels like it should since it is right here in North America, so for this week's image I searched for a 240px wide image with the search term "Long Flight". This will never get old.

Well, actually it will. Think back to all of the times you've taken interest in something and found yourself researching, practicing, learning how to do it every day, sure that you would never tire of that activity... Now think about how many years it's been since you took part in that activity.

My father and I restored a 1971 240Z after I graduated high school. It wasn't in bad shape to begin with, one of those old lady kept it under the carport for the past 30 years because she thought the engine blew when all it needed was a coil and by the time my dad and I came around and offered her money for the car she didn't even care that it was an easy fix stories. I was never really sure if it had 86,000 original miles, or 286,000 original miles since the odometer was only 5 digits, but it didn't matter, I had an old car to restore, "The first of many!" I told myself.



Well I, along with my dad restored that car. We sanded it to bare metal and painted it flaked Specter Blue. We cut out a rusted floor panel and welded in a new one. We reinforced the front framework where the car had gone over a train track too fast. I installed brand new carpet and a dash cap to bring the interior up to an acceptable level. I ordered a completely new exhaust system - Headers, Y Pipe, Muffler, the whole lot and had it precision welded so that it sounded like a Chevelle when it idled and a rabid jaguar when it revved. I even had custom lug pattern adapters machined so the car could have modern 5 spoke racing rims and low profile tires. When it was all said and done, the car was head turning, beautiful, and fast.

Fast forward a few years and the car never saw a show. It mostly sat and waited for me to take it out and let it breathe.

Fast forward a few more years and I became very committed to music. I built a studio and began writing and recording, which cost money. I felt very lead to music at the time and so it became more important than the car, which, incidentally was worth money... So I sold the car. The thing that would never get old. The thing that I was so committed to before and so adamantly obsessed with that I devoted time and money became the thing that was expendable and of liquid value.

I bought a lot of music gear with the money I made on that car, which was far less than what I invested.

Fast forward another few years and the music gear sat in a closet. The album was recorded and released and my band played many very successful shows, even gaining some praise from industry musicians and local press, and then? Then it was done, and I realized my commitment as a father to my children would be hindered if I were to actually become the successful musician I imaged. My dream became a crutch on which I leaned my inadequacies, and so, I killed the band. Another thing that would never get old became a closet full of stuff that just so happened to be worth money. Little by little I sold off the gear, for far less than the initial investment until only a few guitars and microphones remain.

All said, of course searching for 240px wide pictures on the internet and writing commentary about them will get old. Of all of the things in this world that should get old, that is probably one of the past times that most deserves to get old. But I'm enjoying my weekly thought excursions. This image lead to this post, which allowed me to share with you.

Oh, right, the image!

The Electric Prunes were/are a band from 1965-1970 and from 1999-present day. Despite having the most 1965 band name I've ever heard, they had a bit of an edge to them (as I discovered while researching the image) - Kind of a Beatles+Doors sound with 1000x more lap harp.

I would love to spend time learning all I can about this band, but I don't have time, so you're getting all I could retain in 4.3 minutes of read time on Wikipedia + a music video for the song mentioned in the image.

Here is my takeaway:

1. Kenny Loggins toured with them, then left the band.
2. None of their instruments are plugged in in this video


3. The lead guitarist is completely overshadowed by the lead singer in this video even though he is working the hardest at looking like he is actually playing his parts, especially that killer solo.

It's very easy to spot a lip sync performance by watching the throat of the singer. He's not exerting enough air to be actually performing, his adams apple isn't moving.

So while watching the video just imagine the guitars scratchily strumming while unplugged, the drummer air drumming over his recorded performance while having appeared to forget most of his fills, and the singer whisper shouting his parts to attempt to emphasize that he is indeed the singer.

4. The combination of instruments being unplugged, feigned singing, and no-contact drumming (did they film this in a library?) angers me, so this is the last point.

Have a great week!