Hey, Clarky, sorry for the mix-up. Ricky was, according to his website, born in Cologne although he did all of his formative guitar studies at Berkley. Was he born in Germany of U.S. parents?

Whatever the case, he has obviously decided to settle back in Cologne and teach there.

And Civgeek, re low guitar a la Page/Slash.. You will not want any gigs at a nudist colony either!!!!

mikesb - ha... I stand corrected ... when I met Ricky, his English accent was strongly American...

I guess I jumped to a poor conclusion.. lol

And Clarky, the best news of all... Cologne is on the Oder river.....

mikesb - have you ever been to Cologne???

it's a beautiful city and it has one of the most breathtaking cathedrals I've ever seen.....

the proportions are real "power of God" stuff....

Yes Clarky, and yes I was suitably humbled!!! What do they call it again? The "Dom" of Koln I seem to recall? Very ornate as I recall, but for me it was back in '85!!

Clarky Sight reading..................... to be honest with you man I've always thought of that as too hard a task to master, very pessimistic I know............... perhaps it would be better expressed if I said that........... I only have a limited amount of time to play and it hasn't been one of my priorities, but it take a comment like ..it opens up a whole other world from someone like yourself and it hits home a bit more than reading it in a book. Maybe one day man.....................so much to do so little time to do it. It's all about choices. I've noticed that just lately from being in here, I love playing guitar and it gives me an immense amount of pleasure, I love listening to other people playing but the guys like yourself, Slansh, Zenfish, Cube, Phrydom and many others live it. I live for a while and then drift on to other things *sigh*................. but I always come back :-) One of the reasons that I like T2J so much is that I can converse with people who have the same passion for guitar and it keeps me focussed towards it......................even if the general chat has nothing to do with music........... its just there as an undertone. This place also seems to attract laid back, cool folks to hang with too. Long Live T2J!

Steven, Hi, still no snow unfortunately! Mind you, although it would be nice to have an extra day off, it does cause grief for lots of people. Did you know that in England, a leaf (ok, maybe two leaves...) only has to fall onto the railway track, and the whole service goes to pot? So you can imagine what the snow does... LOL! Hope you are well, and having a good day!

Sax player....I'm fine...tunes are coming along...The Rite of Spring! Can't wait!..

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Steven Wilde...I'll have to check your new tunes...soon as I get caught up here!

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cheese101....if you've a Jones for Joe then you've gotta statisfy it! (coconuts & fish...hhhmmm I've got this strange image)

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Clarky....sounds like your new T2J track will be both soft & hard...lmao

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estrela....hello.!

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mikesb....thanks for turning us on to so many clips, sites & info...your a great resource of musical knowledge!

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Hi Stevee T! Glad to hear you're fine. I'm waiting for new tunes from you. Maybe you can explane to me what is Nashwille tuned guitar

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Naked?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The diners arrived at a nice Manhattan restaurant on a cold February night and stripped off coats, hats, gloves and scarves. They didn't stop there.

Skirts, shirts, pants, underwear and stockings all ended up stashed in plastic bags by the bar as the patrons got naked for the monthly "Clothing Optional Dinner."

"It's exciting to be in a restaurant nude," said George Keyes, 65, a retired junior high school English teacher.

Nude yes, but not unadorned.

Keyes, a lifelong nudist, wore a necklace, earrings and a black leather "genital bracelet" with red studs. And white sneakers.

The dinner was started by a group of New York nudists who wanted something a bit more elegant than the wilderness getaways and beach resorts they generally frequent.

"When you go away on holiday it's more you're roughing it in the woods, whereas this is a really nice restaurant," said Keyes, a member of gay nudist group Males Au Naturel, or MAN.

John Ordover set up the dining club about a year ago, recruiting members through word of mouth and the Internet.

"Next month is our Easter bonnet event, where everybody has to come wearing an Easter bonnet," said Ordover, a heavyset man with a jovial smile and glasses.

SOMETHING TO SIT ON ...

Around 30 people arrived for the buffet dinner -- organizers specified no hot soup on the menu -- most of them middle-aged, several married couples, some singles, the youngest perhaps in their 30s.

"They're a good class of people, they're no different to you or I," said John Bussi, owner of the midtown restaurant. "They're not hurting anybody, it's not a wild Roman orgy."

Health regulations mean staff must remain clothed even if they wanted to join in. And diners must bring something to sit on -- a towel or, for discerning women, an elegant silk scarf.

The restaurant's manager covered the windows to maintain privacy at the strictly private party. Extra heaters kept the temperature at a comfortable level for nudity.

Ordover's wife, Carol, said they first went on a naturist holiday five years ago and she found the experience empowering. But, she explained, it's "the least sexual thing you can possibly imagine."

"Men in nudist resorts are striking a bargain. They get to see as many naked women as they like as long as they are polite and look them straight in the eye," she said.

Sherry Stafford, a petite and elegant 51-year-old with blond hair and high heels, brought brochures and videos advertising her travel business, Internaturally Travel.

One of the flyers was for a resort called "Hedonism II" whose slogan is "Be wicked for a week." But she said nudists should not be confused with swingers.

"Wearing clothes and going to church does not protect you from moral evil," Stafford said, lamenting what she saw as a tendency to demonize people just because they like to be naked.

Sandy, a slim woman in her 40s, said she never felt self-conscious about her body and was comfortable dining in the nude. But she did admit to being a bit more nervous before a recent naked yoga class attended by around 25 people.

"Everyone was a little concerned there would be people looking around but the good thing is nobody really was," she said, standing at the restaurant's bar before dinner.

"If you try to maintain a yoga position you're going to fall if you start looking around -- and that's more embarrassing than anything else."

ibanezGuitarest,

i wish you all the best man. same deal with me only i played some racerX. i discoverd that not alot of irish people like those guys. and even if you dont win just make sure your haveing fun. i remember i enterd the dublin guitar comp when i was 17 , im 18 now, and i just played untill i couldnt play anymore i did a half hour set which was one big big solo. and all i wanted was to have fun, and i won the god dam thing it was great. anyway........

good look, altho i dont think youl need it

I heard about accident in California. Awfull !!!! My prayers to suffered!

Sweetpicking

RacerX is nice band but its boring to hear only shred.

Peace!!!!!!!!

sax player,

Lucy, I found some amazing pictures of the Windsor Tower on fire that look very, very bad. I don't know much about what the building was, but any fire of that magnatude is always a tremendous loss (or any fire for that matter). I also can't read everything the photos say, but the pictures tell quite a story. Did they just let it burn itself out? How did it start? Were any people injured or killed?

http://www.elmundo.es/documentos/2005/02/windsor/album1/index.html

Suzie, we got some snow here last night and a bit today. Just enough to make things wet and messy. It wasn't a pretty, flakey snow. It was a wet, heavy, blekky snow. lol!

im out for now guys,

hey good look ibanezguitarest