Joe, everybody, i hope you enjoy this end of 2008.

folks I'm sorry for getting a bit silly last night. I've been under some pressure to entertain and feed a whole bunch of people....on the other hand, Santa brought a Wii - a whole lot of fun....and I'm a dab hand at the billiards...

New Years resolution...don't log on to the internet when there's a bottle of beer in my hand and more in the fridge....

Happy Boxing Day Canada !!!

Canada Eh !!!!!!!!!!

So what did we all get from Sanny Claus?

Good morning Satchland! Happy Boxing Day Canada and UK!

SuperDave--Sounds like Santa was good to you.

I got to give my older sister limo service (me & me car) from her San Francisco apartment to the humble Moritz house, a bottle of Balsamic/Currant vinegar from my older sister, the Fender Acoustic Guitar (early December gift), framed photos of my younger sister's and brilliant brother-in-law's teenage son and 5-year-old daughter, and lots of hugs from my hubby and older sister!

Michelle, Tracie, Skippygirl, Satriella, Tuesdayschild, SuperDave, Slans, Maritime, DoThe Stu,Chris Botti, JS1200JS1000, Blue_Moon, Steve Morse, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satrini, Glitzman, McJimini Jillickers, JS_JS, roo, mrbluetone, Ibanezguitars, Cappy Steve, roy marchbank, anibur, AND ALL THE T2Jers THAT MY FEEBLE MIND MAY HAVE MISSED--YOU PEOPLE ROCK!! I WILL BE AT ME MOM'S OVER THE WEEKEND AND MAY GET TO SEE MY YOUNGER SISTER, BRO-IN-LAW AND NEPHEW AND NIECE! A 2 1/2 HOUR DRIVE OVER THE EAST HILLS.

Love, Peace and hugs to you all!

simply brilliant!

Just downloaded a bunch of music on my new mp3 player Santa bought me. First album listen goes to Al's ... Reunited cd. Ohhh, the widdly widdly widdly woowooo parts sound killer!! lol! Opening bit sounds funny. Quit talking in my ear!

Next is Super Colossal.

I'm gonna love dis toy!! lol!

Guitar Hero Must Die!

by Mick Farren in The MOJO Blog

The new generation of music games are sounding a widdly-widdly death knell for rock 'n' roll, argues MOJO's Mick Farren.

Saturation yuletide advertising has finally convinced me that virtual music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, in which participants attempt to "play" classic metal solos by following flashing light sequences on guitar-shaped plastic peripherals, pose an even greater threat to the future of rock 'n' roll than Simon Cowell.

For confirmation that these games are an unpleasant victory for short-attention commercial exploitation, we need look no further than a South Park episode titled "Guitar Queer-o," in which Stan and Kyle become Guitar Hero heroes, and, when Stan's dad attempts to teach the fourth graders to actually play a real guitar, Cartman scathingly responds that "real guitars are for old people."

What's being exploited here is as old as rock 'n' roll itself. Few of us have not, at some time in our lives, or perhaps as recently as this morning, played clandestine air guitar or posed in front of a mirror pretending to be Elvis, Jimi, Joe Strummer, or even Joe Satriani. But the global electronic game corporations who have co-opted this youthful narcissism into a competitive game of manual dexterity, with plastic reproductions of Gibsons and Fenders, are having a negative impact on music's future. OK, so we tolerated Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear to Bob Seger in Risky Business, but enough is, culturally speaking, enough.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band broaden the perceived gulf between performer and audience by pandering to the most juvenile extremes of rock 'n' roll idol worship. Worse than that, they betray the great populist promise of rock 'n' roll--which has held good from the days of The Shadows--that any garage band with a set of cheap instruments and perfunctory chops can achieve icon status if it gets the breaks and is sufficiently relentless.

Equally unpleasant is the unseemly rush by many of our current guitar "heroes" to lease their music for inclusion. Among the shameless are Aerosmith, Metallica, Motorhead, AC/DC and the Sex Pistols, while The Beatles and the Jimi Hendrix estate are reportedly ready to deal. Whether or not this is more heinous than flogging one's songs for TV commercials is open to debate, but the basic absurdity is underscored by the song "Thunderhorse" by DethKlok--the fictional death metal band from the U.S. TV cartoon show Metalocalypse--being incorporated in Guitar Hero II.

At a time when musical education in schools has become a cause célèbre, the promotion of video games that offer nothing more than a closed loop of virtual experience, devoid of creativity, does nothing to help. A spokesman for the game makers has claimed that they teach "sensitivity to rhythm, as well as develop the dexterity and independent hand usage necessary to play the instrument," but this seems disingenuous when the games do nothing to impart the real fundamentals of music.

And just to add injury to insult, an outfit called Mad Catz in San Diego, California will retrofit a perfectly good Fender Stratocaster, replacing strings, pickups and fretboard with the input controls for Rock Band.

Joe,

I've been out of touch with your work for a while, but I just picked up your "Super Colossal" cd; what a nice body of work! Very musical, not a vehicle to show the world how accomplished a muscian you are (we already know that).

I've been playing it and playing and playing it...can't put it away.