jazzzzzzzy- i'm not really into the whole metallica v.s megadeth thing, it's kinda like "what is there that needs to be said? it's painfully obvious who the more complete band is...." kinda goes without saying. the only megadeth album i didnt really like was risk, but even that had a few moments.... just ordered a megadeth beanie woot!

CLARKY - you have a webpage? i want to get some more of your tunes.... still rockin' to numb sweeney todd man

ZENFISH- EVH is a great player.... you can see pics of their last show here not sure whats up with ed and drawing all over himself with a sharpie pen and smashing his guitar but..... well...it's ed i guess

JOE - get well soon, being sick is such a drag.... listen to some jimi and play some, catch up on some stuff you've missed while being busy and take it easy..... heres to a fast recovery.

the rain has been good lately, but driving through the grapevine through it sucks, the wind was so bad that when you were trying to go uphill you had to floor the gas to even move, everyone had a tough time.....the rain came straight at you, you couldnt see..... it was crazy..... hope everyones holidays are happy, stay safe...

MICHELLE- thats funny.... no one likes to talk politics w/ me cause i go way off the deep end with all kinds of conspiracy shit, it's funny... but hey you never know, the stuff could be true....

got a hold of the Ibanez 90th anniversary thing with andy timmons, paul gilbert and steve vai.... theres some awesome stuff they play..... all day, all night was hilarious... steve looked completely pissed off about his string being broke, it was tought to follow up the blitz of notes andy and paul blasted everyone with and steve's solo sucked in comparison....bummer

JOE - hey man, i know your sick but whats the deal with your ticket prices? i was at eric johnson's site and it said he was playing the 4th and B so i clicked it and you were on the homepage, it was talking about the postponement.... then i had to do a triple take... Box Seats $250/$300/$350 what the f? are you madonna or the stones? whats the deal with that? trying to pimp your ride? buy yourself out of your sony/epic contract? buy a ticket to space? i didnt see anyone else with those astronomical prices... BB king - $60. Eric Johnson - $20 Richie Blackmore - $20 Mos Def - $30....i know the GA for the show is $30 but wtf is up with these "special packages" and "box seats" and shit lately? what happened to the days of $20 to $50 gets you in, no bullshit ? have a lot of respect for you so i dont want to assume you're just trying to strike it rich..... being rich comes from somewhere else, not our wallets and you know this more than anyone else.....im kinda shocked....cognitive dissonance if you will.

SUPAADAVE- ill be 23 on the 18th..... ive never seen prices like that, but i've also never heard or seen joe charge that much..... i know we bought 4 of the "dinner" seats when he came here on i think the SBM tour.... they were $104 each, we just wanted to sit close....the food sucked lol but you had to buy the dinner to get the seat, gay as fuck.... anyway i dont wanna say joe is fleecing anyone, i dont know whats going on maybe his son or wife is terminally ill and he doesnt want to divulge the info but needs money i have no idea.....it doesnt seem like joe to allow fans to be charged upwards of $350 a ticket.

MICHELLE- not only that but joe should make breakfast in the morning.... eggs over easy, rye toast and keep the coffee black joe.

CUTHBERT- i took the quiz.... heres what it said -

LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

it's true.... take prescription meds, you get pharmaceutical companies who employ scientists to research drugs, obviously a conflict of interest..... if that researcher doesnt bring back evidence to show drug X is effective for condition Y he won't be paid for long..... trials are influenced by bias, when the research comes back showing drug X is effective the FDA approves it, now insurance companies will cover it and the pharmaceutical company banks..... they hide evidence that shows anything to the contrary, look at prozac and vioxx.... this is what happened with anti-depressants being approved to treat anxiety......yeah, ANXIETY..... the patents on the meds that work (benzodiazepines) like klonopin and valium expired....now everyone can make the stuff and no one makes money cause no one has a monopoly on it....everyone has to sell it cheap, it's now $13 for a month supply....you cant bankroll on $13 a month.....so they get research to show SSRI's are effective in treating anxiety.... which is ridiculous as anxiety is GABA related and depression is serotonin related....two different neurotransmitters, two different drugs.... independent double blind - no drug company bias research has shown that SSRI's, like zoloft, effexor, paxil etc are just as effective as placebo in treating anxiety, but due to the research the pharmaceutical companies paid for it shows otherwise, gets FDA approval, is now all over tv stating it's efficacy, is covered by insurance and the off patent drugs that have been shows for years and years to be effective are touted as being "old, addictive, reserved for those who don't respond to more conventional treatments".....more conventional, you know, placebo.... two docs diagnosed me with social anxiety, forst one gave me paxil.....i didnt take it, second one gave me lexapro.....which is celexa XR, renamed and remarketed cause the patent on celexa expired....imagine... didnt take that either, asked the doc about the meds that DO WORK and he got pissed "klonopin is addictive, u take this or thats all" i said see ya and got the meds I need from india.... this is the shit im talking about

minimum wage is a joke.....raise it and everything else goes up in price, back to square one....maybe i should say inflation is a joke....

another thing that kills me is people get nervous going to job interviews..... no need for such anxiety, they are benefitting by having you doing their work, it's more of YOU interviewing THEM.....seeing if you even WANT to work with them....etc.... might sound egotistical but it's true. Who really benefits? they do....you know they aren't going to pay you what you feel you are worth so in the end it is the employer who is making out.....

CIVICGEEK- it does seem to outpace minimum wage a bit....one reason is probably due to the fact that the company/corp must always make a profit, whether due to stock situations or personal gain..... you raise the wage you will lose money if you sell stuff at the same price, if you raise it to meet the wage then you break even, you must then raise it over the wage to make a profit... thats my guess... i cant necessarily blame certain folks for doing certain things, when the average home price is $510,000 and the average job pays $12 an hour theres a discrepency that must be rectified, either by market forces or by human ones... i plan to move to vegas, it's much cheaper to live in the desert lol

CUTHBERT- thats a good point.... forgot about the governments hand in it, but $510k for the average house? come on now.... in fact the community of La Jolla here has the HIGHEST average home price in the united states.... yeah, higher than san fran, anywhere in connecticut, miami, new york.....1.3 million. i wonder what would happen if there was no minimum wage.... would companies actually pay people more? i think they would have to, because no one would agree to work for $2 an hour...or the minumum of $6.75 here, but due to that being a minumum people accept it, maybe a sort of "the government has deemed you being worth this much an hour, thats what we'll pay you" i dunno....

fairies wear boots baby.....you gotta believe me.....saw it with my own two eyes.

www.fast-rewind.com/crossroads.htm

what an assfuck, "we sped up vai's parts some" sure Arlen....

Arlen Roth -

"I worked on the music for Crossroads from day one. First of all, I wrote and played all of Macchio's parts right from the beginning, including teaching him 4 days a week, for 2 months even before we started filming. Almost all of his parts were played by me, and improvised on the spot, because I knew the "vocabulary" I had given him on the guitar, and what he could "fake" accurately.

I directed the guitar scenes, and the original "duel" at the end was musically different. It was a slide guitar duel between myself and Ry Cooder (made much more sense than this heavy metal nonsense!), it was real blues! Cooder was also supposed to play the evil part on screen. When he found out he'd been dropped by Walter Hill, he really got pissed off! So, in walked Vai, and then we re-recorded the ending. They actively pursued him, it wasn't some receptionist's "find".

We were all dead-set against this musical destruction of the film, but Walter Hill and Tim Zinneman had no idea what they were doing about music. That's why Walter let me sit in the Director's chair when the guitar scenes were shot!

The blues band and bar scene were actual re-creations of what I did in real life while we were on location in Mississippi! Ralph saw me do that, and said he wanted to do that in the film! He also chose "Landslide", an original piece from my first Rounder album as the piece he plays when standing at the "Crossroads!"

The end sequence actually features the playing of Vai (sped up sometimes) Bill Kanengiser (classical) Ry Cooder and me. Cooder only plays two parts for Ralph in the movie. The rest is all me, and the classical is played by Kanengiser (who has also made 2 instructional videos for my company, Hot Licks Video!)