interesting mail (well I found it interesting)....

I know some of you guys don't give a flying fuck what the rest of the world thinks of your election, but 113,552 people from 191 countries voted anyway and here's the results:

Candidate__Votes_____Percentage
Bush________10221____9.0 %
Kerry________87446____77.1 %
Cobb________4347_____3.8 %
Nader_______7622_____6.7 %
Brown______2292_____2.0 %
Peroutka_____345______0.3 %
Badnarik_____1279_____1.1 %

Oh, and you just had to go and tell me that Kenny's coming to your area again, didn't you?! hehe. I'm dead jealous!

http://www.soundclick.com/pro/?BandID=246433

By the way, you know the kid who told us "Are you going to see Satriani this evening? Oh, well, he's playing just up the hill" and you said "oh?...no, we're here to see xxxxxx". Who was it (xxxxxx) that you said we were going to see? I can't remember who you said, but I know it was fuckin hilarious!

Jazzzzzy, yeah man, if you took those 87,000 votes for Kerry and gave them to one of the swing states, or even better, Florida, it could make things interesting! And I agree that both candidates rallied their butts off.....they never stopped!

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!

You were wearing your Surfing With The Alien tour shirt weren't you? I swear it was that old! hehe

Egypt, actually! Dunno if anyone else was really aware of this, but "Gypsie" is Shakespearian slang for "Egyptian". Just find the reference in Antony And Cleopatra....something about "A Strumpets Fool or a Gypsie Queen" or some shit like that. It's cool, and it all works out, cause at the time it was set, Egyptians were what, essentially, "Gypsies" are today!

Suzie, damn right, black pudding is a disgrace. It should have been thrown out with hanging and drowning of the witch!

Zinc Master, what's all this about WWII? I really don't get it......everybody in europe has pretty-much dropped WWII now....there's general understanding that things have changed.

Also, no, you shouldn't leave the US if Tony Blair gets re-elected, cause Tony Blair has no effect on the US. The US is out between the two big oceans, on the opposite side of the world to the nasty bits where all the oil is, out of reach from any military threat. The worst thing that can happen is terrorism, and you don't get as much of that as the rest of us.

I thought you'd understand the concept that the election of the US President is a global matter. Fair enough, it doesn't affect South America or Africa, cause nobody cares about them....all they have is drugs and AIDS, respectively*

Since Bush doesn't need to worry about campaigning again in 4 years time, he's pretty much off the leash. If he does anything really insane, like go up against Korea, it's going to get very dangerous to be anywhere that is an ally of the US. It's not just a case of USA versus Terrorists......the US is an integrated member of the "free" world, and if Bush stirs up some shit with nutters with WMD's, it's going to be us in Europe who are affected more, because we're closer, and not self-supporting.

If he wants, George W can shut the US off completely from the rest of the planet, just like North Korea has done. You guys actually have your own oil supplies, you can support yourselves....you're not reliant on international trade to keep running. Indeed, that is why the boycot against dealings with the French and Scandinavians took place.

Here in Europe, however, it's different. We need to trade with the Far East, Inda, South America etc. to maintain what aparrently resembles an economy.

Obviously i'm not really going to flee the country cause Bush has been elected....I can't afford to....but if I could, i'd be gone by the morning. There's not many pro's to living in the UK as it is, cause competitive, materialistic consumerism has gone off the scale, but the idea of a free-to-roam, gun-toting, anti-towel-head-defense-system being re-elected into presidency of the number 1 nation on the planet, makes me want to leave more than ever before.

By the way, I thought Mr Nick's summary of the President was very accurate, so if you don't like mine, just re-read his!

Jesus christ! What a rip off. The Scorpion IS the Warthog, the Manta is pretty much a Ghost, the Phoenix is a blatant rip off of Echo Four-Nineteen, and you can see where they got the Goliath Tank from. Bastards.......Unreal Tournament was respectable once, but now, to my sheer surprise, I find my self in defense of Microsoft (Game Studios)!

Zinc Master, hmmm, i find it somewhat disturbing that Bush "relied on British intelligence". I know it's not just his fault that this is going to end up being a dangerous place to live....Tony's done quite a bit to help along the way, but none of it would have happened if George W hadn't started it in the first place.

The retaliation against Al Qaeda was expected, although "making-do" with a plain old war on Afghanistan was a slight surprise. The war on Iraq was just weird. There was no real sense behind it, false motives, and after a few months he had manipulated the american people to believe that Iraq was linked with 9/11. The only link between the two is that they both something to do with people from the Middle East.

guitarnut, if you don't like us talking about politics, ignore us. It's almost as easy as wiping your own ass, but not quite!

By the way, is the Star Wars trailer the same one they put on the Episodes IV-VI DVD box-set?

Also, you grew up in 5 different countries? Then you're absolutely right, you have seen more of the world than most of your fellow-americans. Statistically, 96% of American people do not have a passport, which means they have never left the USA. I think that is a good indicator of the lack of global awareness that some people have, like these "NASCAR dads" for example! hehe.

Before anybody drops a WMD down my throat (with stars-and-stripes painted on the side and "Made in the US-of-A" stamped on the warhead), i'm not saying that all american people have no gloabl awareness and making sweeping generalisations, but it is true to say that there's a lot of people, especially in Buttfuck Texas, who do not know where "Europe" is.

cuthbert, haha, thanks for that dude.....I wasn't sure about the location of "buttfuck", and I thought Oklahoma, but then got confused between it and Oregon and Ohio, and didn't want to offend anybody! hehe.

Anyway, Yeah I see your point, that there are short-sighted political retards in every party. It sucks. I suppose it'd help if we knew more about domestic policies from each party, but I still think Bush for re-run was a bad idea!

airman_siro@yahoo.co.uk

I was onced asked where I was from, and when I replied "UK" I was asked "which state is that?"

By the way, I disagree on Jazzzzy being insensitive and intolerant......I think he has a good grasp of the principal of everyone being allowed their oewn opinion, but just doesn't like it when some people try to enforce their own opinion and tell him that he is wrong. You can only tell someone that about something material, but opinion is "abstract".

Question....Does Joe have a copy of the CD?

civgeek, yeah that's why I decided not to label any of the 'O' states cause I didn't wanna pick the wrong one! haha

His latest travel series has been a 6-part trip around the Himalayas, and the series finishes tomorrow evening. It is without a doubt the most amazing footage I have seen. It definitely ranks, in my opinion, with the Grand Canyon and Yosemite NP for sheer WOW factor. I really want to know how I would go about organising a trip to Nepal, and trecking and so on. It's really beautiful.

"If I had typed something of that sort, you would be all over it"....I'm inclined to agree with that, all things considered.

http://community.webshots.com/user/962_lm

it's in the "other Stuff." album. Sorry I couldn't put the accents on your name in the photo caption......webshots doesn't like accents!

For point of interest, reports recently made public indicate that there is no Al Qaeda army.....there is no offensive force to speak of. In many of those videos we have seen of Osama training his troops, he had hired civilians for the day, telling them to bring their own weapon and he would supply them with fatigues. It was all for the purposes of creating propaganda.

SupaaDave, I reckon it's gonna be well over 5000 souls he'll have under his belt!

I'm trying to remember the series he's done....I think they were Around The World In 80 Days, Pole-to-Pole, Full Circle (which I think went all around the 'Pacific Rim'), Sahara, and the latest - Himalaya.

Alexandre, hola amigo! Yeah I love the Guitar Wars DVD, I thought Nuno's drumming was ace, but then it's not surprising....he was a drummer for ten years before he picked up a guitar.

I also love Gary Cherone's energetic performance on get The Funk Out.....he puts all his effort into it!

jazzzzzy, I dunno if Palin's travel documentaries are on DVD, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are, or if not, i'm sure they will be at some point!

Yeah man, horror documentaries are always interesting, especially stuff about the paranormal.....I don't generally believe in paranormal activity, so when there's a docu on, it's usually pretty good, cause it's obviously a story which really is convincing enough to actually make you ask questions about your own beliefs! I dig that shit!

The Woman In Black? I've heard of that....I think my mum read it once, she said it was excellent, so I should think it makes a good movie!

And on music.....no I don't have any of my own stuff recorded yet. When I have the money (relative to about $220) i'll be buying an external sound card for use with my Laptop, so I can record guitar parts. I have some backing tracks down so the guitar part and a little audio engineering is all that is needed for it to be finished!

And when I get that done, it'll go up on soundclick until I can afford something more comprehensive! hehe

Delfino, take it easy on yourself bro.......I feel like that about my stuff all the time, but for some reason, I keep playing it anyway. If you really don't like something, try and break it down to the concept that was the basis for the way you wrote it....maybe an idea or technique or a visualisation....whatever, that concept was good enough for you to go to the length of writing it the first time, but you didn't like the resulting sound. try keeping the concept, but starting again on the way you actually choose to portray it/write the tune!

Hope that makes sense?!

They are, however, Region 2 and PAL screen format, but I'm sure that, in due course, they'll make it to region 1 and NTSC!

Himalaya finished this evening, including a trip through Bhutan. What a beautiful country. It is so peaceful and simplistic, built on some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world......I'm really inspired to find out about travelling there some day. Palin spent 6 months travelling round the Himalaya to make the documentary! Awesome!

DamnIMissNamm, I somewhere have the tab for the arpeggiated section. I'll dig it up this evening. Also, check out www.ibanez-guitar-players.com I think you'll find some useful stuff there about it, but I culd be mistaken.

Aparrently GTA Sand Andreas is the daddy......You have to go to restaraunts to eat and work out at the gymn. If you eat too much you get fat. If you smoke too much dope you can't run very far before you get outta breath. Awesome, can't wait for it on x-box!

Last night was The Sopranos Season 4 finale....

Pastafarian, I reckon you're gonna love season 4 when you get round to it.....it's nuts.....everything kinda changes and gets a little darker, but there's some bitter-sweet resolution for Tony at the end. It's great. Sorry, I'm trying not to give away the storyline.....it's so good tho!

Cuthbert, haha, 230,000 londoners have shag-itis. Nah i've not been to London in ages, and evidently, that's no bad thing!

Simon Daultrey(airman_siro@yahoo.co.uk)
Your order for Halo 2 (Limited Edition) has been posted.

Please allow 3-5 days delivery.

WOOHOO! some time this week, i'm going into Hibernation, and when I come out, I'm going to be a different person! hehe, can't wait

Hey if you're really digging that album, I definitely recommend that you get Nuno's two Mourning Widows CD's - they're a tad expensive cause you have to get them on Japanese import, but so, so worth it. Do you have Nuno's "Schizophonic"? If not, that'd be worth checking out between Waiting For The Punchline and Mourning Widows 1!

Austin, That doesn't excuse his behavior here. .....WRONG! You should say "In my opinion, that doesn't excuse his behaviour here". Joe has his board labelled as a "kind of free-for-all". It being free for all, I feel it's perfectly acceptable for people to express themselves in whatever manner seems fit.

I mean god, it's only fair. Namm Man and I fully debated a subject which we have very much opposed opinions on, but at no point did either of us say "you can't say that".

Wolf2 doesn't make the slightest inkling of sense, but he's generally accepted, it seems, and all the better for it. My saying that jazzzy, like me, is someone who is easily irritated was not me sharing my thoughts on why you should excuse his behaviour - it was my effort to help you understand his behaviour......when you can understand someone and what motivates them, you can best judge the way you react to them......in the long run, it's much easier than trying to change someone.

hehe, I didn't really just randomly pick those figures outta the air!

It also depends on what kinda music is your style. Considering you said you love Joe's music, I would guess that you like to play stuff in a notably Joe-influenced style? If so, then yeah, learning all those things you mentioned is a good idea!

Years ago, joe wrote articles for a guitar magazine, and those articles were, more recently, compiled into a book called "Guitar Secrets" or something straightforward like that. I recommend getting it (try amazon, it's realy cheap), it explains everyting really well in there!

Austin, you very comprehensively avoided the real point of what I said before. nevermind, forget about it.

Oh.....SURE! Like I'm that f*ck*n stupid! hehe

By the way, where did you order Halo 2 from? I wanted to order from amazon but they ran out of the limited edition, so I had to fork out an extra tenner to get it from play.com. Oh well, it's gotta be worthwhile!

Zinc Master, hehe, sorry didn't mean to rain on your parade man! Those e-mail scams crack me up....the first time I got one I actually went to the trouble of mailing back, with a message that simply read "fuck off", but then the next day I got 6 more of the same mail from different addresses so I realised it's all randomly generated. Internet fraud is lame....what a waste of time.

everybody check out http://www.sorryeverybody.com

I usually find this helps when I get in a creative slump, which happens a lot, believe me! I got it recently, so I spent a few weeks listening to Nuno Bettencourt almost exclusively....his style is really different to that of Joe, so when I started playing Joe, Eric Johnson and Andy Timmons again, I was hearing loads of cool ideas in my head.

I usually find the problem arising when I'm getting used to the sound of everything i'm playing.....this is what I think of as an autopilot phase, where you're just playing, without particularly thinking about what you're playing. Changing your influences for a while should help you to think with more focus about what you're playing!

achoo, yeah my Bass student is no problem - I started him with Octaves, Major and Pentatonic scales, but my new guitar student is more tricky......he's really really beginner.....I started by showing him how to tune the guitar from string-to-string, which took about 15 minutes, then gave him E, A and G chords which took the other 45 minutes. As I suspected, teaching a beginner is much harder than teaching somebody with a little experience!

I've been listening out for the Vai bits...they rock, I think I'll probably get the soundtrack!

Oh, as I understand it, any time you hear a guitar in Halo 2, it's Steve playing it.

pp0, as far as I've heard, Joe hasn't been using the DS-1 with the JSX setup. I could be wrong, but his new tone sounds a lot more like the amp is doing all the work.

nandatinhtut, welcome to T2J! I hope you do manage to obtain the Is There Love In Space album soon, because it's really cool, I'm sure you'll love it!

By the way, Burma.....what a beautiful country!

Delfino, you finished it? Shit man, you work hard! You know the bit where you're in the temple and you have to kill the prophet? I'm there right now! hehe, it's taking me a while, but I am doing it all on Heroic.

It has 2 settings - boost and drive. The drive actually adds proper, smooth, very warm, creamy overdrive, like a TS-9 but fatter. The boost setting is excellent - it just boost the signal, with a little tonal control as well, so if you use it with another overdrive pedal, like a DS-1, it can give it the kick up the ass that it needs. Also, if you use the boost setting with your clean channel, you'll get the natural broken glass feel of a just-overdriven clean channel and a Strat, kinda like Clapton and Stevie-Ray. If you use the boost on the dirty channel, you get a more ballsy crunch. If you use the boost on the dirty channel with your guitar's tone wound off, you get a BB King type sound.

We put it on and although it was skipping quite a bit, it sounded ace. Also, I swear some bits are different to those that Vai released on CD a couple of years ago! It's cool....I dunno what to do with it though! maybe I'll try and get his signature on it or something!

Stevee T, well I dunno about the others, but I'd think what's going through Yngwie's mind is something like "where's the pies gone? I want more pies. I NEED more pies. WHO TOOK MY FUCKING PIES? AARRRGGGHHHHHH!!! (fury)"

I think I'll play it in easy after I complete it so I can get a grasp on the story - at the moment, I'm kinda missing the plot cause i'm too busy fighting off hordes of aliens, or even worse, flood. I would have been quite happy if they'd have left the Flood out of Halo 2.