Ramblings of an Idle Insomniac is now celebrating it's 8,888th visitor. Yes, yes, we're small operation here.

I was waiting outside for the bus this morning on the way into town to pay a visit to the ol alma mater. Because I believe in furthering one's education even after graduation.

Ok, so I was going to the bartending school to pick up some contacts and talk with the instructor. That's beside the point

Anyways, I heard a shout from someone approaching me in the sidewalk

"Hey New Money!"

I turned, and flashed my patented "the fuck you say?" face

the shout had come from a, well, a suburban white kid who only listens to hip hop. Ok I don't know that he doesn't also listen to other things but you know exactly what sort of guy I'm talking about. When I turned, he launched into a freestyle

Yeah, You
Little rich boy standin' there

Unfortunately, he ran out of ideas for what I'm sure would have been a scintillating opus.

I'll give him credit. He did get one thing right. I was, in fact, standing there. I don't know where in his purview he got the idea that I was little, however. Clearly he assumed I was rich because I wasn't dressed like a fucking lame-ass clown.

The funny thing is that I'm positive he paid more to look ridiculous than I did to look like, in his mind, a rich kid. And I'd take odds that his shoes cost more than my trench coat, which is the item that I guess he based his theory on. I got it for a hundred bucks at Burlington Coat Factory.

The thought that runs through my head now is that perhaps he knew I wasn't a rich kid and that I was being chided for putting on airs, hence, "new money." Still, fuck that noise. Sure, if being legit means looking like a total jackass then he had me beat, and the only thing I could do to top him would be to get a blinking fake tooth. In fact, whether he actually thought I was rich or not, it's the same thinking that applies.

Ok, so I'm putting a lot of thought into a few words from a passing moron, but I wonder how common that sort of attitude is.

Boston Legal was fantastic. If a certain recently returned Bohemian (this is my subtle hint for people to go and say hi to her she is back and god damn you had better be glad of it) is watching, no fear. If you haven't seen it yet I'm holding off before talking about it, for reasons that will either be revealed later or fizzle and if asked about them again I'll pretend I have no clue what you're talking about. Cool?

I was able to grab some Robert Johnson recordings the other day. All of them, in fact, including alternate takes. Naturally, I grabbed my guitar afterwards and tried to make it do what he made his do, which was basically take up the function of the bass guitar and the lead guitar and play them at once on the same instrument. Amazing. And no one ever got to study his technique, because when he recorded, he'd face the wall so that no one saw his fingers. Which sucks, because while I have a general idea, the concept of playing like him is off my radar in a way totally unlike Clapton, Page, Hendrix, Santana, Vai, Rodriguez-Lopez, or Slash. Each one of them plays phenomenal guitar, but I understand, on some basic level, how they do it.

And beyond the guitar, well, one can easily tell why Slowhand called it the most powerful cry that the human voice is capable of. I'm not saying he's right, because I've heard Layla, but the idea of confronting him with that is pointless of course.

In particular, Love in Vain is worth a listen, if you can find it. The Stones did a version of it as well, and Youtube has a recording of it from the Gimmie Shelter documentation

and on that note, I'm out.