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Got this Watermelon toy as a present from my youngest son (3yo) today
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Nice toy!
super nice of your kid to give you a gift.

Hey Papa, do you have youtube videos or publicly posted audio recordings of you playing the guitar?

​​​​​​​Would love to hear you play. Hope you dont mind my asking. 

Sure thing Adi! Here is a little jam I did with a friend of mine. Imthe guy to the right with that polar bear hanging on the headstock  https://youtu.be/OWVHr_UmKSI?si=XNeapxju7fhgGMxS

Nice!! Thanks for sharing.

I enjoyed the Jam, and I absolutely loved the title: Quilter Superblock US (no other pedals used,

Guess Happy Birthday then Papa Che! I loved your family band!

I somehow saved Tonglen to my soundcloud library ages ago and think it's amazing 

Oh my b-day is in January! This was just a present from his box of vegetable toys He somehow thought Im in need of a watermelon on top of my studio monitor  

Ah that was a fun collab here on DhO!  

Cheers Adi! I only wish I have moved on from that style of noodling! Im in need of a guitar teacher to point me into other sonic directions and open up the fretboard more as I seem to noodle in the same scale for ages now. Ah well ... maybe one day when Im in pension! 

https://youtube.com/shorts/az9mmZYWCvc?si=rho65okiPNKzTKD1

Do you use any open tunings? They are themselves great teachers. Also myself and a few friends often found that a great way to open up the world of guitar... is to learn Bluegrass.

Amazing tone off that superblock and great playing. 

Thank you! 

​​​​​​​I think open tunings are "lazy tunings" They do stuff for you by using the same fingering as in usual tuning. I only tune lower. Mostly D standard and C standard. I guess all tools are ok to be used in creativity. Even AI to make music and call it "my own"  
​​​​​​​But what know I  

A lot of open tunings are based on tunings for other instruments and many of those other instruments may have multiple tunings, there's multiple different ways to tune a mandolin for example in the context of Irish folk music. Some of the guitar greats I grew up listening to, people like Paul Brady or Bert Jansch would use 3-4 different tunings in one set, John Martyn might tune differently for every song. It's an approach I find that tends to open up a whole new spectrum of fingering and tonality. There's ways to play a guitar in DADGAD that you just can't do in standard. There's blues John Lee Hooker plays in open A that is next to impossible to play in standard, same for Willie McTell.

It is a very traditional thing I suppose, most of my favorite blues players or folk players tend to use a lot of different tunings, there were a lot of different tunings around me growing up both on records and in bars, open mics, etc. I find it's nice to leave standard scale positions behind and just explore the natural resonance of the instrument, it's just you and your chops, a friend of mine often says "That's what separates the boys from the men".

​​​​​​​A lot of the players I know who use open tunings tend to be very technical though I find there's plenty excellent lazy players out there. 

Edit: or something like this, it's just not doable with the same level of finesse

I think Sonic Youth also had several guitars tuned differently for each song I cant get my head around all that. Not that bright nor eager.

There is this book which I feel you might enjoy... It kind of reminds me of mctb, but for guitar ;)

Working on harmony, perhaps using a keyboard instead of or as a complement to the guitar, might be helpful as well to develop new directions. This one is full of interesting stuff, though a bit linear/classical/schoolish to my taste and, I am sure, yours. Still, well worth spending time on, ime. Don't be fooled by the title, many pro musicians I know would likely learn a lot from that book, imo.

Oh my! You scared the s..t out of me with those books! I do get your suggestions to use keyboards but I have already decided to buy a drum set big enough for me and my boys! Im more of a groove fellow than notes and harmonies and clever chords etc ... I still feel that a good song is always connected with a very good groove. Can be basic chords but get an interesting groove going and man sooo good! 

I shall post a pic of the drum set once we get it! Luckily we live in a country side and I have a separate studio apartment to bash at them while the kids sleep in the main house! 

How much we progress definitely depends on our own choices and circumstances. I don't agree that a good groove is the essence of any good piece of music, have to say!

There is to me no real separation between groove and melody. !!!!!

Great news from Syria! Well, not for the poor Palestinians but US gets to own 1/3 of Syria! Great stuff! Even UK's Lammy sais the fall of the Assad regime will help UK's affordable housing! Great stuff! Good things! And Israel will take some more of Syria's land as Golan was not enough! Great stuff! They call it "extra buffer zone"! Good stuff! And NATO-Turkey will also take a huge chunk for the sake of a "buffer zone"! Good stuff! Great times!" Marry Xmass! At last Palestinian resistance is no more now they are cut off from anyone supporting them and Israel can get the gas off Gaza shore! Good stuff! Good times! Long live democracy and equality and ... whatever ...  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV4niQwCwrg

Tonight at work this observation happened;

(This happened very fast and in this order)
1. certain aroma contacted the sense of smell 
2. there was a rapid blowing up of energies in the body(mind)
3. there was a mind image of being back in the war zone I once was in some 20-plus years ago in the winter with snow
4. adrenaline-excitement
5. wonder ... uncertainty
6. sensations associated with the immediate workplace (sounds, seeing, tactile sensations ...)

Thats it.

Later in the car, on my way home, I wondered if this experience would lead to a PTSD related panic attack if the mind was not trained in attention? 

Idles pop, pop, pop 
https://youtu.be/huWfQdG2_ws?si=z0kjKkU1WiT31LKD

Seems like something like that would exactly lead to a PTSD flashback/panic attack if the mind wasn't trained.

Powerful stuff mind is! 

No matter what, this moment will never be anything other than what it is. - Kenneth Van Folk, about him realising the cosmic joke post SE and then forgetting about it and realising this again post 4th path. 

Happy holidays ya all myriad of beings! 

From the river to the sea ... https://youtu.be/44URjpI5TgQ?si=Y6e6g_T6_HHEUAWb

Ha! Yes!!! My theory was that if all left parties of Europe and USA have gone more towards the Center (Imperialsist) in their politics, then the only parties talking for the working class will be the extreme right-wing! And as such will gain more power but this will lead towards the Yin-Yang of course and the extreme Left will appear once again to save the world from the Nazi-Faschist agendas! 
There is a saying that history repeats itself. 
American communists send help to Donbas to help their comrades against Nazis! 
Very exciting! Long live socialism, brotherhood, and unity! 
https://youtu.be/_sX5DRCTYxc?si=DUHyHAesB9MucaVI

Had a very interesting and detailed dream last night. 

My son and I keep aquarium animals but also keep a walking stick insect in a terrarium. This is in actual life. 

Now the interesting segment of the dream was as follows (there was more to it about some people but that was unclear)  ;

The walking stick walked to the plant lead I feed it with and instead of chewing on it, it swallowed the whole leaf at once! It then started to shake and jumped out of its old skin.

The shedded skin was on the left in the shape of the walking stick and to the right was this new body in form of a larvae of sorts. 

Then the larvae moved towards the wall of the terrarium and was shaking and while shaking it was also changing into a pupae and then it was just still and hanging there on the wall. 

A few moment later the pupae started to shake a bit and there was a thought "what will come out of it? Maybe a beetle of sorts?" 
And the pupae opened up and something unclear came out! It spread its wings and it was a beautiful butterfly with black satin wings which had azure-blue round circles on it! Just gorgeous 

My 8 year old have been saying for a while now how he is afraid of death and how he can't fathom the endless universe. Anyway, the death part is troubling because he is now also washing his hands too many times to wash away bacteria as they could kill him, as he describes. 

So I talked about how our immunity must get info about bacteria to be able to create antibodies and he does understand this but then he doesn't know where we go after we die! Ok. ... ... Im letting it sink in ... 

Ok. He seems to be interested in meditation and is deep thinking about stuff, nature and the universe ... so I just let him tell me what he believes will happen. He said they told him his three grandparents are in heaven, up in the clouds and he doesn't like that idea as he could fall down from there!  

Many nights when I put them to bed I ask what story they would want me to tell and my 8 year old would say "tell us the story about the Buddha". Ok so I would just free-style stories I knew from the Suttas and he loves them! 

So I used some other stuff I once mentioned that he was familiar with, and that is the 6 Realms and the 4 Path Model of Awakening. He asked me where I was on that journey So I said likely my mind has sorted the 2nd Path and is now wondering the 3rd Path. And then we talked about what happens next and next and next ... and he said with sadness "but if you reach full awakening you will leave the 6 Realms and will go be with the Buddha " We spoke about how White Tara sees all beings being constantly reborn in one then in another realm on and on ... life after life ... 

After talking some more we came to a realization that all beings die ... but also get reborn in the same or another realm and karma has its doing in all this also. Seeing this karma as it unfolds awakened the mind. 

So after more talking and explaining what and how stuff happens in this Samsaric existence we agreed that I am NOT to get the 3rd and 4th Path and instead be a Bodhisattva and return back to the human realm where we will meet again and again until he also becomes fully awakened Then we can go join the Buddha together We looked into each other's eyes and shook hands and chanted Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Soha so she seals the deal! This was so sweet my eyes are tearing as I write this  

<3

Wow

Papa, I told you that you were becoming a saint!  

Big hugs to daddy and son.

I suspect he's the best of us !! The best of a bad bunch isn't much but it's something

Bahiya Babe if only you knew how many pints of Guinness I pulled in Cafe en Seine Dublin during my 4 years behind the bar  

Cheers Shargrol! How is that puppy of your's doing? Was it a Puddle? 

I think I will eventually move back to Ireland!!!  

https://youtube.com/shorts/v9VyyJeGFjE?si=IWTEExgw4vwIj73F

Is this what they call a "trad wife"? 

The German's used to call her Erika

Not really my type, I'm more into being mercilessly berated by some perpetually scowling Mediterranean, but to each their own.

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Ouch!  

Someone asked me recently to show the finished aquarium, my 8 yo and I are building now and this is it; 


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Let me add this photo as well of the lovely looking Endlers Guppy males 


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Something about the sense of time has changed. Its going so slow and yet the usual experience is going so fast ... and yet not moving at all ... feels like so much time has passed and yet only a day or two have passed on reflection. Maybe its the 50's! I have re-started an old hobby of keeping dwarf shrimp. Planning to build a few aquariums and a large shelf to place them on. My eldest son is also interested in aquariums so it goes hand in hand.

This yellow female is full of eggs! We have already got a few dozen shrimplets! So cute! They are so tiny!