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Sunlight Comes and Goes

October 27, 2006 2:00 AM

hen I was about 14, I decided that I was going to grow my hair out. This mostly came about because both of my best friends at the time were growing their hair out, so I didn't really have any choice. I needed to be a rebel, and if conforming was the way to do that, then, by god, I was going to conform (and thereby rebel).

I did not look good with long hair. I shaved the sides and back of my head, so that my hair was only long on top. It was something like a mohawk of sorts. I don't really know. In any event, I looked like an idiot. To the best of my knowledge, only one picture was ever taken of me with that haircut - my junior yearbook picture. Thankfully, therefore, not many people have seen what I looked like at the time.

My mom didn't like my long hair. That suited me just fine - that was the whole point of growing out the hair, really. She kept pestering me to cut my hair, and I kept refusing. Until one day when she told me that, if I agreed to cut my hair off, she would buy me an electric guitar. My eyes bugged out. I had been playing an extremely old nylon-string guitar that my mom had bought sometime in the 70s to that point, and the prospect of having a real, electric guitar made me gitty. I immediately agreed and, soon enough, my hair was gone and I was the proud owner of a very cheap Stratocaster knock-off and a tiny practice amp. And it was awesome.

I was daunted by the thing. I had no idea how to play. I barely knew a few chords, but even playing "G" and "Em" was fun just because I was doing it on a fucking electric guitar. Then came the next huge guitar purchase: my first distortion pedal. Holy shit, I could make the guitar be loud! And I could go from quiet to loud with the flick of a switch. I learned power chords. I learned scales. I loved playing the guitar.

Over the years, I've accumulated a shit load of guitar equipment, and keep doing so even today. But, because I've been so fucking busy lately, I haven't had the chance to write any songs, let alone record them. The last thing I did was my cover of Livin' on a Prayer (available just below my profile picture - check it out if you haven't already).

Why do I bring this up? Just because. Someone told me yesterday that there are but five weeks left before finals. And, as I expected, I've never been busier. I've got Contracts 2 in about seven and a half hours. Still, I blew off my reading and played my shitty Epiphone acoustic for an hour or so tonight. And it felt great.

God, I want to start a band.



5 Comments


TheExpat said:

Your post prompted me to listen to your recording. Nice levels on the overdubs for your song. So many people just throw the lead up and screw the rhythm bits. I like the name of your concept band as well.

October 27, 2006 9:45 AM



Dee said:

your shameless self promotion worked, and i dug your song. i'm glad that you still make music, especially under the time honored lovers of sights and sounds mantle.

oh, hey, speaking of shameless self-promotion

http://taiwanecdotes.typepad.com/tw/

October 27, 2006 10:39 AM



Ismael Tapia II said:

TheExpat,
Thanks. No one's ever complimented my production skills, although that's one of the most important things. I try to do a good job, but it's difficult given my limited resources.

Dee,
Thanks for the kind words. The Lovers of Sight and Sound will never die!

I've linked to your blog under "My Friends' Blogs." It's really cool, and I'll be checking in on it often. One question, though: did you have PJ come up with the name or did his terrible pun-ability rub off on you?

October 27, 2006 11:36 AM



TheExpat said:

Hmm, I think the latter, though it was more likely some gruesome PJ/Hannis Team Pun Attack buried somewhere in her psyche (rather than the solo efforts of Le Peej) which prompted the coining of our blog's name.

October 28, 2006 9:31 AM



Lily Graypure said:

Hehe, that used to be one of my rants. Freaks aren't nonconformists, they just conform to the standard of Freak.

November 3, 2006 2:00 AM



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