But Oh, If I Could Only Get You Oceanside

These wintry months are lovely.

Tuesday the 8th I went on a tour of the Santa Cruz Guitar Companies factory. It was wonderful, the owner, Richard, is the one who gives the tour, and he has been doing this since the late 60's I believe, but when he got into it there was no one to ask how to make good handcrafted steel string guitars, because all the major guitar makers, Gibson, Martin and to some degree Fender, were all factory assembling there guitars, so he went to violin makers to get his techniques, which makes some fine instruments. The SCGC uses mostly reclaimed wood for their guitars, so some of the wood they use is very old (they had pieces of wood from a downed santa cruz cypress that was nearly 2200 years old [guHdang]). This also means that most, if not all of the wood they use is already "opened up". Most guitars have a period of time, like a bottle of wine, where the wood settles and the instrument just sounds, better, but these don't necessarily need that. This also means they are quite pricey (starting at $3360 at the "least" expensive to $240,000 being the most they ever sold a guitar for), but will never depreciate and will just keep getting better. These guitars are meant to be passed down like violins from player to player. They are truly a sight to beyond and a sound to be a heard. I once played an expensive Gibson acoustic and couldn't really tell in the sound, why it cost so much, sure, it was much "prettier" or made up then the less expensive ones, but the sound wasn't doing it. The first time I picked up an SCGC it was like hearing a guitar for the first time, pretty impressive. When I left I gave Richard a resume and hopefully will be gainfully employed in their workshop in the near future. Fortune favors the bold.

I recently (about a month ago) found a dark green canvas hooded jacket at the job I was working at, it was left behind by someone, maybe a delivery driver, but who knows. It is an Xtra Small, and fits me perfectly, and seems to be the jacket I have been looking for my whole life. Layers well, waterproof, warm, has like 9 pockets. Quite lovely.

Music
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You Lp and Emotionalism Lp
The Avett Brothers are stunning. They are (surprise) two brothers, fronting an indie-alt-folk band, one on banjo, one on guitar, both sing. For some reason I have had quite the affinity for folk music right now, its touching something in me, almost sentimental. Ernest, heartfelt ballads of love, ache, winning, losing, learning, making mistakes and living life. If you guys haven't listened to them, certainly check them out.

Ray LaMontagne - God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise Lp
Again, a album and artist answering some hitherto unknown ache in me for folk tinged rock music. Ray's voice is sultry, sad and sexy. Some times the grooves him and his band get into edge on the funky side. I am loving this album.

Dylan LaBlanc - Paupers Field
This singer/guitarist from Louisiana is quite awesome. He's only 20 but his lyrics belie that fact quite a bit, he sounds haggard, like life dealt him a rough hand. Its pretty solid americana-country rock, but heartbreakingly lovely.

The Decemberists - 5 Songs Ep, The Tain EP and Down by the Water single
I've fallen back in love with The Decemberists, had a bit of a falling out after The Hazards of Love album but I am quite smitten again. Not much to say, I feel like you love them or you hate them. There new single is pretty great IMO.

Tomes
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
This book...oh my. It is amazing. Its about the future but not very far in the future, like next year in the future, where everyone carries around an "apparati" that streams everybody else's "apparati" all your stats (cholesteral, hotness etc etc) all the time. Its told through the main character Larry's diary entries and his love interest Eunice Park's blog entries. Pretty spectacular.

Anathema by Neal Stephenson
Anathema is about a "monastery" that is in the middle of city, that shies away from technology, using only stone, chalk and paper, and they have existed this way, isolated from the outside cities for some couple millennia, and then one of the members has to venture out. Its about 1300 pages and I'm only about 100 pages in or so, so it will get nutso I am sure. Stephenson is an amazing author so it is greatly written.

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
A semi-autobiographical book taking place in England in 1982. Its pretty witty and crushingly genuine. The writing is spot on too. I was originally looking for Mitchell's other book Cloud Atlas, but the King Library did not have it. Ah well, this is good too.

I hope all is well.