Slackjaw's Forum

Minnie came out to our neck of the wood to pay a visit last week. It had been a while since we’d seen her so we made a big to-do about getting her out here and had ourselves a party, to celebrate both her visit and to finally have ourselves that open house/housewarming we’d been wanting to throw. The new house parties well. In that I mean, people flow nicely through the house, with only a small clog in the kitchen. We were fortunate enough to celebrate in between the downpours that have been part of our daily weather pattern and so we got to use the back yard as an extra room. It was nice to see her, to catch up a bit on what’s been going on with her and her family. She stayed for four days which went by all to quickly and left before the house woke up last Monday morning. Since then, things have slowed down a bit around here. Sweetie and I are starting to piece together the summer so we have a bit of a better idea of what it is we want to do with it. My brother-in-law brought ...

So last week I set out to Seattle to continue my Guitar Quest, and low, a beautiful new guitar is now in my possession. It was neither quick, nor easy, nor without stomach churning achy-ness of which I have yet to fully recover. But sitting right next to me, in it’s custom fitted hard shell case, is my new Colling’s guitar. I’ve been looking for a while now and had a pretty clear idea of what I was looking for. I wanted a Dreadnaught body shape, I wanted a Sitka Spruce top with Rosewood back and sides, I wanted it hand made, without a lot of frilly inlay work, and I knew what I wanted to spend…or at least I thought I did. The day started out on a good note as I found two hour parking right out front, pulling up to the front door just as someone else was leaving. Dusty Strings. is in the basement of a building that houses a Greek restaurant and an art gallery. It’s part of the old Fremont neighborhood and one of the few remaining businesses that has continued to exist in a plac...

For the past few weeks, my writing has been plagued by the fact that my ring finger is bandaged due to the unfortunate Mandoline incident. Up to now, I’ve been typing without using that finger, typing with my right hand in a sort of clumsy peace sign configuration. Today is really the first day, since my fingertip went for a ride, that I’ve been able to put any pressure on it at all. I don’t subscribe to the notion that this will improve my writing any, but it will make the length of this post a little easier to put up on the web. Last week I went into the studio where the Prairie Dogs mixed down Brand New Heart and recorded a new song I had written. A little over a year ago, I did some electric work for them, running conduit and putting in some outlets. We did it straight as an exchange—five hours of electrical work for five hours of studio time. I went in at twelve thirty and was out and done by five, laying down guitar, bass, vocals, electric, and my Dobro. (Harmonica as well, but...

A while back I put my site out as a beacon, trying to light the way for a bunch of old 9th grade friends to find their way back together after 25 years. Like any real magic, it worked, but not in the way I necessarily thought it would. I have always believed that in life, you need to first ask the question—to visualize or conceptualize, in order for there to be an answer. Jeff got a hold of me first—found my address from Eileen, who got it from Andy. Turns out he lives up in Bellingham. On his way out of town one evening, we met at the airport for a beer and got reacquainted. Ever since then things have been a moving forward, picking up speed. So far, there are 14 or 15 of us planning on going to Vegas in August for a reunion. So far a lot of them have come by the Trailer Park to take a peek, looking in the past archives to try to get to know this person they haven’t talked to in a quarter century. So to all my old friends, welcome. Nice to see you again. Take off your shoes and s...