This is one of my better carved pumpkins, from 2012.
Right now as I type this it's dark out. Here in the middle-northern latitudes in the US, that means it's heading into Fall, as during the Summer our daylight hours range from around 4 a.m. to 9+ p.m., depending on how bright the dawn and dusk are.
The leaves are just starting to turn yellow, at the edges, on a couple medium sized maple trees just outside my Seattle area work office. We just had a recent, light rain. Fall is on the way.
Oftentimes here in the Seattle area, we have a fairly good "Indian Summer", which is an American term for sunny, warmer conditions during September and early October. We had an OK Indian Summer last year, but during the 1990s and early 2000s we had some really good ones. I don't know exactly how the term actually came about -- the term dates back to the late 1700's and early 1800's in the US, referring to warm October and September days when the skies were hazy and Native Americans hunted game.
As for Fall, I usually enjoy the Autumn season, as I like the Fall colors in the hills when we have a good Fall season. Sometimes we have good Autumns with bright colors, and other times it's sort of blah. But either way, the approach of Fall means Halloween is also on the way, and -- after that -- Christmas, but this year I'm not really all that hepped up on the approaching Holidays as I'm facing them alone, with just me and my cats.
With my mother's passing in November of last year, and the drifting apart of the extended family (many who have moved to other states), there really isn't too much to celebrate during Holiday seasons.
"#1": SHE'S ALWAYS BEEN A MYSTERY, AND STILL IS, ACTUALLY
My #1 guitar, which has had several suspected brand names / makers throughout the years. I know for sure it's Japanese, as it says "Made in Japan" on the neck plate. Yet I have never known 100% which company made the guitar, as it has had no name on the headstock -- or anywhere else.
For lack of any other name, it's been "#1."
At first, someone suggested #1 was a Montgomery Wards guitar. They said they saw one like it in a catalog in the 1970s. So -- for a while I referred to it as a Wards guitar -- although I had no clue where it was bought (my uncle -- who originally bought it -- never said, and he died in 1990). Then I saw a pic of a 'Daimaru' that looked just like #1, in a book, in the 1990's, which made me think it was a Daimaru. Then, more recently, I joined a Teisco FB group because someone posted similar looking (but not identical looking) guitars called Teisco Auditions. Then I was told my guitar was a Teisco-Kawai, as the Kawai company took over Teisco in the late 1960's.
Now, just during the past week or so, I've been told by Teisco experts on FB that #1 is a SAKAI guitar, early 1970s, which would fit the date of purchase -- which I think was 1973 or 1974 (when my uncle bought it). Sakai bought out Kawai apparently. The guitar's pickups, taken off a Decca brand guitar (Kawai built, probably), are probably indeed KAWAI (flat topped rails holding the bobbins). I wrecked one of #1's original pickups early on, thinking I was going to be like Brian May and overwind one. For about a year I only played #1 with one pickup. Then I saw the Decca guitar (Kawai built) at the thrift store, and swapped its two good pickups for the one remaining good one in #1.
Confused enough yet?
So I suppose now I can refer to it as a Sakai Guitar. It's odd to refer to it by another name or brand, after so many years playing it and thinking it was something else.
And for the life of me, I've never seen another guitar identical to it. There are always parts in the wrong place, or slight variations in the Fender "Jaguar" body shape. Teisco Auditions are close, as are the UK "Top Twenty" guitars (often made by Sakai) that were sold there in the 1970s. But the body shapes are still a bit different, and the bridges are often not the same.
FWIW, #1 sounds like a Gibson SG with P90s and extra treble available.
LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH PULP NOVELS
If it weren't for the internet and guitars, and work, I'd really have little to do. I still do my fiction writing, and some of my pulp novels do sell, so there's that. Fiction writing is sort of my replacement for the 'exciting life' that a lot of bloggers, Instagrammers, social-media people, "influencers", and the like claim to have. I like to place my pulp novel characters in situations that are exciting, even if the characters are regular, working class people. Usually when the Holidays arrive, I write a story centered around either Halloween or Christmas. It's my own way of celebrating.
Being that there are usually a lot of holiday decorations in the stores and nearby houses I have plenty of 'atmosphere' to draw from for those stories.
Despite the dreary weather ahead, and the Holidays, I am looking forwards to MW and some SW DXing, as the Winter may bring better long distance radio conditions. Distance listening on the radio has always been a backup hobby for me, and it provides an interesting view of the world -- you can travel it using your radio, your ears, and an armchair. :-)
I also enjoy listening to football games on the radio, as NFL and College football seasons heat up. Our local NFL team, the Seattle Seahawks, just won their first game, where our former backup quarterback -- Geno Smith -- led the Seahawks to beat the Denver Broncos, who are headed by the guy who used to be Seattle's main quarterback, Russell Wilson. It was a classic case of the underdog beating the star -- on national TV, nonetheless. Pretty cool.
The next game the Seahawks played, against our 'arch-rival' the San Francisco 49ers, we lost. Oh well. That's how it works in football -- you win a few, you lose a few.
That said, I'm not a Seahawks nut, really. I don't have a definite favorite team. I just like to listen to the NFL games. It sure beats news and politics. :-) I also listen to the national Sports Radio networks during the NFL season, as they talk about football a lot. During this time of year, baseball season is entering its playoffs, so it also makes for some interesting sports talk. Once again -- it beats politics.
Well, I'm starting to ramble here, so I will cut this article short. I have a couple longer articles about guitars and other things, one that touches on business -- and I'm sitting on that particular blog post for another month or so. There's a guitar related article I finished that I'll probably post here in a week or two.
I hope all my readers are doing well. Here in the US they say the pandemic is basically over. Now everything is readjusting -- there have been supply chain issues, inflation, and other things that have made life a little more difficult for a lot of people.
A little pre-Halloween cheer, 2014 style. That was a good cat pumpkin I carved that year.
As I pondered the end of summer, I was reminded of this haunting, summer-love song from 2012, by the elusive and beautiful singer Lana Del Rey: Summertime Sadness.
I first heard of Lana Del Rey in the mid-2010s, although I probably heard this song on the radio in 2012. Some guy had placed the song as a soundtrack for his drone video. In this video, Lana appears almost ghost-like -- as do most of the photo effects in the video -- and she gives the camera a coy, sexy smile, once near the end. She has a fascinating, sweet and soulful voice, to which she adds a lilt now and then, for effect. The album this track came off of was one of the biggest sellers in 2012, and it spawned several other hits, all of them as etherical sounding as this one.
I've been on a Mick Ronson-era David Bowie kick lately, as I recently re-learnt this song -- Jean Genie -- on guitar. This tape apparently is very rare, and it is a genuinely live, TOTP 1973 performance of The Jean Genie, one of David Bowie's rave-up style rockers. Mick Ronson (on guitar) still had the metal cover on his blonde, sanded topped Les Paul Custom's bridge pickup; and he still was painting the plastic, pickup 'surrounds' (the plastic frame around the pickup) white. Later, when he took the covers off both pickups, he let the white, model paint wear off and kept the surrounds their stock, black color.
When you're a guitar player and a Mick Ronson fan, you notice stuff like that.
And with that, I'll close this blog post.
I hope the best for everyone.
Until next time, my friends, Peace.
C.C. -- September 30th, 2022
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