I’m starting to get anxious for this new Interpol record.  What I’ve heard so far is golden.

This is Vince, he’s the greatest person I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing.  We’ve known each other since we were 13 and lifting weights trying to combat our Asian genes that restricted us to physiques that consisted of skin and bones.  Right about now he’s getting on a plane to Dubai and then he’ll head on to Kandihar to finish the remainder of his 10 month appointment with his intelligence firm.

This man had less than 24 hours on US soil and he chose to spend a couple of those with me.  That’s the most sincere thing anyone (outside of my dad) has done for me in a long time, maybe ever.  I’m used to people not calling or responding to emails after I get surgeries or just period.  I don’t keep up with people in MD, they’re flaky and I didn’t like them in high school so why would I like them now?  I don’t have a facebook page with 600 “friends”, truthfully I think that stuff is ruining what little soul our culture has left.  People get on there confessing superficial aspects of their life trying to seem like they’re deep, but in fact they’re extremely shallow just looking for attention.  The whole thing reeks of shameless self promotion and I’m not talking about the artists. bands or people marketing their independent business’; its the people with nothing interesting going on yet the update the world 5x a day on their mundane boring lives.

Today is the 9 year anniversary of when I first picked up the guitar.  It was in 6754 Del Playa Rd Goleta, California.  It hadn’t even been two months since my first hip replacement…the one I disrespected and dearly paid for during my 20′s.  Thanks to Andrew I put everything I had into learning that instrument and every moment since that day has been spent trying to conceptualize the sounds I hear in my head.

If you do only one thing today, google Paul Garisto right now.  He played on Love is Hell and Rock and Roll…do I need to say more?  His discography is longer than the scar running down my left leg.  He just finished his summer tour with the Psychedelic Furs and now we’re going to make a  record together.  I have 30-40 songs in various stages so I’ll record the guitars in my studio and he’ll record the drums in his studio.  We’ll keep bouncing  songs back and forth and we’ll take the cream of the crop and put out a record before I head to school.  We intend to play a show or two as well but that’s putting the cart before the horse, songs first then everything falls into place.  I can’t lie, thinking about who will play bass is pretty awesome; two of my closest friends are phenomenal bass players, I consider them my brothers at this point in our lives.  Andrew and Benj aren’t Les Claypool-Flea knockoffs but rather spectacular musicians that have mastered their instruments.  I’ve been waiting my whole life to get to this point, what kid didn’t idolize Slash while growing up in the 90′s?  Now I don’t have to obsess about every beat, fill and dynamics of my playing…I’m making music with someone who makes a living from being flawless.  Now I can just concentrate on my songwriting and vocals, just saying it out loud gives me relief.  I swear I just lost my headache….

Oh yeah I should probably concentrate on healing from this as well…

Be safe Vince, I love you.

I played my nephew Miles Davis, Birth of Cool this morning and this afternoon he plucked his first notes on guitar.  Coincidence?  I doubt it.