Oh, Henry.

      Haven't posted in a while, and what it really comes down to is I just haven't felt like it. I know, letting down my fans and all that, but oh well. I started to post a bit ago, which original post is the title and the musical content stem from, but I just didn't finish it and let it go. I've been a little busy with the little guy above, Henry, who joined our household last Saturday. I was wondering why I've been kind of tired lately, and then I realized I've been walking about 4-5 more miles a day than I usually do, because this guy is pretty energetic. He's really fun though, and very nice, and we feel like we got pretty lucky. Of course, he is getting more comfortable, and you never know what ol' Henry will do next....

     After I finished Science Fiction in the Gaslight Era, the collection of science fiction stories written between 1891 and 1911, I picked up a recent find from the thrift store, which was The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a Sherlock Holmes story from 1974 obviously written by Arthur Conan Doyle, but by Nicholas Meyer in the style of the Sherlock Holmes tales. The basic premise of the book was that Watson, seeing his friend Holmes in the absolute depths of a serious cocaine addiction, delirious and paranoid, decides to trick him into going to Vienna, so that the world's leading cocaine expert, none other than Sigmund Freud, could cure him. While there Holmes not only battles his own demons, but, of course, stumbles upon a case that needed solving. So anyway, after reading that book, I realized it had been a very long while since I had read any Sherlock Holmes at all, so I grabbed the Complete Sherlock Holmes and started reading. I have been enthralled ever since. All I can say is if you haven't read any Sherlock Holmes recently, start with A Study in Scarlet, and go on chronologically from there, as each story usually refers, if only in some small way, to the previous cases. You're mind will thank you.

    And oh yeah, this is a blog about surfboards, right? So here's one. Frank's board, 006, shaped from his rasta fish that I skinned. It's been a while, but I finally got to glass it, doing the bottom lam on Friday and the top lam, along with all the comic covers, and both hotcoats on Saturday. Everything went pretty smoothly. The comic covers, which are Grave Yard Atlantic covers drawn by Frank, each depicting some kind of ghoulish local lore, real or make-believe, in Technicolor. They're pretty cool, and was a real challenge to do, as I've never done so many lams on a board. I'm happy with the result. This one is my favorite.

     Yeah, pretty cool, right? They all are. I'm excited to see how this board works, I think it'll fly. It'll be done by the next swell, that's for sure, so stay tuned!

     And now, for the music. A week or two ago, when I originally started this post, some Purple Martins Migration Pattern songs were floating around Facebook, so I went searching in the archives to see what PMMP songs I had lying around, and these are some of the things that I found.

WARNING: These tracks are of varying degrees of sound quality. Most were recorded live for reference purposes only. Proceed at your own risk.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

     The Purple Martins were originally John on vocals and shakers and tambourine and some keys, Nick on guitar, Lou on Bass, Matt on drums, and finally me, on guitar as well. We started out in John and Lou's garage, and went on to play such venerated venues as the Moontower II, the Lower Banks Tavern, a gazebo in Smithville, and a basement in LEH. It was fun, and listening to these songs always makes me want to play again.

If I Had A Hammer - That's right, the folk classic, written by Pete Seeger and made famous by Peter, Paul, and Mary was the first song we learned to play as a band.

Byzantine Ecstasy - Our "Echoes," if you will.

Lakes and Fields - A crowd-pleaser, every time.

Untitled Jam - Some kids fooling around.

Migration Music No. 1 - While this never became an official song, this was a demo I recorded of a song for consideration. I forgot about it until I found it just now, and I like it, so here it is.