Mallards getting up to speed flying along the Rio Grande.
Raw From Off Center
This week’s improvisation is called Saturday’s Improv (not a very creative title I know). I find playing lead guitar solo improvisations are very difficult. Coming up with fresh melodies is most frustrating. So I’ve started laying down base tracks: percussion, rhythm guitar and bass, and them playing improv solos all the way through the song, and taking them however they come out. I laid down all the tracks and the solo work today between watering, doing chores around the house, and taking a couple of walks in the bosque. There are two different guitar solo improvs that are very raw as the song goes back and forth between modes. I’m having lots of fun, and thought I might as well share the fun. I’ve include photos of Loki, Spunk and Marble, a photo of pear blossoms, and a photo of my darkroom/music studio showing the 10 tracks that make up Saturday’s Improve on the computer screen.
Spring Whites
Giraffe
Wearing Out
This is the first hammock I made for the kitties. I added a second hammock not too long after hanging this one so the kitties didn’t have to wait so long the do their hammocking. The second hammock also cut down on the cat fights for the hammock. Now both hammocks end up in use at the same time, so the kitties will still line up to wait their turns, and they still fight over the hammocks when hammock hogs spend too much time in them. Sadly, though, the first hammock is wearing out and it won’t be long before it’s mostly bare threads and I’ll have to replace it.
Frontal Lobotomy
Fence Lines
In a Vacuum Improv
What to do on a cloudy, wet, windy, cold spring day? Work on music in my cosy darkroom/music studio, go for a walk out to the river in the rain, capture the above photo, and finish an improv for this post. I created “In a Vacuum Improv” by playing the rhythm guitar and a bass line over a recording I made of a vacuum pump the Iceman used to suck moisture out of the refrigeration system when he repaired our floral refrigerator. The pump made such interesting sounds and rhythms, I simply had to record it. I added a couple of percussion tracks, and played the lead guitar to finish it out. I say it’s an Improve, because I only played the lead guitar once through.
No Alcohol Outside
B-24 Liberator
The B-24 Liberator was used heavily in WWII. It was a fast, long rang bomber that carried a heavy bomb load. Airman considered it difficult to fly, and preferred the B-17 Flying Fortress; however, the powers that were during WWII liked the B-24, and commissioned around 18,500 of them over a five year period between 1940 and 1945. Whereas, only 12,731 B-17s were produced over a nine year period between 1936 and 1945.
This B-24, named “Witchcraft”, was flown by the 467th Bomb Group in WWII, which flew a record 130 combat missions during the war.
Despite so many B-24s being produced, Witchcraft is the only B-24 in the world that still flies. It has been fully restored, and is kept in flying condition by the Collings Foundation of Stowe, MA.
Off Center & Not Even 