Party it up, Canadians and anyone else who watches our big game, and enjoy the Grey Cup game today!

Saskatchewan Roughriders vs. Winnipeg Blue Bombers. I suppose I should pick a team, but I'm really undecided. They've been talking all week here about how the Roughriders have something like 16 former Ti-Cats on their team. That's a point in their favour, but I would have preferred those players had made it to the Grey Cup game while still wearing black and gold! And I also have nothing against the Bombers, a team I often feel bad for because they're always getting bounced back and forth between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, depending on whether there's a team in Ottawa and/or Montreal. (Personally, I think there should be a team in Halifax, too, or somewhere in the Maritimes.) So I'm not leaning toward either team, may the best one win in this all-West final.

One thing I do have a preference for, though, is the elements (whatever they may be) being part of the game. I always like it more when the Grey Cup game is played outdoors. At the end of November you never know what you might get. But that makes it interesting! Last time the Grey Cup was held in my hometown (1996, was it?) they got a foot of snow on game day! They had to keep sending out little street sweeper type vehicles to clear the snow off the yard line markers during the game. That's the Grey Cup! But today's game will be played indoors in the Rogers Centre in Toronto. (Well, it's my guess that the roof will be closed.) But that's okay, I'm sure the people who are actually there will enjoy not freezing to death! 

Last time the Grey Cup came to Ti-Cat town (by winning it, not by its residence here in the CFL Hall Of Fame) was in 1999. One of my neighbours worked for the Tiger Cats, and on the day they had their turn with the Cup, I was invited over to the Open House they held, to see the Cup, take pictures with it, etc. That was pretty cool, and very nice of them.

So today I'll be donning my #82 Darren Flutie Ti-Cat jersey, watching the Roughies and the Bombers in the big game...and hoping the Ti-Cats are back there soon (one can always hope).

“I’ll be back.”

Well, that’s what I thought. And that’s what other people thought, too. But truth is, I haven’t been back for a year now. 

Before starting to do online guitar tabbing, I had another project on the go. I started writing a story in the Summer of 2004, a fan fiction based on “The Terminator” movie series. Yes, I’m a fan, a Termi-geek, a Termi-nerd, whatever you want to call it. I’m very much a fan of the first two movies…but not really anything that came after. Sure, I saw T3 and I’ll watch the upcoming “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” TV series when it starts on Fox in January, but for me Terminator is basically those first two movies. The fact that they’ve announced that they’re stretching the movie series into another whole trilogy of movies is not the best news to me. 

But I’ve had an interesting time on some Terminator discussion forums over the past few years. Far from just being a sci-fi actioner, the movies lend themselves easily to pretty involved discussions ranging from philosophy to technology to religion to politics to the never-ending (and never resolved) temporal paradox discussions, and dozens of other topics. The talk can get pretty deep when people want it to. But I think you can say that about most sci-fi fandoms (although Terminator is the only movie/TV “fandom”, as such, that I’ve ever belonged to). 

Eventually, I decided to try my hand at writing a fan fiction. I wanted to try something a little different, so I based a story on a character who is only mentioned in passing in the first movie, and I had the events of the movies unfold around him. I was going along great, but it was in the Spring of 2005 that I started doing guitar text tabs. My time became divided between the two, and the work on the story slowed down quite a bit. And it continued to get slower. My most recent chapter posting was last year right around this time (Dec. 1/06). 

The thing is, I’d still like to wrap it up. There’s really only about two chapters to go (but my chapters are long, so I know it’ll take some time). I think I should make it a New Year’s resolution to get the story done. A lot of people have been good enough to read it and review it, so I should give it a conclusion. I should do it before the movie writers muck with the time line a few more times, or before the 12th movie in the series is released, or before “Terminator: The Musical” is announced… 

My grand opus so far: 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2014457/1/Afterimage

The riff for today is actually a verse. It comes from Trooper's 1976 album Two For the Show. I was asked by e-mail if I could help in working out the opening riff to "The Boys In the Bright White Sports Car". (Is there a longer song title out there anywhere? Don't answer that, could be scary. ) So I tabbed out the whole 1st Verse, since pretty much the whole thing is based on that same riff (just moving it around). I'm sure at some time I'll turn this into a complete tab of the song to post on the site.

I saw Trooper play at a festival a couple of years ago. It was a good show. They definitely have enough hits to fill a whole show with. And this of course, along with "Raise A Little Hell", is one of their best known songs.

TROOPER - "The Boys In the Bright White Sports Car"    (B. Smith/R. McGuire)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/canriffs.txt

Hear it here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU304Gs3r60

Today's riff is from the Styx song "Miss America", which comes from what's probably their most widely known record, The Grand Illusion (1977). In their live show, this was always where James Young would do his bit about how when he was young his parents wouldn't let him play his guitar or his stereo loud, but now he could play his guitar "just as loud as I damn please!" Then he'd do a big guitar solo bit, after which the band would launch into "Miss America" (which he sings lead on). So that was always a big showcase moment for JY (and probably still is, in their current shows). However, the main riff from the song, which is heard in the Intro and the Verses, and which is tabbed here, is played by Tommy Shaw. (In the video footage I linked to below, JY is sometimes playing the riff during the Verses, too, although in a different/lower fretboard position.) 

STYX - "Miss America"      (J. Young)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/varriffs.txt

There are several live versions of the song on YouTube. In this one, you can get a pretty clear look at the riff being played in a couple of places:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWQSdVHKs70

Last night I passed the 200,000 step mark of my Half A Million Steps walk. Yes, the walk is ongoing. October and November haven't been overly productive. But it's okay, there's no deadline on this. I'm hobbling a bit, too, from some arch pain in my left foot. I hope that doesn't get any worse. To date:

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/halfamillionsteps.txt

For this blog entry, I thought I'd post a page where people can meet the walk's honouree in her own words. This is a bio page from an old newsletter of the Girlschool fan club. Someone gave me a small stack of them some years back. In one of them, each band member had filled out one of these bio/questionnaire pages. It's from 1983. (I like her answer to the "Any Unfulfilled Ambition" question. "There, I did it!" )

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/pic-kjbio.jpg

(If you mouse over the image, you'll get an icon you can click on to enlarge the page a bit.)

I hate it when I come across tab typos in my tabs. Stupid little things that never should have gotten through during the checking process. And then I discover them weeks after posting the tab, and I know that most people who frequent the site have already viewed the tab (if they're interested in it). But of course, it's better than never discovering the typos at all.

Last night, I noticed in my Angelfire stats that there had been two views by different people of a particular tab ("Shooting Star"). For reasons unknown, I went and had a look over of that tab. And noticed a typo. I didn't need to have my guitar or anything, just looking at the part I could see it wasn't right. I was thinking, how did that get there?? That's not right! Must be website gremlins. Couldn't be me.  (Of course it's me.)

I fixed it to what I think it should be, but I haven't had a chance to check it against the record yet. I'll do that a little later tonight to be sure of it. For anyone wondering, it's the final measure of the 4th Verse. Some of the notes are two frets higher than they should be. But I guess it's too late now to call back the people who viewed the tab yesterday.  Wait! Come baaaack....

EDIT: I've checked with the CD now, and made some more adjustments to that part.

Today's riff comes from one of the hits off of Honeymoon Suite's 1988 Racing After Midnight album. I remember when this record first came out. I remember liking it, and thinking that they rocked a bit harder on it than on previous records. The first half of the song's Intro is tabbed here, a nice bit of natural harmonics work by guitarist Derry Grehan.

HONEYMOON SUITE - "Love Changes Everything"

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/canriffs.txt

The video gives a pretty good look at most of this guitar part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da5NckuMJVY

(I wasn't able to find a writing credit for this song, not even on the lyrics page of the band's website, where they give writing credits for some songs, but not others.)

I came across an interesting article online tonight. In the article, a writer at The Washington Post puzzles over why there has still never been any truly formidable, ground-breaking, pioneering, innovative, boundary-pushing female guitarists. Guitarists long remembered in music history for taking the instrument in a whole new direction. I'm sure I would rarely find myself in the position of being able to explain something to the mighty minds at The Washington Post, but actually this one I can explain.

The article goes on for three pages looking for reasons why women have failed to be influential on the instrument. A handful of famous female guitarists are interviewed in trying to unravel the mystery.

The full article can be found here: 
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19175-2004Aug20.html

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Here's an excerpt: