I loved MTV when it first came out. They played music videos constantly and there was so much good music to be discovered.
Heavy Metal didn’t split into Thrash vs Glam yet and 80s pop felt great, long before that cynical Grunge bullshit ruined American music.
I remember Planet P Project’s “Why Me?” One of the weirdest videos ever made and a dang good song. The lead guitarist sounds like David Gilmour, but I can’t find who really played on that album anywhere.
Planet P was Tony Carey’s solo project band. A few years later, I got heavily into Yngwie Malmsteen who led me to Ritchie Blackmore and I’ve been a Blackmore fan ever since. In fact, Blackmore’s my second favorite guitarist after Randy Rhoads.
Which leads back to Tony Carey. I learned that Carey was the keyboardist on my favorite Rainbow album – Rising. Of course, I was too young to see Rainbow before they broke up in early 1984 and Deep Purple mach II reformed.
Only recently did I discover that Tony Carey had a long solo career after Planet P. I didn’t know “A Fine Fine Day” until late last year. Which is weird because it’s one of the best music videos ever made. If you’ve never seen it, go look for it. Unfortunately on YouTube, you only got low resolution videos of it but it’s still worth it.
We buy CDs, not streaming
I don’t like the whole streaming thing. If you like it, more power to you. But I don’t. I like listening to albums.
We have an excellent CD player which we got going at least 4 or 5 hours a day. We’re listening to music constantly.
I got a huge ass CD collection now and we keep adding at least a few CDs a month. This month, I got around to buying two Tony Carey CDs and I learned he’s not only a dang good songwriter, his lyrics are excellent as well.
I especially love the line “if you shoot for the moon, you’ll always touch the sky” from his latest CD.
I’ve always been a dreamer
In 6th grade, I was unarguably the best football player in my grade. They can’t do this nowadays, but back then, my school had a yearly tradition where the 8th graders played the 6th graders in tackle football.
We got absolutely annihilated but our game plan was simply to get me the ball by any means necessary.
We all played both offense and defense and I knew on the very first play of the game, they’d send their fastest guy for a deep bomb. So I blanketed him and picked it off.
As I got tackled, I looked over at the sidelines and saw the PE coaches with their jaws still dropped. Yes, I was a bad ass.
Then high school came around and everyone grew but me. I honestly thought in 6th grade, I’d make the NFL. It’s funny how kids’ minds work because we’re unable to see the big picture. It doesn’t matter how good you are as a kid – most people don’t make professional sports, even the best kids at your school. That’s just the brutal reality of it.
So I went thru high school bitter and resentful and took it out on my friends and girlfriends. I was a horrible kid because I had nothing to look forward to.
Until one day, my best friend from my senior year of high school said “Roman, you need to buy a guitar.” (He’s still one of my closest friends today).
I’ve always loved music and that changed everything. I had a new identity and I became a better person because I had a purpose.
That solves a lot of problems, my friends. If you got a purpose, life is wonderful.
And yes, shoot for the moon. At worst, you’ll touch the sky.
I got songs on the internet now. No, I don’t make shit with my music but that doesn’t change the fact that I take a tremendous pride in my guitar playing still, even though I’m now an artist first.
Roxy and Bob Ross
Speaking of closest friends, Roxy and I talk daily. She’s doing great. I’m typing this blog post as I’m waiting for another gouache layer to dry.
I got a Bob Ross book open and I’m going through one of his exercises. Two differences though – he paints in oil in a wet on wet method. You can’t do his stuff with watercolors. It’s simply not possible. But you can emulate his techniques closely using a combination of watercolors and gouache and unfortunately, you have to often wait for layers to dry or else you’ll have a cloudy mess.
I just sent Roxy a text of my progress. She’s in the front with a Bob Ross styled mountain in the background. I got the clouds and the background mountains done. I still got to do the foreground mountains and the trees.
Going back to being a dreamer – it’s one thing to be a dreamer. That’s great and all. But if you never act on it, you waste your life away.
I’ve always liked beautiful girls and now I got five I work with – Roxy, Allie, Sophia, Diana, and Katie. I’ll probably add a new girl or two every year because I like variety.
But being a dreamer, you got to do something with it. Just don’t sit in bed visualizing. Actually put in the work.
I’ll take lessons until I drop dead. There’s always something else you can learn. No one masters their craft 100%. There will always be a new thing you can learn.
I’ll eventually get through our Bob Ross books. Then I’ll move on to another artist.
