i've actually never really been too excited about hallowe'en. i kind of ended up stuck in the middle of a lot of politics about hallowe'en at an age where i shouldn't have been old enough to understand it, but did, and it just left me kind of jaded about it. weirder, it isn't just my mom's favourite holiday; on some years, it's the only holiday she celebrates at all! i never had any pressure around christmas or easter or anything, but it was essential that i looked good on hallowe'en...
i don't think my mom is actually a satanist, but she's probably not that disparate in mindset from your typical laveyan. i just don't think she knows who lavey is or what the church of satan thinks; i do think there's probably a lot of potential overlap. and i'm just a no bullshit atheist and have been since i read the bible a couple of years ago. so, my memories around hallowe'en are something along the lines of humouring my mother while she insists i get dressed up as some silly superstitious nonsense...
i was a platypus, one year. grade three. i insisted upon it. see, i had an interest in australian biodiversity, at the time. monotremes are truly fascinating creatures. and, echidnas are far less unusual looking. i really dislike stupid koalas, though. we went a few blocks and came home because i had a stomach ache. anyways....
i've been a big kid for a few years now, so i spent hallowe'en this year with friends. i didn't wear a costume. we spent most of the night roaming an area of southern ottawa called barrhaven, eventually meeting up with some friends of my oldest friend (jeff) up on the top of a hill. they were smoking something up there...
i've done enough research on the various drugs to know that they're pretty much all bad. tobacco is bad. alcohol is bad. cocaine is bad. meth is bad. heroin is bad. acid is less bad and more scary. e is not bad, but you never actually get e, you just get things that are bad, so you should treat it like it's bad. the only one that's really legitimately harmless is marijuana, and that's the one they were smoking. so, i tried a little...
nothing. jeff's friend, kevin, said that he didn't feel anything the first time, either. next time, he said. will there be a next time? i'm not sure i'm willing to suffer the coughing for a next time, frankly. if there is a next time, i guess i'll get back to you on it. all i'm going to remember from the night is that i spent it outside in cold weather.
do i have another song for you? of course i have another song for you...
so, i'm trained as a blues guitarist. everybody knows that the way to
prove you're a real blues guitarist is to do a cover of little wing, to
leave your own mark on the tune. that's just how it is.
however, i feel a little bit of a generational disconnect with jimi
hendrix. i mean, i love hendrix and everything; that's kind of obvious,
if you listen. but he died ten years before i was born. so, i just feel
like little wing needs a bit of a punk rock update, in order to imprint
my own mark into it, and i thought it might be neat to merge it with a
more contemporary piece - the opening track on the smashing pumpkins'
double disc opus.
so, i've rearranged the pumpkins tune for guitar & bass (and
cymbal). specifically, the piano was rearranged for guitar and the
strings ended up rearranged for bass. it's a little messy, i only
actually played it off the sheet once, but it's just a demo, right? it
segues right into the punk rock version of little wing. i tried to focus
a little less on the guitaring and a little more on really making the
song punk rock. so, instead of getting a twelve minute guitar solo, it's
more of a layered kind of build up into an eventual slam dance.
it's not meant to be disrespectful. as though jimi wouldn't cringe at
the thought? but i legitimately just wanted to update the track a little
and put a new generation's mark on to it. and i don't know if the
vocals come off well or not. but it's ultimately just a demo...
moving forwards? well, we got our copies of animal farm handed out at the end of the week, but we haven't started it yet. it's been really hyped up. so, i think that might be how i spend the rest of the night.
