Guitars and Life

Enthused with the kit and being on holiday (one advantage of my job is we get oodles of holiday) I've made a start on the guitar. I sanded both the body and the neck with 120 grit then further with 240 and finally with 320. Then to the finish. I don't have anywhere to spray and I like natural finish and feeling guitars. I found Wudtone finishes and I am going with an amber one. The neck I have decided to use Danish Oil on as I've seen others use this to good effect. Below is the body after sanding, then with the first base coat applied and then the neck with the first coat of Oil on it.

This will be short as I don't have a working computer at the moment so typing on a phone is such a pain! Overall a so so year, I've not enjoyed work but a review of my situation means I will have to grit my teeth and carry on with it for now. Musically I got the second album out but work time and pressure has meant  no time to gig and promote it sadly. Album of the year tough one so many good releases this year. In the end I will go with Rush and Clockwork Angels. Gig of the year again most gigs I went to were super but Andy McKee, Preston Reed and Jon Gomm win that one! Happy New Year to you all. And my advice to all is get a job you love not one you have to endure simply to earn the dosh!

Mrs F bought me a Telecaster kit as my Christmas gift. It has an ash body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. I have some stain from Wudtone that I will use on it. I will post the progress once I get going on it

Into the last leg now - only today and tomorrow at work, my son is back from Mordor - sorry Mid-Wales ;-) - for the festivities, all the presents are wrapped - cluttering up the music room sadly but it is ok, I just can't really play electric as they are all around, over, behind, on top off the amp and my pedal board.  That is ok as recently, no doubt partly influenced by seeing Juan Martin the other week, I've been pulling out the oldest guitar in my collection - my faithful old Fender FC40 classical, which my Mum bought me when I was 14 or 15.  I'm back into my limited repertoire of Sor, Tarrega, Bach etc.  I'm trying to learn Fauré's Pavane at the moment.  Anyway enough about guitars... let's talk about life... Christmas life... Our Christmas will follow the pattern of many years now, pretty much ever since we've had children so 22 years now.  It will just the four of us (Mrs F, Son-of-Furtheron, Daughter-of-Furtheron and yours truly) along with M...

Right into the fray. Hello USA. Here is my advice to you. Ban guns like we did after Dunblain. Screw the constitution this is 2012 not 1789. Guns are not a defensive weapon if I have a gun to defend me it only works if I shoot and the only purpose of a handgun is to kill people it is not a defence it cant stop bullets only spew out its own! So simply ban guns and enforce it! Please

I had a horrible dream last night, in fact I'd call it a nightmare and I don't really ever recall having one quiet so disturbing.  I'm sharing it here just to get it out of my head - I had to talk to my wife first thing this morning as well as I felt so disturbed by it. I dreamt I murdered my son.  Honestly - the actual killing was brief in the dream I know we had a disagreement and I hit him with something and then hid his body.  The setting was oddly bizarre as well.  It was in a back street garage type place, you know the kind where there are as many rusting hulks as cars being actually worked on.  I hid his body under one of those cars.  My wife was in the dream and knew about the killing and we were behaving in a manner to make it look like we knew nothing including going to the garage and talking to others expressing concern over our missing son.... just awful.  I still feel bereft as a result of this.  Several times I was trying to cry ov...

Last night the Furtheron clan, minus number 1 son who is still in Wales, trooped off to see Mumford & Sons at the O2 arena at North Greenwich. They stated that this was the largest gig they'd ever performed in doors and that the were "bricking it" playing such a large venue.  However you'd never have believed it.  We saw them last at Hammersmith Apollo back in Oct 2010 at the end of their whirlwind breakthrough year.  Now at that gig they looked genuinely overwhelmed and amazed at just being on a stage like that with a crowd that size - well the O2 is of course up a league or so from there but from the off they looked confident, in charge and frankly that they belonged!  They owned the stage last night.  Of course a second massive selling album under their belts with consequently much more known material and coming off the back of a long touring schedule including well received gigs in the USA no doubt have given them a more honed edge to live pe...

I was reading another recovery blog and was reminded of the last bit of the AA promises... "They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them."   The actual promises are irrelevant really but the point is that you will get improvement in your life, if you continue to work the AA programme.  This isn't a rant about step this and that, to me everyone works the programme in a way suitable for them and I firmly believe as stated in the last step you have to embed the new learnings and way of life into all my affairs - i.e. I have to live a new life in a different way in every aspect of my life.  That is what I've spent the last 8 and a half years trying to do, at times with more success than others. But reading Bye Bye Beer 's blog earlier suddenly made me think of a couple of recent incidents, just ordinary life stuff, nothing big etc. but in which I found myself reacting in a particular way ...

Last night Mrs F and I and four other friends went to see Juan Martin live at The Brook Theatre in Chatham.  Firstly again The Brook is a lovely little venue, the old Town Hall with a fantastic sound and feel. Juan Martin was just stunning.  Now I really only know him from his Picasso Portraits album from years ago where as a tribute to Picasso he wrote pieces inspired by the masters great works and fused it with a modern rhythm section.  A really really good album and was for a while a regular on my old turntable.  Juan knows flamenco inside out.  He talked of the history of different regions and influences, his influences in writing his pieces and what he tries to bring into them.  Many times I was just lost in the music and not sat in cold November Kent but in sunny warm Andalusia! He used a new guitar for all tracks bar one built for him by Stephen Eden for Lewes.  Frankly just stunning sounding guitar.  Fantastic night all over. (...