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Made it out to Wimbledon (It's the name of the town) to see my friend James Blake's match.

It's always great to see James play in those rare and special times that our travels line up.

Even though he didn't win the match, it's always exciting to watch him play. I love watching great people do their thing. I'm not sure how he calls up that much energy and focus, but maybe he wonders the same thing about me. No, that's not possible.

Got back to the hotel when Michael handed me the CD/DVD, hot off the presses. The finished product is always a thrill. I watched about a cumulative 7 minutes and then ejected it because, in the immortal words of P.W. Herman, "I don't have to watch it. I lived it."

George Carlin was my favorite comic.
He had what a virtuoso must: control.
Virtuosos take away the fear in you that they will drop the ball,
because they never do.

He would ease you into generally agreeing with his world view and then sneak in the oddest statement he could come up with, like "You ever get hit in the head with an axe?"

One time he told this joke about his grandfather retiring for the evening, telling him "I'm gonna go upstairs and f**k your grandma for a while."

His telling of the Aristocrats joke is by far the most vulgar and graphic.

He was also one of those entertainers whom you "share custody" with someone you love.
My brother Carl and I would recite Carlin lines all the time...

He was known as a "counter-cultural" comedian.
And it's a shame he's gone, because these days there's a hell of a lot of culture to be countered.

Rehearsal (Ricoh GRII Digital, Tripod, Photoshop)

I'm headed back on the road today... It's kind of like that scene in The Abyss when they put that helmet filled with fluid over Ed Harris' character's head. That guy says "we breathe water for nine months in the womb. Your body will remember!"...
I think the same is true for touring. As (relatively) long as it's been, I'm sure that when I step up on stage and that energy in the room holds the whole thing upright, I'll sink back in.

It's the only thing I do globally well, playing music. Everything else in my life tips its hat to it...

The Guitar Rig

Chad, David and George Getting Sounds...

See you out there.

look at how good it sounds!

My friend Jeorge Tripps started a company in 1992 called Way Huge... he made some of the best guitar effects pedals ever before closing the shop down in 1999. Jeorge has since worked at Line 6 and is now designing pedals for Dunlop. He's going to revive the Way Huge line beginning with this pedal he just dropped off today called the "Pork Loin" (Ignore the name on the prototype.)

You'll be hearing it this summer when I take a solo(s).

About seven years ago I was visiting my friend Pat when I was struck by a certain t-shirt he wore. I thought there was something perfect about it and asked him where I might find one. Pat explained that in fact, most everyone he came in contact with wanted one, and that it was from a friend of his who's father was Master Chang and that it was nearly impossible to get one. Apparently Master Chang didn't realize how unintentionally awesome his shirts were and only had a few to spare.

It's been a thing of myth, the Master Chang shirt. Only now, many years after first spotting one did Pat finally get his hands on one and send it to me, as promised...

And I gotta tell you, I've received things by FedEx many times more valuable than this, yet I can't remember being more excited to pull that funny little plastic strip that never really seems to open the box as it's supposed to.

Reasons why this shirt is amazing:

1. It is not intentionally ironic; it's really meant to promote a local karate studio.
2. The juxtaposition between the intensity of the photo and the matter-a-fact-ness of the typeset.
3. It is truly new old stock, probably silkscreened 15 years ago
4. It's more limited edition than any tee shirt I've ever known

This tee is a great lesson in applied value. Intrinsically it's just a yellow shirt, but it's been given a story. And when you can connect something seemingly benign with a story, things begin to matter. The shirt doesn't even fit - it's a medium - but that's not the point. Owning it ends a long outstanding search for something, and that's what makes the waiting so much fun - it psychically charges the final moment of calling it yours.