Well… it is not actually that easy to build a guitar, well one that looks and sounds good. But if a few pictures helps to understand the process then here are some of the photos taken as I was making Sprout.
Sprout, Sprout let her sing out!!
May 4, 2009 – 9:46 pm
Sprout, my newest guitar child had her ‘coming out’ on the weekend. I was a very proud parent.
Sprout was lovingly caressed – both sweet and hard love – by a variety of friends (thanks to everyone who stoked her).
So in typical D&D style it was a big piss-up that went on until early hours and with the obligatory silly hat wearing, reserved this time for the newbies who were Sophie and Francis from Canada.
Apart from the general alcohol consumption and shit-talking that usually takes place in our little unit. Their was also some music, and something that was trying to be music but went incredibly wrong (my effort). Well actually what was mostly wrong with my foul effort was that I went cable wake-boarding with Ced, Avril, Sophie and Francis the day before and couldn’t even lift an orange juice container. Holding even an “A” chord was almost an impossible challenge!
However, my other talented friends did fantastic renditions which can be downloaded in the link below (thanks to everyone):
- Instrumental of Toto’s “Africa” by Andrew Goode
- Instrumental of Cold Chisel’s “Flame Tree” by Andrew Goode
- Neil Diamonds “Play Me” by Tony Bellino
- Original “Vapour Eyes” by Tony Bellino and Craig
- Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” was butchered by me
- Original of “5 Bunny Rabbits” by Michael Miscamble
- Instrumental of “Blue Moon” by John Greco
- Original “Birth of Sprout” by Ricardo Borradale
- Kermit’s “Rainbow Connection” by Andrew Goode and me
- Memory Lane by Andrew Goode
Also in Dom fashion the placed was dressed complete with a small stage and lighting – thanks Dom!
OK… this was actually recorded accidentally with almost non-existent levels so I had to put a few filters over it which made it sound like it was done in a rolling pipe. But… it is the sentiment that matters – right!
Download a shortened MP3 compilation here. If you want full song version let me know and I’ll get them to you.
Return to New York
May 10, 2005 – 8:21 pm
For those of you that don’t know, when I was a young 21 I lived in NYC in Chelsea on Manhattan for a short period. I enjoyed my time immensely but had to depart to London for Visa and young love reasons. This has been my first return to NCY since then.
Well… 42nd street and Times Square is definately a different place, all ‘family friendly’ and ‘disney store’ not the seedy hooker hangout I recall. Areas like Bleeker Street, St marks place, Mulberry Street, Greenwich, Chelsea and Central Park are however exactly as I remember. In fact 17 years later I have walked into the exact same stores that I had souvenired????? cards from in the eighties. They haven’t changed at all. In fact the same cards and I would even believe they have the same clothes on the racks!
I suppose in NYC the people age but the city remains much the same, it has been there a long time now. I even visited the building where I used to live, and… exactly the same, the panel repair sign next door is still identical.
The one consistent thing that I love about new york is the architecture, specifically the iron work. No crappy aluminium castings for cost reason here, even the restorations are properly forged. See the New York Iron gallery.
I still like this city, and believe that given the opportuntiy I could enjoy living in NY again. Given the preference I think I would habitate near bleeker and 7th or perhaps north Mulberry. The thing with NY though is that its personality can change so much within one street. I was fortunate enough that my weary old grey matter could still recall some of the street sections to visit and… well as mentioned… it hasn’t changed.
There is only one reason why I would hesitate to live in NY – coffee. It is just NOT possible to get decent coffee in the US, why, I don’t know! They have the machinery, they have the coffee they just don’t kow how to make it. It is a realy shame when the best coffee you can get in the city is not in a small italian cafe but… at f*cking starbucks! What’s the deal here! Anne – if I ever i decide to go to NY, you have to also come and set up a coffee training centre near where I live!
On the weekend before I departed in the 80’s I grabbed a pushbike of my friend Jerome – an illegal irishman who rented bikes to backpackers for cash transactions. I rode all aover Manhattan taking pictures. I actually only processed these about six months ago – it was definately a buzz to see them. I have put a NY in the 80’s gallery on the site for you to see and compare with my New York in 2005 gallery.
Dom and lara will have my balls!
May 10, 2005 – 12:34 am
In Brisbane I once walked behind J-Lo as she went into the valley mall on a completely unadvertised stopover. She was announced in Sydney the next day and it was told that she had been in cairns and to the islands on holiday. It is however a rare thing to spot a celebrity in Brisbane. Oh… Dom and I were once guests at a wedding where Neil Diamond was also a guest.
Today in New York I saw several celebrities:
- Christina Applegate
- Jeff Goldblum
- ‘that guy from that movie’
And there were also plenty more seemingly famous people that other people recognised but I couldn’t make any connection with.
Why will Dom and Lara knacker me you might well ask? Well… there is a classic film studies movie with a character that was the lust equivalent for the 80’s teenage girl as to Molly Ringwold was to the 80’s teenage boy.
He was right there, I had him in my sights, camera poised. The pressure was on for the perfect shot for Dom and Lara since they love him sooooo much. Crap! The body gaurd stood in the way… navigating to a new angle… steady… almost ready… F*ck they turned and walked into a locked off barrier entrance to the theatre. What the… they were supposed to walk right past me!
Of course I had closely encountered Mathew broderick, lust of both Dom and Lara. For this reason I had tried too hard for the perfect shot but ended up with nada! I should have just snapped from afar – sorry guys.
Hey he looks kinda ‘pasty’ though. Too much skin tightening cream I think, and way too short!
People of Plasticine and Wood!
May 10, 2005 – 12:21 am
Dom has written a story about this on her blog so…. why not read it by clicking off my site and going to Dom’s Blog
A Day in the Park
May 5, 2005 – 10:22 pm
I was going to take a group tour – but I don’t like people I don’t know. Then my amigo Phil said he wanted to go with me. My other Amigo Brian who lives in Jaco, knows a guy that keeps cars in his backyard and rents them to cost cutting gringos – that’s Phil and Me, Phil is from Florida.
We were warned that the roads were bad, and the bridges worse. So I was happy that Phil, who is used to driving on the wrong side of the road, voluteered to drive. I got to take some pictures.
Phil is a painter. He does very detailed wildlife paintings and was a great companion to a national park in Costa Rica. Which, I forgot to mention is Manuel Antonio National Park.
Phil took his SLR to get some resource material for his 1 year painting and personal exploration. He used to have a landscaping business but sold it, and his house, and his car to move to Costa Rica to give the painter dream a fair trial. He is a very talented painter. He also has a picture of his daughter by his bed.
Phil and I both aproached our journey through the park seriously. I was determined to see something impressive after risking my life travelling over the Costa Rican roads to get there. On the immediate entrance I saw a very large iguana… so what… I had seen hundreds by now. We walked for another 5 minutes then, look… right in the tree fork was a beautiful, friendly looking long nosed creature. I’m told it was a Tamarindo. I am also told by the ranger that I went way too close and it came very close to attacking me!
Being from Brisbane one skill I have acquired over the years is the ability to spot Koalas in the trees whenever I go to Noosa Headland. Sloths are not unlike koalas, sure they are a bit bigger and a different shape but the overall attributes are pretty much the same. They are both.. well ’sloths’ and just hang around in the tree tops. My skills paid off and within a few more minutes I had targetted my first sloth way in the tree top. Phil took the prize though when we were wandering off the main path and turned a corner and… there she was, only head height in the tree. She had just given birth to a baby sloth which was actually a bit gross, I didn’t notice at the time but when I looked back at the pictures there was still an umbilical cord and blood! I actually felt extrememly guilty about disturbing her when I saw the pictures and realised she had literally just given birth.
If you look the Costa Rican Critters gallery you can see some of the animals that I managed to get pictures of. There were many more and one of them that I could not get a decent photo of was actually my favourite. It was something that the americans were just passing off as common but to me the giant red-headed woodpecker ‘took the cake’. Woodpeckers are not generally a glorified animal. I have seen plenty of sloths on TV but only rarely have I seen a real woodpecker – only the animated variety. It was sooo cool, a big read head with a punk hair (feather) style. What the hell does this thing live on, and why does it make it’s life so difficult that it has to peck it out of the tree trunk. OK it must be a bit stupid! But I did find something immensely satisfying about watching it knock it’s beak hard into the tree over and over again.
Around and in the park there are also some nice beaches, in fact I was getting used to the black sand at Jaco and only realised again how nice white sand it when I travelled to Manuel Antonio. One thing I will always remember though is going over the bridges to get there. UNfortunately I have too many pictures to put many galleries up but those of you that know me will no doubt get to see my pictures at some stage. For anyone just visiting this site check out the Costa Rican Critters gallery for some of the photos I took in the park.
The Unknown
April 12, 2005 – 12:12 am
The bastard Bottfly
I have seen pictures of the jungles, monkeys, surfers and macaws. But what do you really know until you go? Marketing tells us nothing except that someone wants your $$$.
Will I be sleeping in a jungle of pestilence and prostitution as some travellers would have you believe? Or will it be a shangri-la in a state so civilised that they have no army, are politically neutral and 30% of the land is protected.
We all saw the BodySnatchers episode on Bott Flys, now this puts the sh*ts into you but then you have malaria tabs to take, poison dart frogs to deal with and the highest population of crocodiles per square kilometre in the world. With this information the fearful mind has enough ammunition to run rampant. “why don’t I just spend a nice quiet week in Byron bay”?
But… here I go… I’m on the plane to LA, stop number one. Welcome to my travels and check the Daily Grind from here.
What’s this?
March 22, 2005 – 7:49 am
OK, yes, this is me (with my sister and her daughter) in 1987. The year when I last left Australia for a trip further abroad than Fiji or New Zealand.
It has been a long wait (so long the ‘babe in arms’ is minding my place), and I have worked very hard and finally, yes FINALLY I am going on that surfing safari that I had always proposed but never actually managed to achieve.
This site also has some general snippets of my life.. If you are interested in peaking into the life of another then welcome to ioti.info 2005 Costa Rica edition and ..read on.