JoseB Blog

Its not Trump dividing us - its us.  Its us getting our news from sources that feed the hatred and paranoia about the other side. For example, I'm talking about right-wing news sources that say protesters are all hooligans. I'm talking about left-wing news sources that say Federal troops are all beating up protesters. I'm talking about FOX, MSNBC, Hannity, Carlson, Limbaugh, Maddow, O'Donnell, etc... The list goes on. They spew poison and like brainwashed zombies, we eat it up.  There is no black and white. The truth is not that easy to get at. It takes work. Everything is always complicated and colored in shades of grey that need to be studied to get at the truth. But we are not willing to put forth that effort. We are lazy. We'd rather get spoon fed lies by a talking head that fits our prejudiced narrative.   Sure Trump uses this division to his advantage. And Facebook makes it worse by providing a vehicle for the brainless and uninformed to spread lies that the f

Every guitar channel person on YouTube has at least one video called 'The Top Ten Guitar Players.' I never watch them because its such a 'click bait' title. What right does anyone have to determine who the top ten guitar players are? Had they titled the video 'My Top Ten Guitar Players,' that I would watch, because its an honest title and I am always interested in other people's opinion on this topic. For me its very important that a guitar player have an original style and sound. My favorite guitar players are the ones that when I hear them play a few notes in a song I've never heard, I know its them. Here they are: Terry Kath - I have another blog post as to why he's my favorite. Suffice to say I picked up the guitar when I was in the 9th grade because of this guy. Terry abusing a Strat    Jan Akkerman - Jan is the guitarist for the highly underrated Dutch progressive rock band Focus which had a minor hit called 'Hocus Pocus' (Yes, the wa

I see a lot of people caught up in petty social media bullshit like... Oh this BLM guy did this bad thing, so they are all Communists Oh this Trumpist did this bad thing, so they are all Fascists Lets all remember there are bad apples on both sides and stop generalizing. Its wrong. If you are caught up in that, maybe take a break and stop letting social media get you all in a tizzy? The significant issues are things like: How to handle the pandemic The economy Global warming Health care America's standing in the world Education Ending racial inequality

I forget exactly when it happened but I think it was when I was in the 9th grade, 1970 thereabouts. My older brother Mario was one of the writers for the University of South Carolina's newspaper and he was assigned to write an article about the band Chicago who was coming into town (Columbia, S.C.) to play at the Carolina Coliseum. He was given two backstage passes to briefly interview them after the show, and he offered that I come along.  I played the sax at the time, it was the instruments my parents loved and bought for me when I was in the 3rd grade when they saw I had musical inclinations. I knew nothing about Chicago, so I was very surprised at the show to see a rock band that had horns! So cool! Horns in a rock band!  Maybe Mario knew I would be blown away by seeing a sax in a rock band.  I don't remember much about the show because I was not familiar with their music at the time but I do recall Terry Kath doing some 'Free Form Guitar' feedback solo which JUST B