Simon_Ishtar - 8

[dragonorchid]

Simon_Ishtar was the 8th person to become a Rock Factory Community VIP Member, he is also a "Knight of the Order" (Global Moderator) of the Forum, and thus helps keep things in order. Guitarist in the band Ishtar, he was the recpient of "the Best Guitarist" in the Rock Factory Awards 2005 as voted on this forum.

Simon Loves to tell stories - he is a born story teller, and a joiner together of people, he always has such great networking ideas and is the resident "TRIVIA" topic creator, always posting the coolest little facts and questions... I have to say I really enjoy catching up on all the gossip around town and in the music industry when I am in his presence... and he really IS a legend on guitar.

he has the e-mail address simon_ishtar@therockfactory.net reserved for him if he wants it.

[simon_ishtar]

Cool, my own blog!. I have been using simon_ishtar@ rock factory, I have all the Simon_ishtar myspace stuff come through via the addy, as it is a different myspace area and I keep it not recognized it keeps the band stuff in the inbox and the simon_ishtar stuff in junk mail. Is a very cool thing to have.

What can I blog about? Sure I can find something.

 

[simon_ishtar]

Here's something.
New Bassist and stuff.

I don't know if everyone has heard yet but tomorrow night is our last gig with Andrew on bass. On the night we did the indie club gig we got off stage and prepared to slog our gear down several flights of stairs. I got a lift with Andrew up the road to my car. "You know I've been thinking, I want to leave the band" he says. It came as no big surprise. At the kings Arms a week previously I sent him at text to see where he was only to receive a text back saying "I have been in, dropped off my gear and gone home. I will be back in time" what can you say to such commitment to the cause? Prior to that he dropped the bombshell he'd be out of the country for three months over in Europe, in the middle of bloody summer!, I was far from pleased.
 Prior to that there was the WBoB debacle. The dude f**ked up badly, he just didn't have the hunger to take that mutha out, a hunger i felt the rest of the band had. Viracosha and Epitome had it in spades. Still somehow we got as far as the regionals, does Andrew ramp it up? Not really. He played with fewer mistakes but still.... the hunger wasn't there. In short the guy is a hobbyist,
nothing more.
 As it turned out I was talking with a friend a few days earlier who said to me "i really miss playing in a band" At the time we had a bassist so I said I'd keep my ear to the ground. Now it was a different situation entirely. I mentioned to the others Andrew had just quit, no-one was terribly upset. The following day I got in touch my my friend and he was interested.
 I thought I'd done pretty well keeping it all quiet but the other day I rung Greg to give him the heads up. I didn't want him to think I thought so little of him I wouldn't try to poach him from Puppet, if that makes any sense. at the end of the day I got the feeling he wouldn't jump ship so he was never considered, so I kinda hadn't but still being one hell of a bassist, a former band member and a friend I thought I'd better give him advanced warning. "Yeah I know he mentioned it weeks ago" Greg's response.

 Anyway, Ishtar's new bassist Jamie Denton, formerly of Naquadah, Silas Greenback, Kokopelli, Eros and (for a while as fill in) Ishtar.

We're totally stoked.  

[Mike/Viracosha]

Congrats man, seems to be the year for replacing bassists lol

[simon_ishtar]

Thanks man, Yeah seems to be a lot of bands losing bassists and not really enough bassists to go round. Seems its always Bassists or drummers in the minority.
 But yeah, in any case we're really happy to have Jamie back with us.

[simon_ishtar]

Blog for today, .... Not a lot to blog today, off work for two days as changed weekend to Weds and Thurs. Am wondering why I am doing a team leader's job at work in my boss's 'absence'  (he's been spotted working at a post shop but is supposed to be off with scarlet fever or something) but I'm still getting non-team leader wages.
Listening to the beatles at the moment "all you need is love" currently playing. I have to wonder how the membership of APRA decided the Formulya(SP?) were ever "NZs answer to the beatles", for that matter who were the people who voted Nature NZ's best song ever? I didn't and have yet to meet another APRA member who did.
 Thinking of weekends and stuff and moving dates September has the Roman word Septem (7) in it october Octo (8 ) November Novem (9) and December decem (10), the other months are named after Janus (god of doorways and openings) Febris (some other god) Mars (war) April comes from the latin Aprillis ('to open', apparently) May for Earth goddess Maia and June for Juno, July and August were named after Julius Caesar and his Nehpew Augustus. They are the only two months back to back, apart from Dec and Jan, to both have 31 days cause Augustus was insecure Julius's was bigger than his...
 Gets me thinking the months have had their names changed before at least twice (Numbers to gods to egotistical Romans), its been a while since we've changed the calendar names so now is as good a time as any... but what would we change them to ?

[Kristie]

Hah, Janus the god of doorways.  I was talking to Josh about him the other day, and Josh insisted I was making it up.  

[dragonorchid]

now thats some interestinf history and facts I didnt know... cool!

[simon_ishtar]

yeah all true Janus the two faced, favourite of so many actors.
 Am thinking more trivia to come.  

Not much to write about today. Had the day off, having weekend on Weds and Thurs is weird. I've got a six month secondment doing corporate training at the moment, might look at jumping across to a day job which is 9-5 mon to fri once thats up, am really not liking the working evenings 3 days a week thing.
 Had a play on a few guitars today at the rock shop, acoustics. Nothing that really inspired me. They've got a really nice looking Les Paul at Henderson at the moment Black with a real vintage look about it, not sure I like a 24 & 3/4 scale though and would miss the whammy bar. I love the look of a Les Paul though.
 Didn't plug the LP in.

 I have a new addiction, a game on media centre called Otto, you make Otto jump round a platform till all the blocks change colour. I shouldn't be wasting time on it at the moment, last two gigs have felt too loose and need to spend more time in practice- Mind you practice was good last night with Jamie back on board, he sounded good and I think it was the best I'd played for a while.

 Itunes not on at moment, listening to the 20/20 miners interview. Was listening to Mozart earlier Eine Kline Nachtmusik (sp?) the hooks in there are huge and the impeccable arrangements.... Mozart rocked. Listening to some Scarlotti earlier too (baroque composer, about same time as Bach) One of the phrases reminded me of something Kanye West released.... I don't know how I feel about that I don't want to give the dude any respect for theiving something so cool but like Pink steals a hook from Journey ("faithfully" that don't let me get me song) MC Hammer steals from Rick James, The Black eyed peas from Dick Dale, some chick I spotted the other day pinching 'Tainted love', West steals from an obscure baroque composer, at least he is a musician's theif...... or maybe it is a coincidence? Who knows?
 Either way Scarlotti gets a thumbs up West thumbs down...
 Am looking into the pricing of the Peavey HP special series guitars, the rejuvinated Wolfgangs. I love my wolfgang but have to admit the HP special is one cool looking guitar. Basically it is a wolfgang with two front horns (ie more strat-like) and without a Dtuna. I'd have to get a Dtuna I think but still, what do other people think?

[simon_ishtar]

And for comparison, my baby, Wolfie.

[Mark]

  very interesting the naming of the months... didn't know that.  The romans sure did implement some stuff that has lasted.  Even christianity according to the de vinci code.. the roman emporer Constantine decided christianity would unite the people.  And organised a massive debating chamber where they basically decided what would be written in the bible  if I interpreted it correctly.
  Big Egos those Romans alright.. mind you their empire was massive.. all the way from the uK to egypt to I don't know how far out east?  Their systems and engineering was massively advanced though eh? hence the dominance I guess... and the egos.. and their mark on many systems still in use.  

[simon_ishtar]

Yeah the Romans did go for the whole Christianity thing in a big way alright, I reckon it would have been interesting times in the interim, when various people were still claiming to be descendants of Hercules etc and the new religion was just taking hold.
 From what I understand the Romans didn't really go that far east. They took over a lot of the near east but weren't like Alexander the great who rolled across the altaic plains as far as India. I always found it interesting they stopped in Britain at the border of Scotland, the Emporer Hadrian decided that was enough and as he needed to give the army something to do, had them build a wall thats only a couple of feet high.
 But yeah very cool engineers.

[simon_ishtar]

anyone ever heard the old superstition the world goes into a total silence at 20 past the hour, right on the button? sitting at a busy call centre that went totally silent for about ten seconds on 20 past exactly.
Weird.

[Sturmbrynger]

interesting they stopped in Britain at the border of Scotland, the Emporer Hadrian decided that was enough and as he needed to give the army something to do, had them build a wall thats only a couple of feet high.
 But yeah very cool engineers.

Can imagine the Romans thinking 'thank f**k for that' when they didn't have to go any further' I'm thinking a shitload of pissed off, half-naked glaswegian) celtic supporters armed with wheel braces and loaded up with Leann fraoich (try spell check with that mother)! Hmm Antonius's first weedgie?  
I think it was at least four metres high when they actually built it... (I remember reading my mate's lecture notes in shadow's thinking 'damn I should've gone to that one)  

[Sturmbrynger]

anyone ever heard the old superstition the world goes into a total silence at 20 past the hour, right on the button? sitting at a busy call centre that went totally silent for about ten seconds on 20 past exactly.
Weird.

how 'bout when you look up at the clock and it seems to tick one second backwards? thats kind of cool yet spooky  

[simon_ishtar]

yeah that is freaky, we've got a clock like that at the killing rooms, we start packing up at 10.30 and hwen we leave we find a whole hour missing. Needless to say George isn't happy about it but I blame the clock, not Dave.

 Anyone ever noticed how clock batteries die the day after schools go on holiday and are not usually found till the day everyone gets back?

[simon_ishtar]

Haven't been in work today. Must have ate something bad yesterday and spent most the night being sick. Don't even have the excuse of drinking too much. Anyway been playing round with www.myspace.com/ishtarband today extending the top 8 to a top 25. Not entirely happy with the pics and think I'll resize a little to get some uniformity to it.  Also been playing with paint cutting and pasting stuff for the inside cover of the EP. Haven't got an electronic copy of the front cover but anyway, heres a rough draft pic I've been tying with.

[Andre_Upraw]

Febris is the Goddess of Festivals, I think. Being born in February, of course I'd know that. Don't ask me how, though. I think I have one of the least used birthdays, though. I don't know anyone, famous or otherwise, born on this day. Though Chris Fehn(dicknose of Slipknot fame) has a birthday that falls on the 24th. Useless little bit of trivia from me

[Andre_Upraw]

Oh, my birthday is the 23rd of February, btw

[simon_ishtar]

Cool, thanks Andre. Don't remember where I read the month thing but it just listed Feb as being named after Febris, possibly the writer didn't know too.

[simon_ishtar]

At work today. Nothing profound or remotely interesting to say today.
Work sucks

[simon_ishtar]

Been thinking about the Cynic's recent plan to put a sock puppet or monkey in the mayoralty race and have come to the conclusion he is on the right track. Successive councils since Banks have let this city go from having a thriving nightlife, tons of parking and a good feeling about it to something basically heartless and functional.
 Anyone who can remember going into town in the mid 90s would remember a very different city to the one now. Queen street had clubs all the way up and down the road, there were possibly more clubs than there are now Star marts. They didn't all have bands of course but what they did have was a market, a core group of people that went there every week. A lot of them went cause it was the place to hang out.  Every week hundreds of people would go down to Park in the bar to watch two guys on piano play a set of covers, most the crowd didn't know who they were, didn't care, they were there to get drunk, get laid or just hang out with friends.
 What I'm getting at is this, town was a cool place to hang out. I suspect this was largely cause there were people there in big numbers  so it always felt like something was going on.
 Increasing govt red tape, anti smoking laws, noise control, lack of adequate parking, the internet, the cost of petrol, a media that doesn't give enough time to grass roots music..... all things that add up to a fairly lifeless city.
 So here's what I'm thinking how is it in other cities? What are they doing different if successful (ie what is Wellington has that NZ doesn't?)How do we get the cynic elected (or his puppet monkey) elected mayor of Auckland?

[simon_ishtar]

At work till 9pm, is effectively my Thursday. Looking forward to tomorrow and a couple of days off. Things of note
1. Tracking done for EP. Mel suggested getting strings put on secret love (like on Bon Jovi's Heart's breaking even) I think maybe thats a good excuse to send it in to NZonair.
2. I have a new layout plan for my rig but need to buy another $800 of stuff. should be really cool when its done though.
3. rehearsals with Jamie coming along fine. Am aware that currently we're sounding pretty heavy, heavier than when Andrew was with us anyway. In the midst of that I started writing a ballad the other day...
4. Got a manager finally though currently chasing up a whole heap of stuff for him. Effectively we're now busier than before.


Part of my plan split the signal with an acoustic simulator. Acoustic line into a line selector then to an acoustic amp, electric signal as per usual.  

[simon_ishtar]

well almost, want to add this in place of pitch shifter/delay and reverb/delay........

[simon_ishtar]

Been noodling with paint on the computer my plan for the rig, till I can afford something huge with vacuum tubes...

[dragonorchid]

gosh, that's alot of noodling in paint! how long did that take you?

[simon_ishtar]

Approx 45 mins. Drew one amp then pasted another, then another which I squashed to 75%, most the pedals are mostly copy/pasted. I pasted a section of a jpeg of each pedal from another paint page then sample the colour for the colour on the pedals. The longest job was the patch leads, maybe 15 mins on that?

[Chuck Madison]

Hey Simon

What do you use to power all your pedals?

I used to have a Voodoo labs pedal power 2 which did all my Line 6, Boss and Digitech pedals but it crashed and burned. Haven't found anything else that can do the same job since.

[simon_ishtar]

Hey Jooles,
Got an adaptor made up by a company called TSL. They're based on triangle rd, massey and do a lot of big transformer jobs and stuff mostly. Had it built for $230 about 8 years ago and only one breakdown so far, plug got pulled by some moron at the crook, just had to get it open and reconnect the next day.
 Its got a max load of 3 amps so can handle a LOT of pedals though I also use a boss aca120 on my super overdrive (booster for acoustic line) cause it prefers unregulated power for some reason.

http://www.tsltransformers.co.nz/

[bluesgeek]

Chuck,

Give John Trueman a call or drop him an email

cell phone : + 64 21 382802

email: johntrueman@clear.net.nz

he has the dealership for a lot of the boutique pedals/power systems in NZ.  Great bloke too.   He's going to be building me a MOFO of a pedalboard....  

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