rants and observations

If you’re a guitar player (like me) you’re very aware of the Fender Stratocaster, Leo Fender’s iconic guitar introduced in 1954 and since utilized and endorsed by top players around the world. The Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul, SG and Flying V are the most recognizable guitars and coveted by amateur and professional musicians alike. Forget those dorky video games…nothing says Rock Star like one of these guitars running through a nasty big amp with the volume set to 11.

So how can they improve on a design that’s proven the test of time? Electronics of course. Leave the basic guitar as-is but add some amazing electronics to allow musicians to change tone or tuning at the flip of a switch. I purchased one of the first production run Gibson Les Paul Robot guitars a couple of years ago as an investment (I sold it a year later and made about 200 bucks after deciding it wouldn’t increase in value for at least 150 years) and was dismayed how gimmicky the Tronical tuning system appeared to be and how incredibly stupid it was to offer servo-motor driven machine heads to access a number of preset tunings. It was similar to the development of a steam powered bicycle. An interesting idea but who the hell really needs it? Such is the Tronical automated tuning system.

So the Fender guitar company decided to take a stab at automated tuning but took a different and much smarter approach. The result was their Fender Stratocaster VG which does the job nicely. This guitar is a U.S. made American Series Stratocaster with a Roland VG bridge pickup and doesn’t require special cables or patch cords to utilize. Just plug it in and it works.

So what’s so cool about this guitar? It offers 37 output variations based on: five modeling modes (Normal, Modeled Stratocaster, Telecaster, Humbucking Pickups and Acoustic); four alternate tuning choices; and a 12-string modeling option. All this is accessible via two small control knobs beside the Volume and Tone pots and supports a combination of modes and tunings. The preset tunings are standard tuning, open G tuning and D modal (why they included that one is beyond me) and does it all electronically without changing the physical tuning of the strings. This can be a bit disconcerting when using the guitar at very low amp volume as you can hear the actual strings tuning along with the selected electronic tuning. But who the hell doesn’t play LOUD enough to drown that out anyway!

But the big bummer is that Fender discontinued manufacturing these cool guitars in April of 2009 so the only way to get your hands on one is on eBay, Craigslist etc. They were originally offered for around $1700 and have come down substantially in the last year or so. One of the guys at Long & McQuade (Port Coquitlam) told me that they had a Strat VG for over a year before they eventually sold it for below cost (about $1100). This isn’t really surprising because guitar players are notoriously indifferent to modeling guitars, amps or anything that even smells remotely gimmicky. That’s unfortunate because the Strat VG is a spectacular guitar and should have realized a larger audience.

But that just makes it cheaper for the smart musicians like us to get one, right?

On most days Jerry Dzikowicz hung out on the median at the corner of Hastings and Cassiar, wearing his bright fluorescent safety vest and waving at passing cars. To some he was known as The King of Cassiar, to others simply the nut that waved at drivers. He had his own page on Facebook and Mike McCardell did a couple of his short stories about Jerry but didn’t offer too much information as to where he was from and why he stood on Cassiar waving at cars.

Jerry died of stomach cancer on March 11, 2010.

According to a story by Pete McMartin in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun, Jerry had a checkered past, a girlfriend of three years and was estranged from his two sons and six grandchildren. His girlfriend, Michelle Stitchman, says Jerry regarded his time on the Cassiar median as his job and collected a variety of donations from drivers (all unsolicited) along with government assistance and Canada Pension Plan early disability payments. His total monthly income was slightly below $900 and he appreciated the supplementary gifts and money from the drivers. In fact his accomodation was the result of a businesswoman who “adored” Jerry. She pulled some strings and got Jerry and his girlfriend placed in a quality, low cost apartment building in the Downtown Eastside. Even his obituary, which ran in both The Vancouver Sun and The Province and online, was paid for by one of Jerry’s admirers.

Jerry’s problems began in the mid 60′s when he was involved in a horrific car accident. After working a long stretch for over 36 hours straight, he drove his car into a telephone pole, was thrown through the windshield and nearly decapitated. He had a steel plate put into the top of his head. After his accident Jerry changed, became unreliable and slowly faded from his children’s lives. He did three years in Manitoba’s Stony Mountain prison for fraud in the early 1970′s which was the result of falsifying credit cards.

His two sons live in Winnipeg, Manitoba and were unaware of their father’s death until they were contacted by Vancouver Sun reporter Pete McMartin. Jayson and Jeffrey Dzikowicz didn’t see much of their father after his stint in prison and both became solid citizens (Jayson played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) and gave Jerry six grandchildren which he never saw. They knew little about their father’s life other than bits and pieces of information from family and friends. Both had not spoken to their father in years.

And in the end, Jerry Dzikowicz ends up with a full page story in The Vancouver Sun, multiple print and online obituaries and another story by Mike McCardell on Global news. Not bad for an unemployed guy that stood on a median waving at cars.

I should be so lucky.

A celebration of Gerry’s life will be held at Glenhaven Memorial Chapel, 1835 East Hastings, Vancouver, BC on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.

Well, the neighbourhood a-holes signed for and received the registered letter we sent containing a copy of the vet bill and note advising we will take them to court if they don’t pay the bill. And what did they do? Nothing. But then again, what would one expect from a-holes?

We got a call from the city regarding our original complaint and were advised that the assholes denied our dog was even injured during the altercation. So what’s with the gash on his head…canine cranial stigmata? I’m absolutely staggered that two grown adults would act like such selfish, childish twats and ensure that they’ll be reviled by residents for the rest of their days living in this neighbourhood. Is it really worth $252.00 to be at odds with your neighbour? The a-holes obviously think so.

We’ll be dragging their pathetic asses into small claims court soon and I’ll be sure to post the play-by-play here for all to see. And perhaps their names and address so everyone knows who they are.

And please do me a favour…if you know these reprobates, please point them in the direction of this blog as I’d be delighted to read their comments.

There’s two interesting death stories in today’s paper that you may, in a macabre way, find interesting:

A man convicted of strangling an elderly woman was executed in Ohio on Tuesday, eight days after he tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose. The execution of Lawrence Reynolds, 43, had been postponed a week after he was found unconscious in his death-row cell and hospitalized to recover from an overdose of medication.

They actually took the time and resources to nurse this sap back to health so they could kill him. Let me see hands for those that think this is completely and totally nuts.

A Georgia man was running and listening to his iPod on the beach on Hilton Head Island when he was struck and killed by an airplane that made an emergency landing Monday near Palmetto Dunes, the Beaufort County coroner’s office said Tuesday. The victim was identified as Robert Gary Jones, 38, of Woodstock, Ga. and authorities say he probably did not see or hear the plane coming down because it had no power.

Which proves once again that you never know how and you never know when so live every day like it’s your last. And don’t try to kill yourself on death row by taking pills or jog on the beach with your iPod in case a small, powerless plane makes an emergency landing on your head.