Back In The Saddle, Baby!

EMPIRE!

After a short break, I return, I needed a bit of time to sit and think through where I'm at in life, and if anything the feedback from this blog, my YouTube channel and other outlets of mine, helped to put things into perspective, I cannot describe the good vibes I've been getting from followers and friends alike, it's helped me gather my thoughts, a break did me well, but in that same sense, I'm glad to be back, which brings me to the next subject...

Mysteriously, whilst I took a break, we gained a catastrophic 100 views, bringing us up to our current standing of just over 800 views, how about that! I'm yet to check the stats as Firefox doesn't really like this website that much, but wherever you are reading from, thanks, it's what encouraged me to jump back in the saddle and run my fingers, albeit very clumsily across these keys, so welcome, one and all, to the latest installment of the Luke Clarke Blog!

Oh hey! have you noticed the new banner? I bet you have haven't you! well, you can see my main man up there, You know who that is? That, my friends, is Dave Wongaman, Want a closer look?

There he is, Drawn by a good friend of mine, a certain Kay Worley took on the challenge of drawing a little character my Mom foun don her way home from work, yes indeedy, Dave Wongaman was a surprise even to me, it was around the time that Call Of Duty: Black Ops came out, Unimpressed, I turned to my Mac, and who do I see, lying there on my keyboard...

This little guy, he was sprawled out, as if he had fallen, I laughed heartily when I saw him, I picked him up and held him in the palm of my hand, I knew from that day, he was destined for stardom, I still look at him, his vacant smile, his tiny yellow rubber body makes me laugh even now, and now Kay has brought him to life in that fantastic image you see in the banner and above, then well I smile every time I blog and I hope you do too, with the vibrant yellow my blog is, and with his cheeky smile I hope he makes you smile no matter how low you're feeling, trust me, when Dave Wongaman is on the scene, everything is that little bit brighter!


I digress however, Dave is now the mascot for this blog o' mine, and that's all well and good, but to answer any questions in advance, the 'Watchmen' font in the banner is called "Futura Condensed Extra" I think, all I did was stretch it upwards a little


So yeah, we had band practice last week, down at Neon again, and man oh man, did they make us feel welcome, just one guy on his stoney lonesome by the looks of things, he put a heater in the room, stocked the in studio bar's fridge up with relentless for us, and was genuinely awesome to us, and we had the same service the week prior, which added to the DAMN awesome practice we had, we've gone from the name 'Cuba?' to 'HAAAABISKY!' and I think they're gradually getting more confused as to who were going to be next week, onto the actual music though, beforehand, I'd done half an hours guitar warming up, tremolo picking practice to a metronome (hitting my fastest ever 155bpm) and doing some general dexterity workouts up and down the neck, and I'm really glad I did, when I got to practice, I was playing at my peak through out, until my asthma and a recurring back-ache I've had for a week or so got the better of me near the end, but were working really well, our sound is thick, and we're bouncing alot of ideas around, and I had a weird feeling, you know on The Sims, when your sim is learning an instrument, and that little blue bar fills up over their head? well, I feel as if my blue bar filled up some at that practice, with Ashes nearly done, and with a very suspicious track with CJ going all Keith Moon, and various other songs going down, and me writing more material based off really oddball sources, were not going for that recording session in January, purely because we want to be the band we can be, and we can only be that band, in time.

On another note, I'm treating myself for Christmas, to... take a guess

a) More Pedals
b) A Luxury Set Of Golf Clubs
c) A Signed Photo of Vernon Wells as Bennett from 'Commando'

Yep, you guessed it, more new pedals on the way, an ISP Decimator, a Fender Volume/Tone pedal, and maybe a Marshall Vibratrem, I have plenty of ideas for sounds, and plenty of room for them, I'll put a new shot of my pedalboard on here as soon as it's all rigged up and good to go, Live Frippertronics? Maybe...maybe...

Also, I've discovered a few albums you really should look into over Christmas!

Jools Holland - Best Of Friends (£4.99 on iTunes)
Johnny Aloha - Lavapalooza
Giant Robot - Giant Robot (NTT) (Free!)
Ted Nugent - The Ultimate Ted Nugent
Montrose - The Very Best Of
Elton John & Leon Russel - The Union
Bang Camaro - Bang Camaro
Buckethead - Electric Tears
Guns n' Roses - Chinese Democracy
Primus - Miscellaneous Debris (£1.99 on iTunes)

And on that note, I hope you enjoyed this blog, should have another soon, you take care now.

Wotcha Empire!
Your Friend
Luke Clarke