Tag Archives: Kage

Writing

Souled Out!

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“You damn right I’m a sell out, I’ve sold out arenas”-Triple H Monday Night Raw from like 20 years ago.

So if you know anything about me, you know I’ve been against unnecessary drug use since I was young. I was mostly straight edge up until 25 when I decided to actually drink. I did, however, have a few drinks with my best friend before then.

However, in today’s day and age, one cannot be overly picky in applying to jobs, which is why I figured I would write about this. I’m selling out and applied to a job at a weed dispensary.

To be fair, this isn’t really my first time around this shit. My father owned a bong shop in Salem Massachusetts in the 1990s. It started in 1995 to be exact and last til about 1998. So I went from 9 to 12 years old by the time it was all said and done. However, it afford me a pretty good childhood at times, so who can really complain?

The stories I have about the era make Hollywood seem tame by comparison. I mean, one time a radio station went to my dad and a bunch of other local business men to get them to sponsor having Marylin Manson come to Massachusetts before he was banned. So let that sink in. I don’t really know how close this was to ever happening to be fair, but it was 90s and Manson was a young rookie in the industry, so it would have been substantially easier to make happen with a young 20 something than a man who would command more now.

However, that ran into a snag, because of local police corruption. Which is another article entirely.

Now, the USA is on the verge of full legalization, which is nice to see, given that much like my dad, I believe it’s use is a personal choice and up to the sole user. I don’t approve of all drugs, nor would I choose to partake in such myself, for a lot of reasons, but marijaunna is the least offensive on the list of scheduled drugs and I’ve been in favor of it since at least 2004.

Maine has been decriminalized with weed since 1999, so getting used to people smoking, vs in Massachusetts where it more recently has been decriminalized, was something I had to get used to and fast.

Now even Trump is looking at a weed and possibly changing its destination. So maybe in this case, I’m not so much selling out as adapting to the changing landscape.

It’s definitely not the most ideal job for me, truth be known, but I mean, I’ve hung out with the weirdos my whole life and beat the shit out of the popular kids in school, so it’s kinda fitting. Ironically, with the exception of a couple times in my life, historically the popular kids were druggies in my youth. Shit, I recall one time in school, the popular kids claiming they were doing cocaine. Not people I wanted around me, even with his bong shop: said kids also brought vodka to school once. I digress though.

Regardless, I’m sure I could excel at this job. I’ve made dozens of sales over the years and been very good at everything I’ve touched, plus I’m no longer at the age where people will pay me to keep my clothes one, it’s now expected or it “sir, you’re scaring the Walmart guest.” So Onlyfans is out of the question. I guess the only thing left to say is, who wants to buy some weed?

Stay metal 🤘

Writing

Experience Hendrix: The Hendrix Tone

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So it’s no secret that I’m. Jimi Hendrix guy. It’s kinda a family thing. My dad loves Jimi too! it’s almost impossible to not enjoy Jimi, unless you had the unfortunate accident of being born to be a peer of his, like Eric Clapton.

So I posted a video on my facebook about working on this rig and trying to find the right things for it.

So let’s get the most important part out of the way, the guitar. I’m using a Strat Squier, that’s been superficially modified only. This should not drastically alter everything. So my dad grew up around tech, so I’ve read his books and have a good understanding of tech of the time. My hypothesis here is that a modern Squier is on par with a Fender custom of the 60s. That because as tech improves, the old physical cap starts to become the “inferior” tech. So $119 gets you something that’s on par with an old 60s fender. At least for non giging guitarist like myself. I can’t promise this will work on stage.

Jimi Hendrix’s Fender had 5 springs in the back, common for the time. Modern Fender’s have 3. Altering this is irrelevant. I have three. You will have to float the trem by about a half inch.

I also modded the tuners to cheap tuners from chia. The stock ones were decent, but I wanted to emulate the era. So my logic was, cheap tuners, plus whammy=60s era tuning problems. I was fairly accurate on this. It helps to understand Jimi on a deeper level.

I’ve also tested this on a non modded fender affinity and it works.

Cost to far: $119

Next is the amp. Jimi used Marshall’s. Any amp should technically do. I don’t have a bunch of amps to test this out on, but that’s not the point. The point of this whole experiment was to establish competency in guitar, so much like a P.H.D I expect most people to put the rig together and shred it apart, aka “peer review”. Let’s see if it holds up to muster.

Cost so far: $180+$119= $299

Next up is the Vox. Jimi used it and I’m no exception. His was the silver version, but the basic 805 will do.

Next up is the fuzz box. I’ve listened to a plethora of YouTube videos and this was the best sounding one. Berhinger orange fuzz.

Next up is the univibe. Much like the fuzz, this one sounded truest to the tone. It’s the 69’ vibe by Berhinger. It’s sold out everywhere but Europe.

The last peice of the puzzle is the Roger Mayer Octavia. The white one. I don’t have this yet, but it sits on Amazon for a bit over 300. It’s the only one that sounds true to tone. The rest don’t work, but my Marshall GFX has an Octavia setting that works well enough.

$563 dollars for all pedals accounted for.

So for about $862 dollars you can become Jimi Hendrix himself: This rig is really versatile. You can even play every Sabbath song very well. So the Marshall and the guitar pay for itself.

It’s probably the closest to a modern rig of his you’re going to get.

So the set up is as follows

Vox, Fuzz, 69 vibe, Mayer Octavia.

There is a pic online that shows the jimmy rig with a splitter. This is probably accurate and he had it as two individual rigs. I haven’t done this, but I can confirm it’s true, because Jimi didn’t have his univibe unit on all the time. He used it in select songs to accent certain areas. Since the 69 vibe only has true bypass, you’re going to have to separate them so so can essentially turn it off. Its biggest contribution to Jimi was probably making all his music in sound rounded and in stereo. This would probably have been important because most music was recorded in monophonic. If a basic Strat sounded too frail, this worked.

If you can’t afford the whole rig, you can get by with just the fuzz and the Vox. so once you get it set up, there is two important variables in this.

Key of E standard

It’s often said Jimi played in E flat or C. This is untrue. There could be many reasons for this. Such as recording in monophonic made E standard sound like E flat. However, here’s two ways to confirm he was in E.

First his cover of the Trogs Wild Thing is best sounding in E. Second is the riff to Burning the midnight lamp is only correct in E standard.

The melody to the riff is

E ———————————————

B———————————————

On B, 2, 4 open, repeat.

G———————————————

D———————————————

A———————————————

E———————————————

To further prove my point, you can replicate this on the acoustic without fuzz and it sounds the same. I’ll post a tik tok later to prove my point and link later.

EDIT: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT64wdvqy/

The other mistake people make with Jimi is that they buy the fuzz face. From my understanding, Roger Mayer, Jimi’s technical guy, modded the fuzz face so it was basically the casing only.

So back to facts, if you want to be more accurate in Jimi Hendrix.

Turn the gain to 10.

Dime the Strats volume and two tone knobs

Put the Stratocaster style guitar into lead mode. Last single coil only.

Hook up the Vox, then fuzz and set it to 10 on all settings. when you get them, the 69 vibe and the Mayer Octavia.

We will go through the settings in the 69 vibe and Octavia at a later date.

Now you can start playing Jimi Hendrix more accurately.

The next time I write a peice on Jimi this long, we’re going to be looking at techniques to sound more accurate. I’m going to be buying some things to make it more 60s accurate.

Once you try it, I think you realize that my Squier, definitely deserves the new neck plate I bought it.

SOURCES:

https://share.google/Y4xumOxTZpwU7gwRO

https://stringjoy.com/guitars-of-jimi-hendrix/

Scuse me while I kiss the sky a Jimi Biography

https://www.musicradar.com/news/fx-guru-roger-mayer-on-hendrix-anybody-can-buy-a-wah-and-just-make-it-go-wah-wah-wah-but-making-it-talk-is-something-else

Writing

Behringer 69 vibe

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This was going to be a review, but instead it’s going to be a rant. So I bought an item that was €41 plus shipping from the UK. About 18€ extra. Then on top of that, it was supposed to be duty free.

It went up since August 4, 2025 when I got it for $41

So I check my card a few days later after

Not sure why they charged me $83

So they at least told me that they could be a duty so to look it up before I buy. Obviously, government lies and clearly even though there’s not supposed to be a duty based on the HSS code. However, I got hit. DHL basically extorted me to deliver my package. Which is bullshit! However

I finally got me the pedal that has been sold out for months. Normally I would not give in to trendy items. However, this is the only pedal I’ve heard on YouTube that genuinely has the retro sound I’m going for on my Hendrix kick. Maybe a lawyer out there can start a class action lawsuit against customs for this flagrant behavior of lying about bs, but where would government be if they told the truth? All in all, I basically paid full price for a pedal with too much shipping and handling. I will review this in the future.

———————

Review Here:

Already this thing has proven to be worth the hassle that it became. It’s sturdy casing, excellent buttons and does exactly what it is supposed to. Already attached to my rig and my sounds emanating from it are very old school. It’s easy to set up and get going and would probably be even better if I got a pedal for it. The downside to it is that, it’s going to be a pain in the ass if you’re a gig’er and you make different songs using different dials to really direct a sound. So if you fall into that camp, make a playlist of your music that you can keep the controls the same all night. If you’re like me and just love playing the guitar and don’t gig, you’re going to love this little puppy. It’s the right tone and price to play your favor to songs and is filled with ao much versatility in styles, it will be months before you exhaust a quarter of its settings. It’s the perfect thing for me. Not to mention, unlike other products, this one’s dials go to 11. Nice!

Spinal Tap reference is win!

4 out of 5 stars

Stay metal 🤘

Writing

Why Popularity Should Die a Horrible Death

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I’ve spent the majority of my life not popular, and I’m very thankful for that. I never understood the concept of people wanting this as a thing. It’s one thing to be liked by people you have a mutualism with. It’s one thing to not want to make enemies either. However, the excess frequency of which people desire to have throngs of people liking them made no sense to me. I mean, relevant means something integral to the proceedings. Which means most celebrities are irrelevant on a daily basis. Why would anyone care about a random weirdo on the internet and even follow them with nothing in it for them?

I know people say, that’s easy to say, but not many have genuinely walked the path of resistance like I have. Here’s an interesting story.

Social media didn’t exist and back in my teen years, I lived up north from Biddeford and joined the high school. Upon joining the school, I was met with an accidental task, put a bully in his place. I did that and was apparently rewarded with social acceptance or popularity. Nothing like coming home and having the next door neighbor, also the landlord, talk about how I’m the buzz of social circles. Apparently because full grown adults have nothing better to do than talk about teenagers in the 2003 era.

Compared to other schools I went to, where such made you a bigger target, this was different.

So cool, right? Well, no. It was worthless. Compared to when I wasn’t liked by anyone. I made almost no money at anything I tried to make money at. I could not find a job, and this was a aera with zero opportunity , so it’s more intelligent insulting to hear “something will come up.” I was 17, my adulthood was about to start. Not something I wanted to hear at that point. Shit, I wasn’t even invited to parties I wasn’t going to go to anyways. Instead of it just being because we don’t like each other, it’s because I’m more introverted, according to them. To which I was like “No shit, I said that.”

Ironically, I got even less pussy options than I normally get for being disliked. Oh, I was considered attractive, but nothing like most just ignoring you in general. I had like 3 chicks that went to that school, that liked me enough for us to attempt something. one was a Christian that like my Elvis impression and that was probably the most interesting part of those three.

The best option I had up there was a woman who hung out with the sister of my sister’s sister. But her friend, who was also into me, pretty much banned her from being around me. Not a way to get on my good side. Apparently that girl became a low level model or something. I was told by the chick that banned her around me, years later.

So how’s that to the start to adulthood? This is what idiots I went to school with coveted? This is why they wore the same clothes as others to “fit in?” To not get laid? To not make money? What the fuck type of life is this? Needless to say, nothing went anywhere with anything. Not a horrible tradgy when you factor in there was nowhere to take a chick anyways. I spent most my time hanging with a 25 year old and his 18 year old friend playing cards.

Wasn’t popularity the thing that was supposed to be the opposite of this?

This is not how my life had normally gone, up til then. Shit at one point in my life, different area, they threatened to expel me from school for non conformity. I took them up on the offer. in essence, selling my soul for rock and roll. I digress though.

I would later meet some of the kids that went to that high school in a different aera and it turns out, they were confirming to Gen X/Gen Z style “personalities” and was weird, for them, to find out my personality aspects were genuine.

This is all relevant to a future article, I swear, however it’s important to note that this is why few things ever make sense to me and why I write. I need to make sense of a world that has never been intended for a man like myself. It makes zero sense. I may or may not be the only one that sees the insanity, but hey, that is life.

All I know is that infamy, seems to be the better gig in this world and maybe because you can’t spell infamous without “I’m Famous.” or maybe it’s because it forces these bitches to be real for once.

Either way, stay metal! 🤘

Writing

In Honor of Jaws 50: An excerpt of a screenplay from a teenage version of myself

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So I’ve been writing since I was young. I’ve done every major style I could produce and spent unteen million hours honing myself. Writing seems to run in my family. So my first screen, vs back in the 90s when I worked out a couple pages here and there for learning purposes, came about when I was 22. However, I was working out ideas in 2004 as well, long before YouTube even existed. My brother and I decided we would try to co-write a screenplay together, individually working on different scenes by ourselves and then I would type up our stuff into a word 1995 document. Remember, this is right before YouTube and we didn’t have any real reason to do this outside of wanting to challenge ourselves. So the premise? Parody Jaws. The take away? Writing screenplays by yourself is so much easier of a task. I don’t understand why Hollywood has to have 15 bajillion writers for one movie. However, it was a fun experience. So for the 50th anniversary of Jaws, here is a small example of what I was trying 20 years ago.

————————————————-

EXT. Emity docks- DAY

A crowd starts to gather excitedly. Roy walks over to a fisherman.

(Roy)

What’s all the commotion?

(Fisherman)

We caught the sharks

(Roy)

Sharks? As in more than one?

(Fisherman)

Yeah, i caught one, Ben caught one. So on and so forth.

(Roy)

Well congrats.

Roy and the fisherman shake hands as a photographer takes a picture.

(Hooper)

Roy, that’s not the shark.

(Fisherman)

What do you mean that’s not the shark. Look at the thing, it’s vicious.

(Hooper)

Its bite radius is too small for one.

(Fisherman)

Yeah, and?

(Hooper)

And it’s a dolphin.

(Fisherman)

A WHAAAT?

Above: How it could have looked if AI had existed in 2007. – couple years after we wrote it. Fisherman wasn’t supposed to look like Robert Shaw though.

Fun fact. The original shark we had in mind was a giant dildo that we put a WW2 dive bomber face on.

Also a fun fact, the original unwritten ending was going to be the Trex from Jurassic Park randomly eating the shark, making fun of Jurassic Parks deus ex machina ending.

Very glad my late teenage version of myself never got the chance to make this. Not quite cringe, but goddamn!

No doubt Jaws is a Great movie and possibly the only near perfect movie to ever get made. Hope to see it turn 60, too. Here’s to swimin with Bo legged woman. 🍻

🤘

Writing

New Years Kage: 2024

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Damn! What a weird and interesting year it has been. It started off slow and ended with the death of a CEO by a dude whose name is similar to a Nintendo character. to be fair, most of 2024 was still predictable as most other years, but the things it’s notable for, Woha!

However we need to unpack the Lugi case. I’ve been paying attention and think the hoopla around this is preposterously dull. This man is no hero for what he did. I understand why people think he is a hero, however he isn’t.

I have very little patience for criminal activity. I wanted to make detective when the was a child, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Obviously I never became a cop, but I’m still very much against bullshit, as evidence by past writings.

The reason so many people are cheering this guy is because it seems like an act of self defense because a rich and successful person killed another rich and successful persons, but here in lies the problem. They were both extremely well off, so why was the motive a lack of health care access for his back problems? he could have easily paid for all his healthcare. He was an Ivy league graduate for fuck sakes!

The media around this isn’t helping and on top of that, he seems to be being treated with kid gloves by even the justice system. I reiterate that this man is no hero, but the common trash people act as if he is. Why? Because they’re sympathetic? My grandmother died of breast cancer in the 90’s. She was diagnosed when I was 3, in 1989 and suffered from it up til I was 11 years old. A child’s mind sees that amount of years as very slow. So for 8 years, all I saw was her suffering.

What did the government do? Nothing! She worked until she was psychically unable to and couldn’t get he SS disability benefits. Did I kill anyone over it? No! So while I can be sympathetic to what people are going through, I don’t care and don’t want to see common trash people cheering this dumb mother fucker. With luck, a gangbanger will shank him in the shower. And everyone who cheers this dumb shit will, hopefully, die a horrible death as well.

Happy 2025!