A changed member has returned.

John Watt

Member
Good evening! This is no longer John Watt, for me, a long time member. I am now known to be a Prince of Scotland, as Master John Alexander Hay Watt, maternal Watt, the first kings of Scotland, and maternal Buchanan through marriage to Hay. I also tell you that kings were elected in Scotland, usually for their ability to sing and dance.

I'm now 63, still a non-tobacco and alcohol user, but it was a physical accident that changed me. I've complained about my life in Welland, being a protest mayoral candidate to complain publicly about the sadistic drugging and raping criminals of one huge crime family, and the biker gangs and mobs that dominate Welland. This made my life suffer. No more.

I bought a pair of new Speedo sports shoes that I thought were like bike-riding slippers, feeling like a sock with a rubber bottom. A nice end of season offer from a sign customer, $7. I thought they would let me exercise my feet more around the pedals, always walking barefoot along the Lake Erie shore and Niagara Parkway trails. I was right about that, and it was nice to get something that made me feel fancy, but that led to a mistake. I felt so stylish I decided to wear them right away, not bring them with me, and I wore short pants and a t-shirt to go with them, one of the last nice autumn days, overcast, perfect for a long distance bike-hike.

Walking along the shore on the way back, it was dark, and I broke one of my first bike-hiking rules, walking away from a clear path into growth, in the dark. It was such a nice night, wandering in the moonlight, going around rocks and trees, not just following the shore. There are some fifty foot dunes out there, very rugged.

I felt tingling around my ankles where leaves were clinging to me, and half an hour later when I got into a streetlight, you could see a red line of blood at the back of my leg where a vine or root pulled and snapped against me. I felt that at the time too. By the time I got home four hours later, I was feeling very tired and weak. The next day I went to the emergency because my doctor was in surgery, and I got three kinds of salve to put on. This doctor also taunted me about being a mayoral candidate in Welland, saying I shouldn't come to the Welland hospital. All these expensive salves did was coat the disease, spread it around, and keep it from drying up.

The next day I had a hot bath, wanting to feel warm, and this spread it up to my face and into my throat and lungs. I had trouble breathing, but it just hurt a little all over, no rash to itch or anything like that. But, it affected my mind. I laid in bed, looking at the clock, two in the afternoon, and laying there I thought I'd get up to grab something to eat, and it was 4:30. That's the first time in my life I was awake but not thinking or able to recall anything. It relaxed me overall, taking away what fear and paranoia I thought was gone. Mohawk friends look me in the eye and say be careful, it will change you. Others don't know what to call it, not poison oak or ivy or sumac, what I've had before.

When I was nineteen one of my oil paintings was expected to win the Rose Festival Art Contest, dropping out of high school to be an artist, encouraged by my art and English teacher. I also saw Jimi Hendrix and bought the same guitar, amp and some effects he used, wanting to be a musician too. But the Rose Festival organizer turned out to be the mother of this criminal gang, fourteen children, and she was brought up in front of me, another woman asking if I knew who she was. I said I know who the Ward Gang is. I didn't even get a notice that I entered. Two weeks later I was asked to join a band in another city, and a bassist picked me up. I was drug overdosed on LSD, hallucinating and unconscious for over a day, and they were out in the country leaving me behind an old gas station when I came to. I guess they thought I would live and brought me back, keeping me drugged and in a one-door closet for over three months.

When they let me go I came home right away, telling my parents what happened. I lost forty pounds, down to 110, looked gray and felt cold, with sand crawling under my skin. I also lost the desire to make artwork for myself. I had a sign shop in my thirties, doing what people paid me to do, but I didn't even doodle in spare time.

Now that I've recovered from this poison plant, I feel the desire to make artwork for myself. I did a big Haida bird first, selling that to the first person who saw it, and used a projector to trace out a Van Gogh drawing, selling that and my next two pieces. Now I've got a few more I'm keeping in my apartment, wanting to get ready for summer events in the park across the street.

But more than that, I feel like finishing songs for myself. Now I'm playing guitar like an emotional demon, and it's not easy. I just looked at my semi-solid-body thread here, and it's sad, seeing what I had happening back then with my inventive guitar, seeing it as left behind. The offshore Stratocaster I got used for $75 is now converted to being a lefty, and I'm getting out with it, but I have to finish my true instrument.

Magle dk. has always been an inspiration for me, and I'd like to keep it that way. So, as much as I want to be onstage getting it on and putting it over, as before, or rendering myself as the symphonic-electric guitarist I know I can be, having a thread here for my guitar is a musical goal for me, and Magle dk. will be the first place I put up a link to see a video of me singing one of my songs. I'm working on an owl song, who are you hiding behind that screen, who, who, who are you meeting in that facebook scene, with a vocal solo imitating owls, that I've heard a lot of late at night on bike-hikes. I also think any Canadian band should do a wolf and raven song, the dominant spiritual creatures of North America. That's right, the raven. That black bird that Noah let out that never came back, with no mention of a mate, had to go somewhere.

I'd like to thank Frederik Magle for keeping it together here, and my friends. I know, with my new consciousness, I'll be able to make more friends than I did before. I have to say this. I recall the tingling, the sand and leaves and moonlight, where I was, but when I try to visualize where this happened I can't. I can hear a low chanting, and see the shapes of hands from the elbows down, reaching out towards my legs, all around me. A Metis friend said this was amazing. He knew already. He said, for the first time, one of the beautiful Mohawk warriors came to his apartment, saying his chief heard about me and felt I should be talking about it, visiting him. A beautiful Mohawk is a native who has the ancestry of not being corrupted by white man's booze and drugs, and food. They don't come out in public, not outside Fort Erie, and I've only met one. When a beautiful Mohawk shows a tear, it looks like a shining jewel one his face.

Europeans might think of natives here like in Hollywood movies. But Scottish people sent natives to universities in Scotland so they could learn to defend themelves in English and French courts in Canada. Joseph Brant, whose property became Brantford, displays my mother's tartan in his portrait. Doug Maracle, a chief who won the aboriginal tv award for best lead guitar for a CD he recorded in his own studio, is thought to still own half of Fort Erie.

I have changed. It's wonderful. Now I'm excited about something new in my life, me, and I'm wondering how far I can take it. Life in Welland is also changing, for the better, and I feel ready to leave and get into my own life, but we'll see. A social responsibility is tough to leave behind.

"Dreams are in my heart,
and dreams are where it starts, with you girl.
The dreams that are in my soul,
are the dreams that are in control, about you girl".

I must have changed, if I'm thinking marriage as a born-again virgin.
 

teddy

Duckmeister
Sorry to hear about your tribulations John. Looking forward to seeing, and hearing, your new guitar

teddy
 

John Watt

Member
Thank you, wljmrbill, and teddy, for welcoming me back.
My semi-solid-body is a big upgrade for me as an instrument,
but nothing compared to the new energy and emotion I feel.
I typed a lot, coming back, but I felt I had to explain to be understood,
undergoing truly strange and sadly criminal experiences.
What I've been slowly accumulating is now ready to be used,
making videos with my guitar and getting out to play.
And as Jimi Hendrix said to introduce his first album,
please, be forewarned. This music might not take you higher,
but it will make you wider.
That means I might not give you mirth, but add girth.
 

John Watt

Member
Krummhorn! You know you helped me out with, for me, a delicate case of font,
so it's more than nice to see you here and hear from you.
Just to let another North American musician know,
there's now a new Niagara Peninsula Musician's Association,
trying to promote local live music, an old high school friend a vice-president.
 

John Watt

Member
This transformation is spreading around.
My new, very secure and reliable residence now has a phone and internet, installed hours ago.
It was nice to have the local provider as a supporter, no credit check when I don't have credit.
Yes, it's my fault I haven't had a bank loan since 1972. That 1962 Jaguar XKE was worth it.
Instead of having donated office systems to use as a protest mayoral candidate,
during office hours, and it's an election year,
I can get into my guitars and videos in the evening, becoming reliable myself.

Please be forewarned: After being a member here for a long time, previously,
I've come back with a more determined ability to find myself as a Magle.dk member,
not being able to share any classical to symphonic music, of mine,
not wanting to give away songs, singing chords and words online,
still in the Niagara Peninsula, not being able to travel and visit European and Russian based members.
My wide travels in different kinds of bands, all the jobs I've had, all my self-employments and professions, and trades,
means I'm going to be more of "The Fount of Font & The Earl of Url" than I ever was.
What! Two laws were passed by the Ontario legislature, governing lawyer behavior and corporate crime, at my suggestion?
Most elected politicians never put forward a law that even gets voted on.
I'm confident enough to say that when I'm showing a video of me singing parts of a song or the guitar part,
what new styles and composite riffs I have that I want to redefine rock bands with,
it's because I'm hoping you'll hear it coming at you somewhere and you'll think, I heard that before,
and when you're back here I'll be going on about how my guitar parts or song is making it.
Magle.dk was and still is my international and only music forum, carrying me.
Thank you again.
 

John Watt

Member
When I talk about being out there, out there should be here, as much as possible. That's where I feel the best. Here's one of my better forest photos, yeah, called "Fir Away". Someone is living in the middle of the marsh near Point Abino. I'm not on the road, taking this picture.
 

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John Watt

Member
I can justify going solo in this thread, having more new additions to my behavior here.
I'll be plugging in an Altec Lansing powered bass speaker system to this computer, tonight sometime.
Thank you again to that stranger supporter who brought them to me from Thorold.

And I'll start liking the posts of others, even if I still like mine the best.
 

John Watt

Member
Thank you teddy. I don't get enough gracious acceptance in my life.

I heard my name being yelled and a car pulled over, just as I got to my main entrance door.
It was a drummer I helped out in the early eighties, and he went on to big success, still playing.
He took me to his house, having moved here, showing me a receipt for a new custom Gretch kit he ordered,
playing a new Yamaha set until they arrive. He has a very complete and new P.A. and lights,
wanting to start a band for himself. All this is nice, a gig is a gig, but I want to assert myself musically,
and I'm not sure the bassist he has is, uh, modern enough or, what, global, versatile?

Anyway, he came back to get me and took me to Niagara Falls to the bars we played.
They still had live bands, one with six musicians on stage. A couple people from 1977 said they recognized me,
making it more than just a trip back in time. All the owners said to get back to them if the band comes together.
I saw a real nice and very old white with gold Les Paul, worn evenly all over.
What turned me on the most was seeing a lot of nice looking girls in dresses, dancing.

If you've been to Niagara Falls you should remember The Flying Saucer, a twenty-four hour restaurant, yes,
shaped like a flying saucer, first built in the fifties. We ended up there to eat something, a real trip for me.

You can say I'm very patient, very cautious, always feeling things out before I get going.
But I've always just did what I want, moving along without making plans, letting tomorrow be a new day.
Now I want to be more contientious and make sure I don't waste what time I have left.
I'm still getting over the band that played "Those Old Cotton Fields Back Home".
The mother-daughter singers were definitely wearing spandex.
 

John Watt

Member
Two more new changes, getting residential online and a phone going in my newest residence.
It's nice when a local service provider not only wants to feature you on cable TV,
offering two minutes either speeching or singing,
but wants to help you recover from horrible communications interference by previous providers.

Please, look at the yellow block of font at www.johnwatt.ca to read more about that.
 

John Watt

Member
The change is still arriving.
I have permission to use a piano after hours so I can put up a video here of me playing it.
This isn't going to be a tribute to the as-yet-untitled Frederik Magle, not really,
but I want to show myself, be myself, more than I ever was, as a member here.
Hopefully, this will get me respect beyond my rock talk.
The only thing I'm worried about is pronouncing Frederik Magle's name properly.
I've watched two movies about Grendel and Boewulf, filmed in Daneland,
but if there were accents they were foreign, Gerrard Butler being Scottish for one.
Mag like magpie, Magle like haggle, or Ma like may, Magle like Maygle, my two pronunciations.
Get ready for a lot of Cm.
 

John Watt

Member
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wk34FXiSx5g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

John Watt

Member
The previous attempt at embedding isn't working for me,
so I hope this link works for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk34FXiSx5g

Now that I've listened, I can see I wasn't relaxed at the start,
and the camera could have been further away, less bombast.
Now that I've got all this working, I'm looking forward to trying again.
I would like one video of me playing piano, so I'll try for an improvement.
Just the way everything is, I didn't try opening the piano up.
The sustain and soft pedal were held down all the way.
 
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teddy

Duckmeister
I got the page open titled OAK PIANO but the screen remained blank. Anyone had any success opening and viewing it?

teddy
 
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John Watt

Member
teddy! Maybe because it's coming from me it works all the time.
Thanks for trying, and I'm hoping for some deep, introspective commentary,
if not outright criticisms.
As far as I'm concerned, pianos are right-handed instruments.
I can play better table and desk piano left-handed, freeing up lots of co-ordination separation.
At the start,
I say you'll see I have no left hand, because getting better on piano interferes with my guitar playing.
We just turned the page, it might be different this time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk34FXiSx5g
 
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John Watt

Member
In General Music Debate, Nouley, putting up a video of Moka,
got my video up and running there.
I am more than a little anxious to see reactions, and I'll try again.
Everything, the camera angle, being too close, the background noise,
me not warming up, forgetting to sing a C above high C and a C below low C,
what I do to shake people up, I forgot.
I also would let the piano ring out at the end until it faded, but people were coming in.
I was right up front by the main entrance.
Except for having a camera in my pocket, this was unplanned.
 

teddy

Duckmeister
Very good John. But its the new guitar I really want to see (and hear) you play

teddy
 

John Watt

Member
Was that a very good because of my explanation, or did you hear the video?
I thought I loosened up and got going after the three minute mark.
And I'm getting off watching the little finger on my right hand.

I used my left hand as a model this week for a vinyl graphic.
No, not because I'm an antique myself.
That's being very left-handed, installing computer vinyl
and cutting it freehand, standing on a loose antique ladder.

Boomerangs.jpg
 
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