My Guitar and Me

This is a major cheesy picture of me in high school, many moons ago. The red guitar belonged to my friend Ivan, lead singer of The Lizard Kings. The white guitar is mine. John bought it for me when I was 16. My first job was at Subway, and with my first paycheck, I went shopping with John and bought guitar picks. He taught me how to play, and April taught me some too. I never learned more than the basic chords, really, but damn it was awesome. My fingers became calloused, which was a cool thing. I learned some Dylan songs, and a lot of REM songs. April and I would sometimes play together, and as any musician knows, there is a serious high that you get when you play, and everything flows together. It's magic.

Unfortunately, I no longer play, although I still have the guitar. Sometimes at John's house I pick up his guitar and realize that I still remember how to play a few songs. And it feels good. I used to be able to tune my guitar by ear, but only by playing this REM song. If it sounded right, I knew I was in tune.

I really should get the guitar out again and play it, even if I'm not really a great musician or anything.