Teach Your Children Well.............

Ok, this is going to be a rant. But it's a rant that is long in the making. What the Hell happened to respect, politeness and manners in this country? I was in Long's drugs store yesterday, and I overheard a 12 or 13 year old saying to an adult " I dare you to say that to my face." And he was saying it to his grandmother. I felt like saying to her, "pardon me mam, do you mind if I kick the shit out of your grandson?"

What has happened to America? Did the sixties not only kill off innocense but respect as well?

I just moved back to the bay area after spending 16 months in Washington State. I don't know if this is a mid-western informality, but don't you people cover your mouth when you cough? And can't you wait to swallow your food before you try to talk? And was it just my parents? Or did your parents teach you never to put your elbows on the dinner table?

I remember shop class back in middle school, my teacher Mr. Capps saying to several people, "son take your hat off in the house" (he meant classroom) It seems every bald male today, thinks a baseball cap can be worn as a hairpiece. Didn't your mom teach you not to wear your hat in the house? Was I raised in a different country?

Should I be elected to public office; I'll pass a bill making it legal to strangle to death people that talk on their cell phones in restaurants or movie theatres. Especially the ones that think they have to shout into their phones. I think anyone that gets into an accident while talking on a cell phone should have the same treatment as someone that gets into an accident while DUI.

This one really kills me; People,................. let others OFF the elavator before you selfishly elbow your way onto the elavator. Men; hold doors for ladies. Ladies, make your date open the car door for you. Children; say yes sir and yes mam to your elders. NOT JUST YOUR PARENTS.

Parents; Don't let your 12 year old girls leave the house looking like a prostitute. Teach your kids to say, "pardon me", "excuse me", "Thank You", "Your Welcome".

And for those of you that don't know; When someone asks you "How are you?" or "How do you do?" the correct response is "Fine" or "I am well" You're not "GOOD" . Good is an adverb. A word used to describe a verb or action word. "He ran good." "She spells good" GOOD is NOT A STATE OF BEING.

And the number following 99 is pronounced " hun- dread" NOT "HUH-NERD" or "HUN-DERD" .

And thank you President Carter for inventing the word "New-cue-ler" Bomb. I don't know what a new-cue- ler bomb is. Is it like a New-clee- er bomb?

And when the A's are victorious over the Giants, they didn't "win" the Giants; they "beat" the Giants.

That's enough for today class.



Please try being courteous and thoughtful of other people, it will make this world a much better place.


Ace out.......................

O 2 B Happy

What is happiness? Is it a new car? Is it fame, wealth, sex, peace of mind? Is it having fun? Maybe it's getting your boss off of your back. Maybe it's having a mistress to take your mind off of your miserable marriage. Maybe it's getting that promotion and the recognition that comes with it. Ya think? To quote the writer of the book of ecclesiastes: they're "All Vanities".

Vanities as the dictionary defines it:


The quality or condition of being vain.
Excessive pride in one's appearance or
accomplishments; conceit.
See Synonyms at conceit.

You see King Solomon (the suspected writer of the old testament book Ecclesiastes) had wealth and fame beyond yours or my imagination. In his book he talks about what he did to try and find meaning to life. He talks of his manions, money, concubines (mistresses) acheivements and referred to them all as "Vanities". He realized that his only real purpose for being on this earth was to have a close relationship with God.

I agree, but feel Solomon's summary was incomplete. I believe that God put us here with a unique and individual purpose. To be happy and to become. To become what? To become what only we can be. As great a guitarist as Stevie Ray Vaughan was, or Eddie Van Halen is; they'll never be me. (and visa versa) I have my own unique God given sound. Nobody can play Ace Andres riffs like Ace Andres. Nobody will ever play Eddie Van Halen riffs as good as Eddie.

Einstein once said, "Everybody is a genius at something". "If you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, he'll go on thru life thinking he's a failure".

So what are we here for? To find that perfect complete person that you were meant to be and become it. What is that perfect complete person? It's the person you've become once you've found a way to combine your passion, special talent and needs. What then is happiness? It's ANYTHING you DO that takes you in the direction of that goal. Just knowing who that potential person is will make you happy. Matthew Kelly calls it the "best version of yourself".

This life is oh so short. Most of us will live less than 100 years. From the day we're born, we start our journey towards death. We wander aimlessly thru life worrying about needs. So we get meaningless jobs that pay us money. Life amounts to a simple equation for most of us:

Life = Time/work x (Money - expenses)

Your life is simple. Your focus is on survival. You convert time into money and give it to others so you can have a roof over your head, food in the fridge and strings for your guitar. (or wheels on you car etc....)

Then you wake up one day in intensive care and wonder where your life went. But every breath you take of every second of every day is a chance to start your life over.

I subscribe to a different formula.

1. Discover what your God given talent is. We all have one. Someone in your life has told you that you are great at something. It's something you do that makes you lose track of the time.

2. Review your needs. Rent/mortgage food etc......

3. list the opportunities in that field and find a way to combine them all so you can work in a field you love and get paid for it.


Stevie Ray Vaughan was working at a burger stand. One night he was told to clean the grease vats. He was standing on top of a huge 50 gallon barrel of grease (from the deep fat fryers) when the lid broke and Stevie fell into the barrel of grease up to his armpits. He said at that point "This is enough of this shit I'm gonna play guitar for a living".

If you become the person God wants you to become. You are then doing God's will. And God didn't design everyone to be missionaries or preachers or nuns or elders. But he did give you a special blessing. My biggest fear in Life is to be standing at the Pearly Gates and have to answer why I neglected the special endowments God blessed me with.

Find out who you need to become. Work on becoming that person. Then know happiness.


Ace out................

Abuse. It's an aquired taste...............

Saturday, Corrine and I went to one of her favorite places, Capitola. I think it's important that we all have our "get-aways". There are just some places that you visit for the first time and feel as if you are coming "home". There are 2 such places for me, Monterey and Montreal. I've never been to Monte Carlo but I wonder if there's something in the name? Anyway, we stopped at a wonderful (non-pretentious) beach grill that had outdoor seating on the beach. I ordered up 2 Cosmopolitans and a Heineken. Corrine had never had a Martini before and I had only had 2 about 15 years ago. The Heineken was backup.

Being a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's I always had a strange connection with the lifestyles culture and art of the 40's. I'm quite an "Art Decco" fan. One such icon from that era is the Top Hat, Cane and Martini. Throw in Fred Astaire,Ginger Rogers,Glenn Miller a couple of pink flamingos, Ivory tables and an ebony dancefloor with a mirror ball suspended from the ceiling and your stage is set for a wonderful evening. Every scene in a 40's movie would undoubtedly showcase these Icons with the men in Tuxedos and the women in long dresses with gloves that came up above the elbow. The man would be holding a martini and the woman a cigarette at the end of a long holder. So in going with this trend, I felt it was time to give Martinis another chance.

Yesterday, I stopped and bought a small bottle of "Absolute" Vodka and the Vermuth to go with it. Of course I needed the Icon Martini Glasses and Olives as well. In an attempt to be as cool and suave as Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra, I made 2 of the most textbook Martinis I'd ever seen.

Problem was, they tasted like lighter fluid. We were only able to finish the one set of drinks then it was time for an early bedtime. Now my liver is very educated. Keep in mind I was a sailer that sailed to the orient. I've drank everything from Absenth to Anejo. But my experience with the Martini was far from elegant.

This led me to wonder why I see people leaving grocery stores with a gallon of Vodka under each arm. The taste of Vodka is barely palatable which led me to wonder why people do other things that seem counter-intuitive.

Smoking was the first thing that came to mind. The analogy seemed very close. I don't know many people that light up for sake of inhaling a carcinogen for it's "flavor". It is a form of self-abuse that we develop an "aquired taste" for.

Coffee is another. Millions of Americans are hooked on Caffien. Unlike cigarettes, we can hide the bitter repugnant taste of coffee with sugar, cream, chocolate, steamed milk and a pleathora of other flavors ranging from caramel to strawberry. (and don't forget the whipped cream) The goal is to become caffinated. I know. I have a 1.95 a day habit myself. Caffien is still another version of self-abuse. Instead of working out at the gym to develop the beta-endorphins; we stand in line and recite our order ......."Grande, with room blah blah blah". Then you go wait in another line.

Sadly enough, people that are raised with abusive parents tend to have the same great obstacles to overcome as they percieve "abuse" as "love". Ask almost any woman at a battered woman's shelter if one of their parents were abusive and you'll get a logical explanation as to why they select, endure and stay with abusive spouses.

What is the logic in copitulating to this abuse? Does it come from a lack of self-esteem? AnthonyRobbins teaches that people are motivated by 2 principals. They are attracted to pleasure; and avoid pain. This explains the great obesity epidemic America is facing. The pleasure from eating poorly or quicky outweighs the pain from dieting or eating healthy and even the pleasure of having a desirable body. To quote Matthew Kelly " If you owned a million dollar race horse; Would you let him eat at McDonalds?"

The physical or mental pain from an abusive relationship outweighs the loneliness of no relationship.

10 minutes in line and a 1.95 outweighs an hour of sweaty excercise 3 to 4 times a week.

My favorite quote is from Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Three simple sentences that can change your life:

1. Between stimulous and response there lies a space.

2. And in that space lies our opportunity to respond.

3. How we choose to respond determines our future.


Aquiring a taste for something that clearly is "distasteful", is often another way of saying "Aquiring a tolerance for abuse". This distastfulness should make you ask yourself why you are really engaging in this act. Sure, it could be as innocent as learning to appreciate "Wasabi" or "Anchovies". Or it could be your insecureties rationalizing short term pleasures for long term defeat.

Choose to be good to yourself and see the big picture.



Ace out....................

That's America

I was reminded this week-end of a time I was visiting my favorite Chinese Restaurant . There was large hispanic family that came in and sat down near my table. They were all speaking in spanish, even the little children.

In the back of the restaurant, I could hear the staff speaking loudly above the grills and fans in either cantonese or madarin (I'm sorry, I don't know the difference). What happened next was just as red, white and blue as George Washington.

The waiter came over and both parties started speaking just the weakest English I'd ever heard in my life. The most common word was "What"? or "Huh"? (sometimes a combination of both). But ya know, that's America in a nutshell. America isn't the greatest nation because of our European history, America is great because we've been able to merge the world's culture's with an open mind, gleen the good and learn from the bad. When this country was founded, it was a result of the colonies rejecting England's Tyranny. We learned to perfect Capitalism. The settlers learned survival. We learned that the essence of a civilazation is that "the strong have a duty to protect the weak". Did you know that the founding fathers wanted to create a Monarchy in the 1700's ? They wanted George Washington to be the "King" of America. Washington was glad that he didn't have a son. We were wise to reject England's form of government. We were wise to learn from the advances and failures of the Roman and Greek empires.

Americans invented the horseless carriage. Then 70 years later, we would be relearning how to build cars from a country that we devastated with nuclear bombs just 30 years before. This would lead to a strengthening of our economy. How could we have rebounded from the lethargy and failures of the 70's if we would have continued to believe that "The American Way" was the only or best way to do something. How could Japan, a defeated nation operating on an Imperialistic paradigm turn it's economy around and become a world leader in manufacturing? We gleen from the best and learn from the worst.

As my friend Page Jackson says in his song, "Every single moment is another chance to turn your life around".


Ace out.......

Things I loathe.......

If you go to www.AceAndres.com/Topfive.html on the left side of the page is a list of things I loathe (defined "don't like-abhore-can't stand-The "H" word) I was surprised to see how what started out to be a top 10 list, turned into a whole border column. The State of OREGON??? lol, I knew things had gotten out of hand when I dispised a whole state of the union. But then again, have you ever been to Alabama? It's a good list. Email me if you were Offended. (if you dare)

As soon as I get the studio back up and runnin again here in California, I'm gonna finish off the new X-15 Album and it will be available for sale on the website. Some of the Free Downloads on the home page are from the new album.

I will be performing in California again very soon. Erich Rigling and I are working on a "Southern Rock" gig (It's his project). Rick Jensen, Page Jackson and I are going to be kicking around a new project called "The AcidTones" . (a retro Britpop/summero'love thing) Dave Kaffenetti whom you know from Spinal Tap will be contributing to some studio work with us. And last but not least I'll be promoting the new X-15 album.

Ace out..............

To Whom part II

I forgot to thank Terry Anderson for inspiring me to start this Web log. I wanted to thank Dick Dale for keeping me up when I was really DOWN. And of course my Wife for putting up with me. I would like to thank the academy, but perhaps I'm a bit premature. I thank God for buying me a ticket on this ride.

To whom it may concern......

What a great way to start off a web log. I wonder who started the web log trend in the world? Then who didn't have enough time to call it a web log, and started calling it a "Blog"? I figure, this is as good as expensive therapy. Good therapist cost upwards of 125 bucks an hour (U.S) and all you do is sit there and bitch about your life.

So I guess I can be as entertaining as Oprah, as controvesial as Howard, as nasty as Blackwell, maybe even as provacative as Rush. And if I can reach just one person (with my poor grammar, bad spelling and taste) then this will all be worth wild.

I've started a new page on my website called "Inside Ace's Head" . I know it sounds self-indulgent, but I got the Idea from that old sit-com back in the 80's called "Herman's Head". It was a facinating half-hour sit-com (on showtime, I think) about Herman, and the different emotions in his head were played by different actors. Here's a link to the cast:

http://www.eyrie.org/~thad/hhead/hh_eg.html

Notice there are a couple of full time Simpsons cast members.

Speaking of names, Yada Yada Yada pretty much says it all ya know? That has to be one of the Seinfeld's greatest episodes.

Please feel free to email me if I've touched a nerve. I'm going to post on this blog like I'm the only one reading it. (why hold back?)

To all my fans, thank you for your support over the years. To all my pundants, thank you for making me want to work harder. To all my debtors, the check's in the mail. And to you the reader, thank you for coming here.

Ace out........