1. It was either a bad decision to put so little passion in this book or it is just bad writing. It reads not written a guy having amazing access but like a homework assignment. “I have to cover this, this, this and that. Done.”

2. Never have I been bothered as much by shitty structuring as in this book (or it is just bad writing). First he tries chronological, later topical, then mixes both approaches. WTF. Loads of approaches possible but this mixtures leaves the reader scratching his head wondering, “what does this have to do with the chapter I just read?”

3. The book has 5oosomething pages. I am not saying it should be shorter, but how about focusing not so much on the know parts of Steve Jobs’ life but instead delving deeper into the heart of his design sense or no-compromise-attitude? Or following up on a question like you mean it. Jobs went to India and read an Autobiography of a Yogi? Good, thank you. NOT. What are the main points of that book, what were Jobs’ key take-aways?

This book is a summary, nothing more. Unfortunately. What a wasted chance.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

No. 1 Rangers vs. No. 8 Ottawa
The Rangers will win this in 5 games. And they will go much deeper.

No. 2 Boston vs. No. 7 Washington
Most people have Boston winning this but I smell upset IF Semin realizes he’s playing for a contract, if Backstrom’s health holds and if Boston goalie Tim Thomas can’t tune out the political charade.  So either Washington in 7 or Boston in 5…

No. 3 Florida vs. No. 6 New Jersey
It should be Devils in 5.

No. 4 Pittsburgh vs. No. 5 Philadelphia
It’s hard to bet against the Penguins with all their firepower, defensive strengths and the playoff proven goalie. If Giroux, Hartnell, Jagr and especially Bryzgalow can keep their pace it will be a very interesting series though. The thing that bugs me though is that if the Rangers, the Bruins, the Panthers and the Penguins were to advance, Pittsburgh would play New York in the next round and that would be much too early. Pens in seven.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

No. 1 Vancouver vs. No. 8 Los Angeles
If Daniel Sedin doesn’t play the Kings will pull off the upset in 6 games, unless Ryan Kesler turns it on.

No. 2 St. Louis vs. No. 7 San Jose
San Jose’s window is closing, as they say. From everything I read and saw St. Louis is the much hungrier. As the skill level is obviously there, this will be Blues in 5.

No. 3 Phoenix vs. No. 6 Chicago
Chicago in 6.

No. 4 Nashville vs. No. 5 Detroit
This isn’t Detroit’s year yet, they will shop in the summer and next year some of the younger players will be ready to attack. This time, Nashville in 6.

As a musician I am not very complicated. I have somewhat high standards in regards to the people I play with, yes, but when it comes to myself I don’t think I suffer from lead guitarists disease or something similar. There will be days when I am not as prepared as I should be but I accept that in others as well. Having said that, and getting older, I am a big fan of playing it by ear, putting the overall sound over “but this is what he plays on the record”, winging it if I have to, and more and more, just having a good time. I have played in bands from very early on after I took up the guitar until I moved to Hamburg to study. While I even had my guitar with me in the US in 1998 it took until 2008 when a bunch of guys from my home town rejoined forces and started playing again, getting that rust off. We used to play every 6-8 weeks and even went for a whole year without rehearsal after our room got torn down and schedules didn’t match. And we were still missing a bass player. When we met again we basically had to start, had to relearn some of the arrangements but it wasn’t until another friend from old moved back to town when found a complete line-up. I moved to bass guitar for all but three songs and we finally had a full sonic spectrum. We cut some songs from BB-setlist (before bass), added some new ones and now, after about half a year with a steady flow of rehearsals we have something you might call a set. One hour-ish, depending on how fast we play and how much we talk.

With a full band we finally also had the time to tackle one of the songs that is brilliant but not easy, especially for the vocals. It is one of the tracks I still play guitar on and enjoy immensely. It has a boogie feeling to me, a knee bender if you ever saw Satriani perform Satch Boogie live you’ll understand. But it’s more of a shuffle too, great guitar riff, epic chorus. Our keyboarder wrote it and we used to play it in the mid-nineties. I was actually scheduled to play it on a recording but had to drop out because the date was a week after I had left for the US. I was a little bit heartbroken when I heard the song later (true story) – I was in great shape back then and I would have killed it.

Fast forward to 2012. We’re back at it and I am practicing. Not the 5 hours a day from when I was in school, but strategically and really practicing. While it is a groovy tune calling for a solo with feeling there is also a sixteenth triplets run that I play in unison with the keyboards. I practiced it slow. Real slow. Played around with the fingering, changed that about five times until it would sound not like shred but like a melody. Played it slowly w/o warm-up in the morning, after dinner with warmed-up fingers and a couple of times before I turned off the light. From a skills perspective I has them, I just need the practice. And I needed to play it great, no winging it this time.

When we rejoined last night I felt prepared. We rehearsed two new songs and all the work of the last six months paid off. We breezed through Huey Lewis’ Power of Love and took our time with Billy Jean, working on our own version. Afterwords came a couple of tunes we know by heart and which just groove. The fact that we didn’t have a mic for background vocals didn’t hurt the overall vibe too much which was good. At one point I said let’s play “the song” so I gave the bass guitar to my buddy, taking his guitar for a second. He plays an Ibanez (like I did years ago) but it hung too high, so I gave it back. He volunteered to make the strap longer and I tried it on, but I didn’t connect. Quite interesting. Tension was building up, happy tension, I didn’t want to take any chances. I wanted to give this my best shot. I wanted to milk the groove out of it. So I say thank you and that I feel quite comfortable with my block of wood (compared to his well set-up Ibanez with scalloped frets and ergonomic body, my Washburn N2 indeed looks somewhat like a brute). I don’t know much about the VOX amp they gave us this time, but what the hell, the sound is in the fingers.

So it begins. Short keyboard intro followed by the whole band playing the main riff. The high-hat and snare laying the beat, the bass drum the groove and a bass guitar pumping away. The verse builds slowly only to swell to full bloom, hinting at things to come. But not yet, first we play the main riff again. With a slight variation, the keyboarder and I looking at each other with knowing smiles. At that moment we love what we are doing. Verse again and into the chorus. After the chorus the run looms, then the solo. I feel like I’m in the zone. Bring it on, I can do it. But first the chorus. The guitar lays chords with restrained accents. The keyboard makes it epic, the vocals bring it home. We play the main riff again. No fear, no angst. We play the run. It flows. 8 sextuples. The keyboardist can play this in his sleep and I play it wide awake. Practice paid off. But I’m not done yet. I turn the final high note of the run into a bend and am high on adrenaline. I need to celebrate with just a couple of quick accents before I go down the fretboard and into some movements that kind of made sense when I practiced. Nothing fast or fancy, rather milking some bends and open string patterns. To open the second bar of “my” two bars I hit the G on the low E string with pick harmonics and bend it to the A – all the chunk you can have on an electric guitar. I make my way up the fretboard again looking for a final high bend and mess up the ending in a way because I want to keep on playing but haven’t told anybody. I don’t play the usual ending but stop the solo anyway, the adrenalin making way for a big smile. I catch some looks, thumbs up, all good.
We bring it home and I feel very happy.

As always with these things, there’s no recording. I explain the mess at the end of the solo and since we all had fun we decide to do it again, with a longer solo. And of course it doesn’t compare. I put pressure on myself to repeat and my fingers don’t connect to the strings as much as they should. The strings were cold during the first run, now the little residue that collected from playing bass for two hours settles on the guitar strings. Usually not a difference maker but I notice it and think about it. I also think about what I am going to two in the two extra solo bars. All this going on while we play the song. I’m in my head, not my soul and I feel like I am letting them down. They wanted to give me the chance to do it again, (you’re gonna come in with your guitar & you’re gonna play that nice, nice music you were telling me about) and it’s probably going to be fine, but not the magic from before, at least the magic I felt. So of course I mess up the end of the run and the solo is sort of ok but naturally I feel a bit down. The beauty is that I love playing this song so much that the minute and a half from the end of the solo to the end of the song lifts me up automatically. All I have to do is close my eyes, listen to the snare filling between the hi-hat, the bass guitar walking counterpoint to my funk in the verse, the vocals building up to the chorus, and the keyboard tying it all together.

Or maybe I just love making music with my friends so much.

Although it’s only March I can say without a doubt that this album will contend for album of the year. Flying Colors, the supergroup consisting of Steve Morse (Dregs, Deep Purple), Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, Solo), Dave LaRue (Satriani, Dregs, numerous others), Casey McPherson (Alpha Rev) and of course Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Transatlantic, numerous others) was for once not the brain child of Mike Portnoy but producer Bill Evans. With maybe the exemption of singer Casey McPherson, Evans put together a room full of egos and made it work. Flying Colors – Flying Colors is a great debut album and I am not just saying this as a Dream Theater/Mike Portnoy fan boy.

During the first listen, I didn’t even notice/remember/pay attention to the drums because they don’t stand out. Portnoy’s playing is of course outstanding, but this isn’t a drums album. When Portnoy characterized the album as Beatles meets Yes meets I don’t remember, I was thinking that this might be a tall order to follow. Of course I was hoping for it to be true but then of course the artist is going to laude is work.

Rest assured though: This album is a must have for music connaisseurs as it is as song-oriented as you would like a Beatles album to be, yet delivers enough nuggets for lovers of every instrument/fans of all participants to be very happy. Although only Portnoy knew singer McPherson and he was kind of the wild card in that quintett the vocal lines are catchy to a degree that I was whistling some lines after one listen. For a bunch of guys who haven’t been rehearsing material for half a year but just got together in a studio for 9 days, this album is truly epic. You think I am exaggerating? Listen to Blue Ocean and Kayla and try not to sing the chorus under the shower tomorrow? Listen to Fool in my heart and try not to think of old Steve Morse only to have your heart ripped out by McPherson’s lyrics.

Seriously, give it a spin.

I love the new album. Tattoo gets better and better and has just the right tempo. The second track She’s the Woman not only showcases the classic Alex Van Halen drum sound but what’s more a second snare stroke in the down beat that is just irresistible for me not to like. Almost like Foo Fighter’s My Hero a bit faster. The album continues like that, catchy riffs by Eddie, lots of syncopation, great backing vocals in the chorus. There is even the obligatory oriental riff with a killer guitar line reminding me of Nuno’s deep bendy vibe in the Hip Today verse. All in all a great rock’n'roll record with the chance to stay in rotation for a while.

8 of 10

Random observations for the band:

• I have never seen John Myung move so much or seemingly showing so much fun.
• John Myung strangely enough looks the oldest of the group.
• John Petrucci’s biceps is getting bigger every year.
• Don’t worry about Mangini, he can play. And I like the Vai’ish visual performance he adds to the band.
• Jordan Rudess is showing signs of aging. He is counting/conducting along when he’s not playing
• LaBrie looked like a beast freed from restraints, visibly enjoying the limelight as the undisputed frontman.

Random general observations:

• Why Hannover? The AWD-Hall wasn’t sold out, not even close. I was born in Hannover, but please, next time, travel the extra 150 miles to Hamburg and play a full-house.
• Lots of fathers and sons. Some fathers brought their kids, some kids their dads.
• I have never seen so many women at a DT concert that were not obviously metal.

Some observations on Periphery, the support band:

• To quote Mama McFly: “That was very interesting music.”
• Dare I say Wyld Stallyons?
• Three guitars?

In short: The biggest display of talent on a stage without a musical red thread. If anybody should have a musical director, it is Periphery. Big chops, but hardly any melody to hum while driving home. The singer was super able to mix screamo, Killswitch Engage with regular singing in one line – but I couldn’t help but think ‘what’s the point’…

If you have the chance to catch Dream Theater on this tour do, they’re awesome

In no particular order:

1. Fix the UI for checking in! Imagine I visit the atm and the bakery and the drycleaners. That trip will take me 5 minutes and I want to check in quickly. I do not want to share the place with my friends. Just checki-in. So why is it, that after I hit check-in and hit “back” I get to the friends view, not the list of place offered to check-in? I know it’s a social software but to me that user route is flawed.

2. Fix the algorithm for determining which places to present when I hit “Check-in”. I don’t understand that the place that is only 1meter away and which I have been to before is buried three scrolls down so that more popular places that are 200 meters away can be listed. so annoying. If you use the GPS then let the GPS have a higher importance in the algorithm.

3. Fix the damn translation. We’re not both in 1st place. We’re tied in one place. “<user1> und <you> seid jetzt gleichauf. Nur noch ein Punkt zum überholen!”

4. Timing. Unless it’s a restaurant “two hours ago” isn’t really helpful. There’s always this tiny bit of excitement when I see that another Foursquare user is at the venue I am checking in, only to be dissapointed because that person was there so long ago.

The shortlist for this year looks as follows at the end of the post and as always you can keep track of my progress on this page.

In the last couple of years this would also mean changing my twitter background, but the shelf hasn’t really changed. Now what? I’ll find something

What are you reading?

1. PLI/Abby Marks Beale – 10 Days to faster Reading
2. Georg Franck – Die Ökonomie der Aufmerksamkeit
3. Thomas Klupp – Paradiso
4. Nick Hornby – Juliet Naked
5. Siri Hustvest – Enchantment of Lily Dahl
6. Chris Brogan/Julien Smith – Trust Agents
7. Jack Falla – Home Ice
8. Minette Walters – The Breaker
9. O’Reilly – Your Brain: The Missing Manual
10. Charles Frazier – Thirteen Moons
11. Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird (*)
12. Hanif Kureishi – The Buddha of Suburbia
13. Richard Powers – Generosity
14. Charles Bukowski – Ham on Rye
15. Chip & Dan Heath – Switch
16. Steven Levy – In the Plex
17. Walther Isaacson – Steve Jobs Biography
18. Eric Ries – The Lean Startup
19. Thomas Pletzinger – Gentlemen, wir leben am Abgrund
20. David Halberstam – Playing for keeps
21. Jonathan Lethem – Chronic City
22. Don DeLillo – Underworld
23. Gavin Menzies – 1421
24. Jostein Gaardner – Sophie’s World
25. Andreas Eschbach – Eine Billion Dollar*
26. Jaron Lanier – You’re not a gadget
27. Lee Child – Reacher No. 17
28. Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Der Schwarze Schwan+
29. Howard Jacobson – No more Mr. Nice Guy+
30. James Altucher – I was Blind but now I See + (Kindle for iPhone)
31. Tom Peters – Re-Imagine +

1. Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events
2. Amos Lee – Mission Bell
3. Trivium – In Waves
4. Symphony X – Iconoclast
5. Whitesnake – Forevermore
6. Mac Miller – Best Day Ever
7. TesseracT – One
8. Jupiter Jones – Jupiter Jones
9. Adrenaline Mob – EP
10. Adele – 21

My alltime top 5 guitarists are probably Paul Gilbert, Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, who can ever tell. There was a time – when I started to get serious about playing electric guitar – when I spent 3-8 hours a day practicing, working mostly through scales, songbooks by Extreme and Mr. Big, and improvisation. Ear training was done by learning Satriani’s melodies (remember the times when you couldn’t look up everything at aztabs.com?). Vai’s crazy stuff I learned from my guitar teacher, as well as some Dixie Dregs just for fun.
Later Dream Theater entered the fold and Petrucci’s lines became the training material, until the Under a Glass Moon solo became somewhat bearable.
So this was a time where everything was about guitar. I read every issue of Gitarre&Bass (think ‘Guitar’ in German), collected every issue, listened to records, chatted with friends about this solo phrase, that tone, and every detail you could imagine.
A time when you think you saw it all (Van Halen and tapping was old news in the early 90s) and string skipping (Paul Gilbert) and bending a string off the fretboat to play it percussively (George Lynch) were the rage.
My best friend was a Malmsteen maniac, so all those songbooks were available as well. It became apparent though at that time that he and I were following different paths. He was recreating the original, often with the greatest attention to detail, pick overtones in The Audience is Listening come to mind. I was more interested in rocking the song, getting aquainted with the guitarist’s chops and trying to take what I can for my own style.
And I’ll get to Steve Lukather now, just in case you were wondering. The year before I graduated high school Steve published the Candyman record. Rocking, grooving, bluesing away, with an ultimate band feeling. I had listened to Toto before of course, though not quite with the passion my three year older band mates did. I actually liked Africa and Rosanna, but was more of the Hold the Line and Home of the Brave kind of person. We covered Home of the Brave with the band and it was always the instrumentalists own tiny moment right then and there. Kingdom of Desire and Tambu were also cool, those were the days.
We had seen the Candyman tour once already in Hamburg’s Fabrik, getting a somewhat uncomfortable but perfect view crouched down on the second-floor floor directly above the band. Then Simon Phillips had an appearance scheduled at the Frankfurt Music Fair which ended up not being a workshop, instead he started playing and never stopped for 45 minutes – musician’s bliss at that time. On the day after my graduation party we saw Lukather again in Hannover. Slightly hungover I got my last live fix for 17 years, until finally, in late October of this year our schedules matched when he came back to Hamburg and rocked the Markthalle, including parts of my favorite, Party in Simon’s Pants. After seeing some other bands playing to half empty stands it was great to see that he seemed to have sold out the venue.

The thing most people don’t know about Steve Lukather is that he is not just the guitarist and face of Toto but also one of the most accomplished studio musicians, lending his chops to the who-is-who since he was 19 and you can hear it when he plays and in his compositions. He can play, for sure, but there is this melting pot of style that enables him to pull off a lengthy ballad plus solo as credible as a faster rock number. He’s 54 now, but that means in the business for more than 35 years…

Coming off age as a guitarist from 92-95 there is one quote of his that deeply influenced me. He freely imagined that his style was the result of taking a pinch here and a pinch there, sort of “stealing” from other guitarists. That it was almost impossible not working like that. I took that to heart and but looking back at reading the interview and taking the advice it feels like an epiphany. Because it obviously is great learning advice that works for everything, life and business. You look at things, judge what you like and what seems to work and emulate it, adapt that part into your own life, work and guitar playing. The other thing he embodies is that you need to surround yourself with the best people in order to grow. He plays with great musicians on his records and live (boy did he have a great band in October) which in turn make him better and make him record stronger songs. Looking forward, always.

(Read more info about him on wikipedia, his website, follow him on twitter and listen to his latest record – it’s really good.)