I haven't quite decided whether I am going to embrace the birthday as a milestone or adopt some sort of "It's just a number" type philosophy and continue on as if nothing had happened.
I am leaning towards the latter since I feel it will be the final act in a long process of getting over my mid-life crisis and being happy with what I have and where I am in life.
Not that aforesaid crisis drove me to any embarrassing attempts at recapturing my youth or any of the other assorted cliches.
No Corvettes or baseball mitts here.
There has been one little thing nagging at me though.
One last gasp of crass materialism.
Some part of me feels that a man of my age should own a Rolex watch.
I am an avid watch collector and own over 40 time pieces both new and old, but a Rolex has never graced my collection and probably never will.
I could rant on and on about their deceptive advertising, lack of value, and assorted other evils, but some part of me still wants one.....badly.
Too expensive though.......$5000 for a watch that's truly worth about $800 simply isn't justifiable....at least not to me and certainly not to my wife.
Instead, I've decided to listen to another part of me that feels a man of my age should own a Gibson Les Paul.
Heck, I have wanted one since I was in the second grade and saw Ace Frehley playing his 1959 Cherry Sunburst Les Paul in Dynamite Magazine (remember Dynamite?) In fact, I once read an article written by a large music store owner who claimed that Ace inspired more kids to play the guitar than Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, and any other big name guitarist combined.
I have owned several guitars over the years and even though I am nothing more than a hobbyist at the moment I decided the time has come for me to own the same guitar Ace does.
Pump yo brakes, kid.
A 1959 Paul costs around $220,000!!
A Custom Shop Re-issue goes for over $8000!!
Ok......what do I do?
Knowing that the current standard model Les Paul is a shadow of its former self (They are actually hollowing out chambers inside the guitar because the wood they get now is so dense and toneless) I needed a backup plan.
Enter the Yamaha SBG-2000.
Made semi-famous by Carlos Santana and Bob Marley in the mid-70's the Yamaha is everything the current Les Paul is not.
Yamaha is truly beating the shit out of Gibson at their own game and offers a custom shop level instrument at a standard price point.
Not exactly my dream guitar, but better.
Perhaps I will post a review when I actually acquire one.
Now I can say 40 is just a number.
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