So there I was, playing guitar at the store finals for Guitar Center's King of the Blues competition. I had practiced and knew I could play. This time things were different. Holly showed up as well as some coworkers and someone from Sunday school. I actually had a crowd of 6 supporters. I had decided to film it so I brought my camcorder and sweet Holly went out in the rain to get it. Unfortunately before she taped me a guy came over and said they were told by corporate not to tape it. Rats. So I found out I was the second to go on stage out of five. That was better than first but I would rather of been close to last. Anyways, the guys were good, but they were not as good as the ones last week. Last week, to me, was like a victory. I had beat some great guitarists last week. But they picked 2 to go to the finals so I saw my "nemesis" as it were. A 60 year old man who spent his life playing the blues. He was fourth in line. The first guy goes and my guitar ego says "I can take him" So I get up on stage and proceed to wail on guitar. I mean, I was flipping my pickup switch and didn't miss a beat. I played my wah pedal and changed the sound up, I hit my parts of the song that I practiced and went in time, I got close to dropping my pick but it didn't happen. At the end I even put the guitar behind my head and proceeded to actually play faster notes. Later on I heard someone heard the judges say I was using two hands to do that(it's called a hammer-on). I should have turned around, cause it was one hand. I have to admit though I was a little sloppy in my licks. That is the only thing that went wrong, everything else was good. So as I finished the song the whole crowd was cheering. Even the MC said ,"wow, he makes it look easy" So I got a really good feeling about my performance. I had tried my hardest and I was just happy to have accomplished pulling it off. Then comes on my nemesis. The old guy, I think his name is Ryan. He gets up on stage and doesn't move around and plays every type of blues lick that someone else has made. He only misses like 2 notes out of hundreds and plays most with extreme skill, but he didn't have passion. I was told by a judge who shook my hand as he walked back that I had very good tone. Then when they come out and the guy said over the microphone - "just to get to the point it was a unanimous decision, Ryan wins." Everyone was like "What?" I know as far as players go Ryan was much better at standard blues than I was, but I was much better at being a performer overall. So I am actually happy. I am confident that I would have won had a different criteria been used. I am happy because I finished and did something that most guitarists wish they could do and pulled it off. Anyways, afterword I decided I needed to treat myself. So I went to the movie "Blades of Glory" and laughed 4 times and got grossed out twice. So that is a 2 out of 5 for that movie. Anyways, life goes on, now maybe I will be able to finish both websites - brianandholly.tv and ridesearch.com. Or I might go fly a kite...

Thought of the Day
"Wow, your a lefty, I guess you need a left-handed amp"
"Yeah, I guess I do"
- Me talking to a judge while on the stage