RERUN: Guitar Fridays: The 1921 Martin 00-28

by M A N @roquesdoodle


The 1921 Martin 00-28* is a 12 fret guitar produced by C.F. Martin and Company (so known because the body meets the neck at the 12th fret, whereas most acoustic guitars made today meet at the 14th). It is made of Brazilian Rosewood with a spruce top and a mahogany neck so thick it could stand in as a cricket bat (more on that later). The body, what is often referred to as parlor size, is smaller than most contemporary acoustic guitars.** In addition to the smaller body size, the lower bout (the hips, if you will) is only slightly larger than the upper bout (the chest), whereas most contemporary acoustics follow the Dreadnought design of larger and deeper bodies with a lower bout that is noticeably larger than the upper bout (the "Dreadnought" style, designed by Martin & Co. in the late 20s, early 30s, was named after the HMS Dreadnought , one of the largest battleships of its day).

There are a slough of vintage guitars out there that deserve attention, but I picked this specific model because I've played one before. It isn't very often I get a chance to play vintage instruments, let alone ones that sound and feel as good as this little beauty. So I was very pleasantly surprised to discover several years ago (2001, 2002?) that a family friend had found one in perfect condition.

Perfect. Condition.

When I was back in Indiana visiting family for Christmas, he told me he had just picked up the "21." It was that old cliche that's every guitar player's dream. The guitar had been hiding in some old lady's house for decades until it was discovered during a centennial attic cleaning (what was so fascinating about the find was that the guitar had been set up for slide so there was absolutely no fret wear). Since my friend was more of a collector and less of a player, he asked me and my brother (who also plays guitar and can run circles around me) to go over and put the instrument through its paces.

The smaller body size threw me for a bit of a loop. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was definitely something larger. But when I stared playing it, I noticed a couple things. The first was its density. It had a sense of substance that was surprising for such a small guitar. Not that it was heavy, just that it didn't have that feeling of fragility I was expecting from a smaller guitar. The other thing I noticed was how impossibly thick the neck was. The neck to body size ratio was such that it felt like the body should have been the size of a Volkswagen. Yet, somehow, the neck was terribly easy to navigate. Even the twisty Joe Chord*** was easy to throw down.

But the most amazing thing about this guitar was the way it sounded. It had a rich, full-bodied tone that sounded meaty without any obtrusive low end. It sounded so good that playing it was a nearly religious experience. My brother and I spent several hours passing it back and forth until my friend eventually had to kick us out of his house.

Fortunately, my brother had along his little Boss BR-8 so I have a recording of it.^† Obviously, the quality isn't top-notch, but you can still get an idea of the sounds this guitar produces. So if you can ever get your hands on one, even for just a few hours, do it. You won't be sorry. (The guitar in the youtube image isn't the Martin but a Gibson L-5--it was the only image of me playing a guitar that didn't involve embarrassing O faces.)





* I must confess that I'm not 100% sure about the model number. All I know for certain is that it was made in 1921 and, going from memory, I'd have to say it was a 00-21, 00-28, or 00-42. If I can ever get a hold of my friend, I'll find out for sure.

**If any musician monkeys out there can clarify if "parlor" is a specific style or just a general term used to describe small-bodied guitars, please let us know in comments.

*** It took me six years to get my fingers to play that first Badd11 chord that opens Joe Satriani's Always With Me, Always With You . Hence, it will always be known to me as the "Joe Chord."

^† For my fellow audio engineering geeks out there, my brother held an Audio Technica Dual Reference cardioid mic directly at the sound hole on an X axis. I dumped the mono track into Audacity where I fabricated a stereo effect by duplicating the track then offsetting the two by 3 millisconds and panning them hard left and right. Afterward I gave it some slight compression, a few minor EQ tweaks, and then finished it off with a splash of reverb.

Question Post for LEVERAGE 212: "The Zanzibar Market Job"

A bit busy working on the S3 opener, so we'll tackle "Bottle Job" tomorrow (207 posts? Lord). In the meantime, post your questions, Comments, etc. here for "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job". Eliot fulfills a promise from S1, we realize Maggie is indeed the only human Parker even acknowledges exists, and Things Go Wrong ...

A Reintroduction

by M A N @roquesdoodle

Since I've been re-posting Guitar Fridays and plan to post more on writer-related topics, I thought a reintroduction was in order (also, John has been drilling it into my head that I need to get over my discomfort and just submit to shamelessly promoting myself on this site). My name is Michael Alan Nelson and I've been a professional comics writer for almost five years now.

For those of you who have been reading KFM since the beginning, you may remember John talking about my online novel titled DINGO. I've written a few things since then, the most popular titles being Zombie Tales (of which John is also a contributor), Cthulhu Tales, Fall of Cthulhu (the longest running ever BOOM! Studios series), and Hexed (the first comic ever available for phones with the Google Android OS). Currently, I'm writing the ongoing series 28 Days Later as well as adapting DINGO as a comic (issue #2 of 4 just came out last week).

While John keeps you updated on Leverage goodness, popular geek culture, and the finer points of professional writing, I'll be posting about the writing process from the shallow-end of the pool.

Up next: challenges of adapting a full-length novel into a four issue comic mini-series.

RERUN: Guitar Fridays: The Ibanez JEM Series

by M A N @roquesdoodle


This guitar is a little different from the previous ones I've posted about in that it's artist specific. Or at least originated that way. But before we get to that, let's look at the guitar itself.

This guitar sports an alder body, 24 frets with a rosewood fingerboard, an Edge Pro locking bridge system, DiMarzio pickups in a HSH configuration (humbucker, single coil, humbucker), and a look that beckons to be touched.

This sleek and sexy guitar is incredibly versatile. The transparency of sound from the pickups and their 5 different sonic configurations really allow for a wide range of tones, from blues to metal, to even jazz. But it's mostly known for one thing: pyrotechnics. This thing is not only designed for sonic variety, but for speed, accuracy, and whammy extravaganzas.

The JEM was born in the shred-heady days of the late 80s and came to prominence with the help of co-creator Steve Vai. It now has several iterations, including the infamous Universe seven string guitar (which single-handedly ushered in the uber-low nu-metal of the late 90s, early 00s--so if you're a fan, thank Steve). If you're looking for a versatile axe that screams sex appeal even when silent, the JEM is choice for you.

For examples of the JEM in action, I highly recommend Steve Vai's Passion and Warfare.* It is simply one of the greatest guitar albums ever made. Even though it's a shred-tastic wankfest, there are wonderful moments of soulful and emotive playing that few shredders are able to pull off. It's a virtuoso performance by one of the best players alive.

For a quick video of Steve putting the JEM through its paces, here is Tender Surrender from Alien Love Secrets. One of my personal favorites.

Tender Surrender


* The song Alien Water Kiss was purely an improvised piece used with heavy effects. So for the album's official sheet music, Steve had an artist create a beautiful representation of what the sheet music would look like, including strange notations, notes that trailed off the page, and even a puckering fish (yes, strangely enough, it worked).

Question Post for LEVERAGE #211 "The Bottle Job"

Comments, snark etc. in the, er, Comments. One of my favorite episodes in the entire run, and it;s a bottle show. I'll be damned.

LEVERAGE #210 "The Runway Job" Post-Game

Odd to do the post-game on an episode we shot six months ago, but I'll see what I can drag out of my Irish Whiskey-and-rpg-addled mind.

This episode was written fast. Very fast. Never mind why (such things just happen in television), but basically, we needed extra time to write the introduction episode for Tara. Sliding a new human into a tight ensemble is tricky as hell, and it's not like we're a hospital show. "Oh, that new intern from Mercy General showed up ..." That meant her second episode moved up a full two weeks in production. And, since were already three weeks behind on the writing schedule ...

This is why you try to treat your staff well. Because their young, healthy brains will bail you out when your showrunner brain is mush. For your edification, a one act play of how this episode was born:

Albert Kim: "How about that fashion show idea we've been kicking around?"
John: "Gah, the problem is, there's no threat in the fashion show episode. No menace."
Albert: "My research shows the Triads make more money from counterfeit fashion than they do from narcotics."
John: "I love you, and have always loved you."
Albert: "Please let go of me now."

The kids wrote like the wind, we shot the bastard in six and a half days (half hour comedies shoot in five days). My one regret is that we didn't get to use the original ending, based on my Lovely Wife's patient explanation of how fashion shows work. Turns out, immediately after a show, all those one-of-a-kind dresses are then driven -- driven in an anonymous white truck -- to a showcase room, so the buyers can then walk among different kinds of models (apparently called "fit" models? memory's a bit hazy), deciding what to order.

So, in the original version, what Nate and Hardison were off to do in Act Four was steal that truck -- then, when the cops arrived, our friend Russel Pan would have a full truckload of stolen dresses in his factory as part of the frame-up. I generally don't like "on-screen only" con payoffs. Scheduling, etc being what they were, though, we wound up with a very satisfying trick of multiple thumb drives with layered files, and I am personally amused at the idea of a factory in Shanghai churning out Pilgrim Chic.

The scheduling also meant that Jeri's first day off shooting were all the HQ scenes where nobody likes her and Nate is openly hostile. Weird vibe. Jeri is hard-working, incredibly sweet, and immediately became friends with everyone on the show (she and Beth were inseparable). But first day on the new job, everyone's telling her to go to hell.

So, as always, all virtues of an episode are thanks to the very hard-working writers, actors and crew, and all failings are my own. But, hey, that's the joy of shooting television. The. Train. Never. Stops. And I have an opportunity to fuck up again just a few days later.

On that note, before we launch into questions, I want to brag about the rest of the season. The staff, actors and crew really stepped up and nailed it under insane circumstances. Seriously, the work they did on the next batch is just ... oy, I'm kvelling.

The next episode, "The Bottle Job", is one of my favorite episodes of the entire run. In "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" the Wonder Twins took an episode about a land grab deal in Venezuela, moved it to a museum scam in the Ukraine and gave us one of the best Eliot episodes -- not to mention a whole new vibe with Sterling. Oh, and the return of Maggie.

Berg and Downey dream-teamed "The Future Job", which lays out some (implied) Parker backstory and gives us one our most hate-able bad guys in two years. And the two-part finale is big. Gigante. Baseball stadiums, civic corruption, oil tankers, explosions, helicopters. Although I have a soft spot for the Season One two-part finale , everyone who's seen it digs this one even more.

All kidding aside, I think this Winter Season are some of the best episodes of the entire two year run. So I can't wait to hear your reactions.

Right. Into the mail back, you surly bastards. If you don't mind, I'm going to skip the straight kudos -- which I think you for, sincerely -- and just focus on questions:

@Caitlin (and others): How did Kane react to being put in guyliner? It was hysterical to see BTW

Kane is ridiculously confident. He found it funny, and didn't even blink.

@Sherri: do have one sort of overarching question, one of those that has a long wind up (sorry). Elliot has always treated Nate with the most respect, deference, and concern of the group. He may complain about doing something, but he jumps up and does whatever Nate asks without arguing. In the series pilot, he was the one who voiced the most concern about Nate. Even when he got angry with Nate (in the Snow Job) it was because he feared Nate was not in control, not able to handle things. So, why? What's in Nate and Elliot's relationship or past or understanding of each other that gives Elliot such complete trust in Nate? We've seen some expansion of relationship between Nate and just about everyone else (Mostly Hardison and Sophie, of course). So what's up with Nate and Elliot? Is Elliot just that kind of guy, the second in command sort who takes orders? Also -- Parker has only one name, but everyone else is called by their first name, except Alex Hardison. He's always called by his last name. Why's that? Just a thing? Did I miss something? Good gravy, I think about this show far too much for someone who isn't paid for it.

This turned into a discussion in the Comments of whether Eliot plays a primarily "back-up" role in the team or not, so I'll take a minute to spin it out and answer some of those questions at the same time. It's an okay description, but probably not in the context most people think.

If you go back and look at the pilot, there are several intentional implications that Eliot and Nate see each other as peers. The way I originally described it to the actors, back when we were shooting in Chicago, was: "Gunslingers. You know each other. You know how good you are. Half of you wants to settle it once and for all, and half of you is glad to have someone around who's that good."

Eliot aquiesces to Nate's wishes out of respect for his talent, and because he appreciates a clean chain of command. But it's also because Eliot plays a generally independent role in the team. He's the escape route. There's actually a speech about this in #215, and it becomes pretty damn clear in #212. Eliot lets Nate do his job because -- and only because -- Nate lets Eliot do his job. And Eliot's job is to be the failsafe that never fails. When it's that character's turn to run the game you get the hell out of the way, because things have gotten very, very bad. And as we'll see, the rest of the team respects that.

You see quite a bit of that Nate dynamic with the other characters in the back half of the winter season. Nate has a plan, but execution is up to the individual team member. He lets them run, they focus on their own part of the con, confident that Nate has them covered on their blindsides. They are expected to solve their own specialty problems, often on the fly. For example, I'd say Hardison actually drives the middle of "The Future Job".

When Nate can keep his control issues in check, he's actually a very good boss. Too bad he's a rage-addicted obsessive compulsive who self-medicates with booze.

@WWWeaves: So, Hyundai is a sponsor?

Not just a sponsor, a friend. A savior. I would suggest checking out a Hyundai dealership. Mine makes me look thinner.

@OhShinyTomato: Okay, I have to ask. Parker's "hot" comment about Tara... is she canonly bisexual now or was she just trying to mimic Hardison and Eliot? You never can tell with her... haha.

As always, the characters' sexuality is ... whatever makes you want to watch the next episode.

@Rick: I guess my only real Leverage related question is if there is any news on the Season 2 DVDs yet? Are they going to break it into 2.0 and 2.5, a la Battlestar Galactica? Or wait and release it all as one set. And will it be out in time for ConCon? (Not likely, but had to ask.)

We were going to break it, but now it's one set (which means there's some funky dancing around spoilers in the Commentaries that only make sense of you know this.)

@MelodyAnne88: And now for the question. There will be NO Tara/Nate right? The whole "Sexy because he's broken" thing did not sit well with me (Apparently it didn't with Sophie either!)

Hmm, new gorgeous co-worker, spiralling emotional collapse ... sure, nothing will happen. Nothing ever does in those situations.

@Nicole: A.) Nate was obviously having control issues with butting heads with Tara. It seems like the team is worried that he's starting to slip (and he did come across as a little manic, or sloppy) but the risk he took was after he and Tara had come to an understanding. You've said before the back half of the season is more geared toward Nate - is he really starting to slip, or is this just team conflict? B.) You guys were awful teases with that conversation between Tara and Sophie. Will there be any hints as to what Tara owes Sophie for? C.) And finally, I know you guys are gearing up for s3. You've said before that the second season can be a little experimental. Are there any story telling devices (ie: flashbacks) that you want to bring back that you stopped using, or anything you found in the second season that you're going to continue with?

A.) Oh, Nate is not doing well at all. B.) See above. C.) Flashbacks are definitely back. There are some internal script structure tricks that we found we liked, but nothing that you folks would notice. I think if anything, we're going to stylistically hew to S1 a little tighter.

@Becky (and others): Is Gina going to be back (and not just on a tv/computer screen) by the end of the season or are we going to have to wait for season 3?

That is a super good question.

@Matt: A.) Who on the team wrote the fake fashion article? Was it just a cut and paste job or was it something more elaborate? B.) I kind of want to see the team go after NBC right now. Er.. BCN right now. Can you manage that for season 3?

A.) Hardison has a flair for fake text. He actually constructs them with a software algorithm. B.) Our team go after Zucker? No, that wouldn't be cool ... besides, we may have gone after evil contractors, baby traffickers, murderers -- but the network television world is too evil for even us to play in.

@Caitlin: At the end, when Nate and Sophie were talking and then he started shouting at her, he sounded a lot like he did when he was drunk before. We both also noticed that his hair was ruffled like before and his eyes were a tad bit bleary looking, also as before. While we know that Nate is going to be drinking again in the next episode thanks to the preview, was Nate drunk in the final scene of this episode?

No, but Tim was.

No, no, just kidding. But I was.

No, no just ... wait, I was. Anyway, no. But as mentioned, Nate's not doing well.

@Anonymous: Or give Eliot a girlfriend at all?Mikel Dyan seemed a good match for Eliot.Like she could take him down a peg when he needed it...Just wondering.

Eliot's off-Leverage hours are full. But he keeps it out of the office.

@Nikki: A.) Tara had an interesting look on her face as Nate handed her the envelope containing her 'cut.' Will a sense of guilt develop, and will Nate intentionally facilitate it? B.) Sort of springboarding off the previous question: will there be another instance, such as in the Lost Heir job, in which Nate doesn't exactly let everybody in on the penultimate plan?

A.) Guilt? I don't ever think she'll go that far. B.) Fuck. Yes. But first, there's one where they don't let him know ...

@Klep: A.)(various questions all around Nate falling apart) B.) How many models has Eliot dated?

A.) Nate's condition is ... accelerating without Sophie. B.) Not as many as you'd think. He prefers doctors.

@Kristin: My question is about Tara's cut: if Nate gave the client fifty thousand dollars, which is what they got from the mark, then where did Tara's cut come from? Who is paying for Tara?

Nate took it out of his own pocket. Tara's getting paid, one way or another, and Nate respects that.

@Calla: A.)One of the repeats on TNT today was "The Ice Man Job" and while Nate was busy distracting the mark, Eliot was directing Parker and Hardison on the vault break-in while keeping Nate informed. It was a difficult situation and I thought Eliot handled things pretty well - he has potential. Will we see Eliot running a con in the future? B.) will we find out why Tara owes Sophie?

A.) Yes. B.) Nope. Although you can probably figure a bit of it out, from context.

@Scott: What style(s) of martial arts does Eliot practice?

Kane and the fight guys based it off Panantukan and Eskrima, if I remember, with some Krav Maga and that vicious Russian style I can never remember the name of ...

@sjrSpike: If Tara is SUCH a good grifter/thief, why didn't Nate recognize her/chase her for IYS? Hard to believe she never stole anything insured by IYS ... just too big a coincidance.

Tara's criminal career was directly linked to her original non-criminal career. She never went after the shiny art bullshit Sophie so loves. Different areas of Crime World.

@Anna: Did I detect some Elliot/Parker flirtation going on at that clothes rack? Whoa.

No, you detected Kane and Riesgraf cracking each other up at 4am. That scene was actually shot much later, during the season finale, and inserted in post. They just tortured each other. If you look again, you can see they're playing it as Eliot suddenly realizing he's bugging Parker, and poking her back a bit for all the poking -- physical poking -- she's done in the past.

@Rob Donoghue: But the initial con raised a question in my mind: why not just steal the money? It was a cash operation, and the safe would not have been a challenge for Parker. It's curious that this does not usually come up because, frankly, it is very rare that the client just needs cash (and, relatively sspeaking, such a small amunt of it).

The money was step one of a slow con. We just never saw what the back end was going to be. It was STILL going to end with the Pans ruined, though -- Nate doesn't just do money. He does justice.

@Annie: How much time does Christian usually have to choreograph (he does, right?) and rehearse a fight? And if the fight is complicated or long does that affect how much Eliot appears in the rest of the episode?

A day planning with the fight master, and they rehearse right before they shoot. As far as how that affects his availability for the rest of the show -- well, there's a reason he's having shirts made up called "The Second Meal Brawlers." During the finale, everyone else went home after hour 14. Roskin and Kane and the dedicated stunties and the B camera heroes shot the finale fight until dawn.

@DHS: Where is Sophie, really?That bad green-screen is obviously deliberate and the matching headwear-background is trying a bit too hard.

Nope, she's on the road. What you're seeing is a side-effect of issues we had with the monitors this year. The color temperature was off, so the comps ... anyway, no she's on the road. And, to be honest, we're having a bit of fun putting her in places with matching costumes.

@gwangung: a) is Nate and crew going to be on the hit list for the triads? There was a reason Nate never wanted to get involved with organized crime... b) and wasn't Hardison a bit sloppy not checking for aliases for the Pans? Not the first time they've run across money laundering schemes and financial whitewashing is supposed to be one of his specialties....

a.) Nate is making enemies, although David Hunt covers our thoughts in the Comments pretty well. b.) Hardison is not perfect.

@FatherDog: Spent this week catching up on the Season 2 stuff I missed. Couple things - a.) Thank you for being the first show I've ever seen do an MMA episode and not completely fuck it up. Really. b.) Is Marcus Stark's name a callback to Donald Westlake? c.) Who runs the nastiest crew on the OTHER side of the Atlantic?

a.) Thanks. When you're working with real MMA fighters, you're highly motivated not to tick them off. Seriously, big props to Albert and Roskin for researching the hell out of that episode.

b.) Nope, just a cool name.

c.) Season 3.

@briddie: Did Tara steal an earbud so she could keep up with them later?

Nope, she specifically yells in Eliot's ear. She is budless for the back half of the ep.

@SueN: It's well established that Eliot is a low-tech (no-tech?) kinda guy, yet today's law enforcement is extremely high-tech. How has he managed to stay off the radar? Or is the fact that he's still on the loose rather than a guest of the government somewhere just another testament to the complete inability of intelligence/enforcement agencies to play well with each other?

Eliot has an agreement with some people. In suits.

@USRaider: The only problem I would have with it is that Tara (Jeri) doesn't seem to be in the typical "grifter" mode. Sophie (Gina) would never reduce herself to fighting to get out of a situation. A grifter, after all, will talk themselves out of most situations. How do we explain the difference between Tara and Sophie?

Because they're different grifters from different specialties of Crime World. That's not a problem, that's a clue. And she can't hack -- not sure where that came from. She's just got a source for very good quality fake ID's that'll stand up to NSA level scrutiny. Again. Clue.

@L: a.) How did Gloria end up working at a sweatshop herself, and how did she get caught? b.) We know Sophie was in Paris when the team was talking to her, Uzbekistan when she talked to Tara, but where was she when she was talking to Nate? c.) Gina mentioned in her TV Guide blog that she worked with a coach to get the langauges/dialect/accent right for all the different personas she had to portray. Did Jeri do the same?

a.) She's on the run. That was a non-linear flash. b.) Good question. c.) Yep, as did Aldis. Mary McDonald-Lewis is not just our dialect coach, she was also the voice of Wonder Woman in the Superfriends cartoon. A fact Downey is just a liiiittle too obsessed with.

@StaggerLee: So, were Parker's green Docs in her first scene a deliberate costuming choice or has Beth just been taking advantage of filming in the same city as the Dr Martens store for the US? =)

Our wardrobe goddess Nadine got those for her. Although I think I've seen Beth in them off-set.

@NateSophieFan: a) What did Nate do at the Russian border? b) Which book was Nate reading right before he called Sophie in The Ice Man Job? c.)Okay, Nate said that he'll try to communicate better for Sophie, now how about communicating better with Sophie?

a.) He may have technically hijacked a train. b.) A collection of Seamus Heaney poems c.) Oh, he kind of sucks at that.

@SethFourTen: Settle a bet: Parker fell off the runway to either A) Provide Elliot a distraction to retrieve the USB stick or B) The world's greatest cat burglar is no good in heels and a long dress. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

C.) Both.

@Puspa: (various questions in multiple posts, the answer to precisely one of which gives away something too big for me to spoil ...)

Yes.

@briddie: "Cleavers - haven't done that in a while." Is that just a callback to the Butcher of Kiev, or is it a hint that Eliot has dealt with the triad before?

Both. Nice catch.

@Anonymous: So, if Nate knew what Tara meant when that whole deal went down in the sweat shop, why didn't he tell the others about it when they were questioning his decision and talking about how he put her in danger?

It's was still a bad call, and a bad plan on the fly. If you look, they're talking about his call to leave her, not the aftermath.

Interesting actor note: I was on set that day, and Beth asked "How is Parker saying this 'You wouldn't have left Sophie?'" All I said was "It's not about Sophie, or Tara, it's about Parker figuring something out about Nate." She then came up with Parker's thought process was (no need to tell me), and that's what informs that line read.

@Melissa: I dont think anyone has asked about when Nate & Parker went to the Pan's house. They were walking up the driving way on one side as Gloria was driving down the other side. Was it a con thing to not pull all the way up to the front of the house? or just convenient for the script. I would think if you were gonna pull in the drive at ALL that you would pull all the way up.

I wish we were that thorough. Physical blocking issue at the actual location, that's all. The car was an insert shot later.

@mktackebery: a) was there a specific designer or design trend you were making fun of with the buckles? The designs looked familiar to me. . .
b) Jeri Ryan's accent in the con was hysterically funny. Who's idea?
c) Not knowing anything about the fashion world, I was kind of shocked that security would be so terribly lax at such an event, but it seemed easy for the team to take advantage of it. Convenient fiction for this story?
d) I too am wondering why Tara would casually drop Nate's real name to the Triad guy--I realize you were setting us (the audience) up to believe Tara was going to screw Nate because she was pissed at him, and is just a callous bitch and happens to roll like that, but the consequences seem to be severe. Seems a pretty short jump for the Triads to find out who Nate really is and get the drop on him someday.

a.) Nope. b) She landed on it after reading the script. She's doing Versace, I believe, while Nate does Lagerfeld. c.) People got into the White House. It ain't rocket science. d.) They got it covered. Although we are discussing Nate's ... identity issues for S3.

@Ann: You stated that we get 15 episodes again next season. That is quite a few less that other networks. Is that a choice of TNT or you, Dean, cast...?

Bog standard for cable television. And one of the few reasons I returned to TV -- I think it's unspeakably difficult top maintain quality over 22+ eps. Particularly for a con/heist show. 15 is my top-out number of eps per season.

@Rosie: 1. I re-watched The Bank Shot Job the other day and spotted our pet FBI agents at the end - but of course, since it was aired before the Wedding Job, we hadn't met them yet! As the insane geek that I am, I'd like to sometime watch through the episodes in the order they were originally intended to be aired. Have you (I couldn't see it but you might've) or could you post a list of them in that order?

It's the order on the S1 DVD set -- which is both informative and affordable.

1.) The Nigerian Job
2.) The Homecoming Job
3.) The Wedding Job
4.) The Snow Job
5.) The Mile High Job
6.) The Miracle Job
7.) The Two Horse Job
8.) The Bank Shot Job
9.) The Stork Job
10.) The Juror #6 Job
11.) The 12 Step Job
12.) The First David Job
13.) The Second David Job

@zvi: Okay, so, clearly Parker likes blondes (Alice, inappropriate sniffing of Maggie, inappropriate crowding of Monica Hunter, vocal appreciation of Tara.) Is this going to be an issue in Parker and Hardison's budding romance, or can they go out and pick up women together? (I am in favor of option #2.) Speaking of, is their romance going to do any more budding? I mean, I get it, you can't force the lock, but you do still have to keep trying to unlock it or you stay outside the door.

Parker has ... personal space issues. But as to the other ... Season 3.

Hmm, you folks are putting a lot of work into this whole "watching TV" thing. I hope you and your friends (you are recruiting even more friends, right?) are back next week. We just found out our winter launch numbers were our the second highest ratings of the entire run. Holy crap. More and more people are showing up for our little Heist Movie of the Week, and I'm convinced it's thanks to you superfans out there spreading the word.

Next week: we meet the owner of the bar, see Hardison shirtless, and hear Nate's Dad.

RERUN: Guitar Fridays: The Gibson Les Paul

by M A N @roquesdoodle

Image: The Holy Grail of Les Pauls, the '57 Goldtop.



From the iconic opening riff of "Sweet Child o' Mine" and the driving staccato rhythm of Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song," to the weeping wail of Gary Moore's "Still Got the Blues," this behemoth is one of the most coveted instruments on the planet. If the Fender Stratocaster is the precision sniper rifle of the guitar world, then the Les Paul is a veritable Howitzer of sound. It's meaty tone can go from raunchy clack to the smooth and buttery lament of angels with just the flick of a switch.

The guitar was designed in the early 50s with the help of jazz guitarist Les Paul to compete with the Fender Telecaster (Les Paul is also the man responsible for multi-track recording). In everything from Jazz to Speed Metal, it has been a staple of the music industry ever since.

The Les Paul is made from the heavier maple and mahogany woods (heavier woods give a the guitar a brighter sound) with a maple neck and a choice of either maple, ebony, or rosewood for the fretboard. It has a set neck, PAF humbuckers (although custom pickups are always available--Seymor Duncan P 90 Soapbars are my personal favorite) and comes in a variety of flavors (Standard, Custom, Studio, etc.). And it's heavy. I mean heavy. If you're going on a lengthy tour and planning to use a Les Paul on stage, make sure you have a masseuse on call. But even with the weight, the Les Paul just feels right in your hands.

I had a '73 sunburst Les Paul for a few years and it was one of those instruments that just screamed tone. It weighed a metric ton and its finish was terribly worn from years of being played, but it was still simply gorgeous (Nothing frustrates me more than seeing people with amazing guitars who never play them for fear of devaluing the instrument. It's a guitar. It's meant to be played!). You could even feel the years of barroom smoke in the wood (which I am thouroughly convinced added to its tone).

Aside from its weight, there's another little downside to the Les Paul. Though Gibson has their economy line (Epiphone), a new Les Paul will set you back a hefty chunk of change (and a classic Les Paul will set you back your first born). It's not an entry level instrument. This is a machine for professionals. Its quality is a testament to that.

Gibson introduced a new Les Paul last year called the Dark Fire. I've never played one so I can't attest to its tone or playability, but on paper it appears to be an incredible machine. At it's core, it's a Les Paul with a computer inside that allows you to change the tone beyond the simple tone knob controls. And it's self tuning. Self tuning. Damn, I love the future.

Click links below to hear the Les Paul in action.

Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) -- solo live
Gary Moore -- "Still Got the Blues"
Zakk Wylde -- "Farewell Ballad"
Nigel Tufnel -- Sustain
Les Paul -- a nice mini-documentary with the man himself

Question Post for Leverage 210: "The Runway Job"

I'm elbow deep plotting Ep 301. There's blood and screaming and colored pens all over the cracked tile in this basement room ... anyway, post your questions, comments, etc. in this thread, and we'll do the usual post-game shortly thereafter.

RERUN: Guitar Fridays: The Stratocaster

by M A N (@roquesdoodle)

(For those who found KFM after I went on hiatus, I'm John's guest blogger Michael Alan Nelson. I'll post a more proper re-introduction next week, but for now, I want to get back to the weekly episodes of Guitar Fridays. I'll rerun the older posts over the next several weeks until we get into new material.)



This is my guitar. There are many like it, but this one is mine (you can tell by the Cthuloid Cephalapod sticker).

The Fender Stratocaster is one of the most recognizable guitars on the planet. Even on the off chance that its double cutaway shape and signature headstock don't look familiar to you, you no doubt have the sounds of this versatile instrument lurking somewhere in your music collection. From the bell-like chimes in blues, twang of country, clackety-clack of funk, full-on shred of metal, to the warm and smooth tones of jazz, you've heard this guitar.

The Stratocaster hasn't changed much in the 50 plus years it's been in production. I guess when you get it right the first time, there's no need to. The body is usually made out of ash, alder, or basswood, though some more exotic woods are used from time to time. It has a maple neck with either a maple or rosewood fingerboard (mine is rosewood) then ends with the most recognizable headstock in history (as you can see, mine has the cool fat 70s style).

Wood, hardware (bridge and tuning pegs) and electronics (pickups, volume and tone pots) can vary in quality. American made Strats are considered a higher quality guitar than those made in Mexico or Taiwan and always fetch a higher price. As a general rule, the more the price goes up, the higher the quality of the components used to make the instrument and, usually, the better the sound. But this is not always true (this goes for any guitar, not just Strats).

I used to work at a music store in Buffalo and one of my duties was maintaining the hundreds of guitars we had hanging on the walls. I got to know those guitars rather intimately and knew which ones felt and sounded the best. And it was never the most expensive ones. Though the pricey guitars sounded and played wonderfully, they weren't necessarily the best in the store (though certainly worth the money). It's also how I was able to tell which customers were the serious players and which ones were just wannabes. The real players would always ask me, if I had a choice, which guitar I would buy. Wannabes (and the occasional collector) always went for the price tag. *

One of the most amazing things about the Stratocaster is how it helps define the musicians who play them. These guitars have become physical extensions of the players themselves to the point where seeing them without a Stratocaster makes them appear naked. The instrument has become such a significant part of their personas that seeing them with another instrument feels like you are staring into a bizzarro world where everything is somehow wrong. Don't believe me? Look here and tell me what you think. Doesn't seem quite right, does it?

I readily admit that my taste in music is not only poor, but also dated. The examples below of Strat players and their Strats in action are pretty one dimensional, so if you know of any others that should be recognized, let's hear about them in comments. Have a great weekend everyone.

Jimi Hendrix ex: "Machine Gun"
Buddy Guy ex: "Sweet Home Chicago"
David Gilmour ** ex: "Marooned"
Eric Clapton ex: "Hoochi coochie Man"
Stevie Ray Vaughn ex: "Little Wing"
Eric Johnson ex: "Cliffs of Dover"
Dick Dale ex: "Miserlou"
Yngwie Malmsteen ex: "Icarus Dream Fanfare with Orchestra" Wanktastic!


Next week: the Gibson Les Paul.



* My favorite story regarding the sound quality of a Stratocaster involves Steve Vai. While recording the song "The Boy From Seattle" ( a tribute to Jimi Hendrix) for his Alien Love Secrets album, he scoured the land for the perfect Stratocaster. After play-testing hundreds of Strats, he finally settled on a cheap Mexican made model he found in a pawn shop because it simply had the best "Strat" sound.

** David Gilmour is the proud owner of the Fender Stratocaster with the serial number 001 (which, incidentally was NOT the first Strat ever made).

Altmedia: Netflix WIll Win. And With Your Newspapers, Too.

"Altmedia" won't be a regular thing, it just turns out all my links and discussion today have a theme.

As you may have heard, Netflix cut a deal with Warner Brothers -- they'll delay rental release of WB DVD's for 28 days in exchange for a deeper, wider reach into the WB library for their Watch Instantly feature. Other writers have beaten me to the punch with analysis -- Bill sent over this excellent article:

Netflix's focus on the long term is smart strategy, and complements well the company's near-term emphasis on riding the convergence wave by embedding its Watch Instantly software in every conceivable living room device (e.g. PS3, Xbox, Roku, Bravia, Blu-ray players, etc.). It's also a strategy that benefits Hollywood. By creating a situation where studios preserve as much of their DVD sales as possible (allegedly 75% of a film's total DVD sales occur in the first 4 weeks following release), Netflix is helping Hollywood gracefully wind down and milk the DVD business.

John August points out a lovely side-benefit -- writers get better residuals off streaming than off DVD rentals. (I'm a little fuzzy on the math, but at first glance he seems right).

I have said "Netflix Will Win" so many times now that I should have a t-shirt made. Or at least be getting some bling from them. But I think it's worth looking at this successful model from a print perspective as the tablets now battle it out.

The e-readers are a dead end. I mean, read this description of the Plastic Logic QueProreader's virtues:

One surprise of the presser is the new truVue format for publications that Plastic Logic supports. The standard was developed in conjunction with Adobe, and it preserves some of the style and layout (though certainly not all) of a print publication, with publishers such as Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Huffington Post, Thompson Reuters and more on board.. To get documents onto the device you can print to a "QUE it" printer, as well as drag and drop documents to a "QUE it" droplet on the desktop for automagical document transfers. There's also a QUE application for the BlackBerry, which can bump any email or attachment from the BlackBerry to the QUE over Bluetooth. QUE has partnered with Good for "QUE Mail" and "QUE Calendar," with support for Exchange, Gmail, Windows Live and other email accounts. The device has Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G under the hood, with AT&T providing the wireless data.

You mean I can take any data and easily turn it into a proprietary layout that can only be read on your device? Tell me it isn't so!! And it has some of the functions of a tablet computer, but not all? AMAZING! So instead of reading your newspaper/magazine on its website on my tablet computer, where I can also follow hyperlinks and watch embedded video, I can read the same information on a crippled black and white tablet but, thank God, formatted the way you prefer to present it -- in a shuffling, zombie illusion of print?!!

All this wankerriffic bit of tech does is allow newspapers a last sop to their ego, that they control the information space. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a "kill the newspapers" guy. They still produce and present information, but the idea that deprived of their column layout I'll be set adrift, well, that's just sad.

To a great degree, this is why I defended the Kindle, despite Amazon's rapacious grift (%70/30, favoring Amazon). The column I promised but never had time to do last year was about how Amazon was basically going through the "we now fuck you because we can" phase all new technologies enjoy. They got there first, they had the market share, and so things rolled out in a rather unsurprising way. They will abuse their monopoly as deeply as possible for as long as possible. I was just too jaded to pretend to be offended. Remember when iTunes was all about the DRM? And now, not so much.

This is attributing a very deep game to Jeff Bezos, but there's a nonzero chance that the Kindle was always intended to be a transitory device with a single purpose -- habituate people into buying digital books the way they buy digital music. Skim as much as you can as long as you can off the "early adopters" (alt. definition see: "suckers" "John Rogers") and make downloading books a plausible premise.

The Kindle Reader on the iPhone is a very pleasant, efficient interface. This Christmas, Amazon sold more Kindle files than physical books for the first time. Unless I'm smarter than Jeff Bezos (the correct answer, btw, is a hearty laugh), then you'll see Kindle(tm) quickly fall in behind the Netflix(tm) strategy, rushing to become as ubiquitous on as many platforms as possible while Bezos personally dynamites whatever 19th century manufacturing base is churning out the Kindle chassis.

Back in the video world, you can see Apple trying to play catch up to with its offer of a streaming deal with CBS and Disney. CBS, as we've noted before, has a counterintuitively brilliant policy toward online broadcast, and I'll doubt they bite. But this, combined with the conceptual muddle created by the Comcast/Universal deal, all points to a transformative streaming distribution solution occurring years faster than anticipated. The current definition of "Network" is going to die very soon -- why the hell should Disney sequester streaming ABC shows away on an ABC website when it's more likely to be watched on a content aggregator like Hulu or an Apple streaming center, or Netflix? You know who cares about keeping Lost associated with ABC? People who work at ABC. You know who doesn't give a shit about ABC in the new streaming model? The people who own ABC. That does not bode well for the suited humans wandering those halls.

The question is whether services such as Apple and Netflix will help the corporations rebuild something of the monopsony they had over the airwaves, or if the wealth they've built by treating everyone the same (shittily, but the same) will tilt them towards encouraging an open distribution system.

(And once there's a unified distribution system for movies, television, music and books on our computers, are we really supposed to believe that journalism will stay isolated on black and white e-readers? Adorable.)

The big question, I suppose, is when this online distribution plateau occurs, with a.) Netflix owning the brainspace for movies and a heckuva lot of television, b.) Amazon owning the books brainspace, with SOME music and video, but also being a, for lack of a better term, first-instinct purchase point for most online Americans c.) Apple owning the music brainspace, and maybe poaching some television, d.) Comcast owning a whackload of television, not to mention controlling the actual pipe coming into your home ... whether they settle out into a rough, slowly evolving equilibrium, or if any of them go for the kill-strike.

(EDIT: My, it's getting feisty in here already. Good. Definitely want to see your Comments on this one, as I'm trying to hash things out for a longer article. Tell me I'm an idiot, but be specific!)

LEVERAGE 2.5: Warming up

IF Magazine will be running these over the next few days. We were ... very drunk and tired. Oof, is that what those extra twenty Season 2 pounds look like? Ow. Ow.



And Tim Hutton's tweeting (@timhutton) up a storm, with pics like this:



From "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" shoot. The titles for the back six are:

"The Runway Job"
"The Bottle Job" -- there's a very writer-y joke in the title of this show.
"The Zanzibar Marketplace Job"
"The Future Job"
"The Three Strikes Job"
"The Maltese Falcon Job"

EDIT: Hmm, haven't seen this one. Thanks, Twitter.

And We're Off -- Welcome to 2010 & Stuff I Use

Happy New Year!

First day back in the Leverage offices. Spent the day a.) on the phone not hiring writers and b.) staring at the highly improbably Season 3 writing schedule created by our Script Coordinator. "#301 outline done by Jan 14th"? Madness, that.

This is year five of Kung Fu Monkey. The blog began as a research-link dump, but now it's my connection to a community of strangers who never cease delighting me, informing me, and occasionally just pissing me off. Over the years it's slowly evolved a specific purpose (often independent of my intentions).

If there's any theme to this blog other than me succumbing to the bad idea: "Hmm, that's too clever to keep to myself" at three am, it's that I like to watch people share useful things.

In that spirit, I'll try to lay bare my writing process a bit more this year. I actually have a notebook titled "workflow". I've been doing this 13 years now (christ ...) and there's still always room to, well, suck less. Or, suck less ... more. You know what I mean. Unlike the film school folks I backed into this career, and lately the old physicist in me has gotten cranky about my lack of, ahhh -- "creative protocol". As I've mentioned before, its all about building the toolbox. This year I'm going to try to hang a few of the blasted things on the pegboard. I'm currently checking into the putting some Leverage scripts out as pdf's for educational purposes, so keep an eye out for that.

This is also the year we finally pretty the blog up a bit. Not outrageously so, but I wouldn't mind getting a proper Kung Fu Monkey logo image. One of the inspirations for the blog title was the great Dial M for Monkey character from Dexter's Laboratory, btw. It may be time for an artist's contest ...

Mike Nelson's Guitar Fridays are back, starting with reruns this Friday, leading into new material and other writing by him. I'm a thorn in all my friends' sides about self-branding, and Mike Nelson's the worst. He's done my favorite supernatural crime comic with Hexed, his novel Dingo was one of my favorite first novels( he's now adapting it into a graphic novel), he's writing 28 Days Later for BOOM! ... all that talent and no proper sense of self-promotion. "Come on, man," I bellowed at him over lunch, "I've five spent years building a temple to my narcissism. Come skim off the ego space!"

Now, so this post isn't ALL just blog-business:

STUFF I USE

I admit I was a bit stumped for this first post of the year -- I didn't want to do a Top 10 list of 2009.

2009 was a bitch of a year. Some years you send off, waving fondly. The year 2009 ... I've got the image of myself and four friends, bloody knuckles and splintered shovels, standing over a shallow grave at a crossroads at midnight. "We will never speak of this again," says Old Pete, and we drink to it.

Instead, I think I'd like to pass on some tools for moving forward into 2010. Things I bought or found that've become everyday tools. "Tools for what job, exactly?" Err, the job of being a geek, I'd say. In no particular order:

1.) Dropbox

This. Changes. Everything. A synched folder is installed on all your computers. Drop a file in, it appears everywhere else within seconds. I save my script files to it, we passed around pdf submissions, I dump all my downloaded game materials on it, so I can access the pdfs oneither my iMac or laptop.

Last season I was in Portland, finished a rewrite, dumped the file into Dropbox, my Script Coordinator re-formatted it, dropped it back in, and then I continued to make changes, generating Blues and A pages. She then printed them out as I saved each revision. Seriously, even if you're not backing up everything off-site like you should, you should at least have a single place where your data is off your computer and accessible from any web-connected computer? You can find a gazillion hacks for it online, too. Get it here. Free version will do for 99% of you.

2.) Red Oxx

Yes, this services my One Bag fetish. But mock as you will, I pulled off multiple nine-day trips to the set doing nothing but carry-on. The Sky Train is bottomless if you learn to fold properly (I actually prefer the dry-cleaning flat fold to the rolled style or bundle suggested at most travel sites). I've packed a full day of clothes plus my laptop in my briefcase, and even the little shoulder bag Gator fits an Airbook. The Mac Airbook (or standard netbook, for those not of the Jobs Cult) packed in the Gator, with all the power cords, hard drives & bullshit plus notebooks and pens (oh, we'll get to the pens) was my default briefcase for most of Season One and Two. It's made of parachute rigging. Trust me, yours will last forever.

3.) The Uniball Vision RT pen

Some people like @bergopolis would argue for the Pilot G-2 07 (she favors the 10's). Hey, I have a fistful of those, don't get me wrong. But this is the Uniball Vision, people, and what's more it's got a little nub in the clip that automatically retracts the point when you clip it to your pocket. Very, very geek friendly. Get a three-pack Leatherman 830850 Skeletool CX Multitoolhere. If you don't get why this is important, just ... trust us.

I write the Leverage development notes in a Moleskine 8 1/4" by 5" softback, generally with this Cross pen. The Moleskine's absolutely unnecessary, but that size softback is big enough to feel substantial (less likely to be lost) but small enough to be crammed into a bag side-pocket. Something about the softback makes it feel very pulp 30's adventurer journal.

The scripts themselves, at least for me, are written through a multi-stage process involving colored uniball pens (the thicker points), fine-point Sharpies, three-hole punch paper and a three-ring binder. We'll probably talk our way though one of those at some point. Speaking of which ...

4.) Movie Magic Screenwriter

We get about three emails a week asking what software we use. Movie Magic has formats for screenplays, both popular forms of comic book scripts, sitcoms, novels, but two things recommend it. a.) rock solid production stability and b.) the outlining function. It was Mrs. Glenn who discovered you could take a Word doc outline, cut and paste it into the outlining pane of the software, and create a scene-breakdown rough document just through that. Again, if you don't know whay that's important, trust us. Also, it has the least finicky pdf export of all the programs I've seen.

Arguably you can use one of the free alternatives or Word templates out on the web if you're just speccing. But end of day you will rewrite that spec, and with the revision tracking, formatting, exporting ... if you're serious, this is the program you get. Screenplays exist in a particular physical form, and anything that allows you to work within that form seamlessly helps keep you in your creative space.

Oh, and don't fuck around with the fonts. Courier New. Seriously, somebody sent me a movie sample in, I don't know, Garibaldi Sans Serif or something last month, and it made me want to punch his agent. This may seem petty and trivial compared with the hurricane force of your ideas. It's not.

5.) John Scalzi's "Big Idea" Blog Posts

Yes, Scalzi's main blog is thoroughly enjoyable, and he's a great scifi writer. But this series of blog posts, where he interviews authors about what inspired them to create their novel -- what was the single crystalline seed of each book? -- has allowed me to discover more fine new fiction in a year than all the online reviews I've plowed through in the five previous.

6.) Leatherman 830850 Skeletool CX Multitool

Light, with a built-in clip. One rides on the steel strap-ring on my briefcase, one on my pants belt-loop. It's light enough you forget it's there. So you get the geek comfort of a multitool without the clunky horror of the belt-clip. Hey, I know it's particular. But I use mine every single day. Get it at: Leatherman 830850 Skeletool CX Multitool

7.) Rivet

Streaming media from your computer to Where The Television Is. Many people favor Connect 360, but having played with both I find Rivet's interface a little cleaner and the program itself easier to use. If you're using Handbrake or VLC to rip your personal DVD's, then you can dump them pretty much anywhere on your network and Rivet will make sure your console sees them.

8.) Evernote

I just started using this. As far as I'm concerned, the only missing feature in this program is the option for me to have sex with it. I've e-mailed the devs, and they promise to tackle that in 2010. Grab the free version here. Careful, the latest iPhone iteration looks like it may be buggy.

9.)Belkin Mini Surge 3OUT Wall Mount 75K 918J with USB Charger

Just ... just look at it. It is very small. Smaller than you'd think.



If you plug shit in for a living -- and often do so at strange locations -- you must have this. This will make you the most popular person at Starbucks, or on a TV location, or ... like I said, this is the Stuff I Use. And I use this every day.

10.) Netflix Instant Streaming.

Seriously, I don't know what more I can do to talk you into this. Get movies and TV on your computer, your Xbox, your PS3, your ... whatever. Hell, pretty soon you'll be able to use this on your iSlate. This is the future of broadcasting, whether we like it or not. Look, learn, adapt.

Right, off to bed. I have a day job again. In the Comments, toss in the Stuff You Use. And not just for the Writing/Creative life. Whatever that THING is you keep foisting off on your friends, toss it in.