Stories to Tell

Sometimes the best stories are the ones only you know. If you vanished tomorrow, all your stuff would just be… Well, stuff. No one would know the places they’ve been; the flies on the walls of our lives. Stuff is powerful. I’m vague now, but let me clarify.
Look around you. No gimmicks, just look around you. Maybe not everything is something special, but surely you’ve come up with something you can talk about in your quick glance. And if you cannot, then allow me.

Alright, there’s a whole lot going on here. I’m surrounded by this stuff every day and I forget to realize how it came to be just like this. Let’s start from left to right.

You probably see that keyboard; well, it’s not a full keyboard. Whoopie. This is a gadget I wanted insanely bad in late 2012. It’s an AKAI MPK Mini 25. Have you ever seen that guy, AraabMuzik make crazy fast songs by mashing buttons? This thing makes it possible, and after hours of mapping MIDI files and marching through FL Studios (I’m not resourceful enough to acquire Ableton,) it’s literally a music making toy.

Can of Altoids. An absolute must for any Mlnarik I know. My dad always had them around, and now can confidently say I’m about as fond of them as chewing gum.

It’s hard to see, but on top of that can of Altoids is a metal pick that wraps around your thumb. When I first started hybrid picking, (using a pick, and multiple other fingers on my right hand) I knew there had to be an easier way. This little hunk of metal is the only thing I’ve ever shoplifted… But $4.00? Seriously? It found a good home.

You’ll see a pair of Skullcany headphones that are hanging on a harmonica holder (the kind Bob Dylan wears, you know.) I needed a pair of studio headphones a year back and bought a pair I was not impressed with at all. My friend Kelton asked $20 for them and spent it that same night. I still have the headphones, albeit duct tapped across the top.

That remote is to my TV. Boring right? WRONG. After I graduated, my school held an after graduation party. Pizza, ice cream, prize drawings; just a few amenities before we entered the real world. Well, the last prize they drew for was a 26″ flat screen TV which I won. Immediately after my name was called, I hauled the thing to my car and blasted “Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangster” by the Geto Boyz all the way home. Remember it like it was yesterday.

Next to my MPK is a mixer. I called Lanham music one day and made a guy sell me on the idea of being a few bucks poorer and a few shades happier. This is the heart of my recording operation.

Hah, there’s a credit card I used to cut picks out of.

That bass is a piece of shit. My brother’s girlfriend’s brother’s friend left it in a closet. (acquired by a long-shot.) Next to that is the telecaster I bought from the pawn shop in maryville this Fall. Traded my dusty twelve string for it across the table along with a hard case. Hands down the sexiest guitar I’ve owned. Don’t tell that to the Wildkat though. That’s the yellow semi-hollow guitar to the right of the Tele. I paid for half and the rest was my birthday present. Very warm and pretty toned guitar. Next to that is my first fender product, a Squier Stratocaster. My buddy Bever and I have cracked it open a few times; we put a Lace Sensor Gold pup in the middle position and I bought a nice looking gold pickguard, but the action is shitty. I’m actually trying to sell that son-of-a-gun. $200 or best offer, hit me up y’all.

You’ll also see an MXL 440 condenser studio microphone, a bulky-ass Casio keyboard, and a severely out of tune mini dejambe. This is the brief tour, maybe another week I’ll give the scoop on some of my other gadgets but for now, this post is getting long. For now it’s time to sleep and drag my self to Statistics in the morning.