I was playing a Fender Stratocaster at a Guitar Center store today. The atmosphere was a cacophony of several players, all doing their own thing. It was really hard to concentrate on playing. However, above all the racket i could hear the stores music system playing familiar rock songs. So I tuned into that, and just started ad-libbing guitar parts to whatever was coming out of the sound system.

That helped immensely, and I was able to feel the music and get into a groove. After a few minutes of playing, I saw in the corner of my eye a dude about my age who was watching and listening to me intently. Once he knew that I had noticed him, he came over and told me "Wow - finally someone with talent! I almost never hear anything I like in here."

I know it was sort of at the expense of others in the store, but it made my day to get the compliment. Plus he is a working pro guitar player. We talked for over an hour.

SO, I finally took some time tonight to revisit some of the work on Deviant that I remembered from earlier, and leave some compliments. It feels good to pass the love along. After all, you can't store love inside, as it is highly perishable when not moving from person to person.
Chuck