In Continuum.

Imogen

Destiny, destiny protect me from the world
Destiny, hold my hand protect me from the world
Here we are, with our running and confusion
And I don't see no confusion anywhere

Scrolling through my iTunes library, I came across a song that I haven't been listening to in ages. It was Ahmad that sent me that song, and that was the song that caused him to fall in love with Tristan Prettyman. The song 'Shy That Way' was a song written by Tristan Prettyman and Jason Mraz while they were on tour together. They eventually became a couple, which sort of made that song a little bit more interesting when performed on stage, especially with the existence of just one single microphone stand. I loved that song in the past, there is this innocence to the lyrics of the song, combined with the mellow guitar playing in the background. Everything in the song worked for me, and it was my mission to learn it - by hard - on guitar. But of course, my skills weren't all that great back then, and 'Shy That Way' sounded more like a random strumming of strings by a three year old when I attempted it. So the song was left aside along with my classical guitar, until this evening when Jonathan asked me to learn the guitar solo of the song all over again.

I came home from the Saturday studying session a little earlier today, because Deuel's mother was going to hold a birthday celebration for herself in town. So the Wong family was properly dressed for the occasion, with Deuel in his white shirt and his mother in a small black dress that made her about ten years younger. On the way home, I started thinking about that old classical guitar that I stowed away in the corner of my room, and how much anger it must have been feeling over the years if it actually possess human emotions. I don't suppose it feels good to be thrown into a synthetic leather bag and zipped up for years, only to be taken out because a song triggered an urge in the owner. So the first thing I did when I got home was to clean up the old guitar and gave it a new name - Imogen. It's kind of weird that I am giving a name to a guitar, after owning it for about five years. But I guess, it is better than never. Welcome to the family, Imogen.

And if the world does turn, and if London burns
I'll be standing on the beach with my guitar
I want to be in a band, when I get to heaven
Anyone can play guitar
And they won't be a nothing anymore

A little guitar lesson for those people out there who knows not of this beautiful instrument. People always ask guitarists why they have a dozen different guitars if they are all guitars in the very first place. I was asked to sell my second guitar because I am not using it any longer. But I objected to that idea, because every guitar has a history with you, no matter how little you care for it. Besides, it was my birthday present a couple of years ago, so to put it in the hands of some other amateur was a thought that was inconceivable. Above all, different guitars have different sounds. This guitar may produce a bright and metallic sound, while the other might produced a more muted but mellowed sound. It all depends on the song itself, and what sound you are looking for to produce a certain kind of mood. Though I am more focused on my folk guitar, there are times whereby you simply cannot get the right kind of emotions, no matter how hard you try. There is something about classical guitars that no guitarists can run away from, the way it has that very aged and authentic feel that nobody can deny.

It is not difficult for one to picture a narrow street in Italy somehow, in a small crowded cafe at night with the lights coming from the candles that burned in the center of each table, and the stage lights at the front of the cafe. Picture a guitar sitting in he middle of the stage and on a high stool, playing a classical piece on the classical guitar. Nylon strings are different from steel or bronze strings, and they are still in existence for a reason. They are just different from folk or electric guitar, and they are like jeans of the music world - they will never be out of trend. For example, you simply cannot play the lead guitar parts in Hotel California on a folk guitar, because it is going to sound absolutely wrong if you do. I've been asked to play that song on my guitar a couple of times, and most of the time without a classical guitar at hand. I'd be able to play it of course, but then feel incredibly uncomfortable afterwards. As if I just raped a song because I used the wrong instrument, or using the trumpet to play the saxophone parts. Everything about it was just out of place, I feel.

Grow my hair, grow my hair I am Jim Morrison
Grow my hair, I wannabe wannabe wannabe Jim Morrison
Here we are with our running and confusion
And I don't see no confusion anywhere

So, learning 'Shy That Way' on the classical guitar was a breath of fresh air. The solo just sounded right on the classical guitar, and everything just fell into place. It felt like slipping your feet into a pair of silk slippers, or hearing the right music in the right moment of a film. I told myself," This is it", and played the same song throughout the night afterwards. I do feel a tad bit of guitar, feeling the dust underneath my fingers and the paint being worn out on the fret boards. I've taken too little care for the classical guitar, and it felt like a lover coming back from a battle from far away. You sort of get used to your life without him, going through the routines with him always in the back of your mind and in the shadows. Then of course, he comes back to your home town alive, and you realize that how much you've missed him in the past couple of years. I still like the sound of my cheap hundred dollar guitar, and I guess something about it being aged just made it even more attractive.

My friend from camp once asked me, if a guitar or a Playstation 2 is a better investment. It was an easy choice for me, and I told him a guitar. He used his money of that month to spend on a Playstation 2 instead, what an idiot. Some people just don't understand that a Playstation 2 lasts as long as Sony decides to keep Playstation 3 under wraps. They don't understand how ephemeral such a superficial machine is. But a guitar, it stays with you for ever, if you are willing to put your heart and soul into it - and perhaps the sacrifice of the skin at the tips of your fingers. It's not guitar, but every other instruments as well. To name my instruments, is a way of telling myself that there are things inside these older instruments that I have neglected, things that I might have forgotten. Sometimes it just takes a certain sound in a song to trigger that memory of a distant melody, a sound that you used to play with that old guitar of yours. It is a high claim to call oneself a guitarist, and I don't suppose that I am good enough to be called that. But anybody can be a lover of guitars, and that is not a claim that is hard to achieve at all.

And if the world does turn, and if London burns
I'll be standing on a beach with my guitar
I want to be in a band, when I get to heaven
Anyone can play guitar
And they won't be a nothing anymore