Grace, I hope you have learned by now not to accept every gig offered to you. Research your gigs. Here, I want to plug Mary Spender on her upcoming tour.
I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the rejected.
59. Say, "See you what things Allah has sent down to you for sustenance? Yet you hold forbidden some things thereof, others lawful." Say, "Has Allah indeed permitted you, or do you invent to attribute to Allah?"
I pray your benefit concert goes smoothly, Honey. So do you enjoy fashion, Grace? You need more clothes, that's for sure. Here's something for you to watch on that long drive back to Tennessee: The Met Gala 2024! I missed the live stream, so it's great that Vogue posted this on YouTube.
What is the Met Gala? It's a dress up party. The Boss Lady announces a snooty theme, and the guests do everything they can to slaughter it and show that they are snootier than the theme. But the bottom line is that nobody really cares about the theme: it's a race to be the best dressed of the party, particularly among the ladies. The show is basically just watching people go up the stairs. There is supposed to be something going on upstairs, but the crowd doesn't care about that. You can see in the video, the celebrities waiting in line and sweating in their hot stuffy outfits for their turn to go upstairs, while a throng of peons ogle at them from across the street. That is, what counts as celebrities nowadays. I can still see many TikTok and Instagram faces being invited to the party. Which means that you might get invited too, Grace! If you go, promise me you'll be elegant and not dress like a clown. You can let your hair be itself, just make sure the outfit matches the hair. Me? I don't want to go. Mary and I will wear all black and watch it on TV. I have bigger fish to fry.
So who gets to choose the winner? Me, of course! The winner of the Met Gala 2024 is... Alia Bhatt!
First runner up is Tyla.
Second runner up is Irina Shayk.
The loser is Kris Jenner. I never imagined that all white could be so ghastly. Shame on you, Oscar de la Renta.
I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the rejected.
142. The fools among the people will say, "What has turned them from the direction to which they were used?" Say, "To Allah belong east and west. God guides whom God will to a way that is straight."
I love the black/gold dress and gold boots, Grace! Dress for Success!
I just filled in my tax forms for 2023. I used to do it on paper, but they made it mandatory to do it online this year. I like to do it on paper because my tax forms are the only accounting I have. I tried the online approach years ago, but I kept on getting stuck. But this time it was fast and easy, so that's cool. Since you do your own social media Grace, you can certainly do your own bookkeeping. And don't blow off your taxes, because tax years move faster than regular years.
Those are some nice guitars you have, Grace. Those are known as "assets". The IRS may overlook the assets you acquired when you were 16. Maybe. But it's highly likely that you're going to get more expensive gifts, so you're going to have to pay taxes on them. Yes Honey, the downside of materialism. And the IRS has a very sharp eye. I don't get expensive gifts. I don't have the money to pay taxes on them, so I would rather they give me cash. That way, I can pay the taxes on my gifts. If someone gave me a '61 SG, I would get it pawned, make a copy of the ticket, then get the guitar back out immediately. That way, I can use the ticket as proof of its estimated value. 400 bucks, probably. You might have the money to pay taxes on its collector's value, but who wants to do that?
Oh wait, I HAVE seen that SG before in your "Soul Sacrifice" short. I didn't comment on that, I apologize. I don't want your soul, I want to marry you. You can take it or leave it: the Qur'an forbids taking maidens against their will. I want you to accept me as your husband, because I genuinely have fallen in love with you and I want to take care of you.
I don't believe I'm a sellout. The music is free, and I write from the heart. I'm still as broke as ever, but I have managed to come up with a decent recipe for the combination of rice and burger. As for paying for the marriage, I have faith that Allah will provide me with the means. Please be patient with me. As to what I want, I want to do my job well, die and go to heaven. While I'm still alive, perhaps Allah will grant me happiness in marriage.
According to your itinerary, you have 3 dates in California from the 23 to the 26 of May. That's a long drive from Tennessee, and I expect your parents are accompanying you. What do you want out of music, Grace? Did you want to be the next Taylor Swift? She's a singer, Honey. Hm, that press is calling you a singer-songwriter. You're going to get a lot of crap from the crowd. Just ignore them and carry on with your business.
Grace, you've grown into an incredible looking woman. You should wear a mini skirt over those shorts. A little illusion can go a long way, and you would still feel comfortable. Take good care of your skin and exercise, because beauty needs to be maintained. Don't scratch up the beauty that God gave you with tattoos. The power of a woman is not to be messed around with. In your case, you also have to protect the music. So stay out of sight unless you have something righteous to do. Guard your chastity.
Is that another SG you acquired? I don't remember seeing that one. In your hands, both guitars sound the same. They're not supposed to, but it shows how skillful and stubborn you are. I keep my SG on the neck pickup. When I had a Strat, I kept it on the bridge pickup. That's my personality, going from one extreme to the other. My Strat was the same color as yours, too. You have a whammy bar, but you don't use it musically: you just shake it around occasionally. Get out of your comfort zone and hold the tip of that tremolo bar along with your pick. That should be easier to do on a Strat, and the volume knob is more convenient. Don't blame me for trying to turn you into Jeff Beck, but he's dead and you can replace him. What do I prefer? I prefer you, and I want you to kick ass. Get that Marshall stack, Grace.
Are we having fun, Grace? You must be enjoying yourself! Rock Star!
Grace, where are all the bikers? I've been waiting for you to post some pictures of bikers at Hurricane Mills. Didn't you go? I say you did the right thing. You're probably just waiting for the right time to post those snapshots, and are just teasing us. No worries Honey, I posted a video of bikers for you. And a full moon!
Well, I had fun roasting peanuts last night. I went for a dark roast, and they came out perfect alhamdulillah (praise God). I can't afford ingredients right now, so my meals have been crummy. Ugh... rice and burger don't match. But I went ahead and bought the peanuts when I realized it was more frugal than buying sunflower seeds. Can't watch TV without snacks! Yes, it's my job to watch TV, because I'm a Rock Star. Want some peanuts? They're addictive!
Hi Grace! Are you having lots of fun? You must be exhilarated, with your thoughts going a thousand miles an hour, trying to keep up with your fingers on that fretboard. Play some long sustained notes too, some dissonance and slides. Everything goes. I'm finding my fingers flatter on the fretboard, with a softer touch. I don't go up high very often, I like to sail around low and middle ground. Totally clean. The guy who owned my guitar before me rewired it that it gets noisy when distorted. I have to add distortion later during post production.
Did you know that Mary wanted to sing lead for Covet a couple of years ago? She said she wanted to join a band, and she wanted to join Covet. I told her that she didn't need a band but she bugged me about it, so I bugged Yvette about it. Yvette is a great guitarist, one of those educated types. Anyway, it didn't work out. There's no way she could sing 2 hours every day and moonlight in another band.
Azham Abdullah. I blog about the Qur'an, I own a business named Shadowplay, and I am the guardian and representative of a singer named Mary Unknown7. You can hear Mary everyday from 11 pm to 1 am PDT, the stream address is https://www.twitch.tv/maryunknown7
