Your Name and Avatar

[mickey]

My name is just my name. Sort of a kick to the nuts from the universe, I suppose. My picture is what I have to see every time I look in a mirror. I figure if I have to suffer with it, you guys can, too.

I'll always hold it against you that you took a selfie of you and me.
And [mention]TVVOODOO[/mention] named me Gandalf!

[redman]

My Avatar is one I use other places and go by the user name WurWulf a nickname I've had since I was a kid don't know who started calling me that but almost everyone I knew called me that including my family.
When I first signed on at the old site I wanted to do something different but never liked a picture of some of my guitars I used so when we made the exodus to this site I used the WurWulf Avatar and didn't change my user name so I would be known here.
As far as my user name I used it at the dismay of some friends and family members as they thought it to be disrespectful but I chose the name Redman because my mother was Native American of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee specifically of the Bird Clan. My father was of Irish decent my paternal grandparents were immigrants from Cork Ireland so not many of that side of the family are in the states therefore I relate more to mom's side of the family thus Redman.

[RiverDog]

I love Vivian's playing so much, it's just too bad he's such a colossal A-hole

Why do you say that?

Firstly, experience...the contrast between meeting him and meeting Dio was unfortunately night and day. Meeting Ronnie was amazing, he was such a warm and friendly person and really treated every fan with respect.

Re: meeting VC...my friend was kinda just starting out as a guitarist at that time and really idolized him, at a meet and greet he got an autograph and asked him a question about the gear he was using at the time. He not only gave my buddy this really nasty sarcastic answer but actually made fun of him out loud in front of the whole line of people as he walked away. It's been literally years and my friend still gets upset when he tells this story, because someone he revered was so nasty to him for no reason whatsoever.

And then of course there's the amount of trash talk he's lobbed Dio's way over the years, despite Dio essentially being responsible for jump starting his entire career.

Long story short, great guitar player...not a great person.

Well that sucks. I hate when you find out that a famous person you like ends up being a douche. I had heard that there was something(s) he had said about Ronnie but I think I purposefully ignored it.

[slowhand84]

Why do you say that?

Firstly, experience...the contrast between meeting him and meeting Dio was unfortunately night and day. Meeting Ronnie was amazing, he was such a warm and friendly person and really treated every fan with respect.

Re: meeting VC...my friend was kinda just starting out as a guitarist at that time and really idolized him, at a meet and greet he got an autograph and asked him a question about the gear he was using at the time. He not only gave my buddy this really nasty sarcastic answer but actually made fun of him out loud in front of the whole line of people as he walked away. It's been literally years and my friend still gets upset when he tells this story, because someone he revered was so nasty to him for no reason whatsoever.

And then of course there's the amount of trash talk he's lobbed Dio's way over the years, despite Dio essentially being responsible for jump starting his entire career.

Long story short, great guitar player...not a great person.

Well that sucks. I hate when you find out that a famous person you like ends up being a douche. I had heard that there was something(s) he had said about Ronnie but I think I purposefully ignored it.

Yeah apparently he called Ronnie "the most despicable person that ever lived"...pretty harsh words toward someone who literally put him on the map. Very likely that no one would ever have known who VC was if it weren't for RJD. The only other negative experience that I had meeting someone was Dave Mustaine, but I expected that

[BatUtilityBelt]

BatUtilityBelt is a tongue-in-cheek reference to my day job. While waiting for music to take over, I spent decades in research and development across a variety of technologies. When people asked me what I did, the answer they could understand usually related to the specific area of development at the time, which gave the wrong impression I was expert in that technology space. What I really did was specialize in R&D. So it was about the collective advances represented in Batman's and Robin's utility belts, not any one given device.

My avatar is a Jazzmaster (named Kato) that I partscasted together around a Warmoth body, Lollar pickups, and Squier donor because there were no good lefty Jazzmasters available at the time and I really wanted one. It's not currently my favorite guitar, but it remains in my top 5.

[TVvoodoo]

Way back in the olden days I was a local TV Commercial Producer/Director - you know, the ones you REALLY love to hate . One day we were working on spots in post, creating so-called "TV Magic" which often is little more than a combination of slow-mo footage in concert with the right canned music and smart edits. These particular commercials were for a greasy spoon chain called "Smitty's".... and a summer promo called BurgerFest, a series of international specially dressed hamburger combos, Mexican, etc... Anyway, while editing the spots, the technician dubbed our production a full step above TV magic, to "TV Voodoo" For the shoot I'd borrowed my wifes lazy susan rotating tray from the kitchen, and with some sexy lighting, good backgrounds, a spritz of water etc. we were making these loaded-up burgers look absolutely drool-worthy magical in closeup.

Gotta remember this was "cheesy" local TV, like nearly 30 years ago - I believe we picked up an award or two for those spots... nowadays all we see for restaurant chain productions are similar HD "food in motion" stuff, logical extensions of what we were exploring back then. Certainly at the time nobody was daring to try such a thing for low budget local TV commercials in the $2,500 range like we managed to pull off. Such setups were costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for chains at the time. Lord knows what they cost now. - I particularly loved writing/producing restaurant commercials, 'cause it seemed I had a real knack for it, and they often used to feed the "crew" (an EFP Cameraman, and me). I also really dug how the cooks in the back really seemed to get into dressing plates nicely for photo day, normally, they were used to just cranking plates out.

My TVvoodoo nickname came from those times, still wear it proudly even though my broadcast days are far behind me My avatar reflects how I try to get hamburgers in front of me nowadays.

[zisme]

zisme = z (my first initial) + is + me. not very creative i suppose, but it's stuck

my avatar is from the Japanese cover for Amplifier Worship by Boris - one of my favorite albums. the quote in my signature line is written inside the album jacket

[voodoorat]

my handle dates back to when i was in high school. i was a early adopter of talking to strange weridos on message boards (dial-up bbs's) from when i was a pre-teen. i'd used a couple of handles before ("elric" and "random") but as more people got on bbs's they were already taken more often so i wanted something more unique. one of my older brother's friends' aliases was "sir ratt" and i liked how that sounded but just made up "voodoorat" kind of on the spot. have used it pretty much ever since and it's uncommon enough that it's usually available. my avatar is just an out-of-date picture of some of my guitars with the ad-3200mcc in the foreground. i sold one of them (the fender acoustic) since i took that picture.

[rrobbone]

The name: I spent my early professional years in various aspects of the video game industry, and as such I got lots of freebies. One of those was a pass to a fledgling online service called "XBox Live." "rrobbone" is an extension of my initial gamertag utilizing letters from my name.

The avatar: The avatar is a character named "Turkish" from the movie Snatch, played by Jason Statham. I chose this because I can relate to the way the character tries so hard to exert his intentions, watches things fall apart in front of him, and then they just sort of work out anyway - though not exactly in the way that he'd like, and certainly not due to his actions. You get the sense that he will always be in the station he's at in life - despite even the modest plans he makes - and that he struggles to make a peace with it everyday.

Or alternatively - I just place way too much emphasis into story analysis.

Also, Statham and I used to favor each other somewhat - this was years ago. As time has passed, his fabulous wealth has afforded him a team of experts to keep him looking great. I'm not wealthy, so he's fighting the aging a little better than I.

[DonM]

Username is my first name last initial. Avatar is a pic of me in 1985 London, you know where. My friend’s wife took it. I could see the yellow van heading for me and I’m yelling out the corner of my mouth to “take it!” and she was waiting for the right time. Almost got me run over but it’s probably my favorite picture of all time of me.

[RockYoWorld]

RockYoWorld has been a running username I've had since about 6th grade (~2005). I thought it was cool like, "I'm gonna rock yo world!" It sounds much lamer to me now, but I'm terrible at band names, let alone usernames so I'm too lazy to come up with something better besides an even worse name I had to use on Xbox because RockYoWorld was taken... Best part of the username story is that when I made the account on PS3, I didn't capitalize any letters, so it appeared as rockyoworld. A group I gamed with back then thought it was "Rocky-O-World" so they called me "Rocky," which I thought was a fun nickname for back then.

My avatar is a shot of me opening up for Rick Springfield at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 2018. Real bummer the festival was canceled this year. COVID can go suck a duck.

[thepezident]

I probably own over 1000 pez. Some rare...most not.
I do have some interesting ones that I should prolly take pics of and post
but I'm too lazy.

My avatar is His Noodly Appendage...The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Say with me His prayer

Our saucer which art in a colander, draining be Your noodles.
Thy noodle come, Thy meatballness be done on earth, as it is meaty in heaven.
Give us this day our daily sauce, and forgive us our lack of piracy, as we pirate and smuggle against those who lack piracy with us.
And lead us not into vegetarianism, but deliver us from non-red meat sauce.
For thine is the colander, the noodle, and the sauce, forever and ever. R'Amen.

[DonM]

I always assumed you avatar was you Scott.

Me too!!

[DonM]

Why do you say that?

Firstly, experience...the contrast between meeting him and meeting Dio was unfortunately night and day. Meeting Ronnie was amazing, he was such a warm and friendly person and really treated every fan with respect.

Re: meeting VC...my friend was kinda just starting out as a guitarist at that time and really idolized him, at a meet and greet he got an autograph and asked him a question about the gear he was using at the time. He not only gave my buddy this really nasty sarcastic answer but actually made fun of him out loud in front of the whole line of people as he walked away. It's been literally years and my friend still gets upset when he tells this story, because someone he revered was so nasty to him for no reason whatsoever.

And then of course there's the amount of trash talk he's lobbed Dio's way over the years, despite Dio essentially being responsible for jump starting his entire career.

Long story short, great guitar player...not a great person.

Well that sucks. I hate when you find out that a famous person you like ends up being a douche. I had heard that there was something(s) he had said about Ronnie but I think I purposefully ignored it.

And therefore the reason for the old saying, “you never want to meet your heroes.” That experience of your friend is sad.

[Frozensoda]

My name:
I have a nasty habit of putting cans of soda in the freezer to get cold quickly and then forget they’re there.
If you leave them in too long, the cans will explode and shower the inside of the freezer with it’s now Slurpee like contents.
On the day I created my original AGF account, I had done just that with a six pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, (my wife wanted to kill me) so I just went with the name FrozenSoda.
My Avatar:
For the longest time all my social media account used the below eyeball in the winged Valkyrie helmet, drawn by Rick Griffin, as my avatar as I did for maybe the first two weeks on AGF.com until I found my current avatar, a Grateful Dead sticker of an eye in an Uncle Sam hat playing Jerry’s guitar.

[Mossman]

"Moss", or "Mossman" is a nickname given me by two close friends. They're the only ones who call me that, and they've been calling me "Moss" for so long, they say they sometimes struggle to recall my real name! It has nothing to do with actual moss, or lichen, or anything growing on the south side of a tree... It's a long and personal story, and frankly, it would probably bore the piss out of everyone here, but the name represents friendship, love and loyalty.

When I first discovered guitar forums, I was going to use the handle that I used for years back in my BBS days, which was: "King Lerxst" (from a story by Alex Lifeson in Rush's "Grace Under Pressure" tourbook) but it felt like a name best left behind in my teens/twenties... Besides, whenever I have tried to use that handle, it's usually taken already.

My avatar is a picture of Jimi Hendrix pursuing his true calling... Because the accordion was the first instrument I ever seriously played (really, who can seriously play the accordion?).

My old avatar was a picture of Lawrence Welk.

[dabbler]

...
My avatar is a picture of Jimi Hendrix pursuing his true calling... Because the accordion was the first instrument I ever seriously played (really, who can seriously play the accordion?).

My old avatar was a picture of Lawrence Welk.

About Hendrix, I had NO IDEA! And you must have either play accordion yourself or just like confusing people, because: Lawrence Welk?

[fatjack]

[mention]Mossman[/mention] Myron Florin seriously played the accordion.

[Mossman]

@Mossman Myron Florin seriously played the accordion.

Yeah, that cat could play!

[Mossman]

...
My avatar is a picture of Jimi Hendrix pursuing his true calling... Because the accordion was the first instrument I ever seriously played (really, who can seriously play the accordion?).

My old avatar was a picture of Lawrence Welk.

About Hendrix, I had NO IDEA! And you must have either play accordion yourself or just like confusing people, because: Lawrence Welk?

Heh, heh... both... I liked the incongruity of using an accordion virtuoso as an avatar on a guitar forum. I don't think anyone knew it was Lawrence Welk. No one ever commented on it, and nobody ever asked me who it was, either.

I came upon the Jimi avatar online, and just thought it was funny, and in keeping with what is now an accordion "theme".

[honyock]

My Grandpa "Scooby" who was wounded on d-day used to call me and my brother "a couple of Wacousta honyocks" to which we would reply calling him an "Orangeville hillbilly".

Since my last name is of German descent that is why he called us honyocks, but it reminds me of him and the fun we used to have with him so I don't really recognize the negative connotation of it.

Avatar was just something I saw on Amazon. Decided to put the mask pic up since that was about the time we needed to start wearing them at work, and I live in AZ.

[Jaymo]

Nothing special about my username. Just a stupid nickname I was given 25 years ago.
It's easier than trying to think of another username.
I probably used a pic of my motorcycles as my avatar.
Screw it. I have no avatar, because my avatar pic I use everywhere else is too big.
Tried to resize it and got frustrated it, so I said fuck it.

[Lacking Talent]

Mine needs no explanation whatsoever!

[Raindog]

Raindog because
1. Tom Waits fan
2. I identify with the Raindog definition: "A Rain Dog is a dog caught in the rain, with its whole trail washed away by the water so he can't get back home. A stranded dog."

My avatar because I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) and it is my tribute to Joe Exotic. COVID has pretty much turned the reference moot and the avatar is due for a change. 2020 is a helluva year!

[dearlpitts]

Well if I ever can figure out how to make an avatar that's not to big ,I ll let ya know. Been told that the size is bigger for avatars here than the old site. But the same avatar here, says too big. So i m doing something wrong. Once I learn how to do everything on here, it will be awesome. Just having a hard time for some reason.