MORNING
Wow, I thought I had a bad day until I got into the office and heard about Fred’s. I say it is a general decline in the quality of new computer devices, that he can fix it, test it and then have the customer return the next day and it does not work. This doesn’t mean the days are slow-paced. My day consisted of making a run over to the wig shop, giving a truck driver a desperately needed lesson and telling off that "ignorant old bitch" at the supply store.
Here is a picture of what I call “Condo Hell”. Part of my collection for my future article “Coffins In The Sky”, this is a stretch of (formerly friendly) beachfront along Sunny Isles. Why should sixty happy neighbors have the right to houses on the beach when six thousand strangers can be crammed into the same space?My biggest objection is not the eyesore, but the fact that the local councils allow these pigsties to be built without any improvement in the infrastructure. For example, all those condos are built right up to the single beach road, which itself was already poorly designed for heavy traffic. They (the condos) have driveways, but just big enough for the unit. Thus when another car arrives, it has to stop and wait in the right traffic lane. Driving down A1A is a constant frustration. And guess where I must travel to the wig store?
This so typical example of how Floridians pass the cost on to others, every one of them contributing just a little more thoughtless inefficiency to the system. I happen to know a lot about this mentality. Every one of them is just barely clever enough to never actually step over the line where they individually could be accused of wrongdoing. The problems don’t surface until they start living in packs. Like rats.
NOON
By mid-afternoon, I was over to Chiptech to get the last order. Fred has changed suppliers because Chiptech has become just too difficult to deal with. They’ve made those 1980s type of changes that theoretically save money on paper, but in reality cause nothing but headaches for the customer. For example, they will not exchange anything unless you have the original paperwork. This does not bother me, because I always keep it, but you see I often have to stand in line behind others who did not.
Even then, they made the exchange a long drawn-process. I’ve personally had it take over a half-hour. Constantly entering numbers in the computer and coming back to the counter to ask pettifogging questions, it is hard not to conclude they are deliberately trying to discourage you. Most of the exchanges are because they gave the wrong color or some similar type of mistake. Around two months ago they began with instead of an exchange, you have to cancel the original order, get a credit memo, go back to the main counter and place a new order.
My point of view is that if it is their error, they should go to the main counter and so on. Well, today that shriveled up old lady that argues with everybody tried to give me the runaround. She would not accept Fred’s credit memo because (get this) his check number was only on the original, not copy. Bear in mind that both these documents come from their printer, not ours. This is but another example of how they’ve begun to quibble. I had to literally cross-examine her to find out what the procedure was. Finally, she said she could look all this up. I flatly asked her why that had not been the first option she offered?
Realizing she’d been called on the nonsense, she accused me of arguing. I pointed out that I was not arguing. Her response was to accuse me of arguing once again. I told her to keep a civil tongue in her head. She hit the roof. Good. Ignorant people like that desperately need to be told off. However, I did not tell her off. I did think that if I wanted to have some cranky old lady bitch at me, I would have gone to the government office. She surely thinks because she is an old lady she can say anything she wants. Around me, at least she might think twice about that. After fifteen years in a cubicle, I know exactly how to push the buttons on old ladies.
Don’t worry, I’ve got some good news. First, take a look at this pipe, I think the oil industry calls it a Christmas Tree. If I’m not mistaken, that means they struck oil. This is in that vacant lot a half-mile west of here where I saw the oil rig last summer. If anything big happens, you heard it here first. Oh, and on the way to the bank after work, I noticed the new park was open in Young Circle. Good, it took them seven years of dusty noise to work that two acres. Bad, a security guard stopped me and informed me it was not permitted to ride a bicycle there. No, he was not kidding. He went on to tell me I could “walk the bike through the park”, but I turned around and left him talking to himself. I’d already had enough old ladies for one day. Way to go, Hollywood!
EVENING
Okay, the bright spot. The day ended with an astoundingly successful rehearsal. Mr. Brian has definitely caught on to the non-musical parts I’ve been pushing. I’m noting all these nuances and watching for progress. I’m impressed. He knows he’s catching on and also that he is reacting to music being fun to play again. At first he was skeptical but you should see him now. He stands up to play where he used to sit, that is one of the indirect effects of my philosophy – it is hard not to dance.
I brought the drum box along for the first time. Talk about your instant effect (although a drum box is not the answer, folks). Suddenly a lot of the things I imported to the structure of the music made sense and he wants the box playing on every song. The whole business is too faceted to detail for you, and besides, I don’t want you non-musical types out there figuring out how easy all this really is. He’s learned how we can instantly adapt to the correct drum beat no matter how off-speed we start. He also does a better job of singing now that he is distracted by the presentation aspects.
The two strongest changes are tactics and confidence. I will elaborate. With other musicians, there is a tendency to memorize everything. However, my methods are along the lines of when I do this, you do that. Vice versa, you can count on me to play certain things whenever you add in the prompts I’ve introduced. Finally, and after only three rehearsals, it fell into place for the lad.
We were able to play tunes based only on vague familiarity and these little “rules” (as he calls them), which I take all the credit for here not because they are new, but because I did not learn them from anybody else. That’s a fancy way of saying I’ve learned from experience. He is beginning to project a sincere confidence; I predict in a month he will shock the hell out of anyone who knew him from before. Brian was dubious when I first said it, but today he proved to himself he can set his guitar down and sing the entire song to just the bass line. That was neat because at first he himself was not sure it was sounding so good. I’m further glad that he sees the guitar parts are not anywhere near as necessary as we’ve been told.
This means he has also accepted the downside that his guitar playing needs help to be presentable – and that help takes the form of bass and drum backing. None of this surprises those who knew my predictions or why I picked this yahoo to test my techniques. I’ve made a believer of him on the part of taking our strong points and creating highly-focused synergy. However, his actual guitar playing is not improved. The parts are so heavily merged that I doubt he will even consider either a solo act or joining anyone else, although in another couple of weeks we will be a deadly backup band.
For that reason, I am targeting January 24, 2007 as the day we play in public. It might be for two hours, it might be in a seedy bar, it might be for tips only but it will get us underway and I’ll have a solid disciple. If he continues to respond to instruction it will be both fun and money. (Aside, I’m glad he is well-to-do because the days of $100 per member gigs are really gone for most of us. I’m anticipating $65 each maximum if we even do get paid.) We have a full set [22 tunes] ready, if only he could play it.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
