[Author's note 2016-03-11: this is the first known picture of Pudding-Tat, my faithful cat to the end. That's her end, not mine.]
Dickens called, we decided not to open the Thrift today. He has a new security system, so we’ll probably do that some day this week. Shoplifting is a problem, more so now that he has expensive items beyond the usual bric-a-brac. I like that term, which I’d only ever seen in crossword puzzles until I got to Florida.
We have a picture of the suspect. I don’t recall seeing this cat at Steve’s and Roland, the neighbor recalls seeing this cat around for three years. I’ll reserve a conclusion, because I never saw this particular cat around here, and I’m in the area year round. This cat is also exceedingly friendly; Steve’s cats were not.
Which got me looking closely at Guitar Jeff’s notes. Er, I hope the rest of his sheets are more accurate. His chords and patterns for two of the three I’ve looked at are seriously wrong. This might explain several instances where he outright played the wrong chord and could not instantly adapt to the correct one. “Crazy Little Thing” goes nothing like what he wrote, I essentially spent 90 minutes going over the tune to straighten things out. I’m still very hopeful that our strengths in these different areas will combine to good effect.
When Guitar Jeff said he did not play lead, he meant it. I suggested the chorus pedal and he has never used one. I do not miss the lead notes, as it gives me a chance to spice up an intro with a novel bass line. Some of my favorites are “walking” guitar riffs lifted from deeper in the song and adapted to bass.
If, as is usual, Guitar Jeff has essentially played the way he will on stage, I may be able to shine. Thanks to The G, I have seven recent years experience playing better-than-nothing bass lines to tunes I’ve never heard. I’ve previously toyed with the idea of doing bass breaks rather than lead breaks. This would be very simple riffs, striving for effect rather than speed. I discovered several innovative methods while using bass notes to keep myself on beat during synchopated music, but have never had a chance to try it as a stage show.
Except for one or two measure riffs, The G would never stop playing long enough ever, much less for an innovative feature like a 12- or 16-measure bass break. Yet, Brian and I found that I could easily flesh out a weak or thin guitar chord solo. By the end of January [2007], Brian and I were regularly using the technique. In some cases we came to prefer the bass pattern.
The plan had been for Sunday coffee, you know, the Starbucks thing, even though I know there are never any women in the ones I go to. I had to smile at this article published on the Internet recently about a woman saying that she like to be approached by men in places like shopping centers. She stated that it was “okay” to walk up and start talking to her. So far, so good. However, then she added that most of the men who had already done so were “far too old”. Exactly how is that supposed to be taken?
Are such women are saying it is okay to approach them only so long as you are a young movie star. And that, my friends, is why you just knew if you waited around long enough, I would get you a picture of the French brunette next door. You don’t hear me complaining that she is too young for me, do you? Er, tit for tat and merci beaucoup to you, buddy.
So instead, I stayed home and practiced music for over six hours more. I aced several tunes I have not played in decades, adding much more contemporary bass lines to punch them up to modern standards. Anyone remember the “Georgia Satellites”
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