Financially, that was the worst band I’ve ever been in. The highest paying gig ($50.00) was at a place called Ugly Tuna on Feb. 23, 2001. I sunk $971.66 into my car to make it ready for road work, during which time I earned $284.00 total. (The average income over the 13 gigs was $21.85.)The infamous Club M Incident occurred four months later, in June. We played a series of Sunday gigs but were told to keep it down. The Hippie cranked it up. For the record, I met the Hippie October 5, 2000 and despite the 61 mile commute to practice, played the first gig at the Borders over here in Aventura on November 28, 2000. There were 14 tunes on the handwritten list, not one of which I still play today.
Thus, the Hippie sets the record for bad management (the music was okay). (Compare to now, when I leave $800 cash in my music account just in case I get an out of town engagement.) I play 5.6 gigs per month compared to 1.8 back then. And I’m about to step up advertising for party work; damn I throw a good party. Ask Jimbo’s.
I took a lucrative contract out on 163rd, so I took the afternoon off. By now, I know a lot more about Vista but I still don’t like it much. People are shocked to find out they have to buy all new software. We can’t do that at the shop, did I mention, we have 30,000 pieces of software over there. Another thing, I’m going to look at a snack machine tomorrow. Fifty people a day come through the door and I know the vending business. All the good locations are gone, but I’ll settle for a buck out of each of them. If it goes, stick around for the inevitable exciting pictures.
Then more research, which progresses so slowly that I can do five things at once. One of those things was finally locating a copy of Led Zep’s “Hot Dog”, which is now added to my permanent list (aka the Farmer AB list, don’t ask). Thinking it over, I decided to add one Hippie tune, “Mellow Yellow”, by Donovan. I’m also considering “Louie Louie” but alas the original is not suitable, being both off key and having the same bass line left and right, so I can’t edit it out without destroying the vocals.
Still not totally rid of my cold, I stayed in this evening and re-read “Heart of Darkness”. So, may I now say I’ve read an ebook cover to cover? It is a retarded book but I keep thinking it will make more sense if I read it one more time. Conrad is constantly trying to write impressive sentences at the expense of making sense, although he does occasionally come up with a good one. He knows that himself and often repeats it in a few pages. While on the topic of writing, I responded to an ad in Ft. Lauderdale for a screenplay proofreader, something you can assume I am brutally efficient at.
