Things like the weather and the economy like to team up on business around here. This is the fancy GM lot up on the corner. I have no before-and-after photo, but here is another location where the inventory is just not being replaced. Note the vacant parking spots and the empty lane. A year ago, there wasn’t room to squeeze between them on a bicycle.
The Taurus acts up in cold weather. At least that is the fourth year in a row it has done so, and it has never failed to require repair every winter. I’d say that’s a pattern. Now it is intermittently leaking water when the motor warms up. That’s Murphy’s Law, see, because I’m the type that doesn’t arrive anywhere early enough to start looking for car trouble. That’s the only time the motor is hot. Sometimes you just got to wonder about these coincidences.Good, because I don’t remember much of the day otherwise. I’ve also got the sniffles. Sure, I was in the shop applying for various jobs. The changes in the economy shine through many of the ads and listings. Part of my definition of Third World is when the average job does not pay enough for the worker to thrive. I would say, all you college grads out there, that if things don’t pick up you might as well ask for your money back. Each recession this decade is different than in the immediate past. This time, the infrastructure is permanently damaged.
So I looked at the big picture, trying to identify with all the yuppies that are going to lose their life savings in the real estate debacle, facing their senior years without the wealth they thought they had accumulated. Then I said, “Piss on them” and went out[ with my bass] to[ pla] a gig. Hey, Yuppies, I don’t recall you people complaining about all the poverty you induced by borrowing your way through life. And it was a good gig, too. My tips have finally reached a total that I can be proud of. I said total, not rate.
It seems I am badgered to define induced poverty. Personally, I think the context is clear, but here goes. It is the effect when borrowed money causes prices to rise to the point where those who do not use credit cannot afford things. Real estate is a grand example. House prices rose far faster than can be explained away by economics alone. These Yuppies were into the realm of speculation, and the majority always have to lose at that game. The Dutch had their tulips and the Americans had their mortgages.
[Photo delayed] [Then the photo got lost.]
A few of my fans reported that people I knew were playing at Boston’s. So I walked up there but I didn’t even know anybody in the audience. The band was unusual in that the bassist played [what looked to me to be] a small sized standup bass. It sounds fantastic but it was totally electrified. The tone was similar to a Fender Jazz bass and lacked the boominess of a real standup. The section that was played, or plucked, was full size. That puts me against the instrument because it places physical restrictions on what can be done. I could not play what I do on a standup.
My plan for the weekend is to do nothing in my spare time. That’s been my plan since I was 12; I’m just not any good at doing nothing. What’s this, a John Wayne movie on Sunday? He was already old when I came along. Among his memorable lines, (speaking to a Comanche chief) “You speak good American. Somebody teach you?” No, John, it was his minor at Princeton.
I remember that movie because next it contained the only known on-screen insult to The Duke.
“You speak good Comanche. Somebody teach you?”
