What a rainstorm this time around, again I am not fixated on weather, but it was the outstanding event of the day. It also means I spent the entire day on the computer and database, both of which are working fine. One day I’m going to have to do inventory in this place since most of the time was spent gathering used parts. Another thing I lost was the pin that holds the doors of the spare fridge in place. How did I manage that?One of the reasons I don’t care for computer work is that it does not look like work. People give you the old, “Is that all there is to it?” That’s what the whole day was like today. Gave me time to plan ahead and I take note that the newest database was a lot of fun. This is the application which can follow the shoes even when the ticket is lost. It operates on the principle that while the ticket has a number, it as well contains plenty of other information that can be “databased”.
As promised a few weeks back, the new database can zero in on almost any ticket using that information, the most important of which is the final four digits of their telephone number. One click sorts by up to four fields which together will find nearly every possible lost ticket number. I have some questions, though.
For example, how come I don’t see many instances of the Filemaker database [out in use in the real world]? It is a big contender but if I have ever used their product as a consumer, I don’t know where. Nor are there any intermediate web pages that give realistic advice. The other big question is does anybody out there need a quick and dirty database done in the $500 range?
[Author's note 2015-07-02: in the end, this database wound up like most. It was never used. I enjoy the academic challenge of creating them, but to be useful, they require a semi-skilled operator to continually keep them updated. That criteria is rarely met by local shop-owners and homemakers.]
Bluegrass. It is a music form that most musicians dabble with a while, but like jazz, it takes a peculiar bent to listen to it exclusively. Bill Monroe was bluegrass. I gave a listen to around fifty tunes and you know, most of the instrumental breaks follow merely five or six patterns, all of which I could follow on base many moons ago. (Like listening to Mark Knopfler.) No commitment but I suspect if I could master these few guitar patterns, in a very bass-like manner to be sure, I could do a series of decent imitations of everything from fiddle to slide guitar. Like the way I can do with most of the country tunes in my repertoire.
It is a trick that half-baked lead players have used for years. Learn a few clichés and play them forward, then backward, fooling some of the people all of the time. The difference here is that I’m picking only half the notes and doing it on the bass, which I’m pretty sure has not been done in the manner which I propose. My plan is different to the point of opposites. This is tricky so listen closely.
When lead players noodle on the bass, it is clear they are primarily guitarists. What I foresee is playing actual “lead breaks” on the bass, but instead of using guitar clichés, I will stress the bass as the primary instrument. It is a matter of presentation, if you’ve ever heard me play Dwight Yoakum, you’d know. The bass becomes the lead, not the other way around. As a big plus, I won’t suffer that serious built-in defect of having learned jazz and blues “modes” and will, as usual, play what sounds right instead.
[Author's note 2015-07-02: I had no idea how prophetic these last three paragraphs were at the time.]
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