This is Dave-O perusing the music stand, in a follow up photo from Saturday that proved popular to my large 1970s contingent. (Sorry, the photos are clearly somehow mixed up here, but it stays.) Dave-O is your traditional cool-dude, but missed being propelled into a limelight. I see now that music success has eluded him for most of his life. Then I met a twelve-year old girl in the piano department playing the same music I did at that age. We wound up flooring the place with a couple of impromptu duets. Mozart, Beethoven and ChopSticks.This was all the more effectual on the gathering crowd, as music is universal. See, since she was Moroccan and spoke no English, only French (which I do not understand) and heavily accented Arabic. As I counted us in in Arabic, “Wah-hud, it-neen, tel-latta, arr-bah . . .” Me, meeting a twelve-year old from overseas with a thousand times what I had at that age! I wonder if her parents tell her to finish her vegetables, there are people starving in America?
This time, I tested a Fender Squire [electric bass] full volume through the Fishman Solo PA. Clearly it is optimized for acoustic guitar which gives it an impressive low end. Imagine packing my own PA. This would have come in handy recently. A guitarist I know [that would be the Hippie] cut the entire show short when the audience wanted to continue, but there wasn’t much I could do as I was playing through his system. With a Fishman, I would not need the other person’s gear.
It was on the beach and as usual the Hippie invited other musicians to play at a certain time. When we showed up, he was on a break from playing several hours. I have no explanation why he repeatedly does this, but I suspect it is to milk the audience for tips as a solo and then pretend a bunch of his music buddies happened along. By the time we’re ready to start, he’s had a few, played his good material, and was ready to quit. He is inconsistent enough that showing up early is an even greater waste of time. (I'm trying to say if you show up early, he will play music you never rehearsed.) I’ve often wondered how he’d react if he showed up and I was already on stage.
I then checked out an iPad, deciding it something I’ll own when I have no other choice. It is totally geared to the idle-minded, I just don’t need that many infra-red photos of Hawaii. It is an expensive impulse item and I’m one of that majority who look at Twitter once and never go back. Until iPad included applications start centering on the realistic, I’ll keep my cash. A Kindle e-book makes more sense, incidentally Amazon now sells more Kindles than they do paper books but I’ve heard a lot of bad news on the product.
We are rigging Dave-O up a home security system consisting of a single webcam and the right software (Webcam monitor 5.2). The guy is realizing he’s waded into a completely different world of music and computers. He knows he’s getting a free ride on my ticket. He showed up with a Pentax 35mm camera that he thought was digital because it had a shutter release that resembled an output jack. Is he going to be pleased when I show him the rave new technology called “USB”.
He has not yet adapted to a music lifestyle, meaning progress is slow due. He has still not altered other activities that are blocking his own way. Adults are not known for rapid changes in routine. The transition takes time when the connection is not always direct, as in going for physical therapy in the morning resulting in pain during a later evening practice. Or taking a pain killer or not taking a pain killer at the right time. His lack of progress is beginning to show.
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