Thanks to an après Thanksgiving breakfast at the Senor Café, we are off to a good start. I do believe I’ll spend the day reading, unless you can think of something better around here. Maybe the beach later, but I was looking at aircraft design and noticed most of the innovation comes from small manufacturers. That makes sense, the big companies will naturally stick with what has worked best over time. But the number of small builders is declining.This is another sign of America’s lost leadership in most fields. I recall as a lad there were all kinds of airplane kits you could buy, even in the want ads of Popular Mechanics. Now, you have to pay a fortune for a home kit. What has changed? I know! Tort law. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking because I don’t study law that I don’t read about it either. I may not know this or that clause, but I do know, for instance, that since 1980 the courts have begun to attach blame to the product rather than the behavior of the idiot who didn’t read the directions.
This causes the manufacturers to carry insurance until one of the biggest components of price has become liability insurance. New products are easier for idiots to sue over. Whenever I get a new prescription, it comes with 15 pages of warnings. Overseas, you find dozens of advanced products that are not for sale here. Nobody dares take the chance of selling anything totally new until they know if it is dangerous in the hands of the proles. What a sad ending for America, with its ineffectual government trying to substitute for public common sense.
That brought me to a curious thought. When I hear about liability cases, I realized that a stereotyped image appears. What does this idiot consumer look like? To me, he is 62, bald, smugly thinks he is smart. He paid off his mortgage but never rose above middle management. He wrecked his health and youth working overtime. He walks with a funny little skip and obeys every rule in his imaginary book. Socially he is an ass-hat and his wife hates him. He drives a leased Toyota and wears golfing shorts in public. I can’t explain, but this is the picture that pops in my head when I hear about some dork who keeps walking into door jambs and is therefore suing the company that makes them.
Ominously, I am having chest pains from playing guitar. No, not heart trouble, but the only convenient way for me to hold the instrument makes me hunch up. I can’t play for more than a half-hour without a break. Is this a standard hurdle or am I doing it wrong? Where are all the geniuses when you need to ask a question? My new singer needed time off for the holiday. The tradition for me is that holidays are the highest paying gigs. You can visit family a week later just as easily with a quarter of the fuss.
But, I can play twelve tunes consecutively, which if you work it right is up to break time on a three hour gig. Decent places pay $150 for three hours, plus tips. My task is to find joints that like country. As you detect, I am continuing work on my own solo act since the probability is it will come to that. The new gal is also keeping mum about what part of town she lives in, so my guess it is more than my 15 mile limit.
As a soloist, I am approaching the point where it will become economical to pay another $2,000 in equipment. I’m approaching the level of “early Johnny D” with my over-chording. I require a Fishstick (as Ray-B calls the Fishman Solo), a real drum machine, a wireless mic, and if I can afford a wireless head for the mic, transponders for the guitar and drum machine also. The entire rig is chosen to be transportable by scooter.
