But that doesn’t mean the whole party atmosphere is gone. Hell, no. Having learned the ropes, I showed up at the open mic super late and got up on stage at the last moment. The circumstances were as follows: they had a bass player tonight who was fantastic. He was the guitarist’s dream bassist (where I am a guitarist’s nightmare). He was fantastic, played along, adding or subtracting nothing, hauling a bass the size of a war canoe and standing behind (not even next to a few steps back, but actually behind) the guitarist. It was a hard act to follow because he was, in the formal sense, technically right and perfectly on.
To complete this scenario, the guitar player I’ve worked with the last two weeks didn’t show, limiting my options. (It turns out later he was there at 8:00, whereas I arrived at 10:30 for the open mic portion.) In a daring move, I got up and (for the first time live in a professional setting) played a twenty minute bass-vocal solo. It is the first time I tried it outside of Jimbos, where one minute was considered good.
Beyond any doubt, I will now pursue that bass solo act. I don’t care if it can’t sell at the top; it certainly broke the ice at the bottom. I suppose it also demonstrated a total grasp of innovation and steady timing. That was important. And it was more to the crowd than most other acts this night.
While the demo had the desired effect, it was also overkill. I’ll not publish the video here, but the inner circle will view it shortly. (Pssst, that means Ray-B, Trent, JP, Fred and Colin.) Certain important individuals were in the audience, and the house was otherwise nearly empty, meaning I had their full attention. Could this be my big break?
In case it wasn’t, I kept up with my studies, and was again impressed by the vivid clarity of “Golden Ship”. Think of those undersea craft that dangle on cables from a surface vessel. The ship bobs up and down, but beneath 32 feet, the sea is nearly motionless. Thus, the cable is either taut or loose, continually acting as an elastic coil. I just learned this means the cable is either stretched to ten times the weight of the undersea craft, or springs up to the point it can kink. And that kink is the likeliest spot for a break on the next yank. Worse yet, if the cable snaps, you lose the instrument package and any humans aboard, as the replacement takes three months to spin.
Here is one their team showing an 80 pound gold ingot, which is described as the world’s single most valuable piece of currency.
Why do they want to go deep? I just learned that, too. The Spanish galleons, which floundered 25% of all the gold shipped, had a 15 foot draught. That means those that dashed upon shore were within easy viewing of the surface, and likely have been already salvaged, often without official report. The remaining big treasure is [therefore] beyond the shoreline and, in my own words since I can’t find the correct adjective, beyond territorial claims. It is all starting to make sense how this underwater work is so damn expensive. And why any future hauls will be enormously profitable. I estimate finishing this book will require another eight days, all of it dearly prized spare time.
I further made a determined exertion to understand sequential circuits. These are the ones I complained about bad teachers I had so long ago. Where I don’t grasp it yet, I can recognize and categorize many of the circuits. I’m thinking this may be one of those situations where I have to build and operate before I comprehend. And back in Florida, the club has all the equipment needed to build these things. If that is coincidence or serendipity, they both cost a bundle. Cost me a bundle, I mean.
