One whole day off. Spent the day playing guitar. Or trying to. There’s quite a bit to learn overnight. Dave has never really established a practice schedule and it’s sort of hurting him now. There is something about this whole undertaking that really surprises me, and that’s how simple it is.
It is rather a pity to me that only now at this advanced time can I sit down and learn about the instrument in detail. It might just work out because of something I’ve noticed. Most “talented” musicians (Harry included) have had so much rock & roll, they are tired of it by now. The one’s who continue on stage seem to lean toward “lounge-type” presentations. I wonder if this explains the lack of 30-year-old rock guitarists.
Not to ignore the womanizing aspect of music, the mellow lounge trip definitely attracts a different crowd of women than I care for. Thence, I may be getting into it when and where it will do me the most good. Reality, man.
Not meaning to be too bored, I even watched Walt Disney. Sometimes I disgust myself. But I made up for it and went roller skating. There I proceeded to strip my rear bearings and spread them over the floor. It seems a $75 repair job if I get what I want. Speaking of jobs, Dave & Charlie are gonna bid on some roofing contract.
Contracting—all work and no pay. Note the tax department, per the newspapers, has been cracking down on contractors who avoid [unemployment and social security] taxes. Just like I said they would. And at a time the worker can least afford it. So it looks like I got out not a moment too soon. It’s my conviction that the tax crackdown is not motivated by any desire to see justice, rather it is the gov’t greed now that over 12% of the taxpayers are laid off.
That lady RofR & I saw at the airport has just been elected head of the Liberal party.[Author’s note: as you see, there is more than once I’ve tried to learn the guitar, but never did in the end. I had noticed guitarists over 30 tended to play in lounges, but later noticed they all went back to rock in their second childhoods. Yes, I used to roller skate, and make a real workout of it, as in ten miles three times per week at a good clip, indoors of course.
I don’t recall the details of the government actions against tax evaders, but it may have been in Canada because the Vancouver airport was a much shorter drive than down to SeaTac. That is where RofR used to fly into and I’d pick him up in the Mustang. We saw the politician coming down the escalator, RofR recognized her. I didn’t. Her name, and I had to look this up, was Iona Campagnolo.]
[Author’s note 2025: This entry brings back memories although I don't remember which Dave is the one referred to here. It was clearly one of the times I tried to learn guitar but I never have. The part about playing it is simple enough, it's all technique. But the combination of the two was never enough to really hold my interest. My referral to the lack of 30-ish guitar players was one of my early reactions to how guitar players are indoctrinated to believe that techniques like jazz and weird chord progressions are somehow musically or culturally superior. It's all really a method to sell these simpletons more lessons.
That's why this era in my life represents the time when I began to notice how difficult it was to find a guitar player who would just show up and do the job and leave again. I was just out of my teens and did not yet spot the big pattern. But I had learned the best guitarists were the ones I trained myself, yes folks I can't play guitar but I know how it's done. if you disagree, ask yourself why boxers have trainers.I was later to name this empty guitar void the guitar center effect or similar. Thanks to them nobody wanted to be just a band member any more, they all wanted to be the hero leader. And right down to this day good rhythm guitar players remain a rare find.
1982, Year of the Concorde. Most people who saw it remarked how small it was.
