April 22, 2005

April 22, 2005 Friday The video computer is now up and running in my home office, taking over completely from the old Compaq. The fan seems to run erratically, I’ll be looking closely at that. Maybe the power supply is too weak for all the components I’ve added. The XP version I’m using defaults to U.K. English so I cannot enter words like ‘caliber’ unless they are in quotes. The keyboard is set funny also. The double quotes and ‘at-sign’ (@) are switched around, so are the backslash and octothorpe. I tried swapping keyboards. I hope it is some internal setting and not another gimp feature. Another stupid thing is that in the word processor, some mysterious keystroke causes the top half of the screen to become the sending information area for e-mail. There is no easy way to get rid of that although I tried for 30 minutes. Does anyone know where the templates are in Windows XP? I thought I make up a brochure and the templates are gone. Up yours, Bill Gates, I was going to use that feature, you know. That, and the Hippie and I are trading words again. I’ll explain the situation if you’ll accept that he feels the situation is too complicated for anyone to understand (he has used this tactic before) and you just need it explained to you again. Here goes. The premise for any useful band is to go on the road, record in a studio, or perform weekend gigs. The operative word is ‘useful’. This band is for playing gigs by default, for nobody is leaving town and studio work is strictly for professional, unusually talented people. Are you with me so far? It is no good to flatter me and say you want me to do studio work, because I know I’m an amateur for life. It is clear I won’t take up time for any musical venture except playing live gigs, where you make money and meet horny women. It is clear because I say it loud and often before things ever get underway. If you are over 28, it does not matter how good or bad you are, only that you get out there and perform. Ask Dwight Yoakum. Glenn keeps going around in circles, and will often accuse others of not being team players if they don’t put up with it. Now, the weekend practices often become ‘jam sessions’, which do me no good no matter what he says. I don’t learn anything by them. Never have, never will. The new musicians also bring in the element of distraction. That is wasted time and in most cases these people are way out of my league. Glenn says they sound good, I say so what? They have not committed to playing gigs, so what are they doing here in the first place. Glenn says they may record, which is really his baby, for we never originally talked about recording anything. He can jam on his own time. I have better things to do on weekends than listen to somebody play keyboards, then I notice when he takes a break, the thing keeps on playing by itself. I got better things to do than listen to other people play. He makes a big deal that it is only a few hours. Yes, a few hours of prime weekend time, where I have a habit of leaving town on weekends which I cannot do if there is a practice. He totally misses this point. There are two keyboard players, one who doesn’t want to gig, the other who may do some studio work but he is already ‘kind of like’ playing in another band. So what the hell are they doing at our practices, I want to know? Chip, the accordion guy just wants to jam. Glenn keeps saying I’ve got to be a better team player. I stopped him right there and informed him that I expressly said I would never settle for being a studio musician years ago (in 2000). Furthermore, I committed to playing gigs and I bought $800 worth of equipment. I’ve never missed or cancelled a gig, or failed to show for practice. It is these other people he should be talking to about being on a team. If we are practicing, it must be toward a defined set. A band has to be run a lot like a business that never makes a profit. These other guys are showing up for some other reason and need to be informed of our goals, or stay away. They’ve all missed practices, therefore they have no say in our core song list. We learn enough tunes to carry a gig and anything they want to play is added to the end of that list – after we are playing. All this riffing off to tunes I’ve never heard of just sucks. Then, there is Glenn’s fixation with having a drummer. If he will not perform without a drummer, then call me when he gets one. I say we record the drums on CD (actually his idea) or get a drum machine. There is no explanation why he has performed all his solo career without a drummer, but insists on it now. I hinted that he has used the drummer excuse too many times. Glenn lives for music and if I can understand that, he can understand that other people can take it or leave it. I do not have to lower myself to the directionless, mindless level of the masses just to be on a team. There is another team over on this side, hello? If tomorrow’s practice does not go toward a fixed set, I may bow out for a while. True, the situation is convoluted, but that doesn’t mean I don’t follow it. Hey, I just wrote it down, didn’t I? Glenn thinks he can lose me talking in circles and gets awful frustrated when he can’t. Tomorrow, it is a 25 song fixed set, all recorded. Anybody who comes along later gets a copy of the video to learn those tunes. Cut to the chase, Glenn, no more mingling around. I dropped in to see Marcela. She wants to sell the kid’s computer, so I’ve got it here to see if I can free up any space on that hard drive. The asking price is twenty bucks once it is sold, so I’ll move it tomorrow for $60. I need the money. April 23, 2005 Saturday