Did you know that you can no longer buy a new guitar pick? Ah, I hear some who disagree, but you did not read the sentence. You can buy old stock, but now you have to buy a package of 12 picks for around $5.00. Since I use nylon picks, they do not wear out, instead they eventually get lost. At the rate I lose them, I just bought myself a 144 year supply.
You are lucky today, nothing happened with the new automobile database. You know how I love to talk on that subject. Instead I spent the afternoon figuring out how to use the iTunes software package. Like most, I supposed it was simple since children use it, but in fact it can be baffling to adults. Here’s why.The [iTunes Store] site is primarily to sell you, not to properly categorize music. It is a wonderland for a kid on a shopping spree, but when my client went to purchase “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (no pun intended) she got a bewildering array of 38 different versions, varying from 3:42 to 7:32 minutes long. We downloaded two of them, neither was what she wanted. She could easily have used up her $25 iTunes gift card just trying to find her favorite version.
Also, if you are not careful, the iTunes web page will take you to an “album” that contains the song you want but many you do not. Sound familiar? Click there and you just bought the entire album for $20.89, the exact problem that pay-per-song iPods were supposed to eliminate. Off the record, I can tell you that it is far easier to use Limewire. You’d think an otherwise reputable outfit like Apple would do better.
I do not know if there is a way to sample the music before you buy it. Maybe there is, but bear in mind one of the most foolish things you can do with a computer is activate streaming data on somebody else’s hard drive. It is very unlikely I would do such a thing even with Apple, because I’m using a Windows-based computer. Incoming streams open sockets, an ideal vector for viruses. For now, I conclude that Apple has adopted a very wrong and complicated method to market their music.
After much research, I decided on some mid-sized Yamaha PA speakers. In the end I could not go for the twin 6-inch speakers on a Fender Passport, the runner-up. The Yamahas cost a fortune (I got them for half price). They have a 12-inch woofer and a horn mid-range tweeter, a nearly perfect match for my Gigrac PA head. Also, I opted for ¼” phono jacks because the newer plugs are not yet standard. A phono jack I can replace almost anywhere. The sound is comparable to the equipment I spent $1,800 on when I played for “Three Good Reasons” and “Not Half Bad”.
I’m also going to install a sound-hole pickup on my acoustic guitar. I was surprised to learn that most of the staff at local music stores do not know what the feature “humbucking” is supposed to do. Some of them thought it was a brand name. Yeah, wasn’t Eddie Humbucker a World War I ace? (Later, all pickups create a slight humming noise when not in use. By installing a resonator of the same frequency, a good pickup will “buck” or cancel out the hum.)
The famous Argus camera, the one that took the majority of pictures you see here, may be on the way out. It still works perfectly but riding home last evening I lost the battery compartment cover. Unless I can rig up a replacement, this veteran camera may be toast (without the cover, the batteries work loose and pictures disappear). The Argus is by far it is the most economical piece of equipment I have ever owned. (The cover has fallen off before and that seems to be the only design flaw other than the ubiquitously idiotic multi-function button.) The few hundred pictures published here do not begin to cover the thousands (approximately 8,400) in stock.
I stopped by and saw Johnny D. at the Octopus. Where I also ran into that guitarist whose name I never remember but who reminds me of Dwight Yoakum. He is playing at some Australian club and wants me to drop by, but I didn’t write down the name of the place. I was thinking in Spanish while he was talking to me and now I can’t place it. Kookaburra? Ayer’s Rock? Crocodile Dundee? Help me out here.
Getting back to the band, since I began practicing with Brian late last year until today, I have accumulated $3,305.79 equity in music and recording gear, of which around $1300.00 is current. Total expenses, including travel to and from practice at 23 cents per mile, have been $159.20. The guitar picks are an asset, not an expense. Except for a few doodads, things are ready to go now. It will be an excellent show, with real music, not that worn out Clapton/Hendrix mix that puts audiences to sleep. I know this business, and I’m of a mind to publish my income from performing. Why? Because I have a bone to pick with the Runt, who keeps talking when he should be listening.
You might as well know that I’ve grossed $560 in the last month, that is, I made three times as much money in one month not playing in a band as I did in years of playing a duo with the Runt. I know it is hard to believe he considers himself a band musician and manager. In all the “gigs” he booked over the years, I made a grand total of $186.00, so nobody can say I did not support the guy and give him every chance to make good. If he’d ever learn to shut the fire truck and play, he might get somewhere, but that will never happen. People like that are their own worst enemy.
Well, not while his ex-band musicians are still alive.
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