Want something typical of Florida? How about a truck that has no idea where it is going? This one is parked around the corner from Professor Howard’s. I had to stop to spend two minutes speculating on scenarios where the husband wanted to golf and the wife wanted to go shopping. Or, what happens during a family feud? I know, it is just amazing that people have time and money to come up with this stuff. Mike the laptop guy says, "Should I stay or should I go?"
Much as I hate to do it, I’m going to trash a guy’s reputation on eBay. Fao Cheng, eBay dealer, is about to lose his 100% rating and it is his own fault. Here is the score. After verifying his acceptance, I mailed him a Money Order the day after I won the bid. On that date I also emailed him to expect the letter. One thing leads to another but he lies and says 6 days later that he has not received payment.The bottom line here is that 17 days go by, then after I gave up and went out and bought a replacement product, his shipment arrives. eBay is going to hear about this. No matter what is legal, the problem is that Cheng failed to communicate when he was required by the situation to do so.
More bad news. My tips at Jimbo’s have tapered off to not enough. It was a standard crowd of regulars who have all heard my style and it has worn a bit thin. Even complete sets of new material no longer fires them up. This is precisely the reason single acts have to keep circulating. I never did find another entertainer to spell off with me. This means I have to stop the gig for a while or find another location. I’ll start looking today.
Not to worry, I have so much time and equity now built up into my show that I’m certain to find something. I noticed somebody had stripped my advertising down over at Guitar Center. The only good news, musically, is the new equipment. You are right if you spotted that never once have I specified what it was, but here is a hint. I used it last night, just hours after I bought it, and well over half the crowd would swear to you that I was singing, and in a sense, I was. Give me a few weeks to work up my technique. Then its me one, Florida zero.
While there is no progress to report for today, things moved considerably sideways. Yulii, the Armenian guy, came in for his hour, and as usual, dragged it into nearly two hours. He does that every time, I should introduce him to the doggie wig place. He tries to waste at least as much time arguing whenever you tell him you won’t do something. Like get on the phone and start hunting email addresses.
Howard was in. He’s getting along with WordPress, the Caribbean-based blog, a program with some interesting features. There still seems to be no blog that is as easy to use as a word processor in every way. After a couple of hours work, Howard may have shut down his laptop without saving. All of us have been there.
Anita has responded, this is the sharp gal I met playing an Internet game on WebTV back at the turn of the century. I didn’t really confirm her identity, but I don’t have to as she is magnitudes smarter than anybody else in that part of the world. The first picture she sent me was of a 12.5 pound dictionary. You’ll have to read more to spot the significance of that.
Promo gigs. I am back to the process of setting up and playing a free hour. This is less work than trying to talk your way into a gig. It also eliminates the iffy clubs, which is important because you can never really tell until you play them. I found a few McGowan’s, named after a pub on the beach that always “auditions” but rarely pays. Also, bear in mind that one jerk in the whole place can cause enough problems to just move on, like over at Captain J’s.
So, Wallace, I won’t be playing at the Friendly Inn. I waited months for the guy to hear me, so I just set up and played. Half the crowd loved it, the rest thought it was okay, so the final decision was his. He said it “wasn’t for this place”, so a perfectly good gig is now eliminated from the running. I suspect that he sees a band as a cost that cuts into his jukebox profits. He could not see the most enthusiastic customers were the new people who came in. Could be he does not like new customers, I’ve seen that before, too.
I still have 31 places on my list and a few recommendations from patrons to take along. Encouragingly, more people than expected comment that I’m playing electric bass instead of guitar. Note that I am playing solo bass, there is no guitar on stage. Moreover, it is always men who notice, sad but true. The point is that they are listening. I know a few people who don’t want to hear it, but I’ve been told many times that I am the best bass player in town.
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