I reviewed the results of the various clubs I’ve played at or tried to play at. The pattern is the same, the clubs fall into three loose categories. The don’t-have-don’t-want music clubs, the “we-have-no-money” clubs and the few that already have live entertainment. I suspect I’ve been stumbling across some of the clubs that will never pay for music. I’m finding yet another classification is coming in handy, a parallel to Theory X in club owners.Theory X refers to managers who assume everybody is lazy and needs to be prodded along. It emerges with club owners who have a retentive need to control everything. Like divorced women and bank loan officers, they quickly learn to say no by default, if only to see whether you’ll beg. (Theory Y is laissez-faire, assuming you’ll do the job yourself just to keep your job.) These aren’t carved in granite, for example, organizationally I am Theory X but for performing, I am Theory Y. After you learn the cover (original hit version), I don’t care what you do on stage.
I cannot think of any other practical way to approach reticent club owners. They are not going to read any advertising or travel to hear you play elsewhere. The Friendly Inn is a case study. I am, without exaggeration, by far the best he has ever had (remember last New Year’s Eve?), but he doesn’t like my music. I normally deal with such clubs by doing nothing. In a month, it will dawn on him I tried to help him out, then he’ll ask the price and eventually call. But in each case, “eventually” is taking too long.
I went for a walk this morning, having no place I wanted to bicycle. Up on Moffet I passed a shop where the owner was sitting outside in the sun drinking a cup of his own product. That is always a good sign, so I stopped for a Turkish coffee. It is right between American and Cuban, a half-cup of dark brew. Turns out he is Israeli but lived in Turkey. I don’t recommend the drink for anyone who does not already like very strong coffee. He wants a wireless network connected.
Sitting outside always reminds me of Wallace. Myself, I regularly duck out the back door when I don’t have time to chat with the neighbors. There is no such thing as a quick getaway around here. Time to make a point about writing errors. You know who you are, and I say that both APA and CM (American Psychological Association and Chicago Manual) styles permit double quotation marks around indirect discourse if the purpose is to define the contents. Therefore, this is not a “mistake”. The only mistake is to not apply a given style consistently throughout a work. Each page of this blog is a work; although I try somewhat to be consistent, there is no literary rule that says I have to be.
Something else, Howard brought me a CD of original Chinese music. Actually, it was a dual set of SVCDs (Super Video Compact Disk) and, ahem, I know a mandolin when I hear one. This music is in 4/4 (instead of 67.3/109ths) and played on the “Mandarin Mandorin”. That’s a funny. Standby, I’m going to run the disk through my PA system. Later, yep, that is a stringed plucked instrument, folks.
