This is professor Howard on the Great Wall. He is currently on another jaunt in the Caribbean. And I’m still waiting for documents so I can travel. Homeland security is a farce. We already have all the laws needed for security, they need only be evenly enforced. It is just crazy that I have to wait for documentation to go to some place like Jamaica.
We may not make musical history next Saturday but we will forever alter the local perception of Jimbo’s. The reasoning is easy to follow: everything is all wrong. Bad location, inadequate parking, small PA system, old furniture, unknown name, hand-painted sign, basically all the ingredients the bigger clubs are lacking. And already Jimbo’s had people showing up a week early to jam. The session has taken on a life of its own, with meat draws, food specials, cash prizes. I walked in around 6:00 in the evening to pick up my equipment from the Friday show and got swamped. Those “posters” I made up on the computer are in demand as mementos, so I printed up an extra twenty on heavy card stock. Around seven local performers and karaoke singers (notice I draw the line) have declared their support. Gee, I maybe should call Cowboy Mike and tell him he has to be there. His name is on the tickets. I just never thought there would be so many tickets. (I'm glad I didn't. He failed to learn enough material to make the gig worth anything.)
An unusual hour went by because computer posters are built up in layers. I had the old layers with mistakes. Out in the car. I was kept busy for the hour going back and forth getting copies for people who were performing or knew the performers. There were typos, such as “County” instead of “Country” and those are the copies that became collector’s items. (To think I was going to post them in Laundromats or chuck them because of those errors.)
[Author's note: I engaging in a little fun at your expense here. Nothing is really on the scale of becoming collector's items. I'm pulling everyone's leg.]
Whatever form this jam eventually takes, there is no doubt the choice of Saturday afternoon was a masterstroke, at least as far as musicians go. Credit for pushing the concept into reality goes to a lady billed as Donna-Rama. I’m informed later it was more the idea of Jules, the unofficial crowd leader at Jimbo’s. The support is universal from the people involved. I was surprised that Garry will bring his guitar, normally he won’t let it out of his house.
What? Well, yes, it is my gig and my PA, cables, speakers, stands, promotion, logistics, computer, organization and microphones that will run the operation, but I’m still not the one who started it. Yes, I had the idea, but I did not have the support of enough local music people. Donna-Rama is a firm patron of the Karaoke circuit.
In case I didn’t say, the show-stopper y’day was a Brian Khe Sahn special, “Things We Said Today”, now with a custom bass line nothing much like the original. I have also been "strongly advised" to make sure a certain unpopular musician does not show up at the jam.
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