First, congratulations on the speakers I bought y’day. They are 12 inch made-in-America Acoustics (normally associated with high-end Klipschorn and Infinity products) and in perfect condition, except for a broken phono jack which I’ll fix shortly. I’ll be picking up some speaker grills tomorrow and those, if I don’t use them on stage, will be for any gig where I can leave the columns overnight and not have to worry. Not about break-ins, I mean where there are Karaoke or other musicians around who are not always as careful when packing their gear.
That completely solves my road gear situation. I ran the speakers through the paces at Jimbo’s and they are crystal clear and loud! Then I paired them up with the Yamahas in series so that my PA was only pushing against 4 ohms instead of 16 and I’ve got one excellent studio sound. [Author’s note – I could not avoid some tech terms (I'm allowed), but basically the less speaker “resistance”, the less raw power used to drive them. This means I can get away with using 12” bass reflex speakers instead of notoriously heavy 15” models. Since the same volume is reached at a lower “setting”, there is far less equipment hiss and hum, resulting on stage in the highly desirable “studio” sound, remember, my act is not live, but mainly recorded.]
I looked at 296 teaching jobs, all in Ft. Lauderdale. It seems they have a shortage of adult educators, but a closer look reveals most of the postings are the same three outfits. Broward Community College, DeVry and Keiser. These outfits are known for paying everybody the same, a situation I consider near-anathema. I believe that everyone should be paid what they are worth from the get-go. Even if you are doing the same job as me, that does not mean you are worth as much, and I’m not bragging. Too many people who claim to do the same job as me seem to constantly require my assistance.
Which reminds me that we have another Dr. Skrbc at the shop. He’s been coming around for a week and sure enough, he not only has the same accent as Skrbc, he’s got the same funny ideas. Remember, I have to keep checking on the stew. Is it busy, how is the stew coming? Nope, not busy, everything is slow cooking. So let me explain something.
My setup can be a wonderland to the onlooker--but it is there for me, not the other guy.. I have the newest and best equipment for getting my job done, but not one electron more. The second shocker is watching me fly at something. This is where the biggest misunderstandings take place. Because I can do something does not mean I will stop do it for you. That is one of the funny ideas that people like Dr. Skrbc and Ken Sanchuk have stuck in their heads. That rather than getting good at anything themselves, their task in life is to search for others and try to obligate them to do their work by telling them how much better they are at it. And acting offended when this only works once with each new person.
People who see me in action draw several erroneous conclusions. Let me stir some facts into the pool of general knowledge. One, my gear is designed to do my job, not yours. Two, my system is designed to get around the fact that I have to deal with incompetent dickheads. Three, it is not my fault when you get yourself into a massive jam from trying to copy what I do. I'm no stranger to people thinking they can copy me without the background. This new guy is digging his own rut by failing on all three counts.
It does no good to warn these people, you have to let them fail on their own. When you commit yourself to something that requires skills you don’t have (like some other dumb twits do), you either must learn the skill hard and fast, or pay somebody to do it for you. Skrbc used to commit to some deadline and expect me to meet it for him because “it would take him hours to do it” when he knew I could finish up in five minutes. We haven’t seen him around in quite a while, kind of thing. At least not since he missed all those deadlines he was talking about.
Same with the Armenian sailor dude. He’d arrange to have me word-process a letter, but then would expect me to spend another hour for free looking up the addresses of the congressmen he wanted them sent to. “Of course you must find addresses, what you think I write letter for?” It got to the point where it was taking longer to stop laughing than to send him packing off to the library. I am a teacher, not a secretary.
This new guy is seeking some information about how to get US Citizenship through marriage. He regularly sees me fly into a government site and print up dozens of documents and instructions. You can guess what he tries next. Here is my little gem of a thought to all such folks: If you want to do what I do, the trick is to know what you are doing BEFORE you start, the operative word being “BEFORE”. You types take a long time to realize I will show you how to do something (for a price), but I won’t do it for you. Why is it that you never learn the difference until you get yourself into trouble?
Speaking of trouble, I still can’t find what the gang is talking about on the musician’s list. Other than one idiotic post by the Hippie, who is clearly having a jealous fit and does not realize his posts are left so as to draw attention, nothing appears out of line. Is there a local musician who doesn’t yet know about Saturday? (I didn’t invite the Hippie because he let me down last time and I’ve been forewarned of possible violence.) Meanwhile, understand he is a desperately lonely old man and needs his time on the Internet. He regularly talks like using the Internet has brought him into being the modern man. Can you imagine turning 49 and never having been anywhere or done anything in your entire life? And then knowing somebody like me whose very presence is a reminder of that? Leave the guy alone.
Ah, the stew. Excellent. Craving for more pickled beets, which I don’t have, I dug out the jars of cucumbers, onions and carrots I made last year. Aged to perfection but the recipe is lost. I’d had a jar of expensive pickles with juice made with garlic and (what I think is) olive oil which I used as the basic brine. But I threw out the jar by accident, along with the list of ingredients. (Around this time, I learned to each mainly raw, fresh vegetables, so I would soon just buy anything pickled if I wanted it.
I never did find that recipe. Sigh, but hey, at least my self-imposed problems fall short of begging others to do my work for me or scrounging the Internet for friends.
I’m back. There is short in one of the speaker wires which I will have to resolder, but guess what? I’ve got American Acoustic 1244’s (300W 12-inchers) in the cabinets. No wonder I’ve got sound. (These are the original USA speakers used in early Fender equipment. These look around 1975 models, though Acoustic has been around since 1928.)
Oh, and because you’ve been good, here is a rare photo of Kitty and Dayna. Kitty often sang for me and Dayna was a 6 foot ex-lady-cop from Los Angeles who gave it up for music. She played bass and sang country. She married this totally religious guy but, you know, I can’t recall his name. He loved to play “On the Road Again”. Dayna and I took turns playing bass in the band for a two-year weekend gig at the Meridian where the audiences averaged 150 people. I have not, in years, met any woman “back east” who could begin to match the dynamic personalities and talent of these gals like these, and these aren’t even the women I hung out with that much. I’ve been a performer for 81% of my life and that’s a real performer, not the Florida kind. Most out here are all talk. I’ve never seen any proof or pictures of the things Florida musicians say they’ve done. They are like listening to UFO reports, where you really want to believe them, but . . . But what? I already told you to leave the guy alone.
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