You could say I went on a date. That is a first in years, if a date is defined as going out for a while with a gal in my car and doing things around town. I minded the shop for Fred while he was at motorcycle ballet and for a change the phone barely rang. This gave me time to look around youTube and again be disappointed. For all the brilliance of its best, youTube is still a forum for the ho-hum.Teresa came by near quitting and we went to “Neil’s Place” for coffee and a muffin. Turned out to be “Nilus Place” and the tab turned out to be ten bucks. Call me a big spender, but a date is a date. Instead of fixing my car, I drove us out to K-Mart on 441 and we went our separate ways for a while to get some shopping done. Two points of note. First, I view unstocked shelves as a trouble sign. That location is not replacing its inventory. The other, we met an actually great storeperson. He was polite, knew his section, the selection, stock, prices and could answer all questions. That does not happen in Florida. I’m certain it is purely coincidence, but he was also Anglo, although we did not notice that at all in any way.
Did I mention I’ve got a gig tonight? Probably. Teresa and I came back here whence I made chicken soup and she finally met Wally. She’s from Buffalo, so they’ve seen a lot of locations up in the Atlantic Northeast that I think look fine from an airplane window. Only. They were reminiscing about terrible winter storms. Yep, that part of the world is something I’ll leave until much later in life. I picked up my music gear and, since Teresa had a long day already, dropped her at home.
Before that she watched to pilot of Spyz, the movie Wallace and I created last year. There is no progress, because between the 15 different formats out there, it turns out that I don’t have a single piece of editing software that will turn all the scenes into a final finished product. The low budget means many of the shorter scenes were out takes from existed material accumulated over the years with whatever was available.
I started at 8:30 P.M. and my new format is bearing fruit. When the crowd is mostly regulars, I disk jockey through a variety of MP3s. This appears random but I’ll reveal the secret. That Internet jukebox does not carry all tunes, so I’ve watched and listed the stuff people want that doesn’t search. I can play two hours of said favorites if the situation calls for it. In another brilliant move, I found the settings on my PA that exactly match the tone and timbre of the juke box. The transition to my music is seamless.
The bar mics are now left on full volume. Experimentation has shown that audiences here are so inured to Karaoke that I don’t need to control that. Just let them sing. My pre-recorded music still suffers from compression errors, meaning I am up on stage between most songs and I often get the same tips. In all, I can do a four hour set actually only playing three. My God, I’m turning into the Hippie!
It was a large birthday party and between the tips and 50/50, I can probably fix the car tomorrow. Again, this type of activity fits my exact goal for a successful weekend. When I say a weekend at home, I don’t mean when work is available. I go out, I show off, I hit on every good-looking gal in the place, I have great fun, and not only do I spend nothing, I waltz away with a pocket of cash for the remainder. So you’ll know, I planned for this many moons ago. One thing that always revolts me is the amount of money some men have to spend to get a fraction of what I expect to be paid for. Both the money and that they look so bad spending it like that.
