Let’s talk about bingo. My show has evolved to the point I have no competition and the place was packed last night. There were only four unoccupied chairs, although if need be, the poker tables can be set up. This kind of crowd is unprecedented (in that club and in that area) and I take full credit for my part in it. Bingo has now moved up the rankings as a significant category of entertainment and a steady money-maker.There are ten games per Saturday. The time varies depending on the crowd as more people need more time between numbers. Count on three to four hours of first class bingo, with excellent music and sound effects. Another tactic I use is to call certain numbers certain ways so I never have to do a repeat. Y’day, one lady won four of the games and her boyfriend won another. The waltzed out $300 richer than they came in.
Now music. Arnel is still in Brazil. Big Jim called. It looks like my advice to standardize and coordinate our shows went further than I thought. Even our song lists are compatible to minimize repeats (if we ever play back-to-back gigs). Big Jim has the Karaoke show at the Riptide. He reports that the management asked him to get a new PA system for the house, that is, go out and buy whatever you need and they will pay for it. This now means between Jim, Arnel and myself, we have four and soon to be five excellent PA systems all less than five years old.
Jim wants to spell some of his Karaoke shows with other clubs in the area. Whereas my vocal chords are not yet ready for a solo, I can easily do the Karaoke thing. My repertoire is now around ten songs. Stick around for the particulars but I can already tell you the beach clubs are some of the highest paying gigs in these parts. The idea is to set up the PA systems where we can cover a lot more territory without having to hump heavy speakers around. If this flies, I will double my weekly income.
Normally I would have spent the day in the bookstore, a reward associated with a fruitful Saturday. Instead I found my old copy of “Bridge Over The River Kwai” and am reading it for the fourth time in two years. It is a one-day read. Don’t expect political correctness as the Japanese are referred to as “baboons in uniform” and worse. Although the author didn’t intend it, the book is full of allusions to the superiority of the German-British-American ways of doing things, bearing out in the contemporary world the fact none of the cultures of the world are capable of modernizing without copying Europeans.
As far as the domestic situation, anybody can go back two or more years in this blog to see that everything going on today has been predicted in writing. I was interested to learn a building attendant who looks after property for an absentee owner in this town earns a free room plus $650 per month. That raises an additional possibility if I ever run into somebody who insists they are an owner.
