What I didn’t know before is that all this information was known to the Germans, and that two months before the sinking (May 1915) the Captain of the Lusitania resigned saying he would face the U-boats, but not the responsibility for carrying both passengers and munitions on the same ship. If the US had not entered the war over the sinking of the Lusitania, Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy and would have entered negotiations with the Germans, also known as “surrender”. You learn something every day.
It was the breakfast (courtesy of bingo) bagel at Panera this morning, now one of the more expensive places in town. Not too many old codgers in Panera compared to a year ago. The $2.00 coffee probably scares pensioners away, plus I know my coffee and it’s been watered down. No sign of Panera Pete, but then again, when did he ever show any consistency or call when he said he would? I reviewed the economy as far as it is reported in the weekend papers. Bankruptcies are down to “only” 2,650 last month, heralded as a big positive. In reality, that is still ten times the rate of just five years ago.
Best article was about the counties complaining that consumers are changing their lifestyles to avoid traditional taxes. Serves the government right, particularly for hidden taxes and all the punitive garbage you see on your utility bills. People, like myself, will often opt to install a more expensive private system that get nailed every month by taxes for things I never use. And let’s not ignore the fact that staying off the tax rolls has other privacy benefits in this day and age.
In particular, people are using far less electricity, meaning the usage tax revenues are falling. Well, Broward County, exactly what did you expect in the long run from a tax like that? People want electricity, not hit for funds to bail out a power company that refuses to install hurricane proof equipment in the first place. The problem is, however, that town councils and such view taxation as a right and they will never rescind an unfair or outdated form of tax. The shortfalls are reportedly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Good. Time to trim the fat, cull the herd.
Later, I contacted the Italian guitar player, Dom. The guy is a bit of a fried-brain, but as long as he can do the job, it works for me. It literally took forty minutes to send him an email because he didn’t know his own address, had to borrow a computer, and couldn’t find the inbox. During this time, I discovered he does not know what the circle of fifths is all about. Then again, only a guitarist could play the instrument for twenty years and not notice most songs in C have a G chord, the fifth.
Guitarists, as a lot, are some of the most uneducated musicians you will ever meet. They’ll ask you the key of a Blues tune, then ask you what the other chords are. They don’t have a clue what “key” means, I’ve met ‘em so thick in the head they think it is the first chord. They can’t come in off the fifth because the first chord isn’t the key. I’ve even met guitarists convinced they can get away with knowing nothing saying it was not necessary for Hank Williams or Jimi Hendrix to learn all that technical stuff. True, but I got to inform them until they are just as rich and famous, never try defending ignorance around me.
Country music is a large field, every year I run across a few new hits or artists from decades ago that I never heard of, particularly Tennessee country. Those songs tend to be as closely related as the people who sing them. I am much more toward California or Bluegrass country styles, and by extension, the musicians. The connection is that when I find something that impresses me, upon looking into matters I invariably find the performer has a formal music background. These people have degrees, they read and write books. That could all be coincidence, but still, I can’t think of the last time I met a guitarist who had recently read anything except the sports pages.
I can claim to be consistent, you see, I’ve lately published a few entries (blogs) from 1982 when I first started keeping notes. I had much the same thing to say about guitar players back then. There is probably no other instrument where so many players think being unschooled is an advantage. The fairy tale of the musical dolt who made good has become an urban legend. I suggest the odds of becoming a famous guitar player are somewhat less than winning the Washington’s Lottery. I mean, at least 52 people win that every year.
