Here’s a new place called Kiss Café. The thing is, you can’t find it. Remember that rather high-priced Cuban place Wallace used to go on Hallandale near Nicky’s? Kiss is tucked kind of in behind it and you can only get there by turning into what appears to be the back alley. Here’s my breakfast menu which includes the puzzle, all around 9:00 AM.
I had to skip early coffee in order to be first in line at my pharmacy, as my prescriptions have been juggled around. Pharmacies, get there early or stay away until after noon. I found Kiss by going around the block after noticing Dekka was again closed. Now I find Kiss, with incredibly low prices. It is run by a Hungarian lady, nice, but not my type. The pastry shown is filled with lemon-flavored cheese.In another demo of my slowly returning stamina, I was able to put in a full three hours work starting around noon, and I’m not tired. This was unthinkable over the previous 72 months (which incidentally is my life expectancy). There was a time I was so weak I could not hold a pencil. Today I moved a sofa out and a desk in by myself. The heavier components were probably 80 pounds. That is progress. Admittedly I could move such objects as early as two years ago, but immediately required long rest periods, sometimes days long.
The desk is now in the south Florida room, with the musical equipment nearby instead of anywhere it fit. The Rode microphone does require phantom power. I did not know this, since I’m not historically a soundman or a vocalist. My Gigrack has a 48V switch but the Tascam recorder does not. These are minor setbacks, we will soon have enough gear to do a great job.
Trent was impressed by the sound of the new recording, although I rate it about as amateur as anything I did back in the 80s. For all the times I’ve written about “voicings”, this is the first time I was able to exhibit examples of the procedure. Since each track has its own channel, one can also twirl knobs to get the guitar sound balanced, something that proved impossible to get other guitar players to even try.
Rehearsal tonight took full advantage of the changes, including a close examination of the recording I managed last night. We took extra time to repeat tunes that aren’t solid. The PA system (set up at Jimbos) has been cutting out during performances. Directly after practice, I got over there to investigate the cause. Here’s what I’ve come up with.
Last November at the Catholic festival, both my cardoid mics acted up when used through the church PA. So I switched to a regular mic that Arnel gave me some time ago. When I say regular, I mean a model that does not require phantom power. The whole concept of this power supply is new to me. I called bingo for months without incident.
Yet when we played instruments through the PA, the clipping began. It appears that the Gigrack does feed power to the first four channels. There is a button under the jack that says “Pad” which must be depressed to counteract the increased mic sensitivity. I think the problem solved, but the test will be this Friday when we play our second performance. It is pure coincidence that I just recently learned about the power supply and I have a problem and solution involving it.
Later. Today was a landmark for me. Without any repercussions, I managed to put in my traditional fifteen hour day. And that is active hours including, as above, moving furniture. I was tired, but a hale tired, not exhausted. That is the first time in over eight years I’ve been able to do that. I’m happier than you think, since I know the countless small recuperations involved that had to happen first. Don’t make the error of concluding this was merely another random good day.
ADDENDUM
We briefly played through the chord pattern of “The Race Is On” to get ideas on strum timing. This is a complicated piece. I spent two hours picking out the notes of the instrumental. I have no experience at this and my mind does not adapt to the logic of how to match up notes to chord patterns. My piano background never addressed this and certainly, and string bending adds a weird dimension to it all.
I will have to adapt the lead break, as to play the original involves blindingly fast hand movements on the bass, covering most of the fretboard. I won’t be trying that on stage any time soon. I’ve “compressed” these octave-spanning runs before as part of my style. I’ll drop each octave down to the original start position and play only those notes that contribute to the original bass pattern.
That means you “hear” the lead break without anyone actually playing it. It plain sounds better, imparting the listener with the impression nothing has been left out. This single tune has now required over four hours of treatment (above practice time), all of it involving expensive and highly skilled labor during the most valuable productive hours of the week. And there is still no assurance we’ll even use it.
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