In normal times, expect to pay $1.50 to $2.00 per ounce over spot. And that is the spot they use at the silver shop, persistently at least 50 cents per ounce more than any chart you saw on the Internet. It’s a racket. But below $24 makes it trip my buy alarm even with the $4.00 bar charge now tacked on. That’s per ounce and there are no ounce bars left.Unless you know where to scrounge, that is. This is one of two [one ounce] bars I found this morning at the lowest price I’ve paid yet (in this round of speculation). You’ve heard me describe how investments must be protected and how that can amount to a good chunk of your costs. This silver bar and others appearing in a trickle were not protected. In what way? They sold at a loss because the other guy needed a quick flip and that did not happen. Silver has stayed low since April 15 and he could not hold out. Tough luck.
Did you know I once fell asleep on stage? There is always that danger whenever I play "The Doors". Van what’s-his-face and his big fancy flourishes followed by six-plus minutes sheer drug-morph monotony. “Riders on the Storm”, that was the tune. Pipe it into hospitals and save millions on anesthetics. It was the tail end of a gig at the old Commodore Ballroom and I really fell asleep; that is frigging boring, "Doors". Folklore or not, that band, which few people have the guts to admit they don't like, puts me right off the deep end. In the long run, their music remains more or less around as incredibly exciting as the people who still listen to it.
Driving down Federal once more on the scooter, I hear a clunk that should not be there. I bee-line over to Miguel, the mechanic of choice and he discovers the entire air cleaner was never bolted down. When I paid for the repair he confessed to being so broke he could not have made it to work the next day. Because he had no gas money. Hayzoose Kreesto man, I guess I got over there just in time.
The scooter is approaching 10,000 miles, I’ll try to get you a photo (when it rolls over). As stated, Chinese scooters don’t get that far unless pampered, so I’ve done okay even considering the constant repairs. Karaokes don’t measure up either unless there is a core group of talent. And after getting grease to the elbows fixing that air cleaner, I decided to find the Karaoke. You know, you wouldn’t think air could get that dirty. Billy-Bill was doing the open mic at Buddy’s. Once again, Billy-Bill was the only musician doing the job right. But our styles are not compatible. I am very easy to jam along with, he is impossible to accompany unless you already know the song he’s playing.
He also said he’d buy the drinks if I stuck around to sing. Having some experience with similar promises, I bought one [drink] and left. I sang one song, “Folsom Prison”. He must have asked five times if there was a bass player in the house. But he knows I cannot play a full-size neck. (They hurt my back.) And he also knows I cannot sing through a microphone on a stand. (I am self-taught on the bass and must frequently look down at the frets. I need a head mic that follows me when I’m doing both at the same time.)
I have even more dislike for other bassist stereotypes. Like the muddy-sounding fat-boy bassist in the background who “lays down the groove in the pocket” and can fake anything. If that is you, shove it because you ho-hum types give the trade a bad name. If your bass has guitar-garbage like pick guards and thumb rests, same deal. If your bass neck weighs more than the body, you are prime sucker material. I’ve also found that general education levels make a huge difference. There is a guitarist wet dream about the drop-out who hit the big time, the “Johnny B. Goode” fantasy. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Besides, I have my own show to focus on and I’m learning Beatles. Ah, I hear the question, why do I have to learn my favorite childhood band? Easy. I did not play bass in those days. Nobody did, at least not within driving distance of where I lived. McCartney is an important study in being first at bass [in his day]. You see, he too plays bass like a guitarist. He’s got a permanent root-fifth hang-up and I smirk at how often he starts his songs that way, clues in, and then avoids doing it on the other chords. Only to forget again as the second verse rolls around. It is so corny I often throw it in on purpose.
Also, he uses a lot of double stops (two notes at once). Guitars are tuned with the highest two strings six semitones apart. Hand a guitar player the bass and you’ll hear the same stops, except in the key of D (instead of E). Endlessly. This is one reason I maintain ex-guitarists make bad bassists. They only play the stops that can be done with the wrist beneath the neck and avoid the pleasant sounding thirds where the wrist is behind it. I play both with equal freedom and precision. That is one of several mechanical explanations behind how I make guitarists sound better than they really are.
ADDENDUM
Pension reform. We don’t know how badly we need it. But I find out that a lot of people think it means cutting back on old people’s checks. What the heck is pension reform? It is the topic for today’s study. You see, I’d independently come up with the idea long before it was ever tried. Then I found out the person who did something with it won the Nobel Prize. I’ll leave that for you. This is about the reform.
My theory from 1985 was against the tax pool, not specifically the pension system. If you read back far enough, it’s here somewhere. The practice of putting taxes into a large common fund is plain stupid. Yet that’s exactly the way it is done. Supposedly money distributed from this pool is based on need. Ah, but the very existence of the pool creates squadrons of professional beggars whose smothering needs will perpetually be greater than your own, id est the welfare state.
The way to reform is not to cut the fat. The answer is to make the taxes follow the will of the people who pay them. There are some people who agree with guns and teenage mothers, and they will be allowed to pay for it themselves. What a concept! I believe Chile, in South America was the first country to quit pooling and established individual retirement accounts. The worker still pays the same pension deduction, but the money goes into his own account to be managed by competing teams of professionally trained money managers.
To the surprise of the world, this move has revitalized the entire economy of every place that has tried it. The taxpayer gets a sense of ownership from a real stake in his future. It turns out personalizing taxation is all that is needed to cure an entire spectrum of social ills. I called it [my version] “majority rules spending”. My concept was a variation of tax pooling because I did not think any state would allow individual pension accounts, politicians being what they are.
In my arrangement, there would have been many pools instead of one big pool. You fill out your tax form, but then a checklist of where you want the money spent. I predicted this would transform society, not just taxation. Let the churches administer to poverty, let the bleeding hearts give their own money to the lazy. And block the concept of welfare entitlement.
There will be opposition, most of it from those with the least to contribute. But so what? Why treat have-nothings complaining as if it was a bad thing? Let them complain all they want since they will no matter what you do. There is never any shortage of people trying to get something for nothing. They would simply have to start complaining on their own dime. As it stands, the social security in Canada and the US depends on younger worker’s deductions to pay the retirees. And the relative number of each group is changing in the wrong direction. It would be far better to let each worker pay his own way. And now there is proof the concept works incredibly well.
Where’s my Nobel?
