The music was heavy metal, which means other than the swear words I could not make out any of the lyrics. But these guys, and it was all guys, are musicians and they plainly put a lot of effort into composing and rehearsing their shows. Like all young bands, they don’t necessarily understand that what they do is not original in any way. I recognized all stage moves as identical to my day. Strange how the band and amp positions have not changed with the times. It is still the drummer stage center, the roving singer and the guitarist on the wings.
The crowd has changed. I don’t mean anything derogatory, I’m reporting what I saw. One hears that today’s teens have a weight problem. I’m 47 pounds overweight and I felt right at home. In fact, I was one of the skinnier people present. And except for the second band’s guitarist, I was the only blue-eyed blonde in the room. I can’t say how I felt about that, but this makes it totally different from the dances I went to at that age. We called them dances back then. On Friday, you went to a dance and admission was $1.50. Today it was $12.00, probably a bargain. There were around 80 attendees that I saw.
Anything else? Yes. Fashions and ages. One of the reasons I never liked the Rolling Stones is they were in their mid-twenties by the time they got famous and to me that said they were grown men. The Beatles, however, I could identify with. It was odd to see in the crowd last night that a larger than usual proportion of the males, although twenty-ish, looked much older. It’s just something I noticed. More than half of them had severely receding hairlines. Nothing ages a man faster. PS, my hairline did not recede until I hit 42.
On the return trip, my Honda electric acted up. I suspect there is plain too much 1890 engineering left in the world. That was the decade before Einstein upset all their little formulas. A hundred years later, it still requires a man who studies robots to figure out why a Honda battery needs constant recharging. Three times I’ve traced the wiring and found where the guy before me threw up his hands and walked away. It is engineered to the bare minimum standard, that is, thrown together in a way bound to make life harder for someone in the future.
Engineers. That’s why I think they are, taken together, a pack of schmucks. I have never studied a single course in that field, but somehow I know that in the future, electrical demands will increase. But they can’t, so chances are in that field the free brand of thinking gets you fired. My point is how engineers argue that since they can’t predict margins a few hours ahead, they use that excuse to build in no leeway at all. Maybe that is why such thinking is called “specifications”.
My latest topic for research is Newfoundland. Look for an island off the east coast of Canada shaped by retreating glaciers. In my teens, I had a lot to do with a gal from there. My interest is the geography and what’s been going on with it in the last while. My book on European explorations keeps mentioning Newfoundland. The map shows it is the first spot hit by any expedition sailing from Ireland seeking a northern passage to Cipangu.
If you are familiar only with the grade school versions of Columbus finding America, you might consider the same research I’m up to. Nobody kept accurate records, so who knows when anyone really discovered America? There is even an Englishman in the town of Bristol (sheriff Richard Amerike) with a wild claim to this Continent’s name. Trivia. Bristol is a corruption of Bristowe, the Old English pronunciation “Bridgetown”. It might have surpassed other ports except for dangerous and high tides exceeded only by the Bay of Fundy. Which is between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, not Newfoundland, should anyone care.
I also see that the common landfall for early explorers was the north tip of Newfoundland. This may have been due to the rumor of a large island off the Irish coast at that latitude and they hoped to find it. What surprises me is the number of people who claim to be first and the similarity of their stories. The English base their territorial claims on discovery and thus have a vested interest in saying John Cabot was first.
ADDENDUM
Shown here is an inspection of the undercoating using the bright sunlight to catch any flaws. This is the panel that will form the lid, sporting two of the three layers of undercoat. You cannot see between the applications that wood filler has patched every crack and then sanded. But not sanded smooth, this is degrade plywood and the goal is protection, not prettiness.
Quality? If you look close, this undercoat also covers the edges of the wood, even the tiniest saw cuts. The top coat may not, but there will be no unprotected pieces in the entire structure. This is where the solar panels will be mounted and I’ve very leery of having to drill pilot holes into this sheet of lumber.
