MORNING
The BeatBuddy drum pedal, you saw it here first, has sold out and is now on the second production run. This is the programmable pedal reviewed here long ago that was built with crowdfunded money. They received over five times the subscribed goal, giving an indication of how pent up a need there was for something easier to use on stage. Yes, I know I had this idea ten years ago and got nowhere. I didn’t even know where to ask, you may recall I tried to work with the Red Devil creator from England, but he would not believe me this thing could go viral.
I had talked to the inventor on the phone a couple years back, so, like, do you think I should ask him if I still get the $100 discount? Just kidding, Ken. The one most important feature of this device was the one thing I wanted—a display screen that showed the title of the song, not the damn machine setting. Yes, I’m disappointed that I could not join in, but the situation was beyond my control at the time. Well, that’s life, I knew it was a winner and had to let it get away.
Trent brought it up during rehearsal, but the way things are going, we may not need the box. Our timing is well within professional standards. For that matter, we were accurate enough from the start that we have never bothered to rehearse our tempos. It helps when both musicians like the same brand of music. I’ll check the price tag for now, since I know I instantly adapt to recorded drum beats and could make the leap any time.
Navigation. I stayed home in the rain last night and practiced my celestial navigation calculations. I guess I can chalk up a battle won, at least in the nice warm comfort of my home. I managed thirty calculations in a row without a hitch. I’m not fooling myself. Considering how easy I get seasick, carrying off the same on a wet and rolling deck is certainly the greater chore. However, all, this is still a noteworthy achievement.
True, it falls short of victory. I have not plotted many charts and I’ve confined my work to the western hemisphere. I didn’t pursue the skill daily once I found it took far longer to understand than to memorize. I could have taken that shortcut but that isn’t me. I thoroughly understand every step in detail which was far harder than just going through the motions. For those who want such information, it is about a 35 step process—and if you do it that way, there are around 20 confusing little rules and pitfalls to watch for. I’m happy to not need those rules because I learned the theory. Had this been a race, I would have lost.
NOON
The neighborhood up on Hallandale was sealed off this morning. Some guy shot his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll bet you twenty bucks they were Cubans. I subscribe to the theory that wherever an identifiable group has a bad reputation, it always has some basis in fact. Going around shooting people because you been dumped, that’s basis for a bad rep. And if there is a basis , then it isn’t prejudice. Not at all.
I’ll keep an eye on it a while, since where there is manipulation, there is counter-manipulation. The thing about greed is it keeps the wealthy at each other’s throats. Question, do I think the government will seize gold like in 1933? No. First of all, they did not seize it, they bought it. Then they devalued the currency. Secondly, back then a lot of Americans had faith in the government where today no such attitude exists. I suspect people would fight back. Nor are people dumb enough to keep any large amount of silver in a safety deposit box or in their houses. Even I know places in Colorado to hide things where nobody would ever look.
Back to money. I can tell you where the government could get the money they need. All those big fat retirement accounts and pension funds. Everything is on electronic file today and it takes the press of a button. The stats show something like 97% of the money in the world is now electronic. (Compare with 0% of my money.) I doubt they would take the funds outright. They are more likely to steal the value by printing up all the dollars they want. As far as I know, I’m the only one in my category right now prepared to pay $20 for a loaf of bread. But not forever, only until the 99% of experts and fancy talkers who don’t agree with me are wiped out.
By then, an alternative economy will have emerged. I am okay with that.
Speaking of alternatives, I mapped out the number of hours required for me to be able to play, on the guitar, 32 songs. This is the minimum required to do a four-hour gig, although I push for three hours. This is not the rehearsal time, but the personal effort involved in learning the guitar parts and lyrics to another 24 songs. We now have 8, some of them pretty shaky. There is also the matter of finding that number of tunes that I can sing. I am still limited by what “suits” my voice. And it turns out that doesn’t include any Travis Tritt.
I’ll let you do some of the math. It takes 4 hours to find a tune, download it, work out the chords, determine if it is suitable for duo work, and get the lyrics. That’s per tune. Learning the chords is not the end of it, especially if I follow my guideline of finding a unique guitar strum. The music has to be adapted for duo presentation and if there are any instrumental breaks, those have to be dealt with.
At this point, the real music work begins. I know from experience that I have to play the tune all the way through without error 30 times to “make it my own”. There are certain tunes, like “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy” that I have played nearly 100 times and still have not once done it right. The most I can put in on my own without blood pressure problems is 90 minutes per day, and that’s a maximum. And if I max, I need every third day off.
It works out to the full six months I mentioned. I need 600 hours. That is NOT including rehearsal time, since that is unpredictable. That is May of 2015 at the soonest. This does not mean we could not do a smaller venue or coffee house, because I would grab those opportunities just for the stage time. You cannot fake stage time, you got it [stage time] or you don’t got it, you guitar guys, so never lie about it to a bass man.
What’s this? It is my score on some randomly chosen characters (five) in a Morse code test at twice the speed formerly required for a ham license. Formerly? Yep, they’ve even dropped that as a requirement, as the American standards continue to get watered down for the upcoming crops of half-educated dummies. As you see, my worst letter is the space between letters.
When receiving code, you only have that split second to write (or type) the previous sequence (you must wait until it is entirely received) before “clearing your ears” for the next batch. What? You want to know the speed. Well, you needed 5 wpm for your license, so this was at 10 wpm, a word consisting of five characters including the space. I never learned the spaces well as I can get them from context, but this is not a good strategy.
AFTERNOON
Taking time to look into the local Craigslist musician section—it is the only remaining local forum for seeking musicians, I see the West Palm crowd is lambasting a bass player who says he is “selective” about his gigs. The majority are bashing him because he wants, among other things $200 per show, non-smoking rooms, and likes to get home early. Yes, he is arrogant and demanding and comes across like it.
However, I refuse to take sides because the criticism being leveled against the guy is clearly originating from our area's over-stock of guitar players who don’t like any other musicians beyond themselves having standards. Yet, when I read past the guy’s terrible attitude, he is addressing the known problems of this entire area. He is right about local bands reading the audiences wrong and playing their own favorites instead of the crowd’s.
He is right about staying home rather than play a smoky bar gig “out west” for chump change. And it is mainly self-idolizing guitar players who think jazz is big during the “cocktail set”. If the truth were known, most guitar players were suckered into paying for jazz lessons in their youth and don’t want to admit they wasted their money. To this day, music teachers still sell the fantasy of jazz as "advanced".
This town has too many guitar players trying to recapture the 70s who will call you down for not doing things their way. And that is the largest component of what is happening on Craigslist today. South Florida is the elephant’s graveyard of the aging, balding guitarist whose idea of forming a band is waiting for you to learn his personal song list and rejecting yours as bad taste. I’m curious if this bassist, apparently named “Kurt”, will hold his own against the entrenched Broward guitar Mafia.
Wow, look at my in box. People, I am not a financial expert and I don’t know what you should do. If you are single, buy a lot of something that won’t lose value, that I can advise. Because this time, when the market falls, it won’t take months to ripple around the world like 1929. Every financial state in the world, except maybe Saudi Arabia, has been bending the rules to the limit. The market collapse this time will be instant. You will wake up without a bank account and what money you have on hand you will need for food—nobody will accept your credit cards. Poof with your pensions and IRAs.
The certainty of this happening is already 100%. There are no more tricks left in the hat. No government in the world can meet its current entitlements or pay back its debt. Only the most drastic of measures has prevented the implosion so far. Debt has put everything on the brink, the world's a ticking time bomb, I tell you. But everybody knows it won't happen here. Ha! It will happen overnight.
NIGHT
You know what’s odd? All those years I lived in Seattle, I never really had any property destroyed by the wet weather. In Florida, I’ve lost tools, furniture, clothes, all small stuff, but still. It’s the nature of the climate, since I’m used to wet. It’s those blinding, unseasonal downpours that get you. My next place simply must have at least a carport. And good luck when you see this, the Internet service always goes on the blink in any kind of rainstorm. But only after the offices close and they can’t reset the thing until morning.
Here is the satellite photo. Love those big circular driveways, but why is this driveway a different color than all the rest? I need some boots on the ground. Those are pretty sizeable lots but on the other hand, I know there is an industrial airport in that part of town. Still, I must take a look if only because there are no slums in West Palm Beach. It is almost twenty miles further away than I planned, but the payments are so low it might not make sense to pay cash.
It’s simple, I’m probably going to die in the place, so why tie up a lot of moolah? You can only have so much fun and there is only so much time left, and my Goldwing only gets 33 mpg. Again, I know there is something wrong with this property, but it might be something I can live with. Like a bunch of Hungarian neighbors. Do check back.
Today’s Togla Treat
Ready. Set. Go.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
