MORNING
Okay, now I have the flu. I only thought I had it before. Down time today, as I need to be over this by the weekend. The plan is to attend a small party at the Church (St. Judes) for Alaine’s b’day this year. Stay tuned for that. First time in a decade, Alaine is not hosting a party, so we are going to the festival. Guadalupe, I think it is. Few people grasp the intensity of this event in Mexican culture. I saw this shrine back in the early 80s on a stay in Mexico City.
I really shouldn’t feel as ill as I do over this flu, so excuse if I’m edgy. Does one like, officially get old at one single point and it’s everything in the book after that? And am I finding this out the hard way? I think I mentioned I was in for tests earlier in the week and how they are just going to say it is my diet.
Like today, I had oatmeal with brown sugar and nutmeg, a jap orange, or maybe more specifically, no corn, no chocolate, no eggs, nothing canned, nothing I’m not supposed to have. No meat, only fruit and grains--and they will still say it is my diet. So maybe I should become a vegetarian, since I practically already am. I shop at the Russian store, where everything is natural. And not too expensive. Check it out.
Staying indoors, I watched some old movies on DVD. And I picked a terrible one, “Donnie Darko” or something. So bad, I’m actually watching it. Hollywood likes to portray crazies as undiscovered geniuses. Anyone who thinks that has not met very many crazy people, they let them wonder the streets, you know. Most of the loonies I’ve actually met come across more as maladjusted dumb bastards. Hey, I know, I survived the phone company. My worst dislike about my best job was you can't control who they sit next to you.
But it must be hell to be both maladjusted and stupid at the same time. I suppose it is like knowing you are going through life not getting 90% of the jokes and knowing there ain't a damn thing you can do about it. I would estimate around a third of the people I met on that job were off perpenzontal. The worst were the ones who well over 40 still clung to the world as they saw it at 16. The old "why can't we all just get along" crowd who leave sunflower shells all over your workstation.
Oh, and don't you love the ones who have "visions"? Well, don’t we all? I describe one of mine today’s addendum. And that was my wonderful morning. Sorry if it isn’t action-packed, my blog rule merely says to record the “most” events, even if they are the most average or most blah.
NOON
Here’s my Goldwing under the tarp, awaiting repair. Question, if plastic takes a million years to biodegrade, how come these cheap tarps disintegrate in the sunlight after a few months? (Hint: planned obsolescence.) The clutch cable arrived and the installation is scheduled for mid-morning tomorrow. Good, nobody ever comes over that early.
Which is double-good, because too many people know where I live. We can get three people in here, but four has to sit up in the kitchen and talk through the doorway. We practiced elbow to elbow last evening, but we found one of those songs that is a natural. Every [good] band gets those and this time it is “Passionate Kisses”.
Food? Did I mention food? Yep, there is a big pot of chicken soup on the burner. I don’t eat soup out of cans any more. It will be ready in a half-hour and I’m sitting right here until then. Just ordinary chicken soup in a two-quart pot with carrots, potatoes, celery, and two spices. Good soup doesn’t need more than two.
Let me be more precise, when I say sitting here. The entire PA system from the club is now set up to practice. And there is no room left to turn around. I have not connected the DVD player through the 600 Watt system. It is plenty loud on its own. This is how we play the tunes now and we already have a “sound”, a trademark way of playing our music. I’ve said repeatedly I did not invent the Bass & Acoustic duo, but I did say there is nobody else doing it in the eleven years I’ve played in this area.
And that brought me back to the dearth of instruction books for guitar and bass. Where are they? Could it be they are as rare as guitar-bass duos are in this town? There are ads for bass duets, but they are not popular or classic music, more like spastic jazz and nursery rhymes. I’ll keep searching. I want a booklet that spells out in notes or tab exactly how to tunes like “Passionate Kisses” for bass and acoustic. Why is not the market flooded with these? No, I didn’t know because I developed my methods independently and never bothered to look before.
There is one easy explanation, called the “10,000 Hour Rule”. Know that one? It’s the result of studies into how long it takes to become a world-class expert at anything. Some call it the “Ten-Year Rule”, it works out roughly the same. Well, I did not set out to become an expert, rather to fit into a duo as the ideal band size for the decade. That’s how I found all these guitarists that wanted to go back to the 70s instead of move ahead. In the end, it took the full 10,000 hours to get here, so what do you think? Should I be the one who writes the booklet?
Um, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the 10,000 hours does not apply to one’s job, folks. There is apparently a psychological barrier on that. We all know people who’ve been doing it wrong since day one who think they are right because they are old. Most workers quickly adapt to the minimum effort they find satisfying. That is far different than a deliberate pursuit of improvement. And one day, years later, you’ll find some people consider you the expert.
So? Should I write that book? There are lots of bass instruction books out there but none that show a beginner exactly what to play with a guitarist nearby. And there are a few bass tab books (I can’t find mine) that note-for-note transcribe real songs. Which is great if you have a full band to do the rest for you. I mean a book that shows duo (bass and acoustic) arrangements the way Trent and I are now doing all the time.
NIGHT
Here’s the photo of my old PA now set up in my Florida room. If you think there was no room in here before, now it is single-file everywhere in this house. The mystery musician from Davie is still e-mailing about forming a duo and it is wise to have a backup plan so I listen. But he’s a complete unknown as far as I can tell. Since he will ask for videos, I reviewed my old band to see what was on their site.
I further notice their web page posts videos with several different bass players, always the same. No matter if he is great or not, the bassist is shown as some talentless hack faking every tune somewhere in the background. I wish I’d known two years ago that is all they were looking for. I mean, it’s good music, but they just do not require bass playing on any scale I recognize as necessary. The last thing those guys want is a bassist with personality getting in the way.
Ray-B wants to check out Nashville. I told him I’d share expenses, but that is not the place to try to get famous. These days they don’t search out talent, you have to bring something of your own to the table. What you hear out there is no longer the best music, instead only the bands with enough money to get their music promoted. That’s right. These days, you pay them. Nobody works on contingency any more.
Mind you, I predicted the return to live music twenty five years back. You still need a sound, which is much more important than talent. It’s nice to have both, Dwight Yoakum is your prime example. But after the record is cut, if you cannot pack a stadium, they don’t want you. The day of the rich studio musician cutting one hit a year and sitting back are gone. But I predicted it would be small clubs that charged admission for an evening, not these massive sports arenas at ten million dollars a show. I was wrong about size of the audience. To me, more than 100 people is a mob.
And I get more hits per day right here than my old band has in their entire history. I thought I'd point that out.
Today’s Togla Treat
This is why I'm okay with rain in Florida.
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