One year ago today: January 16, 2017, the lollipop, a coincidence?
Five years ago today: January 16, 2013, guitar-centric list.
Nine years ago today: January 16, 2009, insulting the Duke.
Random years ago today: January 16, 2014, it’s my choice . . .
Good morning. Let’s pile in the car and first the bank, then coffee, then we go buy $60 worth of lumber and get to work. That second bedroom, we need it so badly over here. I have a backlog of projects with electric parts that I can’t begin unless I have a work space. Define work space as an old but nice pedestal desk with at least five drawers for my parts, nothing fancy. Not complicated stuff, but stuff you tinker around with. Let me think, okay, how about this ingenious carpenter’s pencil sharpener I saw on-line. Or one I have the parts for, it’s a small electric motor with and eccentric gear and a one minute timer made from a 555 chip. You use one of those plastic cord keepers to clamp in a can of spray paint and this shakes the crap out of it for you. Ingenious if you ask me.
Segal beats the crap out of a half-dozen bad guys. They are getting better at matching his moves, so you be careful there Steve. In this movie it was the constant thing with the undercover black cop constantly misunderstood and whose life invariably needs saving in the last ten minutes. But you know, I prefer Segal movies where he thumps the Asian kung-fu punks with all their hoooo-heeee stuff. I think it’s pretty amazing how they always manage to work in a sword fight. I mean, who really trains with those things any more. It’s not exactly a concealed weapon. I hope the script writers get overtime for coming up with plausible reasons why these swords are always to be found in abandoned factories, the holds of cargo freighters and on the wall adjacent to so many bank vaults.
I also watched a few episodes of “World At War”, it seems to be a few volumes from a set produced for television. It is mostly propaganda and a difficult watch for anyone who has studied the facts. For example, one segment goes on about the massive military display for Hitler’s 50th birthday. Nonsense, the Germans had no “massive” military in 1939. They were outnumbered by all their neighbors. The Polish alone had more tanks and airplanes—and four times as many soldiers. (One of the reasons the Poles lost so quickly was their army was massed on the border for attack, not defense.)
The Germans did have a small armored spearhead of mainly obsolescent tanks (Pzkw Mk II & III), with only enough gasoline to move them 90 miles. When they ran out of gas, they were only able to continue by draining the gas tanks of broken down tanks to continue to their objectives. After Poland surrendered, it took Germany six months to save up enough gas to attack France. The French had attacked Germany claiming they were aiding their ally, Poland. But it’s the big lie. France had promised in 1919 not to form alliances with countries that surrounded Germany. Look at an atlas and imagine yourself to be in Germany in 1939.
Telemarketing room.
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Who should l run into but Bradford? He’s got himself a cute girlfriend, mind you nothing remotely close to what I had when I was his age. At thirty, I was still hooked on the drop-dead gorgeous babes, the smooth tighties. Tonight was Karaoke (I keep forgetting because it was always a Wednesday before) I had showed up early for the free WiFi and the crowd filtered in. Nor was I going to stay, but the only decent-looking gal in town was there, surrounded by four and, at times, five married men. That was entertainment in itself, with them trying to outdo each other in the “just friends” department.
Since it looks like I’ll skip an out of town trip this month due to the inclemency of the climate, that freed up the budget. I promptly went to Wal*Mart and got me my first Bluetooth™ device, a keyboard for the tablet. Productivity instantly tripled. And a wireless mouse, though that might get replaced with another Bluetooth™ device, since the tablet has only a single USB port. It’s already well-documented why I’m the last to invest in these technologies. I would add that the directions are the shits for a complete newcomer, but I got the device paired and working. Like you are supposed to know what paired means.
But once I got the setup to a configuration one could work with, I was tearing through the menus. I see that no way is Google or Microsoft going to let you use your tablet unless they know who you are, where you are, and what equipment you are using.
ADDENDUM
[Author’s note: I want to make something clear. This duo is original, although we do not play original music. I have searched high and low for other bands with this format and have not found even one, anywhere. The bands that bill themselves as duos, as shown in this picture, are really larger groups with a duo taking top billing. If you look closely, they are both holding six-string guitars.
Of course there’s more on the newest guitar player. This is not a final nickname, but let’s call him “Mister R” until something better suggests itself. We talked philosophy between tunes and we found a lot of common ground. For instance, he does not understand why there are no country bar bands in Florida. I told him I always thought that it was an innate guitar player thing. Guitar Center doesn’t cater to country music wannabes because the franchise has been so successful at selling rock and roll. Now Mister R says there is more to it because that is not mirrored by lack of demand. Ah, so he knows something I don’t. He says there is a huge demand. How does he know this?
He further added he could not find any country bands to join. Now, I am not saying there are no country bands. There are a few, but they are fixed format and don’t play the club circuit. In the sense of a dozen bands in every city coming and going, there are zero country bands. Just browse Craigslist and you’ll see. Nothing. At least he doesn’t have to be sold on the concept. This is in stark contrast to most guitar players who strain at length to deny that such a demand even exists.
Playing mostly originals, he does a few covers, but has no experience arranging them. I’ll show him the basics in return for some help with harmonies. I can sort of fake harmonies along with certain tunes, but not while I’m playing bass. Mr. R is free to introduce any tune, with the codicil that he has to state that he has listened to the bass line and feels that it is up to the standard that he would want to play it himself. Yes, if you spot the auto-pilot on that one, that’s to make sure they mean what they say. I could go further, since I can strum to most tunes, I could ask them to play the bass line on the guitar. Just to check and see.
There is plenty of opportunity for input. For example, where I never capo much past the second fret, he showed me how he can fake a ukulele by clamping onto the 12th fret. It’s a unique sound that got me thinking. If he can sound ukulele, he can sound mandolin, right? Are you with me here? Fix that in your head because I’m going to get way ahead of myself here. If he can do mandolin and he likes to sing harmonies, I know in my mind’s eye which arrangements work best for duos, I have a test for you. With only those four things in mind, namely mandolin, bass, melody, and harmony, I want you to imagine the tune, “Man Of Constant Sorrow”. Ah, you see. Now you’re arranging.
Last Laugh
