June 13, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 13, 2018, a superior way.
Five years ago today: June 13, 2014, the Tifanny lamp.
Nine years ago today: June 13, 2010, Kelly’s Pub on Harrison.
Random years from today: June 13, 2022,another Tesla Barbeque.

           First take a look a the police cars surrounding my station wagon. What could this mean? Have the doggies been arrested for expired rabies tags? Has the system finally cornered me as the last non-millennial? Or could it be the cops showed up at the same time and place as me to take their rescue animals on a water-training exercise? Let’s make that one multiple guess in case any public school grads got here by mistake.

           Such a quiet day needs a little controversy. Tell you what, remember how tech news used to be chock full of innovation, new gadgets, announcements of improved memory size, and tidbits about extended battery life? Blogs like this one, who warned of impending disaster were written off as troublemakers and worse. Why, we were headed for a social media Utopia, where every fact about every person was on file somewhere and all you had to do was trust strangers with the information. So, let’s go to two easy amalgamator sites, AllTop and JimmyR, and see what the tech news of today is. Hello from Hermitage, TN, it is 5:30AM.

                      Saudi government uses cell phones to track fleeing women.
                      Hackers crack Huawei wallpaper rotation with ads.
                      FCC commissioners corrupted by Big Telecom.
                      Lawmakers worried about explosion of fake news.
                      Alexa records children without consent.
                      Google Chrome designed to bypass ad blockers.
                      Anti-telemarketing law has no real teeth.
                      Facebook was aware of privacy issues.
                      19 million medical records compromised.

           Now, I’m not sure what Utopian hell looks like, but we know it would include the above on a daily basis. It’s not some impending disaster, it is a disaster and that’s how it has been for a long time. Every day brings notice of some new breach or hack or abuse. A.I. is being corrupted for corporate and private discrimination. All cell calls are traced and recorded, the authorities have rode roughshod over Constitutional protections, and millions of Hong Kong residents are afraid to use ATMs, rechargeable purchase cards, and train station ticketing machines for fear of reprisals. Some Utopia, there, millennials. Remember how you scoffed when this blog said it would come back to bite you? I say this is only the beginning of your problems. Big Brother is only now learning how to put the screws to you all.

           Here’s an item. Quartz magazine has a major article on how going back to an all-cash existence is the only way to take back control of your financial life. Hmmm, this is going to sound familiar to my regulars, but let’s see what Erin Lowry has to say.
           Calculate your cash flow, set up a regular ATM withdrawal system of equal regular transactions, and track every dollar. Watch for patterns. This amounts to quoting my blog except in one major area. Lowry claims that an all-cash existence is “impossible” and “not sustainable in the long run”. That’s where we part ways. I have never owned a credit card and I get by better than fine. After all, I did buy a house cash three years ago, so even that is do-able if you stay away from credit.

           Let’s take a look at this month, see how my system has worked for at least thirty years. (I used to have a credit card back when that was the only safe way to get instant cash in foreign countries.) This month so far, I have spent exactly the following amounts, all cash.

                      $8.58 for coffee. I don’t go out like I do back home
                      $33.00 for gasoline. I still have half a tank.
                      $70.01 for household. Includes unusuals, dog food kitty litter.
                      $3.04 for office supply. Because I’m nowhere near my office.
                      $13,30 for books. I stocked up in April, spending $77.35.
                      $23.75 in cafés. I don’t pack lunch for short car trips.

           And, if I feel so inclined, I have $322.64 left in my entertainment budget. To do with as I please. And these numbers are all within budget guidelines, meaning this is after I’ve put away some for savings, emergencies, future travel plans, and lots of little goodies. I go without a few things, like buying anything from Amazon or riding around with Uber, I don’t order pizza, and I don’t need $5 in credit card charges to pay a $4 tab. Cash is king. Then you have the resources to just take off to Elmwood for the day and not have to stop for extra cash or buy a coffee with your phone. And it says here I can go thrift shopping any time.
           If you want a record of what I spent it on and where, you’ll have to ask face-to-face. This has severe disadvantages to almost anyone who tries it, but there is no other way to pry into my affairs. And cash is only one entity that I prefer to keep private. This is the computer with the Internet sockets plugged with crazy glue. As for the people who laugh about that, there aren’t as many as there were a while ago.

Picture of the day.
Ferries to Corsica.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           So, the wired-in world is well on the same path as sports. Remember when sports was concerned with game scores? Now it is all drug use, scandals, and contracts. I wonder if that is the root cause why I’ve never had much to do with those things or people? It’s one of the few things besides attitude that I had in common with George Carlin.

I don’t feel like writing, I’d rather work in the back yard. So here are some pictures to ponder. Here’s the drone swarm of the future, reminding the citizens of this great nation that if you have nothing to hide, you won’t mind the widespread application of facial recognition. It’s harmless, you know. Or how about that carpet drying on the back fence? One of the cats got locked in the porch and decided to protest in the most unpleasant manner. Two days later it still reeks to walk through there.

           Yep, that’s as exciting as things are getting today. I painted the sawhorses to resemble little lambs and clamped some wood into place. Trust me, the picture of the carpet has more public interest.

           Still no call-back from the big band. I’ve pursued learning some of the music on the list, because sooner or later, I know they will contact me in an emergency. A lot of it is filler music, which is how I regard tunes like “Pride and Joy” and “Great Balls of Fire”. They were okay in their day, I’d just never learned them. Now that I’ve listened, I note many of these popular tunes had sloppy bass lines. My speculation on that one is a combination of trying to get a stand-up jazz bassist to play boogie lines and putting a guitarist on a bass where he will automatically play guitar patterns instead of bass lines.
           I don’t mind, because these represent easy situations for me. One of my specialties is to take bass lines like that and sharpen them right up. I still play the same notes but with a lot more precision. That’s important so the lead player can’t claim you are changing the bass line and demand the right to change the lead—which they a slathering at the mouth to do. I play the exact notes but with a piano feel, plus a different attack just slightly ahead of the beat. Actually, it’s right on the beat where most bassists tend to be a fraction behind. Anyway, it livens up the whole song and I’ve had the standing ovations to prove it.

           First change is in “Great Balls Of Fire”, a number that has never done a thing for me. I play the bass notes simple, four to the bar, where this is a bit indistinct in the original. I punch up the notes behind the solo and add double stops on the chorus that are the same notes as the piano.
           During this new music process, I found a Blues song called “Liza Jane”. It’s so generic that if I heard it before, I have no recollection. Anyway, it has a sparse and unimaginative bass part, so I thought I’d give it the treatment. Wow, now I want to play that on stage. Most unusual for a Blues tune around me. Where the original bass accompanies the guitar, pretty ho-hum, I customized the whole progression so that it “leans into” the vocals, something I normally only do when the audience sings along. Now it reinforces the lyrics instead of the guitar, a sort of boost that makes the vocalist beam. Good. This band as two female singers.

Last Laugh