One year ago today: June 16, 2018, selling the sizzle.
Five years ago today: June 16, 2014, about declinations.
Nine years ago today: June 16, 2010, my unreasonable ad (he says)
Random years ago today: June 16, 2012, another failed startup.
I had the doggies at the lake, where I met a gorgeous gal, talkative, great shape, playing water fetch with her dog. Sparkie broke free and ran half-way across the park. Allow me to explain that Sparkie is twice as fast and three times as smart as you think he is. If he gets away, you are not going to catch him until he damn well feels like walking back. This lady was my type, but she was already seeing somebody. I never take that as a challenge, I take it as a clear get-lost. I did, but not before noticing her atlatl.
I got myself “millennialized” by accident. “Red Neck Woman” is in F#, a key I usually check to see if there are any chord charts or preferably bass tabs. I check Ultimate (which has become a cluttered site), Songsterr (going downhill, but still forward), etc. Alas, every tab contains the obvious mistake, playing the intro all wrong. So I spotted this new ask-me tab site (no link) and put the question, does anyone know where I can find the right tab for this piece of music? I got eight millennial non-answers and a clear indication of the desperate world those jokers have created for themselves.
Every one of them went for the money angle first. These sick-headed bastards are fouling their own nest. Their motives are nothing new, we had the identical type of pricks back in my day—but they weren’t proud of it and didn’t think they were kewl or smooth. Think about what such people intend if I said I wanted it free? Charge me a fee for the free info? Or demand a membership first. I like that, “millennialized”.
As for their marksmanship, I found I can perpetually run most of their time-limited “free” offers by changing a setting in storage. Is this stealing? Nope, they first said it was free, then later lied with the time-limit which makes it not free. So it is just getting them to keep their initial word. It would not be right to let them play everybody for a sucker.
Then, having done all that, I fixed the arm on this chair. It was getting a little wobbly. When I opened it up for surgery, shown here, it seems it has been fixed so many times it needs new hardware. When you run into snags like this, the best option is to take an afternoon nap. The contest here can be finding a spot on the sofa.
Sabrina Pasterski, PhD, Physics.
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Not that I want, but if one is to become vegetarian, why do it in one day? If it is possible to be one-quarter vegetarian, I estimate that’s what I’ve been for many years. I don’t as a rule touch beef and I don’t allow baloney in the house. It’s this gluten thing I don’t know about. You get things labeled gluten free that never had any in the first place, and in the next shelf you can buy a bag of gluten for those who can’t get enough. It’s no wonder so many people are wondering around in a daze.
Now in the news, the phone company, having installed fiber optic cable along all the major routes, is doing what it set out for in the first place. To get rid of all the high-priced help. My surprise is that they took as long as they did. While there are some union protections, the phone company has led the way as far as combating fair labor practices. They do have an excellent benefit package but this is not to be confused with any benevolence on their part. While you hear a lot about the phone company being deregulated, it is still not anything like a regular business in that it is still largely a regulated monopoly. They are subject to rules that don’t apply elsewhere.
The article points out they have let some 25,000 people go in the last couple of years. They do this by declaring them “surplus”. The affected employees aren’t canned, per se, but offered what the company calls alternate employment elsewhere in the organization. And the result is exactly that, you get huge departments filled with “affected employees” just putting in their time. The phone company is not unique in this regard, but it is a terrifying lesson (and a timely reminder) to how they would have run things if there had been no union.
I’m watching the situation in Texas where the robocallers are disrupting hospital lines. I don’t for a moment buy the excuses coming out of DC that they can’t shut down the callers instantly. Just follow the money. Also, I’m convinced the digital phone services are in on the scams. Because if I don’t use my phone for a week (not at all unusual for me), the robocalls taper off to a couple a day. But if I get an incoming call, the phone comes alive with spoofed recordings. I maintain if DC was serious about ridding the country of this nuisance, they could do it in 24 hours. Remember this blog is rarely wrong in predicting such things. Are you listening, Mr. Trump?
On that, I would like to point out that although this blog did not coin the term robocalls, it was the first to refer to pre-recorded answer menus as “talking to the robot”. Many, many decades ago. And yes, I got that in writing, Glen. That’s why it’s called a blog. Did you know, Glen, that something like 40% of Americans don’t read books? And most of those don’t read at all. I’ve yet to meet a guitar player who does. I mean, I know some must, I’ve just never seen it. Nor, talking to them, have I ever heard any evidence, either.
ADDENDUM
Totally concerned with music, skip this entry if you are not interested. It is mainly intended (once again) to archive an event that has no other outlet. Another hour reviewing the song list tells me the same old story. Most artists get lucky with a single early hit and bleed off it the rest of their days. Kind of the same cancer to music that Woody Allen is to cinema—his ilk crowd out a lot of real talent. These types quickly run out of new material and try to make up for it by pretending to have something they do not: versatility. But, I don’t make the music business, I just work there. Certainly I’d do better if I could, but I missed that lucky part. However, if I do wind up playing on Broadway, I don’t think I’ll bomb. But some of this music is so old, it has gone rotten.
Let me recap on that. If I get to play on Broadway, it will be without trying and only my fourth time downtown in my life, and just my third month in Tennessee. Beats wasting a lifetime here on the fringes, you see that a lot. This is a professional backup group, they play a lot of material not on any list. They also keep a sub (substitute) list of available musicians who can stand in. I would [otherwise] be another bassist on the list, but after Friday’s gig-audition, I’m informed I would be first call. No seniority here, and (ha-ha) I would not pass on that count either. Actually, I’m glad to finally confirm there are people with twenty years on me still actively playing out. I chose music, not hotdogs, as my ultimate backup.
The list contains items like Lady Gaga with “Shallow”. It’s a droner, and exactly what I meant about running out of material. There she is, what appears to me another Madonna clone, she rose in the music arena as a “collaborator”. She had to bring in professional help to revamp her image, and that’s what I’m talking about. You may not remember Gilligan (Bob Denver) and Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors). They got their fame playing the goof. Years later, I see Pyle on some show singing opera. Fine, but it comes with a huge price of a brain-disconnect and I get the same watching Lady Gaga wearing a gown and trying to sing serious music. Sorry, to me she’s perpetually wearing the meat dress. The meat smell matches what I think of blondes with black roots, anyway.
She shares another trait, this one with Johnny Cash. For all his prison music, he was only once in jail for jaywalking or something. This Lady Gaga follows suite, claiming to sing for the lonely, the dispossessed, and downtrodden. She has zero experience with any of that. Her parents were rich.
“Shallow” is on the song list, so I’ll learn it. It’s a typical guitar-player track. The bass line too weak, the drums overplayed, vocals electronically punched up. My philosphy of playing the happiest music for the greatest number won’t work here, because I’ll have no say. I’ve never played in a room where the majority of the crowd was there to get all melancholy, so I’ve never evened listened to such tedious music. Ah well, it’s a foot in the door, and if I make it to stage under the circumstances, don’t let me forget to invite the Hippie to opening night.
Of the new list, only 14 of the 54 tunes are in the pocket, with another 20 or so I’m familiar with. Folks, a good band is one that can play all Eagles, Stevie Ray, and Niel. But doesn’t. Here’s another tune I never heard of, “Faithfully”. I gave it a listen, it seems to be another musician jerking off about how hard it is to have a life on the road. Maybe he should waste a few youthful years in a Montana lumber mill like some of us had to, and then see if he’s still whimpering. And “Crossroads”. I’m finally going to learn a song I outright hated from the first time I heard it close to fifty years ago. It’s a guitar lick on the bass ad nauseum. I can play such junk perfectly, even fake the feeling. And still hate it.
