One year ago today: June 25, 2018, at least linking is still legal . . .
Five years ago today: June 25, 2014, so few Jackson impersonators . . .
Nine years ago today: June 25, 2010, remember erasable (re-usable) paper?
Random years ago today: June 25, 2012, goddamn happiness engineers.
My version of jet lag means I’ve slept through to 5:45 pm today. Except for a couple hours this morning in which I rounded up supplies I’ve barely moved. The Tennessee band has been back in touch with an updated song list, adding two old Beatles numbers. “I Feel Fine” and “Get Back”, I’ve played both before. What I’ve got here is a major sense of déjà vu, I’ve seen bands start choosing songs like this but right now I’m too foggy to place it. My jet lag is accompanied by follow on bouts of mild insomnia which I’m now looking forward to. There’s work to be done. First, here’s a clip of Sammy in the swing, who could care less if there’s work or not. He’s got the right idea.
I drove past Agt. R’s place but there was no place to park. I’ll maybe bike over later but not until much, much later. The heat index was something like 104°F so you got two summertime choices in this area. Broil or get eaten alive by the skeeters that emerge at sunset. Between naps I found time to run through that tune “One More Last Chance” enough times to know it is another showcase for me. The bass line has an indistinct skip at the end of every second measure. So what? Well, it gives me a talking point that I’m not overplaying the bass while actually supplying a slender opportunity to do just that. It does everything to preserve the original sound and changes nothing of the song’s character.
It can be shrewdly built from the intro until itt blends directly into the lead break, which is then familiar territory to me. Nit’s namely that fantastic but obscure bass line I found on that forgotten version of Route 66. While it has to be modified for this tune, it fits the specialty bass method I’ve spent so many years tinkering with. This is where to pay attention to ward off wrong impressions later. I do not compete with the lead player, I complement his work. But in a way that shares as well as boosts. Few guitarists object to great accompaniment, but fewer still figure out they are accompanying me. Hey, it’s just one song out of 56. For now, I mean. Nashville has become complacent in a way.
30,000 watt car battery
(lithium, around $2600)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
I’ve described how summertime central eastern Tennessee seems like supreme motorcycle territory and here’s another scene to show why. This road goes over a river or lake, showing how much more picturesque the place is than Florida. They would have to landscape the environment here to look this pretty. Tennessee has a definitely more vibrant economy happening than back home. This is most strongly evidenced by the fact there must be jobs here that pay younger people enough to buy the housing. Take a drive through Germantown or east Nashville and you’ll see what you don’t in Florida. Large tracts of restored housing with an evident affluence. Such places recover quickly from swings in the marketplace.
That is, I’d be a dollar short for the last beer. I would not use a card at a drinking establishment that knows me only by nickname, nor would I use my commercial account to withdraw $20. (They hit me with an $11 fee.) So I said to the barmaid, not my type, not my friend, not anybody I have a thing in common with that I’d catch her next time. Jesus Christ, her reaction was like I’d cut off her air supply. I haven’t even seen this woman since some time last April and she lays this trip on me. Fortunately, I spotted good old Abe in the far corner and borrowed the tip off him. And made sure she saw that. Welcome back.
I mean, what gives? Do I have to open the hotdog cart full time to keep the local economy off the skids? Even the pets up in Tennessee can do without my input for longer than she did. Remind me to avoid her shift. I mean, what a sequence.
Nobody likes an atmosphere of staff desperation. To balance this, at least for me, I had stopped earlier to check on a supply of sunglasses. Yes, I can get the initial batches by the carton. So I tried on a few pairs, striking the most uber-suave poses I could in that tiny display mirror. Turns out the cashier and some ladies were watching me and for the first time in my life I got told me I was handsome. I accepted it as flattery in my usual half-joking manner but they would not have it. They insisted they meant it. Folks, that is seriously the first time my life I’ve been called handsome. And I’ve been called so many things.
[Author’s note: concerning the face, one of the strongest determinants of “good-looking” is symmetry. My face is definitely not that. Overall factors such as complexion, prominent cheek and jaw bones, and even dimples play a role. Surprise, I have none of those either. So let me remain quizzical, because the ladies that called me handsome had “an intense and resolute manner”. Sigh.]
ADDENDUM
Another useful concept that’s losing ground in America is the fail-safe concept. I’m referring to the entire last two generations of computer coders. When their software doesn’t work, it results in a total crash. Examples of good mechanical fail-safe are those railway signals that all fall to the STOP position if electricity goes out. Or the elevator brakes that deploy if the cable breaks. Any system that defaults to a workable mode would qualify, although I’m bending the fail-safe term a bit. Then enter the millennials. It turns out my car door locking system has failed, but instead of reverting to the simplest operation (whereby one switch locks and unlocks everything), guess what.
I often try to repair things by imagining how the person who built it thinks. But when it comes to millennial goods, this method does not fly. The reason is the arrogance they share in their collective equality. While it might be Utopia for some to live in a land where everybody is the same, the problem in such a place is there would be no smart people. Do the math. And I find it actually painful to think like somebody stupid enough to mess up car door locks. What’s worse, is they would have consciously apply such inborn stupidity to the extent of undoing what had worked properly before they came along.
We are stuck with it. Most software can be programmed to work a small core procedure without bells and whistles. This would require thinking ahead, not the strong point of the wired-in bunch who think preventative maintenance just wastes money. And how about this picture. It’s beer from Patagonia. Cape Horn brand, and if was here right now, I’d drink it.
I watched another couple chapters of the Dragon movie, it’s all over-predictable by now. The only thing I can think of missed is the babe who plays the witch has not yet discovered she is heir to the throne. How come, when Scottish people fall in love, you hear all that fife and drum music. The most I ever get are some distant strains of old Stones and the occasional unattended car alarm.
Last for now, I will begin asking in the blog header, but if you can think of any way to monetize this blog without resorting to advertising or changing it’s character, we’d like to hear from you. Your cut is 10%, and this blog has far more than proven its worth in continuity, solid readership, and the merit is the content. That 10% could be more than worth your time to cook up an idea.
