One year ago today: January 5, 2019, gimp features.
Five years ago today: January 5, 2015, Forbes finally heard me.
Nine years ago today: January 5, 2011, many divorce-like notions.
Random years ago today: January 5, 2007, redacted, a ranting post.
The DR neon strings have a nice bright sound. This is the first time I’ve used that brand because I considered UV strings to be a cheesy novelty. I was surprised at the quality, so I took a closer look at what’s available for bass. One day, I will have to change my strings but bass is not like guitar. You don’t ever have to change bass strings unless they physically wear out. Plus a good set, over time, sounds somewhat better. I’m always on the lookout to draw attention to my bass playing, so I instantly liked this set of white strings. In conversation, we called these Doctor Neons, but the initials are pronounced. It’s DR Neon.
But, it may have to wait. My Longhorn is modified and the E-string has to be partially unwound to change it. Bass strings have to be replaced one by one or you risk taking too much strain off the truss rod. The six-banger had four strings already missing, so I replaced them all at once, noticing the guitar may not have a truss rod. The strings should stretch in by today and we’ll check out the sound. I’m not expecting much. They really do sound nice and they look nifty, which I also was not expecting. I’ve said how important I consider having the audience pay attention, but I don’t mean the whole room. Just the people near the stage. You know, I’ve got that 5-string out in the shed. Hmmmm.
Over the years, I have a whole bag of tricks toward this. If I have the computer with me, I can announce to the audience exactly how many notes I’ll play for them that evening. On average, I play 8,892 notes during a four-hour set, but I have played as many as 10,240 which incidentally is my record. This is why I’m a firm believer in adjustable bridges. The new guitar has a fixed bridge. My Longhorn was set up by Vinnie, the pro, so I’ve never had to touch it in some twenty years.
Here’s some trivia. Do you know why the headstock of a guitar, or bass, is angled back? That’s the part with the tuning pegs, you notice it bends backward some. The reason is to pull the strings downward over the nut, but without causing a crimp in that part of the string, helping to eliminate fret buzz. There are other methods, including a type of disk screwed on like Fenders, but I prefer the angled headstock. It is one less thing that can go wrong.
Later, the thing will not stay in tune. But it will serve because it is small enough for me to pick up and demonstrate something while I’ve got the bass strapped on. Don’t worry, I told Monty. This is Tennessee and there is a guitar out there with his name on it. You know how I choose music not by the artist, but by the individual tune? I hear this “spiffy” bass line that’s my style (piano-like) of “Never Can Tell”, a.k.a. “C’est La Vie” and “Teenage Wedding”. It’s by Emmie Lou Harris. So I pulled up her anthology to discover I don’t really know even one of her songs. I scrolled through 400 titles with no luck.
So what do I know about her? Nothing. Every picture has a different hair color. Says here she was born in 1947, so that makes her 73 this year. I’ve heard of her, mostly winning awards, but other than some cover tunes, I was unable to name on hit. I’ve heard more songs by government-approved bands like Bedouin Soundclash and Lucia from Romainia than Emmie Lou. Who, for all I know, might live up the street.
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Here’s the finished gate ready for mounting. That reminds me of an old ethnic joke. This blog, the subtitle says, is not for the weak-minded. This Polish guy goes on a safari and kills two monkeys. He takes them to the taxidermist, who asks him if he wants them mounted. Oh no, says the Pole, “Just shaking hands will be fine.”
It’s not just my demographic, but I admit, most people I grew up with would not know how to read the WSJ. The vocabulary would seem gibberish. A similar example is e-mail. I sent my first e-mails back in the last century, but did not begin using it regularly until 2003, and not on a daily basis until 2008. The reason is simple. There was nobody in my age or category to correspond with. None of them had or foresaw any need for e-mail. It wasn’t really until around 2011 that my current list of contacts began to evolve, and many of them had to get my instructions on basics like how to send an attachment. Most of them don’t know they can send themselves an e-mail or that their e-mail is on somebody else’s computer. Yet, by 2016, they were all power-user experts, don’t you know?
It was just warm enough to get outside and work on the lawn swing until I ran out of hardware. Here’s the last of the bend part ready for fastening. I’ve added two braces across the bottom where the flex caused by occupants slightly bowed the crosspieces until they worked loose from the frame. I clamped the wood in place and replaced the 2” wood screws with 2-1/2” where possible. Now, do you want to help me paint it?
ADDENDUM
Fan mail? About comments—I get them but I don’t publish them. Surprised that I was once homeless? Yes, but it was called vagrancy back then and you had to sleep with one eye open. Yes, I’m European and come from a middle-class family whose income, I like to point out, was in the top 5% of the world. However, I was their experiment on how cheaply a child could be raised. It’s another tale from the trailer court, but of the thousands of dollars I was promised for education, and that I worked for, I only ever saw $21 of it. My decision to leave at 17 was easy. If I’m going to be forced to have nothing, I’d rather have nothing some place nobody is telling me what to do and think. I’m not the only one, but that didn’t make things easier. So there, I was homeless for three years.
What brought this on? The photo last day of the bedroll near the creek. I’ve explained and over-explained why I don’t feel all that sorry for such people. This is America, there is no real hunger and no widespread destitution. But I do recognize the evils of poverty and how it feeds on itself. Poor people have to associate with other poor people. I recently read a booklet on this, but can’t recall the title. Who was it that said of you hang around with nine poor people, you will the the tenth? They create an environment where they can’t get out, but make sure nobody else can either. Want me to point out a major difference between the rich and poor? The rich don’t have to spend the majority of their day protecting themselves from each other.
Don’t underestimate that factor. It took me 19 years to break out of the cycle, a sacrifice most poor people are not likely to make. And the reason is simple. They have no real stake in the system. Neither did I, and I had to forgo a lot of things. Now I have a part of the system, but I still have the recollections of how it treated me and I owe that system nothing that I didn’t already pay so many times over. It also means giving up a youthful marriage, most of your hopes, and going to work before you are ready. By the time the Internet came along, I already knew how everything on-line would be used against people. If I learned the hard way, watch what happens to them.
They are already being hit between the eyes for their own complacency, and that’s another bunch I owe nothing if not worse than nothing. Their abuse of credit put cars and houses out of my reach, they allowed sacred rights like privacy to be slipped away while they were busy channel-surfing. Almost 60% of adults will spend at least one year below the government-defined poverty line before they turn 75. That alone more than wipes out all the gains they thought they had in the bag (do the arithmetic). Without money literacy, even the ones who win the lottery will be broke within a year. They can’t fill out their own tax forms. If I was ever homeless again, the first thing I’d do is start filling out forms. Who was that guy from the UN who said God loves poor people, but he doesn’t like them because they are poor, but because nobody else will.
margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 1em; margin-left: 1em;
