One year ago today: March 6, 2019, it remains on file.
Five years ago today: March 6, 2015, then a couple more . . .
Nine years ago today: March 6, 2011, all e-readers suck.
Random years ago today: March 6, 2017, big bands lose money.
It’s not a Lincoln Navigator, but a Chrysler Town & Country. It got ever less prestigious as we dug it out of the weeds. Here it is, standing in the open. It still outclasses what I driving now. Closer inspection shows a crack windscreen, some missing body trim, and clouded headlight lenses. Nothing I can’t live with. The trick now is to figure out how to take possession. These damn bureaucrats. I say only elected people should have any hand in law-making. Otherwise you get laws nobody asked for or wanted whose primary purpose is to serve the bureaucrats, not the public. If I can do it for less than $500, I may take the chance.
I’m approaching these harmonies in the same manner I learned to sing, that is, by imitation. It involves practically memorizing the notes and I’ve heard other backup vocalists say that is how it is done. I would not have time for that so instead I memorize only the first note of each passage. Not only is this simpler, it speeds things up. A wireless mic has become absolute necessity,. There is no way to keep a wired unit from getting tangled with my other cables as I move around on stage. Some of the tangles are beyond belief. No time for that..
There’s more as I bring to bear a lot of the trade secrets, one of which is drawing the audience into the act, so by set three, you can hit them with almost anything. And I do have some bass instrumental numbers I’d like to get away with. They include the “Benny Hill There”, “Buckaroo”, “Andy Griffith”, and some classical passages just to show any other bass players who’s boss. Especially those who don’t (or can’t) use a pick. What, I never mentioned that? Bass players who use the limp-wrist method call down bass players who use a pick, such as myself. Pick-using bassists could generally care less.
Fifteen years ago this month I posted the song list the evolved out of my collaboration with the Hippie. Make that, I saw it as a collaboration, he saw it as yet another of his endless useless endeavors to get a band together by promising five different people that he and they were a duo, then having them all show up at once for a duo gig. I’m taking the dogs for a walk in a half-hour, so let me go over that list to see if anything is usefull today, since last time we jammed around three years back he was still using the same list.
Not much, but there are some considerations. Remember “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”? Ah here’s one, “Jambalaya” but I would point out that was on my list years before I met the Hippie. I’ll give a listen to “Day Tripper” in view of harmonies, and I wonder what “Love Me Two Times” sounds like in harmony. Moments later, that one is a winner. What have I stumbled upon here?
[Author’s note: not all of this material will make it to stage.]
Irish west coast.
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Storm news. The weather office is now saying it may have been as many as five different tornado funnels. Now the scary part. This is the Kroger’s supermarket a mile from here. It sits in a small valley that parallels the road we use to get there. A series of warehouses and residences were flattened. Driving up there, the first sign of damage was around 600 yards from our doorstep. That was a close shave.
The wind actually missed the store seen at far right, but tore into the Panera coffee shop, the Marine supply, and the pet food store. That explains the police cordoning the roadway. It is right next to a “culturally enriched” neighborhood. And it is still politically unacceptable to send in a sniper to pick off the looters, though I don’t know why. I know it seems harsh, but not really. Once you plug the first one or two, the rest learn to behave, though only until the next opportunity.
Changing a router bit, all these decades later, still requires two wrenches in most cases. Some have a locking mechanism that jams the rotor, causing many people to think the router is broken. Today I went looking for a set of these wrenches and confirm they want $15 to $20 for what are basically metal flanges. I then switched to looking for ordinary wrenches that would work. If they make them, neither Wal*Mart nor Harbor Freight stock them. And, like like drill bits, it is hard to find what you want unless you buy a whole set. Harbor Freight had a set if you wanted to spend $55 to change the bit on a $10 router like mine. Prior to NAFTA this sort of thing was unthinkable in America. Somebody would have jumped on it.
Twitter has banned “dehumanizing” remarks, but only the subcategory based on age, sex, or disability. That means they’ve bowed to political pressure. The frightening part is the arbiters of what is dehumanizing is up to Twitter, not any defined wordspace. So be careful if you "advise" some fatso to go on a diet. And it’s easy to feel sorry for gimps in public, but what about calling somebody a redneck. I mean, if you are going to ban words, you might as well ban what they are thinking. Then you can sue them, arrest them, and berate them with the impunity of a liberal.
And how about the Business Insider report that airlines are being forced to fly empty airplanes in and out of Europe during the caronavirus scare or lose their flight slots. And the “new youTube” can turn off your tracker protection. Make sure to check it occasionally. What’s more, I have not discovered the process yet, but if you use an anti-tracking device and find it disabled, then reactivate it, youTube opens up to 8 copies of your browser, slowing things to a crawl. It’s not a virus because I did a system restore. Just restart your browser for now until I figure out how to disable that. Boo on you, youTube.
[Author’s note: even restarting your browser may still open multiple copies. In task manager, you can see a number in brackets (4), for example. You can right-click and expand the list, seeing several copies saying 0%, but still occupying memory. You can right-click again to close these. Normally, your browser should not be taking up more than 9 – 12% of your CPU.]
ADDENDUM
Rather than go out, which is pemissible on my day off, I stayed home and ran through Set C. The significance is this usually represents the third hour of music and traditionally has the biggest impact on the audience. I chose a variety which includes tunes most spectators are not going to guess a solo bassist would play. It adds to the novelty and wards off staff-fatigue (my coining). I chose tunes I could already play so as to focus on the harmonies. Did I shoot myself in the foot? Read on.
Remember Parton’s hit, “Jolene”. I’ve written a stonger bass line that I play with extra flourish, which in this instance includes plucking the notes at the octave marker instead of over the pickups. I also switch chords very rapidly where I don’t have to, and I watch my left hand intently like I’m doing something special. This is effective showboating and I don’t want to give it up. But, the song is in a minor key, something I’ve not done before. I’ve just got a handle on thirds and now they want minor thirds. I won’t quit now, but have patience.
The picture just now? I’ve selected that to represent my musical career.
