July 31, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 31, 2021, who’s this guy.
Five years ago today: July 31, 2017, interesting budget totals.
Nine years ago today: July 31, 2013, fire on the freeway.
Random years ago today: July 31, 2006, babysitting.

           Gloria. By the “Shadows of Knight”, released 1965. And today, I played that 57 year old tune for the first time in almost that long. Yep, we played the gig at the craft brewery, which will dominate today’s bog. As expected, mixed results which of course we’ll go over. But first, Gloria. This tune was a teen band classic and few of us knew or cared that it had been written by Van Morrison. Needing all the filler music possible for this gig, I downloaded the lyrics for the first time. I stared at the sheet, these were not the words I remember. My first band only knew this song was easy to play and could be dragged out for 10 minutes. Today I discovered Morrison used to do the same thing.

           George Ivan Morrison is still around and kicking out the tunes. And his work was replayed this afternoon, where I pointed out last day the generally older crowd in the brewery loved it. I judge that by whether it is ones, fives, or tens in the jar. I also predicted they would like the impromptu presentation, which they did but I’ll tell you who often does not like the same thing—the club management.

           Thus, it was a mixed reaction. It is not what the owner expected and he said something about the bass being a bit loud. I explained that was the show and directed his attention to the crowd reaction. We had around twenty people, not actually bad for a Sunday in this cow-town. My one-liners were a hit, alas, I don’t have enough of them to keep up that much momentum and really good ones are hard to find. You don’t want too many repeats. What, you want me to tell you the best one for today? Okay but it’s not a one-liner.
           I’m in Dunkin and this gorgeous lady comes over and asks if I’m single. I said yes and she took the chair.

           Aside, the morning was perfect, a cool breeze had everybody out working in the yards. I filled in the pylon holes and tidied up. Our solitary female woodpecker has been a regular. There are two suet feeders, she seems to prefer the whichever has the older (slightly more brackish) mix.
           This is the road gear being tested. I have not use much of this since early in 2019. It’s been stored in the shed and I’m reminded that dust is always a problem around here. This shows the Yamaha speakers, remember those? Pudding-Tat loved the cloth covering on those babies, but I if I know cat owners, these were far from America’s most expensive scratching post. Feel free to send me pics of your best-wrecked items.
           This shows my rush attempt to blast the dust away with compressed air. Good enough for now. It’s actually not bad, I may get away with just repainting the grills. I have some excellent paint for the job.

Picture of the day.
Mustard?
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           Now some analysis. All the equipment worked great. There should be a photo of the GigRack being tested. Wilford brought his own gear and found out stage work is most idiosyncratic. The time to be repair a cranky foot pedal is not between tunes, and of course in front of the crowd, he forgot 90% of what we rehearsed. That’s because he did not “make them his own”, This is one huge barrier to be crossed, where you have to overlearn songs that you do not care all that much for. But we discovered a technique that might work a bit.

           It goes like so. On tunes where we both play guitar, I turn where he can see my fretboard. Then instead of strumming the entire measure, I silently change to the upcoming chord where he sees it and can get to the chord just in time. I dislike this form of baby-sitting but it got us an extra half-hour of music. The manager left a bit early, but the staff saw the whole show and the two things different—the applause was universal and the crowd was more than entertained. I’ve mentioned how rare this is, as I am not alone in disliking the “heads down” brand of guitarist.
           The club took a chance and I did explain we were new and unrehearsed, but that we would put on a show. So next weekend will be an unknown. Which will take precedent, the audience reaction or the club owner’s expectation of what entertainment should be. I leave my hopes with the staff, who were delighted by the easy Sunday money when I mentioned them several times on stage, keep your server happy. By start of the second set, the staff were pouring use freebies. (For all I know that is customary, but I say great because we did not ask.) My trained eye says they each made around $30 more than they were expecting.
           What a great way to wrap up July, 2022.

ADDENDUM
           What’s this, dozens of on-line brokers are selling pregnancy information? You stupid, stupid women, it serves you right. I’ve been the Internet for over 25 years and I have yet to put a piece of personal information on-line.

Last Laugh