August 13, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 13, 2022, I hate slow toasters.
Five years ago today: August 13, 2018, chili dimensions.
Nine years ago today: August 13, 2014, their grubby mitts.
Random years ago today: August 13, 2002, probably Coral Gables.

           What? I slept all day until 4:00PM. Except for a shopping trip at 9:30AM where I picked up some pallet wood (two 8-foot boards), some drumsticks, and a heavy duty exterior electric box. In other words, a day like this should be an excellent way to compare my “nothing” days with the same in others. The audiobook about the virus has our African boy in America, where he exhibits an amazing understanding of the dangers of climate change that escape so many Americans that they must be lectured on it from all sides.

           I set out salted peanuts for the squirrels, it seems to keep them off the birdfeeders. The pallet slats are long runners, I’m using them to slowly fill the side of the saw lean-to, where the sunlight gets ferocious. The avocado plant is beginning to show new leaves. I threw in a load of laundry and ran some plumbing pipe between the sheds. I want a tap more convenient to the new burn barrel.

           It’s another scorcher out there, but I moved some things around in the van. I did not know the seats fold up. That’s the morning, and although I have never had a day with zero views on this blog, today was pretty close. Only 8 views. But we always come bouncing back, again because this blog has what the others lack. Content. It might be bland, but it is mine.
           Hmmm, the Trump jet flow over the political rally of a rival and stole the show. Maybe that’s why I took this picture of a pile of yard junk some time ago and forgot it. The watermark says October, but not the year. This symbolizes the total effort of the people even daring to run against Trump. For the record, the Reb & I picked Trump as a political winner the moment he came down that escalator and both events and polls have proven us right, how’s that for foresight? Don’t mistake this as an endorsement, Trump has a long ways to go.

Picture of the day.
Nigerian black-market oilfield.
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           The Prez & I had a second and very successful rehearsal. Good, because Fretz pulled the pin over the tracks. What’s the story on that? Well, I had insisted if I played to the tracks that we learn one set of material without the tracks. This is not stubborness, but when things go wrong, I insist the band be able to at least play out the end of the current set without the bells and whistles. He should know this, because when we were there, his Bluetooth cut out. That led to a wasted 20 minutes while he kept trying to get the thing to work. I would not want that to happen on stage. Sure, you could take a break and tend to it, but that is not nearly professional enough. Well, he decided that despite the agreement we reached, he was not going to be a rhythm player.

           Fine, I was off to rehearsal with the Prez, here we are in silhouette. We were inside the pavilion, where there are fans and power, so it was quite the session, more like a jam. We played through all the material covered last week without a hitch and his playing is fine. He also sings—and can, like the Reb, help me find the key if I lose the starting note.

           Further, we discovered an entire segment of music we both knew, though I’ve not played stuff like “Kansas City” for seemingly forever. I’ll make up the list tomorrow but I do believe we have enough for a short gig. (Three hours instead of four.) I’ll scout for a Sunday afternoon in case we have a third rehearsal like this—after that we get paid to practice. It may be tips only for a bit but we are good enough for anywhere around here. I stress to the reader this is not a full show-band looking for a recording contract. These are tunes popular as long as fifty years ago and arranged for a duo.
           As for capabilities, toward the end wwe ran through some classic rock tunes and absolutely aced them. The ones that stood out are “Mercury Blues” and “Venus”. He has been on stage a noticeable amount and it shows. I’m watching closely for the factors that make a duo preferable to a solo. Trust me, there are times the second person is just a pure no-go. The Prez got most of it quickly enough and when he fully adapts, look out. Let me explain it again because I like going over it.

           Most duos play in unison, both playing “the song” and they cannot be convinced there is any other way. My version plays in “harmony”, each person contributing a different part of the song, that together, imply a larger band is playing. Thus, there is an aura or atmosphere about each tune that almost naturally gets slightly accented to contribute to the effect. The prime example today was the tune “Call Me The Breeze”. It’s a Skynyrd rock tune. Now imagine somebody strumming it on an acoustic guitar. It’s pretty bland. Now add the rock bass line and you have a driving little number.
           He got this and it went from a tune he was reluctant to mention to what I know will be a signature number if this flies. Once he realized he did not have to overplay to capture the “feel” of the tune, that the idea was to emphasize the drive, it transformed to what I must say was a pretty stunning rendition. The snag was my Sony camera ran out of memory before we got there. Um, actually, there was memory, but you know Sony, you can’t reuse it until you reformat the disk.

Last Laugh