One year ago today: October 8, 2022, make more coffee.
Five years ago today: October 8, 2018, a ten dollar magazine.
Nine years ago today: October 8, 2014, fantastically average.
Random years ago today: October 8, 2021, besides charm, I mean.
Two things happened this morning. One, I made a batch of beans, and two, some DC congress type got carjacked almost in front of the office. Why are these headlines? Easy, I don’t often make beans because the way I like them takes 8 hours. But this time I had a superb batch worth mention. I’m not fussy about the tomato sauce, which often can be pasta sauce, or the sweetener, which today was brown sugar, molasses, and the last of the maple syrup. And the carjacking? It was because Biden’s freak press person tried to blame it on Trump and got immediate backlash from the whole room. Curiously, even known anti-Trump media would not let it go, indicating at least some of them see the writing on the wall.
Beyond doubt, the big event of the day was band rehearsal. This is the way the few who have worked for that privilege get to spend a retirement Sunday. More this afternoon, for now have a gander at this delicious vegetarian dish. That’s beans soaked and boiled (not baked) to perfection and the sauce described just now. Now combined with half the batch put away for later, it’s really that sauce that makes the dish.
We’ll find out tomorrow is that New York kangaroo court convicts Trump of the fake fraud charge. Fake? Yes, because in American law, there has to be victim, just like under British law there has to be a motive. The charge is Trump over-valued his property on loan applications many years ago. Since Trump paid back the loans, it no longer matters if he lied—there is no victim. The opposition knows that, so what’s with the charge?
It goes like so. Years ago, several Democrat states passed a seemingly harmless law that a felon’s name cannot appear on ballots. It has a positive appeal to most people, so nobody objected, but it is clear they intended to use this law at some point in the future. They only thing they had to do was find some corrupt judge to bring in a guilty verdict. Now, since Trump would instantly appeal, he’s technically not guilty yet, but these shit-hole states instantly took his name off their ballots. They are under no obligation to inform people they can simply write Trump’s name on the ballot. Sadly, most Americans are too dumb or too lazy to accomplish this and the Democrats are counting on that.
“The American Agent” is completely off my read list, it has devolved into a gossip-fest with all these little old English ladies who pay complete attention to what the neighbors are doing. Maybe that’s how Scotland Yard developed their investigation methods. Find somebody who knows his rights or refused to talk behind people’s back and lean on him, even if he is not a suspect. Get a file going on him. This audio-book gets hard to take, plus it was written decades after the war and should not buy in so easily to the propaganda. For example, the war was not against Hitler and the bombers were not nazi, nor did the U-boats seek out ships transporting children to safety in Canada. It gets tedious.
There are a few tidbits, but too rare. For example, is it really a custom in England to tip somebody to hail you a taxi? Maybe at the hotels? Did women really join the WRENS instead of the land army because the uniforms were prettier? I could see it if they were after men, even if those men might soon be dead. Or if the food was better? But the uniforms?
Sierra Leone “king driver” bread.
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Patience, we are going to talk about the music. I promised you a picture of the cactus flowers or buds, these things, so here you go. They are pretty, but they are not flowers. Back to business. Band rehearsal has, I would say, entered a new phase, we are now applying duo arrangement in far more detail. It takes a bit to get over the “band sound” and move to “duo sound”. I’d say the reason is you move further away from playing it “like the record”. A keen observer might say he’s playing drums on guitar while I play piano on bass. One thing for sure, we are better at “hearing” which songs make the best adaptations.
I have carefully studied this barrier for years, probing for its weak spots. They are small but they are many. Top of the list is the way these people all play the same songs the same way. There are others that range from the physical impossibility of playing chords and riffs at the same time to those who lack any real stage presence. I’ve taken aim on all of this. What can we provide that they cannot. The best answer is novelty. We can play what they can’t and what they they can, we have great presentation.
You’d have to read a lot to find where I mention my tactics, so here are a few. Inverting the parts, I will play fills the guitar player cannot. And in a few tunes, that has evolved to me playing the entire “lead guitar” on the bass. I could add this has created some of my best on-stage “hits” but I better not say anything or Elliott would shoot me down. We have the required 32 songs for a gig, my goal is 40 songs. That may not sound a lot, but it is. These tunes are chosen for audience impact and there is no need to dilute them.
We are going back over each tune and addressing the weak spots. Some that could not be dealt with, such as “Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” have been removed. Replacements are beginning to suggest themselves. Today we added “Silver Wings” and “Mama Tried”, both Haggard tunes he will be singing. During this, we ran across an old Miranda Lamver tune we both like, “Mama’s Broken Heart”. You’d have a hard time convincing me that is country music but that is where she placed on the charts.
The Prez is now instantly able to spot where I switch from bass to piano. We spent over half of today’s super-productive session on fine-tuning the musical sounds. He’s adapted well away from “playing guitar” to finding that elusive 8-to-the-bar sound. It’s now accurate to say we are never playing both the same things at the same time. But we are not quite cohesive and comfortable with it just yet. There is still that hint of trying to sound like a bigger band with more members, exactly (as I just explained) the wrong thing to do. Progess has slowed on that point until we hit that magic level where it falls into place. I’ll know it when I hear it.
So what’s the big picture? Well, we can’t yet meet the more demanding clubs head-on, but we can easily entertain a dinner crowd or community center. This duo is more what they expect to hear, if they were expecting to hear it. They just don’t know it yet but the proof is in the videos, even if you can’t see the really good ones. Thinking on that community center in Lakeland, I drove to the trailer court to see if I could find Randy, the drummer. Nope, his place is somewhere in the middle of the longest street and the trailers looked identical.
I stopped and asked five passers-by, six if you count the couple separately. Yes, they all knew him but could not place his address. You remember Randy, he’s coo-coo and has sworn off drumming, but he knows how to get us into that community center. He may, you understand, insist on playing along as drummer, but that would just confirm my political decision to make sure the Prez & I can play every tune independently. I’ve been on stage with Randy and he gallops (speeds up) but I can hold him in check with the bass line.
ADDENDUM
I caught an earworm, that song “Bizarre” by OMC. But just the chorus. The rest of the song kind of sucks. There are a list of such tunes I would often consider mashing into a medley, but the problem with new guitar players is that it often involves too much work. That is, it is 95% as much for them to learn one verse-chorus as the whole song. For some reason they find it more challenging.
A TV documentary y’day covering Trump had some unintended consequences. I’ve not seen it but feedback [from today] says the broadcast was intended to show how every nationwide Trump event around the 2020 election was beset by violent protests. That's woke and it backfired.
It showed how every major Trump event between August 1999 and March 2022 was beset by violent rioting protesters. It’s been openly admitted these were paid Democrat Antifa troublemakers so the documentary was biased to start. But they flubbed. It seems one day was missing,all the Antifa operatives were not at Trump events. Where were they that one day? Nobody seems to be able to answer the question, “Where were all the troublemakers on January 6th?”
