One year ago today: November 9, 2022, right in the open.
Five years ago today: November 9, 2018, a super-regret.
Nine years ago today: November 9, 2014, some gripe about NOVA/PBS.
Random years ago today: November 9, 2021, I got less than half.
Here’s a photo of what the repaired PA speaker looks like. This caused a problem later, but not a speaker problem, a dodo problem. The jam session guy did not know PA speakers are bass speakers and complained the sound was “coming all from one direction”. Hey, music is not a task that demands too high an IQ. I’m still miffed about last evening, but I can imagine a few people who are less pleased than I was at the time. Up early, I have the videos edited and sent away, a major coffee morning.
Overall, the Prez & I have benefited plenty from the jam sessions. It’s just after last evening, I wonder if it is worth it. I had planned to attend six, but not if we are not progressing toward being hired. Or if the atmosphere is less than neutral. There were three small groups in the crowd. One was Latino, who keep to themselves and rarely show on weekends. Another was strangers, definitely not regulars. And the table of wives and daughters. That’s nine or so people not usually there, so the bar is happy. But what about the band? There is no pay, so I know we could outlast the dude with the frown. He took too long to set up equipment to play for free very long.
For now, I am not happy with that development, but it gave the Prez six valuable hours with our arrangments. It’s quite a leap to accept the sparser sound of two people that a single guitar at full blast. He’s seeing the results first-hand that it is a better show than possible with even two guitars. We had people dancing in the aisles and they did not. I’m lacking energy for no reason, so the lightest duty around here is editing video files. We have almost 1,5 million bytes (just shy of an hour) from the show y’day. Let’s see what we got.
That “Seminole Wind” song has four chords in one pattern, that’s the whole song. When Bradford moved in front of the band, I moved the camera to rest on my amp. There’s Bradford, playing the song wrong, right after the host told him the chords. What happens is the Prez hauls out his mandolin, thinking he’ll be plinking along with two guitarists, but it’s only one and he becomes the principle sound.
Next was the “Peaceful Easy” song, which for some reason the guitar player told us it was in A, then proceeds to play it in E, and he does not know the correct turnarounds. The mandolin is a bit shrill, as we don’t practice with that. The balance is off. With the wrong chords and this, we hit quite a number of sour notes. I was stunned that Bradford, who used to champion the Eagles, has forgotten how to play that tune. By comparison, we’ve easily mastered the endings. We need a couple warm-up songs to get the right gauge but that idea of using the chorus pedal to emulate the lead breaks is a winner. By the way, I did come up with that one independently after listening to some character play with it cranked all evening around 20 years ago.
We are ready for most of the places we are every likely to play, but still carry around ten songs that lack punch. If my gumption picks up, I may go over what we’ve done before, it’s always easier to salvage something we’ve played already. Some of the best we played this round were “These Boots” and “Red Bandana”. At this point the camcorder got jostled a little and began picking up more of the bar noise. You can tell what we’re playing but not make out the lyrics. The full video reveals where others are playing to impress, we are playing to entertain.
Mirror & prism device, 1870.
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Walking the trash bin out to the curb did me in. I felt tired enough to plunk down with an extra coffee, and fell asleep in my chair until 4:00PM. That’s my signal for unscheduled down time. I have to go into Winter Haven soon, so let me know if you need anything. I sent clips of the videos to the Prez, and like I promised, we are being approached by guitarists. But, I’ve also taught him the warning signs and where at first he was amused, there is no doubt he’s noticed how these people fall neatly into the categories I outlined. We will soon have all the guitarists we want, so it is now us who will pick and choose.
It’s partially a matter of the Prez going the distance, he’s not a solo act, and hopefully he now knows better than to join a larger group without adequate assurances. The other guitarists will no doubt find him more pliable than I am. The yahoo last evening has just as strong a view of how a band should run as I do. But the difference is, I used to think like he does and I’ve changed. And his attitude is stuck to the concept of a band back in the Eagles era. Time has marched on.
While looking for easy recipes to make in a muffin tray, I noticed a lack of prepared items you can buy. For example, it would slow me down to have to cut pie dough to fit the cups, as shown here. I would bake the whole pie and cut it into twelve, or make the pie in a cake pan and same thing. Thus, let’s splint from that search and see if there isn’t something larger we could divide into cup-size servings. The goal here is convenience, not specialist baking. One concept was filling the cups with your favorite omelet fillings, then pouring whisked egg batter over them and baking.
Later, I got to some of the more recent historical videos of the Second World War. Damn, people, the thing has been over for nearly 80 years. Release the facts already. My area of interests are the North African campaign and Army Group Center, but more the weapons and tactics than the tales of bravery and battles. Instead, it is another rehash of long debunked myths. Montgomery issuing vague orders so no matter what the outcome, he could say he planned that. Or the press covering up that it took the entire British 8th Army years to chase back a single German tank corps.
The most enduring fable is El Alamein. It was far from a fair fight as presented. After more than a week, the 800 British tanks had still not achieved a breakthrough. Then Rommel, with just 35 tanks left, ran out of supplies and pulled back. Sure enough, in jumps Montgomery to say he planned that. Yeah, and kept it a secret from even his own staff. I remain no fan of Montgomery and wonder if we will ever, in my lifetime, learn the truth. That one German can whup ten Brits.
By nightfall, I got up only to get coffee and a sandwich or two. The first movie I definitely remember seeing as a child was “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad”. Probably because it was the first movie I could follow the plot. This is the 1958 original, not that stupid Disney cartoon. They sure gave the cyclops a bad time for nothing. I found it free on-line and am totally enjoying it, though I don’t recall it being in color. Let’s check the European news feeds. Norway deports Muslims and the crime rate drops 31%.
ADDENDUM
Here’s some of my favorite responses to a post that insinuates all Boomers bought a house for “7 raspberries” back in 1969 and are now selling them for $2 million. In 1974, I stood in a ditch to hitchhike to university because I didn’t have money for a bus ticket, but these zoomers need somebody to blame when they don’t get their entitlements. I know a mortgage payment in the 1960s was $95 per month—but the degree of suffering was the same or worse.
1) zoomers also caused a burger and fries to cost $16I admit, at an early age I blamed the older generations for many ills. My situation was also hopeless, but I worked and thought my way out of it. The hatred in the current generation is strong. They don’t realize 50 years from now, when houses are $500 million each, they will be the ones being blamed. What’s truly interesting is if any of these whiners is sitting in a coffee shop posting on a thousand dollar laptop, he has fifty times the resources I ever had at that age. I spent my boomer years piling lumber at 30 degrees below zero.
2) Boomers had to pay 18% interest!
3) many sell because they can’t afford the property tax on $2 million.
4) does everyone on Reddit hate their grandparents?
5) Boomers poisoned the well that would have kept their retirements comfortable.
6) unrelated: I’m 39 y.o. and on blood pressure medication.
7) most Boomers were between 9 and 15 in 1969.
8) to the TikToks, Boomer is anyone 21+.
9) get a reverse mortgage, die broke, and stick the grandkids with the funeral bill.
10) most Boomers who bought early had inherited money.
11) they forget minimum wage was 75¢ an hour.*
12) damn Boomer spenders, them grandkids are entitled to that money.
(*Actually minimum wage was $3.35 when I turned 18.)
