One year ago today: December 10, 2022, more useless women.
Five years ago today: December 10, 2018, one excellent concert.
Nine years ago today: December 10, 2014, like I taught him.
Random years ago today: December 10, 2006, xi, seiner, and eft.
Aha, what did I warn you about DNA testing twenty years ago? The problem is, when your retard brother gets tested, so do you. Anyway the data is stolen and once it’s gone, it’s gone. As for the data, it has already been listed for sale on-line as a way to protect yourself or your business. Should you hire or date someone who shares DNA with a known criminal? A smart phone with an A.I. app placed next to a laptop was able to guess the password 95% of the time by the sound of the typed keys. There is already an app to prevent this, called KeePass.
These were once the big supplier of switches and parts, a big company behind many of the components found in pinball machines. I’d see the odd mention, but they disappeared until this morning when I find they are now Suzo-Happ. I’ve never bought anything from them, but I find the site to be highly educational about what is out there. You know those mechanical pinball bumpers? That’s where they come from and their prices have tripled. It’s also worth a peek what the company puts on sale.
The shed is a bit like a closet, with a narrow walkway down the length and everything against one wall. A bit fancier than it had to be but the cost remains zero except for my labor. Even the screws holding it all together are salvaged. Another view through the doorway shows the window, tucked against one corner. It is so that did not have to cut the siding or extra lumber to get it in that position. But, if there were dogs and you were in there, you’d be able to see them.
Emerald Hills, WA state.
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By 2:00PM I’m grabbing a shower and off to band practice. I’ve got a little dissention in the ranks, stemming from the Prez’s vastly improved musical situation. The thing about band management is every detail has to be successfully handled and this one is curious. Follow me with the facts, because while I don’t expect anyone to adopt my outlook on bands and guitar players, I expect credit when I correctly predict the future, in this case months in advance.
Adding new tunes is now easy and we got one this afternoon. It’s a tune from the 80s, Jackson’s “Fireman”. It was on my original list but got smothered until the Prez said he could sing it. Instantly on our hot list, it’s practically an exhibition of the methods we’ve expended so much valuable effort on. I grade our results on this sound and we are ready for some sort of exposure. Today’s session revealed a potential rift, in that the Prez is content with jamming, while I regard the jam as live exposure leading to a paying gig. Bands cost money, this is a fact of life that does not always make itself apparent. And bands that do not make some money always fall apart.
And yes, I’ve heard of the “band” that has jammed together for twenty years without making money. That’s not a band, that’s a damn social club and they are their own paying customers. Today’s session was terminated by another blinding rainstorm and it was plain I was off balance. I had to outright reject the first tune since we started. The Prez was reacting to a single audience request for “Alabama”, which usually means a guitar player out there. Audiences will ask for given songs, not bands, possible exception, “the Beatles”.
This clashes with my band philosophy of playing only widely known hits, and to be fair, I cannot name you one Alabama tune and I’ve only met two or three people in my life who could. The Prez wanted to play this song because it “had the same chords” as another we play, one major reason I would precisely reject at tune. I don’t ask you to learn a completely unfamliar tune that could easily be confused with something you already play. While I did not “reject” as it sounds, I reminded him of our agreement to play only those tunes which both of us know and/or like. So it’s more like putting it on hold. Permanently.
Instead, I emphasized we have a dozen weaker tunes on our existing list that could be tidied up for less effort. We now ace the intro to “Midnight Special” and added to from memory put together a quick list of tunes that Keith plays at the jam. He’s an peculiar one, he likes the band sound but likes to solo. This is normally associated with musicians who don’t like structure. Over time they play it wrong and when they get with a group that plays to the end of measures, they flub. Keith’s dilemma is that we’ve played there so often people think we are a group and expect the band version.
Keith has forgotten his list so often that we finally wrote it down ourselves. Our motive is not to upstage him, but so that he does not solo the tunes we know as a group before we arrive. We get more requests for CCR than we do Alabama and there are dozens of errors in bands because amateurs make over-simplistic cause-and-effect assumptions. As in, “The reason you don’t like Grateful Dead is because you have bad taste in music.”
In general, our sound is much more mature in the duo style. He’s gotten well along learning to play “between” what I’m playing, a technique most guitar players reject because it makes for weak soloing. On my side of the coin, I’ve learned to accept every tune we play will have a bluegrass flair. The Prez put our name in at the Auburndale flea market, but no response yet. I may drive out there so see for myself, it something real band managers do.
ADDENDUM
An unexpected result of utility price increases has brought Ford a plus. They figured out how to rig up your F-150 EV to provide generator power during an outage. Great safety idea at the time. What could go right for Ford could go wrong for the power companies. The truck is designed to charge when power demand is down. Only dum-dums don’t know the electric company “smart meters” are a move toward higher prices during peak demand. The emerging situation is that the Ford vehicles are now poised to undercut electric utility prices and the power companies are furious.
While I don’t know if I’d trust Ford to do right, it is likely only time until the “generator” companies figure out how to cash in on this. They not really generators, they are batteries. I like it already because while the power companies can fight back, they are already some of the least popular corporations in America. It is well known they would rather overcharge than get efficient.
Next, a one-of-a-kind eclipse. The shoulder of Orion, Betelgueuse, will wink out late Monday night. You might see it if you live in the Florida Keys or Armenia. An oblong asteroid will cause this event. Don’t miss it, Betelguese is expected to supernova within 100,000 years and this could be your last opportunity. This is the Internet era, so I plan to watch it on-line day after tomorrow.
The Psyche launch was successful, only the 8th launch of the Falcon Heavy Lift rocket. The mission is to an all-metal asteroid in 2029, where it will orbit for a couple years, spirally downward slowly to an final altitude of around 30 miles.
