One year ago today: May 11, 2023, air, not water.
Five years ago today: May 11, 2019, at the Octagon.
Nine years ago today: May 11, 2015, North Palm Beach.
Random years ago today: May 11, 2012, “for under $30k”.
What’s that beeping at 4:00AM? What? Silver hit $29, my breakeven point? Keep going, little buddy. Shoot up to $200 just for a day, daddy needs a new pair of shoes. My appetite is back along with three cold sores, so I did have something after all. This translates into a luscious breakfast of grits, cheese biscuits, gravy, coffee, and one solitary fried egg. The country gets a morning laugh from Biden who falsely says inflation was 9% when he took over (it was 1.4%) and claims he hammered it down to 8.5%. This is a tactic that genuinely worked time after time on stupid people before the Internet. This could be one helluva news day. More coffee, please.
[[Author’s note: this picture shows the cheapest place that met my criteria, meaning mainly a two bedroom that is immediately livable. That rules out any ‘hoods. A $75,000 hut in Brownsville. This gets past my 60 mile filter. It’s 155 miles away, nearer to Memphis.]
And cash will be short here until August. The accounts meanwhile are held a minimums, which includes Caltier. It is still closed for compliance, which was supposed to be temporary ten days ago. Actually, only one part of it is closed but only to new investment. The dividends have continued. Inflation is insane, the fact there has been no public backlash reveals how well the Democrats have got the majority divided against itself. I figure by the time I need $4,800 for my own funeral, the inflation game has been lost. Not here, but in some places butter is now $7 a pound. Even then if I die, the best scenario is if I could get four months notice.
I f I can’t give you action news, I can give you really hard-to-find trivia. I’ve got some bor you. If you have old Nautical Almanacs, you can reuse the Sun and Aries figures every four years with reasonable accuracy. Not so for the Moon and planets, the explanation is far over my head, you might say.
Ah, sun up, and I’m much better, thanks. Maybe slate an extra rehearsal, we need those six new songs. Trumps prosecutors continue to be rounded up for sedition, many of them facing the same charges they orchestrated against him. Even Rasmussen, the decidedly pro-liberal pollsters, grudgingly admit Trump is 10% ahead, but have to rate him a ridiculously low 46% to do it. The crowds outside his latest rallies are three times the building capacities, themselves in the tens of thousands. Did you see those two dumb bitches trying to destroy the Magna Carta? Time to start throwing these climate change bastards in the slammer.
Dolan Springs, California.
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We got it a solid two hours of rehearsal, and by solid I mean we specifically target problem areas. We worked on out stops, we’ve learned from experience how to slightly emphasize them. Predictably, we looked closer at why we sound better playing minor chords and have no answers on that one. There are three Merle Haggard tunes we’ve been neglecting. We wrapped it up by just past 5:00PM and the sun was still high in the sky. So I took out my old sextant and took a few measurements for luck.
The place is a beauty. On the lakeshore. A real stage and a real dance floor. I finally met the social coordinator and was he glad I walked in that door. I’ve put it off for three weeks because I had nobody to sign me in. Finally, I just walked in and asked one of the barmaids to sponsor me. Turns out the club is indeed heavy on dancing, and who do we know that insists our music sets consist primarily of dance music? That’s foxtrot, swing, two-step, and slow Texas moves, folks, we’re custom made for such a joint.
Turns out the coordinator has the same university degree as myself and the finances were a shambles before he took over. So were some of the bands that were on their roster and he had just finished firing them. He said right off that if I was an acoustic guitar player, get lost. In his search for bands, he wound up hiring two acoustic players in a row and learned his lesson. He accurately described how they were excellent musicians but could not get the crowd on that dance floor. He was horrified. I’d say his worries are now over.
[Author’s note: it was amusing to hear this description of the guitar players from another source. They were the heads-down type that play what they want. The type of guitarist I disdain. Yes, they win music contests but nobody is good enough to force their brand of music on others. I happily supplied him with the correct vocabulary to describe these yahoos. I know they are fellow musicians, but I also know you don’t pull a stunt like that without lying through your teeth and knowing you are in the wrong venue.
I’m surprised I did not know of this place. It faces the lake, not the street, so I’ve driven past it numerous times thinking it was a country club. Winter Haven is a tough market, but we’ve worked hard and deserve to get in at a top-level establishment ]
He’s now cautious and asked for a demo tape. These tapes take time and effort to produce, so I counter-offered a more economical arrangement for us both, one that cannot be faked like a tape. A demo involves setting up the equipment, so why not set it up and let him hear us play live? I know it only costs me $34 to put on a show. The Prez is out of town next weekend, but the following one we are slated to do a stage audition. The club was pleasantly surprised that I knew exactly the parameters and was familiar with how things needed to be run. It makes me one easy musician to negotiate with, that’s for sure.
I’ve known for some time there was a good market for a country dance band and once the Prez was up to speed, it did not take long (three weeks) to find something. Now, more of my take on this. I’ll advise the Prez to polish up the Merle Haggard set. This club is in a wealthy part of town and the clientele I saw were a good 15 years younger than I was expecting. It’s an upscale neighborhood and the setting is more like a private resort than a watering hole. If there is a bulletin board, always read it for a knack of what energy level, when you see boat races instead of bake sales, that’s where I like to gig.
My best plan is to set up at their request on a day when nothing happens, say a Sunday afternoon. When I said years ago there was a market for this kind of band, here is what I had in mind. Rumor is they pay quite well. These days, that means $160. And for the record, the other club tried to rekindle the Wednesday jam, I said no, and they landed flat on their arses, boo-hoo. You see, with music you never get rid of the drama, but you can make sure everybody gets their fair share.
ADDENDUM
For the umpteenth time, NASA announces a plasma rocket engine to get astronauts to Mars in 60 days.
