The Flapper

The other day I noticed that our toilet was running after it was supposed to stop. It is the same age as our house and is about 14 years old has been a good toilet. The only mechanical problem I had ever had with was when the arm inside the tank broke a couple of times. It is the one that connected to the flusher handle. I had replaced it a couple of times & finally broke down & bought the metal one instead of the plastic and it has held up great.

I looked inside the tank and realized that it was time for an overhaul. It had one of those bulb type floats hooked up to a wire arm & the part that is supposed to close up when it gets full had a worn out rubber washer/gasket. I went to my local Home Depot yesterday and purchased a kit with a new type of flapper and float design.

I started taking it apart and when I took a good look at the new kit, I realized that it didn't have enough parts and the ones it did have were not compatible with my old parts. Still, I went ahead and took the tank off and took it outside and washed it out with the hose.

Today I went back to Home Depot to return the kit I had purchased and get a more complete one that had all the parts. I was waiting to speak to the Home Depot associate and there was a lady who had a clogged toilet and was discussing what type of Drano to buy. The guy was trying to tell her that nothing he had was really good for the type of clog she was talking about but I don't think he wanted to say anything bad about the products they had to offer. She kept asking basically the same question over and over and he wasn't really coming out and telling her what he was trying to say so I spoke up and told the lady that a liquid plumber probably wasn't going to do the job & She could try putting a garden hose down the toilet and then get someone to turn it on while she had it crimped & let the pressure build up in the hose and give a few blasts and see if that worked. The Home Depot dude said that sounded like a good thing to try so she finally left.

I got the complete kit and returned the other one and when I got home from work today I was able to complete the toilet overhaul and am now back in business.

My life may not be completely in order but my toilet sure as hell is.

Saturday Day

I haven't seen "Gus", The old artist dude for several weeks now. I hoping all is going well for him. I don't know if he was an actual rent payer so he may have been run off by the powers that be on the strand. Some of the artists actually pay rent to shopowners and have a spot reserved every week. I will be back out there Saturday October 28th. If he is not out there, I will probably ask around a little & see if anybody has seen him. If I do see him, I probably won't talk to him all that much but since I may not be out there on the Strand until next summer, I may spend a few extra minutes bothering him. He seems to not mind the attention as long as he doesn't have anybody looking at his art.

It was my first time to play on a Saturday. Parking is free on Sundays so I assumed it was on Saturdays also. There were some folks putting money into the parking meter receipt/pass dispensor & I told them it was free on the weekends. The guy pointed to the sign that said "Mon- Sat" & I stood there and looked at it like the Dumber Dude from Dumb and Dumber. Then I went ahead and got me a ticket.

It was a good day for the Blues as far as customers during the day at the Gravity Bar. They had a band called D.R.U.M (Devine Rhythm & I don't remember what the other two letters stand for). They set up while I was breaking down. They were playing on the stage at the other side of the Gravity Bar where the actual stage is located. I was set up in an area closer to the strand sidewalk so there was no problem getting in each others way. I heard them do a sound check & They did Bob Marley's "War" & they sounded very good. I would have stuck around but I was exhausted & Still need to drive home.

Thats all for now. I have to run a few errands & get out and about & enjoy the nice weather.

Howdy

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Or whatever the case may be.


It is a nice morning here in Katy Texas. The humidity is down a little bit and it feels good outside.


I just got my CD order back from Dallas. It is pretty much the same CD as I had before but I had a little mastering work done by Rock Romano & I also took one of the songs off that didn't really sound that good to me. I had recorded it using just the guitar only & it just didn't flow. Not that it was bad because it didn't have the bass & Drums. I just didn't get into the smooth rhythm. Maybe I wasn't tapping my foot & feeling it or something but I know it will be better when I do it next time. Besides, If a person is going to record a Robert Johnson song or song of his style, It really needs to be right. I th ink it was towards the end of the day when we did that one & It may have been that I was getting a little tired.

Brandon Shannon had really done me a huge favor and spent an entire Sunday setting up and recording back in December of 2005. He has now moved to Hawai and I need to drop him an email to see how he is doing. I met him when he was the sound man for the Armadillo Palace and he really is a good guy to know & hang out with.


The other cool thing that I had mentioned some time back is that when I contacted a local company here and asked about pricing of Duplicating/printing the physical CD itself, I got an email in response and it turned out to be from an old friend of mine from Dallas. It was complete fluke. I had been in contact with Marvin Shapiro from time to time but probably hadn't talked to him in a couple of years. He was a college friend of mine & we drank alot of beer & also did quite a bit of fishing at the local cow ponds & area lakes in East Texas.

It was great to have Marvin be involved in my CD & he really took care of me this time & I really appreciate his help but mostly it was cool just to have a reason to call him a few times and work on something togeather. If I ever get the money to make a DVD, I am going to ask him to do the camera part of it. It will probably be kind of expensive since I will need a sound recording dude and also the filming part and then have to get the sound part mastered and then edited to get the best parts. I really think that will be the best thing to use to show what I do so people can see the one-man-band aspect but also get to hear studio quality type sound.





Thats all for now.

Politics

I don't really watch that much sports anymore. I was Houston Oilers fan for a long time but when they up and moved it made me realize that it was really a business and the team didn't belong to the city or the fans. It kind of made me think about being a sports fan a little differently.

I was still rooting for the Houston Astros have another miracle comeback this season & I still will watch the rockets from time to time but it just isn't the same.

Yesterday, One of the NFL Players for Tennesse stomped on an oposing players head with his shoe and they had to give the guy 31 stitches. To punish the guy they suspended him for 5 games. http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_f10029A.xml.html


I heard about the story on the news this morning and the newscaster dude said that it was a shame that children had to see stuff like this. I thought it was funny that alot more children were going to see it being re-played on the news in slow motion. It is kind of sickening to me when news people try to talk about caring about children or caring about Texas. They don't give a damn about anyone. If you think they care about you, wait til you are newsworthy & see how much they care. Do you want a news camera there pointed at you when you are being wheeled into an ambulance? Why do poeple need to see that anyway. Isn't it good enough to know someone got smashed up and may die or do you need a picture?

Speaking of caring about children. What about Congressman Mark Foley? He was on a committee to protect expoited children. I am sure he went to church every Sunday. Seems like the people who pretend to be the most moral turn out to be the wierdos.

Thats is another reason to trust Kinky Friedman. With a name like "Kinky" it is almost impossible that he will ever turn out to be a depraved pervert & even if he did he probably wouldn't be breaking a campaign promise.

Henry Ford

After an exhuastive research endeavor at the Entermazement Labratories, I have come up with an inovation to dampen the sound coming out of my Fender Blues Junior Guitar Amplifer.

Don't let the name fool you. It can still get pretty dang loud.

It is a tube amplifer. With tube amps you tend to get a better tone by turning them up at least a little bit.


I am using a dampening device that has polyester fibers tightly meshed into a flexible rubber backing. I place the fiber side towards the speaker & prop it up with the vocal mic stand.

It is hard to tell from the stage but it seems to be doing the job.

Another great thing about this device is that it also works well as the passenger side floor mat on my truck.

Warm WInd

If you hadn't noticed, It is pretty dang windy today. Not the cool breeze you would hope for at this time of year either.

Yesterday, I stopped by Bennos on the Seawall to get a Fish Poboy & the wind was coming in from the water pretty strong. It was sunny and not alot of clouds but all of the sudden it started pouring down rain. I have most of my stuff that really can't get wet in the front of the truck but I do keep the PA speakers and a my bass amp in the back but I put them in 55 Gallon Trash bags. I just slip the bags over the speakers & then I put a plywood sign over that. I specifically made it to use as a cover and a sign both.

I still don't like the thought of anything getting wet so I keep a Tarp in the truck also incase it is really bad. I ran out and started putting the tarp over everything and by the time I was done, It had stopped raining.

It tured out that one of the guys working in the kitchen was one of the dudes that I wrote about in my blog a couple of weeks ago that had come in late to Whiskys Pub. I think his name is Marino. He is a musician also and has a gig at the Balanese Room tonight.

It was good Po-boy. I was really just trying to order the sandwich but I guess it normally comes with French Fries, Cole Slaw, & Hush Puppies so I guess I got my carbos for the day in one meal.

On my way out to Galveston yesterday, I stopped by Rock Romano's Red Shack Recording Studio and picked up my CD. He had done kind of a Budget Remaster & eliminated some of the hissing noises, Cleaned up the begining and endings of songs & Did some minor EQ adjustments & took out some of the real low end bass. He also adjusted the levels of all the songs so that they are equally hot. The other thing I wanted to do was change the order of the songs on the CD so that there was a little more variation between tracks. I had all the slow ones togeather last time & I realized it needed to be changed.

It is mostly stuff that most people wont notice but it really does make the CD easier to listen to as a whole & I am really happy with it. There are a couple of songs in particular that it really made a huge improvement. Particularly the cover of "Wi nd Cri es M ary" It had a lot of hissing noise and he took it out using his super computer Pro Tools Skills.

I am not going to put Rock's name on the CD credits when I get more copies made and make a new CD Insert. It would look good to have the name of a known reputable studio on there but it is not really fair to Rock since he was doing just a couple of hours work & not really dong what would be considered "Mastering" the CD & it would not reflect what he could do on a proper budget.

I had given him the Green light to do 2 hours work on it and use his own judgement on what to do instead of me sitting down with him and doing it with him since I figured with the limited time, I would probably end up getting in the way and not much would get done. I am pretty sure he spent alot more time than 2 hours on it since I know just listening to the CD just one time would take up about half an hour alone. He did me a favor and I definitely owe him for that.


Thanks Mr. Romano, You Rock!

Smile

For the past couple of weeks, I have been video taping my shows. I was originally thinking of making a video presentation tape to try to use as promotional propaganda.

I bought the video camera when I fisrt strated the one man band but I didn't like the sound quality of the microphone. It was the cheapest one they had at Wal-Mart. It uses the smaller VCR tapes. The biggest problem is that it didn't seem to pick up the bass guitar sound.

I figured out recently that I could run the sound out wire through my mixer and then into the VCR & that does improve the sound quality a little bit. I can EQ it a little & take out some of the high end sounds & kick up also turn up the bass end a little. I am also placeing the camera closer to the bass amp so that it picks it up better. It would be nice if it had a Microphone input so I could hook up a better mic. One that is designed to capture sounds from the entire room.

It is a little more work to haul one more piece of equipent, set it up, and change the tape but it is very helpful to actually watch the tape & see/hear things from a different perspective.

I just wanted to keep you up to date on the lastest scientific methods here at Enermazement Management, Inc.


Happy Trails (to you)

Week Number 12

Well, Next week will be my 13th week playing the Sunday gig at the Gravity Bar in Galveston. We are kind of taking it week by week to see how it goes but it has lasted longer than I originally expected.

Today was kind of wierd though. I was out in front of the Gravity Bar putting up a "Live Blues" sign and a dude walked up and told me that it was a violation of the Sign Ordinance & I could't put it up. I asked him in what capacity he was telling me that & he said he owned two businesses on the Strand & one of them is a club down the street. He said a group of business owners had complained to the city and I was going to get cited. I told him that since he was the only one talking to me about it that it looked like he was the only one that had complained. He said that the sign didn't fit in and looked bad, etc. I wasn't feeling like really getting into it with him so I didn't confront him with the fact that his bar also features live music at the same time as my gig.


Wierd thing #2: There was another bar down the street (going east) that was having some kind of Bike Run. Not Motorcycles but actual bicycles. They got a group of people togeather and rode from bar to bar along the strand and surrounding area and stayed at each place for a little bit and then moved on. They had very loud whistles that they were blowing as they rode down the streeet. The Gravity Bar wias the last stop and when they got there they were pretty well liquored up & were very loud and were also blowing the whistles inside the bar. The whistles were peircingly loud table by table everybody else (all the paying customers) that was there before they came in, basically exited the bar. Several of the people in the bicycle group were wearing T-Shirts from the bar down the street & It almost seemed like a scene from Cheers where the poeple from Garys bar were visiting. There was this one guy in particular that was extremely rude. I remember thinking that he was the single rudest customer I had ever seen at a bar since I started playing live music. He was coming up by the stage and holding his hands over his ears and making a face and saying something about how my harmonica was too loud. The wierd thing about that was that it was about a tenth as loud as the whistles they had. After they cleared out the bar & were leaving, the one rude dude came right up to me and yelled a derogatory comment at me at the top of his lungs. He had been drinking but I had really had enough of his crap & I just looked right at him & I think he picked up that I wasn't going to take any more shit & he turned and walked out the door. I later found out that this dude was the owner of the bar sponsoring the bike run thing. His bar is called Poor Michaels. What an Asshole. I don't know what he was pissed about. Maybe it is becuase I was playing blues music & his club is supposed to be a blues bar. There is no possible way that a guy who owns a blues bar could possibly be a cool guy if he is out harrassing blues musicians just because they are playing at a bar down the street.


I really am amazed that on the same day, the actual owners of the two closest bars on strand street that feature live music both gave me shit & in such a direct way.

I guess it is thier way of letting me know that they have noticed that my gig has gone well. Thanks Guys.



Still, The whole thing seemed very strange. People are funny animals.

Really, Why the hell not?

http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

I have noticed that Just in time for the November Elections, Gas Prices are Going Down & The Stock Market is at near an all time high.

I have made it a point to stay out of discussing politics lately but I can't see a good reason not to vote for this dude.

What better endorsement could you need than Willie Nelson.

Unless of course you are a terrorist.

Mose Allison

My friend Eddy gave me a CD yesterday when I played a the Gravity Bar. It was an extremely nice gesture.

I got a chance to listen to alot of it on the drive home from Gavleston & it is some pretty cool stuff.

Here is a link where you can hear parts of the songs on that same CD:






http://www.amazon.com/Allison-Wonderland-Anthology-Mose/dp/samples/B0000033AH/ref=dp_tracks_all_1/104-7534978-1738336?ie=UTF8#disc_1


Mose plays piano and does the vocals. It is some good music. Eddy told me he really like the lyrics and I agree.

I had to listen close to tell excatly what it was but he has this thing he does where he kind of scats along with the piano riffs but it is kind of like a growl (sort of) & is not real loud but it sounds cool as hell.

I looked at his discogrophy page and it looks like he has been recording since 1988.
Check him out for your own self.

If you like it, then you might be hip.

Zildjian

Howdy,

I was out last night to put up some flyers at the Vintage Bar for the show there Next Week. I was kind of excited to see that Hamilton Loomis is going to be doing a show there October 19th. I don't know Hamilton but I used to have his first tape which I won by being the right caller during a blues program on KPFT about 10 years ago.

It would be cool to see him in a setting like the Vintage Bar.
After that I had another errand to run and was driving by the Big Easy and saw Jeremiah Johnson's Truck parked out there so I snapped that it his regular night to play ther so I stopped in but they were just going on break. He has a guitar player and a Bass player plus him on acoustic guitar also & they are doing a sort of unplugged thing. I hung around and chatted with the band and waited till they went back on and listened to about 5 songs. It was good music & it always relaxes me to hear good live music. Jeremiah used to host a blues jam out in the Katy area at Einstiens and I went to it almost every Sunday night for about a year. It was good to see what he is up too and as I told him last night, He does good at what ever setting he decides to use. He does alot of good original tunes & he has one in particular that was very good. I don't remember what the tune was called but it was about what someone feels like after they kill someone. It was sort of a country sounding song ala Thunder Road but has a mix of alternative rock with the vocal riffs also. I am going to have to make it over there when I have more time so I can kick back and relax & listen to more of the show.

Today, I stopped by my local Katy area H&H Music store and was very upset to see that it is closing down. They got bought out and they told me that there is a very good chance that it will re-open after the liquidation.

I went in to get some picks and was planning to get two packages which cost about $4 with the starving musician discount. Most of the inventory is already gone so I had to look around and check the sale prices. I looked for a bass amp & also PA Equipment but most of it was gone. I found the 18" Zildjian symbol that I had been eyeing for the past year. It is a 200 & something dollar item (retail) & they had it for just over a hundred so I had to buy it. I really didn't have the money but I just couldn't pass on it.

I is very excited.

I am now going to go home for lunch and see what it sounds like. I would like to get a chance to practice with it a little before playing at Whiskys Pub in Galveston tomorrow but it really won't matter since I am used to hitting the 14" Zildjian Symbol that I alrleady have. I am sure that it is going to sound great.

The biggest thing I need to figure out is what configuration to use. I may just substitute it for the 14" symbol or if it sounds good enough, I might try using it with my drum stick contraption that I wrote about here a month or so back.

Or just come to a show this month and you can see for yourself. I have been playing alot in Galveston lateley but I do have some September Shows in Houston Also. The Vintage Bar on Thursday the 14th and The Stagshead Pub on Saturday the 23rd. Or come on out to Galveston on Sunday Afternoon and check out the Gravity Bar on the Strand or if you are out on a Thursday, I will be at Whiskys Pub tomorrow & then again in two weeks. Check the schedule on my website. If a gig gets cancelled, I will update it there.

So as Marvin Zindler always says, Good Golf, Good Tennis, or Whatever makes you happy!

Gus the Fireman

After about 10 Sundays in a row at the Gravity Bar, I am starting to get familiar with some of the vendors & artists that work on the Galveston Strand every Sunday afternoon. They probably work out there alot of other days but I am only there on Sundays.

There is one guy who does characatures that always will swing by while I am playing and say hello. The "stage" area where I play is near the entrance and the entryway. There is a metal hand rail type devider. He usually comes up there and leans on the rail and gives a smile and a wave.


There is another guy who lives in an apartment up above the Bar & he sells his art right on the sidewalk. He just leans it on the building near the entrance of his apartment. I don't talk to him that much but he says hello and we have chatted a couple of times. One time his painting fell over and I picked it up & he seemed to appreciate that.


There is another guy who is a bass player that lives up in an apartment. He is usually sitting out on a bench at some point and we chat a little but it is his home so I try not to invade his space too much. He has come in and listend to me play and also come by Whiskys Pub also.

There are also the people that give the horse carriage rides. I have chatted with some of them usually about how business is.

The one guy that I have talked to the most is an old feller & a nice guy. He just sets up on the sidewalk and paints and sells his work. He smokes a pipe and has some pretty thick lenses on his glasses.

Since I had changed the format of my show and been doing the marathon gigs, I have not had a chance to chat with him for several weeks. This past week it was real busy all day but I was able to take a break at about 7pm and walked over and visited with him for a little bit.

It was nice to see him and we talked for a minute and I started to realize that he might have had a drink or two. He was pretty well lit up. He told me that he had played guitar with Willie Nelson & he sang me a couple of old country songs. It was a great time. I really was feeling good about everything and told him I had to get back and play some more.

A few minutes later, He had made his way over to the Gravity bar and I ran into him outside. He had decided that he wanted to play a few tunes and wanted to use my guitar. Not one of my favorite requests to say the least but after 3 years of playing in Bars, Clubs, pubs, taverns, pool halls, Ice Houses, & other premium venues, I have learnt how to deal with these type of situations & handled it about as smoothly as I could.

Overall this past Sunday was a pretty good day for the Blues.

I am thinking next week will be more of a challenge since there will probably not be as many people out on the strand but it is not easy to predict those kinds of things. I am just happy to have the gig. The customers are generally in a good mood and there is a wide cross section of what I like to call Humanity.


I have done extensive market research and figured out that Humanity is my target market.


Oh yeah, I hated to hear that the Croc Dude got killed. I liked that guy.

Tempted

Last Sunday Night, I was driving home listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage. It is a radio program that has been coming on 93.7 fm for the past several years. I think it runs from 8 to 10pm.

Little Steven is in Bruce Springsteens Band and also plays "Sal" on the Supranos.

He is one of my favorite characters on that show & also one of the characters that killed "Big Pussy". It was one of the best scenes ever on that show (Except for the one where Christopher killed the guy in the butcher shop and all the pig's heads were looking at him,) They took Big Pussy out on Tony's boat and Sal, Tony, & a couple other dudes lined up in a row facing Big P & he knew he was about to get done. He started crying a little and asked them not to shoot his face. Then they all pulled out thier guns and started shooting, Maybe about 40 or 50 shots total. They camera shot they used was from the view of Big P & it almost looked like a scene from Dick Tracy. With his hair and make-up Sal looked like a Comic Book Character. The expression on his face was priceless.

If you want to check out his show, Here is the website:

www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com

I think they have some archived shows to listen to. Check it out of you like cool music. He plays Garage band, Rockabilly & other cool stuff.

One of the songs he played last Sunday was from Marty Stuart, The Country (&Bluegrass) singer/musician. It is called "Tempted" and sounded like a Buddy Holly tune.

It was specifially listening after that to hear who did the song and was surprised when he said marty Stuart.

I had seen him on TV playing mandolin several times and always liked what he did.


Well,


Thats my report for now.


Rock On!

Why the Hell Not?

I am not running for Governer.


But lately I have been trying to push my limits a little bit.

Used to be when I had a 4 hour gig, I would play 4 forty five minutes sets, take 3 twenty minute breaks. I tried to stick to that schedule.


Lately, especially since I started playing at the Gravity Bar on Sundays (for the Summer) I have been playing longer sets. In the past several weeks I have played sets that lasted up to two hours and 10 minutes. I have also started earlier and played from 3 to 8 instead of 4 to 8. I figure if I am going to go to all the trouble of driving to Galveston & do all the loading and unloading, I may as well maximize the exposure.

I started bringing a lunch box up to the stage and if I get hungry, I just eat a banana or something. I pretty much just stop to go to the restroom or replace a broken string.


Thats all I got for now & I know it ain't much but I just wanted to check in and say hello.

Keep the Faith & stay positive.


Than ks

The Office

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/

I got the DVD for this British TV Comedy Series at the Harris County Public Library. I think it is a total of 12 episodes that were originally shown on BBC and I think it was also shown on PBS.

Last night I was watching episode 1 from the second season and I was almost too embarrassed to watch. Thats how I know I am buying into it. Not that I don't remember it is a TV Series but the simple fact that I felt embarrassed for the Boss Character when he is making an idiot of himself.

It is a different kind of humor but it really does crack me up.

OK, That is all for today. I gotta load up for a gig.

Dilana Rocks!

Last TV Season, I started watching the Program Rock Star INXS & got interested in it. It was kind of like American Idol but much better. They were picking a lead singer for the actual 80s Rock Band INXS. The original singer had died.

We went and saw the band with the new singer, JD Fortune, last month on June 28th.

Now they are doing a show called Rock Star Supernova. http://rockstar.msn.com/

Tommy Lee and some other rockers are forming a new band and they are picking a singer.

One of the contestants is from Houston(currently). Her name is Dilana and she has done gigs in the Houston area for the past several years. I have never seen her show but I had heard that she used a Karaoke type set-up where she had backing tracks & would put on a whole show of Rock and Pop Songs. A friend of mine named lloyd had seen her live show and told me she was good and I had been meaning to check it out.

A couple of years back when I first started my live show, I played alot of the same "Venues" that she played at. Mostly Sports Bars & some rougher type places also. Not anywhere I would consider dangerous, Just more down to earth than other places.

Dilana's Web Page is http://www.dilanarox.com/

From the first two episodes it looks like she is a front runner in the competition. I know it can chage week to week but I am definitely rooting for her. I never met her in person but from watching the show, she seems to be very supportive of the other contestants and comes across with a certain level of humility that I like to see in any type of performer.

The first song she did was from Nirvana and she really did rock. As a matter of fact, when I was watching the show my comment was that "She F---ing Rocks" which was funny to me a the time becuase that is what she always advertised.


GOOD LUCK DILANA!

More Complete Noise

Howdy Folks,


The Big News from the band is that I have come up with a way to play the Hi-Hat or Symbol using a contraption I designed.

The last big breakthrough was adding the bass drum which I considered to be a big deal at the time. As far as the sound, It was probably a bigger deal when I got the better bass drum. The first one was a piece from of a beginner set that I bought on Ebay.

Lately though, I have found myself pondering for extended periods trying to find a way to add symbols to the ongoing mix without taking away from the guitar or other sounds. I am basically out of limbs & really don't want to have to use un-natural or odd movements to play. I don't want the focus to be on a freak show. I know from experience that as far as live performance, the novelty of the one-man-band will only last so long. It has to sound good.

But back to the pondering. I really have just sat and thought about this quite a bit & really had nothing. The wierd thing was that I was just relaxing at home Sunday & without really thinking about it just started working on the stand & drum stick. All of the sudden I had it.


It is a very simple design & instead of using a spring to pull the drum stick back, It uses gravity. I drilled a hole in the stick where there was more weight behind it than in front & ran a piece of coat hanger wire through it and taped it to a stand. Then I just attached a piece of string to the the stick and at the other end tie it to the bass drum pedal. I think Isaac Newton would have gotten a kick out of it.


The sound difference is not completely subtle but the small addition of a symbol at the right spot in the beat is huge.

I am going to use it Thurday at Whiskys Pub in Galvestown and am really excited about it.

The other thing I like about is the image. There will be a drumstick hitting a symbol just off to the right. It looks kind of like something from the Adams Family.


I have conceptualized a way to also add another drumstick but I am going to work with this set-up for a little bit before I do that.

I have decided to take the floor tom out of the mix for the time being. Partly becuase I don't use it that much & also because it doesn't fit as easy with my new symbol striker contraption. It is also bulky to transport & I am trying to make my set up and break down a little less taxing.


If all this useless information is putting you to sleep, then enjoy your nap.


Thanks & Blah, Blah, Blah!

Crazy

They had a show on channel 8 (PBS) the other day about Patsy Cline. It showed TV appearances in a chronological order. I am not sure what I would say about Patsy Cline that people don't already know. Maybe I could look up some interesting fact and pretend like I knew it.

I did't ever really think about it but I was surprised that she was only 30 when she died.

It really amazed me how she sang Crazy & you could hear Willie Nelson's Vocal Inflections in her voice. Once you write a song like that and it is a hit record for Patsy Cline it kind of takes all the pressure off of having to prove anything.

Anyway, It is a good program & I am sure it will get re-played if you missed it.

Are you scared yet?

According to all the news it is now officially hurricane season.


It doesn't get much better for newspeople than hurricanes. They love to do that shot where the reporter stands at the water and talks about a storm that might be a couple of days away but they love it the most when they can actually be in the hurricane itself.

They are talking about how we might need to start having a Category 6 classification just in case. I thought it was pretty funny when the one weather dude started saying "Cat 3" & "Cat 4" instead of actually saying the word "category"

Alex Trebec has to say catagory alot more times than that but he doesn't say "Cat". But at the same time he does pretend to know the questions to all the answers.

The Royal Device

http://www.royaldevice.com/custom.htm












My friend Dennis Ginn sent me this web site. The Subwoofer is built using some sort of underground chamber & compression area. Just from looking at the pictures, I can only imagine how many hundred thousand dollars it would cost for a listening room like this one.

Click on the site and check out the pictures. It is crazy.

Wired!

I was supposed to play a gig in Galvetston today. I thougt it was just me playing but I found out the other day that it was going to be a double bill with me opening for a band called Fast Food Junkies. I had never heard of them before but they sounded like a band that I would like. They play Metal/Bluegrass or something like that. They have a web page that explains it which you can find if you Google the band name.

The problem with me doing show with another band is that it takes me too long to set up and break down my equipment. I have to load and set up a whole bands worth of equipment. So when I get done playing, The other band would have to wait to get set up. In reality, they usually don't wait so all my equipment gets intermingled with thier stuff. Not that I would worry about anybody stealing something or anything like that. Musicians are usually pretty cool about sharing equipment & being respectful. I am just used to loading everything in a certain order & know what to watch for with the different pieces (Drums/amps, etc.) & can avoid damage. The knobs on my bass amp stick out too far & get smashed easy. My smaller guitar amp is very tempramental & If I load it facing backwards, My bass drum's tuning keys will be hitting the knobs and also the guitar input which is very easy to damage because it is plastic & not metal like it should be. I always appreciate when people offer to help but I really have to do it myself. The truth is that it is probably just some sort of personality disorder.

One of the things I don't like about being a one man show is that you don't get the band comradery. The cool thing about doing a double bill gig is that you get to meet and hear the band & talk about music like junior high school, stuff like that. Who knows? I never know but it is the adveture that keeps things rolling anyway.

My point is this:

Since I had the day off, I decied to tackle a project I had been dreading for some months now. Our little house on what was the Katy Prarie has a central a/c unit but I decided to add a window unit in the den living area room or what ever it is. A few years ago I bought a 14500 BTU model at Home Depot but I evenutally realized that the wiring in our walls was not heavy enough to safely run it. I only bought the more powerful model becuase it was the most efficient and was Energy Star Compliant or something like that.

Today I added a circuit breaker and ran a wire to the unit. The guy at home depot who helped me was a department manager who had stopped by to take care of something on his day off. I had several questions and needed several items so I told the guy several times that I would figure it out and wait for someone else to come along. I just didn't feel right about keeping him at work but he kept telling me he was happy to help.

I had taken digital photos of my breaker box & also brought a picture we took when the house was being built 14 years ago. It was really helpful when I was explaining what I was trying to do.

I got 70 feet of wire, a 15 amp circuit breaker, a plug for the wall, & a thing made to fish the wires through the walls. I also bought some PVC and fitings so I could shoot the wire out of the top of the breaker box straight into the attic without having to try jamming it through the back of the box with all the other wires.

I took the little plate off of the weather proof box and looked for a replacement that had a hole in it but couldn't find one. I decided to drill a hole in the plate but it need to be almost an inch wide & the drill bits that big are about 20 bucks. Using a tip from the guy in the drill bit section, I taped sandpaper around the drill bit and spent about hour rasping out the hole.

It was a job fishing the wires and hanging out in my attic with sweat dripping off my face but I got it all done and now I am basking in the coolness as my muscles ache.

I is so proud of myelf.

Global Warming

This past weekend was pretty busy for me. I had a gig Friday Night, Worked at my Day Job for 9 hours on Saturday, & then had a gig Saturday Night also.

I woke up Sunday and relaxed for a little while & then spent about an hour or so unloading my equipment from the truck and setting it up in my practice room. After that I headed over to Lowes & Home Depot and picked up some Insulation for my attic and some Wind Turbine Roof Vents (like from back in the 70s) plus a few other odds & ends. The AC guy who checked out our styem and added freon last year recommened that we get the turbine vents. I also bought some roofers caulk/tar stuff, some rope, & some breathig masks to wear in the attic when I was doing the insulation.

My house already had three roof vents so all I had to do was get up on the roof and carefully remove them without tearing up the shingles. The vents I bought are made of aluminum and came in two parts. I went ahead and assmebled them on the ground and then carried them up to the roof and installed them (one at a time). Luckily I didn't run into one of those typical problems that seem to arise when a job is expected to be simple.

One thing I decided to do this time was to tie a rope on front of my house and throw it over & use it to hold onto while I was walking around. It was only rated for 50 pounds but I wasn't putting that much weight on it. My roof has a pretty good pitch in the back so it was nice to have something to hold to help stabelize while I was carrying the Turbines, Tools, Nails, roofing caulk and & stuff like that.

I got the vents installed without falling off the roof and then started working in the attic. I bought several bags of enviromentally friendly insulation. They are kind of bricked up and made to go in a blower machine. I didn't rent a machine so I was using an old broom to break them up and spread them around in the section of attic over my garage. It is an attached garage & shares the same attic as the rest of the house. The garage usually gets so hot in the summer that you could literally pass out.

I got the insulation done & was not exactly nice and fresh so I took a shower & we took the dogs out for a walk except I rode my bicycle.

When I came home from work today, the first thing I did was go to the garage to see if it was any cooler & then I went to the attic. The most noticeable difference was in the attic but the garage was better also.

I was really proud of myself.

I may not save the planet but the way engergy costs are going, I am sure it is going to pay off this summer.

Well there you have it. A few days in the life of Marc Twyman, a dude that sometimes refers to himself in third person.

Now I sleep!


But I will get back up and continue to fight Karaoke and all other forms of pure evil.

be humble

Friday night I had a gig in Humble Texas at the Twin Oaks Tavern. It was my first time to visit this particular establishment.

It is located in the Historic business district area. There is an Antique Store, a Cybercafe Skatepark type place, a few other businesses, and also the Humble Cafe.

I had arrived early and was already set up since I was trying to beat the 90% chance of rain. As far as transporting/loading/un-loading my equipment, I can function in the rain but it is much more work. & they were also talking about Thunderstorms, High winds, etc.

I noticed that the Humble Cafe had a pretty good crowd so I took that as a solid endorsement from the local community. I stepped on over to the Humble Cafe. I took a look at the menu and decided to break my fast on Hamburgers and also french fries that I have been able to maintain for almost a week and a half now. Acutally, before that, It had been several months since I have had a Hamburger & even longer since having one from fast food corporation.

I ordered the Humble Burger with no onions or mayo. Mustard, Lettuce, Pickles, Tomatoes, all on a freshly baked roll type of bun.

After that I took a short nap in the truck. I was actually parked right in front of the Twin Oaks Tavern and also underneath one of the actual Twin Oaks that it named after.

So there you have it. Mystery, Drama, Humble Burgers, No Onions, & Oak Trees all in one story

You find another blog in the internet that offers all that, then you know you are spending way too much time on the internet.

All Mixed Up

Here is a picture of a Mixer that I just bought at H&H Music. It is small as far as mixers go and only has 4 channels but it is still a huge thing for me. I really should have bought it long ago. The biggest thing it is going to do for my live sound is that I can individually adjust the volume of the Bass and Snare Drums. Before this I was running them both through the same channel and could only adjust the volume by moving the Microphones farther and closer to the source. The other thing will be that I can shape the sound of the two different drums by individually adjusting the Bass, treble, and mid range dials. Also, I am now able to add a microphone to the symbols.

The third big advantage is that I am no longer using the adapters and am able to have the balanced cable connections.

Yipee

Robert Johnson Photograph Expert

If I had a collection of every picture ever taken of the Beatles and had studied the content of the images then I think it would be fair to call myself an "Expert" on Beatles Pictures.


I have done that with Robert Johnson Pictures. I even named the pictures. The one on the left is called "Hat" & the one on the right is called "Cigarette". I don't bother to reference Robert Johnson in the individual photo anymore than they use J_FKs Name when they mention the Zapruder film.

As far as the general public knows there are just two known photos of Robert Johnson in existance. I personally think there is probably at least one more sitting in a photo album somewhere and the person who owns it has no clue of how much money it would be worth.

I was listening to Mr Robert Johnson on my record player a couple of weeks back & also took the time to read the back of the Record Jacket. I already knew that he had only recorded about 30 songs but I never realized that he had recorded them in Texas or if I did, It never really hit me. According to the liner notes of the Columbia release: "Robert Johnson/King of the Delta Blues Singers" He did five sessions. Three in San Antonio in 1936 and two in Dallas in 1937.


As much as people think of him as a guitar player & he obviously was a gerat one, I think the name of the Record is correct. He was really a great blues singer. His recordings have been the biggest influence on modern blues and rock & Roll. If you listen The Rolling Stones, Elmore James, Eric Clapton or Led Zepplin versions (& others that have covered him also) It is clear that what is copied most often is the vocals, lyrics, phasing, & fill comments. There was a blues revival in the 60s and many guitar players since then also have copied his playing but it did not have the mainstream influence as the vocals.

This may all be old news to you but it is something that I am just now picking up on.


With all that said, I have decided to try and take the time to work on learning more Robert Johnson on guitar.

Thanks

I have mentioned before that I didn't want to use my website or blog to blow my own horn by talking about people that come to my shows when all it would reall seem like I was doing is talking about how much they liked me.

Still, since I make the rules here, I can break them also.

Just in case anybody is reading this blog, I would like to mention how much I appreciate the people that have actually driven accross town (or even walked across a street) to come to one of my gigs.



Thanks!

Here is your tip Asshole

One of the things I used to like about Luby's was that you didn't have to give a tip. I don't begrudge anybody making a living but part of the value part of eating at certain establishments is that it is a good value. If you eat a 5 or 6 dollar meal and then have to give a tip, It raises the price of the whole dining experience about 20%. Still, If I go to Luby's and get all of my food on a tray and drinks also, I don't really feel like I want to meet my "server" when they come up to the table and tell me thier name, etc. I am sure they are all nice people but I just want to eat my lunch and leave.

The Chinese buffets are about the same except they do bring you a fortune cookie with your check.


What about Sonic? You park your car, Push a button, Order your food & they bring it to you in a bag. How much tip should someone get for bringing it out to the car? I have brought up the tipping at Sonic issue with several folks I know and find that poeple are about split on tipping at Sonic (at all)

If the person at Sonic is going to get a tip, then why not give one to the Cashier at the Grocery Store or Walmart? That is a hell of alot more work that carrying a bag of hamburgers out to a car.


My general rule on tipping at a restaurant is that if they take the order and bring it without too much of a wait or mishap & also keep the drinks refilled (or even just bring me a big ol glass even better) they deserve the standard tip rounded up to the nearest dollar. If they have good waiter/waitress skills and make the dining experience even better, then they deserve more. Also if it is a cheap meal but the service is good, then the tip should not be limited to 15%.

Part of what really sucks about getting bad service is sitting there trying to decide about how to handle the tip. It makes me feel like a mooch not to leave something but at the same time why should I pay extra to get treated like crap?

I like to ride my bicycle

I was driving down my street the other day and saw a garbage sale in progress. I found a ten speed bike that I liked and asked the guy how much? He said $20. I was happy with the price but also didn't want to deprive him and myself of the fun of haggling a little bit. I found a few screwdrivers and some wire cutters and told him that if he threw them in he would have a deal.


The bike is a Raliegh and technically it is a womans model but I don't need a bar on my bike to prove I am a man. It is a mauve color and has some nice features like center pull brakes, quick release front wheel, a decent seat and some nice shifter mechanisms. It also has brand new tires that don't leak. Whoever set it up knew what they were doing. All of the brake and shifter adjusments are just right. I took a few minutes to adust the seat height and handlebars and was ready to cylce.

Yesterday I rode for about 20 minutes and tonight I went about 25. Since I rode after tonight dark I wore my reflective safety vest. I guess I am really getting to the age where I don't care what people think. The only thing I need now is a safety helmet which I plan to buy very soon.


Not much else to report except I did notice it is big trash day tomorrow and one of my neighbors is throwing away a couple of sections of chain link fence and also a chain link gate which I think will work well around our patio for the dogs. I have to sneak over there in a little bit and try to get it without getting noticed. Maybe I still do care a little bit what people think.

WWW.MERLEHAGGARD.COM

http://www.merlehaggard.com/tour-concert-booking-info.html

Above is the shedule part of his web page.


I was sitting here listening to a favorite record of mine & when I say record I mean record. I like the album covers much better than CD Jewel case inserts. This one isn't too fancy though since it is "His Best" which is a collection of his MCA hits. I am not going to do a commentary on Merle but what an excellent job he does. The lyrics, music, mix, the overall feel of the music, not to mention the man himself. He is Merle. What more needs to be said?

I decided to look up his schedule and see that he is playing in Beaumont on March 24th. He appeared at a Rolling Stones Concert in Arkansas on March 9th & has several dates with Mr. Bob Dylan in April. My friend Larry Jackson saw a Rolling Stones Concert in California a couple of weeks ago and said the sound sytem was excellent and it was nothing like the Super Bowl half time show. I was busy taking a nap during the Super Bowl but I hadn't heard the best reviews. Larry said it was one of the best concerts he has ever seen and he has been going to Rock Concerts since the 60s. I have been too two Concerts with Larry; CSN&Y in 2001 and also the Neil Young Greendale show & personally vouch for Larry when it comes to his expertise on Rock & Roll Concerts.


Ok, We will no return you back to your regularly scheduled program.

Galveston

This past Thusday, I had a gig in Galveston at Whisky's All-American Pub. It was my first time to play on the Island. I left early so I could miss the traffic. The weather was great & it has been quite a few months since I had seen the ocean water so I decided to stop over at the Seawall and relax for a little while. I stopped by the Flagship Hotel since it is right at 25th street which is also the street that I need to turn at to get to the venue.

It was really a nice day. There was traffic cruising by on Seawall Blvd and People were buzzing by on bicycles, skates, & other contraptions. There were a few surfers & other people hanging around also but it was still very relaxing to be at the ocean. The breeze was coming from the water so the air was fresh and the sound of the waves was there also. I walked out on the jetty and made a (cell) phone call & basically just looked at the water and the sea gulls for a while. There was dude fishing at the end of the jetty but it didn't look like he was catching anything.

After about an hour, I headed over to the venue and unloaded & set up my equipment & also put out my "Live Blues Tonight" signs and then took it easy for a couple of hours. I brought my own pillow from home and took a nap in the truck & ate some home-made chicken vegitable soup that I had brought in a thermos.

I had no idea what to expect about Whisky's Pub and it turned out to be a nice place with a good stage & they did have blues and classic rock playing on the Juke Box which is always a good omen. Overall I had a good time and everybody was very kind and made me feel welcome.

I am scheduled to be back over there on April 6th and am looking forward to it.

There was a guy there from California who is a photographer for a Surfing Magazine and he took several pictures. If he emails them to me, I will post them here or on my web site.

Also, If you happen to read this before tomorrow (Sunday March 5th), I got an email from the Blueshound his ownself saying that they were going to play a song from my CD on the show which will be between 2 and 4 pm Central time on KPFT 90.1 FM which you can also hear on the web site at www.kpft.org

The Wailing Wailers

Bob Marley & The Wailers or as they were called at the time, The Wailing Wailers. Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, & Bunny Livingston.



I have a CD titled "Bob Marley Reggea Legend Forever Gold". It has a picture of Bob with Dread Locks on the CD Insert but the music is obviously from the early days when the wailers were more of a vocal group. The CD cover doesn't even list a record company.

It really is some good stuff. Bob does not do all the lead vocals but all the Wailers' back-ups and harmony vocal riffs are really great.

KPFT 90.1 Wins 2006 KBA Award for BLues Programing on Public Radio

The "Keeping the Blues Alive" awards were held in Memphis, TN on January 28th, 2006. Pictured from left to right: The "Blueshound" James Nagel, and his lovely co-host and wife Colleen; HBS Director - Jennifer "The Marquessa" Weaver; KPFT General Manager - Duane Bradley; HBS President - Sandy Hickey; "Blues on the Move" DJ's, Mr. & Mrs. V, and Joe Montes of "Smokin' Joe's Roadhouse". Photo was taken by Donovan Allen, HBS Lifetime Member and photographer for the KBA's and IBC's.
HBS is so very proud to partner with KPFT in "KEEPING THE BLUES ALIVE" in Houston, TX. In honor of the DJ's, HBS will acknowledge the winners on Thursday, February 16th at Cosmos Cafe, with entertainment provided by 2006 International Blues Winner, Joey Gilmore. Come out that evening for a great night of blues. Go to Calendar of Events for details.

The type and picture above are copied from the Houston Blues Society Web Site http://www.houstonbluessociety.org/

I am happy to see the recognition for KPFT. We are lucky to have a Radio Station that provides Blues Programming and I take my hat off to all the Volenteers that make it possible. Good Job.

John Campbell Friends/Discussion Group

Below are a couple of posts from my achived entry "Train of Thought" about John Campbell (which you can find on this blog)

Please note the link to the discussion group.



Hi Marc,Found your blog doing a search on John Campbell....Great story about John back in Nacogdoches!! Would love to post this on my website - Drop me a note at tom@devilinmycloset.net There is also a community of John Campbell fans that gather at:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/devilinmycloset/


Take care,Tom Geiger
1:00 AM
F. Sage said...
Marc,A group of John's family, friends and fans recently returned from Louisiana and a celebration of John's life and music on his birth date. John died far too soon and the void left in the music world is just beginning to be recognized. I'm inviting you and any of your readers to join our discussion group that Tom Geiger mentioned in the previous comment. We have a lot of fun and many surprises to offer -Captain D

KPFT - 90.1 on your fm dial

KPFT has been on the air in Houston now for almost 36 years. It is a true listener sponsored station.

I first started listening because of the Blues shows on Sundays & other music programs during the week also.

It is a Freedom of Speech oriented station and if you listen enough, You will probably here something that you disagree with. That is really what makes it great. There is no corporate sponsorship.


They are currenty having the fund drive and you can make a pledge by calling 713-526-5738 preferably during a show that you like. You can support the blues programs if you call this week on Sunday before 4 pm.

The web site is www.kpft.org If you are not in the Houston area, you can listen live on the interenet also.

Tone is brought to you by:

Edison's light bulbs employed a conducting filament mounted in a glass bulb from which the air was evacuated leaving a vacuum. Passing electricity through the filament caused it to heat up enough to become incandescent and radiate light, while the vacuum prevented the filament from oxidizing and burning up.
a
Edison continued to experiment with his light bulbs and, in 1883, found that he could detect electrons flowing through the vacuum from the lighted filament to a metal plate mounted inside the bulb. This discovery subsequently became known as the Edison Effect.
In 1875, American, G.R. Carey invented the phototube.
In 1878, Englishman Sir William Crookes invented the 'Crookes tube', an early prototype of cathode-ray tube.
In 1895, German, Wilhelm Roengten invented an early prototype Xray tube.
In 1897, German, Karl Ferdinand Braun invents the cathode ray tube oscilloscope.
In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invented the first practical electron tube called the 'Fleming Valve'. Leming invents the vacuum tube diode.
In 1906, Lee de Forest invented the audion later called the triode, an improvement on the 'Fleming Valve' tube. Lee de Forest introduced a third electrode called the grid into the vacuum tube. The resulting triode could be used as both an amplifier and a switch.

These type of dudes don't usually get mentioned when people talk about electric blues but they are the ones that first made it possible.

It is a shame that Ben Franklin never got to play an electric guitar. I am sure he would been a real head-banger.

I don't really have a great understanding of how amplifers and tubes work. I am able to make repairs on my amps by looking at them and finding bad connections and re-soldering them. I gennerally have this problem with my Fender Blues Junior which is a relatively newer amp that I bought at Mars Music when they were going out of business. It is a 15 watt tubecombo with a 15" speaker. A "combo" is one where the amplifer section and the speaker cabinet are all in one unit. The problem with this little amp is that the solder connections don't seem to be as good as in the older amps. Basically, "They don't build em like they use to" .

Also, It is a pretty hot running amp for a 15 watt. As far as watts, Tube amplifers are generally more powereful or louder than solid state. This particular amp is set up with the power tubes (EL84's) are being pushed pretty hard and they run pretty hot. This will cause the tubes to wear out quicker. For a 15 watt amp, It can get pretty loud and is powerful enough to use at small to medium size clubs. The problem with a combo amp is that the vibration from the speaker (since it is in the same unit) can cause connections to rattle loose. The tubes also get vibrated and will be more sensitive to becoming "microphonic"

On the Blues Junior, I wonder if the heat from the power tubes causes the solder to fail or if it is just the poor design of the tube socket holder or just a cobonation of several factors including vibration from the speaker.

I have had to open up the back and re-solder the power tube connections several times and also one of the connections on the reverb tank.

I also do have a couple of older Fender amps and have not run into this problem. They also used metal in the input jacks instead of the plastic used on Blues Junior. Still, I do think the Blues Junior is a great amp particularly considering what they cost.

One of the things about tube amps is that when you get the tone you like, It is best to leave it alone until something breaks or wears out. You can replace the tubes with the exact same brand and not get the same sound. That is one thing that I like about the "Groove Tubes" which are tested and rated. You can buy a matched set with a numbered rating (from 1 to 10) and get pretty close to the same tone. The other advantage is that if you use the same number/rating, you don't have to have to have the amp re-biased (if it is not self biasing)


Tubes are only part of the equation when it comes to tone but they are a big part. Another big variable is the Guitar Pick-up not to mention the equipment operator.

You may be asking "What is your point Marc?"

& if so, I would like to ask you something:


What is the cross between an Elephant and a Rhino?


The answer is NOT "What is on second"

Sad News

I heard some bad news. Benny Valerio has passed away.

He has been around playing Texas Blues for a long time. You can find out more about his music on his web site http://www.maneevents.com/texasthunder/


I knew Benny from his Blues jams that he would host out here on the west side of town. He was a hell of a guitar player. As a guitar player and also a person, he didn't hold anything back. You always knew exactly where you stood with him.

Benny and his brother Danny had played music togeather for quite a few years. Danny is a bass guitar player and whenever I saw them on stage, I would always get a mental picture of them playing as teenagers. You could just see it. I don't know the exact way to explain it but it was something of a happy moment each time. Just great to see two brothers who had played music togeather so much of thier lives.

Danny is a great guy and I wish him the best. I know this is a tough time for him.

The Service for Benny will be at 1:00 this Friday the 20th at Houston National Cemetary on Veterans Mermorial.

Telephone pole blues

When the last hurricane was passing by, I noticed that the phone pole behind my next door neighbor's house was damaged. It was rocking back and forth in the wind. I called the power company and they finally came out (today) and replaced it.

They shut down the power for several hours while they did the repair.

I passed the time by playing acoustic guitar. I have the window blocked off in room where I practice to block out the sound so it is pretty dark even in the daytime so I lit a candle to have a little light.

It made me think about what it must have been like for the old blues dudes that didn't have electricity. Also, since I wasn't able to watch TV, Check Email, or listen to the stereo, It made me realize that they probably spent a little more time playing guitar just to pass the time. There wasn't much else to do so I played longer than I would have if the power had been on.

This wasn't like Huge revelation for me but it at the same time it did make me think.

I always assumed that musicians nowadays had an advantage because of all the technology available but it made me wonder if technology isn't more of a distraction also.

I ended up getting a work related call on my cell phone and it blew the whole mood.

The Revenge of George Lucas

I watched most the final Star Wars movie (Episode whatever) on DVD last night & I think it was eve worse that the last two.

The Original Star Wars was one of my favorite all time movies and also the next two in that series.

The acting was much better. The characters were much better and the overall feel of the movie. It was a little bit Disneyish and they had Harrison Ford and Chewbaca making it kind of comical. They Would be about to get shot out of the sky and trying to get the ship in to hyperdrive but it was still not that serious a moment in the movie. It would get a little more serious when Darth Vadar was in a scene but at the same time it was more like Cruealla Devill from 101 Dalmations.

The one I watched last night was all special effects but didn't have any interesting characters and no scenes even close to the Cantina Scene in the first movie and no characters like Jaba the Hut. The Aniken Skywalker Character (Who became Darth Vadar) is not even an actor. I can't believe they used him again after his sorry performance in the last movie.

The other thing that sucked was that even though they went back in time to before the time Luke and Lea (sp?) were born, it seemed like there were more advanced looking robots than in the first movie which was supposed to be chronoligically later. It seemed like they were just trying to make it fit at the end by having the babies born and being named by the dying mom just so they could connect the dots & also the way they handled Darth Vadar becoming Darth Vadar was lame also. The viewer knew the whole time that he was going to fall in the burning lava or what ever it was and get deformed.

There were so many lame things that I don't want to take time to list them all but one thing was when they had the scene near the end with Darth Vadar and his new Master Dude looking out into space and what looked like the frame of the Death Star in it's initial construction stages was out there. It doesn't make sense that it would take the same amount of time it took Luke and the princess to grow up as it would take to build a Death Star. Especially if you have the Dark Lord himself overseeing the project.

There was no art in this movie.

But it is Star Wars so I will probably watch it again some time.

"Retail is for Suckers"

I have found that every thing that you buy at a music store can be discounted.

Even guitar picks.

The thing for me is that I don't like feeling like a mooch for asking so I will try to go back to the same sales people if they treat me right with no hassle.

There is one store close to my house where most of the guys working there will look at me funny when I ask for a discount. There is one dude there who always works with me but I have to individually ask on each item. Last time I went there I bought several items. A drumhead, a set of strings for my acoustic, A package of guitar picks, A key for adusting drums, & something else but I don't remember what.

When I checked out, I asked the dude: "Are you going to take care of me on this stuff?" & he pointed out that he always did (which was true). I started asking about the different items and he said just check the receipt when he was done. Since he had always been good about it before, I didn't want to ask about it anymore.

When he rang me up it seemed kinda high but I just paid him & then he gave me the receipt. It turned out that he had charged me full retail on everything exept the set of strings. I was so irritated that I just decided not to say anything.

Last week I visited two other music stores. I went to one place to get some tubes. I found a guy there who had helped me several times before and always was good about the pricing. This time I felt like he tried to get to me by actually overcharging me on the tubes. I bought a couple of EL84s and also a 12ax7. I was just buying some back up tubes & on the one 12ax7 it was the Silver Series which is cheaper than the ones I usually get & he tried to charge me $14. I told him it sounded a little high and asked him what it listed for & he punched on his computer and said $10 and said he had made a mistake and then he ended up selling it for $8.

I really felt like both of these guys trying to take advantage of fact that I trusted them.

I am not someone who is going to argue about price or feels like anybody owes me a discount. I just happen to know that a person can get a discount at a music store if they ask & at the end of the year it can really add up.

Fast foward to last Friday when I was up on the north side of town to play in Conroe. I took the day off work and went drove up early to miss the rush hour traffic. I took the opportunity to visit a couple of music stores by 1960 & 45. First I went to a big guitar store that is part of a chain where I had bought my tubes that I talked about a few paragraphs up. I asked the sales dude there if they had the Groove Tube EL84s that I was looking for and he found a set. I told him I was a working musician and asked him what kind of deal he could give me. He sold me the "Duet" which is a matched pair for $25. Just a few days earlier at the same store but the other location, The other dude had told me that Groove Tube had raised the prices and the best he could do was $30 but it turned out he was out of them anyway.

I still had some time to kill and was looking for a particular Harmonica that they were out of everywhere so I went west on 1960 about half a mile to check at one other large music store. They had the Harmonica & I told the guy I was a musician and asked what kind deal, etc. and he sold it to me for $18 which was a good deal.

I think part of the problem for me is that once I get to know a particular sales associate, I don't feel as comfortable making a big deal about the price but at the same time it is disapointing that I can get a better deal from strangers.

I guess I could avoid all this and just buy stuff on-line but I have been going to music stores since I was about 13 years old it is something that I enjoy doing. I love it when it is busy and there are several different dudes "testing" out the new guitars playing thier best guitar store riffs.

I did try to give something back to the one guy who did give me the better deal on the tubes. I have been working in Sales a good part of my life. I asked him how long he had worked at the store & he said "3 years". I asked him if he had ever marketed himself? & he just gave me a puzzled look.

I told him that he should consider developing an email list of working musicians (people who buy music stuff) and send them an email letting them know he was the dude to see if they wanted to be treated right. Promise low prices with no hassle.

I told him that my site had been listed on Houston Bands dot NEt and several other sites and no one had ever sent me an email like that & I was assume that no one is tapping into that opportunity.

He did tell me "Thats a good Idea"

I told him "Hell Yeah it's a good Idea"

I don't know if he will do it but he is in the wrong business if he doesn't.

I don't begrudge anybody for wanting to make a living and nobody owes me a discount. If anyone ever really did give me consistant deals at a Music Store, that would be the first place I shopped & I would tell other people about them also.

Geek, Nerd, or Doofus?

Ok, It has happened. The official time is 1:42 pm Tuesday December 23rd and I am typing out this post when I actually have nothing to say except some trivial details from my life.

I switched my day off from work this week since I was playing tonight at the Vintage Bar which is located inside the loop from the Galleria. The problem with playing there on a Friday is Traffic. The 8:30 start time is early for that part of town but the Vintage Bar shuts down at midnight. It takes me about an hour to set up all my equipment and tune up and I like to take a break after that so I can be in the right frame of mind for the "show". If I leave my house and get stuck in rush hour traffic, The whole thing can turn pretty hectic. I find that it is better to just leave early and miss the worst of the traffic, Get set up, and then just hang out and relax until the start time.

Since it is right before Christmas, I am not really sure what kind of turn-out to expect. Last year I played out on Mason Road at Dukes Tavern on December 23rd and quite a few people showed up but it is a completely different kind of venue. Plus it was also "Dollar Beer" night.

I am kind of looking forward to tongiht since my nephew, Trevor, Called me yesterday and told me he is planning to be there. He is a working musician as the bass player in the "Levi Smith" band out of Big Spring Texas. He is also a guitar player, but most of all he is Trevor and I am hoping that he can make it out.

I also have had a few friends tell me they were going to try to show up also & I would enjoy that also.

The Vintage Bar is a very intimate setting and the tables are right around the stage. You can actually play a gig and at the same time catch up with old friends between (& sometimes during) songs.

One thing that I have learned over the past two years is that you can never predict what the gig turn-out will be & you just have to focus on playing 100% either way.

I did a gig at an Ice House last year. The place had just opened up and didn't really have much of a customer base so it was about 18 or 20 people at the busiest point of the night. I played 4 hours and it was a weeknight & everybody pretty much left around 11:30 except for this one dude who only spoke spanish & he was only hanging around because he wanted to pick up the bartender (who happened to be married)

He was sitting at a table close to the bar and was facing the bartender. I asked him from the stage if he would prefer to hear blues, country, or classic rock? but he never even looked up at me.

Being and Icehouse and an open air venue, I just tried to focus on playing to Nature or the Universe. I played for the remaining 30 minutes until midnight and then started loading up my equipment.

Right next to this particular Ice House on the other side of a wood fence is a three story motel. The doors open to the outside and they have the metal fence along the balcony/hallways.

As I was loading some stuff into my truck, This dude came walking up to me in the parking lot and told me he was in from out of town and him and his wife had listened to me playing from thier balcony. He hit me with some kind words and handed me a tip also.

The reason I had got this gig in the first place is because I was doing a full band gig down the street about a month before that and had gotten into a disagreement with the drummer. I felt like he was kind of slacking off & he said he was tired but I was mad because I thought he should have shown up ready to play or just fake it and look happy. I told him that if someone walked in for 10 or 30 minutes or what ever amount of time, That would be the only opinion they would probably ever have of our band.

When we finished playing, a lady (the Ice House owner) walked up and spoke to the drummer and asked him how much we charged for a gig. He told her to talk to me about it. It turned out that it was out of her budget but she did hire me to do my "One Man Electric Band" show. I ended up doing about 8 gigs there and she ended up selling the place.


I have to go now so you will have to figure out the moral to this story on your own.


Take Care

Cranes finish 7-state, 61-day trek

A flock of whooping cranes and an ultralight aircraft fly over Dunnellon Municipal Airport on Tuesday.(STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON/ST. PETERSBURG TIMES)December 13, 2005

The whooping cranes followed ultralights from Wisconsin to Marion County.Robert Sargent Sentinel Staff Writer Posted December 14, 2005

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-whoopers1405dec14,0,5789243.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

DUNNELLON -- Nineteen gangly young whooping cranes completed a 61-day journey across seven states Tuesday to become the newest graduates of an experimental program to save one of the world's most threatened species.The birds reached their destination about 80 miles northwest of Orlando, following the lead of four manned ultralight planes buzzing through the brisk blue sky.

They touched down in a secluded grassy area in Halpata Tastanaki Preserve in Marion County that will become their new winter home for the next several weeks.Experts hope they will take what they've learned and join dozens of other whooping cranes this spring to complete a 2,500-mile round-trip migration back north to Wisconsin.And if all goes well, they will grow up and follow nature's other calling -- to find a mate."The best two words to describe this is exhilarating and humbling," said Liz Condie, spokeswoman for the nonprofit group Operation Migration. "It really moves you."In the past four years, Operation Migration has helped train 41 other captive-bred whooping cranes to make a migration that otherwise would be instinctive to birds raised in the wild. They are part of a huge project to reintroduce whooping cranes in the eastern United States.Since 1993, state and federal wildlife officials also have relocated nearly 300 more whooping cranes to secluded spots in Lake, Osceola and Polk counties without teaching them to migrate.About 70 have survived. The rest died from disease, predators and other causes.Rapid development also threatens the birds' survival by encroaching on their prime habitat of wetlands and pasture.Last week, the Orlando Sentinel reported that massive development in the offing for 6,000 acres along the Lake-Sumter county line could jeopardize an important whooping-crane breeding ground.All the cranes in Florida were raised at facilities in Maryland, Wisconsin, Texas and Canada. Combined with a wild population of whooping cranes that migrates between Texas and Canada, fewer than 500 of the endangered birds are left in the world."This is our best effort at saving the species," said Steve Nesbitt, a crane expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission."We're still not sure they're going to be able to survive without a lot of intervention on our part," Nesbitt said.Fossil records date whooping cranes back millions of years, according to the International Crane Foundation. In the late 19th century, the number of cranes was estimated at 1,400.Hunting and habitat loss dwindled their numbers to only about 15 by 1941, according to experts.Adult cranes reach nearly 5 feet tall. They are the tallest bird in North America, the only place they exist.Known for their loud whooping calls, they can live up to 25 years in the wild and usually do not breed until they are 4 or 5 years old.The cranes in the migration program typically are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. Biologists wear baggy white outfits to minimize the bird's familiarity with humans.After about 45 days, the young cranes are transported to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, where they are conditioned to follow an ultralight aircraft.The migration starts from Wisconsin in mid-October with four aircraft leading the birds up to 200 miles a day depending on the weather. Altogether, the trip to Florida covers about 1,200 miles.In past years, the cranes were led to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River.But this year, biologists are keeping them nearby -- at least temporarily -- at Halpata Tastanaki Preserve in Dunnellon to avoid conflicts with older migrating cranes.The migratory program is expected to continue for several more years."We have a ways to go yet, and we've come a very long way," Condie said.Robert Sargent can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5909.

Train of thought

Left:
John Campbell http://www.devilinmycloset.net/john_campbell_home.htm

Wednesday night I played a gig at the Corner Pub in Downtown Conroe. It is a fairly new venue and I had never been there before. I had met the manager, a very nice lady, last summer when I was playing a gig in midtown and she had told me about it before it was opened but seemed pretty excited about the venue. It was a good gig but I don't want to use this blog thing to do reviews of my own shows. That seems kind of lame. It kind of gets on my nerves to read a web site and see a musician going on and on about the crowd at a venue when all they are really doing is trying to blow thier own horn. But I do have to admit that the folks at this particular venue really know how to appreciate a good one-man-band when they see one (JUST KIDDING).

When I first walked in, I really liked the comfortable feel of the place and also the high ceiling. The acoustics turned out to be very good. I also had a mind flash of the first venue I ever had a gig at which was Yakofritz Coffee House in Down Town Nacogdoches some time around 1982. Both places are located in Historic Town Sqare type settings but what really reminded me of Yakofritz was the general shape. It was much smaller but had a high ceiling and was long and narrow. The Corner Pub is not as elongated, more of a rectangular cube shape.

They used to have a night, I think it was Tuesdays, where they would bring in three separate perfomers/bands and each one would play 45 minutes. I played there three times and got paid $20 each time. Even though it was my first paid gig ever, what was more significant to me was that was where I first saw John Campbell play live. He was doing an acoustic set on guitar and dobro that blew me away. He did alot of slide guitar in open tunings. Robert Johnson type stuff but different also. I remember one song he did was TV Doctor which Johnny Winter did on his album "Nothing but the Blues". I also remember him doing a Lighthin Hopkins tune, Mojo Hand & one about a Gyspy Woman. This was about the time that Stevie Ray was doing the Texas Circuit and not yet signed to a label. I saw Stevie 3 times and he was my Guitar Hero but John Campbell had just as much impact. There are not guys like him living in every town. He had toured as Freddy Fenders Guitar Player but he had run into some bad experiences in the business end of the music business and was living in Nacogdoches. I think he was taking some classes at the school. He also played with the College Jazz band for a short time (The Swinging Axes). He also had an electric band called John Campbell and the Blues Connection that played at the local bar where Stevie Ray would play when he buzzed through town.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I became friends with John Campbell. It was more that I was just a huge fan and would go up and talk to him at every show & also when I would run into him on campus or around town. Looking back on it, I know that I probably could have gotten on his nerves. I was always asking him questions about guitar/blues/music & he was kind enough to tolerate me. I think he probably appreciated that I was picking up on how huge a talent he was.

I remember one time he was sitting in with a sort of Country Bluegrass type band made up of old college proffessors. It was an electric/acoustic band with a drummer and a bass player & they had mandolin, fiddle, & several acoustic guitars. They were playing a old standard and when John Campbell took his solo it was right along the melody line but he also interjected some really mean sounding licks. There were probably about a hundred people there and I was sitting off to the side of the stage. John played his solo & then he looked up at me and made eye contact. He could literally see that I had my jaw dropped down & he just kind of looked down and smiled. He knew I was completely blown away but I also knew that he was looking over to me to catch my reaction for his solo which at the time meant a great deal to me. Hell, Even today, It means a great deal to me. For me it was a "moment"

I posted a link to a site about John Campbell up above under his picture.

He died about 13 years ago.

He was the kind of guy who would not give a predictable response in conversations and also liked to do things his own way.

There is a list of his recordings on the web site also. I think The last CD on the list, or at least part of it, was recorded here in Houston at Sugar Hill Studio and was released by Justice Records. A guy that worked for Justice actually gave me the CD about 10 years ago and it is a compliation of several different artists doing songs to benefit the homeless.

One of them is Odetta doing "Brother Can you Spare a Dime" which is an excellent recording of her voice. John plays Dobro Slide Guitar on that tune & I think Dr. John plays piano.

bon appétit

I decided to try cooking Salmon Patties on my George Forman Grill.

I basically used the same recipe that my mom uses but did change it a little bit also.

Here is the way that I did it:


Open on can of salmon and put it in a mixing bowl & pour some lemon juice on it.

Then chop up some onion, maybe a tablespoon or so & also add about 3 spoonfulls of canned corn (drained). You can leave the corn out but if you do use it, Salmon patties seem to go well with corn so you can use the rest as a side.

Break on egg and stir it up and mix it in with with the salmon and a little tobasco sauce also. Not too much or it will overpower the flavor.

Then crunch up about 5 saltine crackers & mix them in also.

If you want to make more just double everything but one can should make about 8 patties.

Spray some non stick cooking spray in your pre-heated Goerge Forman Gill and put & em on.

I sprinkled some Paul Prudhomes Magic Sasoning on them and shut the grill and let them cook. When they were about done, I turned them over and sprinkled some more seasoning on the other side.

I like the salt free seasoning since I can add the amount of Cajun spice flavor & then use however much salt I want which in this case was none.

I found the (Paul Prudhomes Magic) seasoning blend by the Gumbo File at my local HEB grocery store.


They came out pretty good.