Kids At Work

This is Ursula, a friend of my kids, singing.  Nice song- nice banjo

Waiting for The Hurricane

We are working on salvation.

If You See Her

Here's the almost cool musical video from my live performance at TRiPP. Craig's harmonica really rocked it. We were under-rehearsed. It was fun though.

Well, everything will be tucked in in Los Angeles by the end of today. We are getting on a plane tonight for Great Barrington Mass. A friend is house sitting. The little bear is getting her AA Degree, from there we are are off to the Bethesda home of another large furry sibling. And then onward to Knoxsville to see the first great grand nephew. The banjo is coming with us, so this will be another minor adventure in band.

See ya. In a couple of weeks

Four Years from now

This was a comment I received: Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Noble calling that: Teaching people to write": I once played guitar for a pick-up band put together by a friend of mine. We played country music backup for one show with a woman who'd been to Nashville 3 times and paid good money to 'self-publish' the CD's at about $3,000-$4,000 per disc. She was not a good singer, but had a fantasy that she could make it big and was planning a 4th trip back to make another CD. I gently took her aside and gave her the rundown on how the unscrupulous recording studio was taking advantage of her. She looked shocked, but understood. However, to this day, I still wonder if I really did her a favor. I saved her some money but killed her dream. I guess we can't save folks from having dreams about being great singers or writers, but it's good for the con artists to know someone is watching.

Me again:

This whole blog is chock full of come-ons, let downs- even trying to built a coop table at a book fair was a disaster.

Now I'm spending the same amount of energy- somewhat the same amount of money and we have a band and we play at least a couple of times a month. And I'm having fun and showing off. I'm gonna run with this til it runs itself in the ground and in four years I'm going be sitting on Venice boardwalk playing for spare change for maybe the rest of my life.

More on that noble calling

After I send her the rant, I had another drink and sent her this:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: RE: New Online Writing Workshop forming
From: Dan Mc Nay
Date: Fri, May 11, 2012 11:09 pm
To: Kate Sexton Kate, 
 I've turned to music in my old age. I playing banjo and writing music, I am still writing prose. I have 50K on a new first draft of a new book. I have a non-fiction book next. But, this is what the publishing world has done to my feelings: Dan


She replied: 
Funny, I left the music industry in my early 30s and have ended up in publishing and nonprofits. I find both industries eat their young and old. One reason to find the very best, surround yourself with experienced players and figure out the game because that's what all of this boils down to - a game.


I wrote:


Not for me.


Best Wishes

Noble calling that: Teaching people to write

Dear Dan,

 Kathleen forwarded your email to me. Actually your assumption about Toni Lopopolo is not true. She helps build careers so she can sell their books. In the last month she has sold the manuscripts of three of her Tea with Toni and ooVoo students. She reviews submissions prior to acceptance and regularly turns down would-be writers that have no idea how to write. She is looking for quality that needs fine tuning. She has taught writing at Temple University based on over 20 years in the publishing industry as an executive editor. She knows what she teaches through "in the field" experience. Toni is a teacher, not a con man like many in LA. The Pacific Institute, and especially its co-founder Shelly Lowenkopf (who taught at USC for years), would not have her involved with the organization if her classes were a con. Toni is Shelly's agent. PIPW will be starting a newsletter soon on Scams Aimed at Writers, a plague that is growing daily. Toni delivers the goods, not like many out there. And she has a track record to prove it. I would like to keep you on our lists as we promote many positive, productive workshops for writers. May I?

 Kate Kate Sexton Executive Director The Pacific Institute for Professional Writing 805-633-1506 www.PacificInstituteForProfessionalWriting.com --------

Original Message -------- Subject: Re: New Online Writing Workshop forming From: Dan Mc Nay Date: Thu, May 10, 2012 2:06 pm 


To: Kathleen Kaiser Please remove me from your mailing list. This is just another way to try to get money out of people, that you have no plans to rep for


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This was what I replied: 


 What on earth are you doing for me, except sending me come-on emails that I don't want. Pay to take a class? I've taken classes at USC in the Masters Writing Program and ended up realizing I knew as much as John Rechy and several other 'famous' writers. I have a handful of people that bring me their manuscripts for feedback and if I think there's talent there I help them for free. Has your friend read Barthes, or Empson? Has your friend read all of Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Flaubert, Woolf, analyzed paragraph structure in a dozen English Nobel writers for understanding the development of the paragraph over the last hundred years in English Literature? Lectured on Frost, James Agee, Sherwood Anderson and Robbe Grillet? I've even taken McKee's classes on script structure. I've studied my entire live to understand literature and write really well, and I have. There are several professional writers that think I am the best writer they know. But I've just spent three years peddling a novel around the world, doing all the right things to get it looked at and cannot even get a bite. The last best comment I received was from an agent that did not see the manuscript was that 'it might be boring' I might be willing to teach for free if you ask politely, other wise quit sending me spam 


 Dan

There she is

I've been playing with camera angles and trying over and over- finally got Betsy playing on Video!!!

Ed Doing OCMS

Gulf Coast Highway

More About The Empty Parking Lot or "Fiesta Friday"

I got this about that Fiesta Friday thing that we didn't go do- cause they canceled and it was all too weird.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Oh Well":

 Hi Dan,

 Thank you for posting this whole conversation with Derick Knight promoter of Fiesta Friday. You should be glad that yoi didnt not perform tonight for the event or you would have not gotten paid. We signed up for this event and he charged our credit card for a lot of money. We showed up at 5:30pm with 10 other food vendors. After two hours of just sitting there waiting for people to come, we were bored out of our minds because nobody knows about the event and people on the street just looked and continued on. 15 minutes later, there were 4 cops writing citations and shut us down. Derrick was nowhere to be found. His 2 other co-organizers, Lesly Amador, kept saying he's eating dinner. After 9pm, he showed up and just sat in his car and didnt want to talk to anybody. He didnt want to give the vendors their money back. Finally, he got out of the car and took off in an gated alley. We were left all in awe and pissed, not only did we lost $250, we wasted money on food, gas and time to drive and set up. It was a miserable night for 12 food vendors just trying to earn decent living all because of one crook and scum of the earth person named Derrick Knight promoter and owner of Fiesta Friday. I am glad you didnt go to his worthless event and was spared. Just wanted to share this with you so you have an idea in case he contacts you for his other fake events. Sheila Thank you for taking time to read this Regards

Well, I was the one who positioned the camera. Two and 1/2 hours of my hand in front of my face. Live and learn. It was a great venue. We had fun. Close your eyes and pretend you can see me singing.