Letter to a Good Guy

Letter To My High School English Teacher

Roger,
What to say. Thank you for awakening a 15 year old to poetry. Your easy explanation of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” probably saved me from a life of brutal criminal behavior. (Well, that might be an exaggeration.) That one or two years there at UHS were wonderful. Barbara Baum gave me Sherwood Anderson and you provided Dylan Thomas. 
I hope you find the book fun. I really enjoy the research part of these creations and just felt it would be fun to add the bibliography to the novel. 
I’ve just gotten your last two books in the mail and am looking forward to sitting out at my lunch spot in the sun and taking them in. I’m about a third into W.S. Merwin’s “Summer Doorways” – if you’ve not read it, its great fun.
There’s a CD enclosed. I put up a site of my poetry because nobody wanted them, and had pretty much stopped trying. With the discovery of music, I’ve found a new use of what I wanted my poetry to be. I knew I was writing measured (and in theory, lyrical poetry) but its just not the style this generation, but I discovered that most everything I did write as poetry lends itself to the song form.
I add a chorus and do a little editing and I have a song. All of the ones that didn’t quite work, suddenly work. People applaud. I’ve gotten compliments on the songs that were ignored as poems or never quite worked as poems.
I’m also highly unskilled as a musician, so I’ve got a lot to learn in the next few years.
I still feel like that 15 year old kid, I hope you don’t mind.
I’ve spent an entire life, in love with the unwashed. Anderson in prose, (and in poetry, but few will admit to reading him as a poet)- There are an incredible number of unwashed geniuses- Woody Guthrie, The Carter Family Dad, Steinbeck and Dreiser in the beginning. That was what Whitman was.
I hope to be back in that area in the next few years one way or another. My youngest one is applying to IU for her Masters, but we shall see -there are options. My Helena Gilder project will bring me back because all of her papers are at the Lilly Library. I’ve had visions of my first retirement summer, parked in a RV at Lake Monroe, tooling into the library to leaf through papers and (now, sitting at the camp fire at night picking away at the banjo) May we all live so long. I hope to find you there if I make it.

Your fan,
Dan

The Little Ones

            Em                                 C                           
At the lake the house stood high against the
 G
clouds
    Em                                     C
A strand of smoke from the chimney
G                                        D
Snakes toward the evening storm
D7                    Cm             G
A reply to the hiding setting sun
Em                     C
You will be the dawn
    G                            D
I will be the breakfast blaze
C                         G
After the storm is gone

CHORUS
G                                                 D
The little ones come to places like this
         Em                    C
Like sparrows on the lawn
           G                         D
They smile and smile and smile
        C               G
And fly away home

          Em                                    C                                     
Rain streaks the strait-laced windows to drain
            G
off in sorrow
Em                            C
You can see our breathing glass
G                                             D
Beneath the dark head of the storm
D7           Cm                     G
And the snapping stings of lightning
Em                                  C
Our windows steam and sweat
    G                D
And laugh out loud
C                                G
At the dream the lake portrays

G                                                        D
The surface of the water dances with droplets
    E                              C
Rippling circles run out memories
                                             D
Of long ago houses and other pain
        C                          G
And other nights in the rain

CHORUS TWICE

Poem from early eighties

Beyond the lake's reflection, the house will stand
High against the clouds
A wisp of smoke from the chimney
Will be offered to the evening storm
Smoke is a signal of fires within, a reply
To the dying sun nearly hidden
You will be the dawn
I will be the breakfast blaze
Smoke and clouds belie our coming light and mastery
Over darkness
Smoke and clouds dissolve as a shower begins

Rain will fall at the lake
To help things grow, the neighbors say
But we know more
Rain streaks strait-laced windows
And dribbles away in sorrow
The stranger on the road will see our breathing glass
Remarking its mixture of of death and pain
And will know our defiance
Even there in the dreams the lake portrays
Our windows laugh

The surfaces of the water dances with droplets
Rippling circles run out in memory
Of other houses and other rain
So mother ducks and wise old frogs take shelter
Beneath the blossoms that come with morning

Dan McNay- sometime in the early 80s. I need a chorus, and a little editing to make this the next song

It's beginning to look a lot like Borders

I pick on bookstores instead of low rent music bookers.

From: Dan McNay [mailto:mcnay@mosis.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2013 3:10 PM
To: email@vromansbookstore.com
Subject: Author interested in presenting

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I've just published "The Truth About Treasure Island" a novel about Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Strong in Samoa in the 1890s. I was going to approach your store about taking consignment copies.

My intent would be to do a factual presentation with slides about Stevenson's time in Samoa combined with a little banjo and singing of a couple of period songs. (I perform as well). And maybe have some copies of the novel handy. I have lectured in the past and can design it to the time format you wish, though anything under an hour isn't going to do the subject matter justice.

This is the book:

http://thetruthabouttreasureisland.com/

This is me singing and playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YrbhSXjcbI&feature=share&list=UU_SJL4nFpJK6VLtKOxcKx9g

Dan McNay

On 10/24/2013 3:56 PM, Rachel Ormiston wrote:

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your interest in hosting an event at Vroman’s Bookstore! It does appear that in order to stock your book at Vroman’s, we will need to do so under our consignment program. If this is something in which you might be interested, please take a look at our consignment program, which you can find online here: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/consignment-program.

Since you mentioned you would be interested in having an event at Vroman’s, you can find information about that on this page: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/tiers.   The Gold consignment package offers an opportunity to participate in one of our Local Author Days, where authors present and sign their featured title with two other authors.  These generally take place the last Sunday of each month at 4pm and run for about 2 hours.  If you decide to sign up for the Gold consignment package, our promotional director will be in contact with you to schedule your Local Author Day once your consignment paperwork is received.  I know this isn’t necessarily the time frame you were looking for, but I thought I would let you know any way.

Please feel free to e-mail with any further questions, or contact our Will Call department at orders@vromansbookstore.com if you are ready to select and purchase a consignment package. Thank you for thinking of Vroman’s!

Best,

Rachel

Rachel Ormiston

Digital Media Coordinator

Vroman's Bookstore
695 E Colorado Blvd.

Pasadena, CA 91101

P (626)449-5320

Rachel,

I think your program is as bad as the groups that run tables at the book fairs. I'm offering to do an entertaining slightly musical hour for your customers about a world famous author's adventure in Samoa that most would find interesting. I've lectured to different groups around LA for the last twenty years. And I'm suppose to pay you for sitting at a table?  How about you go fly a kite? I don't think you are smart enough to know who Robert Louis Stevenson is, but I thought I'd tell you anyway.

How about you order my book from Ingram and I might some day come down to your self-righteous little hole in the wall. You might as well be Barnes and Noble. I will buy my books from Small World Books or Skylight or Book Soup. The only reason independent bookstores still exist is because the loyal book people want to feel they are a part of the loyal few. Otherwise, why bother? If I don't have time for a quality browse of a bookstore I order from Amazon. Good luck in your bright future.

Thanks for your canned response.

Dan McNay

Upcoming gigs

In reality, the lights overhead are not on. They may have burnt out long ago.
The lady booking the club put up a couple of more openings, one for the 8:00 pm slot on Halloween night and a later one. I figured what the hell, I could show up in all of my 6'8" with weird face paint and black clothes and proceed to do weird murder songs and some others that lend themselves to to the theme. I'm the opener, who the fuck cares. She responds that she's filled the slots. Today, there are three postings to Craig's List for the slots. I want to respond to her "I can hear you" but I don't, I'm polite. I send her a cute little note about how I was sorry I missed her Sunday night, let me know if there are openings. I left out the part about 'where the fuck is the sound' and what the hell is this place? She responds that maybe I could do some 'Christmas songs' next month. She didn't even hear what I did.  Anyway, my kid calls tonight and we are schomzing. I tell him about the gig and he describes it as the strip mall club at the edge of Vegas and I suddenly realize he's right. It is. I've arrived at the edge of Vegas.
So I'll cc her on this.

The sound equipment in here really did look like it hadn't been touched in twenty years. I tried to play the Airliner downtown LA about six months ago and it was very clear that the booking guy and the equipment itself hadn't touched each other in twenty years. Sad, but true. Who wants to be as old as me and umtouched.

The Recital & The Stardust Club

Sos, we had the book publication party yesterday. Great time. I spent the morning Sunday cleaning up and putting things away. And at 4:00 we headed off to my teacher's recital for his students. As you can see they are mostly kids. There are a few older folks. There is a thirties something in the middle of this crowd. And there were a couple of old farts like me that didn't get in the picture. 

 This is the teacher and playing Where Are you Going? my song that I played at FAR-West last week. The group seemed to like it. I was also working up an odd little version of When The Saints Come Marching In, but he forgot and I wasn't about to play it after my own.

 Then off to the Stardust Club in Downey to play at 8:00 pm for an hour. I get there at 7:30 and there only seems to be a couple of barmaids present. I ask for the sound guy and she says they don't show up until 9:00 pm or so. She takes me over to show me the equipment. It looks like the equipment hasn't been touched in a year or so. There's no mics, no cables. I didn't bring anything, because I assumed it was a club and they had stuff. So I'm sitting there, thinking I'll just go at 8:00 if no one shows, or I could have done it un-amped I suppose. This guy comes in and brings stuff to the stage and I ask if he knows anything about anything. He's on at 10:00, The Debbie Goodman & Friends listed below, I guess. He says, well he needs sound for his group's set, so he will bring his in and set me up. And he does!. Great guy. I do my whang and scram for an hour. One of the regulars really loves banjo, sos he's egging everyone on to clap and hoot etc. Not a large crowd, but what do you want on a Sunday night in Downey.

Never met the booking lady.

I didn't stay for Debbie & Friends, and I couldn't find a picture of the guy that helped me out. I'm assuming its the guy with his back turned here.

Onward and upward, I guess.

The Publication Party. It was a blast!

Blind Dates

I had a thought. Trying to play out is kind of like dating. Some real clunkers, some real hot, but not really long term. Some uglier than sin. Some that don't look wonderful at the start but then there seems to be something there. And a whole lot of diversion mostly in odd and wrong directions. Dinner, a movie and ice cream after is still just that, you still have to dig through a big pile of horse***t. I get lucky.

Anaheim Antique Flea Market

The preface to this that two days before I had just showcased in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyiatt Regency in Irvine for the FAR-West conference in front of 100 professional musicians and got applause and had a few folks that told me they liked one of my songs (that I didn't get to play for the little doggie lady below).

I might have been even angrier, if I wasn't tired from attending the conference, and I quickly realized I had found la-la land in Anaheim

This is her picture on one of her Facebook accounts. She has a second account with the a similar picture. I'm assuming it's her dog. The lady was in her sixties with one of those really bad weird red dye jobs and lipstick on. The dog looks more attractive at this point.

This is what she emailed me:

On 9/9/2013 4:54 PM, Monica Keppel wrote:

I cant  get youtube.for some reason. The last couple of weeks my
computer is acting goofy.
  Whatever you play will be perfect,I of course love all music
,especially the oldies.
See you then.
Monica
On 9/9/13, Dan McNay <mcnay@mosis.com> wrote:

Monica,

If you click on these links, they will take you to my videos.
I've updated the songs to include Mumford & Sons and more modern stuff
while including oldies. Dixie Chicks & Tracy Chapman etc.
Some of these are my original songs.

I'll plan on showing at eleven unless it changes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yccie3ZZtZA&feature=c4-overview&list=UU_SJL4nFpJK6VLtKOxcKx9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEfiFRxEkoQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YrbhSXjcbI&feature=share&list=UU_SJL4nFpJK6VLtKOxcKx9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOaXM3nvH_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fFFPU8lNHg&feature=share&list=UU_SJL4nFpJK6VLtKOxcKx9g

So I show an hour early. I had offered to play un-amped. I just did four hours with no mic at San Clemente two weeks ago, but she said the amplified was fine. I worked out where I would play and set-up. It was 10 in the morning. I usually start out mellow in the morning. She comes over and tells me to do more lively. I say ok. She comes over and asks to turn it down. I say ok. She comes back and says its my voice and can we turn your voice down. I say ok. I tell her I'm not sure I can do lively for four hours. The time we agreed upon was from 11:00 to 3:00 pm. I even made her a flyer and sent it to her the week before. She says that there was another guy coming and we were supposed to work out splitting up the time. I say Oh Really? I was never contacted. She leaves.

So I struggle on, skipping all the sounds that might seem too slow, wondering to myself how I can possibly do four hours (or even two if this other guy ever shows) with 1/4 of a playlist. It's nearing 11:00. I've already got ten bucks in tips in my banjo case (I never get tips until after 12:00.) and one of the vendors a half block away is applauding the last song and another lady who I have never met comes over to ask me to wrap it up in twenty minutes.

I say ok. Then I pack up. I am quite angry by this point. Had she come herself, I might have been more reasonable. I stop when I see Monica and tell her I sent her my music. Why would she invite me to play, if she didn't like my music?

She says "my mother died"

Her husband comes to the rescue. "Maybe you should go."

I can't resist fucking with men that are smaller than I am who try to throw their weight around.

I say "Really? You are going to get in my face?"

"We have people to deal with problems."

"Maybe you better go get them." I say.

Silence. You can feel the shrinking feeling in his gut. What calmed me down was the sudden thought of pee running out of his pants cuff.

"You know, you really aren't good people anyway."

And I leave. I have the rest of the day off.  

Waiting for the paint to dry

BOOKING ANY ALL COUNTRY,FOLK & BLUEGRASS BANDS/MUSICIANS !!!! (los angeles)

IF YOU LOOKING TO GET SEEN IN SUM OF LOS ANGELES'S PREMIER VENUES.......! ;) SO IF YOU THINK YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO DRAW A CROWD AND JUST LOVE TO MAKE YOUR ORIGINAL MUSIC TOUCH A LIVE CROWD LIKE NO OTHER THEN........... PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO CALL OR TEXT ME.......
SHANNON NYCOL "BOOKING MANAGER"
CELL# (330)730-4559 / WORK# (619)356-8146 

 

So, I sent her my come-on email with the links. I get a message on my office phone from Sunday evening saying she wants to book me, my band, whatever it is I do.

 

I called her back and left her a message on her cell on Monday morning.

 

Another do you play the saxophone call I think. I'll try one more time today. I've kind of decided I'm going to find a venue that wants a booking person and start doing it. I could do a whole lot better than this AND treat the performers a whole lot better. And listen to the potential performers. It would seem embarrassing to book bad people. 

Setting up at San Clemente Sunday morning

Singing without amps on Sunday. Sold CDs. The people liked me. Did 4 hours I think.

Max

And then we got him.

What the open door does

I played the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair on Saturday. It wasn't on the main stage down the block, but here in the community center. It was cool. A stage and sound. I had played here two years ago with an early version of Rhubarb band and we were appreciated and asked back, but the next year the band was on the main stage. The lady organizing it this year, didn't send me a parking pass so I went early to figure out all that. I was supposed to play from 12 to 1.  I figure out the parking and I'm there at 10:30. The lady says the group before me cancelled. Did I want to start early. I said sure. So I came back with my stuff and she called the sound guys in to set me up. There were some little kids dancing on the stage, so I played some fast songs so they could keep dancing for a while. Then I got sound and started at 11.

Wasn't a lot of folks the first half hour. A few came through to seet the kids artwork displays in the auditorium. By 12 this was what I had. It stayed this way for the next hour. Even with lunch hour passing and some folks getting up and others coming in. It was cool.

The next morning

I played at O'Brien's on Main Street on Tuesday night and though I went on an hour later than I was told I was playing, I was jazzed because I got this guy's group to stick around and listen to me.
Now, later, I probably wouldn't go back. The guy that booked the evening had no control over the performers. The two girls that played the first two sets were fine. They got on and did their thing in the allotted time and got off. This guy wnt on and turned his 30 minute into an hour set and was obviously so into himself, he couldn't see me sitting there with my banjo out.

Its one thing to play on if there is nobody there, this was something else. And he did this, pointed like he was a rock star or something. I've seen his sort all over the place. Full of themselves, playing rather well, and singing songs that you can't remember the minute they are over with a voice that you can't remember when that's over either. But they think they are Eric Clapton. You know them by the sunglasses.

The performance area is in the back room, and there's a curtain that can be closed in the doorway that apparently blocks the sound. When the two girls were on, the music drew people back. For this guy they closed the curtain, I guess so the people in front couldn't hear him. I inherited his closed curtain.

I'm really conscious of closed doors. The little coffee house over in West LA I was playing at for a little while had people going by outside. So I tried to open the door and started drawing people in. The owner kept going over and closing the door.

I keep thinking I could do a better job than most of these idiots I meet booking people. I proposed to Westchester that I do their music. I'm seriously looking for a venue to do this in.

Midnight at the Oasis

Emergency gig alert. I answered a Craig's List come on for an open slot here tonight and the guy told me to come on. This was yesterday. Absolutely no expectations, no time to invite your friends. Anyway, my 10:00 pm slot turned into 11:00 pm (musician time is acceptable under most circumstances) (as opposed to con man time) It was mostly people showing off for their friends. I did hold the prior group of people for most of my set and they were howling, so I guess they were enjoying it. I'm letting the voice fly these days and playing as fast as I can. I asked them if they wanted a John Hartford or a Mumford & Sons cover. And then I asked them if they knew who John Hartford was. They told me to do whatever I wanted. I ended up doing both.

Anyway on ward- I have to work in the morning. Oh and I have this: 6 hour gig. We'll see. And no amps.