'Round The Block Band

Where I'm At

2012-02-29T08:40:00.001-08:00

I reached page one hundred on my Daydee manuscript a couple of nights ago and decided to double space the thing to see how far along I was. I was expecting 200 pages. I got 130. But, it turns out I have about 43K words, so I'm moving along to a 60K book. It still has a lot of cooking to do. I had no idea this was where I was going to be. I have characters I didn't plan on. It was a dark and stormy night. The thought plickens.

I'm still the same guy

2012-02-27T22:42:00.001-08:00

This is one of Helena's watercolors that the Lilly Library set up on their their site at a visual for their Gilder collection. She had a certain clumsiness, but also an eye for something. I've not seen a lot of the original work she did. Obviously, time did not consider her a great artist. But, time has neglected her early partners Maria Oakley and Molly Foote. I've just written to the Library to start buying copies from the typed transcript of Helen's and Molly's letters. (Helena daughter typed them up.- Helena's handwriting was terrible.) The whole notion of what I've thought about has become overwhelming- a Helena biograpghy. I've decide a focus on the the years 1864 to 18974 is the starting point. There might be a entire book there.

Efrain's Web Site

2012-02-27T11:29:00.001-08:00

Efrain's Web Site

If you're interested- friend of my daughter bear

LA Marathon

2012-02-27T11:23:00.001-08:00

I thought it would look like this. The band has been accepted to play on the marathon route, but where they have put us is Mile 4 from the beginning. The thing starts at 7:30 am. The bulk of folks will be running by at 8:00 am to maybe 9:00 am. I sent an email to my band mates to see if anyone really wanted to get up and be ready to play be 8:00 am on a Sunday morning.

This is where we are playing- if we play- at Temple & Figueroa. It will probably look like this at 8:00 am.

I'll keep you posted.

Comparing Notes- What I got In Email

2012-02-24T13:23:00.001-08:00

What I paid $125.00 to go do instead:

Hi Everyone!

Mike Kimmel and I are very excited as we are getting ready for our Border Run - Mission to Mexico trip March 2-4th! This email has important information regarding this Sunday, and of course for our trip next weekend, so please read it thoroughly :) PS if you are NOT able to come after all, please let us know asap! But we hope that applies to no one!

First, This Sunday we are being dedicated in both church services! We will be dedicated at the end of Celebration, and at the beginning (the welcome) of Tempo. So please if at all possible be there at the end of celebration, even if you don't normally go to Tempo. Come at 9am sharp in the lobby of the sanctuary. If you normally go to Celebration, please stick around after life stage in the lobby to come up during the welcome! This is an important part of the process so our church body can know who is going so they can be praying for us!

Second, immediately after Tempo on Sunday, we will be having our team information meeting in the gym at 12:15. We will have lunch provided for you, and we will learn more about the trip logistics, schedule, teams, etc., answer any questions you may have, and be able to get to know each other a little bit (we have about 15 people from the college group, and about 15 people from other life stage groups combing together to go on this trip, how cool!). Hopefully this will be done by about 1. Then...

Third, this Sunday after our team meeting, we have two projects to accomplish. One is to cut and paint the chicken coops we will be building in Mexico. The other is to create a short VBS (Skit, crafts, games, and bible story) to be put on in Mexico. There will be something for everyone to do as many are as able, but some of you might want to bring some painting clothes :) Hopefully this will be done by 2:30ish? The more people the can stay and help the quicker it will go and feel free to invite anyone to come help that is not going with us on the trip for this part!

Lastly, Please Read This Stuff :) We are working on solidifying the teams, driving arrangements, and schedule.

Driving: The main plan is, most people will be leaving from church at 8am on Friday March 2nd. However, if some on the construction team would like to get an early start to have a more full Friday work day, please respond and let me and Mike know so we can coordinate getting such people together. Also, if anyone is NOT able to leave by 8am let us know as well as there may have to be a car that drives down later on Friday (leaving at 12ish). And, please let us know if you can drive and or if we can use your car if you haven't let us know already!
Teams: Also, please send a quick reply as to which team you are most interested in (Construction, Medical/Dental, or VBS/Kids Ministry). Of course there will be overlap and we will all have to be flexible and willing to serve in whatever ways we are needed, but let us know your preference and we will do our best to accommodate!
Payments: The trip cost is $125, please bring the rest of your payment Sunday or anytime this or next week to the church. Please make sure you pay in full before we leave! Make checks payable to Bethany Church.

Whew thanks for reading this I hope I didn't forget anything! Please be in prayer this and next week as we prepare to go and serve in this way. Thanks for your willingness! I am excited to be able to minister together with all of you. Romans 10:15 says "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!" Praise God that we can be used by Him to love people in His name and bring the good news to them!

Blessings,
Dave

--
College Pastor
Bethany Church

2012-02-23T23:18:00.001-08:00

With apologies to Mr. Smith. What music really is, is listening. Craig and I did an open mic at Boulevard Music Sunday night. Musically, I'm barely there, but I think we did all right because I bowed to his rhythm and he bowed to my melody. This is where the beauty of it is- in the listening to those that are playing along side you. What a wonderous thing. To be together. This is, for me, like a blossoming flower. I've been in my room for 30 years working on my melodies of prose, and suddenly to find it can be done with others. I ran into the drummer that was with the featured group that played the same venue, and he raved at me about how good we were. Gary, the owner of Boulevard Music stared at me for the remainder of the evening. I assume it was ok. There seems to be something about my voice that connects. I do get it, but then again, I never got a lot things, until later, like women. It's listening. I'm excited. The new guy and I (I've just invited a new guy into the band) already have been playing together well at the Saturday morning jam) and I'm interested in moving forward with this concept. Maybe they will find me, as one of my readers keeps saying to me.

The Applause

2012-02-21T15:45:00.001-08:00

I'm getting addicted. When it happens I get embarrassed, later when I'm editing the video of it, I think, wow. They were clapping. The applause at the end of me two little ditties, I just posted up was cool. At the swap meet, sometimes you get one pair of hands off somewhere - that can be very cool. It means at least one person was listening. I can remember years and years ago, when the New Orleans Writer's Group put up a dramatized reading of all our stuff, I acted in a mini drama scene from my work in progress and afterward it just sounded like so much noise. I wondered how anyone could get anything out of that noise.

The Second One

2012-02-20T18:26:00.001-08:00

What I've Been Doing

2012-02-20T18:25:00.001-08:00

Efrain in SF

2012-02-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

There's a theme emerging here. This is me daughter's buddy from Chapman singing wonderfully up there. He's a voice to remember, I guarantee it

Ursula Playing Banjo In San Francisco

2012-02-16T22:12:00.000-08:00

This is a friend of my kids playing SF -Great banjo- huh-different. Great song. She backed up me daughter at The Whiskey eons ago when they were in High School

2012-02-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well, things continue. Had a lesson tonight. learned how to chop. I think he wants me to suddenly become wonderful. But, I came home, didn't practice any of the things I'm supposed to be practicing (like his tabs and the chord progression to that Leonard Cohen song) and practiced the two I'm playing at Boulevard Music Sunday night. And then proceeded to practice all of the songs I've written- And went back and rewrote Lorraine's song to make it work- She wrote me a poem for my 40th, that I've incorporated into a very sad song about her and her disintegration. She's bedridden in a nursing home now- with very little awareness of anything any more. She' was cutting her poems out of stacks of literary magazines so that they would be in a scrapbook somewhere. She had forgotten she had self-published a complete collection, which I have. Have a song in my head about being reincarnated as a banjo player on the pier in 100 years. I'm going to start trying to write it again. Even the one that my friend from Sweden and I wrote is beginning to sound ok.

2012-02-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

So I've signed up to go. A couple of folks that I play music with on Saturday mornings are going, I told em I'm bringing the banjo.The notion of getting dirty, doing some hard work for a good cause and then sitting around picking at night, appealed to me. Me very first time out of the country in my life. (Don't tell anyone.)

2012-02-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

We played today, got a late start- toward the end the folks were gathering. We got a good round of applause at the end for Wagon Wheel- people know the song. We got it up and running. One of singers father died yesterday, so we were short again. No Ben either. We were not musically the best - mistakes were made, animals were harmed- but it was it was, as I keep saying to my significate other. I'd rather be doing this then sitting at an open mic waiting my turn. The applause was great! Videos will be coming. I have to charge the camera.

It's so in and out with feelings, we had a lousey rehearsal, I played in a pick-up band at a an old folks band Saturday morning and it was great fun. One of the guys said he thought I was playing great. Today was shakey, but we got it rolling- or I got it rolling.

The Banjo version

2012-02-08T22:10:00.001-08:00

This is getting probably too technical for the non-musicians out there. But I want you to know this is so far away from what I have the ability to do that I will probably have to practice this for a year to play it with any kind of ease. But if you don't start, how will you get there? I decided about three years ago, before I was playing in front of people that I was going to learn the chords to "Working On The Railroad" I never did actually ever play the song. (I might be able to now) but I practiced and practiced those chords very slowly. Suddenly a year or so ago, an A7 appeared and I could play it. (You have to have very large hands to play an A7 on a banjo) Anyway, I'm carrying these to the banjo teacher tomorrow night and asking 'How would you finesse this with my old man fingers. I'll let you know what he says.

Its This One

2012-02-08T16:03:00.001-08:00

The Next One

2012-02-08T16:01:00.001-08:00

A7	A9	Am	Am+5 Unknown	Am7	Bbm7	Bm7-5	Cdim	Cm7	D7
D9	E7	E7sus4	Edim	Em9	G	G6	G9	Gdim	G/B

 G  G6   G    G9       G   G6 Bbm7         D9     D7
You came a - long from out of no - where

G  G6    G   G9          G   G6  Bm7-5     E7
You took my heart  and found it free.

Am    Am+5  Am   A9    E7sus4       E7         A9    Am
Won - der - ful dreams, wonderful schemes from no - where

Gdim       A7   Cdim        A7        Am7    D9     D7
Made every hour sweet as a flower for me



G  G6    G    G9       G  G6 Bbm7          D9     D7
If you should go back to your no - where

G    G6  G  G9     G    G6 Bm7-5     E7
Leav-ing me with a mem - o - ry,

Am   Am+5  Am   A9   E7sus4     E7          A9    Am
I'll  al - ways wait for your return out of no - where



(First Time:)

G9    G          Edim  Em9  Am7  D7  G   Em9   Am7    D7
Ho - ping you'll bring your love to me.



(Last Time:)

G9    G          Edim  Em9  Am7  D7 G   G/B   Am7   Cm7    G(6)
Ho - ping you'll bring your love to me.

These are Guitar chords- Any banjo tips out there?

I should be in bed

2012-02-06T23:18:00.001-08:00

What I really wanted to talk about

2012-02-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

There is a lady, say her name is Hazel. She is originally from somewhere in Africa. She migrated here, raised her children and is a registered nurse and a citizen of the US. Sixty something. Came to a Square Dance that my wife and I attended, because an older white guy who knew her from church had invited her along. She knew how to Square Dance. She fixated on me because I have a a band and perform regularly. She wants to be a singer. She has had no formal musical training to sing. She works Weekends and nights, and only gets off once a month on Saturday or Sunday. She wants to join the band. She has hired a voice teacher to help her sing. She calls me and wants to know if she can sing with the band. I tell her she can't show up when the band performs, how can she sing with the band? She wants to know how she can sing. Somehow I get volunteer to take her to an open jam in Long Beach on a Saturday morning the one morning she has free in the month, so she can try singing in this jam meetup. Its doomed from the start, but I'm picking her up on the 25th to do just what I've described. Of course, if her voice is incredible, we will reevaluate this trial.

2012-02-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What itlooks like":

Dan, okay, I think there is some confusion caused by thecapo.

Without getting into too much music theory, C#m is therelative minor of E, so if you're playing an Eb chord, the relative minor isCm, etc.

Given the chord progression you've shown in your chart, allthe Eb's should be E naturals. Also, a few other things could be changed tomake the progression closer to the way it's composed:

In the line where it says "the major lift," thereis no chord change over "lift," stay on the A chord. In the line"the baffled king composing hallelujah," there is a B chord over"baffled," and there is a G#7 over the second syllable of"composing." And on the final "hallelujah" in the 7th line,the chords should be E B E.

Play along with the KD Lang Youtube video I linked and seeif these chords don't fit a bit better (-:

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

I appreciate the advice, but we playing to Nancy's voice andher interpretation. I honestly don't care if the song sounds like it should - as was recorded by someone else. Oras it was written. Sorry. I keep telling all the old men in my life, 'that I'venever played a song right yet, and doubt if I ever will.' The picture above is the way my fingers feelafter 2 two hour sessions of practicing the chords on this thing.

I'm taking lessons, taking classes, read a whole book aboutmusic theory and hope to understand a great deal more in the next few years. Iwrite books and paint pictures. I know a hell of lot about literary theory anddramatic form and can discuss structure in Tolstoy versus William Burroughs. Ican discuss dramatic structure in painting and compare Picasso to Raphael inconstruction. There is no "should be" Take my word for it.

What there is: is what works and what does work, andsometimes you are forced to make something 'that doesn't work' into somethingthat does.

The band is a group of amateur musicians that have theirmoments, but except for Ben, they all need their music written down in front ofthem. Me included, but I'm working on that. A couple of fiddle players havepassed through the group that could just play, but they didn't last.

The novel I published has little sections in it where Iintentionally change tense and move from third person to second person.Everyone told me not to do it. This isn't the way it should be done. ReadSevastopol by Tolstoy.

I can tell you where to find the lousy parts in Frost,Faulkner & Hemingway. I can show where Winslow Homer copied Millet. WhereWyeth copied Toulouse-Latrec.

The other night I pointed out to someone that there's alimit to Emmylou Harris's voice- a note she can't hit and she deals with bywhispering the words there. Are we supposed to whisper words because that wasthe limitation of the big time singer? Do we really have to sing Dylan songslike he would sing them? Cohen was flat through out my teenager years listeningto him. I appreciated him, because I could sing along with him. I can do aperfect imitation of Kris Kristofferson, does that mean I should?

Thanks for advice. Please respond- I'd love to have adialog. Have you read "The Sunlight Dialogues"/

What it looks like

2012-02-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

I got a comment from a reader that they thought it must really be in the key of E, I think its probably Eb but hot this song got here is a tale in itself. Wayne, our original guitar player/ singer found it and thought everyone would love the song. Everybody does love the song, it's a great song. So we added it to the song list in the key of D, if I remember correctly. He was in the process of leaving the band, and I was reorganizing the playlist. I had just recruited Nancy and her friend Carolyn to join the band. They came to rehearsal and working to learn all the songs we had on the playlist. We discovered that they did not know what key they were in. They would find a song they wanted to play and then capo it around to match their voices. So when we started to add a few songs they wanted to do we had to work through and figure out what key they were in so that the other instruments could play with them. Carolyn ended up not playing with us. Nancy said she wanted to do this one and so she capoed it to her singing voice and we spend a good amount of time one evening figuring out what the actual notes were that she was playing. Ben, our wise musical adviser can hear them and tell you what they are. (By the way, those are banjo chords above, but the E isn't correct, its the same formation as the Eb, just down one. My problem is I'm still working on these two four finger formations. The banjo players generally refer to them as the D & F formations because that's what they are at the top of the neck. These form chords all the way down.

None of us really sight read music- well, maybe Oleeta does. Ben was classically trained, but he doesn't use sheet music- he just hears it.

Dereliction of Duty

2012-02-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting the blog this week. Sorry. Just been focusing n writing the novel which has started itself again and practicing the chords of this song in a weird key. Its Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah in the key of C#m. I have the moves of the chord changes, just have to get these old fingers to move quick enough. I was going to try to show you that actual finger positions but its too hard and the chord finger I use on the web doesn't select and copy. Anyway, its Eb, to C#m to Eb to C#m to A to B to E to A to B to C#m to A to D to G to C#m to A To C#m to A to E , all in the middle of my fret board around where the fifth string starts.
The E and the Eb is the same finger formation as is the A and the B and C#m to A is moving two fingers. The entire beauty of learning this is figuring out the simplest way to do it.

The banjo teacher gave me tabs to a song Going Down The Road Feeling Bad which I've been singing and performing now for a year. He wrote them out in 5 minutes. He's a very competitive guy: wanted to know what I thought of Fred Sokoloff and Mark Shark as teachers. I didn't really have either for very long to tell. It turns out he had John Schlocker as a teacher as a kid, who I had first, but I gave up because he was an old drunk and kept cancelling me. I'm lessoning with John Rosen.

This is my Banjo teacher on the left. Good, huh? I ask him stuff and he tells me. Quick and good guy.

Yosemite

2012-01-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

This is overlooking the Ten Lakes basin in northern Yosemite. I got my Wilderness Permit today for backpacking in July 8th for a week. I've good at getting what I want. No children of mine this year (like last year) but what the hoot. I got into because I liked it. It's a great way to beat yourself up and feel proud about it afterward. Gonna be an easy trip this year. My two buddies want a base camp and time to fish and day hike. I'm bringing my watercolors. If God is anywhere, she is up here.

I'm happy too because I was turned down four times in the permit application until I finally got it right. I've never been turned in eight years of doing this.

NoHo Dine Out

2012-01-27T22:53:00.000-08:00

We played here on Friday night. It was fun, not quite the crowd shown above, but there was a decent turn-out and people listened and we got applause and more tips than we got at the Swap Meet the previous Sunday. We arrived, just Craig and I, with the sound and there wasn't a soul there except for one food truck. A banner hung out from, announced we were in the right place and a banner next to it said: "Made possible by funding from the Valley Church of Scientology" We were a little nervous, but it all turned out ok. No recruiting for joining any religion.

This was what it looked like from the back of the lot before anyone came. The restrooms were in the Radiator Shop next door. Nancy called in sick and and Norm & Oleeta came. No one else could make it.

It was ok practice.

Bill

2012-01-17T22:52:00.001-08:00

HelloThe song is so much better than his version of it here

Craig's Harmonica

2012-01-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

Craig

2012-01-16T22:27:00.001-08:00

I Promised you Craig- Here he is in shyness with his nieces. Actually it will be be a great song once we orchestrate it,

What We're In For- What We've Been Turned Down For

2012-01-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Name	Status	Last Updated	Next Update	Actions
The Down and Out Bar (Dec-Mar '12)	Submitted	1/10/2012	4/1/2012	Details \| Archive
Industry Showcase at Genghis Cohen (Oct-Jan '12)	Not Selected	1/8/2012		Details \| Archive
Leakworthy.com - Music Worth Leaking From Unique Artists	Not Selected	1/4/2012		Details \| Archive
JT Presents: Live at the Lounge (Sep-Dec '11)	Not Selected	12/26/2011		Details \| Archive
Rusty's Surf Ranch - Santa Monica, CA (Sep-Dec '11)	Submitted	12/19/2011	1/21/2012	Details \| Archive
Levitt Pavilion Pasadena - 2012 Summer Series	Submitted	12/14/2011	6/1/2012	Details \| Archive
Roadtrip Nation: Music Needed for National TV Series Submitted Song: Little Sister	Submitted	12/14/2011	9/15/2012	Details \| Archive
The Indie Music Video Show	Submitted	12/13/2011	2/6/2012	Details \| Archive
Rock the House Series November 2011	Not Selected	12/8/2011		Review \| Details \|Archive
TRiP (Oct-Jan '12)	Selected	12/6/2011		Details \| Archive
maurices Hometown Sound Band Search Submitted Song: Little Sister	Not Using Submission Tracker	12/5/2011		Details \| Archive
Venice Beach Music Fest 2012	Submitted	11/29/2011	1/31/2012	Details \| Archive
Band Boot Camp Showcase (January '12)	Not Selected	11/14/2011		Review \| Details \|Archive
House of Blues New Music Nights	Not Using Submission Tracker	11/11/2011		Review \| Details \|Archive
Renaissance Hotels presents RLife LIVE!	Submitted	11/8/2011	1/24/2012	Details \| Archive
Live Oak Music Festival 2012	Submitted	10/28/2011	3/30/2012	Details \| Archive

SonicGigs

2012-01-13T20:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=325911

If you haven't seen the SonicGigs site, check it out. I just spent the evening fixing the sample songs on the site because they were too large for the site's player to handle them. We were turned down by a promoter because he couldn't hear our music. These files are ripped audio files off the videos I've been making of the band, They are not the normal MP3 files you'd find on a CD. Found a cool little freebie converter called FormatFactory that worked ok, once I figured out how it worked. We are in the contest and have gotten one gig off the site so far. I have us in for some other stuff- some you get- some you don't

2012-01-12T23:18:00.000-08:00

How many musicians (besides Keith Richards) read 18th Century lit) It's actually a fun read. Read most of Goethe's prose, I can highly recommend this- it's a coming of age - a 1700s version of Hemingway's "A

Movable Feast" Someday I will read Faust, but this is the last of Goethe's prose for me. It's modern in the sense that it's leaving those Renaissance pastorals way behind. What Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe did to the romance novel, this did the same. Imagine yourself a boho in a wig and nickers.

Craig

2012-01-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

The rather bad photo above is a still from the die-hards of Rhubard who will play any time- any where. Me, Nancy and Craig. Craig is playing at Boulevard Music Sunday night. You should come if you are in the neighborhood. If you are not, I will try to get the video for you here. Craig plays harp like an angel. Also plays a lot of other things. I'm trying to encourage him to share his original stuff. He played a Harmonica little sonata last thing at the swap meet, during the band break. It was quite good.

2012-01-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

Still reading (and writing prose). About 100 single spaced pages into the new first draft novel, though I've stopped posting up parts of it here because the narrative has jumped around a bit and I've left unwritten parts to be filled later with only a few notes, so that the narrative is a bit choppy now, so it may be that no one will see it now until 2nd draft stage. I just finished this today. Great read about a life as a oyster man around Long Island Sound and the things one did as a working boat man through 50 years. Jones has written: "Driftin" "Short Voyages" & "BackWaters" which all rate up there as just as good or better than William Least-Heat Moon's books. (But those are great too.) Recommend him as great fun.

Vote

2012-01-09T23:23:00.000-08:00

So: http://mauricesmusic.sonicbids.com/BandDetails.aspx?b=30121

To vote for the band's first original song. We want the PR and the perks this brings. Please vote. Every day. What else you gotta do? You are not only helping, but you are ridding the world of those negative folks that continue to channel to me in remarkable subtle ways, that I cannot write a song.

I'm a sensitive sort. I believe in those folks around me. If they say I can't, I will process it until I convince myself that they are wrong. It's a painful process. The saving grace is that I get applause. The first time I sang "There's not a Bird A'Singing" maybe ten-fifteen people applauded. The band doesn't get much applause usually.

2012-01-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

David & Roselyn Check out their site

I found them playing the Venice Boardwalk in the 80s with a couple of little kids dancing around them. It's nice to know they are still cooking. I still have a cassette of theirs from that time. But I just ordered two of their CDS. This was a time in between serious relationships for me, and sometimes on a weekend day I would start out early with breakfast a The Sidewalk Cafe in Venice and spend the entire day walking alone from Venic to Santa Monica and back.

What We're Doing- Part 2

2012-01-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

Open Mic with Carolyn and Nancy

When

Wed, January 18, 7pm – 11pm

1411 Lincoln Blvd., Venice CA 90291

You have to go early to sign up and get a spot.

What We're Doing- Part 1

2012-01-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.jackandlounge.com/

Norm, our fearless guitarist, will be appearing in the firstepisode-
Premier ofthe webisode Jackandlounge.com New date is Monday Jan. 9, 2012. Make sure yousee it!! Next Monday.

Woody's 1942 New Year Resolutions

2011-12-31T17:27:00.000-08:00

Washing teeth if there are any, is a good one.

2011-12-31T16:14:00.001-08:00

Jerry Jeff Walker - My Old Man - For more funny movies, click here

Gonna have a jam here tomorrow afternoon- decided I'm going to learn this and we can try it out. Come by if you're in the neighborhood

What I found for $4.00

2011-12-29T23:05:00.000-08:00

What I found today at a Thrift Store in West LA. There is a method to my madness

Just In Case You Don't Know It

2011-12-28T18:19:00.001-08:00

Do I look like Woody?

2011-12-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I've written my first protest song- in the fine manner of Mr. Guthrie, who would steal melodies and write new lyrics on top of the old song. "This Land Is Your Land" was one of those. This melody he stole for "The Great Cooley Dam" Anyway, it's fair, because this melody is public domain now. You probably know it as Wabash Cannonball. It has been stolen and been rewritten several times, Roy Acuff and The Carter Family. I've used some of the original words from this version above. The song above is really just an advertisement for the railroad company. Here's mine:

WABASH REVISITED

G C
When Acuff sang this song, folks were living in Hoovervilles,

D7 G
Shanties by the tracks named for a President that didn’t care,

G C
Now they’re camping out on Wall Street and down at the city hall square,

D7 G
You’d think they’d give up dreaming or wanting their fair share.

CHORUS

Now listen to the jungle, the rumble and the roar,

As she dashes through the woodland and speeds along theshore,

See the mighty rushing engine; hear her whistle ring out,

As she speeds along forever on that dreaming western route.

From a rocky bound Atlantic to a mild Pacific shore,

From a fair and sunny southland to an icebound Labrador,

There’s another name on the shingle, another name over thedoor,

Have we forgotten why we’re singing or what we’re singingfor?

CHORUS

What happened to the mighty engines, the speed and rush inthe night?

The moving on to vast horizons, and the dawn’s early light,

What happened to the trains that would carry us to Gloryland,

Or all those dustbowl stragglers out there looking for ahand.

CHORUS

2011-12-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

This was after my band played at TRiP on Thursday night. These two are buddies of my kids. The band after us cancelled, so the sound guy put these two up. They played for an hour- really great jazz. It sounded a whole lot better than this. This was recorded on my son's phone.

Learning how to do this

2011-12-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

T

This was the best song on an hour and a half set that my son filmed for me at TRiP on Thursday night. The rest were way off to my ear, anyway. You also couldn't see Craig or the bass player Richard and there was only a peek of Betsy. The sound was way off. Norm's guitar was too loud, Oleeta and Nancy's vocal mics were too low. Craig and Betsy couldn't hear the rest of us. This is a learning curve. I'm going to start now standing out front to hear where we are before we start each time. The sound guys we will encounter won't know what our strengths and weaknesses are or who's going to do what in the songs. Had Ben been there, he probably would not have been heard over the wrong balance of things. You couldn't hear Betsy's solo again.

2011-12-23T15:55:00.001-08:00

R

Rhubarb at TRiP last night. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

We are playing here on Thursday Night though

2011-12-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

Thursday
Dec 22, 2011

8:00pm

Honeybear, Rhubarb Meringue Pie and more

We're on at 9:00

2011-12-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

Well, in a moment of weakness, I submitted the band to this place. You've probably heard of it. We won't get anything, no doubt. We are still playing songs off music stands. No one practices and we only rehearse once a month. We got a ways to go. I like the Swap Meet because it feels like we are rehearsing live. I've decided I need to start memorizing the songs. Ah, we can dream can't we?

Its Just A Song

2011-12-15T22:25:00.001-08:00

It's just a song. A little thing really.

Still Working on this One

2011-12-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

Green Eyes By Kate Wolf

C#m                                E               B                           E
Every night we light the candle that stands beside our bed
       Cm                                                   A
But sometimes the flame's too much to handle
                            E                                B                            C#m
That's what you said. That's what you said and you should know
                       A                                                   E
Because you built a fire in me and you made it burn
         A                                                E                             B
You followed me, watching every move, matching every turn.

CHORUS
   E                                                    B
Your green eyes they don't miss a thing
          C#m                                     A
They hold me like the sun going down
   F#                                     B                       C#m   B Cm
Warm me like a fire in the night, without a sound

C#m E B E

You were waiting till I heard, just as patient as that lovelight in your eyes,

E B C#m
You never threw away a word or ever talked in disguise, I ought to know

A E

You were a beacon to a sailor lost at sea

A E B

I saw it in your eyes when you looked at me, so openly.

CHORUS

C#m E B E
The first time I ever saw your laughter break loose inside and tumble out to me

Cm A

My heart knew it had found what it was after

E B C#m

And it came so easily, we should know

A E

After all the years of the hard and lonely times

A E B
Now our days go by like best friends story lines, yours and mine.

She removes the second line out of the second verse. The meter is all over the place. And that C#m makes me only play four strings and leaves the high G string out there all alone. Ah well, if you don't stretch, where will you go. Nancy sings it well. The song is a great woman's song about being really loved. Not too many of those around that mean something.

We're going to try to do it at TRiP next Thursday night- Our First Club Date!!

The Second One

2011-12-12T21:48:00.001-08:00

The second one- They put obstacles in your way to doing this and sometimes its your friends. Thank you god, for these folks and their support for letting me do this.

Copying the thing

2011-12-11T22:04:00.001-08:00

Years of watching television late at night with the sound off has lead me to believe that there are a thousand scenarios for any scene presented. This could be a couple being married confronted by a angry suitor, or a couple being married by a alien, or a couple being married by a gay woman priest that had been a man in a previous life that that been married to the woman here. It all works. Perhaps the same is true with melody. Here is the mythic depression, the wants-bes of the 60s wishing they were struggling in the 30s. Woody Allen pretending to be a wanta-be that wanted the 20s in Paris.(The Streets of Paris, the latest movie) Bobby (Dylan) wanted to be Woody Guthrie. George Harrison, etc s, wanted to be Roy Orbison.

I found this recently:

THE GREAT ROCK-ISLAND ROUTE by J.A Roff 1882

Dedicated to The General Ticket & Passenger Agent

G                                                                             C
From a rocky bound Atlantic to a mild Pacific Shore
D7                                                                                     G
From a fair and sunny southland to an ice bound Labrador
G                                                                                                                 C
There’s a name of magic import and tis known the world throughout
    D7                                                                                         G
Tis a mighty corporation called the Great Rock Island Route

CHORUS

Now listen to the jingle and the rumble and the roar

As she dashes through the woodland and speeds along theshore

See the mighty rushing engine, hear her merry bell ring out

As they speed along in safety on the Great Rock Island Route

CHORUS

All great cities of importance can be found along its way

There’s Chicago and Peroria and Rock Island so they say

With Davenport and westward still is Council Bluffs far out

As a western termination of the Great Rock Island Route

CHORUS

Now let music soft and tender in its mysric power reveal

Praises to the Great Rock Island that the heart can onlyfeel

And to swell the mighty chorus comes the glad re-echoingshout

That for safety time and comfort take the Great Rock IslandRoute

This is the original of Wabash Cannonball that morphed into something totally different.

Wisdom from the Comments

2011-12-11T16:24:00.001-08:00

This was left as a comment on Friday night's post :"It may not seem like it at times, but you're on the right track. Let the others get their songs first, then they'll be more willing to work on your material." Today, short handed because of illness, I had to sing for two hours straight. Oleeta did great , but the third voice was greatly needed. Anyhow, this is indeed where we are. Craig, in sort of a break period played this incredible hamonia thing that was amazing. He wrote it. I'm trying to encourage all of them to give us what they have. Its a scary thing, being in front of people. We need to listen and listen again. There is a generosity of spirit that we all have, that can create amazing things. (As long as you ARE NOT an old man that thinks he's right.)

Empty chairs

2011-12-09T23:53:00.001-08:00

What a feeling when people that have filled your evening get up and leave. We rehearsed. Got a gig Sunday at the Melrose Trading Post Swap Meet for 2 1/2 hours. Missing three tonight. I always worry about people getting disillusioned or that their needs aren't getting met. They all want to be the star. Well, I do too, but I know I'm not going to be. I want to get my songs up and I want to play and sing. I will share with all. I don't have to the center of attention. I just want room to express. Norman wants us to rehearse twice before the Thursday night club date. We should and those that want will. I really need to start memorizing songs. It quiet here now. Sweet dreams children.

First Club

2011-12-06T19:36:00.001-08:00

Well, our very first club - Come by if you are in the neighborhood. We get an hour

2011-12-05T23:17:00.001-08:00

There's songs that are you. I've been playing thus one for five years now. And only sang it once in public.

Wayfaring Stranger

2011-12-04T19:39:00.001-08:00

Another Sawtooth video. I've been playing this behind Sean at the Nursing Home for about a year I think. I used to whistle it to myself when I was hitch-hiking across the country in the early 70s. I find myself still wanting to whistle when I play it. It was on a Michael Parks album when I was a teenager. Maybe it's time I tried singing it. Wonder if I can whistle in tune?

2011-12-03T17:06:00.001-08:00

Here's my friends, part of the Saturday morning jam at the park. Ray on upright bass, Sean on guitar & vocals and Ted on Banjo. These guys were happy and friendly when I showed up barely able to play my thing. I still can't play, but who cares. A great tight little group. All great musicians. We're doing a week of Sawtooth.

Freight Train- Our Version

2011-12-01T22:00:00.001-08:00

More Nancy

2011-12-01T19:50:00.001-08:00

Places I Applied Today for the Band

2011-12-01T19:29:00.001-08:00

The Santa Monica Airport Antiques Flea Market

The El Monte Tet Festival (where else to sing ugly american folk songs)

Paint: Lab on Main Street in Santa Monica

Paint, Wine and Cheese

Friday & Saturday nights from 6:00 – 9:00pm

Unwind from your busy work week…. Let’s get creative!Uninstructed.

RESERVATION REQUIRED

$30 + Canvas Purchase

(lab fee includes paints, wine & cheese)

* Come paint with us!! Invite your friends!! *

“Last Fridays” Paint, Wine and Cheese include LIVE music

and go until 10 PM! The next one is on November 25

Well, why not? It might be fun.

You just throw it at as many walls you can find and you hope it sticks.

Been back at the novel as well finally

2011-11-29T22:17:00.001-08:00

Thanks for the tip on the C#m whosever you are. I like this place for chords:

http://www.musicopedia.com/chords/5-banjo.php

I feel like the little boy banjo is growing every day. I keep thinking back to sitting here, playing Oklahoma Hills over and over to learn the D chord.

I keep throwing our name in for things. Other Swap Meets, Farmers Markets, Night Clubs The Venice Summer Fest, the LA Marathon, Keep it moving.

Daydee has confronted the bad guys- (look back for episodes from the first draft in the blog, the first 70 or so single spaced pages are there)

Went to see Kermit play his banjo in the new Muppet Movie. His left hand moved this time. He's slowing down like the rest of us. He used to play so fast, that it looked like his hand didn't move at all.

My kids grew up on the Muppets and Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street. I grew up on the Muppets.

The Real Banjo:

Saturday Morning

2011-11-28T22:31:00.001-08:00

We played at Edgewater Home in Long Beach on Saturday morning. An hour and a half. Great audience, great fun playing with these guys. I did Freight Train in its original slowness. Even thought of playing my banjo upside down:

Last Night

2011-11-28T20:55:00.001-08:00

Went to visit the "Songmakers" Hoot on the 4th Sunday in Santa Monica. Everyone is my age of course, or older. Thousands of guitars and one fiddle, one flute, one little vibe set, a piano and me. The only ones that play throughout all are the ones that can just hear the music and play it. No beginners, just a good size group of singers without instruments. They go around the circle. If you are lucky, you get two turns for a 4 hour stay. Nice folks, but I want to play more and learn. The leader sez its not good to have your head stuck in a book all the time. I was talking about trying to do original music with a band. And a random lady sez 'Well, you know, its hard to play to some else's sensibilities.' Isn't that what you do when you play a cover of someone else's song? A lot of the old chestnuts were sung. Probably won't bother going back. The open mics and the other Santa Monica group that meets once a month amounts to the same experience: 4 hours and two songs and a lot of so-so mixed in with good stuff and no one learning a thing. Nice folks though.

Back to embedding from YouTube

2011-11-25T23:03:00.001-08:00

Believe it or not, this is exactly the same file as the one posted in the first square in the earlier post. I guess I go back to doing it this way. Upload to You Tube and then embed the video back into the blog. It works better in Facebook this way as well. Weird.

2011-11-25T21:18:00.001-08:00

I'm trying this again, to figure out what version I should be uploading- the first couple I tried, didn't present the picture clearly. Usually I just upload to YouTube and embed it back into the blog. It's another one of Nancy's songs from her performance at the The Talking Stick.

2011-11-24T21:50:00.001-08:00

Nancy singing "Green Eyes" by Kate Wolf last night at The Talking Stick. The band is picking this up. It has a C#m that leaves me banjo out in the four string limbo, but I willing to do it. I'm open to good sounds and she has a voice, don't you think.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day. I cooked straight through from 8:30 to 2:30 and we had a remarkable meal. I love doing the gourmet thing when it's just mine. I'm for hire. I could do a holiday for $300.00 plus expenses, or for nothing if I love you.

Been Buzy

2011-11-22T20:40:00.001-08:00

Been busy running around. Playing cards, going back to yoga, Really practicing the banjo. Getting back on the schtick. A band mate sent a sheet for a song called Devil's Dream, which I haven't ever heard before so I found it in my Fiddlers Fakebook Songbook and then went on You Tube to hear it. Then I decided to see if there were words to it- when I didn't find any I went my curious "Favorite Songs & Hymns" published 1899. Didn't find it there, but did run across this:

The words made me think maybe I'd found a cool song that could maybe express what a soldier in Afghanistan on watch might be feeling (with a little rewrite) So I went looking for it performed,

Found this:

It sort of sounds like one of those automated music mp3s thingee you run into when you look for old old melodies. Not the guy, the music.

This is our author: John Braham (c. 1774 – 17 February 1856) was a tenor opera singer born in London, England. His long career led him to become one of Europe's leading opera stars. He also wrote a number of songs, of minor importance, although The Death of Nelson is still remembered. His success, and that of his offspring in marrying into the British aristocracy, are also notable examples of Jewish social mobility in the early 19th century.

Definitely Public Domain song. Got a melody and some words, needs a bit of work Probably not.

(This is what I do these days instead of real work)

2011-11-19T00:25:00.001-08:00

This is probably this closest version to what I do with my low voice. It's this tempo. We had rehearsal tonight. Ben, our guru, was in in an odd mood. But he wanted to do this one. He wanted to add guitar and fiddle and fix it up. This was the first one I brought the first time I went to the Saturday Morning Bluegrass Group, Betsy's group. I was proud of myself, because I knew all the chords. She asked me if I had a tuner. It took me a half hour to realize that I was out of tune. Nice lady- one of the best.

Heard at the last Square Dance

2011-11-18T13:49:00.001-08:00

Been busy with the Mama Bear in the hospital. All is done now, cards at home instead at UCLA

Enjoy- Listen to the your children

2011-11-14T22:48:00.001-08:00

The Very First One

2011-11-14T21:56:00.001-08:00

This is the song of mine that the band has been playing for a while. Gail loved it, thank god. It was the first one that I wrote. It was really a failed poem that had never worked The band embellished the chords a bit and I edited it down. I played it for the first time at Doug's house jam in Long Beach. And there was silence after I played & sang it. I announced it as the first one, after. Hell, I know what I got, no matter how raw. I'm thinking maybe, this is what I was supposed to be doing all along.
Little Sister Words Dan McNay,
Music Rhubarb Meringue Pie

You remember her; you saw her long ago,
Out in the lobby in a crowd and all alone,
With her hand outstretched and her face aglow,
As if your change would buy her fare to heaven.

She was born in a big house, had big house ways,
She had everything she could want or need.
Then Daddy fell from a window in a drunken daze
And they had to give up everything they owned.

CHORUS
She will always follow the good looking guy
With the beard and the twinkle in his eye,
The one who talks of wisdom and then who sighs
And brings her on his own bus if she doesn’t cry.

She went to college to run away from home,
But she was always fat and always alone,
She didn’t want to marry, didn’t want to roam,
And she would pray in secret late at night.

She was an angel in Monterey
Who gave a poor boy her smile
She said I had a very old soul
As old as the hills we climbed

So what did she find in the Krishna dance?
What was real in the fog of the old sweat lodge?
The guru was the knight of the last chance,
And all of us just want to arrive

CHORUS

Repeat first stanza

So, Song Lyrics

2011-11-14T21:19:00.001-08:00

For My Lost Daughter – Dan McNay

G EM

I would write a song about dust

G D7

The dry clay summer dust

That runs through your fingers like silk

But adheres to the touch

G EM

A clap of hands sends a cloud

G EM

Swirling in sunlight and settling

On the grass and weeds

C G

And brittle leaves scattered about

CHORUS

G EM

I carried her down the stairs

C G

With her head on my shoulder

And handed her over to be strapped in

C G

To the car that went away forever

G EM

I would write a song about dust

G D7

Because the scar on my heart remains

And aches each day I think of you

Though you dissolve in the glare

G EM

Leaving empty air as still as death

G EM

Words once said are silent as sand

And I want for a young girl

C G

That dust and sand are a way home

CHORUS

G EM

A mound becomes a cake, twigs for candles

G D7

A smooth spot, a place to draw

All that matters can be managed here

Sand can be easily carried away

G EM

In the bottom of big pockets

G EM

Or in shoes emptied before going in

And I would pray she dreams

C G

Always of sand and shovels and pails

CHORUS

This one is pretty much just me putting a poem I already wrote to music and adding a chorus to break your heart. It is the best one I've written me thinks. Haven't really performed it too much. But come January I'm doing three of them with a little accompaniment at Boulevard Music.

Recommendations

2011-11-11T23:04:00.001-08:00

I'm in love with these two- ah to be young. There's a double album out, apparently
Mandolin Orange @UNC-TV from David Huppert on Vimeo.
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Mandolin Orange @UNC-TV from David Huppert on Vimeo.

Are We Looking Old?

2011-11-11T19:54:00.001-08:00

I was looking through the playlist. A lot of the songwriters are dead. I forgot this guy:

The Judds are still around- the youngest is Ketch Secor who wrote Wagon Wheel.

Oh well, I guess we are old.

I just asked the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts in LA if they want free Americana music for fundraisers. I think I'm brilliant,

The Growth of The Playlist

2011-11-10T21:28:00.001-08:00

In the beginning there were four or five of us at work and we decided we would sing for our Director who was retiring. So we came up with Aloha, Hit The Road Jack and something else I can't remember. We had three uke players, one guitar and my banjo. After that, we decided to come once a week at lunch and practice and play. I found four easy chord songs and passed them out: Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms, Wabash Cannonball, Ring The Banjo & Tom Dooley. Barden offered up a Marty Robbins song and Wayne offered up Back Home Again and MTA. I invited Craig from the 12th floor. We moved to my house and everyone dropped out but Wayne & Craig & me. I invited Marla and Gail. I injected This Little Light of Mine and Gulf Coast Highway because I was already playing them. Marla threw in Daniel (which is no longer on the list) We were doing open mics at Boulevard Music in Culver City and only had enough for time for three songs so we worked up based on that. Gail brought songs and we learned them but only played You're Sixty in performance I think. Then we got the pancake breakfast. We had 2 hours to fill. I threw a bunch of songs that Wayne & I had been playing at the Saturday Morning Bluegrass Meetup in Long Beach: It Takes A Worried Man, I'll Fly Away, etc (I Aint Gonna Be Treated This Away, Pallet On Your Floor, and Fair & Tender Ladies are from here) Then I thought, I'm writing all these songs- why not do them- We ended up doing one because I let them rewrite the melody and Gail loved it.) I gave everybody all of my originals and Wayne gave everybody every song he had ever sung. That ended up the problem.

I'm the organizer, so we were doing the playlist just in Alphabetical Order, because that seemed the simplest thing to do, Wayne and Marla said we should think up something different, but they would never work on it. So as I was compiling this new list, I threw the ballads in one pile and the quicker songs in another and then tried to combine them in some entertaining way.

The whole idea now is just to keep a movement forward. The singers get to pick what we want as we all learn and then replace things. But we still have 2 1/2 hours of stuff. The instrumentalists get to pick the things they want and we will showcase those as well.

I'm not really attached to half the songs here. MTA, Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms, Wabash Cannonball, Freight Train, Worried Man, This Little Light, Cotton Jenny, I'll Fly Away, Country Roads, can all disappear. I'm ready to move on. But we need to move on together doing things that everyone wants to do.

I need to give Oleeta and Richard and Nancy more songs to sing! I want fiddle tunes and banjo that Betsy and Renata and Ben can sail away with! I think we're on to something!

So This Is The Playlist For The Band

2011-11-10T21:26:00.001-08:00

Play Me Some Mountain Music

I’ll Fly Away

Freight Train

Fair & Tender Ladies

Green Eyes

Going Down That Road Feeling Bad

Oklahoma Hills

Don’t Make It Rain

Cotton Jenny

Three Little Words

Worried Man Blues

Both Sides Now

Jerusalem Ridge

This Little Light of Mine

Wabash Cannonball

Love Can Build A Bridge

Country Roads

Little Sister

Hallelujah

Pallet On Your Floor

You’re Sixty

Gulf Coast Highway

Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms

MTA

Summertime

San Antonio Rose

Lay Down Beside Me

Blue Moon of Kentucky

Back Home Again

This Land Is Your Land

If You See Her

You Ain’t Going Nowhere

Streets of Laredo

Wagon Wheel

Daydream Believin'

2011-11-10T08:43:00.001-08:00

I signed up for this Sonicbids Service since it looks like some venues want you to subnit through these folks. I put us in for a Festival in Santa Barbara this way. I get these "Gig Of The Day" emails. There's a few that are just contests: pay your money and win for your song or whatever. Those are just vanity things to take your money. But these- boy, can a boy dream, can't he?

2011-11-07T20:39:00.001-08:00

It's hard to resist

Me Again

2011-11-07T19:48:00.001-08:00

More of me playing at the Visitation School. It was a good day. I went back later in the evening to see my friend Mike play and filmed him and a boy scout on piano that I know. (The food wasn't too great for us blood suger challenged.)

One more

2011-11-06T22:25:00.001-08:00

One More for the Road: Oleeta singing "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" at the Vet Day Stage. The Marching Bands had quieted down for a moment.

2011-11-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

This was sweet Martha's response to my email after the Vet day thing. She hired us (at no pay) because I called her to ask about a non-profit vendor booth (for $10.00)- I thought we could just pay the $10 and play all afternoon. She asked what kind of music did we play and I answered with the right group- "The Kingston Trio, etc" She asked us to play the stage. One of my band mates today said she didn't think they were too organized or too aware of what they were trying to do. (Martha has asked me to rent the generator and she'd reimburse me, but I had no idea what I should be getting- so they supplied it.)

Dan,
You are brilliant! that is an idea that has a lot of merit.
I will keep you in mind for next year; this year was excellent.
I will spread the work about your group.

Thanks again for all you did to make our event a success.

Martha
P.S. Next time you perform out doors and need a generator...
a 2000 volt one is what you need. It worked yesterday.

> Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2011 04:18:05 -0800
> From: mcnay@mosis.com
> To: msthuente@hotmail.com
> Subject: Parade
>
> Marthe,
>
> Thanks for having us. We had fun.
>
> I had a thought about next year. If the stage was set up at the far end
> of the vendor area, with it being close to the food vendors, it would
> afford us being able to play better without the noise of the marching
> band leaving the staging area and we could attract more people to be
> present at your award ceremony. Give it some thought.
>
> Thanks again. Keep us in mind for next year or anything else your group
> might be doing. Memorial Day?
>
> Dan
>

Visitation School Today

2011-11-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

It poured down all morning. I called the school and they said it was on. We'd be under a canopy even if it was pouring. About 10:30 it just stopped, by 12:00 the sun was shining. And us three that will go anywhere anytime showed. This was the next to last song we did. First time out in public, and only one rehearsal. (But I've been playing this song by myself for two years now.

Vet Day

2011-11-06T05:07:00.000-08:00

Vet Parade Stage Day

Well, I'm back. We played the stage before and after the award ceremony. This is a picture from last year. We had the back half of the stage. It wasn't quite what I expected. We really didn't have an audience until just before the awards and only a couple of people afterward. I suggested the stage be moved for next year, away from the marching bands staging to start the parade and next to the vendor fair, so we could attract an audience and they would have more people there for their award ceremony.

Still working out all of the kinks and all of the sound and how we do this together. Anyway it was good practice for the real thing, when there's a real thing.

Time Off

2011-10-24T14:58:00.001-07:00

I've decided to take a break from writing this blog. Please check back December 1st, to see if I decide to go on with it.

Adventures In Band

2011-10-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

Posted this to Craiglist today. Got Stand up Bass & accordion player interested same day.

Now I'm Scared. Told my wife: I'm creating band that will not want me as a member

Old Folks Folk/Bluegrass Band Looking (West LA)

Date: 2011-10-10, 4:02PM PDT
Reply to: comm-evkxr-2643017368@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

We have a folk/bluegrass band that has been playing no money gigs around West LA. Usually play once or twice a month. Currently at Fairfax High Swap Meet and Brentwood Art Fair this month. Generally rehearse once a month at private home near LAX. We're looking for a stand up bass, a squeeze box or accordian player and maybe keyboard. Must be willing to show up and play for free. No prima donnas please. We all have input on material. Average age of group is 60.

Location: West LA
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2643017368

She marched with these guys

2011-10-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

She walked with these guys. She said there was one guy that would just run you over, if he didn't like your look.

The Road to The Bear

2011-10-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

This is the road up to the VA Home in Yountville where the bear is doing her internship. We treat our Vets correctly at least- at least to our ultimate incompetent ability to do anything right. She's doing it right.

Daydee- nearing the end of what I've written

2011-10-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

She took the lunch out to the cemetery and found Jack’s truck parked before the office. There was a hammering noise coming from the shed. She thought he must be having trouble with the mower. She turned the corner and found that he had moved the cemetery’s backhoe near the shed and was hammering away at its bucket, or at least at the bolts that held it in place.

“Hey,” she hollered.

He jumped and then stood up slowly to face her. He had a sheepish look on his face.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Well, I’ve been having problems with the back hoe, so I thought I’d move the bucket to my hoe to make the opening and closing go easier.”

She looked him up and down. There was something wrong with this picture.

“You were going to ask me?” she asked.

“Well, it’s not like you even know how to operate it.”

“If I did learn, how was I going to use it or hire somebody else to use it if it has no bucket?”

“Well, I can’t even it off. The bolts are rusted permanent,” he said.

“So you are going to try to break it so no one can use it.”

“Why on earth would you say that?” he asked. “Haven’t I been doing a good job for you>”

“Jack, I overheard you and Edward and Winston in the parking lot behind the restaurant the other day. None of you saw me.”

Jack turned crimson.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?’ she asked.

He looked a lot like Winston did. Lightening had struck.

“Well? This was getting a little scary.

“I guess I’m out of line,” he said without looking up. “Maybe you should find someone else to work the grounds for you. I’ll stay on until you can get someone.”

“That’s not even what we’re talking about. If I described the conversation to Susan, would she know what it was about?”

“You leave her out of this!”

“Tell you what. You’re fired. Get the hell out of here. “ Daydee told him.

He picked up his hammer and screwdriver and started toward his truck. He turned back and stared at her.

“You-“

“I fucking know, asshole! I gotta get out of town! Take a flying leap!”

He turned and climbed in the truck and drove off like a robot. And this was the fucking minster! What the hell was she going to do now? She could cut the grass herself and water- how hard would that be? It was a riding mower anyway. And it’d be good exercise for the baby. It was running the backhoe that was the problem. She remembered her father’s lunch still sitting in her truck.

She walked it out and didn’t find a trace of him other than the shopping cart. She left it and walked back trying to figure this one out. Maybe there was a manual in the office for the thing. She went back and searched and finally found it. She sat down in the office to look at it. It told you what all the parts were and what levers did what, but nothing about what sequence to do it in. It was still early afternoon, so she took the book and went out to the machine. They had just left the key in the ignition. That was going to change. What would stop them from coming out here and driving it away? This was getting real scary, And the women she had gotten to know didn’t seem to have a clue about whatever it was that was going on about her and the goddamn football team. That was the connection! They had all played for Winston at the same time! Back just before she ran away. There had to be something valuable about the estate that she didn’t know about that they did. What other reason would they have?

The book said to let the machine warm up. She turned it on and gave it gas. It purred. Now would be a good time for a cigarette, but she had quit for the baby’s sake. Or at least was trying to. She lit one. It was the first of the day. It was easier not to in the morning when she was sick. She rubbed it out on the side of her tennis shoe and stuck the butt in her shirt pocket. That was another reason to quit. It was getting unconvertible to bend over like that. And she couldn’t just flick the butt out on the grounds. She was afraid that she might mess up the grounds by hitting a lever wrong, so she drove it down the little lane to the back of the property where she had first found her father. A hole back here wouldn’t hurt anything. She played a little with the two big levers and figured out how to lift the bucket and stretch it out in front. But when she started it down the entire cab leaned forward dangerously. She stopped, the sweat dripping off her forehead. Jesus Christ! Now what? She studied the book closely, hoping that the whole thing wouldn’t pitch over before she got it figured out. The stabilizers! She worked the little levers in front and the two stabilizer legs went down and straightened the cab out and up so it was level. Trying again with the bucket, she kind of made a motion that looked like it would scoop the soil up, but she had somehow missed the ground, She tried again and scrapped up the weeds. The third try actually made a shallow trench in the ground, but she dumped the earth back before she could get it off to the side. She spent another half hour playing with, trying to make it work like she imagined it was supposed to. She’d have to come out and practice every day, before she was ready for a grave opening.

By the time she was actually scooping dirt out and laying it aside she was exhausted and wet with sweat. She took a break and climbed down to stretch her legs. Her back and arms were aching. This was hard work. She started with another cigarette, but talked herself out of it and put it back in her pocket. There was something in the dirt. She walked over and looked under the shadow of the arm, It was a human skeleton. The skull and ribs and backbone were all uncovered. Another scoop and she might have broken it apart. Down a couple of yards in her shallow trench was another skull.

She lit her cigarette now. Jesus Christ! What was her mother doing? Emptying out the graves and selling the plots again? Murdering people? Was this what Winston and his boys were scared that I might find? She walked back to the office as quickly as she could and called the sheriff.

The sheriff came out by himself. He looked exactly the same as last time. She wondered if he had only one uniform. There wasn’t a trace of a woman about him. His fringe of hair had been trimmed recently. She thought of the old men that had come across her live- not one of them had a women to tell them to clip their nose hair.

“What were you doing over here anyway?”

“I’m trying to learn how to use the back hoe. This looked like a good place to practice.”

“You had a falling out with Jack?”

“Jack no longer works for me.”

“What happened?”

“Maybe you can ask him.”

“I thought you were coming to church and all.”

“Well, to be honest sheriff, Jack and Edward and Winston seem to be hell bent on getting me to leave.”

“Why would they want to do that?”

“You really should ask them. They won’t tell me a thing.”

He wrote a note in his little notepad. Then he stepped down into the little trench and bent over the skeleton. It looked like was bending over was as hard for him as it was for her. He walked up to the skull.

“You’ll need a special heavy equipment license to drive that out on the street,“ he told her. “Well, I’m afraid I’ve got to ask you not to touch a thing until we can take a good look at all of this. I’m going to call in the request in a minute and we’ll have the forensic folks out here, but there’s no guarantee they will finish up today. You don’t need the back hoe right now?”

“No.”

“You have any knowledge about your mother’s activities that you haven’t told me about?”

“None. We hadn’t talked in twenty years. She only found me because I sent her a Christmas card a couple of years ago. We exchanged a couple of letters. That was about it.”

“You involved in any activities that you want to tell me about that might be against the law?’

“What?”

“You seem all right to me. I’m a pretty good judge of character, but there will have to be a trip to the office for you to make a statement and allow us to question you further.”

“Sure.”

“Nothing you want to say about anything?”

She shook her head.

“Nothing about that accountant of yours?”

“Mark?”

“He’s left town. There’s a bunch of gossip going around. “

“What kind of gossip?” Her heart sank.

“I’ll leave that up to you women. But the more I know, the better for everyone.”

“He was married, wasn’t he? What does his wife say?”

“I’ve not talked to her yet, but if I do, it becomes an official investigation. You understand that?”

Daydee nodded. Shit!

“So I can trust you not to touch anything?”

“I usually just go for a long walk this time of day.” She suddenly thought of her father down the hill. What if they found him? “I’m going for that walk if you don’t need me.”

“Ok.”

He went back to his patrol car. She started off in a slightly different direction and planned to circle back to her father’s shopping cart as soon as she was out of the sheriff’s sight. And now Mark! She hoped it wasn’t about what she figured it was.

There was no trace of him. The lunch she had left earlier was untouched. She pushed the cart down further into the trees until she was certain it wouldn’t be seen unless you were right on top of it. She dragged a couple dead branches over and propped them up against the side of the cart. It was getting harder and harder to do anything physical now. She was sweaty and out of breath. It was really like carrying a bowling ball around with you.

She walked further into the woods, thinking she might spot him. What the hell was she going to do with if she did find him. It’s not like she could make him understand to stay away from the cemetery. Or would she be able to entice him out and away. She thought a trail of French fries might get him to follow her a little way, but even if she got him as far as the truck, there was no way he was going to get in. She wasn’t sure why it was important to protect him from the cops. They would just hassle him and shoot him if he gave them trouble, or if he didn’t, they would take him in and then let him go the next day downtown. She wasn’t sure he would be able to find his way back out here.

How long had he been out here? How had he lived before she appeared? She sat down on a log. This was pretty pointless. This whole thing was turning into the biggest mess anyone could imagine. It was too overwhelming. Now the cemetery was going to be investigated. And they’ll book her for whoring even though it was just a little make-believe tea party. And she had this goddamn baby that she hadn’t even been to the doctor about yet. What if was going to just be a lump or worst, some kind of monster? She thought she could do this. She thought she could handle anything. So why was she sitting here bawling her eyes out? She drew her knees in and rocked herself. She was trembling.

“Deedee making babies.” Her father said from behind her. “It’s hard hard work.”

She jumped and then laughed.

“You’re damn right its hard!”

He patted her head. She was afraid to turn and spook him.

“Did you see the sheriff?” she asked.

“Sheriff invibable. He see ghosts and not ghosts. Lots of nots. Nots and nots. He doesn’t like.”

“So you stay away?”

“I stay at home.”

“Sure,” she smiled, drying her tears with the backs of her hands. “It’s too bad you don’t make sense. “

“Deedee stay home.”

“Sure.”

He withdrew his hand. She missed it already.

She stood and turned. He was standing right there. She put out her arms. He came to hug her ever so gently, as if she were made of brittle twigs which might snap if squeezed. Then he backed away.

“Thank you,” she said. Was this really her father?

He was nodding his head as he moved off into the brush. He was gone quickly.

Up In Smoke

2011-10-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

This was my life from age 15 to 19. We were brilliant. Read famous books behind our school books. Played chess (and Martian Chess), made up Civil War battlefield games using the actual battles. Read all of Steinbeck one summer. Drank homemade wine and hung out in between working in a college restaurant and pretending to go to college. I can still smell the cigarette ash. You couldn't play chess or write poetry without lighting up. She would stick her burning cigarette in the strings of her guitar near the top of the neck when she played.

Believe it or Not

2011-10-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I've actually played this game. The pieces were not this fancy. They were little wooden blocks with pictures drawn on the top of them. The board was a hand colored piece butcher block paper.

A childhood buddy and I had read all of Burroughs' Mars books and so we created a working set to play. It plays a little weird if you know anything about real chess. There's a link below, if you want to learn how to play.

http://www.chessvariants.com/other.dir/jetan.html

We are just in time for this:

Jetan

The recent explorations on Mars have not yet uncovered a chess variant that is played on this planet. While it seems unlikely that the Pathfinder will discover such a game, author Edgar Rice Burroughs (well known for his Tarzan books) describes a form of Martian Chess.
Burroughs wrote a series of adventure (science fiction) books that play on the planet Mars. In the fifth of these books, called The Chessmen of Mars, a game is played, and the rules are given. This `Martian Chess' is Jetan, the game whose rules are described below. The game is very playable and entertaining according to Gollon.
The game represents a war between a yellow and a black race of Martians.
Here you see the cover of the book where the game appears. You can also view the cover in more detail (file of size 221K.)

There are two places in Burroughs' book where the rules are given: 1) they are summarized at the very end, 2) they are also presented in the Chapter 2. It seems that very few people paid attention in the past to this chapter 2 which contains some interesting and unique informations.
Jetan has been described in several books and many places on the web. However, the given rules suffer from different interpretation of the somewhat minimalist text from Burroughs. Even worst, some wrong interpretations have been re-taken by other authors with more errors. The rules given hereafter are the results of going back to the original source (that you can check yourself). Play-testing with Zillions software has also been very useful since it has definitively shown that the end-game rules had to be revised.
See also

The Rules of Jetan. By Larry Lynn Smith.
The Rules of Jetan: link2.dir/jetanrules.html. By Larry Lynn Smith.
Tommy's Toys has a shareware program that plays Jetan. (Link.)
The complete text of the "Chessmen Of Mars" from E.R.Burroughs .
Everything about Barsoom you don't know yet

Catie Curtis

2011-10-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

New Album Out- Gonna be at McCabe's on October 21st.

More and More

2011-10-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

So she would go out every day at lunch time with a bag from McDonald’s. She bought him two lunches and that way she wouldn’t feel guilty about not bringing him dinner as well. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be out at the cemetery at night with a crazy man and a tagger than was still out there and had some kind of axe to grind. He seldom came up to the office and she would go down into the pasture to find him. For a few days she didn’t see him at all. But she left the bag on his shopping cart and the next day it would be eaten. She carried the trash out if she could spot it. Other days he would be sitting there waiting. He never looked at her, but did keep on mentioning Deedee from time to time. Did he even realize who she was? The tears on the first day made her think he did, but there wasn’t any way to really know. There was troubling talk about people snipping him or poisoning him. He seemed to like popping about, that was the only was she could explain it. He would just leap up and then settle down in a different place. She never went very close. He would move off if she did. She would tell him things about her life. None of it sunk in,

She was stymied about what to do with him. She could have him committed somewhere, she supposed, but she didn’t think that was a great option. Somehow that would make him hate her, she thought. She kept thinking that perhaps she could coax him into her car, take him home and give him a bath. That once he was inside and cleaned up, he might settle down and be lazy about being schizophrenic. She knew that would never happen, but if he was willing to follow her, she might give it try. He wouldn’t follow her. So she was going to just him be until something changed. The winter was still far off. He was surviving, as he had done for the last twenty years, without her help. And now it was probably easier because she was at least feeding him. She was going to go to thrift store and bring him back some better clothes by the end of the week. This could go on for a while. At least until the owner of the pasture realized he was here and the sheriff would probably show up and run him off. She needed to find the owner and head that off.

Her lunches were her rambling on about New Orleans. She had grown to love the city, and all of its excesses. She left out the trade, the way she made money. She talked about the Saturday afternoon strolls through humid run down neighborhoods. The old black men that were all forever gentle and kind. The food. The rain that came for just an half an hour every summer day right after lunch. Mardi Gras. The church bells, the streetcars and the music. The way everyone talked so slow and patiently. The alcohol that could make an evening glow like real romance. The snails on the sidewalk after the rain. The big porches and big windows that you could walk through. The way leather would turn green if you left it in a drawer too long. The Hurricanes that always seem to miss the city. The antiques you could find everywhere. The odd little places you could live that were sheltered by moss covered trees. And you could be a lady 24 hours a day and that was fine because it was the south. The old while men with their moustaches and white hair and suits the color of ice cream. And canes. And they might even call you missy, if they were sweet on you. She wasn’t sure what had started this pouring forth of the things she missed, but he seemed to sit and witness her while he ate, even if he didn’t hear what she was saying.

She knew it couldn’t go on forever.

The morning sickness didn’t go away. And it got worse.

The day of the shower came quickly. Her new friends seemed to rejoice in putting this on. Susan came early with a couple of trays of hors d'oeuvres. She helped tidy up the place and arrange chairs out in the living room. She had even brought a bag of fold-up cardboard baby shower decorations, which she proceeded to tape up on her walls and across the front window. Everything was pastel yellow, pink and blue. Another lady came with a cake and baby shower paper plates. Sarah brought a couple bottles of Champaign. The other women she didn’t know, but it soon became apparent that they were from the same church. The wife of her sharecropper came, who she hadn’t seen since that first night when they had laid claim to furniture and knickknacks that had belonged to father and mother. One even brought her three month old baby. And they all brought presents for her. They ended up with ten women coming. Daydee was lost at sea.

“So how did it go with the bank?” Sarah asked her as they were arranging the food out on the coffee table.

“They gave me a three month grace period. No payments, nothing.” Daydee told. “I didn’t think banks acted that way.”

“John said that night that he hadn’t Edward that mad in a long time. He stormed out and slammed the door.” A woman said, that Daydee guessed was Sarah’s friend whose husband was on the board.

“Thanks everyone, for everything,” Daydee told them.

They opened the Champaign. Susan passed out pieces of yarn to everyone including to Daydee.

“Okey, the idea is to tie a knot at your guess at the length of Deidre’s tummy measurement. And Deidre, you get to do it too. You won’t win.”

They all were holding their yarn up, eyeing her waist. It had gotten larger in the last two weeks, but she had just been telling herself she was getting fat and it was too early to show. But now she realized that she was showing and they were all happy about it. So then she had to stand up as each woman got to try out their yarn around her waist. Daydee’s was way too short. There were two that were very close, so she had to be re-measured to decide on a winner. It was her sharecropper’s wife. She won a box of chocolates. This prompted stories about when they all started to show. One woman claimed she didn’t until the last three months. They all agreed that they didn’t like strangers walking up and touching their bellies. But they thought it was expected so they let people do it. Daydee had never seen anyone do that to a pregnant woman- maybe the culture was different in the south. It was a little worrying, knowing that she’d be expected to let people touch her. Maybe she wouldn’t.

The next game was sort of a ‘who’s got the needle’ with a diaper pin. Daydee had to go out of the room and when she returned all the women had their hands together up in front of them like it was a prayer circle. Daydee’s job was to go from one woman to the next and ask them by name if they had the safety pin. The answer was replying to her by name and telling her no. Daydee was supposed to find the safety pin by reading their faces. The hard part was remembering their names and being embarrassed by having to ask again. The ladies took it stride. There were a couple who tried to act as if they were lying when they said they didn’t have it. The rolling of eyes or the giggling was just silly. She knew before she got to Sarah that she was the one that had the pin between her hands. She tried not to let on that the game was too easy. The Champaign was being passed out freely and the group was definitely getting tipsy. They were having fun trying to tell her the truth.

The next game was where you tried to pass a cucumber held between your knees to the person next to without dropping it. The women were turning red and laughing hysterically. Only one who did it successfully was Susan, Jack’s wife. The women collapsed in their chairs, exhausted and flushed. Daydee hadn’t rubbed up against so many women ever in her life. She hated to see what else there was to come with this group. Over cake and drinks, they began to get sentimental and each had their own story to tell about childbirth and raising their children and the early times before the kids entered school. Daydee was feeling her age. They had all had children in their twenties and early thirties. By the time, she could trade stories like these she would be fifty. Most of the party was a little younger than she was right now. She doubted if she would be able to play the cucumber game at fifty. It turned out that this was as risqué as they got.

Then came opening the presents. There was an abundance of things. Clothes and a diaper bag and a bathing tub and bottles and diapers and more clothes. She found herself getting overwhelmed by their generosity. She tried to ooh and aah like she thought she was supposed to do, but soon found herself choking up and near to tears. This only seemed to endear herself to them more. She got hugs then with each present. She didn’t know how she would be able to come out of this.

There had been a time in her life (most of it actually) when she would have had to get up and walk out of the room and not come back. She had hated and mistrusted intimacy that much. How dare anyone give her anything. Only the johns were allowed to bribe her, because they were all so many blubbering idiots anyway. Friends, in the world she had come from, were only hardened cases like herself, who might loan an aspirin after a long hard night or distract a barfly for a minute so you could make your escape. But that was it. You didn’t ask for anything. They didn’t either. There were moments of kindness from total strangers- that was enough. A funny little bookstore clerk with an Amish beard who asked you if you were all right. A wino who winked and waved and hollered that you were as beautiful as always and never asked for change. The hotel security guard who called you ma’am. And the waitress that called you honey, even though she called everybody honey. And one old drunk printer who had ink stained fingers and who tried to make you laugh and paid you and could hardly ever get it up.

Perks of the Job

2011-10-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Working where you have to deal with export paperwork, you get all sorts of interesting stamps. I'm taking these to a Boy Scout I know that collects such things. I used to when I was a kid, but in Bloomington Indiana there were not a lot of foreign stamps- at least of the mail that I saw. My first roommate as a single adult male gots lots of stuff from India and Uganda, but by then I no longer cared. Wonder what happens to old stamp collections?

The things I don't know

2011-10-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

A lot. Learned how to use a nail gun yesterday afternoon. We were building a stage for an elementary school in the Marina as a Eagle Project for a kid about to turn 18 soon.

Got feedback from our new expert musician with the band tonight- Feel bad that I'm not better.

Went to jam at the old band expert's this afternoon. Glad I'm not a sixty year man who is playing songs I played when I was teenager. It's like spending your time looking at old photo albums, its cool to do occasionally, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I don't to live where any of my band mates live. I don't mind helping them out occasionally.

Hell of a Day

2011-10-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is me singing, I'm afraid I have no pictures. We arrived, had to fight to get to a place to unload, One of the ladies were late and we waited and she arrived. We got there and I had a pass to unload and then leave. If I did that I would have had to leave them and take a half hour to get back. A very young cop helped me find a place to park the van ( I had passes for tickets to the Greek Theater that night which I passed off to him) and then our brilliant guitarist walked in at the last minute. We couldn't hear each other and the timing to my first fast song was horribly slow. And then we had ballads and then we had to cut the whole thing short. We did a rotten rendition of Wabash Cannonball and finished with Wagon Wheel which works. The ladies all went off to brunch. I went off to work on an Eagle Project that one of the boys did in my Boy Scout Troop. And I explained Wayne to the group on the way back. I'm convincing them to move ahead. There is nothing scarier than a crazy clown.

Heavy Lifting

2011-09-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

So the one fund-raiser I did before the 200 stuffed mushroom one was a music, food, silent auction at the school which I pretty much did myself with not a whole lot of help. I recruited and solicited donations to the auction, stood out front of every parent meeting to try to get the parents to donate. Sent out a mailing. Recruited The Harmony Club, a group of retired studio jazz musicians, two different parents and the school Jazz Band to perform- all for free. Talked the Music parents into doing food and selling it. Got party tables donated. Got the cooking class to donate pies. Tried my damnedist to get people to attend. No one from the school staff actually attended. They handed the keys off to me. I had to hire a Security Guard which was the only expense of the entire evening. I had to smooze with the school custodian to get a piano outside and then back again inside at the end of the evening. Ran the Silent Auction pretty much by myself, except for my dear wife and a few other hardy souls. Luckily there was an unauthorized basketball clinic going on in the gym, so I picked up some business from the passerbys for the auction items and the food. Had some kids to help. The cooking teacher came to check me out, mostly so she could report back to the older parent group that didn't like me cause I talked back and didn't fit in. The reason I had the Friends of LACES blessing, was because a good friend had become President and she told everyone to let me do my thing. I would have preferred some help. It didn't look like a great turnout- the space was large, but I guess we did all right. At the end of the evening, as I was stacking the tables up to be picked up, I was told it looked like we did 10k. We did.

Emmylou Harris Last Night at The Greek Theater

2011-09-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

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Scored two tickets to the Greek Theater to watch her sing and play. Patty Griffith opened for her. She sang this, but its a Gillian Welch tune.

Well, They all came back the next night

2011-09-28T21:04:00.001-07:00

Adventures in band. The first night, Sunday evening, the new guitarist, the two new ladies (Lost & Found) and the fiddle player from San Fran and me and Craig started over basically. There was a set list for the gig on Saturday morning coming. We went through the songs. We were crazed. Trying to go through 10 songs with a group of people who haven't played much together, is like pulling teeth. We worked however. It was decided by all we'd come back the next night for one more try. The next night was very cool. We fooled around. They were all going to leave at 9:30. We got up to leave about 10 and then spend the next hour outside my studio door in the dark on the sidewalk showing each other yoga poses and holistic stretches. Craig can balance on one foot and point forward. The guitarist was demonstrating how to bend over and rise slowly to loosen the back up.
I showed them this:

which I've been able to do since I was 22. I worked as a printer's devil on a big two color printing press in New Orleans and you had to get into this position to clean the bottom set of rollers. The guitarist and one of the ladies hit it off and they are going off to some holistic healing thing in Santa Barbara.

Here are the two ladies. I filmed them and put them up on You Tube. Hope there will more
So far, this band has now lost 6 members along the way.

What Just Happened?

2011-09-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

We just spent 3 and 1/2 hours rehearsing for the Saturday morning thing. I am so out of my depth. But I sing and I get gigs.

The Very Last Fundraiser

2011-09-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

A success story

There was one fundraiser I did before this last one, but I've never ever done anything in order. The two older bears were graduated from the high school. The youngest one when off to France her sophomore year -and she was in the LACES school which is a Magnet School and you can't really leave a Magnet School and come back after a year and get back in easily. However, they liked her and we were active, so they kept her on the roll for the year she went off to France. I felt like I should do something to show my appreciation and benefit the school, so I volunteered to do the food at the Silent Auction thingee. One of my bear's friend's mother and I partnered up. We got the cooking students to make lasagna for hundreds, we got donations for salads and asked parents to bring desserts and whatever. Got the grocery store to cough up script that we used for supplies - and I made 200 stuffed mushrooms. We worked our tails off all evening with heating and refilling the lasagna and salads and we had students serving things up and carrying out the mushrooms. I was also good friends with the bartender, who kept supplying me with rum and cokes all evening, that I think to this day that kept getting stronger as the evening went on. At the end I was flying higher than a kite in a hurricane. My wife dragged me out before I fell over. It was all great fun.

The Truth

2011-09-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

You realize, of course, that I am writing my midnight thoughts to you, Lamont, Rex, ROSALIENe, Jan, and the two of children that read this, and of course a certain woman that gave me a hug at the keyboard and those others of you that may be out there.