Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Where I'm At


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.

Monday, February 27, 2012

I'm still the same guy


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

Efrain's Web Site

If you're interested- friend of my daughter bear

LA Marathon



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.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Comparing Notes- What I got In Email

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

Thursday, February 23, 2012


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.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Applause


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.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Efrain in SF



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



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

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.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

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.) 

Sunday, February 12, 2012


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.  

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Banjo version


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


The Next One

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?

Monday, February 6, 2012

I should be in bed


What I really wanted to talk about


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.



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

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

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

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

In the line where it says "the major lift," there is 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 see if these chords don't fit a bit better (-:




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I appreciate the advice, but we playing to Nancy's voice and her interpretation. I honestly don't care if the song sounds like it  should - as was recorded by someone else. Or as it was written. Sorry. I keep telling all the old men in my life, 'that I've never played a song right yet, and doubt if I ever will.'  The picture above is the way my fingers feel after 2 two hour sessions of practicing the chords on this thing. 


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


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


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


The novel I published has little sections in it where I intentionally 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. Read Sevastopol by Tolstoy.


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


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


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

Sunday, February 5, 2012

What it looks like


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. 

Friday, February 3, 2012

Dereliction of Duty


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.