I played it over and over in Jacksonville Beach once, when I was learning it.
It was during spring break, and a steady flow of college kids were walking past me.
One girl, I recall, sat down next to me and cried, while I played it.
"Go!"
Last night, I was able to get online at the boarded up building, after having run off the old black guy who steals our aluminum cans, and more, according to Howard, who was sleeping on the concrete on the other side of the building, exposed to the elements.
Last night, I was able to get online at the boarded up building, after having run off the old black guy who steals our aluminum cans, and more, according to Howard, who was sleeping on the concrete on the other side of the building, exposed to the elements.
The black guy was lying on Howards usual spot, on his piece of plywood. He had the fan of the guy who washes cars plugged in and aimed at himself.
I ran him off by becoming violent; kicking the 5 gallon bucket so that it sailed over his head, barely missing him, and then standing over him, wielding a two foot long piece of 2 x 4 lumber.
I had told him that I wouldn't be able to sleep with him there; worrying every time I went around the back of the building to use the "restroom" or to wash up that I would return to find him and all my stuff gone.
"Go sleep in the woods, then," he said, and that is when I grabbed the stick.
I don't know why he made me so angry, except for the fact that I arrived and found him basically sleeping in my bed, with no inclination to move.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he said, after the bucket almost hit him.
"Go!," I said.
I accused him of stealing some of Howards stuff.
He vehemently denied even being a thief; much less stealing Howards allergy medication.
As he walked off, he pointed out that I was one of a handful of white people in Scotlandville, and said that I had "a lot of balls" to have treated him as I had; as if I would have had no problem with a strange person of another race sleeping right where I intended to and using the electrical outlet that I had permission to use, and planned to plug my laptop into.
Howard moved back over to our side of the building, after I told him that the guy was gone.Morning Music Mix
In the morning, I was up and working on the music that I had recorded at Shermans, mostly deleting sections of the electric guitar track, which was riddled with mistakes. I haven't played one for more than 10 minutes in the past 10 years...
My cash is low, as is usual on a Tuesday.
My food card is low, but will become re-charged this Thursday at 5 a.m. with 200 bucks.
My goal will be to get downtown on Friday and then to New Orleans, on Saturday or Sunday, to return the library book that Sue lent me, and to see her one (last?) time.
Sherman mentioned that he wanted to go to New Orleans.Other than that, I am trying to wash my clothes and my body and to eat the rice and pasta that wasn't stolen by the guy who isn't a thief.
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ReplyDeleteOh, The Internet let me listen to it just now. It's pretty good I guess, the echo effect helps your voice a bit, and I guess your voice is just different from mine. I remember back in the day (tm) in the 80s and by which I mean the early 80s, and the old Radio Shack Color Computer, well, me and a buddy were ham radio ops too, and some guy on the repeater system had a Radio Shack CoCo with an audio program that would show the spectrum of a voice that was put into it, which was big stuff back then. So, he was commenting on people's voices (our radios were actually "higher fi" than broadcast FM) and mine had this power on the low end that was unusual.
ReplyDeleteI think I need a lot of training though.
In fact between learning the geetar, and doing whatever voice exercises etc I find online, it's gonna be almost like work. The nice thing is, right now I'm in that lonesome valley that I have to walk alone, but not too far from now I should be able to start taking my act on the street and and get a little pay for it.
It's happening!
ReplyDeleteOK some background: In high school one of my younger sisters had a friend named Sig. We used to call him "Cigarette" a lot. He was black, and well, my sis, looked like Thor out of the comic books minus the hammer and a few muscles. OK so we're walking along the road along the beach, and there's this bridge with a steel guard rail etc., so because we're HS kids, we cross the bridge by walking on the OUTSIDE edge over the water, hanging onto the rail. The rail was all grimy with road dirt, after we're across, Sig grabs my sister's hands and says, "IT'S HAPPENING". Sig's hands were of course dark with light palms, and we had light(er) hands with dark palms.
Anyway, yesterday was another futz-around and put up with the heat day, then I talked with the land owner and he's inviting yet more people to live here, which could be great or could be another stop on the way to Dramaville, and we were up until 10PM talking. So then I came back here and boiled up a bath, and so it was LATE and I picked up the guitar and opened up the Mel Bay book, and got playing, and suddenly this stuff was EASY. I was going through stuff with no mistakes or maybe a small one. Like I've broken through a barrier.
If you're teaching Sherman guitar, you'll have to have him just slog away for a couple of weeks then he should have a similar breakthrough.
I had to come downtown to blog because the library in Scotlandville is closed due to Independence Day; Howard was lost this morning; he switched to plan B, which is walking down to Dollar General for chips, salsa and a $1 paperback book;
ReplyDeleteam hoping that there will be some kind of huge 4th of July celebration, but, at 5:43 p.m. it looks like a typical Wednesday night. I am down to less than a dollar in change and I feel like I hae radiation poisioning after using the tap water from the spigot to cook my rice and lentils, instead of buying spring water. I have that feeling you get when you are out all day at the beach under the sun and unprotected; similar to the chills you get when coming down with the flu; Howard had his shirt off this morning and his skin is blotched with hideous purplish brown raised spots; tell me that has nothing to do with living on cheetoz, pepsi, Jack n the box and tap water his whole life...
And Cheese Whiz, don't forget Cheese Whiz
ReplyDeleteHoward's diet sounds awful.
ReplyDeleteThe land owner here and a couple of the guys are going to go downtown and see the fireworks display, but 10,000 screaming Mexican kids + the land owner going on pedantically about fireworks does not appeal to me, so I've begged out. Mandatory chili in a half hour or so, probably more like an hour. The thing is, if I see the fireworks, like as not it will go until midnight and fuck up guitar practice. Right now is HFM, or Heat, Flies, and Misery, and yes I'm in front of a fan, mopping sweat.
That place you sleep, the guy who lets you stay there is probably also telling the can-stealing guy it's OK for him to be there too, just trying to be "mr nice guy". And not thinking about the conflicts between you and the can-stealing guy.
That Clapton song is a good one, and I'm not a big Clapton fan. I'm kinda one of those guys who will make the joke about him being like coffee, he sucks without Cream. But that song's a good one.
Since you cooked with the water rather than just drinking it, it's probably not the water. You probably got some stress or are coming down with something.
Your singing has more "mannerisms" in it than I'd want to put into my singing, hence the Eric Cartman comment. You really have some Cartmanesque mannerisms that don't add to the song. That being said, you do sound pretty good and probably quite good in person. Which means you could make it fine out here in California. There's guitar on the street, but *good* guitar and voice on the street is a rarity.
And that's what's made me warm up to the guitar after all. Sure wev'e got millions of guitar players in the US, but that few percent that are good, meaning the fraction of 1% that are good and busking, are a rare commodity. And millions of guitar players means mainly, millions of wanna-bee guitar players. Which means a good one on the street gets a fair amount of admiration at least out here. "Wow, look at that guy, he stayed with his lessons, he deserves a tip" that sort of thing.
While you were commenting on yesterdays song, I was posting todays. I've decided to throw them all up (the Sherman Sessions) as is; if I can overdub more stuff onto them, then icing on the cake; I was careful not to overdose Sherman on recording with a 12 hour session; I'm going to let things cool off and maybe he will be refreshed and in the mood to set up all the equipment and adjust all the levels; and sit there through all my false starts and "I forgot the second verse; even though I've done this song on he street almost every night for the past 4 years" type things; maybe by Sunday. I'm afraid to even try to record using my guitar through my "mic" anymore...
ReplyDeleteI think Howard is just CHEAP; he eats for under 5 bucks a day (and gets the health that he pays for; headaches, allergies..) and he's got thousands in the bank; when the church people would show up at homeless camps with Styrofoams full of God knows what; he would run over to them "Yes, right here; right here; give me some!"
Today, I sat in front of him and shaved with a used razor with no lubricant; and he just sat and watched me (annoying in itself) and I know that he has a bunch of new razors in his backpack; I'm not saying that Howard *owes* me anything, but why are we "sticking together" if it sometimes seems like every man for himself..
To be fair; he has helped me out in the past and maybe it never occurred to him to offer a razor -he does only buy the expensive kind, the cheap ones don't work on his beard, or he would use them, I'm sure lol
ps I just Googled Eric Cartman; yeah, on Tears in Heaven when it came to the verse "...and I know; they'll be no more tears in heaven" I should have slowed down and spoken it (with feeling) and then added, "no, there won't"
ReplyDeleteor something, I guess
Howard is a dysfunctional nutball, and hanging around him is like hanging out with the retarded kid in school because *no one* else will hang with you, or at least you don't think they will.
ReplyDeleteDamn, I'd shave with jism before I'd shave with nothing, ouch. Not in front of Howard though!
On the "voice mannerisms", I noticed this first as a kid, with stuff we'd sing a lot like Christmas carols. They're basically the result of laziness and *very* hard to root out and keep out. That's why those who can do so are highly paid. Those opera folks don't just go up there 'n' sing, they work hard on their pronunciations and so on. Same went for Johnny Cash, if you listen closely, he doesn't fall into the lazy way, he's always working to make it sound proper and good. It takes relentless self-observation and self-improvement to sing well, I think. If it all works out well, I'll have the memory card for my camera in a couple of days and can put some recordings of myself on my blog, It's going to be a very humbling experience working on my own voice, and keeping my own "lazy-isms" and mannerisms out. As well as singing in tune, in time, and all that!