Guitars Ready To Play

It is Friday afternoon, and I feel that I should be out there busking.

Last night, I played for only the second time since being released from the jail one week ago.

After skipping the really cold day and enduring it wrapped in swaddling blankets; the temperature, according to wunderground.com was 51 degrees when I stepped out of the Starbucks; after blogging; and responding to some comments.

To the music store, I went. The expensive music store, The Louisiana Music Factory, where a set of acoustic strings comes to $9.80; ouch!

As if to add insult to injury, one can be made to feel insignificant by looking at their "New Orleans" section featuring CDs by local artists; and the section spans about 50 feet of tightly packed discs.

Anybody who thinks that they might come to NOLA and make a name for themselves in music, merely has to walk the length of this section and gaze at over a thousand artists whom they have never heard of in order to realize how hard it is to get noticed here. I mean, Gal Holiday is not exactly a household name, unless the house is ghe Holiday residence, yet there is her compact disc; alongside those that you might have heard of (Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, The Radiators, Better Than Ezra...not to mention Tanya and Dorise' "One From The Cafe")

I came out really dark in the photo but, there I am...

The sales clerk was quick to point out that "A lot of them couldn't make it wherever they were from; so they came here in order to become 'New Orleans Musicians' and then were successful wherever they went because they were now New Orleans Musicians."

"Yeah, when I busked in Mobile, I always made more when I threw some Mardi Gras beads or other New Orleans paraphernalia in my case; because people then assumed that I was 'the real deal'," I rejoined.

"Exactly," said the sales clerk.

Then, after jumping on an available upright bass for an impromptu jam with a couple of cats (above), I went to the Unique Boutique and bought two cans of beer, which I swilled while en route to the big Rouses Market, out by the Superdome.

Steals jewelry with the precision of a surgeon...

I had decided not to subsist entirely upon "meals ready to eat" even though giving my food card a one day rest would add about 25 cents per day to my available balance for the next month.

I ate a salad and a seasoned potato and washed it down with a can of Fosters Lager; as I sat and used the wireless connection there, mostly on Facebook.

I was able to find a picture of Victor, the surgeon that I was in jail with (above). It seems that he is accused of stealing a lot more than a Rolex watch; more like 12 thousand dollars worth of jewelry from 4 or 5 Mobile jewelry stores.

I see the $1,000 harmonica which he promised to give me blowing away in the breeze, for some reason...

It was only about 9:30 p.m. when I left Rouses after doing that; and a 10 minute walk put me on Decatur Street, not far from where I had been arrested.
I sat in front a a closed store in a spot recessed from the sidewalk (so as not to obstruct it) and began to play, using the new $9.80 strings.

A guy came walking past blowing a harmonica and I thought his intonation was very good and in fact, before I saw him coming, I thought one of the nearby stores had turned their music system on an was playing a blues CD.

I told the guy so and he asked to sit in.

Even though I fine tuned the new strings to his harp, which was in "C," he somehow lost the magic which he had when playing a capella and walking along the sidewalk. Even though I played in G Blues ("I Feel Fine," by The Beatles) which was his harps natural key.

I guess that is why he plays riffs on the corner and isn't in a band. We all have our excuses for why we aren't in bands; those of us that aren't...

There were 3 ones stuck together and 2 other ones stuck together in my case when I knocked off 15 minutes later, because I had to use the restroom; and then I called it a night; having made back what I had spent.
To Clean Up My Act

Right now it is 4:30 p.m. and I really want to go to The Clothes Spin and wash the clothes that I haven't been wearing since being arrested 21 days ago (granted, they just sat in the jail unworn for 15 days; but the idea is just repugnant) and don them.

The Clothes Spin is a laundromat which used to be a recording studio and is where Little Richard recorded his (wopbopaloola wopbopbam) Tootie Fruity song as well as "Long Tall Sally," and where Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis and countless others recorded in the 50's.

Funny how I was just looking at Little Richard CDs which contained music which inspired and then later was recorded by The Beatles; then I went out and played a Beatles song and made 5 bucks; and now I am going to spend those 5 bucks at the studio where that music was recorded...it all comes full circle in this cosmic universe, I guess.

And I want to get a cheap razor and shave my face. That shouldn't be too much to ask from life.

I want to be a little more like The Clean Guy tonight; and I can adjust my set list to tailor it to the cleaner image -less originals about past girlfriends; more songs with jazz chords in them, like Steely Dan songs.

Another Carrot

Jazzfest is coming in May and will feature Fleetwood Mac, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, Maroon 5, Jimmy Cliff, Hall & Oates, and half of the "New Orleans" rack at Louisiana Music Factory, it seems...Just another carrot dangling in front of my nose to keep me here; but I hope to be in California by then, and maybe having a chance to hear what garlic breath sounds like, coming out of a coronet. *(an Alex In California reference).