Alcoholic Logic

It's 10 before 7 and I am writing this in my room so that I can run it through my Perl program to format it and count the words.

I still need to improve the program so that it puts the comma in counts that are over a thousand words, and so that it bold faces names of persons, places and things, such as Lilly, the Lilly Pad and Bourbon Street -basically every word that begins with a capital letter will become bold faced; something that I have to do manually now by highlighting the word and then clicking upon the "bold" icon.

I am listening to "Southern Man," by Neil Young (a song name which the program will automatically italicize soon) which is on my special list called "must learn busking songs."

It, of course, like all Neil Young songs can be learned "in five minutes," but not really, because the "magic" of Mr. Young's compositions are in the fine details which put his signature on the song.

I once had a friend who totally trashed a band that he heard because they did a George Thorougood (sp?) song called "(Don't give me no lines and) keep your hands to yourself" and they didn't sing the little "no hokey pokee see (until I get a wedding ring)" in the same falsetto way that George did on the record. "That's the only reason I like that song," said my friend, Dave LeClair. And that was the only reason the band had wasted hours rehearsing that song.

A busker can fall into the same trap with the deceptively simple (3 chords) Neil Young songs, by omitting that part where it goes ♪♫ right after he sings about bull whips cracking, for example.

It is now 7:24 and I will soon have to process this text, put it on my data stick and then run it down to the computer room.

Then, I will re-enact last night, by leaving here with just enough money for a half pint of cheap whiskey, provided that I walk the mile and a half into the Quarter, rather than riding the trolley in. This will take about 20 minutes longer to do, and that will lose me an average of 7 bucks from lost busking time; all for a $2.50 half pint of whiskey...but, it makes sense according to alcoholic logic.

15 Dollar Monday

6 Dollar Tuesday

Monday, I made 15 bucks in about 2 hours, but then spent a lot of cash for food, in order to spare my food card, which is down to about 15 bucks with 12 days left in the month. Cigarettes and a trolley ride with one last half pint of whiskey had me waking up hungover and with just enough money to repeat the process Tuesday.

Tuesday, I walked past Jay the really loud singer, who exibited a 100 dollar bill to me. "Look what I got," he said.

It turned out not to portend good fortune for me, though, as I made 6 dollars off of not many more than 6 tourists who walked past.

Now, it is Wednesday, and I repeat the process, hoping that one of these nights I will have a breakout night of more than 50 bucks, and will be able to get caught up on a few things.

"Lilly"

"Chantilly"

"Angelique"

Troy: Recipient of my slide

I gave my slide to Troy, who plays on the corner of Royal and Iberville, right outside the Mr. B's restaurant, where both of Lillys daughters work as greeters, or something; and where she hopes they will be in positions to be married off to rich men; a desire that Lilly makes no bones about harboring.

I stopped and jammed with Troy (whom I am confused with often, due to his wearing almost the same hat, and looking like I might look in 10 years [if I don't get my act together])

He plays slide almost exclusively, but had lost his, or gotten it stolen. I only used mine to add slide parts to some of my recordings, but hadn't worked it in to my busking routine. They are only about 7 bucks; and Troy was very appreciative.

You've just read: 693 words.