50 Dollar Saturday

I arrived into the Quarter at around 8 PM, after having walked there.
I had woken up with $2.65 on my coffee table after having done the unthinkable, in taking Friday night off from busking. The 3rd night off in a row.

I had drank wine and recorded music all day Friday and wound up feeling paranoid and insecure after smoking some bud.

After the day of drinking had turned into the night of lethargy and slow motion; I sat there, paralyzed and daydreaming and vacillating between going out or not; until I succumbed to an early bedtime and a promise to myself to get a fresh start the next day. The "alcoholics promise."

As the clock ticked I, at some point, convinced myself that it was too late to go out and busk, even though I could have been there by 11:30 PM, and played through the most lucrative time slot at the Lilly Pad.

That logic didn't make sense, but I was pretty much "out of it," and subconsciously arranging things so that I would wake up without any money for alcohol nor weed. Their ambition killing effect is not helping me at all.

I had taken Wednesday and Thursday nights off, also.

Tuesday, the day after my birthday, a check of the mailbox that I have recently been issued revealed a card from my mom, along with well wishes and a 20 dollar bill.

Amped Up 

Getting to the Quarter with 24 dollars on me, I ran into Tim Todd the violinist who is renting my amp and who threw another 10 dollars to me.

I hope to have the amp up and running by Mardi Gras, with microphone, mic stand, cable  and some kind of little pull cart to tote the stuff.

I'll have to get a good set of rechargeable batteries.

And I will most likely take the trolley into town each night that I use it; more of "the cost of doing business."

Tim seems to have no qualms about paying 5 bucks per night for the thing.

We have settled upon the terms of basically about 15 bucks per week; as I decided to charge him only on the nights that he actually uses the thing -for "wear and tear." If it is just sitting in his apartment (instead of mine) then I don't charge him. It's a gentleman's agreement.

That works out well, because he gets to maintain possession of it, meaning that I am not forced to cough up half of the 5 dollars each night to transport it on the trolley; and am not put in the position of having to find him to deliver it to him.

He moves around, due to the availability of playing spots and will send his girlfriend as a scout to return with information such as "Tanya and Dorise just left to go play a wedding, their spot is open; I'll go hold it."

I could easily wind up chasing him around, carrying the thing, along with my other stuff, up and down Royal Street, just to unburden myself of it.

Tim uses the amp in tandem with an identical one that he owns; just so he can run in stereo.

That seems like a lot of expense just to widen the sound and make the echoes and reverberations bounce around from left to right, something which is lost on a lot of listeners; but Tim is trying to take his game to the Tanya and Dorise level, and they are in full blown, surround sound stereo in perfect equalization (having had professional sound engineers by trade happen along to hear them and to make suggestions in how to mix their sound) and now there is no drop off in sound quality for people just leaving T and D, and then encountering him.
Plus, the violin is one of those instruments that you can busk with for a long session; and Tim has gone 8 hours before (when he needed 500 dollars that day).
But the amp really pays for itself, I think, through the fact that Tim plays better when he is manning the stereo rig with his sound bouncing around left to right; putting more energy into his playing and reaping rewards that way.
Last night, I made 50 bucks while playing moderately intoxicated on just a half pint of whiskey.