My Consumer Confidence Dips

I've stopped trying to get up early (i.e. after less than 7 hours of sleep).

It often seems like I might be able to do so as I lay down, still brimming with enthusiasm for whatever I might have been working on before trying to sleep; feeling that it will have me hopping out of bed like a rabbit, after just a cat nap of 5 hours or so, to get right back at it.

Backup guitar to become functional

Harmonica And Pins Arrive

The harmonica in the key of A has arrived. I need to break it in gently at the apartment. I am debating fiercely over whether or not to get a pack of blank CDs for 6 dollars that I can burn music in the harmonica key of A onto.

I quickly found a website which divides Neil Young's musical catalogue based upon the key of harmonica that he played on the track.

There were about a dozen songs under the heading of "key of A" harmonica, none of which I believe I am familiar with.

Getting the blank CDs and burning songs like:

Are There Anymore Real Cowboys?

Depression Blues

Find Another Shoulder

Home on the Range

Let It Shine

Midnight on the Bay

Mother Earth

Oh, Lonesome Me

Out on the Weekend

Traces

onto a blank CD, and then sitting in my room and learning at least pieces (choruses and other things that the listener might recognize as belonging to a cool Neil Young song) of any or all of the above songs, which Neil uses basically the same hardware that I now posses to play, would be a smart move for me. But, after a...
  
1 Dollar Thursday

My Second Fiddle

...I have very low consumer confidence.

I made only a dollar at the Lilly Pad, playing from about 10 until about midnight.

There was very light pedestrian traffic; I could count less than a dozen people in the couple blocks down the street with the glances I took every so often, and the ones who were there, seemed to have the knack for walking past me as soon as I stopped to light a cigarette, or had started a song, only to abandon it after changing my mind, but had not chosen an alternate tune yet.

Those are the breaks; I just tell myself that it's better to be playing with feeling, even if you have to wait for that feeling to arrive while tourists who might tip if you were playing, walk past.

First off, the tourists that tip just because you are playing (i.e. doing something) are just a minor subgroup of the tourists that tip just because you are "playing," (i.e. set up and obviously doing so, though not right at that second). There are those that walk over holding money when you are on break and rib you with: "C'mon, you gotta at least pluck a couple notes..."

 it's better to be playing with feeling, even if you have to wait for that feeling to arrive while tourists who might tip if you were playing, walk past.

And the guys who offer 20 dollars if they can play a song on your guitar are actually going to happy to see that you have taken a break and that they won't have to wait indefinitely for an opportunity to pose their request.

But, it boils down to; if the guy plays when he is good and ready, then it is just going to be better for the whole planet, on every level.

But, I have about 34 bucks on my plastic card, the one that I dream of using to buy some kind of recording device, after it has about another 100 on it; and I bristle at the thought of taking 6 dollars off it to get blank CD's that will be an investment in my music business (It's only a matter of time before a hard core Neil Young fan comes along and is reduced to tears by my rendition of "Mother Earth," with the harmonica notes in place, and tips me 50 bucks, as much to profess his adoration of Neil publicly i.e. in front of the friends he is with; as a statement of his identity; as any other reason) but the purchase of which comes during a personal economic depression of sorts.

But, part of me wants to sit on the 34 bucks that I have, seeing at least if it is going to grow on this Friday night with a brand new harp in the key of A in play, though just not playing any songs from deep within Neil Young's catalogue.

We are between the raindrops, for now...

Plus, if I'm going to buy cigarettes and cat food and an energy drink, yikes, another 6 bucks is going to go right to my jugular...

But, then again, playing a new harp on a Friday night, with an energy drink by my side (sugar free so it won't gum the harmonica up) plenty of smokes, weed and new strings and knowing that one of Harold's favorite flavors is in my bag; portends well.

Well, I don't have time to burn the music and learn the songs now; it's about 5:30 PM and my gig starts in 4 hours...