Up And At 'Em

• 16 Dollars On A Slowly Moving Monday
• Epiphone A Drop Off In Sonic Quality So Far

Now that a shot of kratom has gone from $3.25 to $4.25 at the Uxi Duxi, it is time for a kratom-head like myself to become more industrious, and this would mean certainly going out on a Monday night to busk, like I did last night.

This would be the second night of playing on the new Epiphone guitar.
As it stands now, the Epiphone is not sounding as good as the Takamine, even though it is brand new.

I think of the Epiphone as a brand new shiny PT Cruiser, and the Takamine as a convertible Corvette from, say 1988, one thats tail pipe is loose and keeps scraping the road and throwing sparks whenever I traverse some mound.

When the Takamine is repaired, it will sound better than the Epiphone does now.

String Theory

I have a theory, though, as to why the Epiphone is unstable in its tuning, with the strings that came on the thing being the area of interest.

It's possible that the strings that were on the thing, had been on it for years, after it was manufactured and warehoused and then eventually shipped to Guitar Center, where it maybe sat for months before having its price reduced to the $99.95 that was the dancing silver lure in the muddy river that Bobby struck at with a vengeance, like a pike, emaciated after a long spawning oddysey.

The strings had been tuned down just about 5 steps. It is possible that there is some kind of memory in the metal of the strings whereby they seem to gravitate towards the tension they sat at for so long.

The reason that it is recommended that guitars be stored like this is to take stress off of the wooden parts of it. Under constant tension, yet changing humidity and temperatures, wood will eventually warp.

But, my theory is that the strings on it now had just been sitting under a lesser tension for so long that they don't want to stay at the new one.

Oddly, though, a guy came along who listened to me for about 10 minutes and, after I had stopped and chatted with him, offered me 10 dollars if he could play my guitar. I told him to feel free to tune it and then told him about the trouble I was having with it.

An "Oldie But Goodie"

He played "Wish You Were Here," by Pink Floyd, where I jumped in on the harmonica, and then played "Blackbird," by Paul McCartney of The Beatles, then handed it back to me saying "It sounds really nice," telling me that it had "a vibe."

Then, strangely, even though I hadn't seen him adjust any of the tuning machines, I resumed playing it and it sounded a lot better...

Plus I had 10 bucks on the way to a 16 dollar Monday night that had "7 dollar night" written all over it.

It is Tuesday now, and I woke up at my usual time of around 1:30 PM and managed to make it to the Uxi Duxi by 3 o' clock.

Unfortunately I found that it was breezy, perhaps too much so to do any outdoor recording, unless I get a windscreen for the Snowball microphone. But, some of that lolly gagging around, preparing myself with coffee and whatever tobacco I could scrape up off the coffee table, picking out an outfit (I decided to go "French" today, with an all black ensemble, featuring the black tee shirt upon which is written "FCUKᶜ MOI?," and the beret on my head) etc., was due to having packed the microphone along with the laptop and then bagged up the guitar.

I kind of entertain the notion that the girl who sometimes wears equestrian boots might think that I have a crush on her.

She married (in a ceremony held at the Uxi Duxi) a young Frenchman, named Max, who has long hair and who usually wraps a headband around it.
When I appear there in like garb, I can't help but wonder if she thinks that I'm trying to be attractive to her. Who, moi?

In order to not waste the extra effort of bringing the microphone and guitar (prepared to break it out and play the Radiohead song that I learned, but not because they are the girl who sometimes wears equestrian boots' favorite band) I'm determined to shoot some kind of video with it.

I might go down to the spot that Colin Mitchell talks about, which is way down the river walk and past "the ships," which I guess are down there somewhere.

"The Fifty"

The prime concern will be setting up my stuff where it won't attract the attention of thieves. I can remember recording outside the abandoned house in Baton Rouge where Howard Westra and I were homeless for a while (the "Dancing Days," song in the sidebar was recorded there) and having to battle the distraction of half expecting to be hit in the head from behind, as part of someone's attempt to steal the laptop, right in the middle of a song. This is the blessing/curse of a spot that is so remote and quiet that it is excellent for recording.

Another spot I am considering is on the other side of the river in Algiers, where I was also homeless with Howard Westra for a while, and where I can sit by the river and sing as loud as I like, and be able to see the approach of anyone (probably a jogger on the bike trail) from a mile away; having plenty of time in advance, to discern if they look like a couple of laptop and guitar stealing hoods.

But, it is 5 PM right now; the sun will go down in 2 and a half hours.

Putting the new strings on the Epiphone to see if it will cure the intonation problem is job #2 on this Tuesday.

I should go out and try to follow up the 16 dollar night with at least something.
I might have to go on the recording excursion soon.

From Trapdted.blogspot.com

Street Musician Daniel Extra: I found the following by hitting the "next blog" button at the top of everyone's blog:

 I think it's time for another rant, don't you? ( Wait, don't answer that.)
Anyone who knows me or has followed the blog knows I have a rather complicated relationship with social media. This is especially true of Instagram. Yes, I know it's a lot of preening teens, bodybuilders, and the like.
But, you know what's the worst, by far?????

The drum videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The drum-related Instagram stuff seems to generally fall into 5 categories, they are.....

1. Chops Galore.....
This actually also contains two subheadings, velocity of hands, and velocity of feet. Sometimes they have both, but in any case the point is to show how fast one can play without any musical context or any real reason to be playing this way except that, well....it's fast!
2. I'm so cute!
A type of video where a young, good looking person ( of either sex. Believe me, I've seen some shirtless beefcake drummers on there! ) usually plays along to a track ( often categorized as a "drum cover" )  with super-exaggerated arm movements and a big smile. In essence,  it's long on show-biz, short on content.
3. The showcase play-along......
Arguably a subset of #2,  this features someone playing along to a piece of complicated music that exists only to show-off fancy drumming within it. You won't find any singable melodies, interesting chord changes, or thoughtful lyrics here, because the track is accompanying the drums, rather than the other way around.
4. Stick tricks, pads aplenty, and drum corps gone mad.....
In these type of videos, no one ever plays on a drum, but rather gives us the incredibly inspiring sound of wood striking plastic or rubber. It's really more the idea of being a majorette, but with sticks rather than a baton. Leaving the feet out helps the participants avoid any semblance of even trying to keep time, and again, show-biz reigns supreme!
5. Look everyone! I'm playing a Rock Beat on my drums in a really bizarre place!
What's way better than playing a beat everyone's heard a thousand times? Playing a beat everyone's heard a thousand times in a swimming pool, a snowy backyard, or in front of your favorite barbecue restaurant beside a major highway!!! I'm sure when space travel becomes even slightly more common, it'll be one small step for mankind, but one giant leap for stupid Instagram videos....