Notes_Norton

Although we are very good at covering up our mistakes, sooner or later there will be a train wreck. If that happens, stop, make a joke about it, and get the audience to laugh with you instead of at you. They will be pulling for you next time you try it. Something like, "That worked perfectly in practice", or "Did you ever have one of those days?", or something relevant to the subject of the song. The thing to do is not put the blame on anything but yourself. Fortunately, Leilani and I have been doing this duo thing since 1985, and it's only happened a few times in all those years. Back on topic. The best way to keep a band together is to gig steadily. Insights and incites by Notes

Many years ago I was in a 5 piece that almost made it famous. We were the opening act for headliners in concert, and we were negotiating a record deal. When the record deal fell through due to lack of money we started bickering. It was probably due to the disappointment but it broke the band up. Fast forward through a half dozen bands that didn't really last long enough to be important... I met my current wife when we were in different bands. Both our bands broke up about the same time. Since we were at that time good friends we and the piano player from my band formed a trio to do dinner clubs with an archaic drum machine. Eventually we added bass and drums and played hotels and clubs. But all things pass and so did that band. There was some bickering in that band, but mostly accusing other people of mistakes. I don't go for that myself. Leilani and I ignore each other's mistakes or help cover them up if possible. Then laugh about them on the way home. You can't do this for a living without an occasional screw up, and in time, you learn how to minimize the damage so the audience doesn't know. We got in a jazz band, but the work was so slow due to no market for jazz that I needed to take a day job to survive (that's the ultimate sell-out IMHO). Once a week it was a lot of fun. The guitarist used to teach at the U of Miami (FL) and big jazz giants would come visit and sit in every one in a while. Well I didn't like the day job so we put together a band with a keyboard, bass, drummer and another singer. No great fighting, we were mature enough to settle differences with passion but not anger. It was 95% fun. Then we lost the bass player due to family problems. Out of work 2 months to find another bass player and teach him a couple of hundred songs. Fast forward a few months and we lose the drummer. We found a gal who had a small set, kept a solid beat, could groove well, listened and played tasty-supportive fills, and could even sing background! We were only out of work a month this time because drums don't take as much time to fit in. So we get to our first job. It was at a place called the "Dodger Pines Country Club" (The historic Brooklyn and later LA Dodgers used to do spring training there). The dining room was completely full so they folded back the accordion type partition and set us up in the lounge. The drummer said, "God will never forgive me if I play in a bar." I told her "God will have to forgive me for homicide if you do not play in this bar tonight." The next day I bought a Teac A3440 4 track tape deck and started recording backing tracks. I play drums, bass, at the time rhythm guitar, saxophone and enough keyboards to fake it. We mixed everything down to cassette tape, got a dual drive calibrated tape deck, and Leilani and I went duo. That was in 1985. We haven't been out of work since. The tapes changed to floppy disks and sequencers, and a few other stages and now I record our backing tracks at home in a MIDI studio, record as WAV, rip to mp3, and take a couple of computers to work. Leilani and I have a great working and personal relationship. We both contribute to the arrangements, and are mature enough to pick what we decide the best solution to any difference is. If two opinions seem equal, she will insist to do it my way, and I'll insist to do it her way. We are both serious about this, work hard, are professional on the gig, go out of our way to give the client a little extra, and when on stage we simply have the most fun we can have with our clothes on. I eventually married that gal and we are living happily ever after. Life is good.

The wind whispers Mary. (Eb E F) The wind cries Mary. (Eb E F) The wind screams Mary. (Eb E F)

Mary went on the lam.

He better be careful or he might be charged with "a salt in battery" Notes

It might have been plane theft. The re-percussions can be heard for miles.

Easy to get wet reverb there

Good point! Getting around the auto-censor can be a pain in the ***** sometimes. ;)

Perhaps gender would get by the auto-censor. If not $ex should do, but that opens another can of worms

He says I Know A Place where You Won't See Me.

Thanks. That's one I hadn't seen. I loved it. Notes

Near the "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"?

Is that near "Highway 61"?

The actual luter is living "Life In The Fast Lane" and has to "Ride Like The Wind" but he is a "Highway Star" and hopes to get "South Of The Border" soon.

Down here in Florida it was My Way, In The Mood, or New York New York. Actually I never got sick of playing them, just calling the tune. Once the music starts the 'right brain' turns off and I get lost in the enjoyment of making music. Familiar tunes are like comfort food, and challenging tunes are like fine cuisine. The retirement, yacht club, country club end of the business here in South Florida is more reliable and profitable than the club gigs. There are so many open mic nights, karaoke nights, football nights, and so on, they only want to hire a band for 2 or 3 nights a week and the pay is terrible. A duo is lucky to get 200/night there. I can do 2 nights in "God's waiting room" and make more than I would doing 4-6 nights in a club. We charge up to 600/night depending on the gig. And we're married so the money goes to the same family. I met her when she was in another band, we ended up in a band together when both our bands broke up, then we were in a trio, another 5 piece, and in the late 1980s we went duo and never looked back. I make my own backing tracks (I play sax, flute, wind synth, bass, drums, guitar, and some keys). When we started doing the seniors in the 1990s it was Sinatra and Big Band tunes. Nice stuff, we would mix in some Ellington, Goodman, and Basie songs with the Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Glenn Miller tunes. But like I said, God's waiting room. They all 'graduated'. Before long it was Elvis and 50s rock, then early Beatles, and now its 60-80s with some contemporary pop crossover to the retirement market. So the songs we need to play a lot are Brown Eyed Girl, Old Time Rock And Roll, Whiter Shade of Pale, and anything by Dylan, Janis, Clapton, or Motown and the others. It's a nice way to make a living. I'm not a wage slave working for some faceless corporation (I'm free). I wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, and in between do what I like to do (I'm successful). I'm not rich, but contented. I guess I'm doing life My Way aaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh ??? I went a long way for that one, didn't I? Seriously, I love my life! Notes

The cartoon is much bigger, but I guess the forum software shrunk it, which is why I went through the explanation. Notes

I'm getting them too. Since I come here almost every day it's a bit of an overkill, but I don't mind the reminder at all. Insights and incites by Notes

BTW, it is implied that the rat clobbered the cartoonist. It's his hand you can see under the star in the middle of the last panel. Whenever the cartoonist makes bad puns, and he makes a lot of bad puns, the rat usually does something. Usually he just threatens. I never read this comic in the paper because I didn't like the looks of it. It looked like juvenile stuff. Then I rented a movie about cartoonists, and I liked the interview with Stephan Pastis, the 'artist'. Now that I read the paper online this one often gives me a grin. (I like bad puns) Notes

English is a weird language because it has words borrowed from just about every other neighboring language. It also has more words by far than any other spoken language on the planet. I'm sure that makes it difficult. But every language has it's problems. As Spanish speaking people started moving here, I'm making an effort to learn Spanish. Nouns with 2 genders aren't bad because if I call something wrong, most people still know what I'm saying. It's the verbs. In English we have 3 conjugations, past, present and future tense. In Spanish there are plenty more, most of which I can't wrap my middle-aged brain around: Present, Imperfect, Preterite, Future, Conditional, Present Perfect, Pluperfect, Preterit Perfect, Future Perfect, Conditional Perfect, Present Subjunctive, Imperfect Subjunctive, Present Perfect Subjunctive, and Pluperfect Subjunctive. That's more tenses than we have definitions for the word score ;) OK, not quite, here is all the meanings of score: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/score There are more than a score of meanings for score. Whew! Insights, incites, and a lame attempt at humor by Notes

I got so tired of playing this song when I was playing retirement developments 20 years ago; thankfully it died.

A guitarist fretted when the cops came in so he decided to slide out on the Freeway of Love but got caught in a bottleneck. When he was asked "Question's 67 & 68" he went mute, except for repeatedly saying "Set Me Free". By "25 or 6 to 4" his alibi checked out, he was at "Ray's Rock House" so they said you can "Go Now". (Thanks to Aretha, Counting Crows, Chicago, Ray Charles, and the Moody Blues for the song titles I abused)

What Jimbo88 said. That oboist Jimbo mentioned might also call his piece of music a "chart" but never a "score", that is what the conductor looks at. Notes

Upon investigation they found the bandits made it out with saks of phones.

The fuzz followed a few leads with their sirens wailing, but someone was just stringing them along.

Police are still looking for the luters. They say they are part of a mid-evil crime ring.