Thursday, March 03, 2005
"No, Man, a 'Harp' Case......."
So, here I am, 8:08 in the morning, I've been at work for a little over an hour and fifteen minutes, and the most difficult part of my day is over. It sort of reminds me of the time I worked for a satellite uplink in Iowa. Our busiest day of the year was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, when most agencies had their ads done and ready to ship for Christmas. Normally on our shift, we had 3 people, plus our supervisor, a hard worker despite the title. That night we were one man short and the supervisor left a couple of ours early. He did leave Rawls and me a bottle of champagne, though. Rawls and I got through the night, we had both worked in real television and were used to working much harder than the normal uplink employee. The night compared to a normal evening for a master control operator, not the horror story the other techs had told us about. And we each enjoyed a glass or two of champagne as the night went on.
It was a fun open mic last night. TSA took a half day off from work and we were able to go up a little earlier than usual. And with the relatively light bill of performers, we got to play a whole lot. We started by doing a song with Mike, Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" then started a Slappy is Jebus blues set, "Who's Been Talkin'," "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "Mojo." At the end of the night we played again with Mike, playing some of his tunes, notably "For What it's Worth" originally done by The Buffalo Springfield. I love it when something just comes together. Show TSA a couple of chords, give me the proper key and the three of us will always put something good together. Give me some cool harmonies to sing and a little leeway on the harp and I couldn't be happier.
Like I said, it was sort of a light night for performers. We had some new faces, most notably what we decided was only our second female performer (not that Erin didn't count, but she only sang backup with Josh on a song or two). I guess female "feature" nperformer would be more appropriate. Anyway, I hope she comes back, also she was a pretty good guitarist......
Willy Grigg put on a fun set. He did my favorite song of his. For heaven's sake (literally) check out his set at www.acrossroad.com, just use the "Dunn Bros. Open Mic" link provided. Willy is a great songwriter and a fun performer. For me, the best thing about Wednesday nights is that I know I'll get to see Willy play. Puts a smile on my face the next day every time.
Slappy is Jebus is looking at adding some new tunes. I thought of one while sitting at this very desk yesterday, inspired by a single line from theh Sci-Fi cartoon "Futurama." OK, all I have is a chorus and an idea, which probably just means I'll write half of a verse and the song will sit on the shelf for six months or more. Andy wants to add yet another Buffalo Springfield, and there's a couple of Mojo Nixon songs I'd like to do. Oooh, and they're Mojo Nixon songs that are somewhat appropriate for all ages audiences! I really need to get down and write something just absolutely filthy again......
I tried to make it an early night, but I had a message from the old roomie when I got home last night. I gave him a call back and we talked until about midnight. He had sent me a photo of "the boys" from his camera phone, but my email had sent it to "junk." After retrieving it from junk I couldn't open the photo. Looks like it stripped the attachment off of the email. Tried to work on it again this morning, but no luck.
That didn't stop us from talking, though. He's moving again, this time to Inglewood. Now Inglewood has some pretty rough sections, but he assures me his neighborhood is nice. Not too far from the scary areas, but we weren't too far from scary areas when we lived in the LBC. Hey, he'll be closer to the Fabulous Forum where the Lakers no longer play.
We discussed music, of course, and what TSA and I have been up to. Also discussed my plans to turn my guitar case into a harmonica case. He came up with an even better idea, find an old harp case, you know that orchestra instrument and turn that into a "harp" case. While I truly love the idea, the problems with it would be finding an old harp case and, having found a harp case and converting it to carrying harmonicas, fitting it into my car. Then again, I've been known to go a long way for a bad joke.......
BOJ
It was a fun open mic last night. TSA took a half day off from work and we were able to go up a little earlier than usual. And with the relatively light bill of performers, we got to play a whole lot. We started by doing a song with Mike, Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" then started a Slappy is Jebus blues set, "Who's Been Talkin'," "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "Mojo." At the end of the night we played again with Mike, playing some of his tunes, notably "For What it's Worth" originally done by The Buffalo Springfield. I love it when something just comes together. Show TSA a couple of chords, give me the proper key and the three of us will always put something good together. Give me some cool harmonies to sing and a little leeway on the harp and I couldn't be happier.
Like I said, it was sort of a light night for performers. We had some new faces, most notably what we decided was only our second female performer (not that Erin didn't count, but she only sang backup with Josh on a song or two). I guess female "feature" nperformer would be more appropriate. Anyway, I hope she comes back, also she was a pretty good guitarist......
Willy Grigg put on a fun set. He did my favorite song of his. For heaven's sake (literally) check out his set at www.acrossroad.com, just use the "Dunn Bros. Open Mic" link provided. Willy is a great songwriter and a fun performer. For me, the best thing about Wednesday nights is that I know I'll get to see Willy play. Puts a smile on my face the next day every time.
Slappy is Jebus is looking at adding some new tunes. I thought of one while sitting at this very desk yesterday, inspired by a single line from theh Sci-Fi cartoon "Futurama." OK, all I have is a chorus and an idea, which probably just means I'll write half of a verse and the song will sit on the shelf for six months or more. Andy wants to add yet another Buffalo Springfield, and there's a couple of Mojo Nixon songs I'd like to do. Oooh, and they're Mojo Nixon songs that are somewhat appropriate for all ages audiences! I really need to get down and write something just absolutely filthy again......
I tried to make it an early night, but I had a message from the old roomie when I got home last night. I gave him a call back and we talked until about midnight. He had sent me a photo of "the boys" from his camera phone, but my email had sent it to "junk." After retrieving it from junk I couldn't open the photo. Looks like it stripped the attachment off of the email. Tried to work on it again this morning, but no luck.
That didn't stop us from talking, though. He's moving again, this time to Inglewood. Now Inglewood has some pretty rough sections, but he assures me his neighborhood is nice. Not too far from the scary areas, but we weren't too far from scary areas when we lived in the LBC. Hey, he'll be closer to the Fabulous Forum where the Lakers no longer play.
We discussed music, of course, and what TSA and I have been up to. Also discussed my plans to turn my guitar case into a harmonica case. He came up with an even better idea, find an old harp case, you know that orchestra instrument and turn that into a "harp" case. While I truly love the idea, the problems with it would be finding an old harp case and, having found a harp case and converting it to carrying harmonicas, fitting it into my car. Then again, I've been known to go a long way for a bad joke.......
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 8:08 AM 
