My wife and I have a communication problem. Over the years we have managed to keep this from being a marriage problem. I am sure it would have driven other couples crazy.
I have a really bad habit of mixing pro-nouns; names, cities, sports teams. To give you an idea, I would call up my wife and say, “… pick me up at Home Depot when you are done”. She would call and say, “where are you”?
“I am waiting for you outside”, would be my reply. ……… she would then ask if I meant Home Depot or Lowe’s ……. yep. This is where I mess up all the time. I might say it with confidence, but I use the wrong proper name way too often. I am at Lowe’s.
My wife interchanges nouns. She will ask me to hand her the book. After a few seconds she gets impatient and wonders if I am listening to her. Again, but louder, she will ask me to hand her the book. I have scoured the immediate area and see no book. I will ask her if she means the glass and she will say, “that’s what I asked for”.
This does not happen all the time or we would be dead already. But it happens often.
This is an early recording of a Cincinnati band “Chakras”. I recorded them back when I used the ADAT digital tape recorder. It does not have the ‘bling’ of modern recordings but I think you will enjoy the performance.
I post about my past and what I see in the present. I post what I have done and I try to post what I feel. That is what we all want to read: feelings. Experiences. Humor and all the rest.
I have learned a lot. I have forgotten way too much. I regret little but would like to change the past if I could. But I learn.
I mentioned I have been in Management of Sales – Service – Marketing for decades. A post or two will jab at bosses and managers that knew nothing and the ones that were great. One of the worst managers I ever had taught me the most. He mentioned that he had to change the way he thought about many things. His mother was struggling to live and suffering for a long long time. He would visit her regularly and help where he could; no matter how inconvenient.
Eventually, he began to talk in terms of ‘having to see his mother’, of responsibility and burden. He told a number of us that it wasn’t until he realized this might be the last time he could talk and laugh and remember with his mother, that everything changed. He did not HAVE to visit his mother, he was given another chance to. Every one became precious.
As a member of a fitness gyms over the years, I took Yoga, Pilates, and martial arts training. I tried for years to meditate as suggested by all. I simply cannot stop my mind and concentrate on nothing. My brain does not shut off at night when I want to go to sleep. I could not focus long enough. Then a fill-in Yoga instructor that was not very good at all suggested that the idea is not to block all thoughts and make your mind blank……
But as thoughts and ideas come acknowledge them – and then let them go. “I know you are there and I will think about you later” kind of a thing.
Great advice from the places I would expect it the least.
I posted another you-tube segment of Crash Landing playing cover tunes at a gig in Cincinnati back in 2002. This is the last segment of the 1st set. I tried to break them up into chunks so they are not huge files.
I ran a straight line out from the mixing board. Few live recordings are perfect, and over the years I tried a number of ways to get a good mix. Keep in mind I record all the time so this was not a special occasion and I don’t even think I told the band members we were recording.
I am still collecting new photos from friends and relatives and will add them to future posts. So sit down and grab your favorite beverage and listen to a great live band!
I’ve been thinking all day of when I get you home After everyone has gone and we’re finally alone. Like a good dog I’m gonn’a give you a bone.
I hear his mouth running all over town Talking shit and calling me a clown. I am headed over there now to put him down.
But I’m feeling rather tired And it’s time for a nap. It’s been years since I retired And it’s time for a nap.
Rewarded or punished for decisions we make Climbing this mountain is a piece of cake. Just another day or so beyond the lake.
Dream what you remember Remember what you dream. After all these years I found out It’s just about the same thing.
I bought three books and can’t wait to start Two of them are very close to my heart. I’ll read them all tonight, then put more in my cart.
I’ve been thinking all day of when I get you home After everyone has gone and we’re finally alone. Like a good dog I’m gonn’a give you a bone.
But I’m feeling rather tired And it’s time for a nap. It’s been years since I retired Sleepy from my morning snack. You can see I’m rather tired And it’s time for my nap!
Here is the 2nd installment of my live recording of Crash Landing back in 2002. I played with them for a number of years. First as a sound guy. I knew the singer Gary Jefferson and he pulled me into the group. Gary and I go back a few years. He knows everyone and has played all over town. I have helped him with outside projects and you can hear his vocals on a lot of my original songs. Great people are hard to come by, but they will be there for you when you need.
I wish I had more video to share. I have a call out to other band members and friends to send me copies of anything they have. I have created videos for years but never really did much during this time. Again, I wish I had. Here is the next section of an evening with Crash Landing. This is still the first set and we are getting warmed up. Settling into the sound. That is the toughest thing about one-night-gigs; everything sounds so strange for the first 3 or four songs at the minimum. Depending on the sound guy/gal, this could take up to an entire first set to get comfortable.
I don’t have records of who was running sound this night. With this band I USED to run sound from the audience, then became a band member and ran sound and played/sang from out in the crowd using our own equipment! In many ways that was very cool. After a while we hired sound companies and I just don’t know who was at the board.
I hope you enjoy a night out – to hear a live band – without leaving your home. It’s like you are at the show, but you can still have one more drink and not have to drive home!
I have written in earlier posts about my experience with the Ohio Medical Marijuana program, so I wanted to make an easy outline to date.
Your application for a medical card in Ohio has to be approved by a certified state doctor. There are a limited number of them as most doctors do not want to touch cannibals until federally legalized or decriminalized to some extent. You have to pay to register for the card and then pay to see the certified doctor – wherever they are in the state. Each year you have to pay to renew your Ohio card. Additional doctor visits may be required.
There are very few dispensaries currently open for business and fewer growers. The numbers are strictly limited, but most of the dispensaries are not open yet because the growers do not have enough ‘medicine’ to go around.
Once harvested it must go through testing and approval which also costs money.
Make no mistake; this is a money making business every step of the way.
Everyone that handles this process must operate with cash. The laws to make marijuana a Schedule 1 narcotic in the US was politically motivated and intentionally used as a weapon against ‘dissidents’ and other groups considered unfriendly. Because it is still a Schedule 1 narcotic it is a federal offense to ‘launder’ drug money. Banks are even prohibited from accepting legal monies because they are federally insured. Same with credit cards.
That means you have to use cash (or other versions like debit cards and pay-pal in some cases). You are buying medicine but still feel treated like a criminal.
Prices are very high – I have been told Ohio is the most expensive state to purchase medical marijuana. Part of this is because not all the growers are on-line and harvesting and that opens up to supply and demand rules. Few have it so they can raise the price up to any point people will still pay. Part of it is because EVERYONE has to get a cut of the profit. Each step in the process costs a little bit here – a little more there. All for something I could grow at home ……………………………………… but no. The Ohio laws stop us from doing that.
We can not smoke ‘plant material’ as the industry likes to call it. You have to use a vape pen with a ceramic chamber to heat up the marijuana to the right temperature so as not to burn the plant material but to ‘toast’ it enough to release the THC or CBD. That means you have to buy a device just for this. Another cost.
Not ideal for patients and care providers but at least I can cross buying marijuana legally off my bucket list!
Recently I went to see some of my old band-mates playing out. I have always been the ‘senior’ member of the bands I have been fortunate to be associated with. NOT that I was with the band from the beginning but that I am usually the oldest member of the bands. Usually by ten years or so. As a result a few of my friends from old bands are still playing out in the city. It is always a pleasure to see what they are up to and catch up on life.
My drummer in Crash Landing was playing with one of his current bands and we got a chance to talk. His son is also taking up the drums and thought it would be cool if he could share some of the old recordings with him. He asked me if I could get him copies of what I have.
For you new to this blog I record a lot. Practice sessions, private parties, small gigs, writing songs in the late evening. I started with reel-to-reel tape machines since the 1970’s or so. The recordings sound and look as old as I feel, but they preserve the events and people involved.
I am a Singer Song-Writer. I write my lyrics and melody, decide the chord arrangement and structure of the song. That is what got me started singing. Then percussion. Then guitar and recording and working at music stores and learning sound reinforcement and recording techniques and….. In some ways playing with a cover band was torture. The bands members were really talented and experienced. I kept thinking they could do great things with my originals or create new amazing songs.
The thing about cover bands is that thegood ones can do anything. Think about it. They can sound like so many other bands from one song to the next. They make the instruments and effects sound like the original. The solos are dead on and more often than not; improved. No over dubs: no guest artists. All this while they cannot hear themselves, people are yelling and drinking right in front of them and the sound guy is either drunk or deaf in both ears.
The audio recording was from a live performance. According to the DAT case it was 11-16-2002. This was a small club and I decided to record on my Panasonic two-track digital DAT machine. I was not mixing at this time so the recording success was limited. I grabbed a stereo feed from two subs and hoped for the best. I have a number of examples of live recording techniques in my LSR Series linked at the top if you have an interest.
I will get into more details on this particular recording and show other examples of recording results in later posts. For now, let me just say that the recordings are from one night. This is what we sounded like if you were in the audience. There are no cuts and if you put this series back to back when all are posted it will be the entire evening minus a few technical disasters. Here is the YOUTUBE link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3NTGTnemF8
CRASH LANDING live 2002
The band members did not know I was recording. I just set it up in ten minutes and left it alone. Unfortunately, I did not shoot videos of Crash Landing. I wish I had for kicks and giggles.
As a creative person, I will often get struck with ideas or projects and even solutions to existing work-blocks without notice. (this is a good thing lol) If I can’t preserve the thoughts at the time there is a good probability I might lose them forever. So I try to get to the computer, writing pad, recorder quickly.
Invariably, I find myself in a creative mood with a great thought…….. ready to capture what will be my greatest work…….. only to have to wait for the computer to do a software download and update. Then comes the mandatory restart and my idea is totally gone. I go to record in my home studio and face load times, cables not connected for this project, something decides not to work for no reason other than it knows I am in a hurry and other events that would be funny in other situations. I can’t find a pen and the pencil point breaks and the notebook is downstairs.
When I get a cup of tea and a block of time to get things done I like to power up my computer or studio and start working. I don’t want to wait for the updates. I am on a mission.
I feel the same way about other areas. If I need to vacuum the floor, I don’t want to empty the container first. When I am ready to paint, I don’t want to stop and clean all the brushes first.
It might seem to others that I waste a lot of time on preventive maintenance and cataloging, but I know the frustration of losing something that could be wonderful.
In February of last year I had bi-lateral carpel tunnel surgery. I wrote about this in an earlier article. The surgeon slices a wide muscle apart to make room for everything else in your hand that slides underneath. The muscle bands grow back together when you heal.
Some people thought I was crazy for doing both at the same time. I was working and had insurance and could have strung out the surgeries over the majority of a year. I had a couple thoughts on the process. If I strung it out I would not be able to play guitar, keyboards or drums for a long time. I know from past experience it takes a while to get your ‘chops’ back when you have not played your instrument for a while. I also knew I would need up build up strength and flexibility after surgery.
I also did not want to have one ‘bad’ hand while my right hand was healing. I would be unable to do a lot of daily stuff anyway, so I might as well do them at the same time.
I have lived with a number of left-handed people all my life. I often tried to mimic them by trying to use my left hand for simple tasks. It also gave me a different perspective on a lot of seemingly unrelated things. After allowing my hands to heal and stitches removed I thought this would be a good opportunity to ‘train’ both hands during physical therapy exercises. So I treated both hands the same. I did the exercises but I also used both hands as evenly as possible to get dressed, eat, and stay alive while my hands were healing and getting stronger.
So as a little challenge, try using your non-dominant hand for everything you can for one week.
Brush your teeth. Write a letter. Comb your hair. Carry a full cup of tea or coffee. Tie your shoes. As much as possible. I really got much better with my left hand during recovery. I did not try to imitate my right hand movements; that just gave me a headache. Rather I looked at my left hand and back at the task and let my hand decide how to move. Give it a try.
