I have been remiss!
My last posting was in February, and the funny thing is my Blogger Stats
tell me that Today was my most-viewed day so far! I cannot believe this. It’s as if I missed the bus! Or maybe my people happened upon it today for
some reason (Easter? A day off?), and they haven’t read that post before. That would be good. Most importantly, did they psychically sense that
I would (finally) post today, so it seems they got the right message a little early? Huh? What? These are questions which arise.
I’ve
been busy, building the success of “First Mondays at The Monkey House” in Winooski. You can find The Monkey House on Facebook or
on their own website. Google. (I put posters up on an “Event Page” there,
in Facebook land.) The Monkey House is a
nice club/bar just across the river from Burlington. (I’ve probably said all this before – I actually
don’t go back and read every post before posting anew. That just shows how much I know.)
The first First Monday was in February, and my guest was
an excellent world /modern band, “Bad Accent,” one of my favorite bands. Google. Then the second First Monday was in
March, with Bruce Burgess and Phil Yates, and that was great. Bruce did once tune, and Phil did a nice solo
set closing the night.
The third First Monday, in April, for
me was epic – I got to play music with other people after quite a hiatus. I’ve been concentrating on a weekly Public
Access TV Show for the last 2 years - 133 Episodes, most of which you can still
see on Youtube! Put up some individual
tunes, too. Check out “Roadrunner” by “Johnny
Vermont”! That was my band, 20 years ago.)
4/7 First Monday
was with Live Jazz, featuring Ben Littenberg and Andrew Albright, and then I
played, and after a while Andrew joined me and we played. Then Dennis Willmott played, and he had brought
Dwight Richter! They invited me to play
too, and they didn’t have to beg. Dwight
is a heck of a guitar player, writer and singer (main gig - Dwight and Nicole)
but I didn’t know he played drums. Or
bass. Or piano…on 4/7 he was on
percussion, and he kicked ass. So did we
all.
Dennis Willmott is returning for April’s five-act 5/5
First Monday coming up. Dennis (blues),
Chris True (singer-songwriter), The Trackside Incident (bluegrass trio), Trevor
Ayer (singer-songwriter guitarist - who is returning for the following First
Monday with his Power Rock trio Astrocat in June), and me. I won’t play the songs I did last time and not
as many, cause we have five acts. If we each
take 40 or 45 minutes, that’ll take us from 7:00 to 10:30. I’m looking forward to it.
It takes
a little while to set these things up.
That is Bad Blogger’s first excuse – the second is that he had to “practice
for the show.”
The third is concerned with my basement storage space, which
was 3 X 3’ (basically two cubic yards), into which I fit a bicycle, bike rack, my
stock of old CDs still in their factory boxes, 10 boxes of empty jewel cases, a
few paintings, and a few more boxes of crap.
Actually, 30-year-old Heavy Metal magazines aren’t crap, especially in
archival envelopes. (I gave up on
selling all the CDs, and I often burn CDs for myself and friends, so I always
need a supply of cases, so I threw out some of my old CDs and converted them
into fresh jewel-cases. I admit it.) The important thing was that I had to MOVE
all that stuff UP to my Small Apartment cause the landlord is phasing out the
storage spaces (part of a larger plan). So
we had a deadline, and I had to meet it, so I met it.
Which
gave me a need to face my LP and 45 situation – the collection needs organizing
and archiving. SO I bought five boxes of
each size in corrugated plastic to hold a few hundred of each, so I could make room
in my closet. Now I sell all those cute
old 45 boxes I’ve had for decades. I will
have more efficiency in my storage…my closets…my brain.
It all
took time. And I must admit it has kept
me from writing. I can’t believe 20
people tuned in today (Easter) and saw the same old Blog from last time. I can ONLY HOPE that they are people who had
never checked before, or read those entries before, and thus were thoroughly
entertained, instead of annoyed.
Positive thinking is good. It can
also be bad, but that’s another story.
You know the Nike slogan, “Just Do It!”?
If it means jumping off a cliff, don’t do it. You know?
Just Don’t Do It.
I got a
new camera – traded one, actually – it’s from 2011, so it’s “old” in some ways,
but not in most. It’s a Lumix, with
powerful zoom, a bunch of metapickles, and takes great shots in dim light. The world of music is a dim world. It’s less complex than my old Canon, but much
easier to carry. And I got to give
someone I love a better camera than what they had. Long story short, so that’s it.
The lake
melted a week or so ago; it is Spring.
We had a nice rain, so the crap from under the snow is gone. That stuff is awful. Everyone had or has a cold. But soon we get to see GREEN. I’ll see less of the lake, but it will be
worth it.
April
and May is when the building management will have a contractor replace All the
windows in 65 apartments! And the
bathroom: all but the showers and tubs. May
may be dusty in here…AND I have to move a ton of stuff at least 3 feet from ALL
the windows so that’s a lot of moving, then moving back. Glad I don’t have to move the stereo or
books. I did redo the stereo recently with
the addition of another small shelving unit.
Sorted all the spaghetti (wires), made things look a whole lot better in
the corner with the TV and the rest.
When
they’re done smashing the sheetrock and lugging toilets in and out, I’m getting
a vanity with the new sink. Funny – a “vanity”
which will have cleaning products in it, and soap. Rolls of paper. Vanity. Wonder what a Modern medicine chest looks like
compared to one from the 1970s, which is what I have? Bad Blogger is obsessive and defensive when
his lair is invaded and rebuilt. Then he
gets over it. Spring!
