Sunday, April 20, 2014

I AM A BAD BLOGGER 4-20-14 (Easter)




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!

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