Greetings, whoever-reads-this! The title of this blog is something I scribbled on a sheet of paper. I do a fair amount of scribbling. Sometimes it's worth sharing. Positive and just a little bit looney-tunes…
Music news. Trying to get back to more-or-less daily guitar practice these days. Real life has intruded, but I'm making the effort to keep it all together. I still do scales & arpeggios in all 12 keys, something I actually got from a Clarinet Method Book. I run them several times, and at different metronome markings. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get through it.
The scales are relatively easy, but the arpeggios give me all kinds of agita. It's much easier to play vertically than horizontally, for some damn reason. And to make matters even worse, I also try and use more awkward fingerings, to make myself work harder. That's my Castor Oil. Straightening by fire…
In other music news, I was saddened to hear that the Springfield Area Arts Council is no longer doing Uptown Friday Night , or the Artist on the Plaza stuff in the Summer. Both of these events were a lot of fun for a lot of years.
I played the Friday Night Jazz happy hour gigs with both my groups(quartet and trio)and with countless other bands since they started it some 30 years ago. There were more than a few occasions where I played every Friday of the month with four different groups, And I did plenty of solo guitar things in the Summer for the Artist on the Plaza events.
And for us aging codgers- some of whom, like myself, who've been there from the beginning- they're just about the only gigs we still do with any regularity.
So we'll see what shakes out around here. I do most of my stuff here in the Music Lab these days, but it's still cool- and necessary!- leaving the house to make music with other humans. Aside from the Arts Council stuff, I still sub with Ocean State when they need me. And something always seems to come up at The Pharmacy.
It's been a hell of a year. I had to fork out the dinero for a new roof and automobile. I went through a bunch of medical appointments, which seem to be par for the course these days. And I had a lot of family stuff.
But it's all good. I'm more or less ready for what the new year may bring. The roof doesn't leak anymore and I now have a nice modern vehicle with all the requisite bells and whistles. And I've gained back the weight I lost, which should make my Doctor happy- or at least keep him from sending me to any more damn Specialists.
And that's what I've got in the way of news. Thanks as ever for stopping in and reading. Much love, and good wishes for the coming year. Ich bin outa here. More later.
PS A referral, on something I just viewed: The documentary by Terry Zwigoff of Robert Crumb is worth watching. R. Crumb's stuff was downright visionary back in the 70s. A friend and I used to sit and pore over every frame, back in High School days. Crumb and his brothers are deeply disturbed individuals- all in three different ways- and it gets very dark at times. That's part of the fascination. I was intrigued and creeped out all in the same breath.