Saturday Scramble

[snoozefestaudio]

Well, I didn't wake up until 3PM today! I went to bed around 5AM, so I slept ten hours. And now I have to scramble to get too many things done with my paltry little weekend.

Right off the bat, Home Depot's getting pushed to tomorrow, because traffic's already picking up, and I have to check my inventory in the shop before I can go.

More about that below, but I also got a notice in the mailbox that the rotary phone mike was here yesterday, but they needed me to sign for it... for some ridiculous reason... so now I have to reschedule that.

My flat washers came, which is good, but that delivery also included an electronic guitar tuner which... requires a power plug, but did not come with one! So I have to figure out what to do about that!

Meanwhile, the neighbors next door are having another back yard party, which means I may not be able to mow today!

And the plywood on the porch is still waiting for me to flip it over and complete the second coat of preservative.

--<>--

Okay, so down in the shop, I need to;

• Figure out how much hardware I have on hand for the new rigging.
  
  The nice thing about the unistrut is you can fasten all kinds of stuff to it, as long as you have these little spring loaded inserts, and I had a few extra, but how many?
  
  
• Also, how many of the eye bolts and S hooks do I have left over from HD1.0?
  
  
• I know I have the necessary pulleys, because I bought four of them for the fallen tree last fall... but I have to find them.
  
  
• And I need to see how many nuts I have, and what sizes I need, if I don't.
  
  
• Lastly, I need to see how much PVC pipe I have down there, and what sizes... then figure out what fittings will be needed to make two new counterweights.
  
  
• Oh yes, and don't forget... I have to take snapshots of the house trim to get samples of the shade of blue that I'll need that paint to be!
  

So, I figure I'll just get all of that taken care of today, so that I can fly off to Home Depot first thing tomorrow, and get everything I need.

--<>--

I'm still waking up, drinking my coffee at 4:10PM, and I don't even know where to start!.. maybe the post office.

------------{=0=}------------

5:37PM
Okay, I got off my ass and knocked out a few things here...



I rescheduled the delivery of the rotary phone mike for monday and left instructions to either phone me, or activate the Ring doorbell.

Hopefully they show up before I leave at 2:20PM.

I wanted to have them leave it in a locker for me, but that option's no longer available for some unknown reason.



I also found the correct power plug for the digital tuner and ordered that on Amazon for nine bucks... and that should be here on Monday as well.



And I got out on the porch, flipped the plywood, and hit the topside with more preservative... completing two coats around the whole sheet.

Now I just have to wait for it to dry, and I'll start in with the epoxy wood filler.

So now all I need to do is get down in the basement and assess my inventory... then get out back and mow the back yard before dark.

------------{=0=}------------

7:55PM

Okay, so after the last part of the entry, it was time for the big Saturday dog walk.

Yvette and I were out for about half an hour.

And after that, I had to run to Fiesta Food Mart for smokes.

And when I got back, it was time to mow the lawn.

I just got back in from doing that... the back yard all the way up past the shed.

The next door neighbors continued their balloon party, with music, and grilled food, through the whole thing, totally unphased by me and my mower.

And they're still out there now.

So now, it's time for me to cool down, and then get into the basement to do the final task on my list, before it's conference call time with Tim, Colleen, and Sheila, tonight.

------------{=0=}------------

9:20PM

I'm on the phone now with the sibs, but I did get down into the basement...



I have most of the hardware I need, but I do need more of the unistrut connectors. And the fourth pulley is upstairs.



I brought the counterweight down, but I can't open it up until I buy a huge pair of channel locks.



But I do have enough left over 4" PVC to make two new counterweights out of what I have.



I also then discovered that the hot water heater relief valve appears to have let some water out at some point recently... with most of the middle of that puddle having dried up, but the edges still wet.

I called Matt about it. I need to flush the water heater and see if that helps.

I'll write more about all of this tomorrow, but it would probably help if I ran the hot water more, so that it gets more cold water into the tank to lower the temperature.

Okay... gotta get to the phone call.

°¦}
















POST SCRAMBLE RAMBLE

It's nearing 1:30AM, and I'm off the phone, but not quite ready to wind on down.

This ramble is not necessary to read. It's gonna be about music related stuff.

For whatever reason, one person, name Sasha, from Dnipro, Ukraine, keeps playing, Closer To You, the song I recorded over the summer.

They come back every day or two and play it two to six times.

But if I go to their profile, it's all in Ukranian, and the other music they listen to is actually pretty good Ukranian pop that I dug... but I don't understand the words.

And who knows why Sasha likes the one song of mine so much, or if they can understand the lyrics.

But it does show that music is universal... or at least, that western style music has become nearly universal... such that a person in Ukraine can like something I composed, and I can like stuff they listen too, based purely on the music, without knowing the words.

And it's gotten me thinking a lot about my genre problem.

Like, I know that I am a competent musician, and that there is some kind of audience out there... peppered around the world... who would be into it.

But it's impossible to reach those people without being able to communicate the genre correctly.

But I've yet to find an existing genre heading that would not lead followers of that genre to be disapointed in my stuff and say, "This isn't ROCK," or, "This isn't Postmodern!" or whatever.

--<>--

FOLK POP...

is probably the best description of my stuff that I've arrived at so far... just in the last couple days.

Now, "FOLK POP," does not actually exist, and would not be a hashtag anybody's searching with.

And neither term is what I would've thought to call my stuff at any point in the past, but the two terms together, actually do describe it all pretty well.

At the heart of my music, I've always been a guy... playing a guitar... singing about the working class life, in a working class town.

And that's folk!

But the problem (for folk enthusiasts) is that the guitar in question is a bass guitar, and the chord progressions and melodies are a lot more modern and sophisticated than classic folk.

Classic folk is one chord... maybe two. And the melodies are very monotone as well.

But that doesn't change the fact that folk is also... poor people picking up guitars and singing about stuff going on down on the ground in their peasant lives.

And on that count... my music is more folk than any other genre.

But the modern chord structures and melodies are informed by the fact that I grew up in the modern world!

I am not a boy on a farm in 1885!

I am a boy who grew up in the late 20th century... post Sinatra, post Beatles... and in the midst of Punk, and New Wave... not to mention, the reign of John Williams, as the composer of every damn movie soundtrack from Star Wars, through to Harry Potter!

All of these influences have gone into what I do.

But there's no common thread between the, Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack, the Beatles, and the Violent Femmes... other than, POP!

They were all... popular forms of music.

--<>--

So, I think that, FOLK POP, really is the most accurate description of my music.

But if I said to somebody, "Oh yeah, you'll love this!.. It's FOLK POP," they'd laugh!

Because not only is there no such thing as FOLK POP, but what the hell would that even sound like, and why would anybody try to do it?

--<>--

Most people, if pressed, will tell you that COUNTRY, is the only music that they cannot stand, and will not listen to.

But that's only because they forgot that FOLK, was even a genre.

And if you remind them that FOLK exists... they'll say, "Oh yeah, that too! I hate folk!"

And this actually makes sense, because COUNTRY, is just southern FOLK music, and both of them come from a time before BLUES... or, "black music," came along!

Of course, BLUES, completely revolutionized modern music, giving us not just BLUES itself, but also the entire multiverse of, JAZZ, ROCK, and HIP HOP.

And thus, BLUES related chord structures and melodies have dominated music for a century now, and now have a global influence... all the way into China and India!

FOLK, meanwhile, is just some vestigial European bullshit music carried over from the dark ages into the Americas, back in the 1600s or so.

--<>--

But on the other end of the spectrum, POP, has always been a remarkably controversial genre of music... because it's popular!

Most people's first reaction to a viral POP song is to HATE it!

It's just pandering to the lowest common denominator!.. It's brainless fluff!

Anybody with a discerning ear, for a good and honest genre of music must dismiss POP out of hand, as garbage with no integrity!

Yet, if you play, for anybody, a POP song that was huge, ten or twenty years ago... now they LOVE it!

Man! Does it bring them BACK! Those were the DAYS!

--<>--

The same is true for John Williams, whose movie soundtracks are beloved by millions.

If you ask a classical musician... no!.. that's not classical at all! That's just POP garbage ripped off from the masters!

--<>--

So... both, "FOLK," and, "POP," are dirty words to most people.

And thus, to create a kind of music that can only be described as, FOLK POP, is to be an abomination in the eyes of God!

And so... it makes sense that I am the only person who ever blundered into such a Frankenstein genre.

Me... the obsessed with crickets & library sound effects guy...

Me... the Don Quixote of plywood cellar hatch doors...

Me... who thinks the only thing better than owning a haunted shack, is that it's in Aurora Illinois... because if it weren't BOTH... it wouldn't be paradise!

Why would I not... be FOLK POP?

--<>--

So... if you ever thought you were different and weird, but then found out later that, no, you actually fit into a known, named group, of people with specific tastes and traits...

Take heart!

Because, I did not want to be different or weird, and I always thought I'd find the named group of people who shared my specific tastes and traits... and they don't exist!

Belive me!..

The internet's been around for THIRTY years now!

I would KNOW, if there was ANYBODY even REMOTELY similar to me, ANYWHERE on the PLANET, by now!

And there is not.

Though, Sasha from Dnipro Ukraine does like the one song I wrote, kind of a lot.

--<>--

Okay, that's the post scramble ramble.

Now it's time to hit the sack!

Gotta get to Home Depot tomorrow, and finish mowing the lawn!


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