Last Friday night, 11/7/08, got a chance to play right here in my own 'hood at the Greenhouse restaurant. I can literally see it from where I'm sitting right now.
I occasionally go to their Thursday open mic night, which is run by a very good friend named Sky King. The Greenhouse is one of those places that has changed hands several times. Last year it was The Twig; before that, the Garlic Clove, and when we first moved to Warren 9 years ago it was Paramount Pizza. The Twig went whole hog into live music, and the Greenhouse has been getting into it as well. But it's a small place with a small budget.
The Open Mic works out well for them. If you're on the list, you get your first drink free, which is a good deal imho. The list fills up quickly, and the place stays packed until closing time. It's also one of the better open mics around; not so much because of the quality of the players, but just the atmosphere. You can tell that most of the people that play there only play in their own living room, but it's that love for the music that permeates everything.
Most places, you go to their open mic, you get to see a lot of people who are trying to get a group happening. And that means it's mostly people who aren't quite good enough to be in a working band. Which isn't necessarily bad, but the sad ones are the ones who think they're really good, and they really aren't. And everybody in the room knows it, except for them.
Hanging out on Thursday night at the Greenhouse is just flat-out fun. You haven't lived until you've sung "Good Night, Irene" with Sky. Anyway, I went there to play one evening and the owner came up and said that she'd love to have me come do a Friday night, but she couldn't afford me. It was very flattering, I must say. I assured her that she could afford me just fine. After all, it's a hundred yards from home! And, I love to play.
So we did the handshake and I went down. I got a free dinner, and we put out a tip basket, and it went very well. I've got to say I do like playing solo. More and more I'm treating solo gigs more like concerts; more chatter, and more stuff that I like to play or even wrote myself. It's more personal.
Not that I dislike playing with the band. Jon and Ken are excellent musicians and we have a great time. Band gigs tend to be more about getting people to dance than to listen. But I get to play electric guitar, and that's big-time cool.
The places I play solo are usually pretty small. Actually, the only other place I'm doing solo lately is the Colatina Exit in Bradford, VT, which is also a very nice gig. For PA, all I'm bringing is my powered board and a pair of monitors, which I lay on the floor and point toward the audience. I'm tellin' ya, these are small rooms. No need on bringing my 12's-and-horn mains and putting them up on stands.
So maybe I'll see you at a solo gig sometime soon. I'm playing the Colatina Exit on the 21st, and the Greenhouse the first Friday in December. In between, on the day after Thanksgiving, the Red Hat Band is at the Bridgewater Inn.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Sunday, November 09, 2008
And, of course, post-election thoughts
I'll cut right to the chase; I don't have a problem with President Obama. In fact, I am surprised to be able to report that I'm kind of thrilled.
Remember, I'm a child of the sixties. I still get a kick out of telling Lynn that I'm old enough to remember when the liberals were right. Racism didn't end when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclaimation. Nor when Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And it's not over yet.
If I were in Boston or some other urban area, late at night, walking down the street, with nobody else around, and suddenly noticed a black man walking behind me, I would be scared. And, I would be more scared than I would be if he were white. I admit it. Not because I believe in any real difference between the black man and his white counterpart, but because of the odds. There are more blacks in prison than whites, in spite of their being in the minority. And, because I'm not a city boy.
The change from racist to race-blind is an intellectual decision. It's wrong, I don't want to be wrong, so when I'm on that street and see that man's reflection in a window across the street, I just keep walking. It's too late now anyway. I acknowledge the flash of fear, tamp it down, and just keep moving calmly along. And this is not theoretical. I've done this, and been there. And here I am.
There are certain things I fear from an Obama presidency. And, I might not fear them from, for instance, a Hillary Clinton presidency. The Clintons represent the side of the Democratic party that knows the Republicans are mostly right, but hate them for personal reasons. They know that lower tax rates on the rich stimulates investment, and that raises revenues because you can only tax dollars that move. So, they don't do much about those tax rates. They inch them up a little, but more to manage the rate of inflation than anything else.
But Obama is a true believer. He thinks that Jimmy Carter was right, and that everything would have turned around if we'd have kept going that way. Between Eisenhower and Carter, the top tax rate hovered between 80 and 95%, whereas now it's about 35%. Obama and his wing are under some delusion that this not only creates job but increases federal revenues. Want to see the current economic crisis turn into the second great depression? Jack corporate tax rates back up. Ah, the good ol' days.
The other thing I'm afraid of is that he and Nancy Pelosi and their bunch will start to restrict my freedoms. They've made it pretty clear they'd like to see the Fairness doctorine reinstated, which would be a death blow to Rush Limbaugh and maybe even Fox News, depending on how the courts interpret it. This shows one of the big differences between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans have had years to do something about the obvious left-leaning bias of the mainstream media, and didn't make a move. They let the marketplace decide.
But the True Believers of the left are so convinced they're right, they can't tolerate dissent. So, to prove they're open-minded and loving, they'll try and shut down anybody who disagrees with them. Look what the Ohio Secretary of State tried to do to Joe the Plumber. These people know that Christians and conservatives are their enemy. They just know it!! So nobody can be free until we're not, right?
The other stuff isn't so much inducing fear as it is frustration. Federal entitlement programs will be expanded, which will get billions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of small-time petty thieves who could actually hold jobs if they had any ambition. On the up side, they'll also help a lot of people who need it. If they fill out the forms correctly, that is. The irony is, it's harder for honest people to get help from these programs than dishonest. People who would rather steal from the government than get a job they could easily do are better at filling out forms and jumping through hoops than people who are disabled or otherwise honestly need help.
But this is what the country wants. And I think it would be good to wait and see if it works out. First of all, you've got to admit, Barack Obama is obviously more honest than Bill Clinton. The fear I had about Slick Willie was that he'd sell out the country in a heartbeat if it served his own interests. Obama, on the other hand, at least appears to be more interested in serving his country.
And the simple fact is that sometimes it's time. If you really look at things, the biggest difference between the policies of Ronald Reagan and Herbert Hoover were the fifty years in between their administrations. Hoover got to preside over the stock market crash of '29 and the beginning of the great depression. The regulations imposed in the intervening years helped prevent the abuses that caused them. They also stifled business. So Reagan loosened things up again. Some regs were removed that shouldn't have been, and that gave us the housing bubble. But Clinton and the Dems are the ones to blame, because it was done to open the housing market to the underpriviliged.
Maybe now is the right time for compassionate liberalism. I think if they let their hopes lead instead of their fears it could be pretty good. Good enough to frustrate the hell out of a lot of conservatives that hate Democrats on principle alone. So I plan to give the man a chance.
Remember, I'm a child of the sixties. I still get a kick out of telling Lynn that I'm old enough to remember when the liberals were right. Racism didn't end when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclaimation. Nor when Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And it's not over yet.
If I were in Boston or some other urban area, late at night, walking down the street, with nobody else around, and suddenly noticed a black man walking behind me, I would be scared. And, I would be more scared than I would be if he were white. I admit it. Not because I believe in any real difference between the black man and his white counterpart, but because of the odds. There are more blacks in prison than whites, in spite of their being in the minority. And, because I'm not a city boy.
The change from racist to race-blind is an intellectual decision. It's wrong, I don't want to be wrong, so when I'm on that street and see that man's reflection in a window across the street, I just keep walking. It's too late now anyway. I acknowledge the flash of fear, tamp it down, and just keep moving calmly along. And this is not theoretical. I've done this, and been there. And here I am.
There are certain things I fear from an Obama presidency. And, I might not fear them from, for instance, a Hillary Clinton presidency. The Clintons represent the side of the Democratic party that knows the Republicans are mostly right, but hate them for personal reasons. They know that lower tax rates on the rich stimulates investment, and that raises revenues because you can only tax dollars that move. So, they don't do much about those tax rates. They inch them up a little, but more to manage the rate of inflation than anything else.
But Obama is a true believer. He thinks that Jimmy Carter was right, and that everything would have turned around if we'd have kept going that way. Between Eisenhower and Carter, the top tax rate hovered between 80 and 95%, whereas now it's about 35%. Obama and his wing are under some delusion that this not only creates job but increases federal revenues. Want to see the current economic crisis turn into the second great depression? Jack corporate tax rates back up. Ah, the good ol' days.
The other thing I'm afraid of is that he and Nancy Pelosi and their bunch will start to restrict my freedoms. They've made it pretty clear they'd like to see the Fairness doctorine reinstated, which would be a death blow to Rush Limbaugh and maybe even Fox News, depending on how the courts interpret it. This shows one of the big differences between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans have had years to do something about the obvious left-leaning bias of the mainstream media, and didn't make a move. They let the marketplace decide.
But the True Believers of the left are so convinced they're right, they can't tolerate dissent. So, to prove they're open-minded and loving, they'll try and shut down anybody who disagrees with them. Look what the Ohio Secretary of State tried to do to Joe the Plumber. These people know that Christians and conservatives are their enemy. They just know it!! So nobody can be free until we're not, right?
The other stuff isn't so much inducing fear as it is frustration. Federal entitlement programs will be expanded, which will get billions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of small-time petty thieves who could actually hold jobs if they had any ambition. On the up side, they'll also help a lot of people who need it. If they fill out the forms correctly, that is. The irony is, it's harder for honest people to get help from these programs than dishonest. People who would rather steal from the government than get a job they could easily do are better at filling out forms and jumping through hoops than people who are disabled or otherwise honestly need help.
But this is what the country wants. And I think it would be good to wait and see if it works out. First of all, you've got to admit, Barack Obama is obviously more honest than Bill Clinton. The fear I had about Slick Willie was that he'd sell out the country in a heartbeat if it served his own interests. Obama, on the other hand, at least appears to be more interested in serving his country.
And the simple fact is that sometimes it's time. If you really look at things, the biggest difference between the policies of Ronald Reagan and Herbert Hoover were the fifty years in between their administrations. Hoover got to preside over the stock market crash of '29 and the beginning of the great depression. The regulations imposed in the intervening years helped prevent the abuses that caused them. They also stifled business. So Reagan loosened things up again. Some regs were removed that shouldn't have been, and that gave us the housing bubble. But Clinton and the Dems are the ones to blame, because it was done to open the housing market to the underpriviliged.
Maybe now is the right time for compassionate liberalism. I think if they let their hopes lead instead of their fears it could be pretty good. Good enough to frustrate the hell out of a lot of conservatives that hate Democrats on principle alone. So I plan to give the man a chance.
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