General Music Chat

WARNING: whining thread!

My truck's broke down at the Food Lion.

My 'puter's flooked up.

My sinuses are killin' me & my ear is clogged to the point I can't hear out of it.

My work is not getting done.

My wallet's empty & I can't afford to tow the truck this week, let alone get the starter replaced. My hands are too big to get in there & fix it myself, & my mechanic hurt himself & can't get to it, either..

My friend with the tow strap isn't answering his phone.

DIBBITZ!

I think there's a blues song in here somewhere, but I ain't got the time to work it up.

Here's hopin' your day's going better than mine is, cuz I'm a grumpy monkey today...

stay strong. ull make it.

My life's been on the sucky side too bro.

I try and remind myself that storms, whether physical or spiritual, only last a while, and the calm that follows them usually lasts longer.

Not that you have this problem, but attitude makes a huge difference. When we are positive we attract more positive elements of life and the universe to ourselves. I have been a real ass lately, especially at home, feeling depresed over our financial situation and music and everything. My wife kind of laid into me, but fairly and lovingly (well, sort of lovingly. LOL) and I had to really reflect and take her words to heart. I had a choice to make. Do I want to give up and be a selfish person and stop trying? I actually thought about what I was capable of or not. And I decided, that life is not worth anything, without trying. Without continuing to fight the good fight. Getting back up, and stop feeling sorry for myself, and be the loving person I try to be, and want to be.

Amazingly, the next day, my wife got a job. A good job. And a few days later, they love her there, and the regional manager found out that I am a performer. He is sick of the guy who plays at his favorite club, where he goes EVERY Friday night, cause the dude apparently doesn't make a huge effort to bring new material from time to time, etc.. He does only originals and apparently not very good ones. In any event, my wife's regional manager knows the owners of this club, and it is PACKED every weekend, cause though it is a smaller club, it is the main club there, and EVERYONE goes there on the weekends.

He asked my wife for a CD of my stuff, and there was one in the car, so she gave it to him. He said he will listen to it on the way home with his wife, and this Friday he is going to personally give it to his friends, the club owners, and talk to them about me gigging there EVERY Friday night!

At least for me, a change in heart and attitude, changed ALOT this week.

Wish you good fortune and a change in the winds.

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Oh yeah,

And I forgot to mention that I found out why my buddy wanted a recording of me doing the National Anthem...

A guy he works with (my friend is a professional DJ here) runs a business doing DJ's and also commercials for Radio and other things too, like providing announcers for boxing matches and stuff. Apparently they know alot of people, and he is going to be working on getting me a few very short gigs...

Singing the National Anthem at some big boxing matches.

And "maybe" singing the National Anthem at a Jaguars NFL game!!!!

So yeah, at least for me, a change in heart, a recommittment, has opened alot of doors lately! But I had to endure the storm first, and keep my faith in the midst of it.

I'm sure things will turn around for you as well.

Be positive, even when it seems unreasonable. If nothing else, it will make you healthier, and it is contagious and may very well help inspire others around you!

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Thanks, rycky - I'm trying...

Hey, Craig. How is your "Americana" project going? I've been reminded of that recently...

I tried a different way to go pick up Jace, & I found this really neat little private road named "Americana La." It's a nice lil area, & I'll try to get a pic for you, if you'd like, for your CD cover. It's beautiful right now, with the trees changing colors & all. It'd be gratis, of course. I ain't no photographer, but there's a cpl angles that I'd bet would look great. I'll try to get to that for you sometime today or tomorrow, if I can, before the leaves drop & all.

Yeah...it's tough to be positive right at this moment, but life is still beating the hell out of the alternative, so it ain't all bad.

Good luck with that Fri night gig. Wow! That national anthem thing could be really good for you as well. Good luck with it all.

Phil,

You touched my heart. Yeah, I would love a pic of that street sign if you have the time. It would be useful either for a CD cover as you mentioned, or just for use in web-design for my Americana page, or something related. Very kind of you to offer.

The wife and I have been struggling financially for a few years now, and my former band was part of that. I had invested so much, and my wife sacrificed so much, and we were just at the point where it was about to pay off big, when they pulled that stunt of theirs. I'm still not fully over it. They may be nothing more than a modest cover band at this point, but hell, at least they were playing out, which I wasn't. It almost made me quit music for good, which... If I don't start getting a payday from it, may be a possiblility still.

But it looks like things are turning around some.

We still have a HUGE nightmare of my wife's sons being in juvie. One is about to be out within a month probably though. But he still has probation for a year. The other son, unless some miracle happens, will have 4 years more, just because he is 2 years older than the younger son. It's going to be hard on our family still, for a long while, but when the younger son comes home, we will be that much closer to being complete again.

This could have broken us all. It almost ended my marriage.

But as they say, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

All our hearts in this family have been widened and deepened through all that we have been through together. It will make our family stronger, not destroy it!

Thanks again for the kind gesture.

I appreciate it very much!

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well said craig. there must be storms for flowers to grow.

well said craig. there must be storms for flowers to grow.

Thank you brother, and so true about flowers. Hell, life itself was brought forth out of chaos (big bang) and the Bible hints at this as well... "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

A new creation is formed out of the remains or rubble of the previous state of existence. Even something as simple as pottery, is first shaped by hands digging into it, and making it supple, and then, horrors, put through an intense fire. But what happens? It is FORMED into a beautiful and useful object, and STRNGTHENED through the flames, into something sturdy, that will hold up for ages as a result.

Maybe Phil is about to become a new creation?

Hopefully me too!

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Don't count on it, Craig - I'm still a dick.

Don't count on it, Craig - I'm still a dick.

ROTFLMFAO!!!!


Should have known the fuzzy feelings of this thread couldn't last forever.

LOL

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Sounds like a country song ... Phil

Yea life can throw you around every now and then . I really agree that you have to keep looking at the good in everything, even when there does'nt seem to be any. I turned 49 today, and the last week has been super crazy . A bass player I played with several years back called and we've got a super sounding project started . After the first couple of jams we're really starting to click. I'm rusty as hell on guitar as I 've been playing bass in another cover band which has come together really well. And my buddy who's been pissed at me for several months now called to make up and put a difference or two behind us, so I'll be back to playing with him again also. Funny how you can go from 0 to 3 bands in one week. I'm hping we will have a demo in our original project started before Christmas . But I hope your days get better soon . I'm thinking good things for all my bandmix buddies ! Thats why I keep saying...

Its another day in Paradise !!!!

Phil.
My car is outside right now. (As it should be). Exhaust shot, the other day I noticed the lamp on my dashboard.
Alternator out too.

I live miles from anything that I need but the woods are calling. I dunno mate since culture shock still resides with me but I'm starting to like it. Couple of other issues all week long.

Probably there is a message there somewhere? I'm not sure what it is either? But go work it out you are not the only one.

damn philby.. I hate hearing stuff like this. We live in the greatest country in the world (at least that's what they tell us), yet we physically suffer because we can't afford proper medical care, even those of us with benefits can't afford the co-pays and deductibles. That surgery I recently had - I had to 'mortgage' the deductible and co-pay..

I hope things smooth out for you. Here's some advice (what I've done in recent months) to get finances under control

Quit bad habits- Smoking, drinking, caffeine... yeah, even coffee was costing us about $20 a week after we factored in the milk, sugar, etc.. Smoking was $70 a week, and alcohol (beer and wine, 1 a day, casual) was about $25 a week

Eat garbage - ramen, chef boy-ar-dee, salisbury steaks, etc.. I've got over 20 family meals for less than $5 for the whole thing.
Same for lunches, chef boy-ar-dee $1 per can of slop, $.37 cup-of noodles, you got soup and stew lol YUCK! heh.
There's also healthy stuff, cheap salad dressings, cucumbers, dreen peppers, some other veggies are pretty cheap (less than a dollar per, or 2-3 per dollar for cucumbers sometimes, so you got cucumber salad.. Egg noodles and other pasta products go on sale for a dollar a box (16 oz), so there's lots of options, not all bad.

Drop cable tv or house phone, whichever you don't use for internet-drop any monthly services you use that aren't absolutely necessary, like bmix yikes! hehe

if you are paying any loans that don't have collateral attached, and your credit already sucks - just skip a month, wait for them to call you (post 30 days late), and they will offer to help you get back on track by skipping the payment and adding to the end of the loan (most will anyways).

Drive less, car pool if possible.

Sell unused musical gear on craigslist. Stuff you won't regret at least. You will get a lot more than if you pawn it.

find side jobs, it's a good time of year to rake leaves (at least here up north), offer to work on PC's or fix music gear, advertise on craigslist any skills you have that someone who doesn't is willing to pay for, be an opportunist (I do home theater / HDTV setups and PC repair work on the side, charge $50/$35 hour respectively)

er.. hmm . started shopping at the thrift shops also (clothes and stuff). We go to discount grocers and dollar stores looking for deals.

I stopped buying new guitar gear lol, for the time being.

One fo the big ones for us was eating out - we justified "quick" meals a lot, simply because of lack of time, or being out and runnig around, etc... now we wait til we get home, or eat before we leave, but we just don't stop and eat out for any reason, ever.

I'm probably repeating stuff you already know, but hey, good luck, hope it gets better

I turned 49 today

Happy Birthday!

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