Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[ric426]

at this very moment, I'm sitting on a tree stump chair in my back yard in front of God and everyone else as I fondle and rub my way huge russian pickle. Coupled with my favorite pipe and very good hand blended Danish tobacco, it is a great feeling!

I always thought I was a bit twisted, but this thread makes me feel down right normal...

 

[BadExample]

I feel no shame about this. I've done much worse things. Finished up a bunch of work on my rack, did most of restoring the PA I got my wife for our anniversary, and then started playing with my Way Huge Russian Pickle in my living room. It's lovely. OD green and fuzzy! I dig it! I can get as dirty as I want with it. And it likes a nice purple slab of Way Huge Pork Loin too!

 

[99Z3]

Most likely you might have been born that way.. it is just now that you realize it

Ok...I'm officially and forever weirded out

 

[Ken Morgan]

That's what my 3 shrinks, current wife, 2 exes, a dozen girlfriends, and everyone I've ever gigged with say, but I don't think so...

 

[BassmanPaul]

I’m sitting at the kitchen table talking to y’all while supping a cup of tea (naturally). On the Radio is Radio Merseyside airing a program on 'the day the music died.’ I had forgotten just how young the victims were. Buddy 22, Richie 17, The Big Bopper 28 and the pilot 21. What a waste!!!

 

[Ken Morgan]

We do forget that...the 'greatest generation' that fought WW 2 were 17-19 yr olds; Allman Bros were late 20s, the list of young yet highly influential people is endless.

Compare to today's younguns...purple hair, needing safe spaces from everything, and don't know how to function

 

[BassmanPaul]

Indeed, Buddy’s entire legacy was crafted over the last eighteen months of his life.

 

[BassmanPaul]

Still sitting at the kitchen table with a ham cooking on the stove. The rain has stopped and the sun is trying to peek out of the clouds.

It must be time for another cup o’ char!

 

[beans-on-toast]

Still sitting at the kitchen table with a ham cooking on the stove. The rain has stopped and the sun is trying to peek out of the clouds.

It must be time for another cup o’ char!

I worked with a guy who was a milkman outside Liddypool. He jumped the pond and worked most of his life here. When he retired, he got his regular pension and what turned out to be a good one from the UK. I think that they've since changed the rules and the deal is not as good as it was.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I’m sitting at the kitchen table talking to y’all while supping a cup of tea (naturally). On the Radio is Radio Merseyside airing a program on 'the day the music died.’ I had forgotten just how young the victims were. Buddy 22, Richie 17, The Big Bopper 28 and the pilot 21. What a waste!!!

A very good version of American Pie from the beeb..

 

[BadExample]

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[beans-on-toast]

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In the same vein as american pie, Ten Years After...

 

[agedhorse]

I had the oppprtunity to meet Richie Valen's mother and his old girlfriend Donna (yes, that Donna) while I was running the premiere of the movie La Bomba close to 30 years ago. Also worked with Don McClean, who is as good now as ever IMO.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Los Lobos did a great job in La Bamba, performing many of the songs on the soundtrack. Man, those gays can play anything. I love that band.

 

[Ken Morgan]

OK... so I've been thinking: why are we still doing this music thing if we are making the same (or less) money that we did 30 yrs ago?

 

[BadExample]

OK... so I've been thinking: why are we still doing this music thing if we are making the same (or less) money that we did 30 yrs ago?

Ken, you're doing it for the good of mankind.

I'm making about 4 x what I did 30 years ago, but it would be a wash for inflation if my wife didn't work and make almost as much as me. But music is not a way for me to earn money. I don't play outside of my own home... for the good of mankind

 

[Ken Morgan]

I spose so..mankind doesn't seem so impressed sometimes.

In 1987, was making btwn 60-100 bux a gig...
In 2017 for most things...the same thing, but dang glad to get it.

Just wondering what the next generation of 'working class pickers' will make? How will they survive, or will there even BE such a thing!? I don't know many folks playing right now with any regularity under the age of 55, and no one making a living at it in this part of the world without additional income.

 

[BadExample]

I spose so..mankind doesn't seem so impressed sometimes.

I'm sure you are impressing some... otherwise you'd fall back on your past occupation at the pickle factory.

Interestingly, my buddy @99Z3 and I had a bit of private conversation about the fading out and eventual death of live music. ALL the big clubs have shutdown in my area. The small jazz club is open for biz. The "stage" looks like the manican (sp?) window in an old downtown dept store. That one will never close because it's Indiana's oldest bar.

Knickerbocker Saloon | Midwest Lafayette, Indiana's Oldest Bar | Live Music Venue for Purdue and Downtown | Bands and Dancing

Oh, I see they expanded the stage, spin the pic around to see the entrance, placing the bar to the left, the bay window to the right of the door WAS the stage. They bought the biz behind the bar and connected it, but they can't really take out that original bar because it is the character of the building. So it's connected and the music is piped in.

There are probably some of the other old, old bars with small stages getting some occasional live music going. Most of the live music near campus is in coffee shops. I guess opening up to minor students and avoiding the liquor license and drunks are the motivation. The licenses are limited in number and sold to new owners, for a large sum of money. The coffee shop music is always weird stuff, no pop music, no oldies, nothing rooted in rock, just some numb nuts with a bongo and another with a flute or some such. It's hard telling where live music is headed, but these things tend to come and go in waves, so it could turn around. Hopefully with a heavy demand for bassists.

I'm no way near wealthy, just make a decent living, live in a cheap rat shack in the ghetto, don't need to by much. When we both work full time I can save 1/4 of our income with ease. The only reason we're even afloat is because of sending my wife to nursing school around Y2K and me changing careers like underwear, every 5 or 6 years. I burn out easy and job availability was a huge factor before I went full time IT. I had delusions of becoming a civilian avionics tech when I got out of the Navy, but that ain't happening here. Airport is small, every commercial venture fails and pulls out in two years. Then we have a huge EE/EET/Avionics factory spitting out avionics techs wanting to stay here for employment. Network engineering is the only thing that' held my interest for long. Even that, if I could still get the pay check, I'd be just as happy not going to work. I've only worked for three places as a professional, USN, Bioanalytical Sytems (lab instrumentation manufacturer) and now a state regulatory dept., but what I do has changed often. Avionics->bench tech/engineering assistant->bench tech/field service->service supervisor->full time IT (hardware/desktop support->sysadmin->infrastructure->Network engineer/admin with support and sysadmin duties->Network engineer/admin/large data storage/VMware admin). Aside from hands on technical work, service just sucked. The money is in full time field service, which also sucks. I had some very good and high paying offers, some local area too. Too old and tired to move on now...

Is your work at a dead end now? Can you make more and get more variety doing stand in work or studio work now? Is there another career that pays well that you can slip into? Maybe get your wife to get a third job? I feel for you brother. If I tried to remain a bench tech and stay in the area, I'd be a Walmart greeter today. Luckily, for me, it was pretty easy to see the writing on the wall.

 

[Ken Morgan]

I'm not really dead end complaining, just observing...music scene is really dead in west Texas, but there are those of us trying to keep the life support plugged in. Just not sustainable at the moment it seems.

Studio work ... I owned and operated a mid level facility with near 3/4 million bux worth of gear in it, until my lease got higher than the studio's monthly intake (boom town), so I closed it...went to work for a millionaire's vanity studio, that just didn't work out, so...

Life goes on, age happens, what's left of workable hearing range disappears, etc etc etc...and here we are - still picking, which is a dean sight better off than a plurality of peers, many of whom are just stupidly talented.

It is ---- what it is, and shall continue to be that

 

[BadExample]

I sure would hate to try and earn a living here as a musician. Really, self employment is not good for me. If something happened to my current job, I'd probably do it, and make more hourly money, but I hate selling myself. You know, drumming up business. Then the time it takes to get it rolling and head above water.

I was going to open a whore house, then I found out you have to start out running it by hand.