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Interviewing Bassists Stories part 2
- Thread starter Thor
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Holy crap!!!!!
I'd first like to apologize to all the members of the insurance company I work for - their premiums helped pay for me reading both threads from start to finish. Hell, I haven't even checked on the rumors of the upcoming iPhone in several days!!! LOL
There was someone earlier in this thread that said to never meet or learn about your heroes. I would respectfully disagree. I've had the honor to meet many of them; some at NAMM and some backstage at meet 'n' greets. Luckily, I've yet to have a bad experience. I think the desire to get to meet them is to experience the source of something that moved you. As a huge Primus fan, it was an honor to thank Les Claypool for being an influence. As a huge Dream Theater fan, I got to thank them for both the awe-inspiring music as well as lyrics that helped me through a bad divorce. As a musician myself, I find it incredibly gratifying to meet someone who was moved or otherwise enjoyed the music. I would hope that even the mightiest still like the validation that they're more than just musical automatons.
Tom - thank you!! Everyone else has eloquently praised your posts within these two threads better than I could. Rest assured that you have another fan. I'm eagerly awaiting the book!
I'd first like to apologize to all the members of the insurance company I work for - their premiums helped pay for me reading both threads from start to finish. Hell, I haven't even checked on the rumors of the upcoming iPhone in several days!!! LOL
There was someone earlier in this thread that said to never meet or learn about your heroes. I would respectfully disagree. I've had the honor to meet many of them; some at NAMM and some backstage at meet 'n' greets. Luckily, I've yet to have a bad experience. I think the desire to get to meet them is to experience the source of something that moved you. As a huge Primus fan, it was an honor to thank Les Claypool for being an influence. As a huge Dream Theater fan, I got to thank them for both the awe-inspiring music as well as lyrics that helped me through a bad divorce. As a musician myself, I find it incredibly gratifying to meet someone who was moved or otherwise enjoyed the music. I would hope that even the mightiest still like the validation that they're more than just musical automatons.
Tom - thank you!! Everyone else has eloquently praised your posts within these two threads better than I could. Rest assured that you have another fan. I'm eagerly awaiting the book!
You're welcome, and thank you.
It depends on your heroes. I met several who turned out to be such A-holes that I stopped listening to their music. I've had to stop listening to others' music and stop watching certain actors because I can't stand what they say in public, and it prevents me from enjoying their work anymore.
I've deliberately read nothing about my hero Suzanne Vega, and I'd probably pass up an opportunity to meet her. On the other hand, I met the director Wim Wenders, and he was a perfect gentleman who spent several minutes with me.
As for the book, Scott Thunes is currently inspecting his Interludes and will tell me what he thinks in the next few days. We're going to make the August 31 deadline, no problem.
And I may have an important announcement to make,so stay tuned.
There's a movie adaptation planned already, with Jeff Goldblum as the lead?
HOHOHO! Just looked at that link. Good thing my coffee was on the table in a cup.... 
But does he really look like you, or do you think his methods would just plain work AS you?
I love how you create suspense, Tom. We're all on pins and needles, now. LOL. A book AND a movie AND a TV spin-off: a reality show about NOOOO DON'T GO THERE - - !! NO TV!
Kidding! Really.
Foreign language translations?
But does he really look like you, or do you think his methods would just plain work AS you?
I love how you create suspense, Tom. We're all on pins and needles, now. LOL. A book AND a movie AND a TV spin-off: a reality show about NOOOO DON'T GO THERE - - !! NO TV!
Kidding! Really.Foreign language translations?
Wait - you heard it here first: the book reading/signing/projectile vomiting tour will happen after all! I've got my unrelated book ready and my eye on a seat in the front row.
It'll be like the old Gallagher melon-smashing act. Everyone in the front row will have to wear raincoats.Wait - you heard it here first: the book reading/signing/projectile vomiting tour will happen after all! I've got my unrelated book ready and my eye on a seat in the front row.
"Any questions?"
"Yeah, I got a question! What makes you think anybody here gives a damn about your stupid life and all the mistakes you made in it?"
"Good question, sir! My answer is URRRRRRRRRRAAAHHHHHHHH-VAAHHHHHHHHH-CHOTTLE-GLOTTLE-PLOTTLE-PTUI. Whew! Any more questions?"
No TV or movies anything like that. There's such a thing as too much exposure. Ever noticed how after an entertainer spills his or her guts about everything, their career ends? That's why my memoir is carefully structured to leave more questions unanswered than answered. I omit my entire history except for the time I was a failed music journalist and a failed military historian. There's no explanation given for my problems, and if--God willing--I'm ever interviewed about this thing, I'm not going to answer.HOHOHO! Just looked at that link. Good thing my coffee was on the table in a cup....
But does he really look like you, or do you think his methods would just plain work AS you?
I love how you create suspense, Tom. We're all on pins and needles, now. LOL. A book AND a movie AND a TV spin-off: a reality show about NOOOO DON'T GO THERE - - !! NO TV!
Foreign language translations?
The mistake entertainers make is thinking that their every belch and mind fart is of supreme interest to the planet at large, and they wear out their welcome. If this book is successful, I'm moving straight on into fiction. Got a novel ready to go and the outlines for ten more. I'm done yapping about me.
As for the idea of who would play me, I just figure that if there were a movie made about my life, I'd want to freakiest actor I could find to represent me to the public.
I wish I could tell everybody here about the past three weeks, but I really can't. Suffice to say, my computer hard drive crashed and the people who promised to fix it made it worse; I lost one of my most valuable possessions due to the sheer incompetence of people I trusted; and I had to read the riot act to to someone who I expected far more from.
And yet I breezed through it. I used to think that I didn't want to live in a world in which I had to be a hardass and crack the whip, but now I just take it for granted that I have to, so I do it and don't even think twice about it.
I'm much more able to function in this world than I was even a few months ago, but I'm also more disappointed. This time I had to get only about eight photos of musicians. It's being an appalling nightmare exactly like it was the first time I had to do it in 2000. People won't respond, or they complain about your choices and get hysterical. Finally a terrific photographer named Jay Blakesberg stepped in and saved me.
http://www.blakesberg.com/
It's a shame. I know there's an enclave of terrific human beings out there who always do the right thing simply because they know they should. I have yet to find such a colony.
You could even do your own Arthritic Tom take on it, and gorge on watermelon the day of the event. No lugging of a heavy mallot required!
So, if I sat in the front row reading "In Cold Sweat," during your "Ghosts and Ballyhoo" reading, would I still be subject to the vomitorium, or would the delicious irony grant me a reprieve?
Lower your expectations?
The "appalling nightmare" is your interpretation of the situation.
I hate lowering my expectations. Why can't anybody aspire anymore? My poor dead feral cat worked his butt off to become a good cat, because he wanted to be a better cat. He had more character than a lot of people I know, and he lived less than two years.
And no, it has been--objectively--an appalling nightmare. I couldn't get any of the bassists I admired to send me one measly photo, so I had to license them from photographers. And since photographers are even crazier than musicians, that was incredibly stressful until Jay Blakesberg provided half the photos I needed.
I just need one more, and then I'm DONE.
I am personally hoping you're going to say your arthritis has improved to the point where you can play bass again?
Nein. Bass playing is kaput. But that's okay. I don't miss it all that much anymore, because I have tons of stuff I need to write.
In the next life.
Just finished In Cold Sweat. Anyone who reviewed this and said it is just a compliation of interviews totally missed the point (or didn't actually read it). What was most interesting to me was Scott Thunes' take on "voice" - and to notice the change in Tom's "voice" from when he wrote In Cold Sweat to his posted stories on TB. Very interesting. And makes me that much more excited to read Ghosts and Ballyhoo.
Hey, just watched "Almost Famous" from 2000 on the telly - pretty "on topic" if any of you haven't seen it 
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I've also just received what must be a used copy of "In Cold Sweat" in the mail as it has some rather interesting scribblings on the title page .
.I've also just received what must be a used copy of "In Cold Sweat" in the mail as it has some rather interesting scribblings on the title page
.
You won't believe the journey that book went on.Hey, just watched "Almost Famous" from 2000 on the telly - pretty "on topic" if any of you haven't seen it
I've also just received what must be a used copy of "In Cold Sweat" in the mail as it has some rather interesting scribblings on the title page
I took it to the post office with two envelopes: One addressed to the guy in question, and one addressed to you. I wanted to buy postage for both. I would then pop the envelope addressed to you into the larger envelope addressed to you-know-who, and send off the whole shebang.
The helpful postmistress told me that I could save five whole dollars by using a prepaid cardboard official postal-service something-or-other envelope instead of the one I'd addressed to you. She would not take no for an answer. It was a bad day, so eventually I gave up and let her put a stamp on the official cardboard envelope, fold it in half, and put it in the envelope that went to the other guy. That meant that he got two envelopes inside the one I sent him, along with the book.
I e-mailed him to warn him that he'd now have to take the padded unofficial envelope addressed to you, pop it into the official postal-service envelope, and send it. Of course when he got the book he had no idea what to do, because the whole thing was so stupid. I explained it again and he sent it off.
A week or so ago the official cardboard envelope was returned to me with your book inside, having been diverted because the official cardboard envelope must have a METERED stamp on it, not a self-adhesive stamp. It's because of the weight. Anything that weighs as much as that book must now be sent with metered stamps to prove that a vigilant postal worker has inspected it to make sure that it doesn't contained an object that rhymes with "pom," many of which are exploding everywhere as we speak. The helpful postmistress had put the regular stamp on the official cardboard envelope instead of the metered stamp, so it came back to yours truly.
I then went back to the post office to send it to you, and by God they tried to get me to put it in another official cardboard envelope again to save me five whole dollars.
I told them it would be worth it for me to pay $100 just to get the book to you, and if they didn't stop messing with my head I'd come back with a pom and make them all sorry.
Actually, I didn't say the last part, but it took forever for them to finally do what I wanted them to do and just. Let. Me. Send. My. Envelope.
Don't mourn the postal service when it croaks. It richly deserves its fate.
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