Ads

They’re everywhere.  Here’s what i don’t get about ads on You Tube for example.

I select a video to play and an ad appears that I can skip in 5 seconds.  I always do and so my question is – What’s in for the advertisers?  Does YT get credit for a click if I skip the ad?  I always mute even the 15 second ads so no on really knows if the ad had any kind of impact at all.  The pop up ads that appear on the YT screen – If you ignore them they eventually go away.

The NBA is forcing it’s players to wear T shirts in lieu of the normal basketball jersey. The reason – ad space.  

Pretty soon we all will look like a NASCAR drivers in full regalia like this guy. 

Or golfers like this guy.

Ads pay the bills but when will anyone realize that too much is too much and honestly, they don’t work.  Just two days from the annual ad orgy.  Enjoy the game and your snacks.

Tasty, expeditious and advertising free.  

 

 

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Social Media

WordPress has several tools, tips and hints for getting more traffic to my blog.  All of them involve social media which is a problem for me since I have no connection any social type media.  Really, I have none at all with the exception of this little piece of internet real estate.

So where does that leave me?  I’m not a Luddite, I don’t smash machines.  It’s my decision not to participate.  I can look at Facebook pages and I guess I can access a Twitter feed but I feel no need to do any of that.  I’m comfortable knowing what I know and I really don’t care about all those other forms of communication.  

We all have cell phones, people talk all the time but does more talking equate to more understanding?  Not really.  Do people get along better?  Nope.  Has the world become a better place?  Again, not really.

So, to ask the question – where does this leave me?  In a pretty good place feeling special because I don’t have all of those extraneous connections.  I try to keep the connections more personal, ok, it’s via email but it’s more of a one to one relationship than one of the broadcast variety.  Maybe the broadcast relationships work, I guess they do since so many people now have them.  I think that in my corner of the world I’m doing just fine with my limited social access.  

I don’t think it’s an age related issue.  More of a ” Who needs it?” issue.  Maybe the moral here is that it works for me, I’m comfortable and I see no real compelling reason to do anything differently.  

I cant really make a case for my position that would make someone agree with me and ditch all their social media connections.

I think part of turning my back on Facebook is how it and all other form of social media have been co-opted by people trying to sell me something.   Does toilet paper or ketchup need to be ” liked? ”  It’s become a pathetic race to the bottom when a tv newscast begs me to like them. I don’t have to like them.  They want my opinion to fill airtime and make me think that they really care about me.  It’s all about the numbers, numbers that matter to them – ratings, advertising dollars.

That’s what is insidious about the whole social media facade.  It’s a great pretending.  Excuse me while I go read the newspaper

 

Media Day

It was Media Day at the Super Bowl and the biggest story was that one of the players for Seattle spoke as little as possible.

Not talking was the big story on a day devoted to talking.  This is what passes as news these days.

One of the Duck Dynasty “stars” was an invited guest at the State of the Union Address last night.  Is it any wonder that our government has taken on the appearance of a freak show?  It seems to be a constant case of each party trying to rub the other guy’s nose in it.  This form of behavior modification does not work.

 

 

Open Mics

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A while back I made a couple of resolutions to for the new year.  The most daunting was to play and sing at open mics.  Maybe not the most daunting but the one that made me break out in flop sweat.  

The reasons for that particular resolution were simple.  Kids grown and gone – check.  I’m old enough too know better – check.  Why not? – Check.  I mean what’s the worst that could happen?  Make a fool of myself – Check on that one too.

I think that I’ve played about 25 open mic sessions now and they get easier.  I no longer get stage fright but I’m more critical about my singing and playing,  I see and hear things in a whole different light now that I’m playing in public.

I like the thrill  of playing without a safety net.  There are no do-overs.  At one place I play the open mic comes with a house band.  I have invited friends to sit in on my set.  It always helps to play with better musicians backing you up.

At most of these sessions, I’m usually the oldest person in the room.  I remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964.  

The first time I played the Alley Kat I thought that I had clearly wandered into the wrong place as my set list included ” I Got Rhythm.”  The audience was attentive and appreciative and as I like to think – Every song has a story so I try and include something meaningful about the song or the composer in my intro to the tune.  I think it helps to set me apart from the rockers, the wailers and the guitar heroes. 

So, in my quest to become fearless in front of an audience I have to remind myself why I’m doing this and that even if sometimes I really don’t think so it’s because deep down inside I really do like it.

 

Just dealing with it

  I don’t even bother with weather reports anymore.  It was cold yesterday, it will be cold today and colder tomorrow.  I’m just dealing with it. 

Snow flurries fell on Saturday barely covering sidewalks.  No one even bothered to shovel or sweep away the snow.  We’ve all just settled in looking at the calendar waiting for January to pack up and go.  

http://mlb.mlb.com/springtraining/

 

 

 

 

Eight Robins

There are eight robins sitting in a tree outside my kitchen window right now.  The real number fluctuates as robins come an go but I think that eight works as the average.  They sure can’t be a harbinger of spring since spring is a good two months away on the calendar and today’s temperature is minus zero.  I just made that up as a new useless weather term. Pass it around and see if it catches on.

I always thought that robins flew south for the winter but that’s not the case.  They can stay all year round in northern locations.  I have been filling and refilling the bird feeder in the yard for the past two days.  I’ve got loads of sparrows, finches and even a cardinal or two.  The robins don’t seem interested in the feeder. I don’t know what has drawn them to my back yard.  In the summer I get yellow finches at the sunflowers.  Not today, maybe in 7 months or so as they prepare to migrate south.

I just added sunflower seeds to the feeder and that’s what has brought the cardinals.  It’s got to be a tough gig being a small bird toughing it out through the winter.  I do what I can.  This is a picture from last summer’s crop.  At the peak I had about 26 sunflowers growing.  It was great.

In the meantime…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Py8Hw7QT8

Playing Music or Living In the Exact Right Now Moment

You can’t snooze while playing, can’t phone it in, mail it in, text it or pretend you are somewhere else when you’re in it.  The best part is playing something unrehearsed where your thoughts and licks come from somewhere deep inside but you don’t really know where or how they managed to get to the surface at that time.

Sometimes you hit a clunker but it’s yours and no one really cares because you are among friends and every single one of them has a bucket full of bad notes lurking somewhere too.  There are no wrong notes in music.

I love the idea of playing live, playing without a net.  The ice might get thin but I push my luck into places I’ve never been.  I’ve fallen through more times than I can remember.  No one gets hurt and everyone gets to have a good laugh and sometimes those cosmic musical tumblers just fall into place.

I’ve experienced playing where I’m deep into a song and suddenly a part of my brain says ” Hey, i hear some pretty nice chords, wonder where they are coming from ?” and then another part of my brain says ” Hey, it’s you bub, right here and right now.”  It’s an out of body experience that only comes along once in a great, great while.  

And then sometimes while I’m playing a chord in a song I’m thinking ahead two or three chords ahead wondering how I can play them and how can I make them sound sound sweet and clear all the while the song is chugging along.  It requires concentration so deep that it’s like falling over a cliff into the song all while listening to the other musicians falling right along with me.

It doesn’t happen often but when it does you’re in for a great ride.  Just ask this guy…

A Tragedy in Progress

Waiting for the snow on a grey afternoon.  

There’s a guy who lives down the street.  I bumped into him last summer as he was getting out of his car.  He had been sleeping, more likely passed out and he looked like hell only he didn’t know it.  He told me that he was going to lose his license for DUI but he really didn’t have a drinking problem.  He did however say that he saw nothing wrong with enjoying himself from time to time.  Where have I seen and heard this before?

He said that he knew I was a runner and also rode my bike a lot.  He wanted to get more active and was looking for advice.  Mind you I that for the first 10 minutes of this one way conversation it was truly one way and I said absolutely nothing.

i suggest running – bad knees, biking – no bike, swimming –  can’t swim, gym – can’t afford it, walking?  I suppose that without a license he was going to get very familiar with walking.  

I felt like I was his best friend and maybe at the moment I was since it seemed apparent that his home life was pretty awful.  I’m a good listener but more than once I asked myself – ” Why is he telling me this?”  The poor guy was broken open from head to toe, heart and soul and I happened to be in the right or wrong place at the appropriate time.  It’s hard to listen when the person who is speaking has his head tilted one way and his hair is going in several opposite directions.

But I listened.  I have enough experience with alcohol and what it does to people.  I really don’t want anymore but I listened.  It was my good deed for the day I guess.

After that I never saw him run or bike or walk, he was in the passenger seat every time I saw him after our encounter.  Now he sometimes sits in a dark car parked snugly up against his garage even on the coldest days and nights of the winter.  Maybe his wife only lets him in to sleep.  Maybe it’s his man car cave.  Maybe it’s really none of my business.

 I will tell you this – his house always, and I mean always has every shade and curtain pulled and closed tight.  Natural light couldn’t get in with a crowbar and sledgehammer. I don’t know if the aversion to sunlight and fresh air is alcohol related.  with excessive drinking everything becomes alcohol related.  A slow motion tragedy in progress right down the block.

Still waiting for the snow on a still grey afternoon.

I don’t know how it ends for him, his wife or kids.  I don’t know if this is as good as it’s ever going to get or if it ever changes.  I don’t know.  

I still say Hi in the that neighborly I really don’t want to have another heart to heart talk with you kind of way.  

 

 

Somedays

Following up on my sunny I can do anything attitude.  Yesterday I got a wrong number on my cell phone, two telemarketers on my home phone and loads of spam in my in box.  Apparently the world wasn’t tuned into my wonderful attitude.  So it goes.

Not for nuthin’…

John Hall, one of the founders of the band “Orleans”  is a two term Democratic member of Congress from New York.  Who knew?  Maybe we need more lead guitarists in office in Washington.

 

Everyday

Cold and damp Tuesday, mired in the middle of January with no end in sight to the cloudy weather.  Feels like a day only to be endured.  Feels like weeks and more weeks of this until spring arrives.

I think I’ll start working my way towards an optimistic view of things.

Everyday we get closer to spring.  Everyday we get a little more sunlight.  Everyday is one day closer to spring training and the National Pastime.  Everyday the prospect of running in the warm weather gets closer.  Everyday, everyday, everyday.