Tag Archives: Guitar playing

Keep Quiet

It’s a Saturday and that’s alright. For fighting I guess but for relaxing as well.

Bill made it to Atlantic City and back safely. We spoke last night, he asked if I was feeling better. I’m sure he said better and not bitter. I said I was fine. He was headed to catch a couple of hours of sleep before he headed back to North Jersey.

Last night it seemed like time was crawling. A quarter of an hour took forever to pass. I don’t know why it was. I wasn’t going anywhere, wasn’t rushing. Nothing really caught my eye or held my attention for long.

Watched Mr Smarmy, Bill Maher on HBO and as usual he was meh. I mainly stayed up to watch the Simpsons at midnight before I turned in. Melatonin to the rescue, slept well and found it difficult to wake up.

Bill came home with bagels and the paper saving me a trip outside.

It was a beautiful day, 80° range. Before Bill went to sleep he asked me if I was going cycling. I hadn’t even considered that but no, no cycling. He asked if I was busking and I was more than likely going to do that.

I don’t make money from it so I don’t call it busking. I call it ‘strumming my guitar’ nowadays.

Wrote down the chords for Life on Mars before heading out.

Stopped by the bibliothèque where I returned the CD’s from yesterday as well as returning The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch. That was a stinker. I can’t believe how bad it was.

Was Eric Idle that strapped for cash? Was there such a demand for it? Just clips and outtakes from All You Need is Cash, no participation from anyone else from the original. I didn’t even watch the whole thing. Stopped midway through and dropped it off.

I did pick up a collection of Bowie covers by Seu Jorge. I had a few of the tracks from a few years ago and was glad to have them all in one collection. Also picked up the CD of the Original Broadway Cast of In The Heights, which Bill and I saw last year.

I walked over to Pier A and strummed my guitar. Instead of using my guitar case like I usually do, I used a guitar bag, the kind you carry on your back. I was wary since I figured it would go out of tune easier than it would in the case and I can’t tune a guitar without an electronic tuner to save my life.

A pitch pipe is useless to me. I remember when I received my first guitar years and years and years ago I also received a Mel Bay how to play guitar book and a pitch pipe. That basically ended any interest in guitar playing for about 30 years. That was it.

No one showed me how to play a guitar until years later. And the guitar I originally got just collected dust.

I did buy an Epiphone guitar from some former friend and bought a Fender Super Bullet 3 electric guitar from Sam Ash and a Fender Acoustic 210 from We Buy Guitars on 48th Street, from the one & only Jim Mastro himself. I wound up selling the Epiphone to my ex-roommate, Jimmy Lee.

Eventually I got some guitar lessons from Mike Carlucci who was in a local band, Winter Hours/Ward 8 years ago. He had the right approach, teaching me songs I wanted to learn, Velvets and Television instead of Old Brown Jug (which I still don’t know how to play). Mike is one of the better guitar players out there and genuinely nice guy.

And as I thought, when I got to Pier A my guitar’s tuning was a bit off. Nothing terrible but I noticed. I was there about 15 minutes doing my best when the Mister Softee truck pulled up about 50 feet away. That was irritating.

Usually people complain about the Mister Softee theme that plays ad infinitum, but that was silent. What drove me crazy was the sound of the diesel engine keeping the ice cream cold and the bacteria fresh.

I tried tuning my guitar to the standard tuning but I was overpowered by the sound of the engine, which happened to be in the key of B.

It’s a good thing I don’t depend on money when I play. Lot’s of people out on Pier A, sunbathers and dog walkers and babies in strollers. All ignoring me. I couldn’t say they could even hear me over the sound of the diesel engine anyhow.

No one to play against so after an hour I conceded victory to the bacteria machine on wheels. I just sat and read the New Yorker and smoked a cigar until 3:45.

I asked Bill what time he wanted to get up from his sleep and he said 4:00PM. I made my way home and found Bill wide awake, getting ready to drive to Atlantic City again.

Yet another entry that I had great reservations about writing.

Tomorrow is the Hoboken Fart & Mucus Festival. Fountains of Wayne are headlining. I don’t know if I’ll go. I usually go with Rand but he’s in Lucerne, Switzerland on some Jack Kirby type business.

May Day.

Found this pic last nite online. Never saw it before. I think it's a beauty.

Found this pic last nite online. Never saw it before. I think it's a beauty.

Photo-0174

Hold On Hold On

Well it’s a Friday today and it’s a gorgeous day. Last night wasn’t so bad either. When I was home alone I meant. It was all good, watching TV, comedies on NBC Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock.

And actually I think Community was the funniest last night. Parks and Recreation was so so as usual. The Office would be in second place I think and 30 Rock in third place. Sometimes they just try too hard.

Not enough Jack Donaghy and way too much Tracy Jordan. I think the opening photo during the credits of Tracy Morgan is too much. He is truly the weak link on the show. Then again he is the luckiest guy in show business since he generally sucks. I sometimes wonder if Tracy Morgan has something on Tina Fey hence his being on the show, because it certainly can’t be talent.

After all that I wound up watching some clips of director Kevin Smith talking about spending a week out in Paisley Park with Prince. Got the link from Harpy and watched all four installments. I thought it was hilarious.

The news came on after that and as usual I watch until the weather report is finished then I change the channel generally if I am home alone and I was up to a point.

Bill came home from wherever it was he was at. He was in a pretty good mood, happy to be home. He loves the fact that I’ve shaved the goatee. I hate not having a goatee. I think I look like a lesbian without it.

I mentioned to Bill that I was planning to grow the goatee back but wary that it might come back with white hair. Bill was quite exuberant when he came through the door and his exuberance carried over in the manner of him chanting ‘White hair white hair’.

It was all fun and games then. I faux protested and threatened to drop the H bomb on him, ‘H’ meaning hair. He’s thinning on top and the sides are speckled with gray hairs. It went on like this for a few minutes, Bill would say something and then I would refute whatever it was that he said.

Apparently he was hurt by each successful refutation, so much so that he snapped at me saying that he was trying to work on his laptop, when only a minute before he was joining in on the fun.

It’s similar to some words we had a few months ago, where were were having a heated discussion about something and Bill lost it, saying that he can’t argue with me since I am always right. Or words to that effect.

I just happen to use reason when I argue something. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much use for reason on the other side sometimes. So whatever boisterousness that was happening quickly deflated leaving me with hurt feelings and resentment.

Sometimes one vibe is better than two vibes and I was having a much better time when Bill wasn’t home last night.

Yes he drives me crazy and last night he drove me crazy again. I spent time and energy avoiding him whenever possible. He went to sleep as usual and I couldn’t have cared less.

I’m still resentful and maintained no contact with him today. He did apologize this morning as he was leaving for work but to half asleep me it made no difference. Even if I was fully awake this morning it would have made no difference.

The time for the apology would have been last night. And last night, or rather yesterday, the reason for my ambivalence about most things was because I took a Xanax in the afternoon, so I was definitely in quite a mellow mood last night.

He’s driving to Atlantic City tonight and I am relieved.

I think I had some good guitar playing going on today by the river. Ran into a Facebook friend, Juan Melli with whom I share mutual friends. Never met him before in the flesh.

Nice guy, took the picture below. He’s also a bicycling enthusiast so perhaps a ride will be underway this summer. Juan asked for a song so I played All My Loving which is committed to memory and Instant Karma.

He rode off after a little while and I played Sweet Little Sixteen and Maybe I’m Amazed among others.

Picked up Hot Chip- One Life Stand and MGMT Congratulations from the bibliothèque today as well as The Rutles DVD- Can’t Buy Me Lunch, the sequel to All You Need is Cash.

An evening alone is what I am looking forward to.

photo by Juan Melli

photo by Juan Melli