Adan

what I want to know is, is there any way to be a humble gigging musician playing mostly 4-chord songs without contributing to the creation and sustenance of ethically-challenged tech billionaires who, more often than not it seems, use their wealth to make the world a substantially worse place? No? ok, just wanted to confirm that.

That's a tough situation. I assume if the money wasn't good, you wouldn't be able to justify to yourself or your partner being away that much. Can't judge you one way or the other on that. When my first child was born I was in a similar situation, playing in a band that paid decent money but could work around my day job schedule. Also, like with your situation, it was loads of fun and my bandmates were all like best friends. I quit the band, and don't regret it. Those early years with the kids are so special, I'm glad I was there for as much of it as I could be. The gig money was nice, but it didn't make or break us.

Crumar arguably does offer some of the best value available. I'm a huge Crumar fan, having owned 3 of the keyboards (still have 2 of them). I think Crumar cuts corners on quality of materials, and I've had issues with mine. Hasn't stopped me from getting tons of great use out of them, but I can see in part how they're achieving lower prices. Comparing a US price on one product to a Thomanns price on a different product isn't super helpful. The Crumar Desktop sells for $949, the Mojo 61 for $1579. If we accept, for purposes of conversation, that Crumar is a price leader, how can we hypothesize a 4-octave clone for $700? At the very least, you're adding a keyboard onto the Desktop. Maybe Crumar could piece one together for $1150? But that's just an attempt at objective triangulation. In the end, the only thing that matters is what it's worth to you. I think Hammond rolled the dice with the M-Solo. As Scott said, they can always drop the price if units are just sitting on shelves.

I feel the same way. Then I tried to explain this to my wife. Clearly, MLB is trying to broaden it's audience, or at least not lose what it has.

Funny to me video, because I've never heard him talk. A true California character: too much sunshine, too much weed. The Californian's retort: no such thing, dude! The one Hammond I owned was a chop. I called it the SteppenChop. Took it to a tech, they examined the innards and said "it's a Model A!"

Since you now have both the XE20 and the Liano, any thoughts on how they might divide duties? The XE20 is about twice the weight of the Liano, but is still pretty light and gives you weighted keys. Battery operation for Liano obviously could be the critical factor for powerless situations: is that the main point of having it for you? I haven't played either of them but if the Liano's action is similar to the Vox Continental, then it's about as good as semi-weighted can be for piano. Still, for me at least, semi-weighted never gets me to the same place as weighted, even a mediocre weighted action.

Maybe that's a different (probably less interesting) thread: "band life and day job life." I've always done the opposite and shared my band exploits with co-workers, and often had co-workers come out to shows. That's probably more the norm than keeping it secret. I'm glad I did, though it's not all upside. Occasionally someone makes a snarky comment like "well, if you weren't up late gigging maybe you'd have gotten this project done sooner." But I think overall it's been helpful to have co-workers know more about me, and it's not unusual that when a bunch of them come to a gig they're able to let their hair down and bond in a way they otherwise might not. I have also many times been the ambient piano entertainment at official work parties. That has come about fairly easily, I just go to the party planner and say "hey, can I set up on the sidelines and tickle the ivories?" They always say yes. That's been nothing but a good thing.

I'm hoping it's heavy on not previously seen footage of his playing, and less heavy on the interviews. One of my favorite and most re-watched documentaries is "Straight, No Chaser," and I think it's because there is so much performance footage. I could be wrong, and maybe this doc will prove that I am wrong, but I've always had the impression that Nicky was a quiet, humble person who just went about his business. Not one of the more colorful characters of the music world.

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, but it's not hard to look at Ohtani and see an incredibly naive and trusting person, who comes from a "trust society," who must necessarily be focused every day on this job, who has plenty of money coming in from places other than his salary, and see why the story told in the indictment could be, in fact, the whole story. It's much harder for me to believe that the federal law enforcement agencies involved either have missed something significant, or are somehow corrupt. It's not that I believe corruption never happens, but for it to happen in such a high profile case is inconceivable. Did the highest powers in baseball talk to the highest powers in the government asking for a quick investigation and resolution? Very likely, yes! Is that in itself a form of corruption? Maybe that's in the eye of the beholder. If there's something with the word "gambling" in it that is going to make me less enthusiastic about major league baseball, it isn't going to be a scandal involving one or a few bad people. Rather, it's the systemic conjoining of the sport with legal gambling companies that have sprung up in recent years. It's a free country, people can gamble if they want to, but for me personally seeing those ads everywhere always leaves a bad taste that wasn't there before.

This is another one of those topics where the pro/non-pro split is going to be pretty strong. If music is how you pay the bills, your spouse is probably going to sign on with it in a big way. By contrast, if music is how you have fun while making a little walking around money, then it becomes another chip in the never-ending negotiation of who gets to have how much independent fun, where, when, and how. I'm not familiar with the former, very familiar with the latter. In my various relationships and now in my marriage, there is also the elephant in the room, and this elephant is wearing high heels, is on her 4th cocktail, and is trying to flirt with me. That's a major difference between playing in bands and other "hobbies" -- playing in bands can stress-test the trust relationship more so than, say, an enthusiasm for tennis. This was more a problem for me when my wife and I lived in San Francisco and my gigs ran until as late as 1 am. Now I live in a small resort town where everybody knows everybody and it would be impossible for anything untoward to happen that my wife doesn't hear about the next day. In fact my wife and kids are often at my gigs. Now, the gigging is less thrilling, but also less challenging to the relationship.

Right, because watching the Moon cross paths with the Sun should make us reflect on how significant we humans are in the grand scheme of things. 😆

Please report back!

Sunday night hotel gig was fine, but didn't feel all that different than a normal solo gig. Today though, we had a neighborhood block party of about 50 people, so I brought my battery-powered rig of Roland Go:Piano into Roland KC-220 and reprised the eclipse songs in the hour leading up to the event. Not a great sounding rig, but was able to spontaneously set it up within a few minutes of getting the notion to do so.

Totality and almost perfectly sunny skies in Central Vermont. There was about a 5% chance of us having weather like this, and we got it. This eclipse has changed my life: now, I just need to figure out how.

Like everything else about living in a big city, if you love it, you do what you have to do to make it work. The sacrifice either seems worth it, or it doesn't.