Bobadohshe
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Posts posted by Bobadohshe
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The team that outspent the next team in the league by $65 million and had to trade for 2 top pieces at the deadline because their prized free agent was a scumbag barely eeked out a win in the wildcard. What grit!
-Bitter and biased Padres fan
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I need to catch him next time whenever I can. Yes I was shaken up by Chick's sudden passing an the realization that I had taken for granted that every 2 years Chick and Herbie would both swing through town in their latest iterations and I could go catch them as I pleased.
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I"ll refrain from sharing my views on the subject, but I will just point out that I"m old enough to remember them predicting our impending peril at the hands of an ice age, the collapse of the ozone layer, and now extreme temps melting the ice cap⦠and suggest that you look at the actual data and see how much 'change' has actually transpired over the period of years and factor in how much more change might occur in the time frame you are worried about.
You will likely come to a conclusion that eases your worries a little (or a lot).
Bottom line IMHO is that there are far more significant things to worry about, and that the Serenity Prayer is your friend.
I've looked at all that because I actually work in the field and my professional associates include leading climate scientists. When I'm thinking about investing a big portion of my life's savings into property, this is something I take into account because I have choices. Not trying to tell anyone else what to do. These are individual choices. The point of this thread is to talk about the things we consider, but we're all different. Someone might say they want to be in Tennessee because they love country music. That wouldn't be high on my list, but that's just me.
It's a huge deal for me too and has reshaped my view of where my ideal retirement place might be. There are gorgeous mountains and lakes with cool towns within a hundred miles or so of where I live. I had always pictured myself playing Beethoven in some woodland paradise, then going for a hike, then cruising into town to see the locals, shop, eat, support the local art scene. But the sad reality of climate change and accelerated drought and fire cycles has caused me to pretty much strike that fantasy from my mind.
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So, we got out of the money soak, downsized dramatically, paid off a few bills & restructured finances such that we could start aggressively attacking debt. 5 years later, we"re debt free other than our cars & house and have set ourselves on a trajectory that, if we can follow it, will have both cars & house paid off by the time my wife retires in 5 years. I think it may actually workâ¦
Congrats! Sounds like you righted the ship while there was plenty of time to take it in a fruitful direction.
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Indeed, as far as paying gigs, it has been the most consistent and lucrative for me as well. The schlep sucks, however I have always enjoyed the camaraderie of excellent players with similarly musical life experiences. On the upside, technology and MI venders have gotten the weight down!
My worst load in was a ship gig involving two different docking locations at start and end of night. Summer sucks for formal attire, and stair cases on ships are too damn narrow.
Yeah casuals, if you were hooked up with the right agency, they actually paid better then what some of my friends were making doing road gigs with name show biz artists like Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Franki Valli and others. I turned down a tour with Jose Feliciano because I had a month of casuals with ceremony and cocktails booked that was twice what he was paying. Not the most glamorous way to make a living but at least I have something to show for it.
Today though the pickin's are way more slim to even nonexistent.
Yes, ships or boats are the absolute WORST. The Queen Mary in Long Beach has the rep as the most nightmare schlep in LA.
I make the bulk of my living playing corporates and weddings with my Top 40 band, and on a decent amount of the weddings I am also getting paid to play cocktail hour and / or ceremony. Knock on wood because anything can change, but work is plentiful and - to me - quite enjoyable. The size and layout of my city combined with the plethora of high quality venues makes it a real pleasure of a city to make a living in. Dave is right - when the work is particularly thick, you can make more than if you were out on a lesser tour, and have the great pleasure of sleeping in your own bed at night and seeing your kids during the day. No rockstar tour life, but I kind of closed the book on that chapter of my life at this point anyway.
((Also regarding the Queen Mary load in - I always say screw it and cart my stuff onto the main elevator.))
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I have this exact scenario many times a year. I'll have to do Ceremony and/or cocktail and/or my Top 40 set with my band. I had to do this yesterday in fact. 5-6 cocktail hour 6-10 hit with the band 150 yards away. My solution is 2 keyboards. And in those very rare cases where I do have all 3 in different places with no break, I'll break down the CP4 from the closest of the 2 and march it over to the next spot to plop it on a waiting stand and otherwise fully set up rig. Having to break a ton of stuff down and transport it when you need to be in 2 places at once just isn't an option.
And to further clarify, there's no way I'm playing any of these situation and not going through either 1 or 2 powered PA speakers. Internal keyboard speakers are just a comical consideration for this job IMO. If you're outside sound dies out, and the roar of any cocktail hour is easily enough to drown internal speakers out.
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I have this exact scenario many times a year. I'll have to do Ceremony and/or cocktail and/or my Top 40 set with my band. I had to do this yesterday in fact. 5-6 cocktail hour 6-10 hit with the band 150 yards away. My solution is 2 keyboards. And in those very rare cases where I do have all 3 in different places with no break, I'll break down the CP4 from the closest of the 2 and march it over to the next spot to plop it on a waiting stand and otherwise fully set up rig. Having to break a ton of stuff down and transport it when you need to be in 2 places at once just isn't an option.
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It's interesting hearing from many of you who have reached retirement age (60 give or take) and have options and plans for your musical and life endeavors. I just turned 40 last month. It's kind of shocking to think about the fact that I joined this board about 15 years ago when I was in my late 20s and many of you your mid 40s, not to far from my own age now. It feels like yesterday.
Retirement means something different for me. It's not just around the corner. But, as the math in the last paragraph demonstrates, it all really goes in the blink of an eye, so it's not something I can ignore or put off thinking about either.
Retirement for me will mean my wife and I have made enough $ to live comfortably off of investments, and our house is paid off. If this were to suddenly occur tomorrow, it's hard for me to think about what would change musically. It would probably mean a downshift out of the grind of my very busy top 40 band. But it's such a great group to work with, the gigs can be pretty gratifying, (have gotten to tackle some fun challenges with this great band) and the $ is good, so it's tough to think about just walking away from that even if I could. I might still do some gigs and pay somebody to load in and set up my gear which is the most obnoxious and taxing part anyway. Then there's the 20 or so Padres organ gigs I get a year and the minor league hockey stuff. I don't think I'd really want to stop that stuff either even if I didn't need the $. But honestly when I think about retirement I think about having tons of time to get to the music that I've always wanted to sit down and play. Heavy classical pieces, Chopin Etudes, every piece in the WTC I and II. And ORIGINAL music. I had so much fun arranging and recording my funky organ and horns album 4 years ago. I would indulge myself with more projects like that. And lots more time for my native plant garden, and time for yoga and staying stretched out and healthy. It already sounds like a busy life, and not that much different than the one I have now. I might feel differently in 15-20 years though.
I wonder where those of you who are talking about retirement in this thread saw yourselves when you retired when you visualized it 20 years ago.
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One of the first solos I have my students transcribe. There is a wealth of information here on so many levels. Swing, feel, blues vocabulary, bluesy bop and jazz vocabulary. All time great solo.
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Your narrative has resonated more than anything I have ever taken in regarding this sad, tragic day.
I feel the same.
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Happy B-day sir!
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Sad to hear it. I didn't know his playing much but I really dug those 'Smoking Section' videos over the past couple years. Amazing arrangements and playing.
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They"ve always been 45/15.
I usually do this and stretch the 15s here and there. I also usually play at least an hour or an hour ten for the first set so that I have more off time to play with later.
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Yes the Padres are putting on an all time clinic in how to fall apart. Nothing new here.
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My CP4s have served me incredibly well over the past seven years. I spend thousands of hours playing them every year. That piano sound is so versatile. It is equally at home in a jazz trio and smashing out the piano part to September. Tomorrow I will play a wedding ceremony, play a cocktail hour, then rush over and do a 4 hour Top 40 set and use 2 CP4s (and a Montage 7) for the whole shebang. Eight hours of playing these versatile and wonderful boards.
All that said I am considering a CP88 myself for the better EPs. 2 lbs seems like a small price to pay.
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We've been playing Good Vibrations and on my CP4 I'll actually layer a harpsichord under a piano (mixed low) to give it edgy rattle and bite. It's been working well.
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It's absolutely terrifying
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Kids will dig the Avengers theme from the MCU. Fun March to bang out with a cool modulation to the main theme.
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Visually the jukebox controller looks pretty freaking dope. And it's the headturning kind of thing that people would be talking about after the concert. 'What WAS that?'. Might look easy, but it looks pretty cool in my humble opinion.
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I do loads of sessions at this great little studio in town. It's a medium sized room and we're often tracking singer/songwriters with a rhythm section and bringing their various projects to life. Most everything I lay down is virtual in the box Ivory, from my Montage or from my Hammond SK2. But he has a wurli in good condition there. It's always the secret weapon of the session and I know if a track isn't coming together or they need something to set the vibe right, it will always slay. Nothing beats it!
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Sorry sir I can't fathom it.
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My stuff has always been in the garage and it gets into the 40s in Winter. Absolutely no problem. If you were talking -10 degrees it would be a different story.
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The only minor drag about this is if it takes $$$ out of the great professor's pocket.
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What a grumpy lot. On the simplest tunes (Tennessee Whiskey) I love focusing on locking in with the band as much as humanly possible and making every fill as close to Nashville perfection as I can, serving the presentation of the singer and band as best I can. If the set was full of those songs though I could see how it would get old.
Some songs get boring to play because I've played them zillions of times, but inherently they don't bore me by themselves. If you're not a fan of your fellow bandmates though, the whole thing could be a drag, boring song or otherwise.
Calculating Royalties - Spotify
in The Keyboard Corner
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