Sospiri

Let's put it this way. I don't have any problems with the other sites I use all over the world, but this one can be so slow sometimes that I just give up. Even Australian sites on the other side of the world only occasionally result in a lag of a couple seconds. Quite often this site can fail to respond for at least half a minute, by which time I am thinking about hitting the Abort button. Bog standard Windows 10 on a one year old machine with regular download speed of 45 Mbps this end in Greece.

deldor, Just spotted your avatar. Not posting from Monkey World, are you? (Apologies to the mods for OT post)

Happy Birthday Young Dave - I'd love just to see 80 again! Have a good one, it's just another milestone.

Such sad news, Ron, and so sudden too. My sincere condolences to you and the family. RIP Cheryl

This a very complex issue and not solely related to the ear. I have inherited deafness, which I have traced right back to my maternal great grandfather, who was born in 1835. At the age of 83 I am totally deaf in my left ear and my right ear is 75% to 80% shot. Even with high quality AKG headphones, I cannot hear any note more than two octaves above middle-C (roughly 1055 Hz). Yet I still get tinnitus quite loud in both ears, so something appears to get to the auditory nerve. I have given up on hearing aids because both expensive sets I have had have reached the point where they are wound up so high that feedback occurs. Also the insertion loss at lower frequencies is quite high, so I am better off without them. They no longer give me any benefit. Tinnitus is also related to blood pressure and headaches and is usally one of the precursors to migraine along with patterning before the eyes. I also agree with many of the comments re: high volumes at concerts, and after Yes concerts years ago, my ears would ring for about four days! I'm not aware of any real cures and my partner, who also suffers, has the radio on all day at a low volume; she says she needs that distraction.

Well it is obvious that they practice their techniques, but I very quickly tire of the content. It does absolutely nothing for me. Music for players but not for listeners.

I have two password for my bank account - that is the only account that could lose me money - and they are in my head. The rest are in a text file on an external backup drive that is not normally connected to any machine. So the only account that matters is in my head and I have taken reasonable precautions with everyone else's. If you can't accept that, don't give me access to your site!

Eric, This is a time when you have to make decisions for yourself and your family, and if bandmates don't like it, tough. At the age of 83 I no longer perform or drive, my decision as I have both heart & lung conditions and my eyesight is not too good. But aside from all that, I wouldn't want to do a gig under those surreal conditions whilst at the same time possibly endangering my life and that of my other half - for what? Only you should make the decision as you perceive the pros and cons and the possible cost -v- benefit.

Just saw a short video of some moron going around at night licking his hand and then touching all the car door handles. Location unknown, but looks like the UK. Be careful - the world is full of dangerous idiots.

Greece is in total lockdown too with 150 euro fines for infringements. Fortunately I live in a rural village on the island of Crete, which has only three cases across the island, all in hospital. The UK is still letting in flights, 16 from Rome yesterday, and that seems just crazy.

An interesting story, but one with which us old 'uns are well familiar. My only direct experience of renting out my property through a rental agency was not good either. I'd bought a house in the north of England complete with basic furniture, but not with refridgerator or washing machine, and had never lived in it as I needed to move south again and didn't want the problem of having to deal with a tenant when I was over 250 miles away. Barely a month went by when the agent phoned me and said that the tenant was complaining that the washing machine was leaking. He knew full well that the house didn't have a washing machine, so I asked him why he was bothering me. "Oh, it's her own washing machine", he said so I asked him what exactly he was doing for his fee and he put the phone down. Doh! When I had my cabinetmaking business, I always considered myself a fair employer, but found that the employees that you thought were the most trustworthy turned out to be the biggest crooks of all. One that I fired for being basically useless had been secretly hiding away nice straight lengths of expensive kiln-dried teak up in the rafters of the workshop ready to spirit them away as soon as he had an opportunity. He was another one that was recommended by a friend. A plague on all their houses, but I hope your sale goes through OK, Ken.

Here in Crete (Greece), the supermarkets were limiting admission by ticket and we had to wait for two to come out before we could gain admission. In the AB (Greek chain) the queues to the cash tills had markers on the floor and you had to stand on the marker and had to wait for the marker in front of you to clear before you could move closer to the till. It makes good sense. We live in a small Greek rural village where everywhere is very quiet and we keep a low profile and obey the handwashing rules etc. As we are both oldies, we have no wish to leave this earth too soon! All except food shops and pharmacies are closed - bars, tavernas, and all other shops cloed. Stay safe my friends.

Thanks for the figure, Stokely. I've also heard that heat is the quickest way to kill it, but does this mean a Mediterranean summer or a flamethrower? And they also say that the quickest way to catch it is from a sneeze or a cough droplet, hence the use of masks by some people, though these seem to be to protect other people in the room from your coughs and sneezes rather than to protect you from other people's droplets. As many medical people have said, they are no sure way of protecting yourself from getting infected.

No one bothered to mention that the coronavirus cannot survive outside of the body for very long. A lot of posters have assumed that once it is on the keys, it is going to stay there forever, but that is not so. The best idea seems to be sanitizer on your hands before you perform and then again on your hands after the performance.

So sorry to hear this sad news as was my other half, a great fan. RIP.

Most people feel as happy as they want to be.....

What was there not to like about that progamme? I learned a lot more about Bud than I already knew, and Paul Grabowsky is a very able pianist as is shown by his beautiful reharmonisation of Skylark in the last couple of minutes. That was well worth 52 minutes of any musician's time, and thanks for posting it.

A great arranger and real musicians! Brilliant stuff and thanks for posting.

Bill Evans

Suddenly develop a blinding headache and throw a sickie. It always works as you are simply not well enough to go.

I was keyboard player in a quartet, resident in a large British hotel way back in the 1960s, and periodically, including Christmas, they would bring in cabaret acts - singers, comedians, etc - who would rarely bring their own accompanist and even more rarely arrive early in the afternoon to allow a run through. Lita Roza ("How much is that doggie in the window?" and ex-Ted Heath singer) arrived about 7:30pm, just as we were about to start playing for dancing, and headed for the bar complete with her tiny dog and a bulky minder. She was due to go at at 11.00pm. Also staying amongst the guests were a couple of pranksters, who'd been banned in the past, but obviously the ban had been lifted - they had money! At about 10:15pm we were advised by the management that she had been drinking steadily and they wanted her to go on early at 10.30pm, while she could still stand. In due course the bandleader announced her and we played her opening introduction. She manged to get to the bandstand, but opted to perform from the ballroom floor and was handed a microphone and she started to sing. My eyes were focussed on her rather scrawly dots. Meanwhile, the pranksters, who had been sitting on the edge of the ballroom floor right opposite her, got down on their hands and knees and started to crawl slowly across the ballroom flor towards her. These guys and their pranks were well known to regular members of the audience and they didn't know whether to laugh or keep straight faces. The management went into panic mode as they could hardly walk across the floor and create a fracas in the middle of her first song. So the pranksters were left to see what would happen next. They continued to crawl towards her, and both audience and my fellow band members were sniggering. They got right up to her and were looking into her face, but she seemed completely oblivious to it all. Everyone was glad when she reached the end of her first number, audience members could applaud, and all could laugh out loud. At that point the pranksters "surrendered" and managment whicked them away, never to be seen again. Apart from a few duff notes, Lita managed to complete her performance and no doubt was taken swiftly back to her abode. Perhaps you should never arrive early for a gig where there's a bar!

I don't post on here very often because I gave up performing some years ago and I am now 82, but I like to read fellow musician's comments - it brings it all back! The worst thing that can happen is that the band fires you, and second worst that they refuse to pay you for the gig. Both you can easily recover from. So your mistakes were most probably only obvious to fellow band members and I can assure you that they will all have made similar mistakes at some time during their musical careers. If it's something that can be rectified, you will autiomatically take care of it. Don't beat yourself up over this otherwise that might cause you to do it again, Heaven forbid! :-)

Great news, Dave, but who is funding it? Will this become a paid subscription forum, a donation forum or what?

Try this:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5X601Taf-Q

There are numerous rat/mouse traps on YouTube, some rather cruelly involving high voltage and done for the amusement of the Asian poster, I think. But the best involved no electricity, just a plastic bucket and about three spare bits of wood. They all seem to be using corm or maize as a bait. I've had mice between old lath & plaster walls before now. All you hear is the patter of tiny feet, and they are not easy to get rid of, but hours of amusement for a hungry cat!