A-Rod and Bush

From the NY Post:

Yankees not worried by road troubles
“We have played bad baseball. Our situational hitting hasn’t been good and we take pride in doing that.” Rodriguez said.

Sounds like something ol' Dubya might have said.

A song for Steve

I had just finished reading Jimmy Buffett's autobiography, "A Pirate Looks at Fifty" about a week or so ago. He wrote it as he flew from Florida, across Cuban airspace to Grand Cayman Island, and then to Costa Rica where he spent some time before flying to Venezuela, the Amazon in central Brazil, then back north again ...stopping at several islands in the Lesser Antilles, including one where he lived for a while. I had always wanted to visit the Caribbean Islands, and added Costa Rica to the list after listening to Steve talk about his prior trip to CR, and after reading of Buffett's time spent there. It truly sounded like a magical place to visit or to live. My head spins from the thought of a senseless act of violence that happened to Steve in such a beautiful place. I don't know exactly which harbour he wrote this song about, but this version was recorded on one of those islands. I suppose it could have been written about Costa Rica. I can picture Steve there, a beautiful place to leave this realm, no matter what the circumstances are. A song for Steve.

One Particular Harbour, by Jimmy Buffett

Ia ora te natura
E mea arofa teie ao nei
Ia ora te natura
E mea arofa teie ao nei

I know I don't get there often enough
But God knows I surely try
It's a magic kind of medicine
That no doctor could prescribe

I used to rule my world from a pay phone
And ships out on the sea
But now times are rough
And I got too much stuff

Can't explain the likes of me
But there's this one particular harbour
So far but yet so near
Where I see the days as they fade away
And finally disappear

But now I think about the good times
Down in the Caribbean sunshine
In my younger days I was so bad
Laughin' about all the fun we had

I've seen enough to feel the world spin
Mixin' different oceans meetin' cousins
Listen to the drummers and the night sounds
Listen to the singers make the world go round

Ia ora te natura...

Lakes below the mountains
Flow into the sea
Like oils applied to canvas
They permeate through me

And there's that one particular harbour
Sheltered from the wind
Where the children play on the shore each day
And all are safe within
Most mysterious calling harbour
So far but yet so near
I can see the day when my hair's full gray
And I finally disappear

Ia ora te natura...
Ua pau te maitai no te fenua
Te zai noa ra te ora o te mitie

The Music-Copyright Enforcers

David Gans wrote on Facebook: “There are more people listening to music now than ever before.... But because of this new kind of accessibility, people feel like they don’t have to pay. Why is that?

This was in response to a NY Times article titled "The Music-Copyright Enforcers." That posting on Facebook was followed by 33 comments. I wanted to chime in with my thoughts and wrote more than I expected to. Not wanting to get to windy on Facebook, I am posting it here instead.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Music is not something that you can hold in your hand, you hear it with your ears. Yes, it is art, but compare it to a painter or a sculptor. Artists of those genres sell their art, something solid they can hold in their hands, and get paid for the object, then the buyer becomes the owner of that piece of art.

There is the strong perception that music business executives have been ripping off artists, withholding royalties, etc., practices that have been going on since radio was invented. If I buy a CD and that musician does not get his fair share, then why should I pay money to fuel some coke head music biz exec’s drug habit?

The end user, the listener of music played by a radio station does not have to pay money to listen to the music played by that station. The station pays the fees, the listener then must hear the commercials, but also has the option of switching stations.

Pioneering jam bands such as The Grateful Dead, Phish and String Cheese Incident, among many others, discovered that audience taping can be used as an advertising tool. By trading music (remember “BnP’s”), a new ‘customer’ was found who would pay to see that band. But if I buy a CD and love it so much that I have to get my best friend to hear it, too, and I burn a copy of it for him, uh-oh, I’m in trouble, despite that band gaining a new customer. (Bands who have a different set list every night benefit from this the most. Bands or singers who play the same 105 minute repertoire every night do not benefit from this.)

Some bands are not taper friendly because they are concerned about the quality of the recording. With today’s technology, audience recordings are extremely listenable, and better than playing a store bought CD in a rag top car, better than vinyl, and better than cassette tapes.

Society and technology are constantly evolving. The law is always playing catch-up with new technology. The law needs to be proactive and not reactive, and to get priorities straight. Go after the guys who are copying and burning CD’s in mass quantities. Don’t go after the guy who burns a CD for a friend. Wait a minute… what’s a CD? I mean, don’t go after the guy who sends a file of a song to his friend.

Advertising is constantly evolving as well. Five years ago, you could watch a youtube video of a song by your favorite band, a highlight of a key play in last night’s ball game, or a news item without any advertising. Pop-up blockers eliminated that form of advertising. Now, you are subjected to 15 seconds of advertising before you can watch that video. Someone’s getting paid.

I’m all for musicians, singers, and songwriters getting their fair share. If I buy a CD, then lose it, or break it, or it just gets old, and a friend burns a copy from his purchased CD for me, should that be a crime?

Then there was the joke about Metallica suing someone over the use of an ‘E’ chord. And isn’t Disney trying to collect royalties on “It’s A Small World After All”?

Relationships

I no longer think of being in a relationship with that someone special. I thought I had learned my lesson about falling in love too fast, or like, or lust, for that matter, back in the mid ‘90’s. Twice in the early part of this decade I forgot those lessons and let myself get too attached too soon, and got burned. Last year, I went to a party and met someone who was really nice and seemed really interested in me. This time, though, I went slow, really slow. I learned that she and I had many similarities in our lives- we both had kids in late teens or early twenties, we both were born and grew up in the northeast portion of the country (PA & RI), we both had lived in northern Florida (Pensacola and Tallahassee), we both had lived in Southern California (San Fernando Valley & San Gabriel Valley), we both listed Edward Abbey as one of our favorite authors, we both like baseball, we both have psychiatric issues (bipolar and depression), we had several friends in common, our music tastes were very similar, and at the time we met, we were both thinking about moving to Sebastopol.

I was bound and determined not to let my emotions run ahead unchecked. We were seeing each other occasionally for about 3 months learning about all our similarities. I felt we were growing closer, and at a pace that was much slower than in the past with others. We went to see the Grateful Dead (or whatever they were calling themselves at the time) and spent the night in a motel with three others as we didn’t want to be driving 2 hours to get home that night. While at the show, the relationship took a turn towards the physical, very unexpectedly for me, yet very nice. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, that’s how nice it was!

Four of us took off for San Francisco the next morning after a great breakfast at an IHOP next to the motel we stayed in and dropped off Tom & Steph. We jumped into my car and started driving to Marin, as she left her car at my place. As we were driving, she very unexpectedly announced that she was not interested in a relationship with me. Talk about getting hit upside the head with an 18# sledgehammer! I mean, she could have at least waited a couple of days or so! Talk about buzz kill! I asked her what happened in between Deal (the last encore) and breakfast, but never got a clear answer.

It could have been worse, but I had to get busy right away looking for a place to move to. Fortunately, I was extremely busy for the next several months and was able to not let that interlude affect me more than it did. It hurt, no doubt, probably more than all of the previous non-relationships put together. This one ranks a definite #2 in heartaches in my lifetime. I mean, I really, really, really tried to not let myself get too attached too soon. And then it happens again.

It saddens me when I think about why I have spent so much time alone in my lifetime, so I try not to. But when I do think about it, I try to figure out why, but I can never find an answer to that question. I try not to think about it because it hurts when I do think about it. So I now immerse myself in music, baseball, cancer benefits, writing, my old photos, and anything else artistically creative that I can.

UPDATE:
 I found this photo in Stephanie's Facebook photos. It was taken at The Dead show with the woman in question..

Dave's not here...

Anybody seen Dave?

I have been on a mission to lessen my time in front of the computer, unless it has something to do with my baseball writing for Fenway West, or my music. Social networking sites like Tribe and Facebook are taking the biggest hits. Contributing to my diminished visits to these 2 sites are my increased involvement in 4 bands (Planet Waves, Stackabones, Cancer Sucks Band, Leadfoot Betty, and for a while last year, Dave Stein’s Grateful Dead Acoustic Tribute Band.) Also taking a hit is writing about anything other than baseball. I’ve weaned myself off of the many variations of Law and Order and CSI, but discovered Criminal Minds and NCIS. LOST finally ended with a very disappointing resolution. I’m glad that’s over.

The past 18 months or so went like this: I was tapped to play drums for a Stackabones show in 2009 at The Connecticut Yankee with short notice, meaning I had a lot of new songs to learn in a short period of time; getting a long notice from my very cool landlord, (he was in the Jerry Band for 3 years), that I would have to move at the end of June (he waited until after my daughter graduated from high school to move back in there!); her prom and graduation; countless trips to Sonoma County looking for affordable housing; moving my daughter in with her mother; moving me; my longest trip back east ever; setting up the new place; playing in 4 bands; throwing a party; getting sucked into my neighbor's energy and time sapping drama; buying a new vehicle and getting rid of old vehicle; producing a cancer research fundraising benefit; tryin' like hell to get rid of stough; writing for Fenway West; playin' in the aforementioned cancer benefit; another trip back east, which included trips to McCoy Stadium and Fenway Park to cover ball games there; transcribing my father's memoirs; and I now am in the middle of scanning 1200+ slides that I shot in the mid '80's. I’m sure I’ve missed a few other time consuming issues. A lot of bullshit has finally been put behind me! I am now able to scan these slides, and soon will resume writing about something other than baseball, and practicing my drums and piano a little more.

This past year, there were lots and lots of trips to Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Novato, San Rafael, and San Francisco, as my whole world for the past 16 years had been centered in Marin. Sierra was getting used to living in a new town as well and didn’t know her way around RP, and neither did she have much money to do anything anyhow. She is now working 20 to 25 hours a week and taking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College. I am driving much less these days, thankfully!

I live way up on the Russian River now, out in the sticks where I like it in a rental that’s actually bigger than a shoebox. I'm above the flood plain, I have a great covered patio and a huge fenced in yard, and when it's 95 outside, it's nice and cool inside. My daughter lives only 20 miles away and comes to visit once in a while.

While I do miss being closer to friends, I am enjoying the solitude. It is nice not to have to worry about my daughter every minute of the day while she was a minor in high school living under my roof. She’s almost 20, has a job, goes to school, and lives with her mother. I have no housemate(s) to deal with. The last one before Sierra moved in with me turned into an unholy creature from the Great Abyss. I don’t have to slap the alarm clock around 5 mornings a week. I was seriously overdrawn in the REM department! I am able to get the rest that my body and mind need so badly. I don’t have to worry about bosses and/or jobs from hell. While my last job was one of the better ones I have had, it was not the smoothest functioning accounting department. Come to think of it, I don’t recall any smooth running accounting departments wherever I have worked. Every one of them was either understaffed or in serious disarray.

My health has slowly declined in the past 2+ years that I have been virtually without health insurance. COBRA costs were over $700 per month. For a while, my old caseworker in Marin County finagled my and Sierra’s accounts so that I was able to see my GP (but not my neurologist), and get my meds. Once Sierra emancipated, though, my share of cost with MediCal zoomed over $700. I have been able to get the single most expensive prescription on a program from the manufacturer, but the rest were paid out of pocket and have sucked most of the savings I was able to squirrel away when I was receiving State Disability payments and Social Security for both me and Sierra. MediCare starts up in less than a month! I have an appointment with a neurologist and my GP scheduled already.

My mother has been suffering from something for years now, but I don’t know what. I have a couple of close cousins on her side, one is struggling with Alzheimer’s and his son, very close to my age, has recently been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Thankfully MS has been scratched off my list; a 2nd opinion MS specialist at UCSF said this was more like Parkinson’s. I saw one more neurologist at a low cost clinic who said it wasn’t Parkinson’s, but I still don’t know what ‘it’ is.

I should have the slides all scanned this week, and the scanner rental returned. It will take me a few more days after that to finish my father’s memoirs. With those two time sensitive projects moving behind me, my schedule becomes extremely flexible.

On tap for the near future are to start writing more; lyrics, essays, poetry, maybe even a novel. I have lots of words in my brain trying to get out and into the computer. I will be playing the piano, playing the drums set and the hand drums daily. I hear music and songs in my head at times so I will be learning how to record, mix, and balance (relatively) simple projects. I need to be paying more attention to my plants, as well. Maybe someday I’ll get to those fountains that I have wanted to build. I have ideas for home based businesses that hopefully will provide some much needed personal revenue.

Hopefully no more bullshit will come my way- landlords, housemates, bosses, and jobs from hell for starters. I got a speeding ticket in Novato on my last trip there for anything related to moving. I received a fix it ticket during my last week of work for driving an unregistered vehicle. I registered it that week, again that same year, and again the next year, but no one at the DMV bothered to tell me that I hadn’t cleared the fix-it ticket. I neglected to inform the court in Santa Rosa that I had complied with the law. I had informed the DMV of my new address every time I registered my vehicle, but they never updated it for my license. The court kept sending notices to an old address that was listed on my license, so a $120 ticket had zoomed up to $520. My landlord’s girlfriend was interested in buying my Subaru. In between the time she took it for a test drive and the time I took it to get it smogged, something happened to one of the front brakes. It was making some seriously annoying sounds. As it turned out, I needed to spend over $200 to get that one brake fixed. Why that didn’t happen until after I sold it, I’ll never know, but that’s the way everything in my life goes.

Anyhow, I really, really hope that I have reached a point where I can concentrate on the things that I want to do, and not what I have to do, without all the bullshit that I have had to endure over the years- depression, horrible high school experiences, hospital time, cocaine addiction, homelessness, divorce, jobs & bosses & house mates & landlords, etc., from hell. Parenthood is not bullshit, and although it never does really end, it is extremely time consuming up until your offspring become emancipated.

As long as my health does not deteriorate any more, I will be fine, I will get by, I will survive.