Ken came over last night and we had the usual talk session, and I suggested I just deposit the $800 check of his I still have here and that will take care of this week and next week so he doesn't have to worry about coming over on Christmas Eve. He said that's a good plan.
I was very tired, worked on some things to get parts to list, with only a little reward for my efforts.
I woke up around 11 or so, had one little switch to send out to a guy, and got out of here a bit past noon, maybe closer to 1PM. I dropped the switch in the mail at the downtown post office, rode over to Whole Foods to at least use the loo. Joke was on me because the door would not unlock and would not even for an employee who was using her employee code to try to get int.
No problem, I thought, I'll use it at the train station. I walked over there just in time for a train to have left, so I had a half hour to kill anyway. Well, their loo was closed for cleaning and then when it sounded like they were opening it, some homeless guy/bum started some kind of loud argument at the door and I stayed away.
Instead I had a nice fun talk with this young security guy at the Amtrak side of Diridon. He has an 07 Prius and I had an 05, so I told him about the secret compartment in the center console, so secret that even though I'd bought my Prius as a "certified pre-owned" and thus really carefully checked over, there were things in there from the previous owner. We were having a fun time talking until a guy came up who needed help with something so I left to go wait for my train.
I ended up on the platform with some people who'd come from Sacramento or somewhere between Oakland and Sacramento for ... a day exploring the train system? I told them about how easy it is to get to Fisherman's Wharf from the CalTrain terminus so maybe they did that.
As for myself I rode up to Menlo Park and did some business, and had a couple of pastries in this little Middle-Eastern place. There was a Chinese gal there on her laptop apparently on a call or a video call, where she was trying to tell the person an address, and the problem seemed to be that she didn't understand the difference between the abbreviations "st." and "ste." So I told her the "ste." is actually short for "suite" which generally just means an office number; it's just a fancy way of saying it. The thing being, if she types it into Google, Google will always see it as "suite" not "street". She was happy to learn about this, just another pitfall in good old English.
On the way back I got off at Palo Alto and walked over to the Patagonia store to look around. Almost nothing was in biking-friendly colors and $200 for a fleece pullover? I got on the next train which was a limited so it got back to Diridon quickly.
I rode over to Walmart and got some things, and stopped at Nijiya on the way back for a bento. I sure didn't feel like cooking tonight.
OK so enough boring shit. Let's say I, as a brass player, decided to retire in New Orleans after all. I guess the first thing I'd do is get with the New Orleans Busking Ministry or whatever they're called, because they actually *like* buskers and *want* them, although they want actual music not people running sidewalk karaoke shows or playing endless Grateful Dead (California) music. They want music that has veritable blues/jazz roots.
Next if I were to have a blog, I'd fill it with the juicy details of how my daily "busk" went or even if it were not a working day, maybe my visit to this or what music store to get whatever it is I need and my interactions with other musicians and the people working there.
This is what people would want to actually read because many, many people like to daydream about being a street musician and not having to worry about the morning/evening commute, bills, their quarterly review, etc. Not that they're about to go out and do it, but they love reading the day to day nuts and bolts account of someone actually doing it.
For instance take "Nomadic Fanatic" on YouTube. I started following him some years ago and while there are things about him that are irritating (his high squeaky voice, his hot dogs and pop tarts diet, some questionable life choices) I've also watched him go from the kind of cheap'n'cheesy RV you see parked out on the streets all over around here that you can probably buy for a thousand bucks, to, somehow, a house in the Midwest, a big RV, a motorcycle, a drone or three, and his latest is a full size school bus. Somehow the guy just keep chugging along and he shows the nuts and bolts of his daily life.
And it all started out with him putting out YouTube videos and selling stickers. He just went to one of those online companies that will print up stickers for you, and had some printed up. People would mail him money and he'd mail out the stickers.
And this is just a boring guy some have nicknamed "Tater" who goes around to mildly interesting places and has adventures like stumbling on some rocks. Somehow the guy has enough money coming in to travel around, not have to work, not living on the gov't dime, and he has fun. I admire that.
Now think if you're a musician in New Orleans, on the mainland US pretty much "the" street music ground zero and birthplace of jazz. That's much more interesting. You could have followers and a fan club and have all kinds of things on Etsy or Tee Spring etc., T-shirts and little goodie bags with some stickers and imprinted guitar picks, that sort of thing. It's a lot easier way to get "known" and have a fan base than trying to "open" for this or that big act, which is just about impossible.
Assuming this is what one would want to do. Myself being a trumpet player I'd probably want to offer things like wah-wah mutes made out of actual coconut shells which is how that was first done, and various bits and bobs for trumpets.
And I'd sure make sure my blog shows up on Google, not one page of it from last September, but the latest post. Maybe set up a sub-Reddit on Reddit. If the goal is "fame and fortune" those are the steps. If the goal has changed to, "Sit back, collect welfare, and smokum crack pipe" than this is all moot.
And now the funny stuff: This just in, from the Internet-O-sphere: Our new President is fElon Musk, Dirty Diaper Don is First Lady.
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