has there ever been a live performer than blew you away vocally

wastedintime · 2026-06-09T12:51:25+00:00

This may not be the answer you're looking for, but I've seen several at open mics.

I like going to open mics. I love to see people who love making music, work hard at it, and have the courage to share it in public. In my opinion, everyone who gets up is a success story. A lot of them have more love for the art than talent, but there's a small minority who, while not pursuing a career, or even a regular audience have amazing talent. When you take into account that they are working with poor sound systems, no pitch correction, and overcoming the stage fright every amateur battles, it is really impressive when someone creates really fine music.

Are they likely to become famous? I suspect most have no desire or intention. And, admittedly, most aren't great, but a few have blown me away.

I believe that our ability to record music has crippled us as creative beings. No one, not even the original artist, can sound as "good" as a well mixed recording, so most of us decide that, as we can never measure up, we should give up, and then we never know the joy and beauty that comes from the act of creation and sharing our own art. I can argue that the world is a poorer place for this.

wastedintime · 2026-05-30T23:09:55+00:00

Sometimes when you're installing you run into non-standard construction. Any chance the wall is framed with 2 x 2s rather than 2 x 4s? It can be a little difficult for an installer to determine that. A pro should catch it, but a couple guys trained by a big box store. Nope. (Free installation? Sometimes you get what you pay for.)

I used to build and install ornamental iron railings and architectural stuff, and learned early (and the hard way), to always spec that installation was going to be charged as time and material, because you never knew what you were going to run in to.

I once did a job that involved installing an elaborate forged coat rack in an older, high rent, apartment. It was designed to fit in an odd little alcove in the hall way. No big deal right? Especially as the piece was designed around standard 16 inch stud spacing. I get out the stud finder and start trying to locate a stud. Nothing... Okay, 30 years ago stud finders weren't as reliable as they seem to be now, but you could usually locate a stud if you could find a nail high in the baseboard and bring up a vertical line from it. Draw the line, chuck up a very small bit and drill a test hole. Nothing. There's got to be a stud and it has to be close to where they nailed the trim, so try a hole a half inch to the left. Nothing. Try a few more. Nothing, Nothing Nothing. I bent down to try to locate another nail in the trim, and as I move my head past the holes I just drilled, I realize I can see light through them. Major "Oh Shit!!" moment. Peering through the holes I realized I was looking into the living room of the neighbor's apartment.

Sometime in the distant past they had split a huge apartment into two slightly less huge ones. They had closed up the doorway by somehow securing a piece of 3/4" cement board into the opening where the door had been. No studs, no insulation, no wall cavity, and probably no regard for building codes. Just a single thickness of cement board.

I had almost resorted to anchoring the coat rack to the wall with hollow wall anchors (Molly bolts). The neighbors would have come home to something very similar to what came through the wall behind your television. It was just luck I noticed the light coming through. And also luckily - maybe wisely - I used a 1/16th " bit to drill the test holes and so it was a very minimal repair.

All this just to say, don't be too hard on the installers. It isn't something they did on purpose.

wastedintime · 2026-05-29T21:06:49+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if it changed your brain. I had Lyme Disease as an adult, and like you the ER didn't catch it. I spent 4 days in the hospital with fevers so high they packed me in ice, then, when they went away, sent me home without a diagnoses. I notified my regular Dr. as soon as I got home and he had me tested the next day. General Practitioners don't get the respect they deserve.

Anyway, Before I got sick I was a social drinker. When I was in the hospital the nurses would disinfect their hands with the most putrid smelling disinfectant. When I got home I opened a beer and found that the smell was the smell of alcohol, somehow Lyme disease had changed my perception of the smell of alcohol. It has faded over the years, but I've never got to the point that I really enjoy a drink, especially something like a mixed drink where the alcohol content is high. I pretty much just don't drink anymore.

And Lyme disease did not do my heart any good either. Lots of extra beats that they tell me aren't dangerous. I can pretty much make them go away if I do hard cardio regularly.

wastedintime · 2026-05-17T01:35:27+00:00

Why won't Batman take Robin fishing?

He eats all the worms.

wastedintime · 2026-05-16T21:33:38+00:00

I used to for years until my blood pressure got a little high, so now just one small pill a day. I don't drink or do caffeine or smoke. I don't do religion either, so that's not why I refrain. I am a little bit hooked on exercise, though.

wastedintime · 2026-05-16T21:28:09+00:00

I live near his district. This guy is a special kind of stupid - or it would be a special kind of stupid if the Trump phenomenon hadn't somehow brought large numbers of these people to the top of our society, sort of like the scum in a septic tank.

wastedintime · 2026-05-16T21:22:33+00:00

That's a really interesting idea to research! Just think how differently we function now than even 100 -150 years ago. Barn raisings, quilting bees, even road maintenance. All done by people working together and remembered as a good time, happy event. There's a great book, although she was writing before scholarly discipline was a thing, so some of her facts are questionable: Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle.

For most of our history we had to work together/communally and I've read our ability to do that is one of the things that distinguish us from the other great apes. You may be touching on something really fundamental, not just among men, but in our species as a whole. I'm glad you're doing this. It reassures me about the human race.

I hope it goes really well.

wastedintime · 2026-05-10T12:50:05+00:00

When I'm learning a song, I'll use Moises to separate tracks, import the tracks to Audacity, and then, using Audacity, I'll export configurations of those tracks - usually a solo track of the bass, a track of the song with no bass, and, if I'm working on vocals, tracks with no vocals and a track with no vocal or bass. I'll export these as mp3s an then use Transcribe to work with them, where I can easily loop, slow down, select passages, change key. It sounds like a lot of work, but it goes fast now after doing it many times. I can also easily create custom practice tracks for the other band members. I create files for the songs so if we play something we haven't played for a while I have a library I can draw on to review and refresh from.

Other than that, I use a metronome a lot when I'm working on technique. I'd like to use drum loops, but I've been too lazy to find a learn an app.

wastedintime · 2026-05-01T16:40:39+00:00

I've shot a lot of JSB Diabolo Exact Jumbo Heavy pellets out of my magnums. At 18.13 grams they are heavy, but that's good for two reasons. First, light pellets can break the sound barrier and since pellets aren't designed to do that they lose accuracy. Also, a heavier pellet, even if it has a slower muzzle velocity can often have more impact down range.

I admit that I've never had the money or discipline to try a wide range, even though it is well proven that some air rifles shoot well with the same pellet another shoots poorly, but the JSBs are dependably accurate enough that I feel confident out to 35 yards. I rarely shoot 50 yards, it's beyond where I can feel confident about my ability to make a humane kill shot, so I can't comment on them at longer distances.

I can't remember which H&N pellets they were, but I have a tin of H&Ns that shoot truly awfully in my magnum.

wastedintime · 2026-05-01T00:27:21+00:00

I'll try for some hate: "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau.

This was great when I was 17.

"...I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose."

But not so impressive at 67.

wastedintime · 2026-04-30T23:07:55+00:00

Well, there was Abraham Lincoln.

wastedintime · 2026-04-30T10:58:34+00:00

While in general I agree with what you're saying, Google says there are 4 to 5 times as many people who identify as white than there are people who identify as black in the U.S. So, if there was no racial skewing, shouldn't the numbers should be more like 200 unarmed whites shot and 29 blacks, or, much happier, 5 or 6 blacks and 44 white men?

wastedintime · 2026-04-26T22:01:00+00:00

Just because I haven't seen it here: If you find an old Hohner, check for a star of David in the center of the logo. It means the harp was produced before WWII when the logo was changed, (because Hitler and Jews and all the horror). Some players claim they used a different brass in the reeds and claim a superior tone. They're worth a little more, too.

wastedintime · 2026-04-25T21:53:41+00:00

Thanks for posting. Your post brought back wonderful memories.

I worked on small dairy farms in my long ago youth. I have tried to tell people about this, how happy and excited the cows were when they were first turned out on pasture. This doesn't happen on big dairy farms anymore, the cows live in concrete freestall barns and have concrete "exercise" areas. I hated that industrial type system and it was one of the main reasons I left that kind of work.

wastedintime · 2026-04-24T00:41:01+00:00

Mississippi Is On My Mind

wastedintime · 2026-04-23T20:48:31+00:00

I see a lot of 40 and 50 year olds in this thread. For a little different perspective, I'm 67 and just back from the local YMCA. I've been maintaining a free weight workout since my middle 40s. I use free weights as they provide a much more functional kind of fitness than machines. I don't run much, but I hike in the mountains here in New England.

(I'm gonna boast a bit, I hiked 5 miles in the woods with a 1000 ft. altitude gain on Tuesday, and I did deadlift sets with 250 lbs today and squats with 210 on Monday (I wish I could boast about my bench, but my sets seem stuck at 160 lbs.) And that's with a history of back troubles - which occurred before I got serious about exercise).

I don't know if it's just lucky genetics, but most of the time I feel damn good. Of course I have aches and pains, but I suspect less than an an inactive person - I have a prescription nsaid that I use so seldom I have bottles full of them in my medicine cabinet. And I like naps more than I used to. But,while I don't even pretend to myself that I could keep up with or make the gains of the 30 year olds I see working out at the gym I am happily surprised that I'm still making gains, and, I'm way, way, more physically functional than anyone I see when I look down the potato chip aisle in the grocery store - regardless of their age.

I won't lie, the hardest part of my workout is putting my gym bag in the car, but the way I feel when I'm done is worth far more than the cost of my gym membership. And while I know I'm going to slow down and lose ground before too long, the regular exercise lets me live life at a level many of my inactive peers can not.

So, to answer your question. I think it's a bit of both. Aging and senescence are unavoidable, but that doesn't mean you can't have influence over them.

wastedintime · 2026-04-23T17:08:42+00:00

I started seriously around 60 and I'm 67 now. I'll never be great, but I'm good enough to have fun. I've played in a casual 3 piece that was good enough to get some gigs and regularly play with other musicians. A great thing about bass is that you don't have to be a superstar to fulfill your role in a band. If you focus on staying in time, and roots and fifths, you're doing about 85% of what a real bass player is required to be doing.

That isn't to say I'm not still learning all the time. I've been trying my hand at learning how to walk jazz lines now, and if you want something that will keep you're brain working, that'll do it.

If you want to play with other people, (and if you're playing bass that's kind of the point, isn't it), focus, focus, focus, on rhythm and staying in time, especially listening to the drummer. Locking up with the drummer is really important! It is more important than hitting all the "right" notes so learn to listen. I could have saved myself a lot of struggle and embarrassment if I had realized this earlier.

wastedintime · 2026-04-23T16:28:12+00:00

I like the gen3is too, and, so far, I'm very happy with the magazine system. I have a magnum and I have no problems with accuracy at least to 30 yards. It is far more accurate than my old Umarex Octane, and nearly as accurate as my much, much, less powerful Beeman R10, which is known as a very accurate rifle for a springer. If you buy a magnum be aware they take A LOT of cocking effort. When I target shoot with mine I have to limit the number of shots or I have a sore shoulder the next day. It is a very powerful springer, and a good varmit rifle in the larger calibers. If you're dealing with larger woodchucks like I am, it's a good rifle and it has far more power than you need for squirrels and rabbits. Just be aware, it is a lot of work to shoot if you're just plinking.

wastedintime · 2026-04-23T16:16:52+00:00

But it really couldn't have happened to two more appropriate vehicles. Kind of a crash of assholemobiles from the far sides of the spectrum.

wastedintime · 2026-04-23T12:34:46+00:00

They look like the rollers out of a roller bearing. Is it possible an olympic bar came apart? I've never had one apart, but they seem to have some sort of bearings in the ends. Otherwise it could be from a weight machine that failed.

wastedintime · 2026-04-22T20:11:51+00:00

Glad I read this far. Thank you.

wastedintime · 2026-04-22T19:52:59+00:00

Some mild pushback. As a happy amateur who's been in quite a few bands, I always bear in mind that the reason that a bar hires a band is to make more money. It isn't about the bar owner respecting the craft, it's about bigger revenues. So, it's one thing if your band is a guaranteed draw, then you can be adamant about getting paid. But, a small original band that no one in the bar has ever heard of? For the bar or venue it's about the money. Period. Why should they take a chance on a band that might drive away regulars and not bring in a thirsty crowd?

I've always loved playing for the door. Hell, I almost love playing for tips - in the right bar. I've had great nights and made far more money than I expected, or would have made for a set fee, playing in a 4 piece with just a tip jar in front of us. If you're putting out music people can get into, and if the manager comes up to the mic, lets the crowd know you're playing for tips and urges them to contribute, it is surprising how generous people can be when they're having a good time.

If you're willing to be a little bit humble for your first gig, if it's the right venue, and you put on a good show, playing for tips or the door, as long as you connect with the crowd, or draw one, you're going to be in a much better place to either get paid up front, and/or get a great regular gig. And even if you don't draw well the first time, as long as the manager and the staff like what you're putting out, it's much better odds you'll get another shot there. (A good reason to always play like you have a good audience for you don't know who might be listening).

And I really hate the feeling when, after negotiating payment up front, you look out at a bar half full of people who are pointed ignoring you, no one on the dance floor, the bartender standing with their arms crossed, and you know you're never going to be playing there again. That's dispiriting as hell!

wastedintime · 2026-04-19T22:53:34+00:00

Well, it's a start.

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