Give'n it away. Give'n it all away!

Feels good.

Today a young woman with an Orange '79 Bay Westy came over and picked up two Westy rear foams I had kicking around. I didn't realize the Bay Bus had such thin foam for a bed! These should help her I hope.

I've used CL to unload a nice Weber propane BBQ, (worked fine, was uber dirty. You CAN'T believe now many answered THAT ad), Vanagon parts. Golf clubs/bag/cart, (well, I did keep a few clubs ;) dishes, excess knife/fork/spoons, plates, books, etc. went to Sally Ann. I'm sure there's more I've forgotten about. And, there's more to go yet.

So far, I miss none of these things. NONE.

What prompts the need to downsize? Demise of ones parents? Being single? Turning 50? Dunno. I DO know that I've had this "itch" for some time.

Life is short enough as it is. Why go around overloaded with crap? Every time I go on a trip in my Westy, I'm reminded of how little I (and really, the "royal we"), need.

If I were to quit the music business, I'd be down to tools, vans, parts, clothes, computer, some CD's and a smattering of kitchen stuff. Seriously!

I'm still tempted to try FT in my Westy. OTOH, that fargin thing busted its' exhaust again. Sheeeeit. Welding time! I'll get that figured out. Thing is, I really like having the space to do that shit. I would REALLY miss that.

As far as I'm concerned, it was a "win-win" no matter what!

No, I didn't win the audition. But. Of 18 that showed up to play, I was 1 of 5 to make it to the second round of auditions. Basically I looked at all this as a camping trip with an audition in the middle. This took pressure off, made the whole event quite enjoyable and in part, possibly helped my performance as a result.

1st camp: Klipchuck. Water was off so no fees charged! Nice clean typical FS pit toilets and quiet save for road traffic to nearby trail head though that was minimal. Deer roamed free and near, my good friend the Big Dipper was visible through the tree canopy, a great fire was had and I saw a fellow Westy en route!

2nd night: Pitch And Bowler, Nine Mile Rec area. Nice but popular so not a lot of privacy or room between sites. But it has showers, is 4 miles or so from Spokane so this fit my needs. Unfortunately some spots showed tags for the weekend but the campers didn't show up. My spot was "ok" but I could have had a slightly better one.

Up before 7 AM alarm, broke camp and went to work.

Last night: Spring Canyon camp ground near the Coulee dam. Another excellent night!

No regrets. Had a great time. Weather was awesome, beers and fires were had, mileage great (at 60 MPH or less) van ran great save for some fierce cross winds near Hope BC. But that isn't really the van's fault!



Token mountain shots.

So for anyone who needs to know,  here's the route I'm taking to Spokane

Will be home late Tuesday or early Wed. for work.

Well I'm happy to say that my '81 Westy made it Ft Flagler and back without any issues.

Likes:

• new 3 window canvas
• new truckfridge TF49
• just driving the darn thing!

The group 41 battery under the driver seat saw little use and the group 27 under the rear seat was not worked excessively but they both held up fine. Speaking of which......

IMO, the only real caveat to owning a Truckfridge is the eventuality of a solar panel(s) install. A deep cycle only has so many charge cycles, needs to be charged properly once in a while and IMO, maintenance charged when not in use. (vehicle sitting idle). But. The TF is super nice as would be any similar fridge so it's all worth it. In hindsight, I should have pulled and modified the cabinet for a TF65. There's enough room, more or less, but by the time I add all my beer, it gets kinda cramped.

When I start doing some serious hotter weather camping I'll have a solar setup. Til then, I'm pretty sure I'll get 3 days out of the battery before it needs a charge. Pony up a few more bucks for a utility camp site and I'm good to go.

Am leaving tomorrow for my Monday Spokane audition. Even if I don't win, it's been a worthwhile goal. My playing has improved, I get to do a 3 or 4 night camping trip, and I return to over 2 months work; it's all a win-win no matter what.

Ft. Flagler Wet Westie campout 

Ten days w/o any blogging?    ;)

So it's been really nice actually driving my '81. So much work was done! It drives well and so far, has no real issues. Niggling small details yes, but I think that's true of most Vanagons or any vehicle this old. Time will tell, but so far, I think this bus should be reliable enough for some trips. My first venture should start next Monday and take me east into WA state. The idea is to do a little camping, and, do some recon on Spokane. As for the '88 Westy, it sits idle.

The Bass Trombone continues to get better but as with learning or relearning anything, there are plateaus and good or bad days. I swear though, in my mid 20's to late 30's, this didn't happen. I'd really worked out that horn. But as work changed, so did my playing.

As I'm sure I've already written, winning the Spokane audition is a long shot. And even if I won, there would be logistical issues. i.e. this is not a high paying job. There would be some large decisions required.

At the very least, it's a goal. I've gotten 2 lessons with a local respected player. Originally, I intended to play for him and get a few critiques but this turned into lessons. A good thing.

I've always known that playing 8 shows a week of the same show can "kill" a player. Forget the fact that it can be mind numbingly boring, it's super easy to "learn" bad habits. It seems I've done this to some degree.

In spite of the cussing that goes on while practicing my horn, this is all worth it regardless of the audition outcome.

Ah Google. Always changing.

My seaside cliff theme has gone to black. I like mountains.

"Wood shedding" continues for the possible audition. Getting back into "show shape" after months off is hard enough; getting back into shape for orchestral bass trombone, after years off, is a challenge. Am certainly improving and getting closer to where I was but it ain't easy. It all comes down to muscles etc. which are proving to be slightly unpredictable (understandable). Thankfully though, more than 80% of the time it's "ok" (by my standard). This percentage will increase.

This article has me rethinking things. The author of that article is a highly respected musician. Also to his credit, it seems he's done a great job of weathering life in the orchestra. Not a small feat! From the POV of a 30+ year pro freelance musician, and though I've done a lot of freelance orchestra gigs, being a "full time" member of a pro orchestra would be a large change. You're no longer an independent. Generally speaking, you become an employee. (I should BE so "lucky" to get an orchestra gig. That is a long shot)

Pros and cons to everything it seems. My current "job" has been fairly steady over the last 10 + years and I'm thankful for that, but after this spring show, I'm out of work for some time. This is part of the reason I'm looking into the orchestral world. It's either that or pursue the possibility of US citizenship. This would open a door to road work playing tours of shows. But. Though playing this show was a ton of fun and a "dream gig" for any musician these days (almost a full big band. Like almost every show only has 1 trombone.... if any), it too had the typical pit falls. It's not all fun and games and is truly a 24-7 commitment.

Posting all this here really doesn't serve any purpose beyond me venting or w.h.y. but for any layman or upcoming musician that stumbles on this, it may provide some insight. The music business as I knew it, is done and has been "done" for some time now. There are few if any studio sessions, almost every orchestra is financially challenged, and almost every "Broadway" type show uses either a greatly reduced score (instrumentation) or "canned" music (no band). In the old days, in a good month, I might see studio sessions in a week. Now I'm lucky if I see 1 session a year. In the old days, pit orchestras were closer to that term. Now it would be unusual to see any more than 10 musicians in the pit or on stage. In the old days, a lot of the studio playing was "live off the floor" and tape was the only media used in recording. Edit: not entirely true. There were "direct to disc" sessions. i.e. (one of my all time favourite bands!) Most sessions were recorded to tape however. Not long after I got into the studios, digital was introduced. Though studio techniques vary according to the producer, musical director etc., and the techniques have thankfully changed, capturing a performance or chunks of performances is not the norm. At a very simple level, the copy/paste function of digital audio software has done away with performance and in a large way, actual session musicians. Sadly, these aspects of the business have likely changed forever. Sample libraries have gotten quite sophisticated. That tech along with rampant music trading has killed CD sales. Irony: these sample libraries are also pirated. Bottom line: why even train to learn a craft like playing a horn? You push a key on a MIDI keyboard and voila; you have a sound. Possibly even the sound of a highly trained and experienced musician from the Vienna Phil.

My career has been quite fruitful. I've gotten to do a fair amount of high end quality work. The studio work is what I enjoyed most. But with the huge presence of more affordable electronics, trading of music via digital means, (in the old days it took time to make a mix tape now it all happens in a few mouse clicks which leads to rampant abuse), and a general assumption that music is free, the value most people place on a musicians skills or the importance of an ensembles contribution to a given form of entertainment, has dropped to an all time low. And, my general perception is that present and upcoming generations have been heavily swayed into thinking that fashion, bling and how much skin is flashed (or flashed upon), determine if one is a "musician" or not.

"Grump, grump grump"    ;^)

Well, I mailed it. Mailed in my resume to Spokane Symphony.

Plan A: drive down in my '81 Westy, camp overnight, play the audition. Brave. I can see it now. To the audition committee:

"uh, can you guys wait? I just have to swap out the fuel pump....."

All aside, it seems like things are finally buttoned up on this Westy. Oh wait. Gotta change the oil! Ha! It never ends.

I'm torn though. Next gig starts at months end but I'd really like to get a road trip in. All this audition stuff has to be woodshedded and I need to stay in shape. Even if that means playing with a practice mute while in the campground.

So up next is my blue '88. It runs "ok" but I really want to do a swap on it. We'll see. This "running two Westy's" idea kind of makes sense but not really.