I'm a jazz guitarist from San Francisco. People have asked me why I use the title musician with an attitude, it might drive people away? My reason for using it is kind of a warning disclaimer. You may read things that might be slightly offensive to you depending on the type of personality you possess.
So I just thought I would start from the get go by letting everyone know that this is going to be a no holds barred website and blog site. Nothing pornographic. I'm not trying to be offensive. That is not my goal, but I am very opinionated and do have a slight attitude. So maybe gird your loins. Or not.
So we have a jazz guitar player from San Francisco with a slight chip on his shoulder. Not from a life of being bullied or pushed around, everything has worked out really well in my life. I've just hit a point in life where I don't deal with stupidity anymore.
And this whole website thing I almost find kind of stupid, and feel like I have finally been sucked into the social media vortex. But I have nowhere else to go. I want autonomy but can't find it through dealing with everyone's terms and conditions. I want everything for myself and no longer wish to be attached to someone else's website, company, blog site, where I have to answer to other people. It's time for that to stop.
I want complete and total control over what I do, what I post, what I write, what I say, and how and when I do it. The only way to do that is to have my own website/blog site. So I have succumbed to a certain degree, but in doing that I will gain independence. Gotta take some bad with the good.
As a guitar player I have played just about every type of gig you can think of. Even the ultra cheese gigs. If you want to make 100% of your living through playing music which I did and do, you can't be extremely choosy about what you take.
The choosy part starts now. I have a very close friend who coined the phrase Fiasco Factor. How long is the drive, how is the load in, will there be food, (very important) who are some of the other musicians on the gig, what style of music will be played, will I be reading charts, and if so who will provide them.
He has a bit of an attitude also. These aren't bad attitudes. We would never wish ill upon anyone. These are the attitudes that enable us to say no. We know what we like and more than that, we know what we don't like.
The Fiasco Factor plays an important role in our lives. And with experience you begin to see the red flags and are able to circumvent abject stupidity, chaos and pandemonium, that IS the Fiasco Factor.
Covid, the government and Fauci, basically drove my early retirement. I have a blog about it, and I am currently writing a book about retirement. My friend has his Fiasco Factor, and I have what I call The Beginning of the End. The Beginning of the End happens when you are on a gig with a high Fiasco Factor, and the main thought going through your mind is, "This is it." And eventually it just becomes the end. Last time, no more. I'm too old for this.
I've hit the end a few times. You always think you have something left in the tank, but then you realize "No this is really the end." Don't want to do this anymore. No more Fiasco Factor, no more The Beginning of the End, it's just plain and simple, The End.
Anyway, the Bio. Well it's not a bio per se. I want to stay away from the typical formulaic website. This has to be fun for me and in focusing on that maybe it will be interesting to others. Not trying to sell anything, yes the blog is important. That is where I do my venting and purging.
So let's continue.
I've done just about every type of gig there is. And the one thing that happens in music probably more than in other walks of life is, it all ends, and sometimes pretty quickly. One of my favorite gigs I've done was on a train called the Reno Fun Train. It was indeed a train, that took skiers and passengers from San Jose, California, to Reno, Nevada with stops along the way to pick up other skiers and passengers, with a stop at Lake Tahoe to drop off the Skiers.
That was a great gig. Left San Jose Monday mornings, arrived in Reno late afternoon, put me up in a hotel Monday night, Tuesday night, and back home on Wednesday. Playing on the way up and the way back. Good money for playing, free lunch and dinner on the train. So there is such a thing as a free lunch. That gig lasted 3 months and went out of business. I loved the gig. Out of town early week, back late in the week, I could still do other gigs at home on the weekend. Great gig.
So not much else to say. Guitar player from San Francisco, worked on cruise ships, worked in Vegas, finally ended up in Mexico. That's another story, and some of it is in my blog. I've got 3 books, one published on Kindle, 2 more to come.
This is my first website and blog site. My goal is to use this to post recordings of my playing and my blog. I have recently found writing to be extremely therapeutic for me. I'm not playing professionally anymore and writing has proven to be a nice outlet for me. We'll see where this takes me.
So that's a bit about me. Maybe I'll write a real biography some day.