This is one of my favorite Rufus songs…..and it’s fun to see how the bass line goes.
Pretty funky.
Nik West cover….good stuff.
I’ve commented on how it’s almost too easy to find music these days….that the “payoff” isn’t as big a deal as it was when you couldn’t research things and it was all a matter of digging up something interesting in the record bins…but…it’s fun to find this stuff on YouTube.
It’s easy….and there’s really nothing wrong with easy.
You turn your avocation into a vocation….in a way that feels like there’s no real division or separation between your life and your work….and you build these basses that are works of art….and eventually you find success doing it.
I stumbled on this by accident….fueling the rabbit hole obsession with bass guitar and bass players and….
I am like most people, I suppose.
I’m happy to leave my job at the end of the day.
My job is something that I have no trouble leaving at work.
This guy loves building basses….enough that he’d leave a long career at Disney producing movies to focus on the bass building.
When it gets to the point where you’re adding worrying about not getting to sleep to your list of worries, I think that things have gone a little too far.
It’s a shame when you have a night like that.
When I got up this morning, it was still pretty cool….so I started a fire in the woodstove and watched it catch, sitting back on my feet…crouched…tired.
It hit me that it was a real kindness that I could see that something as simple as lighting a fire could give us so much comfort.
I worry about stuff.
I want things to be “right”…but worry just gums up the works.
Worry doesn’t do anything good for me
I know that….but I still worry.
Something about the septic system has got me pretty….bothered.
I think that we need a new one.
That’s kind of an expensive item to have done.
So, to have something as simple as successfully lighting a fire in the woodstove provide a temporary distraction from my worries….is a good thing.
There are simple things that distract in a good and positive way.
That’s the life, really.
The worry is the dream…the ghost….the thing that waits in the closet but doesn’t really exist.
All we really have are the things that actually come to light in our world.
All that really matters are the actions we take.
I will worry….that’s my way….but I need to spend more time attacking the things that I can make good in our lives.
I don’t know that we clapped all that much at our church.
The Scandinavians at the Lutheran church were more laid-back.
And…laid-back is still my style.
But….this enthusiasm is pretty great.
Now, we’ve visited some churches that were “coliseum rock” style….big sound systems and jumping up and down….and when the music hurts my ears, I get kind of uncomfortable.
Peace in the Valley doesn’t co-exist with the big show…for me, at least.
When it becomes a show that I’m an audience member at, I’m not sure how much I get out of the worship experience.
But….it is a show.
Watch this video and look at the two bassists behind this guy….the ones sitting down.
I don’t know that I’d want to play after him.
He’s pretty good.
There would have to be a large number of patient and benevolent Christians in this congregation to let me get up and play after this guy.
I think that if I got up to play, the energy level might drop for a couple of minutes.
That’s what they call a “non sequitur”.
But….what the heck? It’s not a contest….maybe I could get up and play somewhere….someday.
Remember this scene from the movie “Crossroads”? (Not the one with Britney Spears….the one with Ralph Macchio.)
The movie is about a young classical guitarist who wants to learn the blues….and this is the final scene where he battles the devil’s guitarist to win back the soul of his friend…and reluctant mentor, Willie Brown… who he’s been traveling with.
Here’s the final scene. Guess who wins?
I’m glad church isn’t like this.
No matter how many bassists are sitting behind you, waiting to get a chance to play, church is never like this.
That would be a hard thing to be playing for your soul every week.
The defrost cycle in the freezer comes on, melts any ice that might have formed on the coils at the back of the freezer, the water drips down into the tray below the defroster….and then, hopefully, flows down into the collection tray at the bottom of the refrigerator….where it evaporates.
Cool.
What actually happens is that the water in the tray in the freezer compartment doesn’t drip down completely….and, over time, re-freezes and clogs the drain hole.
When the drain hole is clogged….and the water can’t go where it needs to go…..the refrigerator compartment gets a lot of dripping water coming in….and you curse the crappy refrigerator that you used to be so proud of.
Anything new and shiny gets old…and when it doesn’t work right, you notice that it’s getting old even more….and you start thinking about spending MO’ MONEY!!!
So…I am going to fix our refrigerator tomorrow with this trick.
It makes sense…..if the ice is forming, bring the heat to it and let it go away like it’s supposed to.
That’s the beautiful thing about non-invasive, cheap fixes….if it doesn’t work, all you’re out is your time.
I hope it works.
I’ll just keep adding copper wire until it works.
We’ll have to move the peas over a little by the time I’m done putting 20 lbs of copper wire into the freezer compartment.
I’m not going to let this freezer beat me.
I’ll melt that stuff yet…..
4/16 Here’s an update…just finished the job….and ….then did some more research. From a repair site called Dave’s Repair, I found out that what you should do to avoid damaging the heater element is not to wrap the wire around it like in the video, but to take a 6″ piece of 14 awg wire and make a hook on one end, hang it over the element, and then let it hang down into the hole. Hang it loosely….he says …otherwise you might damage the coil. Oh, well….live and learn (hopefully). I’ll update how it worked out for our repair.
4/16….a little later. Man….that wasn’t even the video I meant to post. The video I meant to post had the wire wrapped around the element. This way is so much easier….just a hook over the element. Simple. We’ll see if the “hard way” that I tried works….but a hook would have been so easy and so fast.
Here’s the bassist from yesterday’s video, Michael League, and his band, Snarky Puppy, from Brooklyn, NY.
This video is from a performance at the Asheville Music Hall….from 2013.
The video is from the same YouTube channel I mentioned yesterday….Barry2theB !!
What a great collection of films!
I don’t know if you can call them films anymore…..maybe you have to call them SD Card archives?….digital snapshots?….cloud ….something?
“Film” sounds so much more substantial, though.
These are nice films.
You might be able to see these guys for under 20 dollars.
It costs, like, 200 dollars to see Madonna….maybe a million….I haven’t checked lately.
I’d rather see Snarky Puppy than Madonna any day.
I take back what I said about being nostalgic for digging through pawn shop bins for vinyl being the best way to discover music…..YouTube is pretty amazing.
Snarky Puppy! Michael League! BASS!!
I need to get my bass out again….this looks pretty fun.
OK….here’s the deal: looking up “Asheville musicians”, I came upon this video.
This lady isn’t from Asheville.
This video is from a live performance that took place in Asheville, NC back in 2014 at the Asheville Music Hall.
She’s from New York…..via Norway….or….is it the other way around? She was born in Norway….but lives in New York now.
Hildegunn Gjedrum is her name.
Her bassist’s name is Michael League.
I need to start playing my bass again.
His playing is pretty darn inspiring.
That’s the thing about the internet…..you can find a performance by somebody great when you’re looking for something completely different.
I’ve heard so many different versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”….I guess that Jeff Buckley’s version is still the “gold standard” for me….but this one might come in a close second.
