September 5, 2021:      A Concert, a Gig, and a Release – Oh My!

Here’s hoping that everyone here in the North Jersey, NY metro area has survived this week’s deluge.  We took some water in the basement – it was a fairly large sized PITA sopping up the residue but all things considered we were lucky.

Last month I told a tale of woe about my troubled relationship with modern technology.  Here’s another:

I wanted to buy a new carrying case for a loudspeaker I use on gigs.   I found one that looked really good, but it was only available on eBay.  No problem, I’ve bought stuff on eBay before, I know how to do that.  However, I needed to double check on something before buying.   But the only way to contact the seller was by getting an eBay account.   Sigh.   Yet one more way for my information to get stolen.

So I create an eBay account, reach out to the seller and got the answer I needed,   OK, let’s buy this bad boy,   I fill out the forms, give my credit card details, press Purchase and got this message:

“Purchase declined, you are not eligible to make this purchase, blah, blah, blah”

Hmm, I must have done something wrong, let’s try again.

“Purchase declined, you are not eligible to make this purchase, blah, blah, blah”

I try 5 different ways to no avail.  WTF?  I’ve bought stuff on eBay, why is this being declined.   What’s different?  After all, I even have an account now.  So what’s different?

Hmmm.  I have an account now – that’s what’s different.

I log out of eBay, fill in the forms, and. . .  my purchase sales through.   Hah-hah eBay!  I tricked you!

N.B.  I found out after the fact that if you have an eBay account, your first purchase must be under $100 (or something to that effect).  But that was nowhere mentioned anywhere during the process.

Meanwhile, there’s a bunch of different stuff going on this month.  In chronological order there’s a concert, a gig, and a new single release.

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Thursday September 9th 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
A Concert of New Music for Strings & Electronics
Little Church Around the Corner
1 East 29th St, New York
Season 1, Episode 2 of my string quartet (SQrt) is being performed this coming Thursday at a concert put on by the New York Composer’s Circle (NYCC).  This concert features a number of pieces by NYCC composers, my piece is last in the program.  In case there was any doubt, I am not performing in this piece.

SQrtSeason 1, Episode 2  is an homage to movement III of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 as filtered through Memphis R&B. The middle section was inspired by Bettye LaVette’s version of Where a Life Goes (written by Randall Bramblett) from her album Worthy.

You may purchase tickets here or at the door.  The recommended price per ticket is $20, students are free.  Please note that NYC now requires proof of COVID vaccination for indoor events. Masks are optional but still recommended.  I can report that this church has high ceilings and plenty of room to spread out, so it is as safe indoors as any place can be.
https://newyorkcomposerscircle.org/

Sunday September 12th 8:00PM -12:00AM
Better Off Dead at Great Notch Inn,
400 US-46, Woodland Park, NJ 07424(973) 256-7742
As this is a Sunday gig we start at the much more reasonable hour of 8 instead of the usual 9.   If you have never been to “Da Notch”, I recommend trying it out at least once – it’s a unique experience.   If you’re concerned about COVID you can stay outside on the porch – or even hang around in the parking lot and admire the “hogs”.
http://www.betteroffdead.com
https://www.facebook.com/Great-Notch-Inn-45741843010/

Friday September 17th – Sticky Glue release
On September 17th, Sticky Glue will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.   Sticky Glue is a novelty song that I co-wrote with lyricist Joe Colletti, it was composed/recorded in 1983.   The actual recording was done on a 4 track Teac cassette tape recorder  (technical readers will understand this) in my bedroom; so by today’s standards the sound quality is somewhat lo-fi, but it has this goofy charm to it.

Why release this now?  Well, I had finished up a bunch of new compositions that sounded really good to me, and I was a bit intimidated as to whether I could keep up the quality.  So while I was dithering about, my daughter Hannah (who is wise beyond her years) said “Hey Dad!  Do Sticky Glue!”   Now I had played this for my family when the kids were little and they loved it.  It must have made an impression because 25 years later Hannah remembered it.

But there was no way I was going to start from scratch and re-record the whole thing.  So I did my best to clean up the old recording and – while there are some technical glitches – it still sounds pretty good to my ears.

But I’ll let you be the final judge.  On Sept. 17th Sticky Glue will be available on all major platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.  Or if you can’t wait, you can get an advanced version here on Bandcamp.

And…. For extra globs of glue, you can get the. . . .  Extended Version

Where is Eric (a brief explanation)

I find the whole notion of having to promote myself “awkwardness inducing”. It feels like bragging.

“Hey! Look at me! Ain’t I great!?”

Nonetheless, in 2009 I started up a small mailing list to promote any gigs I was playing on. In the Subject of the emails I had “Where in the world is Eric” This was a take off on a children’s show in the 1990s “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego”. If you have a lot of free time you can look it up.   I soon simplified this to just plain old “Where is Eric?”

In the years that followed I started adding some brief comments – usually some sort of humorous self-deprecating humor and/or oddball observation. With rare exceptions I avoid politics. . . .

NOTE: If for some strange reason you want to see what I wrote back in, say, March of 2012, and you don’t feel like scrolling through 10 years of posts, you can click here to quickly view a particular post: Where is Eric – Index

August 7, 2021:      Modern Technology

Starting in the early 1980s until my recent retirement I made a living programming computers, but my first actual experience with computers was in 1965 when I took a summer course in Fortran programming at Stevens Institute of Technology.  This was ancient technology.  There were no such things as computer terminals back then, we programmed using punch cards.  We sat in front of bulky noisy machines and typed in our programs.  Chunka! Chunka! Chunk!  Make those punches!  If you made a mistake there was no such thing as backspace or cut & paste.  You tossed the punch card and tried again.   Once you finished with your program, you then walked barefoot on broken glass over to the computer room to submit your punch cards to the computer.  In those days the computer (with 64K of RAM) took up an entire room.   The computer spit out the results onto a different set of punch cards.  You then swam through shark infested waters to get to the printer room to see your results.

      Error on line 40 

Oops, gotta do that all over again.

In 1983, when I got my first actual programming job, using a terminal was an amazing step forward.   And over the course of the next 35 years or so I did some really cool & complex things.   I designed and programmed a system used to support nuclear power plants, I redesigned a system to keep track of depreciation of inventory, etc, etc.  I worked with terabyte sized databases.

You would think with all this experience under my belt that I would be adept at working with computers.   But for some reason, I am continually stymied by today’s modern “user friendly” software.  I invariably get hung up on some seemingly simple task.

Case in point.  I was with my family and took a picture on my cellphone.  My daughter takes a look at it and says “Hey Dad, can you text that to me”?

Ooh, you can text photos?  That’s pretty cool, let me do it.   So I fumble around for a few minutes, but for the life of me I’m getting nowhere.  I can hear my daughter rolling her eyes behind my back.  Finally, in exasperation, she goes “D-a-ad!”, takes the phone, and goes “See – touch here, here, and here”  Choing – off goes the photo – and I hear the response on her phone.  I can now text photos with the best of them. 

I’ll share a few other stories in the following months.

Meanwhile, I have no gigs or concerts this month, but there are two other items of interest.

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Looking for Volunteer Listeners/Reviewers
As I compose my music, I often hit situations where I have, say, two different ways a piece can progress –  and I like both ways and can’t decide.   So I’m looking for some volunteers – folks who are able & willing to spend the occasional odd 1/2 an hour and listen to two different versions of a piece and let me know which they like better.

So if you are willing to help me in this regard, please respond and let me know.  Just to be clear, this is an unpaid position.

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Teaser Alert 
I will soon be releasing a single – either late August or early September.   Stay tuned for details.

July 7, 2021:    Politics? Yuck.

It’s no secret to long time readers that I come from a long line of left wing radicals and other suspicious types – but I’ve always avoided any discussions of such except in passing.   I did make one exception back in December of 2016.   I’ll quote in part:
I am optimistic by temperament but pessimistic by intellect – and I see no way that we’ll get through the next 4 years without some serious collateral damage.   The absolute best possible outcome I can hypothesize is that Trump screws up quickly but not too seriously – i.e. he screws up just enough to change the body politic but that any damage done is easily recoverable.   But that is a very low probability event.
At the time I had some sort of economic downturn in mind – say a major recession.  As we all know, this was not the case.  I’ll leave the final judgement up to future historians, but it is highly likely that Trump’s botching of the pandemic was the key factor in his defeat.   I don’t know how to feel about this.   If you had told me back in 2016 that I could insure that Trump would be a one term president but that 600K of my fellow citizens would die?   Would I have made that choice?  I dunno.  In a way this is a variation on the Trolley Problem.

Meanwhile (just to get it all out), I despair over the nature of our current political discourse.  It particularly bothers me when folks disparage people on the other side of the political fence: 

“Anyone who voted for [fill_in_the _blank] is stupid.  I hate them.”

Now it’s OK to hate politicians – that goes with the territory.  But to hate your fellow citizens?  This is counter-productive – it doesn’t solve anything.  I know it’s a cliche, but I’m with Martin Luther King Jr. on this one – we have to stick with love.  

End of speech.  Hopefully next month I will get back to my usual silly observations.
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Meanwhile, I have 3 shows this month, but rest assured they are all apolitical in nature.  Well OK, mostly all. . .

July 11th, Sunday, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
Blues Jam Afternoons @ Hat City
459 Valley St, Orange, NJ    973 677-8000
I’ll be sitting in with the house band this Sunday, but as this is a jam there will be a motley rotating crew of musicians playing.  I hear that other keyboard players are showing up, so don’t be alarmed if I’m not on stage when you show up.   Hat City has great food and an excellent bar.
https://www.facebook.com/events/397818064986455

July 23rd, Friday, 7:00-9:00 PM
With Arthur Neilson @ Ruthie’s Bar-B-Q & Pizza
64 1/2 Chestnut Ave, Montclair     (973) 509-1134
It feels like several lifetimes ago the last time I played with Arthur.  If you have never heard Arthur play you are in for a rare treat.  While Arthur’s main gig is band leader for Shemkia Copeland, Arthur is a superb guitarist/singer/songwriter in his own write (stealing a pun from John Lennon).  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we’ll be out on the world famous Ruthie’s Veranda, but if it rains we will squeeze inside.   BYO.
http://www.ruthiesbbq.com/
http://www.arthurneilson.com/

July 31st, Saturday, 5:30  (rain date Aug 1st)
With Craig Mitchell @ Kemet Music & Arts Festival
Montclair Brewery
101 Walnut St.
Montclair, NJ 07042
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kemet-music-and-arts-festival-2-tickets-158255547603
I guess this is sort of a political event.  It’s a day long festival that is (in part) a fundraising event to aid black businesses in need.   I will be performing with Craig Mitchell – a fine blues, r&b, soul singer/guitarist.  We are supposed to go on @ 5:30, but my experience with these events is that schedules tend to be a bit, ummm, fluid.   Tickets for this event are $20 if purchased ahead of time, $25 at the door; you must also purchase two drinks (non-alcohol will be available).   There will be food vendors as well.

June 9, 2021:    On Clothes – and an Actual Live Gig!

I am fortunate to have my own personal fashion design team working for me.   Between my wife Lisa (Senior Fashion Consultant) and my daughter Hannah (Associate Fashion Consultant) they do a decent job of insuring that I do not look like a complete dork when I leave the house (inside they’ve long since given up).   But their job is not an easy one as I have very strict rules.

First rule:  No logos, lettering, pictures, catchy slogans, etc.
I may make the rare exception for some special event, but otherwise I will only wear solid color t-shirts.  Other than that?  I sometimes go to Macy’s and look at clothes and I see something I like, but then there’s that stupid Polo emblem staring me in the face.   Sorry Ralph Lauren, not buying.  I may make an exception if the logo is really subtle, but that’s also rare.
Second Rule: I buy the socks.
Socks must go up exactly 12 inches measured from the floor.   12 is the number of inches.   Socks shalt not go up 11″ except to then proceed to 12″.   Monty Python fans fill in the rest. . . .    After much trial and error I can report that Gold Toe Men’s 656s Cotton Crew Athletic Socks ® are the only socks out there that meet my strict requirements.  Oh did I mention?  Only black socks.
Shoes? Comfort beats style
Getting me to wear any shoes at all – let alone stylish shoes – is probably the most challenging job facing my fashion team.   Gimme good old comfortable to wear/walk sneakers any day.

Fortunately, you are free to follow your own fashion sense if you come to see me play at my (yea!) first live show in too long a time. . . .

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June 25rd, Friday, 7:00PM-9:00 – Better Off Dead at Ruthie’s BBQ, 64 1/2 Chestnut Ave, Montclair, NJ  (973) 509-1134
With any luck the weather gods will smile on us as we play outside on the world famous Ruthie’s Veranda.   If bad weather, call ahead.   Remember to BYO. 
http://www.betteroffdead.com/home.htm/
http://www.ruthiesbbq.com/

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Hidden Song Quote Contest!
Since I neglected last month to state that family members were not eligible, the winner of last month’s “Hidden Song” contest was my daughter Hannah who (in being providing me with fashion tips) correctly heard Maria from The Sound of Music at about 4:35 into Short Story For Mixed Ensemble  (you may listen again for your edification).

April 16, 2021:     In memory of . . . And another contest!

Life is too short
When I first started thinking about recording an album of my music, I knew that I would need some sound business advice as I have zero talent at business affairs.   Just the very thought of having to negotiate business dealings gives me panic attacks.  So I thought of all the people I knew and asked myself,  “Do I know anyone I can rely on who has good business sense and is also totally trustworthy & honest?”  There was one person who matched those requirements – my good friend Rob Signorile.  Before his retirement, Rob ran an advertising agency with his wife Marie.  If you know anything about the advertising business, you can appreciate just how hard it is to maintain your integrity in the business – but Rob managed this balancing act for many years before his retirement.

Rob & I meet at the blues jams at the Franklin Tavern.   Rob had the knack of finding great musicians to play with him – and I was flattered when he invited me to play with his blues / R&B band Shuffle Jump & Moan   We made great music together, had some memorable gigs, and my wife Lisa & I became good friends with him and his wife Marie.  And Rob not only took on the task of being my informal business advisor, he also became one of my biggest fans.  “Eric, I don’t understand your music, but I love it.”

Three years ago Marie died suddenly.  This was a terrible blow to us all, but we carried on.  But then, in another one of these cruel twists of life, Rob came down with cancer.  After many months of treatment, the cancer was in remission – and we were able to gig again.   And then COVID came along.

In the midst of this, I was debating with myself whether to self-release my album or to continue hoping/waiting for a record deal to materialize.  I reached out to Rob to talk it over.  Rob’s advice was to go for it.  “Life is too short, you never know what will happen.  You’ll regret not doing it.”

Rob knew what he was talking about.   Later that year the cancer came back – and after trying various treatments it was clear that medical science could do no more.   Rob died last week.  He will be missed and I will miss him.   Sigh.  The circle of life is a bitch.

Hidden Song Quote Contest!
On a more upbeat note, I can report that the winner of last months “Hidden Song” contest was keen eared Arthur Neilson who correctly heard “A horse is a horse” at 3:43 into Bounce #1 (you may listen again for your edification).

This month there’s a new contest.  Short Story For Mixed Ensemble is a piece I wrote a for a concert that was Covid Cancelled last spring.  Hidden somewhere in this piece (actually it’s pretty obvious) is a short reference to a song from a well known Broadway musical.  The first person who can correctly identify the show & song (and where it is in my piece) will win a dinner for two at the restaurant of their choice (within reason).  Again, here is the link for the piece:  Short Story For Mixed Ensemble