I was in the store today and on the house music came Dionne Warwick singing Deja Vu. I have always loved that song and admired the chord structure that kind of wanders around and always finds its way home. As songs often do, it started me wondering about who wrote it. When I got home I put my stuff away and looked it up, and was absolutely SHOCKED to see that Isaac Hayes wrote it. I would have thought Bacharach/David WAY before Chef from South Park!!

My Motown band tried to do that song and I had a really hard time singing the harmony on the chorus because the lyrics choked me up so badly.

Here's to you, Chef! RIP

Issac Hayes wrote a lot of nice songs with David Porter when they were staff songwriters at Stax records.

I know nothing about South Park - never watched it (I turned off TV in the 1980s and never looked back).

Notes

Silly cartoon show that was huge in the day and he voiced a character named Chef, the cook at the kids school. Then there was an episode that lampooned Scientology. Hayes was a Scientologist and the media gave the power of suggestion that he quit because of that episode. The truth was that he had suffered a stroke and was unable to continue. And then he died.

I guess I miss a lot by not watching TV.

When I worked on the cruise ships in the late 1980s there was no broadcast TV on the ship. The technology hadn't arrived. Instead, there was the movie that played over and over and over and over, and the endless advertising crawls. So I occupied my non-gig time by doing things; learning new songs, practicing, reading, and so on.

I got off the ship in December 1989, got home, hooked up the cable, and a couple of months later I realized I was paying $45/month for nothing. I was so used to doing things instead of TV I found doing more enjoyable than watching. When I tried to sit down and watch, I'd get fidgety thinking about all the other things I'd rather be doing. So I disconnected.

The house was built in 1950 and was wired for an antenna, I know how to hook one up, but didn't After a couple of years when I decided to repaint I took the mast down.

The last two TV shows I watched were Johnny Carson's last Tonight show and Jay Leno's first Tonight show, and I had to go to my mother-in-law's to see them.

Instead of TV I learned to write styles for BiaB, learned to play lead guitar, learned to play wind synth, learned how to run a mail-order-business selling BiaB styles, when the Internet came around I learned how to write HTML code, made my own web pages, and converted the mail-order biz to a dot com.

There is nothing wrong with watching TV. Doing what you enjoy is never a waste of time, it's just that I enjoy doing things more than I enjoy passive entertainment.

I guess I'm just weird that way.

Other than specific sports games, my TV is on for background noise more than anything. It is on right now (on my computer) but I'm not actually watching it. With the addictive personality type that I have, I do things in bursts. I decided some months back that I didn't like my computer room so over the next week I designed a new deck system, then bought wood, built it, installed everything and then that was done, but like everything else, that had 100% focus from start to finish. Now I am designing a dog area for Chunk. 12x8, with a dog house, a kiddie pool embedded, and a pitched roof with a gutter that will tie into the gutter running off the garage roof. Once the planning is done I will probably build the thing over 2 long days. And I build right. Glued AND screwed base components, shingled roof...

I WISH that I still had the drive to care more about music. I must have a dozen songs started but no ambition to finish them. It really comes down to me being pretty much done with music. I don't want to play for a bunch of old people with combovers who don't know good from bad or at a wedding so some somebody's drunk Uncle Fred can embarrass himself by acting the fool on the dance floor. I WOULD play in a concert setting where people sit in the seats and adore us like they are supposed to. I have this whole next-level mental block thing going on about music being respected as the beautiful art form it is. Always had that. I have taken music WAY too seriously for the entire 65 years that I have been playing it. If I am on a stage performing my craft, you shut up and listen. I don't come to the gas station where you maintain the Slurpee machine and disturb you at work. But that's just the addictive, dismissive, irreverent, arrogant personality that I have. And make no excuses for.

All comes down to "you do you".

Nah, not at all. I mean, there are a few good TV shows out there (Stranger Things, Doctor Who, Star Trek), but not enough to inspire me to sign up for cable - last time I had cable was 2002!

Most of the time my TV is used for video games, as at least I'm entertaining myself while doing something, not just watching while my brain atrophies. But I agree, I'd generally much rather be physically doing something, like playing guitar or designing electronics or something like that.

We have streaming services through the net...mostly because my wife likes certain shows. If it was up to me I'd shut them off. I went for years without even owning a TV. From the time I got out of the service until I got married, I didn't have a TV and didn't want one.

Yeah this is truly a matter of taste. I watch hockey, soccer, rugby, football and baseball. I watch The First 48. I watch the 1st responder shows. I watch some Food Network stuff because I cook. I don't watch news on TV. Everything on TV news has happened already and I know about it. Same reason I don't get a newspaper. I am not in the Luddite community that has some anal attachment to "yonder days" sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee reading a newspaper for 2 hours. Talk about wasting time. That all happened already and I saw it on that newfangled thing called the internet. Spectrum has a service where you get a core package of stations and then 10 you pick. It's 35 bucks a month. They have NFL Network, which is a must, NBC Sports (hockey, soccer and rugby), and the ESPN channels. I don't watch network TV. Stuff like The Voice (if you do some deep dive research, you will find that the winner is already selected - it's not fixed, but it IS decided already. All the cute banter you see if scripted.), American Idol, is pretty much exploitation TV. The 2 year contracts those kids sign is borderline slavery. That's why you seer them singing at car dealerships and malls. All the reality TV stuff is BS. The one showing how hard it is to live in Alaska is filmed in Seattle, with establishing shots of Alaska edited in. So I don't watch any of that stuff. 90% of my TV is sports. The rest is 1st responder shows. Even some of those... Court TV ran a case in "Chandon Ohio" (It's actually CHARDON Ohio but nobody fact checked it) about a kid who took a gun to his high school and shot a bunch of people. They hyped that clip for FOUR WEEKS like it had just happened. Well, Chardon is 40 miles from Cleveland where I am from, and that crime happened in 2012!!! A&E Network is notoriously bad for reusing content. They have repackaged the content from The First 48 3 different times in order to call them new shows, and sell full priced advertising, but I have a really good memory and as soon as the prologue of an episode comes on I remember the case, the city, the detectives who worked it and the suspect's name. (Yet I sometimes forget where my car keys are.) They haven't had actually new cases for 3 years.

But, like I said in the other post, it's mainly background noise for me. Half the time at least I am playing backgammon against the computer with the TV on for noise. I have hundreds of movies and concerts on the computer attached to the bedroom TV so I can listen to a concert as I drift off to sleep. Watched The Cure on ACL the other night. Robert Smith may be weird, but he writes great songs. I really like that post punk period.

I don't have the 'sports gene'

The last football game I watched was back in the 1970s when Bob Griese was quarterback.

After I got over caring who won, the game became repetitive and boring to me. Millions of people love sports. We are all so very different.

IMO anything you enjoy doing is not wasting time. I enjoy making BiaB styles, making backing tracks for my duo, and learning new skills on the instruments I play (sax, wind synth, flute, guitar, bass, drums, and voice).

Unlike you Eddie, playing music to an audience is our second favorite thing to do. Leilani and I are really looking forward to getting back on the bandstand and entertaining our 'extended family' of loyal followers.

We've had two Moderna jabs, some of the people who cancelled the 2020-21 winter season have already reserved dates for the 2021-22 season, so things are looking up.

In the meantime, Leilani and I are learning new songs, I'm making backing tracks for them, we rehearse a few times a week, I'm writing 2 new style e-disks for BiaB, Leilani is working on a few fake e-disks for BiaB, late spring is here, so we are going out to observe and possibly photograph wildlife, and there just isn't enough time in the day to do all we want to do.

Notes

Did you have any intense reaction to jab #2? I just had that jab an hour ago. A guy up the street said it whacked him so bad he slept 14 hours later that day.

I'll be right there with you with the photography this year! I bought a Canon EOS Rebel T6 from a pawn shop, will be ordering a 135mm fixed lens here soon, and with the dog in tow I'll be pulling that little trailer places as soon as a few financial things clear up, so probably by mid-May I'll be able to head out. This camera is like flying the space shuttle so I bought the For Dummies book as well as getting a free book from a Craigslist donor about photographing nature and it's really good. This camera is my first digital SLR camera and I am eager to work with it.

Yeah I lost my taste for the stage. I told the band I was involved with that I would not be returning post Covid. The situation of the band keeps me anchored here not only for the week we have a show but the 3 weeks prior for rehearsals. That potentially commits me to staying home the whole summer. I want to go to the Upper Peninsula of That State Up North this year. And travel along the Mississippi observing and photographing the locks in action. I can park the trailer at Corps of Engineers sites. And in fall is the colors of the changing leaves in Tennessee, which gives me an excuse to visit Nashville. A Florida run when it starts getting cold up here... that kind of thing. I can't just pick up and go if I am tied to a rehearsal anchor.

But like we all agree, we are all who we are. Like in my case, fall travel revolves around me being in a city with a Browns Backers club every Sunday so I can watch the Browns game. I will never miss a Browns game. I may actually put a clause in my will that my ash urn has to be in front of a TV for Browns games. And yes, I am crazy enough to do that!

They actually looked much better last year compared to the previous years winless teams....

FYI - I have a Cannon T6i camera. They are great cameras. My go to lens is a Sigma 18-300mm:

https://www.amazon.com/Sigma-18-300mm-F3...9K52W&psc=1

Whatever lens you get be sure to either get an UV filter or a circular polarizer for it.

That's the plan. To shoot boats coming through locks I will be shooting over water where there may be a lot of glare. I haven't had a good camera in 40 years.

Have you done the remote shutter through your cell phone? I did it to try it and it may be useful for tripod shooting, though I may just buy the handheld trigger for it.

My friend has a Nikon and shoots bands a lot, so he got a FAST 256gb SD card for it. I don't know how much of that I would do, but as is my personality, since he got a 256gb, I MUST get a 512! LOL!!

That 1-31 stretch was tough to take. That's what happens when yo hire a coach for every wrong reason. They have a solid GM now and the 2020 coach of the year! One more good offseason in free agency and a good draft should take them up a notch. The road to the Super Bowl still goes through KC though. Baltimore seems to fade in the playoffs and once Ben retires the Steelers will not be a factor. Burrow is so good he may bring Cincy around if his knee is sound. Should be an interesting 2021 season

Agreed

Then you will need a circular polorizer.



I don't have a smart phone. But I do have both a cable release and a remote shutter control.



Here is some info on SD cards for your T6. I have a few 64gb cards. I would suggest your do the same then take the money you saved by doing so and purchase another batter. A word of warning, only purchase Cannon batteries. I bought a couple of OMs and they died within a year. I have had my T6i for a number of years now and the original Cannon battery stills works perfectly. Note I have two Cannon batteries and one is always at full charge.

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/canon-t6s-t6i/sd-card-comparison/

PS - only shoot in raw format.

Saved THAT link! Good sources there. When I got it at the pawn shop (for $200) I opened the slot cover to happily find a 128gb card in there. AND, bonus round) it is a class 10! Going to B&H and Dodd camera later to research filters. WAY back when I had a Konica and the difference between pics with and without polarizing filter were remarkable. That was so long ago that it used those rolls of stuff that you had to load and unload. I don't remember what that stuff was called. LOL!!

Speaking of polarizing, I use a polarizing filter for sunny days flying the drone. The little camera has threads to screw on various filters.