About time to hit the keyboard again. The typing one, that is. Been awhile.
I usually make some sort of lame excuse for not writing more often, but this time it's not so lame. Beginning Monday, January 6th, I sank into some serious illness place. Due to being sneezy and watery with cedar, I chalked it up to that. And by Tuesday, I could barely move. Wednesday, I had a low key gig with Harvey McLaughlin, and I got through that (video evidence shows my droopiness, however), and I felt slightly better on Thursday. But then I relapsed and have been up and down since then. Today's a better day, so far.
And I don't think it was cedar, after all. I had my doubts but had had the requisite flu shot, so I still thought I was in the clear. However, the Friday after I fell ill, Michelle started to feel poorly, and, as she's intelligent, she went to the doctor. A quick swab brought back her diagnosis: flu. So I'm thinking I have it as well. Or had it. I've got to be mostly over it, but this seems to be lingering in a nasty way. This is my first bout with the flu since early 2008, and that year I'd forgotten the flu shot. And paid for it. This time, I got the flu shot, and....well, ya roll the dice, I guess. I cannot wait to be fully well again.
What's new? A few things. As iPods are on their way out, and I like having at least most of my music collection with me most of the time, I spent the latter part of the year researching and shopping for mp3 players. I'm surprised how many are out there, what with most people storing music on their phones. After a year or so of using the phone to store newer music I had, I decided I didn't much like having music on my phone, the player doing battle with other apps on the phone, said app player constantly trying to get me to sign on and spend, etc. I was almost certain I was going to purchase a player that was around $160 and pretty fully featured, I actually took a step back and purchased a FiiO M3K player, around $60. I couldn't be happier with it. It does not have Bluetooth, but I generally only use Bluetooth for podcast listening, and I don't mind using my phone for podcast listening and storage. The player holds up to a 2TB microSD card (which don't exist yet, but that's the spec). So I dropped another $70 on a 512gb card for the player; there is no internal storage. So all my music's gradually being ported over to this card and the player.
The only issue I have with the player is with the way it sorts files and folders on the card. One of the things I wanted to be rid of was the whole "everything based on the id3 tag" in terms of where files ended up in the system, and that's mostly eradicated here. It reminds me a bit of the old Zen Creative player that I had back in the early '00s. However, and I think this is due to the player being a Chinese product, the sorting is not always the best. It seems that if the sort algorithm gets confused, the system reverts to timestamp for order. And it's not often, but hyphens (-) seem to blow its "mind" a bit. Say a file is named "01 - First Song," this will be sorted by timestamp. If you move a whole folder of files with that naming convention to the player's card, it won't be an issue; they were all moved together. But if you do some editing on the actual card, the order will be blown and revert to timestamp. It's a minor thing, really, and I've learned to edit the folder before transferring to the player's card. Also, folders for band names that begin with "The" are sorted by timestamp as well. My "The" bands are not in order; again, not a big deal, but it's peculiar as to what could cause that. I've done a little experimentation but cannot figure out why this happens. Again, not a big deal. Overall, I'm very happy with this little player. I should mention that I can use this player with my massive A-T headphones; iPods had weak output, this player doesn't.
I should mention at this time that some there's about to be a return to familiar musical ground. Jeff Pinkus and I have been talking, and due to a number of factors in the Honky world, we've decided to take the plunge into playing some "Classic Honky" shows. The first will be Saturday, March 14th at Valhalla in Austin. Jeff and Bobby are rehearsing with a new drummer currently, and he will be playing with them at Valhalla the night before. Honky's not really a consistent concern right now, due to both Jeff's and Bobby's schedules; they both have plenty of other projects in the works. But it will be nice to revisit this stuff, and as I'm equipped with my Kat3 kit at home, I'll be able to rehearse sufficiently on my own. Figuring out a set list is a crazy matter, though. I counted 28 things we could play, so I'm trying to whittle some of that down now. I hope to begin rehearsal soon. As soon as I'm well, ha!!
Pocket FishRmen has been rolling along and played a couple of shows recently. Everything's good there. And the Hickoids are doing okay, but we haven't had a show since November 1. We're going to do a short tour in late May (more on that soon), but we'll be doing it as a five-piece; Rice won't be accompanying us. Tom will be playing bass, and I suspect we'll be rehearsing that format soon enough. We've done that for a short trip once before. It's not my favorite incarnation, for sure (we kind of sound like NRBQ, and I like NRBQ). I'll really miss Rice's pumping style, but what are ya gonna do? We'll get it done.
I suppose I would be remiss to not mention the passing of Neil Peart. That was a shock. Around 3:00 on Friday, January 10th, the news started to pour in. I let my great friend Matt know and was a bit dismayed to find I had broken the news to him. I was hoping he already knew. Neil is Matt's favorite drummer of all time, bar none. For me, well, I'm a massive Rush fan, but I think more for the music as a whole than Neil's admittedly great drumming. I tend to admire drummers a bit more who improvise things on the spot, and he was not that kind of drummer. But sheesh, the parts he came up with! Perhaps improvisation was just out of the question. I've been revisiting the catalog, as I'm sure all Rush fans are doing, and the body of work is incredible. It's also one of those things where it does feel as if a large part of your childhood was chipped away. And I'm preparing myself for more of this, for sure. This one stung. Stung hard. RIP, Professor.
