Bo knew Diddley

RIP Bo Diddley

Supporting Local Music

Yes, another new project is in the works by yours truly. This is more of a hobby than anything. I'm building a website for local music. Not your locality, but mine! Southern WV gets crap as far as name brand talent. Occasionally you'll get a country singer or something to stop and sing for us. Once a decade Metallica will play in Roanoke, VA which is less than 2 hours away or someone good might come to Charlotte, NC which is 3 hours away. Other than that, you're stuck listening to the local bands.

For most people, being stuck with local talent might not sound all that great, but for me, I'd pick the local guys over the big name talent almost any day of the week. At least you know it's about the music with these guys and not the fame/fortune. Some of the talent sucks, but for the most part, I figure some of the local guys here can hang with just about anyone nationwide.

Myspace has created a breakthrough for local bands to show their talents to the world. It allows them to put up a website, show off a few songs, and maybe a few pics. I'd just like to take things a step further and allow these bands to have complete control of the site.

Here's the stuff I'd like to incorporate into the site:

• Allow bands to post unlimited songs for download and/or streaming
  
• Unlimited picture posting
  
• Custom schedules based on location, genre, band, etc.
  
• Allow bands to sell merchandise free of charge (all proceeds go to the bands)
  
• Make it easy for event organizers to contact bands and schedule gigs.
  
• Trading Post to allow bands to trade, sell, barter equipment between each other.
  

The main purpose of this site is to help the local music community. Local music has done so much for me over the past 3-4 years, it's unbelievable. It has been the one constant in my life that has held me together. I'm up for watching local music any day of the week, any time! This site is gonig to be my thank you to the local bands.

To make the site seemless, it will require some web programming that is beyond what I know how to do right now. So I'll have to do some learning to make this thing work. The first step is to see what kind of interest I get from the local bands and venues.

Bah

Friday was such a frustrating day for me. Any interaction I had with other people just resulted in more frustration. By the time 5:00 rolled around, I was ready to explode. My nerves were shot and I felt like a woman, almost in tears. I'm not sure what all triggered my frustrations. It was basically just a tough week and things just kept piling on until Friday I couldn't take it anymore. That evening, I abandoned all plans and just secluded myself from the outside world. I was in no state of mind to be on the poker tables, but I had to get away some how.

I did sit down to grind and continued to grind and grind. I wasn't getting stacked left and right, but I knew it was a bad session. I felt like I was constantly getting 3-bet before the flop or every time I whiffed a flop, my c-bet would get raised or if I did hit the flop, I got zero action. There were a few coolers and a few bad beats, but nothing out of the norm. It was just poker being a bastard again. I was a little amazed when it was all said and done and I had lost 3.5 buyins. I finally called it a bad night and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up early, eager to get those 3.5 buyins back. I did some datamining and studied a bit while I collected some data. Then I sit down at several juicy tables, only for things to continue to go bad. I played another marathon session and lost another 6 buyins. More of the same. No action when I flop good, crazy action when I flop weak. Over and over and over it went.

I decided to switch things up a bit after that. I had to take a break to work on my leaky toilet. This 30 minute job turned into a 3 hour ordeal with multiple trips to Lowes. Plumbing sucks. After that, I decided to play some $11+1 SnGs. I fired up 6 at a time and bam! I had a couple firsts, a 2nd, and a 3rd out of the 6 SNGs. Awesome! 3 buyins back in one round! Then I decided to brag on my blog and you all know how that goes.

I played some more sets, twice not cashing in a single tournament during a set. I mixed it up between the $6+.5's and the $11+1's. I continued to go downhill. Once I got to the bubble, I could do well. I have been studying ICM concepts and how to play the bubble in a SnG. At these limits, the opponents just let you run over them at the bubble. Occasionally you'll run into a good hand, but for the most part, you can take a sub-par chipstack with 4 people left and turn it into a monster chipstack in just a few hands. Once I got into the money, I'd do fairly well, claiming quite a few 1st place victories. Other than that though, I took a lot of tough beats. I can think of at least 4 runner runner beats I took Saturday and Sunday and that's just off the top of my head. I spent a lot of time cursing the poker Gods.

The only really good thing that happened over the weekend was me finally getting a chance to see The Poor Taters. This is probably the most talented local band around. Their genre of music is not that popular. It's not one that I turn to very often, but damn it's some mighty fine music. They write most of their own stuff. The dudes can flat out play their instruments including sometimes playing 2-3 instruments at a time. Ever see a dude play guitar, harmonica, and kazoo at the same time? I did Saturday night. Ever see someone play an upright bass and mandolin at the same time? I did. These guys are starting to make a name for themselves and I wouldn't be surprised if they get some notariety in the not-so-distant future. I know they'll be on the BBC network in November (hopefully with footage me breaking out the devil horns for the British cameraman). Local music seems to be the only hobby I have going outside of poker right now. I have picked up my guitar again and started playing. The show Saturday night had me learning some different tunes. I learned a couple Old Crowe Medicine Show tunes (very easy on guitar) that I can sing and strum to. So that's fun.

This evening, I would like to play some poker, but I'm not sure if I'll have time. I have some laundry to finish and I need to flush out a water cooler I scored for my house (free). I also am going to visit my parents to visit them this evening. I might just chill out with the guitar tonight. I'm having a decent day and I'd hate to run bad on the poker tables to spoil that :P Of course, I also need to learn how to "grind" when things go good instead of just doing all my extensive grinding when things go bad. I can play a session, win a lot early and I feel the need to book that win and quit. I can play the a session, lose a couple buyins quickly and I can sit and play all night long or at least until I get it all back.

If I don't play poker tonight, I'll definitely play tomorrow because Tuesday nights are poker nights for me.

TV Debut

I might be making my Television debut this November. No, I'm not at the final table of some random tournament nor am I the guy threatening to swan dive off the top of building. All I did was attend a music show.

I have some friends that I went to high school with that have started a new band. They are not your typical local cover band. These guys are an acoustic old time sounding string band. Think Old Crowe Medicine Show. They had a special guest singer with them Saturday night by the name of Charly Markwart. Evidently she's big time or an big time up and comer in that genre of music.

After the 1st set, these British guys show up. They were a film crew for the BBC. They were filming for a documentary on old time music. Now this band, The Poor Taters, is not your typical "old time" band. They just sound that way. They do cover a couple songs, most notably a Beatles and Rolling Stones song. Anway, the lead singer/guitarist/mandolin/harmonica/kazoo :) player was really excited when the British were making requests. Myspace has to be the best thing that ever happened to local music.

So the film crew filmed the 2nd set for their documentary. I may have made history in the process. I could be the first person in the history of the BBC to flash the devil horns to the camera at a old time music concert :) These boys are that damn good though!

Bonnaroo!

Plans are being worked on for maybe making an appearance at Bonnaro this year. I was stoked to see the lineup. Metallica and Allman Brothers sealed the deal for me. Pearl Jam, I can tolerate. BB King?! Frickin' Sweet!

Instead of things that piss me off

Something that makes me happy instead... The band is back together and playing again March 8th. They have a new drummer after losing the best local drummer I've ever heard, but they still got one of the baddest guitar players in the state (my buddy Spook) and a fantastic Bassist (my other buddy Doug) and they will be rocking the house down this Saturday!