Magnets

I had a fairly busy few days. Thursday night's open mic was one of the better one's I've had. The jam at the end of the night was huge. We had about ten people playing at once but it came off really well. It was a great vibe and nobody wanted to stop. We played until about 2am. It's much easier to record single singer/guitar players than it is to record a jam session, so unfortunately none of that performance is going to make it onto my open mic website.

Friday night, Hunker Down played at the Crooked Creek. There was some confusion at the beginning of the night. Apparently several restaurants in Winter Park lost their power, so a bunch of tourists came to the Crooked Creek since it was one of the few places left to eat. The place was packed to the gills by about 8:30 and stayed full until close. It was good that a lot of people heard us, but it made for some confusion when we were getting started.

Saturday night I played with Hunker Down in Steamboat. We played for the third time at Mahogany Ridge. Paul, the former bass player from Slipstream, played with us both Friday night and Saturday night. He did a great job and the pulse was right on. I hope he sticks around and keeps playing with the group.

Yesterday, we drove back from Steamboat after breakfast and then I crashed out all afternoon. At night, I watch the Eminem movie "8 Mile." It was a stupid movie, but I watched it to the end. Eminem is annoying, but he has a funny magnetism about him. I think he's a drama queen and completely self-absorbed. Some people are so self absorbed that they end up absorbing other people into their world with them to join in with them. I hope I don't do that. Then again, you are reading this blog.

Backup Plan

Bob Dylan never had to have a back-up plan. Miles Davis never pursued a teaching certificate in order to have a steady job. Jimi Hendrix never had to substitute teach on the side to make extra money. John Coltrane never had any type of plan B in case his music stuff didn't work out.

I think that if you really know what you want to do, then you don't need to figure out any other escape route in case it doesn't work out. Plan A might not work out right away, but that doesn't mean to switch to plan B. The solution is to fix plan A. I'm tired of plan B. I don't want to do things just for money or security anymore.

Website Changes

I've made a lot of changes to cyberyaniv.com recently. They are new links to click on. Please click around and tell me what you think. yaniv34@gmail.com

The Military

The military is dependent on young men trying to proove they're tough and old men trying to proove that they're still tough. For a grown man who is secure in his strength, the army is worthless. Armies rely on the insecure adolescents and impotent old men. What disgusts me about the army is the way that these weak old men enslave and abuse youth in order to feel strong again.

Joining the army is one of stupidest things a person can possibly do. Young people are fooled to believe that they are "defending freedom" so they give up their own entirely. Soldiers have less freedom than anyone. Even a convict in jail has more freedom. At least the convict won't be ordered to kill anyone. I suppose that convict on death row who is being sent to die has less freedom than most soldiers.

Young people are lured by the elderly with shiny metal toys and fun costumes. The most despicable lure they use is illusion of "honor." There's nothing honorable about killing a stranger or being killed by a stranger. Destruction doesn't make you a grown-up. Creation does.

I believe that we will eventually evolve beyond the idea of countries and especially dying for your country. We have only recently evolved beyond the idea of kings and queens. The idea of dying for your king is clearly ridiculous. The idea of dying for your country will die soon.

Huh?

If you took the "d" and "c" out of the word "dynamic" you would have "ynami" which would probably be my name if I were Japanese.

Who are you?

Yesterday, a friend gave me indication that a fair amount of people that I don't know personally are reading this blog. I don't know if that's true or not. I still suspect that Chris Fuller and my mom are the only ones who ever see this page.

If you read this and you are not Chris Fuller or my mom, please send me a quick e-mail at yaniv34@gmail.com just to say you were here. Thanks.

Hefe

There's that old line that says if you are self-employed, you have an idiot for a boss. I suppose it follows that if you are self-employed, you also have an idiot for an employee.

I've worked a lot of jobs over the years, and had a lot of idiots for bosses. If I'm bound to have an idiot for a boss, he might as well be me. At least I know my enemy.

New Website

I just finished building a little site for the duo project I'm in with the fiddle player who also plays in Hunker Down. Here's the link:

www.cyberyaniv.com/dynamicduo

I learned yesterday that I'm paying for 10 gigabytes of server space which is a ton. I can post pretty much whatever I want and I won't exceed my limit.

I'm doing my best to clutter up cyberspace, one band website at a time.

Pro Bono

I've been doing a lot of work lately for no money. I suppose I'm doing this work for two reasons. One reason is that I enjoy a lot of what I'm doing, so it doesn't always feel like work. The other reason is that I hope that it will help me establish myself so that eventually people will pay me to do the same work I'm now doing for free. Until then I'll keep on working for "experience."

I read a short bio on Woody Guthrie the other day. Apparently he gave away any money he made because he thought it corrupted people. I heard the same thing about Jaco Pastorius. Both of them died fairly young though.

Money does corrupt people. Having no money also corrupts people. Some of the same people who are corrupted by having no money continue their corruption when they get too much of it. The trick is to just take what you need, and to know how much that is.

Competition

The people who don't believe in being competitive are usually the ones who can't compete.

Spinning webs

I just finished building a website for a friend. Here's the address:

www.cyberyaniv.com/andyirvine

I'm getting quicker and better and making sites. If you are reading this and want me to make you a site, you can e-mail me and I'll make you one for cheap.

The website I just made is for a great bass player named Andy Irvine. Andy and I play together in a group called Juice Box. He is in a lot of other great projects, and you should check out the site.