Guitar practice (in space)

From a live session on TikTok and since I spent way too much time making the video effects, I figured I may as well share it out. Sound is iffy, mastering by me, so not really, and the backing track gets annoyingly repetitive, but every once in awhile I hit a couple cool riffs in a row.

Enjoy. Or hit mute. idc

#TikTokLive #livestream #music

First Do No Harm

I’ve never understood why people want to become famous. Being famous means you can’t be yourself. You give up being ordinary. At least you used to. Ordinary people get pretty famous nowadays.

The Internet has changed the meaning of fame. You can have millions of followers (I don’t, but some people do) and still be pretty ordinary; obscure, in terms of the public eye.  You know…Including all those other people who are too good to Google. Too cool for TikTok.  For the rest of us, it’s sort of a golden age in a way. If you’re on the right apps, that is. If the Government doesn’t take them away because they’re afraid of the power we have.

What I want to know is where is the true music underground? The next breakout sound is out there, in some garage or dive bar. A bigger than life, but authentic scene. Where the music speaks the truth and the true seeds of destiny will spring. Not about the industry or money or fame. Music has the power to change. To change Us.

I’m a libertarian at heart. You don’t need a bunch of rules if you follow just one: first do no harm. When the industry is killing the product, the industry needs to change. The money is literally killing the music.

They will exploit us until we refuse to be exploited. Then they’ll find a new way to exploit us.

#FuckTicketmaster

#FuckTicketmaster. Ticketmaster and Live Nation are a scalper monopoly. A drain on the music industry, adding nothing except fees and problems.

The best two things we could do to fix ticket sales are:
1 – Outlaw resale markup beyond a small, fixed percentage
2 – Implement a decentralized online sales system, that puts control in the hands of the venue, not the scalpers.

We easily bypass the Ticketmaster / Live Nation monopoly, and instead give venues an open source, distributed sales system that allows the venue to sell tickets themselves.

Venue could be pay once to buy the software or pay a monthly fee, and split the ticket sales with the artists, cutting out the scalpers altogether. Artists and Venues get to split 100% of the door, and nobody gets raped by surprise 35% “convenience fees” at checkout.

I’ll be happy to design the system if someone wants to pay for it’s development. Who’s in?

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

25 Years Ago Today: Final Grateful Dead Concert 7-9-1995

On this day, 25 years ago, the Grateful Dead played their final concert at Soldier Field, Chicago. A month later, Jerry Garcia would be gone from the stage forever, as the other members struggled to keep the music flowing thru the Space & Drums portion of the band’s long history.

Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead played their final show 25 years ago today, 7/9/95, but The Music Never Stopped.

The Music Never Stopped, as Bobby, Phil, Billy, Mickey, and all of their amazingly improvisational friends, have kept moving the Dead’s music moving Further on, Truckin’ through the Lilly Fields on the Bus to never-ever land.

I still miss Jerry’s soulful plucks and crackly croons, and watching the last show can be hard. Still. 25 years later. But if you’re so inclined, YouTube of the show is below.

Listen/Watch to the whole show on YouTube:

Watch “just jamming on an idea or two?” on YouTube

Believe it or not, I’ve been spending some time in the studio during this fucking pandemic. More on that later. But…Here’s a quick video clip from a recent jam session that I decided I’d use to try and sharpen my video? making skills.
Yeah…they still need some sharpening ?~jg

Keller Williams Live at The Sitzmark on 2015-04-03 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Keller Williams Live at The Sitzmark on 2015-04-03 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive