Bassfinger

Blimey, the PRS only pay 27 gees.

Waiting for an Alibi.

I listen. The sexual innuendo of Jethro Tull, the navel gazing of Yes, the deep and dark lyrics of Josh Homme. Conversely, a load of stuff is just disposable pap, a mere something to bounce along with the tune, but doesn't mean it's any less entertaining.

You're never too old, old, old, to Rock n Roll, oh oh, if you're too young to die. Go find a band. I've 10 years on you and I may be about to become the new bassist for the local pub band Enter the Hamster. Justification to buy a new bass if ever there was.

Mine is far from exciting. Today the neighbours were out so I cranked up the volume a bit for my hour of practice. To wrap it all up I slipped Sultans of Swing on the gramophone and played along with an imaginary John Illsley for a few minutes. Note perfect, well in the groove, and just enjoyed blasting through one of my favourite songs. Chuffing marvellous.

The guitarist makes a decent fist of replacing Jon Lord's keyboard part. Bravo.

An absolute pleasure.

Being away so much cost me my first marriage, but Mrs Bassfinger MKII was, at the time, a copper so understood long hours and crazy shifts. She's since retired through Ill health, and i've sort of move partially sideways in my field away from actually geological work towards the planning and asset management side of things. Instead of contracting I've settled on a full time employer who are really good. I don't get to go away so often, and when I do now it tends to be more Western Europe rather than the Americas or the Stans. I still do a little consulting, but not too much these days due to potential conflict with my full time employer, but 50 euros an hour plus expenses is a good crack when I do take on a bit on the side. I'm 51, heading for 52, and I've shovelled enough away in recent years that I'm knocking it on the head 2 months past my 55th birthday which is when my mortgage will be paid off. I won't be buying a private jet or a racehorse, but I won't starve either and I can spend some time with Mrs Bassfinger and my dawg.

Just mentioned this in another thread, but it fits the bill here... Wonderfully modest but effective bass effort from John Illsley.

Its rather different to their earlier works. Slower tempo, country and blues tinge. First class musicianship and top drawer production.

Alas, a better player than he was a brawler.

On Every Street by Dire Straits. Some wonderful delicate tones, beautifully restrained...I'd forgotten how good it was.

That particular plane took a couple of us over to Belgium for a meeting. It belongs to a chap who was arranging finance for the project we were involved in, so for him he was combining business and pleasure. An industrial geologist deals with the identifidstion and extradcition of metals, rare earth minerals, fossil fuels etc for the purposes of industry. My end of the business deals with the bit between resources being identified and assessed as financially feasible to extract, and full on production. I sit in the middle, involved while such finds are in the process of being set up for industrial level extraction. I spend very little time doing the actual geology I'm qualified for and a lot deciding what equipment will be required, for how long, what's its market value is likely to be when we've finished with it, etc, which I'm not qualified for.

Industrial geologist.

You'll note that i'd smartened myself up and was wearing formal Jesus boots in readiness for my afternoon meeting in Belgium.

No gigging photos, and as I steadfastly refuse to have a smartphone no selfies either. Best I can manage is a snap of me mincing about at work.

I practice, practice, practice for an hour a day when I'm at home. 15 minutes of scales, over and over and over, and 45 of playing along to songs that are taking my fancy. Sometimes the same song many times if I'm keen to perfect it. I do a bit on reading on theory. Nothing heavy, magazine articles and internet tutorials, and it helps to be able to read music. However, I try not to get too hung up on it - some of the most amazing guitar and bass players are breaking pretty much every rule in the musical book yet still make my spine tingle when I listen in. Some of what is good/correct/right is also a bit subjective too. I'm not trying to make a living off it so i'm treading the fine line between having a bit of fun and expanding my knowledge without it getting too onerous. I'll stick to absorbing short tutorials here and there, stopping short and hiring a tutor or buying books on the subject.

I have a thing for Rick-O basses, and wood finishes too so that's a double thumbs up from me too. Ding dong.

Shadow with rosewood for me please chief. I'm a man of simple tastes, which ks likely why I married the ex wife.

Oh my cod! You mean there's no Fish? I'd have got myself straight outta that plaice. You won't have a whale of a time if he's not there, eel be sure of that. It's a damp squid without him.

And it seems I'm being taken to see Elvana next month.

Grand Funk Railroad.

I do hope it clears up for you. Mention this on a guitar forum and you'd see lots of "well Django had no arms and managed ok" type responses.

Never come across that before. Is there anything visible?

I can drive our Smart car just fine, although I discovered its near impossible with my Dad in the passenger seat as he's much the same size as me and we overlap in the middle too much. Ditto my Daughters old Peugeot 107 (that was a fun car to thrash about). No, it seems to be the run of the mill sized cars where I struggle, the Golf's, Mondeo's etc. That's part of the reason I went for the XC90. Work are used to me hiring large cars or pickups when I'm in the field, although my current firm's bean counters got stressey over it when I first joined. I put a stop to it - when I was at the London office for a presentation I popped in to see said bean counter, squeezed into her office chair, and asked how she thought I would fit in a Fiesta when I struggle to even close the drivers door on a Mondeo due to the restricted shoulder width? To be fair she apologised, and as long as I don't extract the urine (no Bentley SUV's etc) I get them signed off ok now. It has occasionally caused problems where I've been unable to squeeze into light aircraft at work. Pilots are, quite rightly, picky about flying with the doors open and more than once I've been left on the tarmac having to find alternative transport (usually sucking it up and hiring a pickup and taking my time, but once the firm sprang for a helo) because I couldn't fit on board. Cessna 15x, 17x, 18x series no problem, Robin's no way, some Socata's are OK (the wide fuselage models, just).