Acoustic live performance

Here's an acoustic improvisational performance with a few riffs and melodies from standards. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Performed 11/22/2020 in the afternoon.

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/1722193324618661

How Progressive Rock Saved Me During Coronavirus

Buenos dias, 

I've recently started listening to a ton of progressive rock. It's saved me during this quarantine. If you haven't already read my post about how the Beatles saved me during quarantine, check it out here.

For those of you who don't know, progressive rock was a more technical, magical, and showy form of rock and roll that appeared after the Beatles, after Cream, after the Hendrix, arguably the three most important rock bands in my eyes. It reached its zenith in the middle or end of the 70s, and was most popular and more well done in England in the richer country areas. So these guys came from wealth unlike those four raggedy Andy dolls from Liverpool. They had college degrees, education, any perhaps money.

Now that you know the background of progressive rock let's talk about the actual style. The style is well, kind of all over the place. Every progressive band sounds different. The biggest prog bands were King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and Pink Floyd [they had their prog moments like the Meddle album and Atom Heart Mother, even the first album]. They all sound totally different and you could never confuse them. 

The style incorporates changing time signatures. The time signature is the beat or rhythm of the music. Most basic blues and rock is in 4/4 time, meaning you count each beat: 1, 2, 3, 4, however, in progressive rock the time signature could change to literally anything: something simple would be a changing time signature of 3/4 to 2/4, meaning you would count the beat like 1, 2, 3-1, 2, and so on. 

The music that goes over these widely varied beats is loud guitars, keyboards, synthesizers like the Mellotron, drums, bass, vocals, and sometimes even a saxophone in King Crimson's case. Sometimes the guitar parts are super soft, other times they're like deafening death metal before death metal even existed. King Crimson goes super hard with their drumming and guitar playing. Yes goes super soft with their beautiful singing. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer makes the keyboard as heavy as a guitar. Genesis is like the perfect arranger's band where the band plays their parts and are well rehearsed. Some bands are like a jazz band and they don't even have to speak to each other about what they did in the band. Others are more tight like an orchestra.

Progressive rock died at the end of the 70s when the youth in England got fed up with pompous grandiose rock stars. So they created their own genre based on three chords and angst. It became punk rock. The most famous band from England being the Sex Pistols with their one and only album, Never Mind The Bullocks, Here's The Sex Pistols. 

Progressive rock has saved me during coronavirus. I've been so bored. Going through all these old bands has recharged my spirit. I go through lots of phases in music. I've been in nearly every music phase since 7th grade, that's how I know so much about music. Almost everything I know from music I learned from YouTube. It's all free! 

There's just something so exciting about revisiting all these bands. It really puts things in perspective. I've heard all these songs ten years ago and ten years after all the music, all of it, sounds so much more refreshing, exciting, and invigorating. I can see why all these bands pushed me so hard to practice guitar as a kid. 

I've had really good memories of listening to progressive music. Some of my prog CD's got damaged because they've had so much greenery spread over them in my youth. If you want to smoke out to some exciting music, this is the style for you. 

I don't think any of the musicians in the genre realized how powerful they were as musicians and just how influential they would be on the world of music. And to think none of this would have even been a twinkle in the eye if it weren't for the Beatles. The Beatles were progressive because they did things like a concept album like Sergeant Pepper. Every progressive guitarist I like: Steve Howe, Robert Fripp, Steven Hackett, Michael Rutherford, Chris Squire, Roger Waters, and David Gilmour all brought something different to the table and inspire me to this day to rock out hard. 

I'll leave you with some lyrics from my favorite Yes song at the moment. The song is called Seen All Good People. 

Take a straight and stronger course
To the corner of your life
Make the white queen run so fast
She hasn't got time to make you a wife

 

Don't surround yourself with yourself
Move on back two squares
Send an instant karma to me
Initial it with loving care (Don't surround yourself with yourself)

Retail Versus Corona Holiday Edition 2020

Good evening, 

This is written to all those who may be concerned or simply curious. Since the beginning of the pandemic I've written and recorded on what my life is like, how its changed, and more importantly, I've written about what its like to work retail during the pandemic, at a grocery store. You can find the history written here. This is an updated post to give details about the current state of affairs that is covid versus retail. 

For starters, in the beginning of the pandemic we had employees who singlehandedly cleaned all the carts for customers. As of 11/19, we are no longer doing that. We provide customers with the cleaner spray bottle and paper towels that sit outside at the door, but the idea of every customer touching the spray bottle might turn some people off and altogether disregard cleaning their carts. 

Second, the most important item on detail, is the fact that our store director/manager is no longer providing free masks for the employees and especially not for customers who come into the store without a mask for unknown reasons. The fact that they stopped giving out free masks was a deep low blow to the community of workers who have worked so hard during these tumultuous times.

Third, the company has provided bonus relief/holiday bonus of $100 to every employee. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. It really boosts the morale of your workforce with a such a good play like this. However, the fact that hours have been consistently cut means that the workers are losing so much money that a $100 bonus might not be that much of a boost. 

Fourth, the online ordering department has been a success. The workers know the job well and have improved a lot. Online ordering has become a big part of the store and it's only going to get stronger. 

Lastly, I want to talk about the retail worker, his or her spirit, his or her morale, his or her fears, anger, resentment, and downright sheer recklessness of working in a place where you could catch the virus around big crowded people huddled in tiny checkout aisles. 

The average grocery store worker is shell-shocked right now. We don't know what's going to happen and every day that we go to work is another day where it's easier to catch the virus. Their hours have been cut but they're still expected to perform excellent customer service skills, despite management doing things like no longer offering daily free masks for employees. The morale has never been lower. Ever. Keep in mind that the young people who work at grocery stores already have low morale because they're typically not happy at or on the job, and display that sort of attitude often with coworkers. This has been the hardest year at the company for them, and things will only get worse as the winter progresses. 

It's easier said than done to just relax and be happy. Go do zen meditation. Well, these people can't relax because they're working their ass off to pay rent, bills, food for their kids, gas in their cars, medical insurance and billing, and they need extra hours to pay for it all but aren't getting it, because business is slow, and they're not needed, and upper management wants to save money on hours. 

The next time you buy your food at the market really thank your cashier, look them in the eyes and really mean it. It goes a long way. It isn't just doctors and nurses who are essential workers, its regular people like us too.  

el trabajador minorista se niega a morir

Holiday Season Covid Edition pt.2

 

It was the best of times it was the worst of times. That's this time right now. November 17, 2020, during covid-19, quarantine, Biden's triumphiant victory, and 244,000 dead Americans. The shit done hit the fan. We have a president who lost the election but won't concede even though its been two weeks since he lost. The Republicans don't want to relinquish Trump and disavow him as a muy malo demagogue that has hurt the party and the country. It can't get much worse. 

However, one of the things one learns in Zen is that you don't need zen when things are going well. You need zen when things are going bad. What does that mean? It means that you train in the art of zen [relaxing, breathing, meditation, thinking clearly, not acting and overreacting to every little disturbance in your day, showing care and love, seeing the love in the universe around you] you must realize that you are doing it because you'll need it for the rainy days. The hard days where you feel like picking a fight with your friend or spouse, where you yell at your coworkers or berate them for various reasons, or more in my case, when a customer at your job is estupido! 

This is the time where you should learn about things like zen. Do you have faith? Do you believe in being and nothingness? Sein und Zeit [being and time]. That's okay to be an existentialist or an athiest, but realize that the people who go for Occam's Razor are very happy. So whatever it is you do or believe in, do it well. 

Thing are going surprisingly well for me at this late stage in the pandemic:

I started playing the piano. I started learning Spanish. I started learning words and phrases in other languages like French, Italian, German, Chinese, and Japanese. I've lost a little more weight. I've found the correct amounts of food intake I need each day, don't overeat anymore, and have found good success in losing weight as a result. My friendships are stronger than ever. My coworkers like me. My family bonds are strong. Other than the fact that I'm working retail during the world's biggest pandemic, my life, beau rêve [a beautiful dream]. 

I have my bad days like anyone else but 99% of my days are so good that there's not much I regret, stress about, or am deeply angered about. Although this is one of the worst times in American history, la vita è fottutamente bella [life is fucking good]. 

I'm still working on myself as a person, trying to better myself through educating myself via books, music, language, work, and relationship improvement ability, and what I've been doing is very pleasing, especially the guitar and piano playing. I even started singing songs. And I've been playing a lot more songs straight the whole way through rather than taking meandering guitar solos. If the bars ever open up again for open mics, I'll be a musician, a guitar player, singer, that's improved 100% from my previous live rock and jazz music performance skills. I can play and sing any song.

I'm also still working on my writing, hence this blog tonight. If there's any one last bit of energía positiva y buena voluntad [positive energy and goodwill], I would say now is the time to learn, relax, work on all the things you've ever wanted to work on, and totally zen out.

aprovecha todo tu potencial 

Feliz día de acción de gracias

Holiday Season Covid Edition

The holidays are upon us! Welcome to the holiday season covid edition.

Here's a little what's up on what's been going on in my life. 

I'm still working but very few hours per week. Due to covid my job has given out the least amount of hours within my tenure at the company. I'm still working and getting a steady paycheck but it ain't what it used to be, especially during the early holidays every other year. Consequently, I've tightened my belt and my wallet. All the extra free time from work has left me open to a lot of other activities.  

I started playing the piano hardcore. I've been practicing for two weeks straight and I've only taken off two days of practice so far. Dedication! 

In addition, I started learning Espanol [Spanish], yo hablo Espanol paquito mas todos los dias. The internet said I wouldn't be able to understand Spanish fluently for 8 months, but after two weeks straight I've already been able to understand the basics between coworkers at work. 

This holiday season will be like no other. There will be no large gatherings, no grand parties, no big meals with the family and extended family. This is a holiday season where we must bundle up inside our homes, quarantine, wear masks wherever we go outside, and stay respectful of others by practicing social distancing, especially for the elderly and susceptible. 

In short, this is a holiday season where we have to put our consumer spending habits in the backline, and put humanity, love, life, and the pursuit of happiness in the forefront. 

My job has become a ghost town. The market has never been so empty in my entire retail career. Tonight I spent most of the night reading a Spanish grammar book and toying around with Google Translate, because there was no customers, [hardly any], and there wasn't much to do. It was nice, but I'm seeing that because of covid, people have less money to spend on groceries, causing them to shop less at the market. Some of them are so broke that they can't even go to the market and buy food, and instead, they go to free food banks. Let that sink in. 

I get to live the happiest life of a bachelor. I get to read great books like Ovid's Metamorphosis and look at the artwork of Howard Pyle in his Arthurian Legends book. But for many hard-working, working class Americans, the struggle has never been harder during this pandemic and this quarantine. 

Instead of buying your kid a Playstation 5 this holiday season [or if you have the money to spare, go ahead and do it anyways], think of the working class people that are struggling right now. Donate to a food bank. Donate clothes to Goodwill or a shelter. When you order take out, tip well. When you take a Lyft ride, tip well. When you go to the market, be kind and courteous to the employees and the cashier. Tip your bagger if they help you out to your car. When you talk to your acquaintances, family, friends, and coworkers, don't quibble about everything, instead, just relax and see the good in everything around you. Relax your mind and let it float upstream.

Let peace and love flow through you and all your loved ones this holiday season. 

Peace and Love

Ruminate on that

second keyboard performance

Hello,

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1710314755806518&id=100004840297787&anchor_composer=false

Here is my second keyboard performance with Jason Thomas on alto saxophone. Better performance and better sound quality on the livestream. Thanks, enjoy.

Hasta luego

How To Play PC Games On A Potato

Have you ever wanted to play pc games on a cheap, crappy, laptop? Is that all you have and a nice gaming desktop is too expensive? Well, look no further adieu, here's my guide for how to play pc games on a potato. 

Keep in mind that your potato has to be at least somewhat decent. I would say spend at least $400 [or more if you can spare, but my laptop is $400] and make sure you have a graphics card. My laptop is an Asus with a Radeon Graphics card. The computer isn't anything special but it boots up fast with Windows 10. 

To start, you must make sure you have your laptop's energy plan set to High Performance. This is a no brainer but you would be surprised that some people only always leave their laptop's energy plan set to save energy or energy planer because they use it periodically throughout the day and can't always have it plugged in. However, for gaming you'll always want this set to High Performance. 

Now for the in game settings. I'm going to give you my options that have me running three different games [Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Team Fortress 2-my favorite games] with smooth frame rate and relatively low [if any] input lag. The games won't look great, or that good, but it will be smooth. Always make sure to run the games in windowed mode, a smaller window, as fullscreen takes up more processing power on your CPU, making your potato cry more and lag incessantly.

Overwatch 

 

Display Mode: Windowed

Resolution: 1366x768 [60`] [you always want this set to whatever option your overwatch game has the ` key set to, as this is your native resolution, which will give you better fps]

Vsync: OFF

Triple Buffering: ON

Reduce Buffering: OFF

Limit FPS: Custom

Frame Rate Cap: 30

Graphics Quality: Low

Advanced then click Render Scale: Automatic 50% 

And everything else set to low and off. Make sure to run the game in windowed mode, about 70% fullscreen size.

Heroes of the Storm

 

For this one it's more tricky as this game can become super laggy sometimes. A trick I've learned is that whenever you disconnect from a game just repeatedly hit the ESC key [don't know why that works]. You're going to want to go into the game files folder and add your own custom options there. 

 

On my computer you start by clicking This PC then going to Documents then Heroes of the Storm, and there you will see a text document entitled Variables, click that and change as neccessary. Here are my settings. You can tweak these as needed but I have everything set to the lowest possible and low and behold! The game runs fine. 

 

accountCountry=USA
alternateclock=false
alternateLowTextures=true
ambientenvironmentmap=false
aolight=false
architecturePreference=2
autojoinchannel=true
camerafollow=true
camerasmartpan=false
chatpositionx=0.000000
chatpositiony=0.000000
cheapquadselection=true
creepnormalmap=false
creepQuality=0
creepselfshadow=false
creeptrans=false
creepUseGroundNormalTexture=false
cursorconfinemode=1
deff=false
deffspec=false
deffspecpow=false
depthDisp=false
displaymode=0
displayunitstatus=Damaged
dof=false
dragScrollMode=GripWorld
dragscrollspeed=28
extrapostprocessbuffer=false
fogvolume=false
foliagedensity=0.000000
foliagequality=0
frameratecap=60
frameratecapGlue=30
gamma=1.253306
globalhdr=false
glossmaps=false
GraphicsApi=Direct3D11
GraphicsOptionEffectsDetail=0
GraphicsOptionLightingQuality=0
GraphicsOptionModelQuality=0
GraphicsOptionMovies=0
GraphicsOptionOverallQualityVer7[21]=5
GraphicsOptionPhysicsQuality=0
GraphicsOptionPortraits=1
GraphicsOptionPostProcessing=0
GraphicsOptionShaderDetail=0
GraphicsOptionSSAO=0
GraphicsOptionTerrainQuality=0
GraphicsOptionTextureQuality[2]=0
halo=false
height=1080
highqualityframeblur=false
highqualityhaloblur=false
highqualityhaloblurgame=false
hotkeyprofile=0_Default
keyboardscrollspeed=31
lastDeviceId=39028
lastReplaySaveMode=0
lightingLevel=1
lightmap=true
lightmapcastshadows=false
linearDepth=false
localao=false
localeidassets=enUS
localeiddata=enUS
localeidinstall=enUS
localhdr=false
localight=false
localShadows=false
lowqualitymodels=true
lowQualityMovies=true
mastervolume=1.000000
mousescrollspeed=32
MoviesSeen[1]=1
music=true
MusicContinuous=false
MusicHeard=1
musicvolume=1.000000
normalmap=false
normalzieHalfVector=false
OptionRevision=5
OptionRevisionAccount=0
parallax=false
particlelod=0
particleobjects=0.000000
particleterrain=0.000000
physicsClothEnabled=false
physicsdensity=0
physicsMaxComplexRagdolls=0
physicsRagdollsEnabled=false
pixellight=false
portraits3d=false
preBlendedCreep=true
PreferredGameSite=
profanityfilter=true
reverb=false
ribbonlod=0
shadowmapsize=512
shadows=false
simplifiedCloaking=true
simplifiedShaders=true
soft=false
softshadows=false
sound=true
soundambience=true
soundambiencevolume=1.000000
SoundAutoDetectCPUCoreCount=4
soundchannels=32
soundeffects=true
soundeffectsvolume=1.000000
sounderrors=true
soundheadphonemode=false
soundoutput=Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
SoundQuality=0
soundready=true
soundreadyvolume=1.000000
SoundResampler=NOINTERP
soundresponses=true
SoundSampleRate=22050
soundui=true
sounduivolume=1.000000
soundvoices=true
soundvoicesvolume=1.000000
spec=false
splatlod=0
ssparticles=false
subtitles=false
targetinfopanelpositionx=0.000000
targetinfopanelpositiony=0.000000
targettexeldensity=0.150000
terrainHeightmapBlend=false
TerrainTextureLowResCacheSize=40
TerrainTextureSize=480
texQualityLevel=0
transparentshadows=false
treadlod=0
useLowqualitymodels=true
voicechatautojointeam=true
vsync=false
watercaustics=false
waterdeptheffects=false
waterflipbook=true
waterrendertargetformat=0
waterrendertargetsize=768
watershadow=false
width=1920
windowheight=697
windowstate=1
windowwidth=991
windowx=185
windowy=0
winkeydisabled=false
 

You can delete your files and copy and paste mine but I don't recommend that. I recommend looking at what your settings are and changing them to mine if you have a potato machine to game on. These settings will automatically change your in game graphics settings [it will say custom when you check it in graphics settings] so you don't need to mess around with the in game settings for HoTs except for the following. It helps to lower the sound quality, turn off headphones mode and reverb, turn off voicelines and subtitles, turn off Vsync, and run in windowed mode, about 60% to 70% fullscreen size.  

Team Fortress 2

Lastly, my favorite fps game, TF2. This one was a bit more tricky for me to get perfect but I finally nailed it. 

Resolution: 1280x720 [I've had problems with Native Resolution on this game]

Display Mode: Run in a Window

Click Advanced Graphics Settings 

Model Detail: Low

Texture Detail: Low

Shadow Detail: Low 

Shader Detail: Low

Color Correction: Disabled

Antialiasing Mod: None

Filtering Mode: Bilinear

Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled

Motion Blur: Disabled 

Multicore Rendering: Disabbled 

High Dynamic Range: Full [if available]

Use Bloom effect: not toggled on

That should do it for these three games. What works for me might not be as great for others. Again, this is only options for people with a super low end laptop. Mines only cost $400 so its pretty much a potato. Also, keep in mind that you must run the games in windowed mode with these settings. For Hots I have to play it on a much smaller window for it to work, which caused me to learn how to play it with a smaller interface, which thankfully is easy with the grid movement button via mouse. But its also the same for Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, you must run the games in a smaller window, maybe not a totally small screen like I do for hots, but like 70%-75% of the screen you're used to if you always play games on fullscreen. 

Another important detail is that because you're going to be gaming in windowed mode for all this, you need to go into your Mouse Settings and where it says Roll the Mouse Wheel To Scroll, set it to One Screen At A Time. If you don't do that whenever you accidentally click outside of the window of any of the games, you'll run into problems.

I was really bored today because of the election so I decided to write this. I hope this helps somebody out there who like me, isn't very technical with computers but is willing to learn and test things out. And game on a potato.

Happy gaming!

Keyboard performance

 Hello, 

Today, for the first time ever, I livestreamed and performed on the keyboard in a jam session with my friend, alto saxophone player Jason Thomas. Orlando Figueroa on keyboard and noise. We played a minor blues, Blue Monk, Autumn Leaves, and improvised after the tunes. 

Enjoy, thanks for listening. Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWcw8ouc3o

A Super Spreader Event In My Town

To whom it may concern:

Tonight at my local retail grocery job, we had a what is called a super spreader event. Tonight was no average night. No sirree Bob. It was October 31, 2020. Halloween night. Halloween is a really big deal in LA of course. 

I clocked in at 7 pm and the front end was busy. Around 8 pm the managers were spending a lot of time outside trying to disperse a large crowd that was getting bigger and bigger. The crowd began gathering bigger and bigger. My estimate was that there were over 100 people [maybe more counting the ones going inside and outside the store], mostly millennials, standing around in the middle of the parking lot. They were huddled very close together, chatting among themselves. There were many young men and women who did not wear masks, guaranteeing this becoming a super spreader event. 

Now, I know that Halloween is a big deal in LA. And I know hot girls want to show off their costumes. And guys want to party but they can't have a real party. So they have a tail gate party outside of a grocery store. There are serious problems with this whole situation and I needed to jot down what happened tonight right away so you can get the information straight from the horse's mouth. 

My closing front end manager is a nice lady, a Filipino woman. But this was her first weekend closing and she could not deal with this situation. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any manager could've dispersed that crowd. She did everything she could. She called the cops and the cops came but they also did not and could not disperse this crowd. This crowd was determined to party all night in the store parking lot. They didn't leave until nearly after midnight. I've never seen anything like it. 

Another issue is the fact that many of these young people partying outside came inside the store not wearing masks. The manager told many of them to put on masks or leave but almost all of them snapped back at her with excuses for why they had to stay inside the store. One person said, "I lost my keys, I have to stay in here and look for them." 

The blatant disregard for human life was on full display here. The decline of the western male and female is on full tilt. Our millennials here in America are stupid as fuck. This is why Asia and Europe laughs at us. They would rather tailgate party, talk very loudly without wearing masks, while huddled close up together, than have a small get together and practice social distancing. 

America is in for a rude awakening. There's nothing but death and misery ahead in the coming months. It's going to be a dark winter. But at least we had a fun Halloween night, right?