Things I learned From Shows in Los Angeles

Letter from the composer: [sends me chords to play on piano]

Me: Thanks, I'll check them out. 

Happy New Year. Kind of bummed out with a work situation at the moment. But the music is keeping me going. The last couple nights I've been going to shows at the bar and figuring out how the sound technician gets all the sounds. I figured it out. 

There are monitors, subwoofers inside the bar on the top of corners on the ceiling. 

The owner only wants the sound tech to only use the brand new [digital equipment]. But he doesn't want to because he likes a more traditional system. 

The owners says the traditional system is too loud. So he can't use it every night. So he's been loading different equipment [a more fancier analog system] all by himself for different nights in a large SUV style van. Not good because the guy is 64 years old. 

The answer to this dilemma is that he must use a smaller sound system for each and every night. But he doesn't want to because he wants to do what he wants, and is reluctant to do anything the owner says because they've been working together for a long time and they have some sort of dispute about it. 

However, the sound technician showed me the older more basic [analog log system that's very small] and I saw that everything that it had was acceptable and could work within the small confines of a small local Encino bar. 

So, you find that the sound systems used to record music are not important at all to the sound of the recording. 

Rather, it is the direction of sound that is placed or pointed at the audience that determines the sound more than anything else. 

In conclusion, theoretically speaking, you could record a classical music album on an iphone 12. 

Keep in mind, this guy used to run sound for Black Flag.

Happy New Year! 

My drum progress, Recordings made with Soundcorset

Hello Musicians and Muzak Fans,

So I started playing drums back in August, at the end of the summer. I've always wanted to play drums as a kid and often spent a lot of time in the classroom trying to play a beat with a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other. I bought a cheap plastic/wood Kibaga snare drum practice and got some black painted ziljin thin sticks and got to practicing. My coworker told me how to play a basic rudiment and I got started from there. 

Now it's November so I've been playing and practicing for three months. I've been recorded various drum solos at guitar center on their three thousand dollar Ludwig kit all this time as well as playing at home with a snare drum and cymbal that I got from this rock and roll guy who wanted me to be his drummer. These are all recorded with an Android free app called Soundcorset, it's very cheap, as in free. 

But I digress, here are the recordings, enjoy. Arranged in order from earliest to most recent. Thank you in advance for showing interest and curiosity.  

https://soundcorset.com/r/A0kVQeM6Gh?fbclid=IwAR2p6rVdRFoG-785xgc_gvHWDqm5Ix9bu28hv4tYiFxhvO8pirq8zZ_ZPs4 [Drum Solo No.4]

https://soundcorset.com/r/AvXQoK6pCp?fbclid=IwAR2lODFdEWXAxyTQzrLYRuPp46wUVdZLdIChL2fnSSXb3IpIDlnviEsIb9E [Drum Solo No.5]

https://soundcorset.com/r/hd1hMqvf3e?fbclid=IwAR1LJIvJ_5OdxQ-DZE2_0I3dte7bjqDwV58sRhyF4H-1B6aABk9N82toC58 [Lied vor der Arbeit, Jason Tomas alto saxophone, Orlando Drums snare/cymbal]

https://soundcorset.com/r/YY1EV9Ca9v?fbclid=IwAR3EGlq8YUy8RS5CD-uQ5y_pN_8dHPB8ZVlJE-RnYuCw59hvBg8SFrA5oic [Heavy Blues, Jason Tomas alto saxophone, Orlando Drums snare/cymbal]

https://soundcorset.com/r/9h-WEVEeqY?fbclid=IwAR16sa_MTa_bTMNB1QB4OHp_xNf_IdH4gM1G9pJ2HSx5p2I4JP-ewoQC4_g [Speculation Band, Orlando Drums, Mike guitar/vocals]

https://soundcorset.com/r/xYrrAAMYzj?fbclid=IwAR3VQLFUG1s4TYwTQ5F2hpqfEYRDNtKZEF61AEzN1iXa7p9SZ-_CBRUhvUY [Johnny B Goode, Orlando drums, Mike guitar/vocals]

https://soundcorset.com/r/7G3QFABqpH?fbclid=IwAR2D_p8xWSDmkZ3GFn-mFQxoUbHMHeFu8nEACLfpBMtM78CnmSyvHC-H-T8 [Drum Solo No.6]

https://soundcorset.com/r/YD6jYoTvHY?fbclid=IwAR133ioMCOqmhwupUJ2dx_7nmIqRgqhxr-9hMpjI-nvX_HUb4Q4Pl6HGFYo [Drum Solo No.7]

https://soundcorset.com/r/wv-fdYamiA?fbclid=IwAR3xxxCtf60UwdXrL4KkPAR23ndtGvGFZfVCFe40_LvCTJ7k4Ae7v4tpefM [Drum Solo No.8]

https://soundcorset.com/r/SPu6MIMlIP?fbclid=IwAR0TvY_2mnwx8FPefmPBfYLVpvFSfIZ-tVQAcoqAdO5hKfVnOA95TCejBWI [Drum Solo No.9]

https://soundcorset.com/r/1c5NoDpC3s?fbclid=IwAR1gVYHefRTtI5BegNW1x_MZ0I9_KkTRdlF2HZCOhmB3yy4xQy_zwE0fWCA   [Drum Solo No.10]

https://soundcorset.com/r/J8UoWUwkXo?fbclid=IwAR0oW-ABFdVeeKtcq-0XFwY36MhMBUNK8QVxsLDtGniU1jqh4rWFokqyZZY [Drum Solo No.11]

https://soundcorset.com/r/4jPHRMv-BY?fbclid=IwAR3AnGuyh8OTxxVggJisiYTMzu2qXiKPUgN8oD6_5orL0LToBNm8pDw6q6M [Drum Solo No.12]

https://soundcorset.com/r/CFSBQa8QrM?fbclid=IwAR25qpVKJqY6zDvl8EBg_lLmXlmMVidjmOZcBKnpUxo1eA5XcQGuL67fNT4 [Drum Solo No.13]

https://soundcorset.com/r/C377XapOKq?fbclid=IwAR3QP0ZJHA6l4ktscExanaAMKvBGTvHv9A0TUataYSduK3MAdnA0YlR1pBs [Drum Solo No.14]

https://soundcorset.com/r/-8jaSCZnW3?fbclid=IwAR3-Qp56bHGzIByZ82ZzJZ8NU7oT9PWkueNxOiVPpz_SF9uv2vpAozp_oJI [Drum Solo No.15]

https://soundcorset.com/r/QPlLp2yXoB?fbclid=IwAR06W3w9tnhjM_5GURYYOBshDVLzlHPygq-SibqRAJ2qCLRoMazGnsmu5rM [Drum Solo No.16]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeIJ94gG3js [Live Jazz jam session 12/15/22]

https://soundcorset.com/

image ai generated with stable diffusion 

Speculation Band Rock and Roll Jam

Hello rock and rollers, 

Check out this list of recordings I made on my android phone. The quality isn't the best but its true to the rock and roll spirit. I met a guy at the checkout line at work that wanted to jam with me and this is what we got out of it. I played guitar a bit and played drums a bit, apparently, I'm a drummer too now, and even occasional piano. I do it all, I can even sing while playing drums, super hard sometimes. 

The guitar bits with me on guitar are with Jim's Signature Eddie Van Halen guitar, which he says he got personally from Eddie himself. Well, him telling me that did make me play much better. Check out it. 

https://soundcorset.com/r/lIwPlA-HNs?fbclid=IwAR0MSTg4xQw-1o7RsW6Y2USTP-5mTBjuCOYNT4VJPtFyEAWRk-G-tzj03ag [Speculation band Orlando guitar and Mike on drums/spoken word, played with the signature EVH guitar]

https://soundcorset.com/r/xYrrAAMYzj?fbclid=IwAR2GV6OeZg9rdt3nQK2SqXzCmlykbxhz8u2hS11Lk6UfxnYu214wSsd3U8w [Speculation band Johnny B Goode Orlando drums Mike guitar/vocals]

https://soundcorset.com/r/Qz7I2VzWUL?fbclid=IwAR2-n7VOVIaCcyFZ07NmeFT6BFCMb_3avnsRmx-MekDSNOTtB6hj2GrjNbE [Speculation band metal Orlando guitar, Mike drums, with the EVH signature guitar]

https://soundcorset.com/r/9h-WEVEeqY?fbclid=IwAR16sa_MTa_bTMNB1QB4OHp_xNf_IdH4gM1G9pJ2HSx5p2I4JP-ewoQC4_g [Speculation band Mike guitar/vocals, Orlando drums]

https://soundcorset.com/r/AvXQoK6pCp?fbclid=IwAR2PtgQbUL340Bgs-VYF7Y7_yuAQqYSElWqpg2GZza82xaLT0cXOnzoBL_k [Orlando drum solo]

Keep on rocking in the free world! 

Live guitar jam! 7/7/2022!

Howdy, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU-1HPMk3SU&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

This is a livestream from yesterday. I was suppose to jam with my friend Jason Tomas, who plays saxophone, but there was some kind of mix up, so I ended up jamming half the set jazz improv, and the rest more rock and roll. Thanks, enjoy!

Peace and Love

Live Jazz Performance May 10, 2021!

Here's a livestream performance from this afternoon, featuring Jason Thomas on alto saxophone and Orlando Figueroa, yours truly on electric guitar and effects. It's mostly improv but we also added Miles Davis' Freddie Freeloader into the mix. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel. Stay safe! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUi49tbbhRM&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

Live performance 2/10

Live performance recorded today, 2/10/21. Featuring on alto saxophone Jason Thomas and myself, Orlando Figueroa on electric guitar. We perform some standards, blues, and improv.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_W3HRc0CI&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

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)

The Piano And The Guitar

Hello Music Enthusiasts, 

Today, I'd like to discuss the differences and similarities between the guitar and the piano. I just started playing the piano seriously over the weekend and I've made a momentous leap in my playing. I've learned songs and tons and tons of chords, jazz chords, inversions, and some major scales. It's been a blast! Playing the piano and practicing it is as much fun as playing guitar. It's definitely more relaxing. You get to sit down. Maybe it's even better. First the similarities. 

Chords

The piano and the guitar are both primarily chordal instruments of the chordophones family. Meaning that the piano and the guitar both can play multiple notes [or chords] on it at the same time. Unlike a saxophone which can only produce one tone at a time [or if they use free jazz over-blowing technique, they can get overtones, giving them a chord-like sound, but this is rare in most jazz, classical, and pop]. 

Accompaniment

As well as both instruments being able to produce and play chords, both instruments are used primarily for accompaniment, or as we say in the jazz world, for comping [comping is short for accompaniment]. Think about great rock songs that feature piano like With a Little Help From My Friends by the Beatles. The piano is holding the song together by comping chords throughout the song. In addition, think of how the piano in a jazz song becomes a focal point of introductions for songs into comping for the horn lines of the tune. 

Easily Accessible to Everyone

The piano and guitar are both great standard starter instruments for virtually anyone and everyone. Most parents get their young kids to play the piano or guitar at a very young age and let them develop an interest in the instrument. Once they get serious they become good musicians and may later form bands and possibly have a career in music. I would say the piano is more accessible to everyone than guitar because actually playing the piano chords doesn't involve as much finger dexterity, strength finger bending, and finger arching, although the piano's touch and feeling really has to do with what type of piano or keyboard that you are playing. A weighted grand piano will be much harder to play physically than a cheap plastic keyboard. 

Differences

Chord and Scale Fingerings

The main difference I've found between the piano and guitar is a hardcore difference of philosophy in terms of chord and scale fingerings. On the guitar, once you learn a chord voicing fingering or scale pattern, you actually know the chord voicing or scale in every key. Why? Because the guitar is built on patterns. You play a G major barre chord and then you move it up a 5th and you're now playing a D major chord. You can use the exact same kind of chord voicing and all of a sudden you know that chord in literally every key. The guitar is based on a concept, in a sense. You don't have to know that there are 2 sharps in the key of D.

Piano, however, is less based on concepts like the guitar, and more based on the literal notes in front of you that you need to play. Most chords all have different fingerings. Most chord inversions have different fingers. Most scales all have different fingerings. This is where you can see that the piano is a much more serious instrument that requires and demands more attention to what are the actual notes in the chord [the names of the notes], the notes in the scales, the sharps or flats in the key signatures, and you have to know all of this. That's the biggest difference in my humble opinion. 

Of course there are more differences but to keep this short I'll keep things simple with this. I'll stay in the loop and keep you all updated on my piano progress. I can already play simple jazz standards like Autumn Leaves and All The Things You Are. In terms of rock I've tackled Lennon's Imagine and Pilot's It's Magic. I recommend everyone reading this to try out the piano. You might like it. You might even learn to love it. 

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen died on October 6th, 2020. The music world has been deeply saddened by his death, as have I. 

Eddie was one of those quintessential guitar players. You might not like Van Halen or heavy metal but the fact remains that he was one of the pivotal guitar gods of the 1980's. He played on Michael Jackson's Thriller. Through his influence, there was a guitar boom during that time and everybody wanted to shred the guitar, leading to great players like Randy Rhoads. Eddie is the best guitar hero of the 80s, without a doubt. His influences, ironically, also my influences, the 1960s-1970s classic/blues rock, is evident in his playing, and helped develop his classic hard rock, "brown sound," if you will. 

What is the brown sound? Well, it's that most perfect hard rocking loud distorted guitar tone that every rock guitarist goes for without necessarily trying to because it's so good so why change things up? Eddie perfected it with his own hands, guitar modifications, and guitar effects like the phase 90 and tube screamer stomp boxes, guitar pedals, and electronics.

A guitarist named Ronn from a classic rock band from the 70s, called Lightning [find them on YouTube, he's a killer guitar player], also told me about Eddie, "He plays licks from outer space, from Mars." Well, that certainly makes sense considering how blazing fast, bluesy, and melodic Eddie was. There was something otherworldly there. His guitar playing had everything; heavy rocking riffs, decent vocals, blistering melodic solos, and a good band to keep everything going. Not to mention the intensity of a Van Halen stage show performance. Might as well jump! He had it all and did it all. 

His passing is especially sad during the middle of COVID, where some 200,000 Americans have died due to the novel virus. Although he died from cancer, we will never really know if perhaps his death was 'covid related,' as many deaths are these days. His death is personal for me because when I was a teenager I was obsessed with all things guitar. And when I discovered Van Halen, it changed my life for a while. 

I could see that although heavy metal wasn't the kind of music my kind of people listen to, the music resonated with me because of the power of Eddie's crushing guitar sound and melodic fast solos. It wasn't so much the anthems [Jump, Panama, Runnin' with the Devil, Jamie's Cryin', Hot for Teacher] rather it was just the fact of the matter; the heavy guitar riffing saved my teenage soul. After hearing Eruption I went on to learn parts of it. And even later I learned all the scales and modes so I could shred the fret-board like Eddie. It was a good time. It's good to be young. 

I also had a Van Halen disc golf that I cherished because I loved the band so much. I became a great Frisbee golfer back around 2011 and took great care to never lose my Van Halen disc golf, no matter how many trees were in the park, day or night.

Now that I'm older I see that people like Eddie Van Halen are rare. They won't come again. There will never be another Eddie Van Halen. There will be others similar to him but they will never be able to capture that intrinsic something, that epic guitar god status that is sorely lacking in today's musical environment because rap and pop have taken over and rock guitar has taken a back seat since then. 

But his legacy isn't over. Even someone like me, a guitarist in his 30s, has been influenced by Eddie, and his playing lives on through guitar players like me, who learned from him, honored, and respected him, loving the music and learning from it. 

Yeah, it's just heavy metal but it was MY heavy metal. 

"I know, it's only rock and roll but I like it."

*Rest In Peace*

Psycho Circus

It's October 4th, 2020. Trump got the virus three weeks before the Election. Welcome to the psycho circus [coincidentally also a great song and video by the rock band Kiss]. 

There's so much division and hate these days. And the 24/7 news cycle added with social media is not helping us, its hurting us as a people, all across the nation. The more people look at a screen the more their brain becomes deficient. My much younger friend, he's about 24, and I'm 31, told me today that he's Republican, and that it shouldn't matter what political affiliation he is, or who he's voting for, and that the world would be a much better place if everybody sat in a circle and hugged each other. Very much a hippie. I was shocked that he was Republican but of course it doesn't change anything to me. But for many other Democrats, it would become a symbol of contempt. 

It's easy to see why someone would dislike somebody for voting for Trump. It's much harder to actually defend Trump and defend the so-called "good," that he's done for the country. But my friend tried. He said he's a Republican because it's been that way in his family a long time. And that he likes Republican economic policies, and that Trump's done well with his economic policies. Oh boy, here we go. 

Instead of arguing I let him speak. It is what it is. He's a soft spoken, kind, caring man who unbeknownst to him has a way with women but the political spectrum he chooses is one that shows disregard for the other; the less fortunate, the poor, the black and brown peoples, the LGBT community, anyone who isn't white and Republican. It's very telling, revealing but I can look past it because he's a genuine great person. 

What I've come to learn is that Biden can't change the hearts and minds of these type of voters. As they say, Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall in love. He loves Kennedy, which was pretty cool, but who doesn't like Kennedy? Trump will get these voters because they're already Republican, probably their whole lives, even if the economic policies that they say are so great, is really nothing but redistribution of wealth from the poor to the richest, leading the richest people not to create jobs, but play the stock market for fun and make even more money. 

So no, Biden won't get these diehard Republican voters and he has a hell of a fight for this upcoming election. Trump is playing on the sympathy of the entire country to his benefit, even though the whole reason why so many Republicans have COVID right now is because of him and that Rose-bowl speech. Trump is also the reason why over 200,000 Americans have died due to COVID. We didn't have a smart plan. Trump botched it. If not because of the fact that he's a white supremacist and won't renounce white supremacy or even the Proud Boys [which should be an automatic disqualification for President by the way], or the fact that he said and did nothing when George Floyd was murdered for the entire world to see [a real leader would have condemned the cop], the fact that Trump got over 200,000 Americans killed because of a failed COVID plan should result in a loss of power and possible jail crimes for undermining American democracy [among other things]. 

So Trump got COVID. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. The clown show is over. Maybe RBG gets the last laugh in the Great Afterward. I share her mirth.

More Music On YouTube

I finally decidied it was time to add some new music to my YouTube channel. Check it out below, make sure to like and subscribe, and of course, thank you very much for listening. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsQnG723_g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhE13KmPWIM&t=285s

Politics, Retail, An Odyssey

Hello everybody. Trying to get back into the groove of continuously writing even without a proper subject. It's a bit like Seinfeld. It's a show about nothing. Of course, I like to think what I say here is very important in terms of letting the public know what life is like working retail during COVID, as well as providing interesting, informative, and entertaining posts about well, just about anything ranging from books, movies, music, shows, to actual real life.

The summer heat has been a true heat death of the universe. The kind of heat that burns away a planet in a 1960s science fiction novel. Yeah, it's that bad! But Fall is upon us, and my birthday will come up at the end of September, my favorite month. Mostly because its nice and cool in California during that time. 

I had an awkward Lyft ride to work today. This tall blonde white guy, who was the driver, went on and on about how the coronavirus is all a scam, and that the Democrats are using it to control the masses, while they try to turn the country into a socialist state. Of course, I've heard all this drivel before and have to say that most Republicans who believe this type of conspiracies are amongst the most stupid people I've ever encountered, even stupider than peasants who don't know English. At least peasants have enough honor and smarts to know that's not what's happening. 

So what's his problem? He's white, so he's privileged. The fact that he's driving Lyft means he didn't get to where he wanted to in life, so he takes it out on other people, in this case, Democrats, and you betcha, anybody who's brown. Mindless stupidity. It could be mind-boggling, but it's best to call a pig a pig, an idiot an idiot. Of course, I didn't tell him off, there was hardly any time to discuss politics but the fact that he spewed all that so quickly shows how loyal he is to Trump, the Trump Swamp Republican Party [that sorely needs to be drained], and the fuck you, I got mine mentality of older white Republican men. It truly was a spectacle. Which leads me to say that I'm really tired of the Republican rhetoric being spewed by the masses right now. At best its a joke, albeit not a funny one. At worst, it's the destruction of American democracy, integrity, and human decency. I'm not even a real Democrat but I know right from wrong. So yeah, that was a fucked way to start my workday. 

Work has been stressful. Despite the raging pandemic, my store will be going back to normal hours starting tomorrow; 5am to 1am, every day except for certain holidays. The employees are all exhausted. The customers have become much more irate and have forgotten how to treat retail workers with respect. At the beginning of COVID retail workers were like gods, like nurses, the essential workers. At this current juncture, it seems most of the customers don't give a shit about the fact that retail workers are possibly exposing their bodies to COVID every single day. There's no real good way to deal with it; you go in, do your work, and go home. At some point, you realize that the people are what they are; essentially gray blobs but there's always a few good ones. About 90% of the customers that come in treat you like human garbage. And then there's about 10% that treat you really great. It's a low bar over there. At some point, you have to learn to let go of all of your emotions and "not give a shit," because otherwise, the overwhelming amount of disrespect will most certainly cramp your style. The 'lose your emotion,' route is where most of my coworkers go. I can't say I blame them. Like the customers, none of us employees are perfect, but of course, some are better than others, have better personalities, and have better talents for working with people and whatnot. At the end of the day, a job is a job and if we didn't do it somebody else would.

Lastly, in more enlightening news, I took a break from Don Quixote and started reading An Odyssey. It's part memoir, part scholarly classics and philosophy. This classics professor named David Mendelsohn wrote the book. He goes into great detail explaining the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid but focuses primarily on the Odyssey throughout. He relates the journey in the story to his own life, particularly his relationship with his father. Here's the thing though; he is a gay man who has a female partner that he had kids with, and his father is a grumpy sort of fellow, a stiff mathematician that never showed his family much affection except for certain key moments in their lives. I'm in the middle of the book now and plan to finish it soon. 

One of the big points of the book is that if you're going in circles all the time you will always be traveling but never get to your destination. That's what life is like right now under quarantine. It's neverending. Infinite. Kind of like how the first half of the Odyssey feels a lot longer than the second half.  

The fact that Mendelsohn chooses to focus on his conventional father and his relationship to him rather than his own relationship to his own children, or even to other male friends, or even female friends like his partner is a sore oversight on the writer. However, his insight into the classics is downright remarkable, and if you read this book, you will have a better understanding of the classics, and be able to appreciate them more in a scholarly and emotive way. It's downright terrific. Not only that, but the writing style is personable. It's a lot like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a flowing easy to read style that establishes a strong father-son relationship but requires the reader to think thoroughly about what is being read. Insight and enlightenment ensue. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who's into the classics or wants to get into the classics. If you ever read the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, reading this will make you appreciate those books a lot more. And then you'll go back and reread them with a lot more wisdom and insight.    

Keep on keepin' on, as they say. As the Dead sing, "What a long, strange trip it's been."

How the Beatles Saved Me During Coronavirus

Hello, ladies and gents. How's it going? Well, the answer to that question is probably all over the place. To be completely honest, the world has pretty much gone to shit, 'in it? That's my British slang for you. There's actually a perverse goodness and grace that has come out of all this disorder and chaos. Consider the fact that if it were not for all of the terrible things that have happened, Trump just may have gotten re-elected, and easily too. Of course, we will see in November. 

But I'm actually hear to discuss music. The Beatles saved me during coronavirus. No other band or musical style have resonated with me this much during the crisis. It's pretty easy to see why I like them so much and why they've made such a big impact on me during this particular time in my life. 

For starters, they're one of the best classic rock groups of all time. Of course, they're more pop than rock, but they had their more rock and roll moments, especially early in their career, like the Revolver album or A Hard Day's Night. Consider the fact that Jimi Hendrix only agreed to go to London and become a rock star there only if he got to meet Eric Clapton and the Beatles. They're so famous they're bigger than Jesus. No offense Jesus, you're pretty cool yourself. 
 

Second, the lyrics. The lyrics in Beatles songs are the bread and butter of their music. The lyrics are always simple but they are powerful. Sometimes the best lyrics are simple everyday thoughts, patterns, and phrases that have been rewritten into a more catchy form. Easy to understand, very difficult to master.  

Third, the guitar and drum parts. Okay, so to actually perform their songs, its nothing really all that special. However, they did it so well as a band, that I'm actually impressed with John Lennon and George Harrison's guitar work. Harrison and Lennon are two of the best guitarists in rock history and Paul McCartney is one of the best bassists in rock. In terms of Paul's bass sound you can judge for yourself, after hearing countless great bass runs throughout the Beatles catalogue, you just know he's a great player. Ringo laid down the groove. 

One of my favorite time periods for the Beatles was when they first came to America, and they were playing stadiums full of screaming girls. John played a Rickenbacker guitar and really strummed the hell out of it. Those were the days. 

Lastly, the personal connection through loneliness, isolation, listening to the music, and feeling so good despite it all. Their music makes me feel good. Sometimes I'll listen to them all day and I can still hear the songs in my head when I lay down at night. Even at that level, their music calms me down and soothes me. The positivity is so strong.

This is the ultimate band for the ultimate cheerful person, the person who smiles when everybody else complains. It's the soundtrack to my life. At least for now.  

The world is burning outside, but it's all good because she loves you, and you know that can't be bad. She loves you and you know you should be glad. [wooooooooooooooo!] 

Covid And the Plague of Lighthouse Keepers

Hello, everybody. Back again, with more writing exercises and ideas. The last two posts were fairly genteel posts about how to be a great healer in competitive video games. I'd like to take a departure from that to talk about something substantially more serious. However, if you are a competitive gamer that plays Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, or Team Fortress 2, I highly recommend reading those last two posts.

So, what I'd like to discuss here is a fairly simple idea that I've touched upon already in older posts from weeks ago; Despite the mass communication of the internet, COVID-19 has caused a major disruption in all of our lives, turning us into a plague of lighthouse keepers. 

There are already a lot of people in our communities that don't like to be around others. With COVID, they have an excuse to be even more distant and go even more into isolation than previously before. Here's the kicker; until COVID is dealt a grievous blow, we're stuck in this mode of humanity, which is terrible for our health, well being, and mental health. 

Next, I'd like to go into these details as they pertain to myself. I'm naturally a very outgoing extrovert that likes to be around others. I've been on a leave of absence to be safe and stay away from potential COVID spreaders for two months as I work retail. The only contact I have with people right now is when I talk to my family, when I text friends, when I direct message people on social media, or when I play online video games with voice chat or text chat. Because of all that COVID hasn't really affected me much, but it has impacted me enough for me to take notice and write my thoughts about it in a meaningful way.

You lose a sense of community and mental well being when you're not around people and start spending almost all of your time alone. I'm actually really looking forward to going back to work in June not because I need more money [thank God], but because I'm used to a certain amount of screentime with others, engaging in conversation, and being acknowledged as a person for who I am in my community and workplace. 

Without that I'm a much different sort of person; I stop talking on voice coms and text chat in online competitive video games because I don't see the need for it, I stop direct messaging on social media apps because I think my people need more space away from me, I give my family more space and seclude myself more in whatever ways I can. The question is, is this good for me, and is it sustainable in the long run? What are the ramifications of living life in a lighthouse keeper sort of way? 

For some people, none of this might apply to them because some people naturally don't like to be around others much, and try to spend as much time away from them as possible, as well as saying as little as possible. Obviously, for those people, COVID is helping them out in a societal way. But for the vast majority of the population, they need that social construct in order to engineer their lives in a more meaningful way, myself included. 

We can't all keep going on like this and we know it. I've done really well under the circumstances but the show can't go on. As great as the digital age of the internet is in sharing and communication, it's a piss poor substitute for the real world. And that, essentially, is where the problem of COVID lies therein; it forces us to disperse and stay away from each other, and possibly even stop caring as much as we used to, and instead turn to our own quarantined, lockdown, isolated lives, looking for that spark of inspiration, that zest for life, that we simply can't get anywhere else. 

Still waiting for my saviour,
storms tear me limb from limb

Punk show last night

Last night I went to a pretty sick show at the Sugar Mill Saloon. The show was sponsored by Demon Candy Promotions. I was around for three bands. All great. 

The first band was Kittenhead. They're a female-led group consisting of a white chick frontwoman singer, a black chick guitarist, an Asian chick bassist, and a white dude on drums. Talk about diversity! I actually haven't seen a band like that live before. The guitarist and bassist kept switching off instruments. They were proficient at guitar and bass, both of them. However, the Asian chick was the better guitarist. But the black chick was funkier. 

They reminded me of the 90s bands fronted by women like The Cars. But they had a more punk rock edge. The three girls sang vocals and sometimes they switched off between lead vocals. The black chick even had songs where she rapped. And she was good. And funky with her guitar playing. They weren't terrific or remarkable in any particular way. Rather, they were the perfect rock band. Perfect in the sense that you know that these musicians aren't remarkable on their own. However, when they come together as a band they are greater than the sum of their parts. Wowie zowie! 

The second band was called Rosemary Reyes. Loudest band I've ever heard in my life. The guitarist even told me outside the bar that he couldn't hear himself. "Did it sound good?" Sure did, buddy. Okay, first of all, this band is one of a kind and I will never see another band quite like it. For starters, the band is fronted by a 72-year-old woman! 

The guitarist was quite good. He was playing an old 1950s guitar, possibly a Silvertone from the looks of it. He had a Vox half stack setup. He had a great fuzzed-out guitar tone emanating throughout the place. Honestly, his guitar playing was carrying the whole band from start to finish. The old lady singing was doing a punk rock snarl throughout every song. I couldn't understand a word. It was all gibberish. So much for punk rock. BUT...the fact that she's fronting a punk band at that age is freaking inspiring. She's a true inspiration. Even though I wasn't a fan of her vocals she looked cool and even sounded cool. 

I was very impressed with the guitar player. He was playing punk rock so his guitar playing was limited to just hardcore rhythms, power chords, and open chords. He did do one solo but it was like maybe ten seconds long. But he made it sound so good. His guitar was an old 1950s model. It's quite fascinating how those old guitars from the 50s actually look futuristic like they could've been made in 2020. Those were the days. They were so loud. I've never seen a band play there that sounded so loud. It was quite good. The young drummer killed it with a lot of hardcore fills. The bassist was very good as well. Talk about fuzz tone.

The last band was Swords of Fatima. The group consists of a girl singing and playing guitar with just a drummer. Because it's just a duo it sounds more rock and roll, more visceral, more raw, more punk rock, maybe even more blues. I didn't stay for the whole set but the drummer was on point. And her guitar playing was great, especially her rhythms. 

It was late and I called it a night. A good show indeed. You can listen to these bands on YouTube but those videos aren't as good as the real, live, thing. Women in rock and roll are pretty damn cool. 

The End

And in the end...

A lot of times I think about the present and think about how it is the end. The end of what? The end of various things, from trivial matters to big, important matters. The end of a jam session, hard day of retail, a day off, a day, a year, a decade, twenty years, thirty years. A life.

I was pretty sad the other day when I found out that Ginger Baker, drummer for Cream, the second rock supergroup after the Beatles had died. He was eighty years old. He lived a full life. Yet it still got to me. Ginger has always been my favorite rock and roll drummer. Before he was in Cream, he played jazz and blues gigs with Jack Bruce. I've seen him on video playing very good straight-ahead jazz drumming styles, something akin to Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich, and Art Blakey, the best of the best in the genre. 

Ginger's death made me think of a lot of other things that have come to an end. My best friend at work got transferred to another store, a promotion for him. We still hang out but a lot less often because his work is a lot farther, and his hours have changed. On top of that, a very good friend of mine seems to be too busy to hang out. The solitude of my home life has been removed due to a new housemate. My attitude about playing open mics has changed. Sometimes I'm just not feeling it and end up not going after practicing said songs to be performed. What's the deal? 

Sometimes I even go to the extremes of going through all my intellectual reading pursuits, discussing it with people in public, and with friends, and think to myself, "What's the point? Will anyone ever care about Littgenstein's Brown and Blue Books? Heidegger's Being and Time? Descartes? The Tale of Genji? A Distant Mirror? Floating Worlds?" The obvious answer is that it might not matter if they don't care because I care, that's the only thing that matters in a sense. Of course I don't mean this in selfish way, rather, so many people are so intellectually bankrupt they wouldn't care to discuss philosophy or literature. But that's subject for another discourse. 

Things change. People change. We have to keep on going, moving on, keep on grooving. The road we travel is a solo path even if you have a wife or girlfriend. Friends are great company but I've found that most of my friends, who are mostly younger than me, are a lot more arrested than myself, meaning, that most of our hangouts consist of me babysitting in a way. It's a sad realization. At first it was, a farce, now tis but a tragicomedy. That's a Marx quote, one of my favorites. 

Now we get to the crux of the matter. Everything you love will be gone one day. Enjoy everything you can and live with no regrets. Even just living life one year ago with the different dynamics is something I miss dearly.

Everything changes but in the end the song remains the same.

May 15 Jam Tracks

Ahoy shipmates and welcome aboard. Here I'd like to share some recordings from last week's open mic at Petie's Place, a local pub in the Valley, located on Reseda and Oxnard. 

I've played there over 40 times. Its become my de facto performance space. With a house drummer and bassist, it's very easy to just get up there and play with no strings attached. 

I did a two-song set that consisted of saxophonist Wayne Shorter's Footprints and Jimi Hendrix's' Hey Joe, tunes I've been playing for a while now. Been really working on my tone for the vocals. I've been practicing singing for a long time. I'm no Jack Bruce but I try. Petie's Place got a much better tube amp Line 6 full-stack amp so my tone has improved a lot. Enjoy! 

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/footprints-live-at-peties-1 
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/hey-joe 

Guitar, Vocals-Orlando Figueroa
Drums-Jim X
Bass-Art 
Harmonica-Dave
Tambourine-Ken 

Purple Haze [Live]

Here's a live rendition of Purple Haze, played and sung by yours truly. With the Petie's Place open mic house band. Petie's Place is a bar in Tarzana, CA that hosts open mic sessions every Wednesday night. This is the first time I've ever done Purple Haze live. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/purple-haze

Orlando Figueroa-guitar, vocals
Art-bass
Jim X-drums 
?-keyboard

Electric Funeral

Here's Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath played at the open jam I play at regularly, on 9/19. We have Jim X (Ouii3) on drums and a jammer on bass, the bass player kills it here.

Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/electric-funeral-x-drums

New Jam tracks (9/5/18)

So I happened to be off work last week so my drummer and I went out and played an open jam, our only real performance space other than practicing at the studio with occasional friends spectating, sometimes even performing too. 

We start the jam off with an instrumental tune, Buckethead's Soothsayer. Then we play Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath, and end the mini-gig with my original death metal tune called Spirits of the Dead. 

Enjoy! 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/soothsayer918
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/electric-funeral-95
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-95


Good news is that although my singing and death metal screams aren't "good" they are at least decent enough to pass, and I have improved a lot in my general singing and screams. Back to the shed for practice!