A Night as A perfessional

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I play in my brother’s band. There are times that we get tips and occasionally we get paid for gigs. In the strictest sense that makes me a professional, albeit a poorly paid one. This week we had a paid gig at the Marriott at Cool Springs near Franklin (highest per capita income in the state).
So, time approaches and, since it was raining, I hop in the RoadWarrior and head out for the 40 minute drive. I politely parked RW near the back of the parking lot. It’s a ’93 Aerostar with 180K miles on the clock and has a “rode hard and put up wet” look. I decided that the fancier cars should be up front.
In the lobby this old country boy, cleaned up, but not formal, and wearing a ball cap didn’t quite fit in with the crowd of more formal, fancier and generally younger group of people. Didn’t bother me, but I could not find my brother in this crowd so time to ringydingy on the cell phone.
Musicians in the back. Well, it is a big place and it actually more practical to move the equipment in at a spot nearer the stage. We didn’t quite go through the kitchen, but pretty close. We went through the “working” behind the scenes part of the building and quickly got to the stage and quickly set up. I need to point out here that the group that we were playing for was a group of professionals and parents meeting for the benefit of hearing, sight, and speech impaired children. Fine folks doing wonderful work.
Well, it wasn’t going to be a large crowd anyway, but something of a miscommunication and emergency situation meant that we played to a very small crowd. Doesn’t matter to us; we give the full measure of what we signed up for and had a good time. The crowd enjoyed it.
As usual, we don’t tarry at a venue, so when the show finished, we set about breaking down the equipment and loading it up. Back through the service prep area and past the working guys; several of them told us they really enjoyed our music. That was worth more than audience approval and even the paycheck.

Andy Derryberry
July 2012

Fiddler Man

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Yesterday we received 1768 “requests” for our mp3 files. 100 of those were for Fiddler Man. Our “free” mp3s are streamed to play buttons on many file sharing sites. Some get a few listens per day, some get many plays each day. The people who play our songs don’t actually visit our site.

Fiddler Man was played 100 times yesterday. If you put 100 people in a room it would seem to be a lot but on the internet it’s a number. You might make someone applaud in Sri Lanka but you cannot hear it, or maybe they played it and went to the bathroom. You never quite know. Maybe they downloaded it and your song will be saved in Sri Lanka or Sao Paulo or Duluth. The compulsion of unknown artists to give their art away is unstoppable.

That person in Puerto Rico or China may have found me in a search for Michael Jackson or David Michael Jones.

I can’t even thank those 100 people for listening to me because none of them are reading these words. I can’t thank them so I’ll  thank you.

Thanks for listening.

They lead Dave quietly out of the room. They place a coat around his shoulders. He casts it off…he returns to the mic….

we miss you James Brown

Here is a younger me in a tree:

From the Album You Boys Ain’t Hopin’ Me None

Buy on Google Play

 

 

david michael jackson  july 18 2012 editors@artvilla.com    send a cool day it’s hot!

 

Right Like It Is

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Right Like it Is

Buy Right Like It Is  on Google Play

Yes it is the most unnoticed album in the history of albums. Too bad the guys only did one album because these instrumentals are special.

“Dreamy new age guitar noodlings go with rainy days and cafes better than umbrellas and lattes.”
……Nick Dedina Listen.com

 

Thanks Nick but a lot of good it did. This is one of my albums. It’s one of those to throw against the wall in my angst.  You know, one of those times where you really thought the world should beat its way to the door but that’s not how it ends. Time just goes by and so many albums are lost because they were published. All most hear, or will ever hear are clips. Putting it up for sale is very much like hiding the candle until someone pays to see the light. If no one ever pays, then no one ever sees the light.

It  “don’t matter anyway”. I’m singing in the wilderness of a billion websites. Here I’ll knock down this tree, see if it makes a sound. Ain’t nobody out there but them chickens and they’s eatin’ corn. Quit whining and get back to work, Jackson.

 

Right Like it Is Concert

 

There were times when

cliche wasn’t necessary when

the music flowed like a

winter stream

through the snow,

like water flowing over rocks

in a tiny nook

near a spring.

There are times when

the air vibrates and

times when it does not

silence is golden

only because the

bird sings.

 

david michael jackson     july 16, 2012   editors@artvilla.com    send Gandhi

Fluorine poem by Janet Kuypers

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Fluorine

by Janet Kuypers

of Scars Publications
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series

Just got a postcard from my dentist
telling me it’s time to schedule
another dental appointment.
I thought about the fluoride toothpaste
I just changed to, and then
I wondered about water fluoridation,
the government adds fluoride
to public water supplies, you know,
to reduce tooth decay and hopefully
prevent cavities. Hmmm,
how much water would I have to drink
so I wouldn’t have to go to the dentist
so regularly?
Wait a minute, I just read that
for the fluoride to work, it has to remain
in contact with the teeth, so fluoride ions
that are swallowed won’t help.

Maybe I should just gargle with water more.

But fluoride is just one of the ionic compounds
of Fluorine, and I thought it was funny
when I found out that the name
for the mineral fluorite is derived
from the Latin word “flow”,
because it was added to metals
to make them flow.

Kind of like water, I suppose,
which we now add flourine to.

But you know, it’s not just teeth
that Fluorine can help…
I mean check this out,
Because of the stability
of the carbon-fluorine bond,
many drugs are fluoridated
to stop their metabolism
and prolong their half-lives
(I always wondered how they made
time-release drugs work..)
And now over twenty percent
of commercial drugs use Fluorine.
I mean, scientists have even used
the radioactive isotope fluorine-18
when performing PET scans —
and it’s amazing that liquid fluorocarbons
can hold gas in solution,
and can even hold
more oxygen and carbon
that our own blood…

Wow, I didn’t realize
how useful Fluorine was
for helping humans out.

But the thing is,
Fluorine’s actually really toxic,
some isotopes are used for insecticides,
and Fluorine attacks the eyes,
lungs, liver and kidneys,
and Hydrofluoric acid
is a pretty nasty contact poison.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
have even been strictly regulated
through international agreements
for fear of our environment
and the depletion of the Ozone…
I mean, the U.S. Government
even has a slew of signs
for the dangers of this element:
It’s a toxic gas.
It’s corrosive.
It’s an inhalation hazard.
(wait a minute,
I thought it was so good for me,
how can it also be so bad?)

So too much of Flourine
in the right way
can be devastating for you,
and in other ways
it can help your bones
or help your medication.
Fascinating. I guess this is another way
we have learned to take
the bad with the good
(or is it that we have learned
to take the good out of the bad?).

Maybe I won’t start to gargle with water
because of the Fluorine,
and maybe I should just deal
with everyone’s inherent fear
of the dentist, and just go,
and come out of it
with cleaner teeth
for the next six months…